Sculpture Synopsis 7: Early Renaissance

Innovations by Donatello

For more on the why and how of the Sculpture Synopsis, see the first post in this series. The series is also available as a playlist on my YouTube Channel.

Characteristic examples

Before the Renaissance, but relevant to it:

1269-1294 Brunetto Latini (d. 1294), who holds high political offices in Florence, turns to Cicero and Aristotle for advice: the beginning of humanist movement. See Dominant Ideas. With this interest in Greek and Roman literature came a “proto-Renaissance” in literature and painting. IT’s abruptly halted by …
1347-1351 Black Death arrives in Europe via trade routes from Asia. There is no cure. The plague recurs five times by 1400. By some estimates, a third of the population of Europe dies. Everything comes to a grinding halt.

The Early Renaissance in the visual arts begins in the 1410s and lasts to about 1500.

The Renaissance begins in Florence, which gained political independence during the late Middle Ages and has become a commercial center. That increase in wealth helps set the stage: subsistence farmers don’t have the time or energy to quibble about politics, much less to create great works of art.
By mid-15th c., Florentine ideas and art spread to the rest of Northern Italy. By 1600, they spread through much of Northern Europe.

Humanism. In the late 13th c., Brunetto Latini (d. 1294) of Florence begins to look for political guidance not to ecclesiastical and feudal authorities, but to Cicero and Aristotle. Around Latini develops a circle of scholars who become known as “humanists”. Humanists look to Greek and Roman works not for historical data or for the sake of nostalgia, but as vivid inspiration for making this world a better place. They believe individuals should have intellectual curiosity about their world, and that human actions within that world (including the pursuit of fame and wealth) can be admirable. Notable writers of this early period are Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio. They call their period a rebirth (Renaissance) after the darkness of the Middle Ages.
Classical learning vs. the Church: humanists believe the two are compatible and complementary, not antagonistic. They’re not choosing paganism over Christianity; they believe the knowledge of the ancients can be reconciled with Christianity.
In art: man and this world are worthy of attention and accurate representation.

Marble
Wood
Bronze, cast with the lost-wax process, which had been unknown during the Middle Ages
Terracotta

Biblical and religious subjects (the Church is still a major patron of art), but much more varied in representation.
Portraits, including busts, full-length figures, and equestrian portraits.

Linear perspective via mathematical formula is invented for painting, probably by the architect Brunelleschi. Its earliest surviving use in sculpture is Donatello’s relief of Herod’s feast for the Baptistery in Siena.
Rethinking every subject. Even though his subjects are still religious, Donatello consistently looks for new messages and new ways to convey them. His Pazzi Madonna is enormously influential – it breaks the mold of medieval Madonnas. More on Donatello’s rethinking of the Madonna, St. John the Evangelist, St. George, and Herod’s Feast in Innovators in Sculpture, Chapter 8.

Donatello (d. 1466) is the greatest European sculptor of the 15th c., known for his inventive subjects and compositions, and for the emotional intensity of his works. He is the first sculptor since the Fall of Rome to cast full-scale figures in bronze. His bronze David (see above, under Subjects) is the first free-standing nude male sculpture since Greek and Roman times. Donatello is the first artist since ancient times to create art for the sake of art, not for purely didactic purposes.
Luca della Robbia (d. 1482) and the della Robbia family are known for creating charming angels and children, especially half-length Madonna and Child reliefs in blue and white terracotta.
Andrea del Verrocchio (d. 1488) is known for his work in bronze, gold, silver, and paint. Leonardo apprenticed in his studio.

Churches of northern Italy. Marvelous works were made for and remain on display in the churches of Florence, Siena, Padua, Venice, etc. For example: Santa Maria Novella in Florence has works by Duccio, Ghiberti, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Filippino Lippi, Rossellino, Uccello, Maiano, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Bronzino, and Vasari.
Museums of Florence, especially Uffizi, Bargello, Palazzo Pitti, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (works from the Cathedral), and the Accademia.