10 REASONS WHY THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE BEGINS IN FLORENCE

               10 REASONS WHY THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE BEGINS IN FLORENCE                 

1) First, Italy itself is just a beautiful place. The coastal waters, mountains, and fertile plains combined with a mild climate inspired many artists to imitate the colors and shapes of the landscape.
 

 

 

2) Florence was an intimate society in the 1400's; people knew each other by first name and even nickname. Alberti refers to five artists by nickname in his Treatise on Painting in 1436:

Pippo -Filippo Brunelleschi  - architect of dome of Florence Cathedral (1420-36) and inventor of one-point  perspective (1409)

Nencio - Lorenzo Ghiberti (enzo becomes nencio) -bronze sculptor of Baptistery doors (1403-25 and 1425-52)

Masaccio - Big, ugly TOM - 1st painter to use one-point perspective; painter of Brancacci Chapel (1424-27) in Florence

Luca - Luca Della Robbia - stone sculptor who carved the Cantoria (1431-38) for the Duomo

Donato - Donatello -stone sculptor who carved the Cantoria (1433-39) for the Duomo

The fact that Alberti can use those nicknames and know they would be understood by the reader shows how familiar these men were with each other. While that intimacy meant rivalry and competition for commissions (such as the Baptistry panel competition), it also fostered pride in individual work and meant that groups of artists gave support to one another. The influence of great men spread more easily in such an intimate setting and their reputation drew other wonderful artists in from outlying areas. The political power of the guilds made up of wealthy merchants contributed to the pride of the individual artists hired by them.

3) In 1401 the Arte di Calimala held a competition for decorating the north and east doors of the Florentine Baptistery; many competed but only 2 were finalists, Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. Their competition panels still exist (Bargello) and can be compared (another blog entry). This contest inspired other artists to create their best work. Competition instilled excellence in the artists in general.

4) Florence had always been, even in ancient times, a center for the dyeing of cloth. (Ancient Roman vats discovered when Piazza Signoria was dug up in the 90's still had traces of dye on them). The river Arno was used for treating cloth in the Roman period and the dyeing practices of the 1400's in the city were considered state secrets not to be transported outside of Florence. In this way Florence could retain its monopoly on the European cloth trade. Wool would be shipped down from England in raw state to Florence; it would be refined and dyed, then shipped back to Europe as full cloth. The process of dyeing meant that Florence was a color center, primed for artists to learn about pigments for their own arts from the major industry, the cloth trade. The rules about state secrets meant that Florentines regarded their cloth and color knowledge with city pride. The same pigments used in the dyeing of the cloth were used by painters for panels and frescoes.
pigment jars in Florence                       Ghirlandaio, Three Magi, 1485-88

5) In the 15th century the Medici family became the bankers for the papacy. What this meant, in essence, was that they were in charge of the income from the taxation on 2/3 of the real estate in Europe, no small amount. At the same time the church relaxed its restrictions on usury, so the Medici had great interest, literally, in supporting the church.

6) Unlike some other city-states, Florence made a law in the early 1400's that patrician families had to own at least one residence in the city walls for tax purposes; what this meant was that the money stayed within the city walls and was available for architects to build lavish palaces and for painters and sculptors to decorate them. What it meant also was that the aristocrats built parish churches to worship in while they were in town. Many artists were employed for the altarpieces for those churches as well as for the secular paintings for the town palaces. (Medici palace by Michelozzo, 1445, Procession of the Magi, painted in the palace chapel, 1459 by Benozzo Gozzoli)

 

 Filippo Lippi's Annunciation, 1440,
made for chapel in Brunelleschi's San Lorenzo, parish church of the Medici (interior shown) - 1419-21.

7) The peninsula of Italy was already the site of Ancient Rome and ancient statuary and architecture. Artists did not have to go far to learn from the classical past.

 Uccello's Hawkwood, 1436/
Ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, 175 CE.

 Masaccio's tax collector in The Tribute Money, 1424-47, and Roman statue of Antinous, c. 130 CE, now in Naples, in Farnese collection before.

8) The pharmacists who dispensed pigments to painters were also notaries who were required to know Latin and Italian; they were able to help artists understand ancient texts for the stories they were painting.

9) In 1406 Florence won the city-state of Pisa and with it the alum mines of Volterra. Since alum was used to fix color to wool, it was a victory for the cloth industry of Florence, the major industry. The alum helped artistic output as well, especially in altarpieces where it was used to adhere color to the wood surface.

