Artistic
GIANTS OF THE
ITALIAN RENAISSANCE A Special Course of Lectures
Course Description: What exactly was the Italian Renaissance, when was it, and why does it matter? Who were its greatest artists, and what did they achieve? These are the questions addressed by this special series of online illustrated presentations. Each week we will spend two hours exploring the genius of Italian Renaissance artists in the company of art historian and long-time resident of Italy Dr. Kevin Murphy. His live discussions are blended with filmed micro-visits to galleries and churches in Italy, giving you that hands-on interactive feeling he brings to our students during classes at the Tuscany Campus in Italy. Starting with the developments of artistic pioneers such as Masaccio, Donatello, and Brunelleschi in the early 15th century, Dr. Murphy’s narrative takes you through to the so-called High Renaissance achievements of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo in the 16th century. Along the way you’ll learn about artistic techniques, the invention of linear perspective, the revival of classical antiquity, and the rise of the wealthy Medici family, and you’ll gain insights into the enduring legacy of Italian Renaissance art.
Instructor: Professor Kevin J.F. Murphy is a British art historian and instructor specializing in Italian Renaissance art. He is also the Dean of the University’s Tuscany Campus in Prato, Italy, just outside Florence. He has lived in Prato since 1995 and set up the campus in 2012. Please contact him with any questions or comments at kmurphy@newhaven.edu.
Structure: The course is divided into three weekly sections: I. The First Generation: Masaccio, Donatello & Brunelleschi II. The Second Generation: Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio & Fra Angelico III. The High Renaissance: Leonardo, Raphael & Michelangelo
Class Meetings: Classes will be held live on Zoom. You will receive an invitation to all three meetings. During class Professor Murphy will appear on video as well as share his screen so the class can view images as he discusses them. Participants are welcome to ask questions during class either via video or the chat function.
Reading: Although it isn’t necessary, if you would like to do some reading as part of this course, you might enjoy the following text widely available new and secondhand on Amazon: A. Richard Turner, Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art. It has been published in several versions, including one in the Perspectives Series by Pearson and another as part of the Everyman Art Library under the title Renaissance in Florence. They are all good.
Resources Online: There are countless good online resources out there, including the marvelous Web Gallery of Art, which is a good place to start: https://www.wga.hu/tours/italpain/index09.html.
ARTISTIC GIANTS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE – A SPECIAL COURSE OF LECTURES
I. The First Generation: Masaccio, Donatello & Brunelleschi In 1435, the Florentine writer Alberti declared in his influential book On Painting that he lived in a revolutionary age of artistic endeavors, that the artists of Florence had broken with the medieval past and were forging a new style that could outdo even the famous achievements of ancient Greece and Rome. He observed this revolution especially in the works of Masaccio, Donatello, and Brunelleschi, whose groundbreaking work he witnessed every day in the churches and streets of the city. The characteristics of this new style were stark monumentality, a new level of emotional realism, anatomical naturalism based on observation of the human body, and a dramatic new sense of space and perspective based on mathematics.
Key Figures: Giotto, 1267–1337
Brunelleschi, 1377–1446
Donatello ca. 1386–1466
Alberti, 1404–72
Masaccio, 1401–28
Giorgio Vasari, 1511–74
Key artworks: Polykleitos, Doryphoros, 2nd century BCE, Archaeological Museum, Naples
Donatello, David (marble), 1408–9, Bargello, Florence
Cimabue, Maestà, 1290–1300, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Donatello, St. John the Evangelist, 1408–15, Opera del Duomo, Florence
Giotto, Maestà, 1310, Uffizi Gallery, Florence Giotto, Lamentation, 1306, Arena Chapel, Padua
Donatello, David (bronze), 1460s, Bargello, Florence
Masaccio, Trinity, ca. 1425–27, Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Donatello, Zuccone, The Prophet Habbakuk, 1427–36, Opera del Duomo, Florence
Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel scenes, 1426–27, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Donatello, The Penitent Magdalene, 1430s–50s, Opera del Duomo, Florence
Masolino, The Temptation, 1426–27, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Donatello, Pulpit, 1428–38, Cathedral of Santo Stefano, Prato
Arnolfo di Cambio, Madonna and Child (Madonna with the Glass Eyes), 1300–5, Opera del Duomo, Florence
Brunelleschi, Innocenti Hospital, 1419–24, Florence
Donatello, St. Mark, 1411–16, Orsanmichele, Florence
Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral, 1420–36, Florence
Donatello, St. George, ca. 1416, Orsanmichele, Florence
Michelangelo, David, 1504, Academy Museum, Florence
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, Trial Panels, 1401–2, Bargello, Florence Brunelleschi, San Lorenzo Church, 1442–56, Florence
Donatello, St. George and the Dragon, ca. 1417, Bargello, Florence
Key themes: Contrapposto
Atmospheric/aerial perspective
Linear perspective
Emotional impact
Monumentality
Ingegno
Realism
Lost wax technique, fresco painting technique, tempera and egg tempera
Chiaroscuro Naturalistic treatment of human form
ARTISTIC GIANTS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE – A SPECIAL COURSE OF LECTURES
II. The Second Generation: Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio & Fra Angelico As the 15th century progressed, the earliest achievements of the Renaissance developed in various directions in Florence. Two painter-priests, Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, dominated the art scene in the mid-century, while the Medici oversaw an artistic boom by sponsoring upcoming artists such as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Andrea del Verrocchio, as well as youngsters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo. By now Florence was an international byword for artistic excellence as well as wealth and politics. As we will see, revolution, war, and religious reform shook Florence to its core in the 1490s but did nothing to weaken the quality of the Florentine art scene.
