From Gothic to Renaissance in 14th

cent. Italy, pp. 204-214

Statuary:

pulpit

Nicola and Giovanni Pisano -

a generational shift

14th cent. Humanism

Painting:

Breaking the Byzantine canon

- Cimabue and Giotto

chiaroscuro

linear perspective

review

Nicola Pisano, pulpit of Pisa

Cathedral baptistery, Pisa,

Italy, 1259-1260, marble

2 similar works by a father

and a son exemplify a shift

in culture and in the arts

2 pulpits, one in the

Baptistery of Pisa, one in a

church in Pistoia

Pulpit: a raised platform or

lectern in a church or chapel from

which the preacher delivers

a sermon

Giovanni Pisano, pulpit of

Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297-

1301, marble

Late 13th cent. Italy. A

generational shift:

Nicola Pisano, pulpit of Pisa

Cathedral baptistery, Pisa,

Italy, 1259-1260, marble

2 similar works by a father

and a son exemplify a shift in

culture and in the arts

2 pulpits, one in the

Baptistery of Pisa, one in a

church in Pistoia

Pulpit: a raised platform or

lectern in a church or chapel from

which the preacher delivers a

sermon

Late 13th cent. Italy. A

generational shift:

Nicola Pisano, The

Annunciation and the

Nativity, detail of the pulpit

of Pisa Cathedral baptistery,

Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260,

marble relief, p.205

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the

pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble

relief, p.205Annunciation

Nativity

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the

pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble

relief, p.205

Bath (prefiguration

of Baptism)

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the

pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble

relief, p.205

Nicola had identified Roman

art as a powerful model to

represent Christian scenes in

a new way

Roman Sarcophagus (stone coffin), 180 CE,

marble relief, Camposanto Pisa

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the

Nativity, detail of the pulpit of Pisa

Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-

1260, marble relief, p.205

Nicola Pisano, Fortitude (Christian

Virtue), detail of pulpit of Pisa

Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy,

1259-1260, marble

Nicola’s representation of the Fortitude

Model?

Polykleitos,

Doryphoros

(Spear Bearer),

Roman copy

after a bronze

original of ca.

450-440 BC

Saint Theodore, Chartres

Cathedral, Chartres, France,

ca. 1230

Nicola Pisano, Fortitude,

Baptistery, Pisa, Italy,

1259-1260

While St.Theodore

contrapposto pose was

clearly Christian (Crusader

dresses)

Nicola’s Fortitude adopted

directly the iconography of

the Greek/Roman hero

Hercules

Michelangelo

would later take

Nicola’s

fortitude as a

model for his

David

Giovanni Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the

pulpit of Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297-1301, marble relief

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation

and the NativityGiovanni Pisano, The Annunciation and

the Nativity

More dynamic composition: diagonal

rather than horizontal

Focusing on the human relationship

between the Virgin and Christ Child

Stronger relief: more

dramatic dark/light

contrast

Nicola Pisano, The Virgin, detail Giovanni Pisano, The Virgin, detail

Nervous agitation

Humanization

Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation,

detail

Giovanni Pisano, The

Annunciation, detail

Intense gaze:

psychologic drama

Nicola Pisano, The Bath, detailGiovanni Pisano, The Bath, detail

Humanity of

the characters

14th cent. Humanism

Humanism: system of thought attaching prime

importance to human rather than

divine or supernatural matters.

Humanist beliefs emphasize common human

needs and seek rational ways of solving

human problems.

A cultural movement that revived

interest in ancient Greek and Roman

thought.

Religion continued indeed to occupy a

primary position in the lives of people,

but it is now a more humanized religiosity:

-direct involvement of the faithful

-growing concern with the natural world

and humanity’s worldly existence

-progressive rationalization of the religious

thought

Christianity and Classical legacy are no

longer perceived as mutually exclusive

In painting, the

shift is slower but

even more radical:

against a more

deeply rooted

tradition

- figures’ features

Cimabue, Madonna

Enthroned, ca.

1280-1290 Uffizi,

Florence, p. 206

Cimabue’s Madonna

follows the Byzantine

iconography and

formal characteristics:

- gold background and drapery

Virgin and Child,

icon (Vladimir

Virgin) 11th-12th

century. Tempera

on wood, Tetyakov

Gallery, Moscow, p.

