The Madonna Enthroned, Maestà Alterpiece, Duccio, 1311 CE, Tampera on Panel, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena,

Italy
 Early Italian Art

Late 1200s and the 1300s

Various current owed through Italian art in the early 1300s, including
in uences from Gothic style, which was dominant in most of Europe,
and from Byzantine culture.
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 Early Italian Art

Late 1200s and the 1300s

Major inspiration - Religion,

However, secular subjects were beginning to emerge

Duccio alters the Byzantine tradition, with expressive glances rather
than stylized faces, and uid instead of sti drapery.
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 Duccio, the most in uential Sienese painter,
his owing draughtsmanship and wonderfully subtle and expressive
coloring inspired followers for generations.
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Cimabue gives the Madonna a tender
humanity, and the prophets below are
individualised to a degree not previously
seen in Byzantine art.

Cimabue is a nickname meaning “ox-

headed”, given to Cenni di Peppi (his
real name)
A leading painter in the generation before
Giotto, he may well have been Giotto’s
teacher.

Madonna Enthroned, Cimabue

c.1280 -90, Tampera on Panel, U zi,
Florence, Italy
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Cimabue, “the rst Italian painter to
break with Byzantine tradition.”
Lives of the Artists (1550 CE)
Giorgio Vasari
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 Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Allegory of Good Government

E ects of Good Government in the City and the Country
Allegory and E ects of Bad Government in the City and the Country,
1338 -39 CE, Fresco, overall length 14 m, Sala della Pace,
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy
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Giotto di Bondone

Kiss of Judas,
La Cattura di Cristo (bacio di Giuda)
Giotto di Bondone
c.1304 -1306, Fresco,
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy

Lamentation of Christ
Giotto di Bondone
c.1305, Fresco,
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
 Giotto di Bondone
c 1270 - 1337 CE

Florentine painter and architect, trained under Cimabue

He replaced Byzantine art tradition with a degree of Naturalism

Rediscovering the illusion of three-dimensionality (space) on at

surfaces, though perspective and light-and-shade
Approach to Realism, depiction of human emotions with
pathos and drama

An inspiring artist to his successors, his realism was appreciated

in his own lifetime, and he was famous and sought-after
throughout Italy.

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 Diagonal division (triangular composition aesthetics)
The ridge swoops down from right to left and John the Baptist’s
arms swept back contributing to the downward thrust towards
the prostrate gure of Christ
Idea of foreshortening
Use of composition to bring out the poignancy of this scene
Tragedy, Dramatic setting,
O -centered composition
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 Lorenzo Ghiberti
c 1380 - 1455 CE

The Sacri ce of Isaac, 1401CE , bronze, Bargello,

Florence, Italy

Ghiberti’s winning entry for the design of the north

doors, Diagonal Composition of the rocky landscape
The turning gure of Abraham and his son Isaac
gracefully echo each other’s movements.
Approach to Naturalness (illusion of space) in
landscapes
Realistic anatomy, proportions, drapery
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Lorenzo Ghiberti
 Lorenzo Ghiberti

Jacob and Esau,

Gates of Paradise,
Completed 1452 CE , gilded bronze , Baptistery of San
Giovanni, Florence, Italy

The classically modeled gures within the reliefs are

placed in landscapes or in perspective-ly rendered
architecture to suggest a greater depth to the reliefs
than actually exists
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Lorenzo Ghiberti

Gates of Paradise,
Completed 1452 CE ,
Lorenzo Ghiberti,
gilded bronze , Baptistery
of San Giovanni, Florence,
Italy
 Filippo Brunelleschi
1377 - 1446 CE

The Sacri ce of Isaac, 1401CE , bronze, Bargello,

Florence, Italy

More dramatic but less graceful than Ghiberti’s

Unlike Ghiberti’s signal cast with only gure of Isaac

attached to the relief, Brunelleschi’s gures were cast
separately and pinned to a back plate.
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Lorenzo Ghiberti Filippo Brunelleschi
Brunelleschi devoted himself mainly to architecture.

A former goldsmith, he is credited with discovering the

mathematical laws of perspective.

His mathematical knowledge and skills of Roman

construction enabled him to design the vast dome of
the Florence Cathedral, which spans 45m without
supports.

