In The Period 1400-1650? Essay, Research Paper
At the beginning of this era, a synthesis of local styles known as the ?International Style? predominated Europe?s art and the
Gothic style was dominant in architecture. This era also began in the shadow of the person sometimes seen as the precedent of the great Italian Renaissance masters.? His frescoes, notably those in the Cappella dell? Arena in Padua used the concepts of Byzantine art that
governed ideas of foreshortening, shadow and texture to create the illusion of depth.? Giotto?s mastery had recreated
the concept of depth on a flat surface, and the slow progress to what we
recognise as Renaissance art occurred throughout the fourteenth century. One of
the finest pieces of International Style art is the Wilton Diptych, which dates
from 1400 and portrays the commending of Richard II by St. Edmund, St. Edward
the Confessor and St John the Baptist to the Christ Child. A love of detail is
evident from the painstaking way in which fingers, flowers and even the
Infant?s feet are marked out in loving detail. The artist took a fractal
approach to the painting, trying to add realism to his scene by adding layer
upon layer of detail to the figures.?
The foreshortening of limbs and bodies in the painting is testament to
Giotto?s influence and the figures themselves have a reasonable deal of realism
to them, even if the painting overall does not.? The flowers across the picture are typical of the pre-Renaissance
fascination with the delicate and beautiful, and the diptych shows a great
power of observation, but the early date of the painting is clear when we look
at the background, and the way that space is portrayed within the picture. ?The gilded
background was a show of wealth in a space that usually lay redundant in
paintings of this era, as at the time, a high calibre means of representing
space had not yet been discovered. The gilded background would have been
massively expensive, as would the ultramarine pigments used so freely, notably
upon the dress of the figure of the Virgin Mary. The Renaissance era is usually seen as starting at
the point when artists ceased to be interested in telling a story so much as in
portraying nature and collecting studies of the world. These achieved, they
moved on to exploring the laws of vision and the way in which the viewer
perceives the world.? They began to
study the human body with a view to enhancing their ability to portray it both
in stone and in paint, as their classical forebears had done.? The ?Greek artists of the fifth century were
mainly concerned in how to build up the image of the beautiful body? whilst to
the Gothic artists, all their skill and tricks were merely ?means to an end,
which was to tell a sacred story more movingly and more convincingly[1]?.? The rise of Petrarch, who had become a
?classic? author even by this early stage, and the pre-eminence of humanism had
led to a resurgence of respect for the classical world that we see reflected
across the Renaissance world.? Renewed
awareness of Italy?s great past led to renewed interest in some kind of revival
of the ancient arts.? The millennium
that lay between the fall of Rome and their time was to them merely a sad
interlude in Italy?s greatness.? Giotto?s art and the art it spawned for a century
afterwards had its roots in the artist?s genius in blending the concepts of the
rigid Byzantine school into a combination with the precepts of the Italianate
school, but further progress would require another genius. His reputation
established with Florence Cathedral, Brunelleschi went on to spearhead a
revival of Roman forms in architecture.?
He did not intend to copy Roman architecture, nor rebuild Italy in the
ancient model, but to use Roman ideals to create new modes of harmony and
beauty, using columns, pediments and pilasters.? Although rightly remembered as a great architect,
Brunelleschi?s mathematical methods used for his engineering were transferred
by his artist friends to painting and thus created what we today call
?perspective?.? Vitally, this
mathematical model for the appearance of reality was far beyond the
achievements of the ancient Greek artists.?
Pioneered in Masaccio?s celebrated ?The Holy Trinity, the Virgin, St.
John and Donors,? the painting?s background, instead of being a static
scene, a gilded backdrop or an ultramarine wash, shows a realistic transept
chapel in Brunelleschi?s new style using perspective.? The Florentine reaction to this painting, which appeared to have
created a hole in the wall into a new burial chamber, was shocking due to its
heavy, solemn figures and the lack of daintiness to which they had become
accustomed.? The innovation of
perspective so dramatically introduced by Masaccio, a genius who was dead by
the age of 28, was the most dramatic break with the past conceivable.? Introducing the ability to represent space
into paintings is as big a break with the past as is imaginable. It took some
rime for the Italianate trend to spread, where the Gothic architectural style
continued to flourish.? In northern Europe,
the fifteenth century opened clearly favouring the High Gothic decorative
style, a taste clearly visible at the Palace of Justice at Rouen and Exeter
Cathedral.? Just as the Italians began
to revolt against the Gothic style, the century saw a reaction against
complicated and heavy architecture.?
King?s College Chapel, Cambridge (1446), is an excellent example of the
reactionary ?Perpendicular? gothic style. The Burgundian court at Dijon was also producing
work in reaction to the old Gothic trend.?
