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13 HUNDREDS FROM 1350 |
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To eliminate an unnecessary mental gymnastic, the Italian form "the 13 hundreds" has been used throughout in preference to the English expression "the 14th Century" or "14C" (though to be accurate the Italians would call it the 3 hundreds - but that's another story!) |
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Link to Artists of the Italian Renaissance
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The Black Death
BOOKS |
1348 |
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See Part One for details. This event, which reduced the population of Europe by over 50%, marked the final end of the boom times of the twelve hundreds - the Century which had seen the first European wide flowering of commerce, thought and civilization since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and which had embraced amongst other things the foundation of universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, the return of Aristotle's works to Europe via dialogue with the Islamic cultures which had been their guardians, and the building of many of the great French and Italian cathedrals. |
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Giovanni di Bicci (de' Medici)
PORTRAITS
MEDICI PAGES |
1360
-1429
(69) |
Firenze
de' Medici
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Founder of the Medici dynasty and the Medici Bank (in 1397). |
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Leonardo Bruni |
1369
-1444
(75) |
Firenze (sometime Chancellor)
Scholar |
One of the outstanding scholars of his generation - picked up on Petrarch and used the word 'umanista' for the first time - grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy and history being the subjects taught for this. One of several
Florentinians who went to Greece and Byzantium (particularly
Constantinople) and brought back collections of ancient books.
"Collections" is probably the wrong descriptive term. Mostly these
book buyers were merchants, and would just load up wagons with books
bought by the ton, secure in the knowledge that the thirst in Florence
for everything related to the classical world would pretty much
guarantee sales of anything at attractive profit margins (though at that
time one did not talk about profits per se!). |
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Filippo Brunelleschi
BOOK
PORTRAITS
FLORENCE DUOMO |
1377
-1446
(69) |
Firenze
Architect |
Goldsmith, inventor of the mathematics of perspective in painting, inventive engineering genius, secretive control freak
but above all an architect, and in fact the first well known "named" architect.
Brunelleschi
first catapulted to architectural fame with his design and subsequent building
management of the Spedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital) in the
1420s between San Marco and the Duomo. The elegant colonnaded
facade (below) was a completely new look, as was much of the hospital
design.
Earlier, after losing the 1403 Florence Baptistery door competition to Ghiberti, "Pippo" went travelling, and on returning to Florence produced the mathematics of perspective in painting
(1434) - demonstrated by a famous (now lost) painting of the Baptistery which was designed to be held in front and facing away from the face of an observer standing at the spot where the picture was painted. When the latter peeked through a pinhole aperture in the painting at a mirror reflecting it back, it was said to be impossible to distinguish picture from reality (except the former was back to front!).
Brunelleschi was the architect of the great Florentine churches of San Lorenzo and Santa Spirito,
and the Pazzi Chapel at Santa Croce (his favourite). His immortal and most visible achievement was designing and building what is still the
world's largest
masonry dome (for the
Florence Duomo) (and without the use of any internal scaffolding / supports - see Part One). |
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Lorenzo Ghiberti
SELF PORTRAIT
FLORENCE BAPTISTERY |
1378
-1455
(77) |
Firenze
Sculptor |
Contemporary, competitor and personality opposite to Brunelleschi, from the time he beat him in the 1403 competition for the North Door of the Baptistery to their uneasy coupling from 1420 as joint capomaestri for the Duomo Cupola project (a tussle eventually convincingly won by Brunelleschi). The North Door panels were completed in 1424, and Lorenzo was asked to move straight on to the East ones (unusually for Florence, without any competition being held). The East doors took him most of the rest of his life to complete (1425 - 52) but it was worth it - an unquestionable masterpiece called by Michelangelo "The Gates of Paradise" (with the original panels now to be found in the Cathedral Museum across the road to the east of the Cathedral). |
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The Great Schism |
1378
-1417 |
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The French Pope
Clement V (aka Raymond Bertrand de Got) (1264 - 1305 - 1314 (50)) had
moved the seat of the Papacy from Rome to (you guessed) France - firstly
Poitiers, then more permanently to Avignon in the early 1300s.