His revival of Roman architectural forms shaped the

Renaissance, and his perspective laws were soon
applied to paintings.
Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
Florence Cathedral (Duomo)

Started 1420 CE - Completed 1436 CE

Filippo Brunelleschi ,

Red-tiled cupola
 Donatello
1386 - 1466 CE

David, c 1440 -1460 CE , h. 158cm, Life size bronze,

Florence, Italy

Donatello’s landmark work

This work signals the return of the nude sculpture in the

round gure, it was the rst such work like this in over a
thousand years

commissioned by Cosimo de’Medici for the Palazzo

Medici

David’s triumphal moment upon the defeat of Goliath

Donatello’s David is a classic work of Renaissance

sculpture, given its Judaeo-Christian subject matter yet
modeled on a classical manner.
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 Feast of Herod, 1423 - 1427 CE ,Gilded bronze,
Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy

Donatello

Non-central composition, new approach to the

composition
St John’s head on a platter on one side and the
horri ed recoiling of the guests on the other.

Application of linear perspective

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 Masaccio
1401 - 1428/29 CE

In his short life, Masaccio took up where Giotto left over

He applied his friend Brunelleschi’s mathematical laws of

perspective to create the illusion of space on a at surface.

Masaccio used a single light source so that the play of light

and shadow added a solidity.
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 Masaccio
1401 - 1428/29 CE

Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St John, and Donors,

c 1425 - 28, fresco, 6.8 x 3.2 m, Santa Maria Novella,
Florence, Italy

Using the laws of linear perspective, Masaccio makes the

architectural niche-look like a hole in the wall.

The later artists such as Michelangelo went to copy and

study Masaccio’s gures.
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 Paolo Uccello
c 1397 - 1475 CE

Uccello’s Vase on Perspective

This study of a vase proves just how xated

Florentine Paolo Uccello became on the the
problems of perspective. Vasari (the 16th century
biographer of artists) tells us how Paolo would
“stand the whole night through beside his writing
desk seeking new terms for the expression of his
rules of perspective.” When his missus asked
him to come to bed Paolo would often decline
saying he had plans with “my sweet mistress
perspective.”

http://headforart.com/
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 Paolo Uccello
c 1397 - 1475 CE

Paolo Uccello ‘Paolo of the Bird’

Obsessed by perspective,

He solved the problem of making objects look

three-dimensional on a at surface using linear
perspective, without the help of light and
shadow.

http://headforart.com/
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 Paolo Uccello
c 1397 - 1475 CE

Battle of San Romano, c 1440 -1450 CE

Tempera on panel, National Gallery, London

Uccello used perspective for its own sake. He

was not interested in furthering realism, or
bringing a religious story to life, or even in
symbolic value. His art was ornamental, and has
a rich narrativee vein that gives a fairy-tale tone to
his work.
 Fra Angelico
1395 - 1455 CE

The Annunciation
c 1430 -32 CE, tempera on gold central panel,
Prado, Madrid, Spain

His paintings were in uenced by Masaccio’s handling of

space, but still connected to the Gothic tradition of lively
narrative.

Fra Angelico’s vivid colour carry spiritual conviction and

serenity
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Andrea del Verrocchio Domenico Ghirlandaio
1435 - 1488 CE 1449 - 1494 CE
 Verrocchio’s Studio Ghirlandaio’s Studio

taught distinguished apprenticed

students such as Perugino young Michelangelo
and Leonardo Da Vinci
 Sandro Botticelli
1445 - 1510 CE

Birth of Venus, c 1485 CE Tempera on

canvas, U zi, Florence, Italy

Venus’s arrival on the shores of Cythera,

driven by Zephyr and Aura
welcomed by dancing Hora of spring
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 Adoration of the Magi,
c 1475 CE Tempera on
wood, U zi, Florence, Italy
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 Sandro Botticelli
1445 - 1510 CE

La Primavera,c 1485 CE Tempera on wood,

U zi, Florence, Italy

The nine gures derive from classical mythology

are all associated with ancient festivals of
springtime.
From left to right they represent
Mercury, the Three Graces, Cupid, Venus, Flora,
Chloris, and Zephyr
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 erotic love, desire, attraction

traveller, trickster, gains owering

charm, beauty, creativity love, beauty, desire vegetation
west wind
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 Botticelli’s works o ers perhaps the best
example of the contradiction inherent in the art of
an era that had sought, hitherto in vain, to
combine pagan antiquity with Christianity.
Although classical paintings permeate the
religious paintings of the Renaissance, the
di erent strands were irreconcilable.
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 Leonardo Da Vinci
1452 - 1519 CE

Madonna of the Rocks, c 1483 -85 CE oil on

panel transferred on canvas, Louvre, Paris,
France

The unusual grotto setting indulges Leonardo’s

fascination with rocks and water, which
stemmed from his birthplace of Vinci, a town built
above a river gorge.
 Leonardo Da Vinci
1452 - 1519 CE