Key Figures: Guido di Piero (Fra Angelico), ca. 1395–1455
Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1449–94
Fra Filippo Lippi, ca. 1406–69
Andrea del Verrocchio, 1435–88
Filippino Lippi, 1457–1504
Lorenzo de’ Medici, ‘il magnifico’, 1449–92
Sandro Botticelli, 1444/45–1510
Girolamo Savonarola, 1452–98
Key artworks: Fra Angelico, Descent from the Cross, ca. 1434, Museum of San Marco, Florence
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Fra Angelico, San Marco Altarpiece, 1438–40, Museum of San Marco, Florence
Sandro Botticelli, Judith’s Return to Bethulia, ca. 1472, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Fra Angelico, Annunciation, ca. 1432–34, Museo Diocesano, Cortona
Filippino Lippi, Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard, 1485–87, Badia Fiorentina, Florence
Fra Angelico, Annunciation, ca. 1438–45, Convent of San Marco, Florence
Filippino Lippi, Madonna del Ceppo, 1452–53, Museo Civico, Prato
Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with Angels, St. Augustine & Frediano (Barbadori Altarpiece), ca. 1437–39, Louvre, Paris
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Last Supper, 1480, Convent of San Marco,
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, ca. 1482, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Fra Filippo Lippi, Annunciation, 1440, San Lorenzo, Florence
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Birth of the Virgin, Tornabuoni Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Fra Filippo Lippi, Funeral of St. Jerome, 1452–60, Opera del Duomo, Prato
Andrea del Verrocchio, Christ and Doubting Thomas, 1466–83 Orsanmichele, Florence
Fra Filippo Lippi, Frescoes for the cappella maggiore, 1452–65, Cathedral of Santo Stefano, Prato
Andrea del Verrocchio, David, ca. 1474, Bargello, Florence
Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with Two Angels, ca. 1455–1460s, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Andrea del Verrocchio, Baptism of Christ for the Monastery of San Salvi, ca. 1472, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano, ca. 1435–60, National Gallery, London
Key themes: Medici Family
Triptych
Guild patronage
Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities
ARTISTIC GIANTS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE – A SPECIAL COURSE OF LECTURES
III. The High Renaissance: Leonardo, Raphael & Michelangelo The origins of the label ‘High’ Renaissance are not clear. It doesn’t really have a set of precise dates, nor does it all happen in just one place. It refers primcipally to the type of art created by Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo (and their followers), principally in Florence and Rome. Duing this time the ‘royal’ patronge of popes and Dukes now prevails over private commissions, and grand projects such as the construction of St.Peter’s or Ducal palaces dominate. The artistic output of this period has often been described by critics as attaining the grandeur, naturalistic and expressive ‘perfection’ always sought by Renaissance art.
Key Figures: Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519
Leo X, 1575–1521 (pope 1513–21)
Michelangelo, 1475–1564
Clement VII, 1478–1534 (pope 1523–34)
Raphael, 1483–1520
Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1519–74
Julius II, 1443–1513 (pope 1503–13)
Key artworks: Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, 1498, Refectory, Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan
Michelangelo, Bacchus, ca. 1496–7, Bargello, Florence
Leonardo, Ginevra de’ Benci, ca. 1474, National Gallery, Washington Leonardo, Mona Lisa, 1503–1513, Louvre Museum, Paris
Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus, Laocoon, Roman copy of bronze original, 1st century BCE, Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican
Leonardo, Vitruvian Man, ca. 1490, Academy, Venice
Apollonio of Athens, Belvedere Torso, 1st century BCE, Vatican
Raphael, The School of Athens, 1511, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican
Michelangelo, David, 1501–4, Academy, Florence
Raphael, Portrait of Julius II, 1512, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508–12, Sistine Chapel, Vatican
Raphael, Portrait of Leo X, 1518, Uffizi Gallery, Florence Michelangelo, Madonna of the Stairs, ca. 1491, Casa Buonarroti, Florence Michelangelo, Battle of the Centaurs, 1491–2, Casa Buonarroti, Florence
Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498–99, Vatican
Michelangelo, Doni Tondo, 1503–4, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Michelangelo, New Sacristy, 1519–34, San Lorenzo, Florence Michelangelo, The Last Judgement, 1536–41, Sistine Chapel, Vatican
Michelangelo, Kneeling Angel on the Tomb of Saint Dominic, 1495, San Domenico, Bologna
Key themes: Papal patronage
Mannerism
The Reformation
Oil painting
Portraiture
Figura serpentinata
Vasari’s Lives of the Artists and the birth of art history
Sfumato
Nonfinito
ARTISTIC GIANTS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE – A SPECIAL COURSE OF LECTURES