Brianna Morgan 

Professor Cacoilo

Art History II

10/17/19

Essay Post 1: Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa.1503-1506. Most art historians believe that the Mona Lisa portrays Lisa di Antonio Maria Gheradini, in her mid-twenties, the wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. 

Arguably the world’s most famous European painting, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, was completed between 1503 and 1506 (Stockstad 645). Although it had always been acknowledged masterpiece, it wasn't until it was stolen that it captured the attention of the public. This was an unusual portrait for this time because Leonardo strayed from traditional Italian portraits of paintings of wealthy wives in profile view wearing lavish clothing and jewelry that symbolized their status and their husband's wealth (Stockstad 650). Mona Lisa’s enigmatic expression hides her thoughts and personality in an illusion of the natural world. The psychological complexity through her relaxed hands, assured look, and calm smile lend the painting to be highly interpretive and mysterious. The haunting landscape behind her and the way her eyes seem if they are always looking at the viewer, have compelled art lovers for centuries (Stockstad 645). In a departure from tradition, the woman is portrayed in a solid pyramidal form of her halflength figure against the distant hazy mountains, using sfumato, which became a hallmark of Leonardo’s style (Stockstad 645).

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper. 1945-1948. He worked directly on dry intonaco with an unknown oil-and-tempera paint formula in which the painting quickly deteriorated and has barely survived, despite many attempts to restore its original appearance.

Another revolutionary portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci was The Last Supper, painted at Duke Ludovico Sforza’s request for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Graize in Milan between 1495 and 1498 (Stockstad 650). The painting’s geometry, perspective lines, and pyramidal form coherently envelope mathematical stability and reinforce a sense of balance and gravity (Stockstad 650). Leonardo’s painting parallels the early Renaissance traditions in regards to composition and perspective, yet it is innovative in terms of emotion and psychology in a type of naturalism. In one of the most important important scenes in Catholic history, Jesus Christ in a triangle- like shape in the center, surrounded by the 12 apostles in 4 sets of 3 beside Christ at the table, which is symbolic for the 4 Gospels in the Bible and the 3 parts of the Holy Trinity (Stockstad 651). Breaking from traditional representations, the traitor Judas clutches his money bags in the shadows, within the first triad to Jesus’s right along with John and Peter, rather than across from the other apostles at the table. Leonardo captures a scene of individual human emotions as the apostles react to Jesus’s announcement that one of them will betray him (Stockstad 650). Although this time period was religiously dominated, there was a social movement in which people were questioning the Catholic Church.

Michaelangelo, David. 1501-1504. Made from an 18-foot tall marble block, this is Michaelangelo’s most famous sculpture. But, in 1873 the statue was replaced by a copy and the original was moved into the museum of the Florence Academy. 

In 1501, Michelangelo created the statue of the biblical hero, David, which was to be placed atop a buttress cathedral, but when it was completed in 1504 it was so highly admired that the city council placed it in the principal city square next to the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of Florence’s government (Stockstad 659). Although David embodies the antique ideal of the athletic male nude, its concentrated gaze, towards Rome, and emotionally powerful expression were entirely new to the Renaissance, but has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, a symbol of strength and youthful beauty (Stockstad 659). It was loved because of the universal message it provided. This creation brings a theme/sense of pride, power, and resilience. The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude, symbolized Florence’s republican status, and stands for the supremacy of right over might after the Florentines had fought Milan, Siena, and Pisa, but still faced political and military pressure (Stockstad 659). David is depicted with a tightened brow and stares with a slingshot over his shoulder and a rock in his hand, while the twist of his body conveys the feeling that he is in motion, whereas Renaissance works were previously statuesque.  In David’s face, we can almost feel his thoughts as he is planning to find a way to defeat Goliath.

Filippo Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral (Santo Maria Del Fiore), 1420-1436. The defining project of the early years of the Renaissance was the completion of the Florence Cathedral with a magnificent dome over the high altar.

In 1407, Filippo Brunelleshi achieved the seemingly impossible and proposed the solution in completing the Florence Cathedral, which had began construction in the late thirteenth century but the builders lacked the engineering knowledge to construct it (Stockstad 610). Designed in 1417 and built between 1420 and 1436, the dome is a double shell of mosonry 138 feet across, and its octagonal shell sits on 8 large ams 16 lighter ribs (Stockstad 611). Burshenelli devised a system in which temporary wooden supports were cantilevered out from the drum instead of using a costly and dangerous scaffold centering (Stockstad 611). As the building progressed, each portion of the structure reinforced the next one as vertical marble ribs interlocked with horizontal sandstone rings, connected with iron rods and oak beams (Stockstad 610). Linked by a system of arches, the inner and outer shells allowed for no external support required to keep it standing. Other commissions came quickly after the cathedral dome established Brunelleschi’ fame as he was involved in a series of influential projects until his death in 1446 including a foundling hospital for the city (Stockstad 610). 

Filippo Brunelleschi, Ospedale Degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital), 1419. Arte della Seta establish an orphanage and commissioned Brunelleshi to build it near the church of the Santissima Annunziata, a popular pilgrimage site.

Completed in 1944, another innovative work by Brunelleshi was the Foundling Hospital- Ospedale Degli Innocenti commissioned by Arte della Seta (Stockstad 612). It was unprecedented in terms of scale and design, and paid homage to traditional forms while introducing features associated with the Renaissance. To Bruelleshi’s own interpretation of the classical Corinthian order, he built a gallery of lightness and elegance using smooth round columns and carved capitals, yet traditional charitable foundation’s buildings had a portico open to the street to provide shelter (Stockstad 612). Brunelleshi’s design was highly mathematical and traced the pythagorean proportional systems that created a distinct sense of harmony as the height of the columns equals the distance between them, providing a sense of order (Stockstad 612). The beauty, simplicity, and systematic nature of the exterior suggests a desire for freedom and development, while the building itself represents an important social and cultural landmark of Humanism during the quattrocento as “Innocents” in the name refers to the first born children murdered by Herod in his quest to dispose of the baby Jesus (Stockstad 612). 

Massacio, The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, 1427. In the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, he painted the angel on the first day, the portal on the second day, Adam on the third day, and Eve on the fourth. 

In The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, Massacio painted frescos on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence in 1427 (Stockstad 624). Contrary to previous interpretations of the event which emphasized wrongdoing and the fall from grace, Massacio emphasizes the psychological impact of shame on the first humans who have been cast out of paradise and thrown naked into the world as Eve cries out and Adam cannot bear to show his face in a scene of remarkable emotion (Stockstad 624). He was the first to organize his compositions according to the system of linear perspective developed by Brunelleschi and presented Adam and Eve as monumental nude figures, focusing on the mass of the bodies formed by their underlying bone and muscle structure, whereas Flemish painters sought to record every detail of a figure’s surface (Stockstad 625). It was not until later generations that Masaccio appreciated by painters. The fresco has a source of light that casts a shadow behind Adam and Eve, which adds more of a realistic feel to the composition. He painted Adam and Eve in four giornate, each representing a day’s work. Massacio’s innovative depictions of volumetric solidity, consistent lighting, and spatial integration were more so appreciated by a later generation of painters (Stockstad 624). 

Works Cited 

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. Pearson, 2018.