Complete and extensive notes of BA1 History of Western Arts and Culture of IBACS. Most artworks that are referred to in the notes are also illustrated with pictures.
International Bachelor of Arts and Culture Studies
History of Western Arts and Culture (CC1001)
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Lecture 1
The Renaissance in Italy
The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was gradual. The intense religiosity
persisted but came to coexist with the new ideas and ways of thinking. During the Renaissance
we see a lot of ‘firsts’; the first large-scale nude sculpture since antiquity (David), the first linear
perspective, the first portraits of ordinary people, first paintings of everyday life, first landscapes,
etc.
It was Vasari who christened the term “Rinascimento”/rebirth → Renaissance
German art theorists were very central in any discussion of art theory so the interest in art theory
started in Germany. It was Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) —> the first to use ‘Renaissance’ as a
periodical marker in 1860. He isolated 14th and 15th century in Italy.
Dark Ages —> Renaissance —> Modern Era
Rebirth of art, overlooking the Middle Ages, reviving the classical antiquity.
Even during the Renaissance, the humanists and the intellectual elites thought that they were
living in a new golden era (post the ‘Dark Ages’). These men looked at antiquity with great
respect. They were confident and positive that they were living in a wonderful era. The term
‘Renaissance’ was soon adopted as a rhetorical meaning, to distance themselves from the previous
era.
“We’re living in the time of Renaissance” vs. the Renaissance.
But, again, the difference in the above-mentioned nuance just appeared in the 19th century.
However, why are there many, many flaws in the vision of Burckhardt and the Renaissance
people themselves (who thought that they were better than the Middle-Ages people)?
→ First of all, many of the development and the inventions that were made during the 14th and
15th century had their roots in the Middle Ages.
Also, there is no such thing as the exact day where, for example, the Renaissance ended and the
Baroque started. There are lots of overlaps and continuities between each era. We need to
remember that there’s always a large flow of continuance.
→ Secondly, during the Middle Ages a lot of grand achievements were made (e.g. Notre Dame
Cathedral). Middle Ages deserves more nuance despite the fact that it was thought grimly by
people who lived during the Renaissance era.
The flourishing of arts & culture (Renaissance) is not something that only happened in Europe.
RENAISSANCE in Italy – When?
• 1350-1550: from Petrarch to Vasari
,• Early Renaissance: 1420-1500 (end of Medici rule in Florence)
• High Renaissance: 1494-1527 (sack of Rome)
• Late Renaissance (Mannerism): 1520-1600 —> lasts until the Baroque
! WARNING ON !
Renaissance in Italy: Why?
Early Renaissance – Society
(Italy did not exist at the time. Italy was unified later in the 19th century.)
• Autonomous city-states in ‘Italy’
Most Italian cities were parts of the Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire consisted of what
now are Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc. In practice, most of those Italian cities (who were
officially parts of HRE) were independent since the government of HRE resided above the Alps.
There was a king of HRE and the king of Naples in the south, and then there was the Papal States:
territories controlled by the Pope, and on the more northern part there were small but very
powerful regions, like Milan, Modena, and city-states/city-republics like Florence, etc.
These city-states were governed by rich, powerful citizens. They ruled themselves, they paid no
real allegiance to any other kingdom whatsoever.
• This collection of regions (Italy) was at the time the most urbanized region in Europe
• Italy = wealthy urban region
—> Wealthy class of people with resources and motivation to shape/create a new culture.
6 out of 10 of the biggest cities in Europe were in ‘Italy’. It was really the ‘center’ of the world.
They were the wealthiest urban region in Europe. Also, there was the Pope who collected taxes.
There was a constant battle for power between these city states, but also to accentuate their
(already existing) power. These families wanted to represent their power not only by wars, but
also by showing off their achievements and investments in art. So there’s an interesting dynamic
between war & art. (Power can be displayed through “fight thy neighbor and invest in thy art”)
The rule of ‘patrons’ have already existed form the Middle Ages. There were the Church, the
,royal courts (,and sometimes rich merchants) who would invest in art.
Most artists flocked to Florence in that time because that’s where the money were at. And they
had an opportunity to experiment with relative freedom (because in countries where the Church
has a lot of power, there was no experimenting with nudity).