 

 

10) In 1409 Brunelleschi's two presentation panels (now lost) of one-point perspective showed painters how they could mirror reality by using his system of receding diagonal lines that converged at one point. That invention allowed for naturalistic representations of space and figures on walls and in panel paintings. 
Baptistery                                  Palazzo Vecchio

 

11) In 1427 Florence instituted the catasto, a personal income tax system where each household was required to pay taxes according to how many mouths (bocche) they fed and how much income they generated from land and from work.  The written documentation in Italian of contemporary lives generated interest in artists for documenting contemporary lives visually.

12) The quarries of Maiano and Fiesole, close by Florence, as well as Carrara, further away, provided not only pietra serena for the building of palaces, churches, and civic buildings, but stone for sculptures as well.
 

Are those twelve reasons? Yes. And a thirteenth? 

13) the je ne sais quoi of the Arno River Valley? If beauty is nourishment, which I believe it is, the natural setting for the city was a perfect three-course meal of valley, river, and hills.

GIOTTO's SCROVEGNI CHAPEL - 2 other images to notice

GIOTTO's SCROVEGNI CHAPEL - 2 other images to notice

If you have time, after looking at the scenes I have suggested, notice 2 other
images in the LAST DAYS OF CHRIST cycle on the lowest tier of the Arena
chapel walls (1303-06).
Firstly on the left wall as you face the Last Judgment:
1st image: KISS OF JUDAS

In Giotto's hand, the story of Judas' betrayal of Christ to the Roman soldiers turns into a royal battle. Most of the spears and torches held by the soldiers point toward the 2 central characters, Christ on the left with a gold halo and Judas in golden yellow robe that sweeps to enfold both figures:

The expanse of color in the robe also serves to isolate the two protagonists' heads, and the viewer focuses on the confrontation of faces, the face of pure good on the left and that of evil on the right.
Judas purses his lips to kiss Christ to identify him to the soldiers who were worried about grabbing the wrong man because one of the apostles, James the Minor, resembled Christ. (Probably Italians to this day kiss on both cheeks so that they will not be associated with Judas' single kiss.) The intensity of the expressions of Christ and Judas just adds to the powerful surge of the crowds painted into the scenes. Judas can't quite look at him, as he knows how horrible it is to be a rat; he looks slightly up so as not to face his truth.

The drama of Christ's meeting his betrayer face-to-face presents him as much entrapped in Judas' robe as in the knowledge of the end result of his arrest by the soldiers. But Jesus is not afraid. As Giotto portrays him, he is serene as he looks into the hatred of the man in front of him. The even proportions of Christ's head are juxtaposed with the short forehead, deep-cut eyes, prominent nose, and large jowl of Judas. For the artist, goodness must be aesthetically pleasing, evil ugly. But the confrontation takes over that competition as Christ is surrounded and swallowed up by the attacking crowd. Only Peter lashes out on the left, cutting off the ear of one of the Romans.

2nd image:  LAMENTATION  (on right wall as you face the Last Judgment)

 
The Lamentation, sometimes also called The Deposition, is the scene of Christ's body being taken down from the cross after his death.

Everything, including the landscape line of the hill, combines to direct the viewer's eye down to the meeting of the faces of Christ and his Mother.
 Mary is convulsed with pain and sorrow as she reaches to touch her child's body and see him one more time, even if his lifeless eyes cannot return her gaze. Giotto makes the corners of her mouth tremble and he stretches the eyebrow lines and eyelines to extend her abject wretchedness.
        The artist allows the viewer into the scene by painting two mourning figures seated on the ground with their backs to us; when we then take on their viewpoint, we enter the scene as mourners, too.

Other women weep around them; John the Evangelist throws open his arms in mourning, unable to understand.

 
Even the angels are wracked with sadness and pain. Giotto is a master of the art of painting feelings and this scene is where he best expresses the nadir of human grief.

GIOTTO's LAST JUDGMENT in the SCROVEGNI CHAPEL

GIOTTO's LAST JUDGMENT IN THE ARENA (SCROVEGNI) CHAPEL

Giotto paints a Last Judgment on the end wall of the Arena Chapel in Padua
in 1303-06 as part of the decoration of the entire chapel for Enrico Scrovegni, a Paduan banker.