Not as radical as Masaccio, Jan van Eyck?s style in the 1430s was of the
lineage of his local forebears, but when introduced to perspective, van Eyck
broke new boundaries.? His celebrated
portrait of ?The Betrothal of the Arnolfini? with its mirror reflecting
not only Arnolfini and his bride but also van Eyck himself, shows the painter
as witness and person.? In essence, van
Eyck acknowledges that he is painting what he saw, to the extent of even
leaving in his own impression.? The
subject, a betrothal, is also great naturalism. Despite the efforts of the van Eyck brothers, the
medieval spirit reigned throughout Northern Europe at this time.? Perspective, realism and classical influence
did not trouble the northern masters.?
The preoccupation with the skill of the artist as an expense incurred by
the patron, so evident from the sums paid to Italian masters, is not clear from
the works in the north where ultramarine and gold were still the greatest
expenses troubling northern patrons and impressed contemporaries.? Although Lochner uses perspective timidly in
the Fra Angelico style, contemporary northern work at this time tended to
compare more easily with such work as the Wilton Diptych. Depite the guilds? inadvertent prevention of
dissemination of ideas, it did occur, as on Fouquet?s trip to Italy, where he
painted the Pope and picked up Italian Renaissance ideas.? Whilst still painting on the same theme as
the Wilton Diptych, Fouquet?s image looks less like a collage but more like a
real representation of the event.? Light
and shade, perspective and distance ? all new elements to the north, and all
imported there from Italy.? Yet the
synthesis was not all Italian.? Whilst
Piero was a great Master and had a great interest in light and shade, the van
Eycks? influence is clear from the attention to detail of the textures ?
probably a by-product of the gothic fascination with delicate detail. A contemporary of Masaccio, Donatello was another
leader of the Renaissance.? His
celebrated statue of St. George differs concertedly from the Gothic art that it
was displayed alongside.?? Instead of
heightening the building by accentuation of the height of the alcoves and using
dainty lacework, Donatello aims to restore the art of sculpture to a
representative art form based on the Greek ideals.? Instead of telling the story of St. George by reference to dragon
motifs under his feet, or other such devices that might have occurred earlier,
Donatello?s statue is concerned with portraying the saint as a man gazing at
his enemy and ready for battle.? As
opposed to the serene and vague expressions of the gothic statues of the
decorative style, Donatello?s George is determined, unyielding and brimming
with vim, vigour and vitality.? Just as
Brunelleschi set the tone for architecture for centuries to come, Donatello and
Masaccio set the tone for the coming centuries with their use of a new and
vigorous observation of nature.?
Burckhardt claimed that this period?s natural interest was indicative of
man?s new autonomy and command of the natural world, but this seems a little
oversimplified and is probably just a reflection of 19th century
liberal romanticism and pastoralism. This observation of the world was encouraged by
collectors such as Aldorandi who saw himself as clarifying and classifying the
universe by collecting.? Imperato of
Naples won status by showing off his collection, and saw himself as a Noah
figure, rescuing the forms of nature.?
Patrons were also happy to push for natural observation as a skill.? Maximillian II made a great show a Byzantine
medical text and his menageries, whilst gathering a court of scholars,
philosophers and artists.? Rudolph II?s
Prague garden is also worthy of note, as is his extensive patronage.? Appearing to be sage and wise by being
?scientific? through support of the arts was a big incentive for the patrons of
the day, quite aside from the usual reasons for patronage, such as Richard II?s
obvious motives for the Wilton Diptych.?
Just as the form of Masaccio?s painting is brutally
real, Donatello?s figure of St. George is real, although is a lighter, fresher
way.? By contrast, Donatello shows the
capability to produce the viciously realistic with his relief of ?Herod?s
Feast? at Siena Cathedral.? Whilst
the Middle Ages produced dainty and delicate artwork that showed order and
sterilised such gruesome passages, Donatello?s realism is almost sadistic by
comparison.? Showing the executioner
kneeling before a horrified Herod, his evil wife is shown rationalising the horror
of what was going on, whilst Salome is shown shocked and pausing in her dance.
Meanwhile, the other diners recoil in horror at the sight of St. John the
Baptist?s head. This idea of reflecting the real world was an
innovation localised to a small group of painters in certain areas, and this in
itself was a major development.?
Although minor local variations on themes existed, Europe existed at
this time as an integral continent.?
