The Italian Renaissance

The 1400s is often designated as the time when Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and entered the Renaissance.  The term Renaissance is a word that was not used until centuries later to describe the "rebirth" of culture in Europe.  Many scholars hate the way in which history is divided into arbitrary periods.  It is not as if the 1300s were a cultural wasteland and then... BOOM!... in the 1400s culture was reborn.  If you recall my posts from last year on the medieval collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, there were exquisite works of art created during that period.  However by the 1400s, especially in Italy, there was an increased interest in the philosophy, literature, art and architecture of the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome.  There was a renewed interest in humanism, the belief in the worth of the individual human being.  In art there was increased realism with a sense of three dimensions and perspective that usually was lacking of the flat medieval paintings.  Taking their cue from the ancient Greeks and Romans, sculptors glorified the human body, even the (gasp!) naked body.

The Renaissance began in Italy, particularly in Florence.  That wealthy and powerful city was ruled by the Medici family who were patrons of the arts.  Even in the 1300s, before the era of the Medici, Florence was the home of the painter Giotto and the poet Dante, precursors of the Renaissance.

So, we shall resume our tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art with the galleries devoted to Italian art of the 1400s and 1500s.

Just as in the Middle Ages much of the art was of a religious nature.  As we enter the gallery we are greeted by this large and ornate processional cross.  It dates from around 1440 and is made of silver over wood.

The monk Fra Filippo Lippi was one of the outstanding painters of Florence.  Here we see two panels from a tryptich (the third, central panel is now lost) which were commissioned by the Medici family as a gift for King Alfonso V of Aragón.  The first panel portrays St. Anthony the Abbott and the second the Archangel Michael.  They were painted in 1458.

Fra Filippo Lippi's illegitimate son, Filippino Lippi, was also a noted painter.  He did this "rondo" (round painting) of "The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist and St. Margaret in 1495.  It was commissioned by the Cardinal of Naples. 

Filippino was a pupil of an even more famous painter... Botticelli.  This "rondo", called "Virgin and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist", was painted around 1490 and comes from the workshop of Botticelli.  The faces and the diaphanous veil of the Virgin were most certainly painted by the master, but other parts, such as the blue robe, may have been painted by other painters of his studio.

  

This work of polychromed marble dates from around 1480 and probably framed the tabernacle where the bread of the Eucharist was kept at the altar of a church.  

Another monk who gained fame as a painter was Fra Angelico.  This painting of "The Coronation of the Virgin" dates from around 1420 and is one of his early works.

"The Adoration of the Magi" was painted in 1442 by Giovanni di Paolo of Siena, Italy.  He portrayed the magi in the contemporary attire of the Italian aristocracy.  Is there a bit of irreverent humor here?  Can you see the boy who appears to be standing on his head and looking up the tunic of one of the magi?

This statuette of St. John the Baptist was done by an unknown artist in Florence around 1500.

Not all Renaissance art was religious in nature.  Artists looked to the history and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration.  And wealthy patrons wanted their portraits painted.

In 1470 the Florentine painter Jacobo del Sellaio, a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, did this painting of the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus entering Rome.

This ornate box dating from around 1470 shows military scenes from antiquity.

This bronze plaque from the 1570s is entitled "Feast of the Gods".

 

Girolamo della Robbia, a Florentine potter created this bust of a classical hero or emperor of glazed terracotta around 1555.  Such busts were used to decorate the facades or courtyards of nobles' homes.

Agnolo Bronzini was the court painter for Cosimo Medici.  The identity of the woman in this portrait from around 1550 is unknown, but she was probably a member of the Medici court.

Lorenzo Lotto did this portrait of an unknown man around 1533.  Some scholars believe that the roses on the table might be a clue that the man was Girolamo Rosati, a high official in the Italian city of Fermo.

Paolo Veronese was one of the most important painters in Venice.  He did this posthumous portrait of Admiral Agostino Barbarigo after the naval leader's death in 1533 in the Battle of Lepanto against the Ottoman Turks.

My next entry from the Cleveland Museum of Art will look at the spread of the Renaissance to other other parts of Europe.