This is the first of two videos about Florence in the early Renaissance.
So, just getting started, let's think about some of the historical occurrences
that were happening at this time that may have served as an impetus to the
development
of the Renaissance and Renaissance art styles. So, first off,
after the plague in Florence, you have The Ciompi Revolt. The Ciompi were
wool carders, which was the lowest level
guild in Florence at that time, so we have this short-lived revolt
around 1378, and this may have been something that's allowing people to rise
up against
some of the larger power structures. Another event that may have
given the Florentines increased confidence: the Duke of Milan,
whose name was Giangaleazzo Visconti, began to take over large
portions of the Italian peninsula including Siena which was this
very close city to Florence, and so he surrounds Florence with
his troops,
and -- very lucky for the Florentines -- the plague strikes the troops and also kills
the Duke
of Milan, so the Florentines are feeling pretty lucky at this point
and, in fact, feel like
they had you really succeeded in overcoming this larger power,
and start to identify with the character of David in particular.
So, David, of course, in terms of the story David and Goliath -- Florence
identifying with this small but mighty hero.
Thinking of themselves as a small, but very mighty city.
In a similar story, we also have the King of Naples, who
wanted to control Florence, but he died in 1414.
So, yet again, the Florentines escape from one of these possible takeovers,
and, again, are feeling pretty pretty good. So,
right at the start of the 15th century, we have some artistic competitions that
began to take place,
and the most famous is the competition for the bronze Baptistry
doors, so zooming int here on what is known as the
"winning" entry -- although that's a topic of some debate, which we will get into --
and this is the contribution of Lorenzo Ghiberti.
So Ghiberti claims that he was the winner -- the universal winner
no questions asked -- however there was another competitor name Filippo
Brunelleschi, who was also a very active artist
and architect in Florence, who claimed that really they both
were given commission, but Ghiberti
takes over, and Brunelleschi really won't work with him. Ultimately, Ghiberti,
as I said, does
does receive the commission and so this
it usually seen as the winning submission. but all of
the competitors had to create this one story, which is
The Sacrifice of Isaac -- so we see Abraham here
threatening or very close to killing (or sacrificing) his only son.
Isaac here is represented in heroic nudity, which indicates that
nudity is now changing, as we enter into the Renaissance period -- or the
interpretation
nudity. And here we see nudity as being heroic and
beautiful, whereas in the medieval period, of course, nudity had been associated with
sin. We also have some nice drama here, so the angel that coming in to stop
Abraham hasn't quite arrived yet, so the viewer has a nice sense of
tension -- wondering "is it going happen in time?"
Of course, according to the story, it will and Isaac will be replaced with a ram,
which Ghiberti has nicely tucked up here.
This is a very cohesive representation -- on Brunelleschi's it's a
little bit more scattered. It also has some
ancient or classical influences.
But, Ghiberti's is usually seen as a bit more unified.
So, Brunelleschi -- don't worry too much about him -- he got some
commissions later on. After he
was not awarded the Baptistry doors,
he and Donatello go off to Rome. They
are measuring things [like antiquities]. Brunelleschi gets really interested in perspective
experiments, which we'll talk about in just a little bit.
But eventually he designs the dome for the Florentine cathedral, or the
.
And this cathedral had been without a dome for a long time,
and so it was important that for the pride of the city
that this dome be constructed, and his solution for this dome
is to create a double dome, and he even does a practice run
on a smaller church ahead of time. But you have
this octagonal opening -- it's not a traditional circular opening --
you have this octagonal opening, and he had to deal with this. He had to deal with this
form.
So, he creates at group of large ribs,
so eight large marble ribs, which you can see
along here -- these white parts sticking out -- but then there's also
a skeletal form inside, which you can see in this cutaway view.
You can also see the hole [or space] right in the middle here,
and you can actually walk up this. If you go up to the top of the dome, you could actually walk
along this
area here. It's quite small. There's some ingenious brick-laying techniques that
are in a herringbone pattern
that some people think would have also helped with the weight being displaced.
You also a pretty heavy lantern up at the top
because the dome has this effect of wanting to peel upwards.
The lantern provide some nice heaviness right on the top or some nice weight
to complete the dome and provide a form of closure right at the top.
So, this dome solution is quite ingenious
based on the fact that you have this relatively strange octagonal form that he
had to deal with.
Having the double shell lightens the load. Also the outer domes protects the
inner dome
from rainwater. There is also the idea having holes cut cutting through
both domes but eventually the interior dome is completely
covered up and is now frescoed, so when you go inside the cathedral
today you see an elaborate set of frescoes.
But the main problem was this was such a vast space
people really hadn't had experience in dealing with domes at this time,
and so Brunelleschi is providing some solutions
based on his experimentation, based on the fact they really couldn't use
centering
in this dome, and this is what they came up with -- and it still stands today!
Brunelleschi also used some of his classical inspiration that probably he
received or that he
saw when he was in Rome in his Ospedale degli Innocenti,
which was an orphanage. You can
see some of the ideas associated with Renaissance architecture. The clarity
that we see here.
The perfect forms -- like perfect circles -- that we often see
in Renaissance architecture. Clearly the function of this building
is shown through this small children represented in the roundels.
And also we can see columns incorporated,
but you can be there are arches here -- this is really
have a combination of medieval archways onto columns.
You really would never seen anything like this in the ancient Roman world, so
it's not an exact quotation
of an ancient Roman monument, but it's using classical inspiration -- combined with
some medieval church heritage and blending together to create this
structure.