Leonardo used a distinctive painting technique

known as sfumato (sfumare) “to tone down” or “to
evaporate like smoke”
the ne shading that produces soft, imperceptible
transitions between colors and tones
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La Gioconda
La Joconde
c 1503 - 05 CE
oil on panel, Louver,
Paris, France
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564 CE

The Creation of Adam, 1511CE, fresco,

Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City

As god res Adam with the divine spark of life,

the gap between their ngers heightens the
anticipation.
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 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564 CE

Michelangelo the sculptor, who could reasonably

be expected to have the ability to transform the
ceiling into illusionistic, three-dimensional work of
art, was every bit as important to his patron as
Michelangelo the painter.
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564 CE

Sistine Chapel Ceiling 1508 - 1512CE,

fresco, Vatican City
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564 CE

Dying Slave, 1513 - 1516 CE, marble,

for the tomb of Julius II

Dying Slave seems to be sinking into a deep

sleep. Far from dying, the gure in
Michelangelo's Dying Slave seems to be
abandoning himself to the e ects of an
intoxicant. Little resistance is shown in the silky
contours of the arched back, extended left arm,
and relaxed abdomen.
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 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564 CE

La Pietà, 1498 - 1499 CE, marble, 174 cm

St Peter’s, Vatican City

Aged only 23,

Michelangelo juxtaposes the youthfulness of his
Mary with the death of her son, he achieves a
matchless aesthetics e ect

When critics said the Virgin looked too young to

have a fully grown son, he said that sin is what
aged people.
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 Raphael
1475 - 1564 CE

The School of athens, 1509 - 1511 CE,

fresco, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican City

The assembly of some of the greatest minds of

antiquity
a commemoration of ancient philosophy and
ancient standards of aesthetics
 Raphael
1475 - 1564 CE

Madonna of the Gold nch, 1505 - 1506 CE,

Tempera on panel, U zi, Florence

The most popular of his themes,

The notion of triangle for the core of composition,
the red and the blue,
aerial perspective on the landscape

The balanced character of his art re ected his

personality
Supremely graceful, renowned for his charm and
social poise
His work, inspiration and model for artists for
centuries to come
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The Triumvirate of High Renaissance

Leonardo Da Vinci
Michelangelo Bounarotti
Raffaello Sanzio, Raphael
 The North

Jan Van Eyck

1390 - 1441 CE
Belgium

The Arnol ni Portrait, 1434 CE, oil on oak

panel, National Gallery, London

Much of the powerful impact of the painting

comes from its exceptional sense of realism

sloping oorboard, angle of the window and the

curtains
expensive oranges
green and red - fertility and passion
delicate brush strokes
polished chandelier in meticulous detail
layers of transparent glaze
jewel-ole nish, awless illusion of light
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 Jan Van Eyck
1390 - 1441 CE

The immaculate details in his paintings are

depicted with a precision that was only made
possible by the skillful use of oil paint.

Many historians believed that Jan Van Eyck

invented the technique of oil painting.
It is evident that he re ned and perfected the
technique.
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 Jan Van Eyck
1390 - 1441 CE

Ghent Altarpiece, interior view, 1432 CE, oil

on panel, 350 x 461cm, St Bavo’s Cathedral,
Ghent, Belgium

God the father anked by the Virgin and John the

Baptist, angels, and Adam and Eve.

Saints travel to adore the Lamb to God

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 Hieronymus Bosch
1450 - 1516 CE
Netherlands

Garden of Earthly Delights, 1500 CE, oil on

panel, 220 x 390 cm, Prado, Madrid

Bosch was as technically skilled as he was

imaginative
Vivid colours, ne brushes, minute details

Advent of surrealism

Depiction of the three worlds, the animals, the

fruits, the landscapes and monuments, the
metaphors and the satire

wild outbreak of imaginations

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 Hieronymus Bosch
1450 - 1516 CE
Netherlands

A weird world of grotesque and horrifying

creatures, giving vivid form to the fear of hell that
haunted the medieval mind

Bosch’s paintings rank among the most powerful

and imaginative fantasy scenes in the history of
art.
 Albrecht Dürer
1471 - 1528 CE
Germany

Adam and Eve, 1504 CE, engraving, British

Museum, London, UK

The greatest German artist of the Renaissance,

A brilliant draftsman,
his paintings rivaled those of his Italian
contemporaries.
minutely detailed, subtly toned prints - elevating
printing medium to a new level of
accomplishment
 Albrecht Dürer
1471 - 1528 CE
Germany

Like Leonardo, Dürer found wonder in everyday

subject matter,
master of realistic watercolor
skilled beyond art - published books on
measurements, forti cations and proportion in
the human body
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continua
dopo