Renaissance Artists - Quattrocento

The year 1401, with the birth of Masaccio and with the announcement of the competition for the Baptistery gates in Florence, marked the dawn of the real Renaissance. Artists like sculptors and painters started to ran a race in a world where the minds were now possessed by the study of antiquity. In the early years of the century, sculptors in Florence devanced her painters, nor is this surprising when we reflect that antiquity had far more to offer to the sculptor than to the painter. Few vestiges of ancient painting remained, but buildings and works of art could be seen and considered. The genius of the Florentines was peculiarly adapted to this kind of study: naturally objective, the reproduction of life and movement under new conditions would have a powerful attraction for them. Later in the century, the Renaissance artists in both branches ran an equal race, and the number, the productiveness and the versatility of this group of giants has been the marvel of all future generations.

Benozzo Gozzoli - The Magi (representing the Medici Family), 1459-1461 Chapel of the Magi-Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence

The Guild system, which flourished in most cities, was probably more highly developed in Florence than elsewhere, and was the source of a vigorous political life during the Renaissance. Artists were greatly encouraged by a society where education and culture were held in the highest esteem, and the whole mass of citizens prided themselves on intellectual culture and love of art; they desired the finest churches, and the most magnificent public buildings.

It was in accordance with the Florentine tradition that the consuls of the Guild of the Calimala should invite competition for the second gates of the Baptistery. The first gates, commissioned by the same Guild, had been executed by Andrea Pisano in 1330. Lorenzo Ghiberti was now the successful competitor, and, finishing the work in 1424, received in the same year the commission for the third gates, which were not completed until 1452. It is the latter gates (of which Michelangelo said they were so beautiful that they will do well for the Gates of Paradise) that show the triumphal progress of art during these years.

Ghiberti, like so many Renaissance artists, had been trained as a goldsmith, to which fact the high finish of his work testifies, and also his great attention to detail. But while doing goldsmith’s work he was modeling, painting and making portraits. Even in his later years he showed the same many-sidedness. He would fashion a mitre or a clasp, or decorate a wedding chest, and this was a characteristic of all the Renaissance artists.

In his first gate he showed himself a master of design. In his second, he gives evidence of having studied antiquities at first hand. He has made a collection of his own at great expense and while poring over this, he finds that the touch discerns many beauties which escape the eye. Further, he has learnt all the intricacies of perspective from his teacher and helper, Brunelleschi, so that now his groups are on different planes, in high and low relief, and are veritable pictures. In fact, the thing he aimed at was more proper to painting than to sculpture, but the exceeding beauty of it and the artist’s outstanding genius are its own vindication.

Filippo Brunelleschi, also a goldsmith’s apprentice, and also one of the competitors for the bronze gates, left Florence for Rome in 1403 in order to study ancient buildings, being intent on becoming an architect. He devoted himself to perspective and geometry, and so steep himself in the knowledge of antiquity that, when he returned to Florence, no more accomplished master could be found. He placed all his learning at the disposal of other Renaissance artists, especially the poorer ones, to whom he was most liberal in his help. Ghiberti, as we have seen, owed to him all his knowledge of perspective, and Donatello, his constant companion, was specially dependent on his instruction and guidance.

Domenico Ghirlandaio - The Confirmation of the Order of Saint Francisc by Pope Honorius III. 1482-1486 Holy Trinity, Florence

He offered his plan for the completion of the Duomo, and it was eventually accepted, and so he raised the dome which served Michelangelo for a model. The Basilica of San Lorenzo, which had been burnt down, was rebuilt from his designs at the cost of the Medici and seven other Florentine families, and the sacristy and cloisters were also his work. The friend of Cosimo de' Medici, Brunelleschi worked much under his patronage, designing for him the beautiful Chapel of the Pazzi, the church of San Spirito and the Badia di Fiesole. In conjunction with Michelozzo, he began the magnificent Pitti Palace which, destined never to be finished for its original master, embodies the austerity and the classical simplicity which were the ruling ideas of Brunelleschi’s art. He left his imprimatur on all the Renaissance artists, but on none was his influence so marked as on his friend and pupil, Donatello.

Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello were the leading spirits of this epoch, but they were followed by a large group of other Renaissance artists, sculptors and architects, all of whom, whether pupils or no, were under their influence and greatly indebted to them. Of these, Michelozzo fluctuated between sculpture and architecture, but finally decided for the latter, and, with Brunelleschi is the great reviver of the classical style. He worked with Ghiberti on a St. Matthew and a tabernacle for Orsanmichele, and with Donatello on the tomb of John XXIII. in the Baptistery. But he is chiefly remembered as the architect of the Medici (now Medici Riccardi) Palace, of their three villas of Caffagiolo, Nozzi, and Careggi—this latter the most beautiful of all and the one in which Cosimo and Lorenzo both lived and died; and also for the Chapel of the Annunziata, and for the complete reconstruction of San Marco, where Michelozzo is buried. Another pupil of Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, only lived to the age of thirty-five, but his monument to Carlo Marsuppini, Greek scholar and orator, is one of the three finest tombs in Tuscany, the second being one by Bernardo Rossellini, erected for the famous Leonardo Bruni, Chancellor and historian of the Republic, a man universally admired and beloved: both are in Santa Croce. The third tomb is that of Cardinal James of Portugal, who died in 1459; it is in San Miniato and is the work of Antonio Rossellini, Bernardo’s brother.

Versatility was one of the main characteristics of the Renaissance. Artists like Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea Verrocchio were nearly as proficient in painting as in sculpture, and worked besides in every sort of material, in wax, wood, enamel and silver. Ghiberti employed Pollaiuolo on a festoon round the bronze gate of the Baptistery. Eventually he devoted himself entirely to painting, but all his work witnesses to his study of anatomy, which often results in the portrayal of strained and awkward attitudes. Verrocchio who added to the other accomplishments that of being a musician, and who also gave himself over to painting, shows the same tendencies, but, besides his pictures, we have in Florence his fine Christ and St. Thomas, and his Boy with the dolphin and his bronze David, both cast for Lorenzo de' Medici; also the very simple but beautiful monument to Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo. But he was in nothing as famous as in having had Leonardo da Vinci as his pupil. Another great tomb is that of Bishop Salutati in the Duomo at Fiesole, which is by Mino da Fiesole; nor do these names nearly exhaust the number. The della Robbias, uncle and nephew, are of course in the tradition of the great sculptors; to Luca, in conjunction with Michelozzo, we owe the bronze gates of the Duomo sacristy, and also the organ-gallery which was the companion to Donatello’s. But the medium was their own—not invented by them, as some have asserted, as enameled pottery was already known—but adapted and improved upon, and eventually they evolved the secret of the special glaze suitable for their purpose, and the method of introducing color, the result being a triumph of beauty and grace.

Filippo Lippi - Virgin and Child with Angels, 1465 Uffizi, Florence

No other epoch saw such a galaxy of painters as the Renaissance. Artists like Benozzo Gozzoli, Ghirlandaio and, especially, Botticelli, became the favorites of Lorenzo de' Medici. The first of these, born in 1420, was a pupil of Fra Angelico, and shortly before the death of Cosimo he had painted on the walls of the chapel of the Riccardi palace his gorgeous Procession of the Magi, which is the glorification of the Medici and their court. The third king is Lorenzo as a boy; Cosimo and his son follow behind, and further back the painter himself. In these frescoes, Benozzo gave free rein to his passion for elaborate and complicated background; he is remarkable as one of the first painters of detailed landscapes, wherein he used to place birds and animals of all kinds. Ghirlandaio is the most modern and realistic of the three; he is an architectural painter and displays an intimate knowledge of perspective, but what chiefly interests him is the life going on around him—the houses, the furniture, the people as they looked and dressed and walked. Though by no means an uninspired painter, he is most valuable as an historical portrayer of the times. Also he loved to introduce portraits, and in one of his frescoes in Santa Maria Novella he has given us a group of four Humanists—Becchi, Poliziano, Landini and Ficino. As an artist he matured slowly, but by degrees he acquired the grand manner in treatment and composition.

But of all Renaissance artists, Botticelli, the pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, was the favorite of Lorenzo. He was also, in some sort, the reflection of the genius of Lorenzo, and seemed to breathe the same atmosphere with him.