florence cases

Question 1

ospedale degli innocenti - description

Answer 1

• nine bay loggia
• trabeated and arcuated system
• bent entablature, like a frame
• tondi
• pedimented windows
• middle crest
• groin vaults, central one only is painted
• strigillation
• colours

Question 2

ospedale degli innocenti - context

Answer 2

• commissioned by arte della seta, guild of silk merchants and goldsmiths, which substantial donations from giovanni de medici
• civic responsibility of the guild and shift from feudal power of church to power of merchants- 1st hospital for foundling children that wasn’t run by the church
• revival of classical antiquity- influenced by the colours of the baptistry, geometry

Question 3

pazzi chapel - description

Answer 3

• main hall composed of blind arches, fluted pilasters
• entablature, frieze decorated with seven seals and a lamb
• roundels with
• hemi spherical dome, twelve ribbed, one main oculus in the centre, twelve little ones around the circle
• four pendentives with the
• geometry-

Question 4

pazzi chapel - context

Answer 4

• commissioned by pazzi family, the rival banking family to the medici
• use of geometry shows an intellectual interest in humanism
• revival of classical antiquity

Question 5

dome - description

Answer 5

• 8 major ribs, 16 minor ribs
• lantern at the top
• ## herringbone brick laying pattern

Question 6

dome - context

Answer 6

• ## great feat of engineering in strategies of building it- new technological innovations to get the materials up

Question 7

david - description

Answer 7

• bronze life size
• standing in contraposto, holding a huge sword in one hand, and a stone in the other, with his arm bent and on his hip, and a stone in the other
• one foot on the head of goliath, who is bearded and in a helmet
• highly idealised body, smooth, reflective connoting sweat, pre pubescent
• feather from goliath’s helmet goes up the inner leg of david

Question 8

david - context

Answer 8

• commissioned by Cosimo de Medici for the Palazzo Medici
• demonstration of wealth, civic pride through story of david and Goliath, affirming status and authority within the city
• ## nudity for eroticism ‘private delight’ of the medici court, evokes ideas of christian virtue and innocence

Question 9

feast of herod - description

Answer 9

• bronze and gilded, using stacciato relievo
• head of john the baptist is presented to king herold on a platter
• salome in contraposto, leaning away from it
• horrified reactions and expressions, psychological realism
• planes of recession show the events- the brining of the head through the palace
• classical architecture- arches defining the planes of recession

Question 10

feast of herod - context

Answer 10

• commissioned for the font of the siena baptistry of san giovanni
• one point linear perspective potentially influenced by friendship with brunelleschi
• shows features of classical antiquity
• psychological realness

Question 11

holy trinity - description

Answer 11

• fresco showing a coffin, two praying patrons, mary and john, christ crucified and god with his arms held out
• coffin at eye level to the viewer, acting as a reminder of the immanence and inevitability of death
• patrons are probably merchants, commissioned it and therefore are on the next plane up from the grave through their acts of charity to the church- paying (literally) for your sins. man in red woman in blue
• mary in blue, john in red - contrast, leading eye up the painting
• mary has her face turned towards the viewer, and hand held out- her role as intercessor, offering salvation
• body of christ is highly idealised, anatomically accurate musculature, ‘pose’ reflects that of vitruvian man so ‘perfect’
• fluted corinthian pilasters, entablature, column supporting an arch, coffered barrel vault

Question 12

holy trinity - context

Answer 12

• possibly commissioned by a local merchant, showing the rising importance of the merchant class in Florence
• potential influence of brunelleschi in revival of classical features
• replacing hieratic scale with perspective - bringing god and christ into our space, making him relatable, idea of jesus’ human suffering
• first to use mathematical one point linear perspective - orthogonals, transversals, vanishing point, use of single light sources with cast shadows to enhance illusionistic space, foreshortening, chiaroscuro

Question 13

Mona Lisa - description

Question 14

Mona Lisa - context

Question 15

Primavera - description

Question 16

Primavera - context