The Early Renaissance Art in Florence

Supporting Reason 2 Another major artist during the Renaissance was a paint known as Masaccio. Masaccio is know for his frescoes of the Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella and the Brancacci Capel the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine.( Which are both churches in Florence)

The Renaissance occurred in Europe between 1400 and 1600. This event began in Italy during the Medieval period and then expanded to the rest of Europe, marking the start of the Modern age. The Renaissance began in Florence Italy in the 14th century. It was a cultural movement that had an enormous impact in Europe during the early modern period. The Renaissance’s influenced politics, science, literature, art, philosophy, religion, music, and other aspects. Around the 13th century in Italy started the Renaissance’s art influence. Leonardo da Vinci, was known as the "Renaissance man," because of his art masterpieces and his studies in other fields during this time. Italy wasn’t a political concept in the

Art in the early Renaissance began with artists such as Giotto, who was credited with beginning a new style of art that Masaccio had taken up and integrated into his art later in the Renaissance. This specific style, being the use of massive figures, relation of background/landscapes to figures, and visual representation of perspective, was utilized by Masaccio in his frescoes in the Brancacci chapel. Masaccio’s Tribute Money is showing a biblical tale ,as the renaissance was not entirely anti religion, but with subjects that are being made to look realistic through a use of perspective (vanishing point, horizon line, etc,) and it is said that Masaccio's work was said to be “ living, natural, and real”. Artists such as Uccello took this style and adapted it to also make his art more realistic by using figures to show the laws of perspective, while others like Pollaiuolo

“No painter can paint well without a thorough knowledge of geometry” (qtd. in Butterfield 27). The Italian Renaissance is famous for its art which includes unique style of painting and sculpting, however, the Renaissance made significant remark on the use of scientific techniques which also can be considered as the influence of classical ideas. Although, classical ideas were not advanced like in the Renaissance, it provided the foundation for the Renaissance to revive it again. The Italian Renaissance transformed the manner of viewing the arts. Before, most people in Italy were bounded by religious thoughts and beliefs. Renaissance helped people to shift their mind and behavior towards the secular ideas, instead of vague ideology like

In Europe, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, much of the continent fell into a cultural recession. For many centuries science, mathematics and the arts were extremely stagnant. Beginning in the mid 14th century, the Italian Peninsula began to undergo a transformation evident in the works of artists, writers and scholars. This era is known as the Renaissance and was a revival of the classical world following the appropriately named Dark Ages. Renaissance thinkers became known as humanists, interested in learning about religious and non-religious studies and celebrated worldly achievements. Florence, Italy was the center for many of the advancements that took place during this time period and was the birthplace of many of the Renaissance individuals we know today. The economic, political and artistic influences of the Medici family, combined with it’s ideal geographical location for trade, made Florence emerge as the birthplace of the Renaissance.

The Italian Renaissance had two distinct periods during its lifetime. The first being the “Early Renaissance”, which took place between the late 13th and the early 14th centuries. The second period was known as the “High Renaissance”, which took place during the 15th and 16th centuries. These two periods had very distinct foundations and styles behind the art and architecture of their respective periods. The Early Renaissance revived many old themes which later became the foundations for the High Renaissance. While the High Renaissance strayed from previous traditions and had its own form of art and essentially perfected early themes and styles of art and included more scientific/mathematic components.

The Italian Renaissance was a time for great cultural change and achievements, which began in Italy approximately during the 13th century and lasted up until the 16th century. It marked the transition between the Dark Ages and Early Modern Europe. The European Renaissance originated in Central Italy, and centered in the city of Florence.i The distinctive characteristics of northern Italian states such as art, literature, philosophy, and culture produced an atmosphere of learning and artistic expression.

During the Renaissance, Florence profited from a mercantile economy due to the guilds, the quality and variety of goods and the style and management of the market place.

Masaccio, an Italian painter of the early 15th century, was a master of three-dimensionality, as he is literally able to summon and animate lifeless figures and objects out of their respective paintings. What makes Masaccio, a humanistic artist was his naturalistic perception ad implementation of humanity into his art. He didn’t idealize in his paintings, he realistically portrayed humans beings as they were, radically unlike previous art. He regularly was commissioned by religious authorities to create Christian art

One of the greatest stories from the Italian Renaissance is the one of Fillipo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti. In 1401, the directors of the art of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral held a contest for artists; to create panels for a the doors on the east entrance (Kleiner, 560-2). Because the east doors faced the cathedral, the people thought it extremely prestigious to be able to participate in such a massive creation. After the first competition round, two finalists remained; Brunelleschi, an accomplished and experienced artist, and Ghiberti, a younger artist, but one with just as much talent. The two competitors were required to create a panel (or square) of Abraham readying to sacrifice Issac. Before reading which was which,

The Renaissance is the rebirth of Europe, and considered as the beginning of modern history. In this era of time, people looked back and studied the Greek and Roman knowledge, skills, attitude, and art, while stepping out of the Middle Ages artwork techniques and creating new techniques to breathe realism, individualism, humanism, mannerism, and more into the art. The Middle Ages artwork majorly focussed on the religious aspect of the art, leaving out the techniques to make the art look realistic. However, the Renaissance artwork used many new techniques that they developed, like chiaroscuro, the use of light and shading, to create an effect that the Middle Ages artwork had not seen before. The art shows how the Renaissance evolved from focussing

During the late Fifteenth, the number of woodcarvers were more prevalent than butchers (“Patrons and Artist in Late 15th-Century Florence”). This example indicates that art was a more prioritized commodity than meat, which subsequently means artists were greatly valued. People who treasured art ranged from upper class to middle class, or lower class (“Patrons and Artist in Late 15th-Century Florence”). Much of the artists that were called by patrons in the courts because their projects came from southern Netherland cities such as: Burges, Brussels, Ghent, and Toumai (Davies et al. 476). Apparently, the patrons harbored a lot of jealousy of the unique status their artistic charges, that of independency in addition to the privileges

The Renaissance time period was home to many new ideas in art. This includes new artists bringing forth ideas that had yet to be discovered and made popular. New themes and types of art were also being brought forward during this period.

Masaccio was not named among the painters ‘who have been illustrious in our age’ in Fazio’s De viris illustribus. Nor was Masaccio included among ‘the best masters who have existed for a good while back’ in the list of artists by whom the Florentine merchant Giovanni Rucellai owned works in c. 1470. This omission, however, presumably reflected the difficulty of acquiring panel paintings by Masaccio, which inevitably have always been rare, rather than an opinion that Masaccio was not one of ‘the best masters’ (Ahl 158).

This unique blending of fresh ideas and rejuvenating classical ideas defined Masaccio’s artwork and more importantly the art of the early renaissance.