Gregory XI returned the Papacy to Rome in 1376, but after his death two
year's later, rival Popes appeared
in Avignon, Rome, and at the final stage a third - the "Anti-Pope" Baldassare Cossa, John XXIII - mostly in Bologna. All were deposed by the
Council of Konstanz
(1414 - 1418), and a single papacy restored in Rome, occupied by Martin
V - the first of the
"Popes of the Renaissance". Cossa got the posthumous satisfaction of a magnificent (and the only) tomb in the
Baptistery in Florence - by
Donatello and
Michelozzo - commissioned in 1427 by the early
Medicis who were grateful recipients of church banking business. Read the story of Cossa in the factional book "A Trembling Upon Rome" by Richard Condon. |
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Masolino da Panicale |
1383
-1440
(57) |
Firenze
Artist |
Masaccio's Master. |
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Cosimo the Elder
(de' Medici)
PORTRAITS |
1389
-1464
(75) |
Firenze
de' Medici
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Son of Giovanni. Drove the Medici bank to its peak as the greatest bank in Europe, in significant part by engineering the position of the first ever monopoly banker to the church. Built the Palazzo Medici and San Marco monastery and church (a suggestion by the Pope as a penance for all the money he was accumulating). Note that when there is a reference below to the later Cosimo I (1519 - 1574) coming from the "cadet branch" of the family, this means that he was a descendant of Cosimo the Elder's brother Lorenzo the Elder (1395 -1440). |
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John VIII Palaeologus |
1390
-1448
(58) |
Byzantium,
Emperor |
The penultimate Byzantine Emperor. Spent more than a year in Italy trying to stitch up a deal with the Pope that would pave the way for military support for the fast disappearing Byzantine Empire. The negotiations were moved to Florence at the start of 1439 and, based at Santa Maria Novella, became known as the
Council of Florence (the Pope was running out of money to support the hoards of ecclesiastics, courtiers and assorted retainers, but the Medici had plenty of moolah!). On Sunday 5 July 1439 a Decree of Union was signed between the Latin and Greek churches. This did not last, but what did was John and Lorenzo de'Medici's images in the
"Procession of the Magi" fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici in Firenze. |
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Beato (Fra) Angelico
ART GALLERY |
1395
-1455
(60) |
Firenze
Artist
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The Convent of San Marco (Firenze) is now devoted to the work of its most famous monk - the "master of Annunciations". Don't miss: the Cell 3 Annunciation in addition to the famous one at the top of the stairs, the reds and golds in the paintings that have not been spoiled by inept restoration, and the exquisite miniature New Testament illustrations on a silver cupboard door downstairs! While there, also enjoy Fr Bartolomeo's portraits of various saints and his two famous paintings of
Savonorola, and be sure to experience the space in
Michelozzo's Library,
Europe's first public library. South of Florence, off the A1 in San Giovanno val d'Arno, the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie contains a particularly beautiful Angelico Annunciation which can be enjoyed in peace away from the tourist crowds. |
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Donatello de' Bardi
ART GALLERY |
1396
-1466
(70) |
Firenze
Sculptor
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One of the greatest and most innovative of a great and innovative peer group. David (Bargello, Firenze, but originally in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici) and much much more (e.g. see Opera del Duomo and Santa Croce in Florence). |
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Michelozzo di Bartolomeo |
1396
-1472
(76) |
Firenze
Architect |
Cosimo the Elder's architect.