Art, architecture, learning and politics were universals, common to the
continent.? The emergence of burghers
and merchants willing to protect their local interests changed this before our
period opens, and guilds began to regulate cities and towns for the benefits of
their members, thus excluding ?foreign? employees from taking work from guild
members.? This encouraged the ending of
the ?International Style? and the formation of regional ?schools?.? The guilds forced young boys whose parents
saw art as their calling to train imitating the art of the local masters, so
that the young artist would eventually be able to paint on the master?s
behalf.? This formed and
institutionalised very distinct and separate regional styles.? Brunelleschi?s successors followed in his
footsteps, with Alberti developing the Brunelleschian style.? Ghiberti?s bronze of the Baptism in the Jordan
is similarly a study on Donatello?s style.?
Using Donatello?s ?Dance of Salome? as a guide on the piece?s character
and aesthetics and a twelfth century brass at Liege for content, tone and the
required depth. The printing of pictures preceded the printing of
books by some decades and the most important innovation of the era was to
impact on art also.? The advent of the
woodcut as a cheap means of printing meant that cheap pamphlets were easily
producible.? However, copper prints were
more important for art.? Copper prints
could show variegation of shading by different depths of cut and the plates
lasted much longer.? Skilful use of the
burin allowed the etcher to etch in the style of Botticelli and Mategna ? two
popularly copied artists in Italy ? and thus allowed ideas to spread far and
wide about new artistic trends. The sixteenth
century brought Italy its most celebrated artistic period as the position of
the artist had begun to change.? As
cities competed for artists to beautify their buildings, so the power of the
artists grew.? During the Quatrocento
Renaissance, it is important to remember that artists were not the isolated
visionaries as romanticised about today, but were businessmen in possession of
demanding clients.? Painters did not
paint a picture in the hope of acquiring a buyer, except in extremely lean
periods, when less demanded painters might produce a run of icons of the
Madonna or of some similarly saleable subject.?
In the fifteenth century, pictures were made to order by the client and
no painting was the artist?s genius acting in isolation: on the contrary,
?painting was still too important to be left to the painters.[2]? Art became to
be viewed not as a craft, but as a skilled profession.? Physicians, such as Vesalius, began to
dissect bodies themselves in this period, instead of observing
dissections.? This was a fusion of
liberal artist into craftsman, and indicative of an ongoing general trend that
took the craft of painting into the bounds, despite Aristotle?s snobbery into
the realms of liberal art. The resulting liberation of the artist and the
unleashing of creativity upon the world was vital for the obvious freedom of
the period?s art and served to increase the culthood that Masters had attracted
since Giotto, the first Master. ?Indeed,
Giotto?s reputation was potent two hundred years on, and Masaccio still easily
impressed the world. ??????????? For all the praise of
Burckhardt, Da Vinci makes surprisingly few innovations.? His magnificent ?Last Supper? is
important in that it is the culmination of the solution to the new problem of
three-dimensional composition.? Whilst
Pollaiuolo?s ?Martyrdom of St Sebastian? is obviously forced and
unnatural in its setting, Leonardo?s piece is natural yet compelling, chaotic
in theme yet neat in order. ?He uses
optical illusions in the ?Mona Lisa? to compel the viewer so that sfomato
hides the true expression of the model, and so that the mismatching
background means that the angle of observation of the picture alters one?s
perception of it. These were more gimmicks than developments, but worth noting
for they show the degree of sophistication of art as a science.? Viewing art as a science, Michelangelo?s
great contribution to art was his mastery of anatomy.? In the same way that Turner would become known for his clouds,
Michelangelo became known as a Master to rival his contemporary, Leonardo, by
the age of thirty for his ability to depict the human form. ??????????? Younger still, Raphael
was in Florence at a similar time, but made a vital innovation.? Whereas the Quattrocento artists,
Michelangelo and Leonardo were obsessed with the depiction of nature through
their art, Raphael was happier to use an imaginary ideal for his models.? Galatea is recognised for her beauty, as she
symbolises the classical world as it should have been, and was recognised as a
representation of pure beauty, but famously, she had no model. ??????????? Florence, it must be
remembered, was not the sole cradle of art in Europe ? it was not even the sole
cradle of reform in Italy.? The great
reformers of Florence were less taken by colour than form, whereas in the hazy,
ambient lagoon light of Venice, colour was more important and developments
occurred paralleling the achievements of Florence. Venice?s preoccupation with
colour is a result of the heritage of the Venetian school?s direct descendance
from the medieval tradition, where ?real? colour was almost irrelevant ? the
gold and ultramarine miniatures of the era never claimed any air of
realism.? Giorgione?s ?The Tempest? is
an excellent example of the local school?s importance, as he forgets classical
lessons about the importance of composition, the importance of careful
representation and merely uses the colours of the painting to bind it
together.? Titian, who rose to the same
heights in his own time as Michelangelo (possibly because of his exceptional
longevity) masterminded the deliberate drawing of attention from location to
location by using light and darkness and using straight converging lines. ??????????? The
Italian learning spread across the continent, fusing with native Gothic styles
as a result of the plundering and the occupations of the Italian Wars, but
Italy continued to drive forwards.? In
the 1520s, the plethora of talent led many to claim that perfection had been
attained, and so, Mannerism developed.?
