Proto Renaissance

THE TERM
• Is it Late Medieval? Or Proto-Renaissance?
• "The Renaissance does not have a start date. Its origins are often
located around 1400 but as early as the late 1200s we see changes in
painting and sculpture that lay the foundation for what we will come to
recognize as the Renaissance. Some scholars call this early period the
"Late Gothic"—a term which refers to the late Middle Ages, while other
people call it the "Proto-Renaissance"—the beginnings of the
Renaissance. In any case, a revolution is beginning to take place in Italy
the early 1300s in the way people think about the world, the way they
think about the past, and the way they think about themselves and
their relationship with God."
• The Pre- or Proto-Renaissance occurred in northern Italy.
• Where it happened is crucial. Northern Italy, in the 12th century, enjoyed
a relatively stable social and political structure. Mind you, this region
wasn't "Italy" back then. It was a collection of adjoining Republics (as was
the case with Florence, Venice, Genoa and Siena) and Duchies (Milan and
Savoy). Here, unlike anywhere else in Europe, feudalism was either gone
or well on the way out. There were also well-defined territorial boundaries
that were, for the most part, not under constant threat of invasion or
attack.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• we can trace the very beginnings of the Renaissance period back to
around 1150 in northern Italy. Some texts, most notably Gardner's Art
Through the Ages, refer to the years from 1200 to the early 15th century
as the "Proto-Renaissance", while others lump this time frame in with the
term "Early Renaissance.”
• The "Early" Renaissance - let alone the "Renaissance" on the whole -
could not have occurred where and when it did without these first years
of increasingly bold explorations in art.
• When studying this period, three important factors should be considered:
Where this happened, what people were thinking and how art started to
change.
• Trade flourished throughout the region and, and a thriving economy
makes for a more contented populace. Additionally, the various merchant
families and Dukes who "ruled" these Republics and Duchies were keen
on outdoing each other and impressing foreigners with whom they
traded.
• If this sounds idyllic, please know that it wasn't. During this same period,
the Black Death swept through Europe with devastating results. The
Church underwent a crisis which saw, at one point, three simultaneous
Popes excommunicate one another. The thriving economy led to the
formation of merchant Guilds that, often cruelly, fought for control.
• As far as art history is concerned, though, the time and place lent
themselves nicely as an incubator for new artistic explorations, they had
the money to sponsor art's creation, a situation guaranteed to
create artists. People began to change the ways they thought.
• The changes took place in how people viewed (a) the world and (b) their
respective roles in it. Again, the climate of this region, in this time, was
such that matters beyond basic sustenance could be pondered.
• For example, Francis of Assisi (ca. 1180-1226) proposed that religion could
be employed on a human and individual basis. This sounds fundamental
now but, at the time, represented a very radical shift in thought. Petrarch
(1304-1374) was another Italian who espoused a humanistic approach to
thought. His writings, along with those of St. Francis and other emerging
scholars, crept into the collective consciousness of the "common man." As
art is created by thinking persons, these new ways of thinking naturally
began to be reflected in works of art.
THE CHANGE IN ART
• Slowly, subtly, but importantly, art began to change, too.
• We're given a scenario, then, where people had time, money and
relative political stability. Combining these factors with shifts in
human cognition led to creative changes in art.
• The first noticeable differences emerged in sculpture. Human figures,
as seen in Church architectural elements, became slightly less stylized
and more deeply relieved (though they were still not "in the round").
In both cases, humans in sculpture looked more realistic.
• Painting soon followed suit and, almost imperceptibly, began to shake
the Medieval style in which compositions followed a rigid format. Yes,
most paintings were for religious purposes and yes, painters still stuck
halos around nearly every painted head, but - if one looks closely, it's
evident that things were loosening up a bit, composition-wise. At
times, it even seems that figures might - given the right circumstances
- be capable of movement. This was a small but radical change
indeed. If it seems a little timid to us now, bear in mind that there
were some fairly horrible penalties involved if one angered the
Church through heretical acts.
EXAMPLES
Until the late eleventh century, southern Italy occupied
the western border of the vast Byzantine empire. Even
after this area fell under Norman rule in about 1071,
Italy maintained a strong link with Byzantium through
trade, and this link was expressed in the art of the
period. Large illustrated Bibles (“giant Bibles”) and
Exultet Rolls—liturgical scrolls containing texts for the
celebration of Easter, produced in the Benevento region
of southern Italy—enjoyed great popularity from about
1050 onward. Miniature illustrations in the Bibles, which
relate to contemporary monumental wall paintings
produced in Rome, were strongly influenced by early
Christian painting cycles from Roman churches. After the
sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Christian armies of
the Fourth Crusade, precious objects from Byzantium
made their way to Italian soil and profoundly influenced
the art produced there, especially the brightly colored
gold-ground panels that proliferated during the
thirteenth century. A Madonna and Child

