1.1 - Artworks of painting

Question 1

Answer 1

• Masaccio (1401-1429)*
• Of all the Early Renaissance painters, he carried the naturalistic impulse in painting furthest.

His fresco ´Trinity with the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist and Donors´ in Santa Maria Novella in Florence of ca. 1427-28 summarizes several characteristics of the Renaissance.

The Renaissance interest in lifelike portraiture can be seen in the life-size depictions of 2 members of the Lenzi family who commissioned the work. Unlike the anonymous marginal figures of donors seen in medieval paintings, these donors have a real presence in the scene.

Masaccio was so succesful in his use of lineair perspective that the chapel appears to recede into the wall : the vanishing point is just below the bottom of the cross, 5 feet from the floor, approx. eye level for the adult viewer.

Situated deeper in the space and therefore drawn smaller than the Lenzis, Mary and John the Evangelist plead with Jesus on behald of humankind. Only figure to defy natural logic is God, his feer are on the back wall yet he holds the cross in the foreground. The Renaissance interest in the antique is seen in the coffered barrel vault, Ionic and Corinthian capitals and the moldings, all based upon ancient Roman models.*

Question 2

Answer 2

• Piero della Francesca (1406/12-1492)*
• Was also deeply interested in portraiture, a reflection of the Renaissance concern for the individual. His double depiction of Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro shows husband and wife holding their heads motionless, high above the landscape behind them. The profiile presentation was especially popular in the Early Renaissance, revealing the sitter´s most distinctive features. Piero began the portraits in 1472, the year the countess died, suggesting her portrait was made from her death mask.*

Question 3

Answer 3

• Fra Angelico (1400-1455)*
• He was also named ´angelic brother´ by his brother. Most popular painter in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. His Annunciation (painted between 1438 and 1445 in the monastery of San Marco in Florence) was part of a vast project in which he painted on the walls in one of the cloisters, the chapter house, upstairs in the corridors and especially in the monk´s dormitory cells.

In the scene, Mary and Gabriel have graceful gestures. Their crossed arms are a sign of respect as well as a reference to Jesus´ cross and prefiguration of his crucifixion.

In the garden to the left are accurate depictions of real plants, but Fra Angelico, in medieval fashion, has spaced them evenly across the ground so each maintains its seperate identity. The architecture of the space is rendered with typical Early Renaissance respect for the laws of perspective, but he placed his figures in the architectural setting without regard to proper relative scale. The scene is set within the architecture of San Marco, thus it is shown to take place in a specific and contemporary building.*

Question 4

Answer 4

• Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)*
• Received his artistic training as an assistant to Fra Filippo Lippi (painter who worked with Fra Angelico).

His ´Birth of Venus´ (1484-86) depicts the goddess born from the sea (subject from antique pagan mythology), made acceptable to the christian church by equating Venus with Jesus´ mother Mary on the grounds that both were sources of love.

According to neoplatonic interpretation, the birth of Venus is equivalent to the birth of the human soul, as yet uncorrupted by the matter of the world. In neoplatonic terms, the soul is free to choose for itself whether to follow a path toward sin and degration or attempt to regain, through the use of reason, a spiritual perfection manifested in the beauty of creation and felt in the love of God.

Botticelli is a master of line, which is simultaneously descriptive and decorative. His flowing lines are so lovely that the viewer will forgive is other anatomical inaccuracies.

In 1494 a Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, took control of the city. He proclaimed that Florence had condemned itself to perdition, saying that its painters (like Botticelli) make the Virgin look like a harlot. A bonfire was built in the main square of the city and signs of vanity were burned.*