144

- gold background and drapery

Cimabue’s Madonna

follows the Byzantine

iconography and

formal characteristics

- figures’ features

- symmetry

Cimabue, Madonna

Enthroned, ca.

1280-1290 Uffizi,

Florence, p. 206

Miracle of the loaves and

fishes, mosaic from the

nave wall of

Sant’Apollinare Nuovo,

Ravenna, Italy, ca. 504,

p. 129

- frontal poses

- gold background and drapery

Cimabue’s Madonna

follows the Byzantine

iconography and

formal characteristics

- figures’ features

- hierarchical

proportions

- symmetry

Cimabue, Madonna

Enthroned, ca.

1280-1290 Uffizi,

Florence, p. 206

- frontal poses

Ti Watching a

Hippopotamus Hunt,

painted relief, Saqqara,

Egypt, c. 2510-2460 BC,

p. 39

- gold background and drapery

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and

Prophets, ca. 1280-1290 Uffizi, Florence, p.206

Cimabue’s Madonna

follows the Byzantine

iconography and formal

characteristics:

- figures’ features

However, Cimabue’s

scene is dominated by a

solid three-

dimensional throne

- hierarchical proportions

- symmetry

Instead of appearing as a

Byzantine mystic vision

- frontal poses

Virgin and Child, icon

(Vladimir Virgin) 11th-

12th century. Tempera

on wood, Tetyakov

Gallery, Moscow, p.

144

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, ca.

1280-1290 Uffizi, Florence, p.206

Volume of the

figures

modernity of

architecture

Not only

frontal poses

Clear position

of figures in

space

Natural

superimposition

of figures standing

in different levels

of dept

Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on

wood, Uffizi Firenze, p.206

Giotto had rediscovered the

art of creating the illusion of

the third dimension on a

flat surface (2 ways):

1) his figures look like

statues, through the use of

chiaroscuro technique

Chiaroscuro: in drawing

and painting, the use of light

and dark. The gradations of

light produce the effect of

modeling

2) the architectures create

three-dimensional stages

where these figures can act

device:

linear perspective

Cityscape, Second Style wall

painting, from Boscoreale, Italy,

50-40 BC, Metropolitan Museum,

New York, p.99

Invented in the 1830s,

photography is still now the

main means that we have to

record our lives and the world

around us

Scholars have identified Giotto’s

and Renaissance perspective as

the origins of the process that would

bring to the invention of

photography

Being perspective at the very base

of our visual culture, we tend to

give it for granted

This makes it harder for us to

understand the radical implications

of Giotto’s art in his time

chiaroscuro

Diagonal

lines

2 implications of linear

perspective:

1) Things are shown as they

are seen (preeminence of

sight for gaining knowledge

of the world):

----> foundations of

empirical science

2) Things are shown

according to their position in

relation to the viewer

(above, below, near, far

away):

----> involvement of the

faithful in the sacred scene

Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on

wood, Uffizi Firenze, p.206

Giotto, Lamentation, Cappella

Scrovegni, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305.

Fresco, p. 208

Giotto, Interior of the Arena

Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni),

Padua, Italy, 1305-1306, fresco,

p.207

Story of

Christ

Last

Judgment

The subject matter is the

mourning over the dead body of

Christ

With the Virgin embracing her

son for the last time

Giotto, Lamentation, Cappella

Scrovegni, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305.

Fresco, p. 208

Humanization:

hysterical grief of

the angels; nature

Theatricality:

congregation mourns,

showing different

manifestations of

despair

Involvement of

the viewer:

figures seen from

the back:

Giotto, Lamentation,

Cappella Scrovegni, Padua,

Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, p.

208

These figures show how

entirely new Giotto’s art

was in every respect

Early Christian art had

reverted to the Egyptian

idea

that in order to tell a story

clearly, every figure had

to be shown completely

Giotto radically abandoned

this idea:

his strategy is the

emotional and visual

involvement of the viewer

Giotto, Lamentation,

Cappella Scrovegni, Padua,

Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, p.

208