The inability to outdo their forebears in skill led many to try to outdo
them in their invention and originality of form.? Michelangelo?s own disregard for norms, especially in
architecture, had briefed the European public for such an occurrence and taught
the European public to admire an artist?s originality.? The result was the growth of the appeal of
virtuosos such as Cellini and this led to bizarre and extravagant
semi-reactionary works.? Contravening
the most basic of the classical texts on paintings, the Mannerists tried to
drive themselves from what they saw as a rut. ??????????? The
Mannerist Jacob Robusti (Tintoretto) felt that the beauty of Titian?s work was
not compelling enough for story telling.?
Using fragmented light instead of Titianesque swathes of colour and
using imbalanced arrangements of figures, Tintoretto portrayed the legend of
St. George and the discovery of St. Mark?s remains with great power and
excitement.? A further extension of this
school was El Greco?s work.? Raised in
Crete, El Greco was used to the Byzantine style that was devoid of natural
appearance or realism.? Encouraged by
Tintoretto?s work, El Greco?s art disregarded natural form and colours
producing stirring visions, notably in his ?Opening of the Fifth Seal?, a
very shocking piece.? His
residence in Spain where there was a religious fervour suited to his style is a
happy coincidence for the art world.. ??????????? The
idolatry of Spain that sustained El Greco and kept his reputation and finances
afloat was lacking at this time in much of northern Europe.? Protestantism prevented the production of
religious images.? Portrait painting and
illustration alone sustained the northern painters.? Hals? use of ?undignified? poses, unlike Holbein?s contrived
dignity, was designed to convey a characteristic mood, but like Holbein, it
followed strict rules of balance. ??????????? The area
of most interest to art historians in the Netherlands is the fate of the old
altarpiece painters, many of whom began to paint landscapes. By becoming genre
painters, the Dutch artists were able to continue to thrive.? This era saw the birth of the landscape – a
result of a financial necessity to find new subject matter.? The landscape was a pure show of artistic
talent; something that could not have happened prior to the cult of the artist. ??????????? The
seventeenth century saw the greatest advances since Michelangelo?s death.? The Roman Baroque style, with its
abandonment of some of the simplicity of classical architecture whilst
retaining its motifs, rose at this time.?
A reaction to the polarisation of wealth, extravagance unseen since the
Gothic era was possible.? The
triumphalism of the Counter-Reformation, the renewed power of the Papacy and
the rise of absolutism as a doctrine all led firstly the church, and then
royalty, to turn to the Baroque as a show of might.? Breaking new rules by sheer expense and extravagance, this was a
Roman extension of Mannerist independent thinking.? Bernini?s David is not Michelangelo?s David. Carracci, under Rafaelite
influences, moved to an era of classically influenced anatomy, sentimentality,
simple and harmonious painting.?
Meanwhile, Caravaggio moved to unravel the truth at the cost of
beauty.? To him, beauty was not of any
importance, and the world as it existed was all that mattered.? His irreverent ?Doubting Thomas? was
criticised for its depiction of the apostles as common labourers.? The contrast between Carravaggio?s
Aristotlean brutal realism (disparagingly called ?naturalism?) and Carracci?s
Platonic world of ideals we see reflected elsewhere. Rubens? idyllic landscapes
contrast with Velazquez?s early works.??????????? The
Renaissance changes were multifaceted.?
The artist was brought onto a skewed plain in relation to his art, and
this era?s love of ?Masters? gives us our modern preoccupation with the works
of famous artists.? The printing press
allowed dissemination of copies of Botticellis or other popular works, so
popularising art and allowing widespread art appreciation.? Despite this, the era saw the ?schools? come
to the fore, as each supported its champion against one another.? Stylistically, perspective was the single
most important innovation, as Giotto?s understanding of foreshortening had
already allowed some realism to exist in art, paradoxiscally as a result of his
study of the unnatural Byzantine school.?
The movement for the real world as art grew until Raphael?s ability to
conjure natural beauty showed an alternative.?
The movement from the realism of Michelangelo to the blurred impressions
of Velazquez and Rembrandt indicate a middle ground.? Finally surpassing the Ancients, the Renaissance was truly a
rebirth for Italian art, as masters like Donatello, irritated by the staleness
of the vogues of their fields, spearheaded reform, and genii such as Masaccio,
Michelangelo and Leonardo applied the lessons of science to art. [1] P. 144, ?The
Story of Art? ? E.H. Gombrich [2] P. 3 ?
Michael Baxendall ? Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy
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