So especially in these republics, the inhabitants signaled their collective identity through
investing in art. For example, chapels and churches being commissioned.
One of the motives is also to be remembered as someone who’s ‘rich and intellectual’ after the
patron (commissioner) died.
(READ ABOUT THE GUILDS)
Masaccio, Trinity with the Virgin, Saint-John the Evangelist, and Donors, 1425-27?.
Why is it so remarkable? Because of the prominent donors. The donors were the patrons (the
Lenzi family). Occasionally in medieval paintings, tiny patrons in the background can be found,
but most of the time the patrons were not depicted in the middle-ages. Here, they were
represented with such emphasis. This is a typical consequence of the Renaissance, the newly-
found confidence of the new class of rich people in Italy. The idea was also to show that these
(the patrons) were important people.
Piero della Francesca, Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro, ca. 1465.
Montefeltro was the patron. He was the duke of Urbino, and he attracted artists and philosophers
and poets. He concerned himself to be a philosopher and a humanist, but he also was a mercenary
general. He was a duke because his brother was a duke and he was assassinated in an alleged
conspiracy (Federico was generally thought to be the perpetrator). One of the people who paid
him to fight was Alessandro Sforza the duke of Milan, whose daughter he married.
The reason Federico was portrayed as such (because he really did look like that) was because he
lost his right eye in a tournament. So he always wanted to be portrayed from the left side.
However, after the loss of the eye, Federico had surgeons removed the bridge of his nose (which
had been injured in the incident) to improve his field of vision and rendered him less vulnerable
to assassination attempts.
So the diptych represents the self-confidence of new type of ruler (since they were both painted
as how they really looked like).
Everything came together in Florence, so Florence can be considered to be the birthplace of the
Early Renaissance.
Why Florence?
- Influenced and inspired by Antiquity
- The Black Death
- Humanism
They were very rich because they were the nucleus of trades between Europe and the Levant
(Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Western Iraq).
, There was the rich de’Medici family governing the city. The elites wanted to distinguish
themselves; conspicuous consumptions (showing off by consuming lots of goods & commissioning
arts. Or “The term refers to consumers who buy expensive items to display wealth and income
rather than to cover the real needs of the consumer.”).
So they became the cultural center of European Renaissance.
➢ Influenced and inspired by Antiquity (Antique Greece and the HRE)
• Heirs of Rome
• They were living on the very same spot as where the Roman antiquity flourished. So they
felt like they could relate to those ‘antique people’ who made ‘all the beautiful, masculine
nudes’, etc. So they have a wish to go back to the ‘flourishing, ideal society’. They wanted
to mirror the antiquity approach; not only about art, but also about how to manage
society. The idea was that with great art, you can make a great society. So there was new
wealthy, independent, and self-confident class.
• Proximity of ancient remnants
• Also, during the Renaissance, the place was still even more surrounded by antique
heritage (than it is now). This is also one of the reasons why the Renaissance really
flourished in Italy, or in Rome in particular, because people were constantly confronted
with antique heritage (e.g. finding antique statues while working on your field).
• This has already happened in the Middle-Ages but it was during the Renaissance where
people were enlarging the importance of what they were finding and instigate the actions
to dig up everything and started to study these findings.
In architecture
Panteon, Rome. 113-125 AD → from the antiquity era.
The architecture during the Renaissance came with the idea of an ‘ideal city’, and an ideal city is a
Roman city. The first large dome since antiquity was being built during the Renaissance. And
with such a building and a grand dome, the Renaissance people also wanted to show that “the
knowledge of how to build such dome was lost, and now during the Renaissance it’s regained and
it’s even better.”
• Direct copying ancient architectural styles and themes
But also, they developed a new interest for a more orderly fashion, a clearer and more balanced
architecture.
• New idiom “all’Antica” → in the manner of the ancients
• Emphasis: symmetry, proportion, geometry, logical constructions
Leon Battista Alberti, Sant’Andrea, Mantua, 1470.
The façade demonstrates the devotion of Early Renaissance artists to classical antiquity. He
combined multiple classical forms:
- Triangular pediment
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