San Marco (see especially the Library upstairs),
and the Palazzo Medici. |
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Paolo Uccello |
1397
-1475
(78) |
Firenze
Artist |
Trained under
Ghiberti in Florence, and was then at the forefront in pushing forward
the application of perspective in painting, often in
small paintings. In fact he was a
bit obsessive about perspective (if having sleepless nights thinking
about something is obsessive) and was the first to use two vanishing
points successfully. He hit the big
end of town with his famous and massive
equestrian portrait of Sir
John Hawkwood
frescoed on the walls of the Florence Duomo, but it is the smaller works
that remain most interesting. |
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Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli
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1397
-1482
(85) |
Firenze
Astronomer and Geographer |
One of the great mathematicians and astronomers of the century. Made use of Brunelleschi's Duomo dome structure to create a
huge sundial and make astronomical calculations (his gear can still be
seen in the dome). Revised
the old 1252 Alfonsine Tables to give greater accuracy to latitude calculations at sea, then got into remapping the world, and then calculated (incorrectly as it turned out) that it would be shorter to go to China by heading West, and wrote to
Christopher Columbus to tell him the news.
Rejected by the Portuguese monarch, Columbus turned to Spain for funding and
headed west in 1492 with Toscanelli's thesis copied onto the flyleaf of one of his books.
Sadly none of Toscanelli's map originals swurvive. |
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14 HUNDREDS |
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The
Renaissance
(Il Rinascimento
- The Rebirth)) |
c1400
-c1550 |
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Driven by the generation born since the (first) black death (1348-50), "The (Italian) Renaissance" usually refers to the time span of the fourteen hundreds and the first half of the fifteen hundreds, with Florence playing the central role. (In Music the Renaissance label extends to the emergence of Baroque in the early sixteen hundreds). Some argue that the term Renaissance should be back dated to the centuries before the Black Death when the North Italian City State structures and institutions were being built up.
The grim economic conditions that had characterised most of the thirteen hundreds and the first half of the fourteens, gave way in the later fourteens and the fifteen hundreds to an economic boom even greater than that experienced in the earlier boomtimes of the eleven and twelve hundreds. And the international merchants and bankers of the city state of Florence, now known more for its silk than wool, were in there leading the charge. The wealth they generated spilt over into conspicuous consumption (within the constraints of various sumptuary laws),
and especially patronage of the artists who became a part of the Renaissance
(and its historical public face).
Whilst the focus of the early part of the renaissance was very much on
rediscovery, the magic was that somehow the creative energy of the artistic and intellectual talents that assembled (particularly in Florence), bankrolled and driven by knowledgeable patrons
(especially
the Medici) flush with the winnings of economic success and enjoying the political independence of the leading city state
- the happening Euro-Place - reached some sort of critical mass and boiled over into a feast of speculation, enquiry, discovery and rediscovery (of things Greek and Roman) and of course accomplishments. In these pages you are meeting some of the leading players in this drama. |
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Tommaso Masaccio
BRANCACCI CHAPEL
ARTWORKS from "Masaccio's 600th Birthday" exhibition in Giovanni Val d'Arno in 2002 |
1400
-1428
(28) |
Firenze
Artist
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Despite his short life, Masaccio's talent was such that he is often called the Father of Renaissance painting. Unfortunately not much remains. The fully restored
Brancacci Chapel frescos
(Santa Carmine, Firenze) (closed Tuesdays), are a high priority must - compare for example the emotional power and sense of movement (including shadows) of Massacio's "Expulsion from Eden" with the number opposite by Masolino (himself no slouch and also Masaccio's "master"). Look at some of the faces in the web photos.