But it's very clean, very crisp, very symmetrical, and that's what we often see
in early Renaissance.
You also have some pilasters here, which are these flattened columns,
and then these triangles up above look very similar to temple pediments.
Brunelleschi also did a number experiments with perspective.
These will be codified later on by Leon Battista Alberti -- and we'll talk
about that more in the future --
but here I am just showing you recreation of some of his experiments
in front of the Florentine Baptistry, which is over here, and also in front of what's
now known as the Palazzo Vecchio,
or the City Hall of Florence. So just showing you how he was trying to work out
how space should be represented on a two-dimensional plane.
We also see the introduction of the Medici family around this time --
really gaining power in the 15th century, and they're very important art
patrons and commissioners around this time. This palace is now called the
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi because another
family took control of it, purchased it, and they actually expanded it
adding from here
to the end, so it became quite a bit bigger later on as well.
We have things like things like string courses that divide up the
different floors,
a cornice that acts as a crowning device at the top, and also rusticated masonry
kind of looking like very rustic type walls down below.
And in fact this different type of architecture or different type of
masonry really defines the different spaces of the Medici Palace.
So, you have the rusticated masonry down where they would do their business on
first floor. These are more of their public rooms, where they would host
gatherings and entertainment.
And you can see there's more refined masonry, and then these
would probably be more private spaces, and then these little tiny windows up above
were really more like servants quarters and storage, and then you have that
crowning cornice on the top. So things like the cornices, string courses,
and rusticated masonry define this space.
It's not we would imagine as a typical palace, and that's because the Medici
are part of
a republican form of government or participatory form the government,
so they didn't want their palace to be too over the top -- they didn't want to cause
a lot of envy among the people. It's a very, very large structure,
but it's the completely over-the-top type of palaces that we see
in other European countries associated with kings and queens.
Just introducing two Medici figures here: we have Cosimo de'Medici,
who was a very important early patron in the Medici family.
He did commission art. He commissioned the palace, which we just
saw.
He was also a very good businessman. And then we also have Lorenzo de'Medici --
often known as "The Magnificent" or "Il Magnifico" and he will come into power
later on.
He's a very good art patron as well. A little less effective as a businessman.
And here I'm just showing you some of the Medici symbols: so the diamond ring was one of
them
with the motto "semper" [always] and then also
their coat of arms is often represented with balls on it.
You can see that as well.
Inside the palace you can see the coat of arms repeated and then also you
have an interior space where sculpture could be displayed, and we'll talk about
this more
when we get to Donatello's David in the next lecture because that's where
The David was displayed, so keep this in mind.
Speaking of Donatello, this is right around the time Donatello is going to
become
a very, very important sculptor. He begins employing some of the techniques of
perspective in his sculptures.
So, first off, Donatello was from Florence, but he worked on a commission
in Siena. He also worked on other commissions in Padua.
But here we see one of the relief sculptures that he contributed
to the baptistry at the Siena cathedral --
so Siena being a close or a nearby city -- and we see here a combination of exciting drama
and also the illusion of space.
So the story is the "Feast of Herod," which is associated with the
decapitation or killing of John the Baptist. So you see the head of John the
Baptist been brought up here
and then presented to Herod, and, of course, Herod had
declared that he would kill John the Baptist at the request of Salome
and Salome had danced for Herod, so we see Salome over here
still dancing away, and we see the horror on people's faces and reaction to
the arrival of this head, so as the head is presented to Herod,
Salome is still dancing away over here, but you see a figure covering up
their face. You see someone glazing, interested. You see Herod
with his hands like this in surprise.
You see children looking little like
little angels or putti turning away.
So, there's a lot of drama here but there's also some clever plays
space. So he's devised a grid system down on the bottom here where the
squares are receding
up following the orthogonals that are going towards a vanishing
point. And you also have archways that are slowly receding into smaller spaces.
So, it's a very clever up recreation or creation of space.
You can also see these give you a sense of space, as well.
And finally we had a monument that really demonstrates civic engagement,
civic pride and that's Orsanmichele,
which was the granary, or the place where they would store their grain in
Florence.
In 1339, each guild was assigned a niche,
but the guilds really weren't putting these sculptures in -- they were supposed to
commission a sculpture to
fill up their niche so that it would you know beautiful, improve the
urban fabric of the city, but by 1400 only three sculptures had been
commissioned, and so
the city really starts putting the pressure on these guids and eventually
by 1429, all the statues have been completed,
and Donatello completes one of the most impressive:
St. Mark -- and St. Mark was commissioned for the Linen Workers' Guild.
You can even by the texture and the draping at the fabric,
you are seeing the linen quality there. But we can clearly see that Donatello
has been
spending time in a Rome. The monastic robe that St. Mark appears to wear
has a heavy drapery that's reminiscent a Roman toga
or other text classical sculptures. We see a nice "contrapposto" stance,
which is that dramatic shifting of
weight, really putting your weight onto one leg
and then the body reacting on. And also, you can see the Donatello's made certain
compensations for the fact that he knows this is an elevated sculpture. So, if we go
back briefly, you can see these are elevated sculptures
that would be slightly above eye level so the hands are slightly larger,
the torso and head with the beard maybe a little longer than they normally would
be,
and the legs perhaps a little shorter. And we can clearly see that the niches were
commission more in a medieval time,
and by the time Donatello completes his sculpture for the Linen
Workers Guild,
we are now firmly in the Renaissance!