           

His Last Judgment is organized as most Last Judgment scenes of the 14th century are in Italy:

ABOVE and LEFT:                              CENTER: CHRIST                BELOW RIGHT:
REALM OF THE BLESSED                                                              REALM OF THE DAMNED

                                                                                                             


It is probable that Giotto's version is strongly influenced by the
vision of Heaven and Hell he had seen in the Florentine Baptistery
mosaic of the Last Judgment. (He was Florentine.) In that earlier work, carried out sometime during the 13th century, the Devil eats damned souls in bodily form and the blessed are arranged in neat little rows as in Giotto's painting.                   Giotto, Devil in Scrovegni

Devil in Florence Baptistery, 13th cent. mosaic                              
                                                                                                            

 Blessed, right, Scrovegni chapel
Blessed, left Baptistery mosaic


Even Christ in a circular halo (normally called a "mandorla," (accent on the first syllable), which means an almond-shaped aura, but in both these cases more circle than almond) lifts the thumb of his right hand up as a gesture of approval toward the blessed and his left hand thumb down as a sign of disapproval of the damned in both works. Those gestures are taken directly from actual approval and disapproval signs of emperors in ancient Roman arenas. The right thumb up meant the highest authority would spare the gladiator's life; the left thumb turned down would mean disfavor from the emperor and could mean death. In the Christian context the gestures are judgments from God for souls in the afterlife. The Blessed are on the side of the right thumb up and their fate in the afterlife is pleasant; the Damned are those pictured on the left thumb side and their fate in the afterlife is full of pain and torture, punishment for their sins.


 

 

       Two things distinguish Giotto's Last Judgment from the Baptistery mosaic:
 1. The painter places his own portrait among the blessed.

  

 2. He paints a large scene of the patron, Enrico degli Scrovegni, giving a model of the church to the Virgin. This scene of donation is placed closer to the center, still on the left, but perilously close to the figures of the damned in Hell on the viewer's right.

 

Enrico Scrovegni had this chapel built and decorated in atonement for the sin of usury. A common practice now, usury (the idea of adding interest to borrowed money) was considered sinful by the church in the 14th century. Because it was creating something out of nothing (God's work) and because it was associated with non-Christian (often Jewish) banking practices, it was frowned upon by Catholic officials. Both Enrico and his father, Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, before him, were not Jewish, but they were bankers who charged interest when they loaned money. Their usury was offensive to the church but it also made the city council of Padua unhappy, probably because some members of the council owed money to both father and son. Shortly before the chapel was commissioned, the city council decided that the Scrovegni family would be declared bankrupt unless they agreed to certain city edicts:
1) they had to pay back the interest that had accrued on the loans to the city, 2) they had to build a chapel to atone for the sin of usury, and 3) they had to pay taxes to the city for the land on which the chapel would be built. Since church members who practiced usury were excommunicated from the church (meaning they were not allowed to participate in masses or receive bread and wine in the mass), and as there was no separation of church and state in Giotto's era, the disapproval of both church and council in Padua effectively meant the whole of Paduan society was angry with the Scrovegni family.  The pressure that the family felt to build and dedicate the chapel to Mary of Charity was both sacred and profane.
       Giotto's entire fresco cycle, then, is intended to win God's approval, Mary's approval, as well as that of the Paduan city-state, not to mention that of the church itself, for his patron, Enrico Scrovegni. Heavily weighted, then, the Last Judgment image on this wall. Giotto himself may be hoping that the work will win him a place among the blessed, too.
       But the proximity of Scrovegni himself to the horrors of Hell on the right and his offering in the center of the whole scene implies that Giotto left the "last judgment" on the sin of usury in the balance. (The cross even looks like a balance measure.)

    Scrovegni's anxiety to please explains why the very first drama painted by Giotto in the wall series in the chapel is the story of Joachim being expelled from the temple; Scrovegni is himself in danger of being expelled by the 14th-century equivalent of the temple, the Christian church.
Scrovegni's father, Reginaldo, was not childless as Joachim, but he was a greedy man who is said to have yelled as he was dying, "Give me the keys to my moneybox!"  Was Joachim's rejection and rescue by God
in Giotto's painting a parallel narrative to the reward envisioned by Enrico Scrovegni for the sin of his family greed? And, as Professor Vincent Scully used to say, "Do you think Giotto made a case for Enrico in heaven?"
 

Who is the last judge?

Surely not the monk who obligingly holds the model for Enrico as he kneels to the Virgin and 2 angels:

The viewer will be the last to judge.