"The Trinity" in Santa Maria Novella is often cited as a "best picture" candidate, though this will not be immediately apparent to the layman in the same way as the Brancacci frescoes
are. |
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Luca
Della Robbia |
1400
-1482
(82) |
Ceramic Artist |
The most prominent member of a talented family of ceramic artists. |
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Leon Battista Alberti
BIOGRAPHY
SELF PORTRAIT |
1404
-1472
(68) |
Firenze
Architect, Scholar |
A polymath and along with
Brunelleschi the outstanding designer and architect of the early 14 hundreds. Wrote
"On Painting" (amongst many other things) explaining the Renaissance insights into the representation of perspective. |
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Aeneus Sylvius Piccolomini
PORTRAIT
POPES OF THE
RENAISSANCE |
1405
1458
-1464
(59) |
Siena
Pope Pius II |
The humanist Sienese Pope (from 1458) who
"bulldozed" and rebuilt the centre of his home borgo Pienza (the first example of town planning since the Romans) and is remembered in the
huge frescoes by Pinturicchio of scenes from his life in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral, built in his honour by his nephew Francesco Piccolomini -
latterly (very briefly) Pope Pius III. The library was never, as
originally planned, filled with his books because the family flogged
them all off. One of the scenes in the life of this widely
travelled and intelligent man which does not appear in the frescos is
his viewing, whilst on a visit to Frankfurt in 1454, of the first
printed bible ("the
Gutenberg Bible"). It had, he reported, such neat
lettering that it could be read without glasses, and he was informed
that every copy had been sold. The last year of his life
was spent in a futile attempt to mount a Crusade to recapture
Constantinople,
and he died on the way to the small fleet in Ancona which he had paid
for but for which he had no army. |
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Fra Filippo Lippi
SELF PORTRAIT
SPOLETO DUOMO |
c1406
-1469
(63) |
Painter |
Fra Filippo Lippi was a Florentine painter who experienced an
unusually eventful life. Early on he was
captured by Moors
(Arabs) whilst out boating and sold into
slavery in Africa,
then later freed and returned to Italy where, as a Carmelite monk, he became famous not just
for his painting but for his affair (and subsequent marriage,
facilitated by his Medici patrons) with the nun Lucrezia Buti (mother of
painter Filippino Lippi). |
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Battle of Agincourt |
1415 |
Agincourt, France
Battle |
Henry V
and the deadly English longbow men beat the French
in what turned out to be a "dead cat bounce" towards the end of the
Hundred Years' War. |
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Piero della Francesca
THE ART of the Piero della Francesca Trail
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c1416
-1492
(76) |
Sansepolcro
Painter
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The "Piero della Francesca Trail" - Duke Federico of Urbino (see
below) portrait in the Uffizi; the fresco cycle in the Franciscan church in Arezzo (the one shown is Judas (not the famous one) being taken out of the well where he had been imprisoned until he told where he had hidden the cross - the mother of Constantine the Great, Empress Helena (248 - 328) was in Jerusalem and determined to find it); the fresco of Saint Louis and other more famous works like the dramatically distorted Resurrection in Sansepolcro Museo Civico; the Pregnant Madonna in Monterchi (near Sansepolcro); the sublime Madonna di Senigallia and the mysterious Flagellation in the Urbino Palazzo. Piero was especially good at beautiful Madonnas in the same way that Angelico's speciality was Annunciations.
