ITALY, 1400-1500

1. ITALY,1400-1500 GARDNER CHAPTER 21-4 PP. 565-572

2. PALAZZO MEDICI • MICHELOZZO, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, 1444, Florence • Simple, massive structure -> rusticated ground floor; second floor strongly articulated blocks; third floor smooth surface -> building seems to get lighter as it goes up • Roman arches at bottom used as entries to shops and businesses • Strong cornice placed on top

3. PALAZZO MEDICI-RICCARDI • Interior courtyard allows light and air into the interior rooms of the palace • Palazzo built to express the civic pride and political power of the Medici family-> rusticated ground floor exterior expressed the fortitude of the Medicis • Symmetrical plan

4. LEON BATISTA ALBERTI • The first Renaissance architect to understand classical architecture in depth • The first to study seriously the ancient Roman architectural treatise of VITRUVIUS • Author of On the Art of Building -> advocated a system of ideal proportions -> believed that the central plan was the ideal form for a Christian church

5. PALAZZO RUCELLAI • LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI, Palazzo Ruccelai, Florence, Italy, ca. 1452-1470 • Exterior is much more severe than the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi • Three horizontal floors separated by a strongly articulated stringcourse • Pilasters rise vertically and divide the spaces into squarish shapes • Not rusticated • First floor pilasters are Tuscan/derived from Doric, second floor composite derived from Ionic, third floor are Corinthian -> inspired by the Colosseum

6. SANTA MARIA NOVELLA • LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI, west façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, 1456-1470 • The Rucellai family commissioned Alberti to design the façade of the 13th century Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella • Small, pseudo-classical pediment capped temple on the upper part • Lower part -> pilaster framed arcade that incorporated the six tombs and three doorways of the Gothic building • Believed in the eternal and universal validity of numerical ratios as the source of beauty -> goes back to the true spirit of the High Classical age of ancient Greece = POLYKLEITOS • New feature -> the scrolls the united the upper and lower levels and screen the sloping roofs over the aisles inside

7. GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA • 1490’s -> Florence experiences a political, cultural, and religious upheaval • French armies are threatening Florence and all of Italy • Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola takes absolute control over the city -> denounces the paganism of the Medici and their artists -> denounced humanism -> exhorted people to repent their sins -> banishment of wealthy families -> destroy classical and worldly possessions • THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES

8. THE PRINCELY COURTS • Florentine artists and architects led the way in creating the Renaissance • The papacy in Rome and the princely courts in other city-states nurture Renaissance art • The princely courts consisted of the prince (his title varied from city to city), his consort and children, courtiers, household staff, and administrators = little emperors -> wealth -> artistic patronage • Art for the princes had several purposes: • Showed princely sophistication and culture • Form of prestige and commemoration • Public education and propaganda • Demonstration of wealth • Visual pleasure

9. PERUGINO • PERUGINO, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, 1482, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Rome • Christ delivers the keys of his earthly kingdom to Saint Peter -> a theme treasured by the popes, who saw themselves as descendants of Saint Peter • Left background -> tribute money • Right background -> stoning of Jesus • Models of the Arch of Constantine in the background; central basilica reflects the ideas of Brunelleschi and Alberti on architecture • One-point perspective, vast piazza • Open space provides dramatic emphasis on keys • Figures stand in contrapposto • Many contemporary faces in the scene

10. LUCA SIGNORELLI • LUCA SIGNORELLI, Damned Cast into Hell, 1499-1504, fresco, Orvieto Cathedral, Italy • Further develops Pallaiullo’s interest in depiction of muscular bodies in violent action • One of a colossal series of frescoes depicting the end of the world • Saint Michael and the hosts of Heaven hurl the damned into hell • Demons vigorously torture the dense writhing mass of the damned • The fiends are depicted in bizarre and lurid coloration -> evil and putrefaction

11. DAMNED CAST INTO HELL - detail

12. PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA • PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, Enthroned Madonna and Saints Adored by Federico da Montefeltro, ca. 1472-1474, oil on wood, 8’2” x 5’7” • One of the greatest artistic patrons of the 15th century was the Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino • Federico clad in armor kneels at the feet of the Virgin -> behind him stands his patron saint, Saint John the Evangelist • Missing figure opposite Federico would have been his wife Battista Sforza -> she died • Figures appear in an illusionistically painted, coffered barrel vault

13. ENTHRONED MADONNA AND SAINTS ADORED BY FREDERICO DA MONTEFELTRO - detail

14. FLAGELLATION • PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, Flagellation of Christ, ca. 1455-1465, oil and tempera on wood, 1’11” x 2’8” • Setting is the portico of Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem • Focus of the composition is not Christ but the three figures in the foreground -> scholars still debate who they are • The reveals a mind cultivated by mathematics -> the clarity and purity of geometric shapes