Title: Madonna and Child

Artist: Berlinghiero (Italian, Lucca, active by 1228–died by
1236)
Date: possibly 1230s
Medium: Tempera on wood, gold ground
• At the end of the thirteenth century and beginning of the fourteenth,
three great masters appeared who changed the course of painting:
the Florentine Giotto di Bondone (1266/76–1337), the Roman Pietro
Cavallini (ca. 1240–after ca. 1330), and the Sienese Duccio di
Buoninsegna (active ca. 1278–1318).
Giotto’s figures are volumetric rather than linear, and
the emotions they express are varied and convincingly
human rather than stylized (11.126.1). He created a
new kind of pictorial space with an almost measurable
depth. With Giotto, the flat world of thirteenth-century
Italian painting was transformed into an analogue for
the real world, for which reason he is considered the
father of modern European painting. 

This picture—at once austere and tender—belongs to a

series of seven showing the life of Christ. The masterly
depiction of the stable, which is viewed from slightly
below, and the columnar solidity of the figures are
typical of Giotto, the founder of European painting. The
impetuous action of the kneeling king, who picks up the
Christ Child, and Mary’s expression of concern translate
the biblical account into deeply human terms. As the
sculptor Ghiberti declared (ca. 1450): "[Giotto] made
[art] natural and gave it gentleness.”

Title: The Adoration of the Magi

Artist: Giotto di Bondone (Italian, Florentine, 1266/76–1337)
Date: possibly ca. 1320
Medium: Tempera on wood, gold ground
Duccio, founder of the Sienese school of painting,
brought a lyrical expressiveness and intense spiritual
gravity to the formalized Italo-Byzantine tradition. In a
small devotional panel of the Madonna and Child
(2004.442), Duccio bridged the gap between the spiritual
world of the figures and the real world of the viewer by
means of an illusionistic parapet, among the first of its
kind in Western painting. 

This lyrical work inaugurates the grand tradition in Italian

art of envisioning the sacred figures of the Madonna and
Child in terms appropriated from real life. The Christ
Child gently pushes away the veil of his mother, whose
sorrowful expression reflects her foreknowledge of his
crucifixion. The beautifully modeled drapery enhances
their three-dimensional, physical presence and the
parapet connects the fictive, sacred world of the painting
with the temporal one of the viewer. The bottom edge of
the original frame is marked by candle burns.

Title: Madonna and Child

Artist: Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian, active by 1278–
died 1318 Siena)
Date: ca. 1290–1300
Medium: Tempera and gold on wood
FRESCO
• The technique of fresco painting, known from antiquity and especially popular in
the Renaissance and Baroque periods, was used to decorate the walls and ceilings
of churches, public buildings, and private dwellings.The bare wall was first
dampened and coated with a layer of coarse lime plaster, called arriccio, on which
the design was drawn or brushed in red earth pigment (sinopia). The overall
composition was painted in sections known as giornate—Italian for “a day’s work.”
Each of these sections was composed of a smooth plaster layer called intonaco.
Pigments diluted in water were applied directly to the wet intonaco; as the plaster
dried, a chemical reaction bound the pigment to it. Embellishments applied to a
dry wall—fresco a secco (secco is the Italian word for dry)—are far less durable, as
the paint tends to flake off over time. Fresco is vulnerable to moisture and may be
damaged in a cool, damp environment; the arid Mediterranean climate is
favorable for its preservation.
• The medium of fresco enabled artists to depict complex narratives, and to experiment
with depth and spatial relationships. They were often painted in a series, or cycle, for
a single space. Usually fresco cycles consisted of scenes from the life of Christ,
the Virgin Mary, or the saint to whom a church or monastery was dedicated. Between
1253 and 1340, many of the outstanding artists of the period, including Cimabue and
Giotto, contributed frescoes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Francis (1181–
1226) to his basilica at Assisi.
• About 1303, the Paduan nobleman Enrico Scrovegni commissioned Giotto, renowned
as the greatest painter of his day, to fresco the Arena Chapel in Padua. In cycles
depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ, Giotto’s naturalism,
compositional clarity, and the volumetric, sculptural presence of his figures combine
in scenes of unprecedented drama. These frescoes were widely praised for their
innovation by Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch
Cimabue
Santa Trinita Maestà
Florence, c. 1290-1300
Tempera on panel 
Proto-Renaissance

Giotto
Ognissanti Madonna
Florence, c. 1310
Tempera on panel (128 in x 80 in)
Proto-Renaissance