Essay by Aldous Huxley - "The Greatest Painting in the World" (PDF File) |
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Andrea del Castagno
Nine Famous Men and Women Frescos |
c1421
-1457
(36) |
Florence
Painter |
Andrea del Castagno did not arrive in Florence until his late teens - talent scouted and brought there by Bernardetto de' Medici. He became in a short time an outstanding artist, influenced in particular by Masaccio and Donatello. In Florence you can see his works (particularly a resurrection and a last supper) at the Convent of Sant'Apollonia (near San Marco). He was also responsible for the enormous equestrian fresco of Nicolò da Tolentino in the Florence Duomo, and the Famous Men and Women cycle of nine portraits in the Villa Legnaia (now in the Uffizi) - of particular interest for the (posthumous) portraits of Boccaccio, Dante and Petrarch. His promising career was cut short by the plague in 1457. |
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Duke Federico da Montefeltro
PORTRAITS
URBINO PALAZZO DUCALE PHOTOS |
1422
-1482
(60) |
Duke of Urbino
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Reigned as Signore then Duke of Urbino from 1444. A condottieri, professionally trained by Niccolo Piccinino (regarded as the best around), he was strictly a (very successful) gun for hire - fighting for cash payments and looting rights on short term contracts and with no underlying allegiances (except expanding his own territory around Urbino) - for Florence v the Pope, or the Pope v Florence (he did both), for Naples, Venice etc - whoever paid and booked a slot in his dairy!! In 1472, under contract to the Florence of Lorenzo de' Medici, he sacked Volterra with an appalling brutality that is still remembered there today. Strange then to find that the Duke is universally extolled in books as the ultimate model of a Renaissance man of culture and civility! His profession was merely the cash flow generator for his passion for books (he had a larger manuscript library than most universities), art (he was the patron of
Piero della Francesca amongst others), and beautiful buildings (including
the
Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, also its little sister, the Palazzo Ducale in Gubbio) in which to house his "civilized court". See his
famous face painted by Piero della Francesca in about 1472
(in room 7 of the Uffizi). The diptych also features his second
wife - Battista Sforza. She married the 35 year old Duke when she
was 13, bore him seven daughters then a son, and died in 1472, aged just
28 and probably exhausted, at the birth of the latter. |
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Giovanni Bellini
PORTRAIT
|
1430
-1516
(86) |
Venice
Artist |
Led the charge as
Venetian artists learned to paint light and soft colours and feeling,
and, in Giovanni's case, a new generation of sublime Madonnas (for
example
I Frari and
San Zaccaria in Venice). |
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Marsilio Ficino
BIOGRAPHY
PORTRAIT
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1433
-1499
(66) |
Florence (Figline)
Platonic Philosopher |
Devoted his life to
the translation and study of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher
Plato, and the integration of Plato's philosophy into Christian
theology. Suppported by the Medici who trucked in Greek texts for
him like there was no tomorrow, Ficino established the Platonic Academy
in 1462 in the Medici Villa at Careggi. He produced the first
translation of the works of Plato, Plotinus and many others into any
European language. |
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Andrea del Verrocchio
|
1435
-1485
(50) |
Florence
Sculptor |
Originally trained
as a goldsmith, Verrocchio expanded into sculpture and painting and must
have been a most effective workshop entrepeneur and teacher - his students included Leonardo, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino. Apart from teaching, he
spent most of his life working on commissions for the Medicis (see
particularly his David in the Bargello). He designed the
globe over the lantern of Brunelleschi's Dome,
and his last great work was
the magnificent equestrian statue of
Condottieri Bartolomeo Colleoni
in Venice.
At one stage during
the latter he was
sacked, but then got reinstated at twice the fee (story).
Sadly however, he died before the statue was cast and the job was completed
by Alessandro Leopardi. |
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Palazzo Ducale, Urbino
PHOTOS
OF THE PALAZZO AND DUOMO |
1444
-1472 |
Urbino,
Palace
|
Built 1444-72 for the Duke Federico da Montefeltro. "It could be argued" said Kenneth Clark in the 1970s book and BBC TV series "Civilization" (both still available) "that life in Urbino was one of the high water marks of western civilization. (As for the Palace), the arcaded courtyard is calm and timeless …the rooms are so perfectly proportioned that it exhilarates one to walk through them: in fact it’s the only palace in the world that I can go round without feeling oppressed and exhausted". Another commentator says that "above all it was judgement, not just a lucky use of available talent, that made the proportions, the spaces and the decorations of his palace the purest and most harmonious expressions of Quattrocento aesthetic ideals" (J.R.Hale, U.C. London).
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Sandro
Botticelli
SELF PORTRAIT |
1444
-1510
(66) |
Firenze
Artist |
Outstanding painter of the mid Renaissance. Pupil of Lippi, patronized by Il Magnifico (Lorenzo de' Medici), buried in Ognissanti, parish church of the Vespucci family amongst others. |
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Luca Pacioli |
1445
1517
(72) |
Venice, Milan, Pisa
Mathe |
