Proto-& Early Italian Renaissance

Unit 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas

Dates/History/Key Events

1204: Constantinople is captured by Crusaders and migration of artists to Italy happens

1300-1400: "Trecento" Proto-Renaissance

1305: The Great Schism - College of Cardinals elect a French Pope (Clement V) who settles in Avignon and not Rome. Italians were furious and elected a second Pope for Italy (Urban VI) who increased monastic orders. This increased Italian vernacular in the Church (ex: Latin is still the official language of the church and state but an Italian vernacular increased the audience).

1340s: The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) - Wiped out 25%-50% of Europe in 5 years; wiped out 50%-60% of Italy

1400-1500: "Quattrocento"

Historical Background

This time period is in between Medieval/Middle Ages and High Renaissance.
Once Constantinople is captured by Crusaders in 1204, a migration of artists to Italy happens.
By the 14th century, Italy did not exist as a unified entity - it was divided into city-states and ruled by assortments of princes, prelates, or even republics (Venice). Citizens did not associated themselves as "Italians" but by their native city (ex: Florentines, Sienese, etc) and had very diverse dialectics that could sometimes be construed as a different language entirely.
Italian medieval politics were characterized by routinely shifting allegiances breaking into splinter groups and reforming into new alliances. Those who lost power were either killed or driven from their city (and sometimes regrouped again and returned for revenge).
Italian princes were lavish spenders on the arts and connoisseurs of painting and sculpture. They used arts to embellish their palaces with the latest innovative art forms and commissioned architectural works from pioneering local architects. Competition among families and city-states encouraged competition in the arts and each was set to outdo the other.

Humanism

Humanism, Secularism, and Individualism. New intellectual ideals gained focus, especially human experience, manners, and politics (known as the "humane letters" = humanism).

Princely courts gradually turned their attention away from religious subjects to more secular concerns, called humanism. It started as a literary movement, then moved to visual arts.
It became acceptable and encouraged to explore Italy's pagan past as a way of shedding light on contemporary life. The exploration of new worlds (epitomized by great European explorers) was mirrored in new growth and apprecation of the sciences and arts.
In Northern Europe, Humanism was rejected in favor of a blend of religion and classical literature.
Humanism has a greater focus on the natural world rather than the hereafter. Maintains interest in illusionism, pictorial solidity, spatial depth, and emotional display in the human figure.

The Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1490, ink

Art Forms

Architecture

Depends on order, clarity, and light. Darkness and mystery from Gothic architecture was seen as barbaric.
Buildings had wide window spaces, limited stained glass, and vivid wall paintings.
Stress geometric designs with harmonies achieved by systems of ideal proportions, learned from an architectural treatise by the Roman Vitruvius.
Ratios and proportions of various elements in the interior of Florentine churches were interpreted as expressions of humanistic ideals.
- Early Christian past was recalled in use of unvaulted naves with coffered ceilings.
- Church crossings are twice the size of nave bays and the nave is twice the size of side aisles.
- Arches and columns take up 2/3rds of the height of the nave.
Florentine Palaces have austere dominating facades rising three stories from street level.
- First floor is reserved for public areas with business transactions taking place here.
- Second floor rises in lightness.
- Third floor is capped by a heavy cornice in the style of a number of Roman temples.

Painting/Sculpture

Linear perspective (a technique known by the Romans) becomes the biggest characteristic of Early Italian Renaissance work. Perspective shows objects and people in proportion to one other, directly opposes medieval art.
Trompe l'oeil becomes a perspective technique intentionally meant to fool the eye and make objects look as though they are directly coming off the surface.
In the early part of the 15th c., religious paintings dominated, but by the end portraits and mythological scenes were abundant to reflect humanist ideals.
Renaissance = "rebirth" of Greco-Roman classics and inspiration from Greek and Roman sculptures. This lead to a revival of life-size nude statuary beginning in Florence.
Nudity in art is a manifestation of an increased study of human anatomy. Drawings with heroic bodies are sketched in the nude and transferred to stone/bronze.

Patronage and Artistic Life

Medieval artists worked within a regulated network called the guild system. Guilds were artists associations that determined how long apprenticeships should take, how many apprentices artists could have, and what the proper route was for an artist trying to establish themselves. After a successful internship, former apprentices entered the guild as mature artists and full members.
Female artists were rare because apprentices lived with their teacher, creating a situation unthinkable for females.
Guilds helped regulate commissions and limit how many people entered the profession, an action that would have driven down the prices of art. Guilds were in place until the 18th century when they were replaced by a free-market approach.
Patronage was strong among preaching orders of friars such as the Franciscans (devoted followers of Saint Francis of Assisi) and the Dominicans (followers of Saint Dominic de Guzman). Both groups abstained from materials concerns and committed themselves to helping the poor and the sick. Dominicans stressed teaching and were instrumental in commissioning narrative pulpits and altarpieces for followers to learn about important Christian tenets.
Italian citizens had strong devotional attachments to their local church and even sometimes used them as their final resting place. Families commissioned artists to decorate private chapels, occasionally with members of the family serving as models in a religious scene.
Rulers, church leaders, and civic-minded institutions led by laypersons commissioned works for public display, using them to legitimize their reign or express their public generosity.
Contracts between artists and patrons were drawn up, bookkeeping records of transactions were maintained, and artists self-consciously and confidently began signing works more regularly.

Unit Vocabulary

Canvas - strong, woven cloth traditionally used as a support and surface to create paintings

Chapter house - a building next to a church used for meetings

Chiaroscuro - use of strong contrasts between light and dark to achieve a sense of volume in modeling 3D forms

Madonna - the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ

Mullion - a central post or column that is a support element in a window or a door

Neoplatonism - Rooted in the philosophy of Plato (428-347 BCE) that believes human perfection and happiness were attainable without waiting for the afterlife.

Pilaster - rectangular column projecting from wall. Only used as ornamental and not functional.

Pietra serena - a dark-gray stone used for columns, arches, and trim details in Renaissance buildings

Trompe l'oeil - Highly realistic optical illusion of 3D space and bojects on a 2D surface.

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