RENAISSANCE - WHAT IS THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE TERM?

RENAISSANCE - WHAT IS THE ORIGIN and MEANING OF THE TERM?

“Renaissance” in French means "rebirth" and from the French word we get our word "Renaissance" in English. During the 19^th century the English term “Renaissance” was first used to describe certain historical periods, the 15th-16th centuries in Italy, and the 16-17th centuries in England. The French word, however, originally came from the Italian word for rebirth, which is RINASCITA. The first time the Italian word RINASCITA appears in a text that characterizes art is in Giorgio Vasari's Preface for his Lives of the Artists, a huge work written in 1550, revised in 1568.  Vasari says, among other things in the Preface, that art after ancient times fell into a period of decline in which the figures that were represented by artists and the scenes were "rozze e brutte" (roughly defined and ugly).

Duccio's Last Supper 1308-11                            
                                    Leonardo's Last Supper 1497  
Then, he says, referring to the beginning of the 15th century, the arts experienced a rinascita, "una rinascita delle arti" ("there was a rebirth of the arts"-trans.mine.)
         RINASCITA for him is a REBIRTH of the greatness of ancient art, the techniques of ancient art, and the subjects of ancient art. For Vasari great ancient art was the art produced by the Greeks in the 5th century B.C. and the Romans in the periods between the 1st century B.C. and 2nd century A.D. For him rebirth means that artists in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries once again are interested in anatomy and beauty as ancient artists once were. Once again painters and sculptors care about verisimilitude as ancient artists did, and want to show the natural body as in antiquity, in the nude. Italian painters, for Vasari, want to show natural light falling on objects and people, want to copy nature in all its forms, but are also interested in idealizing life as artists did in ancient times. The rebirth of the arts in Vasari's eyes implies that art of the ancient world, from 800 B.C.E. to 300 C.E., is more interesting than medieval art from 300-1400 C.E. Ancient Western art should be a model for artists painting in the period when Vasari was writing.

      Long after Vasari employs the word "rinascita" to describes the art produced in Italy in the 15th through the 16th centuries, the term "Renaissance" is applied to European art from the 15th to the 16th centuries in our modern art histories. As scholars have examined the art of the Renaissance, they have further refined their descriptive terminology. Because most of Italian art of the Trecento or 14th century is considered Gothic, the Renaissance for most scholars only begins in the 15th century or Quattrocento (1400's), with the invention of one-point perspective and a return to interest in classical architecture and classical anatomy. The same interests of the Quattrocento continue on into the Cinquecento, the 16th century, the 1500's. 

The REBIRTH also means:

1) A renewed interest in pagan subject matter for painting and sculpture: In the Middle Ages in Europe Christian stories are the ones being produced in art, in painting and sculpture. In the Renaissance the tales of the Greek and Roman gods are again told in art along with Christian ones. The Conference of the Greek and Roman churches in 1439 in Florence is a meeting of two branches of the Catholic Church, but it is also a meeting of Greek and Italian intellects. The curious Florentines are interested in learning Greek and reading Greek and Latin texts in their original language; many of those texts are not Christian but pagan. Florentines are introduced in this period, partly from the exchange of 1439, to writers such as Plato, Sophocles, Euripedes, Heraclitus, Aristotle, Herodotus, Lucretius, Pliny, interesting minds who never knew about Christ. Consequently, Florentines want to know what these writers thought about and what they wrote about. The subjects of these authors are frequently pagan; educated patrons in Italy then demand of artists classical subjects in paint and statuary.

Botticelli's Birth of Venus            Michelangelo's Bacchus

  2) A renewed interest in Greek and Roman architectural forms: 

Vitruvius, the 1st century B.C. architect, who wrote a treatise on architecture, is read again by Italian architects like Brunelleschi or Alberti.

Brunelleschi visits Rome and looks at Roman buildings like the Pantheon and the Arch of Constantine to get ideas for his own buildings such as the Florentine Cathedral dome or his Hospital of the Innocents. He takes the same rounded arches and Ionic and Corinthian capitals that he sees in ancient architecture and applies them to his own buildings, copying the same forms that were used in ancient times.

And when Alberti comes to design the facade for Santa Maria Novella in 1470 in Florence, he adapts Roman elements throughout.







 3) A renewed interest in accurate anatomy in sculpture and painting,  and space, color, and light in painting; the classical desire to imitate nature is revived in the 1400’s and carried over into the 1500’s. The Renaissance artists emphasize actual muscles and proportionate bodies, and Renaissance painters wish to show the effects of  gravity on those muscles and bones underneath the drapery. Because they study accurate anatomy and classical sculpture, they produce realistic-looking human beings.

4) A renewed interest in portraiture, realistic portrayals of actual human beings in paint and stone. Classical artists, especially Roman sculptors, were very concerned with accurate portraits of their ancestors since they would carry images of dead members of the family with them in funerary processions; the features of these ancestors needed to be realistic so that the people could be recognized (see the example of a portrait head held by Republican Senator, 1st cent. B.C.)

Alberti in 1436 says that painting can make the “dead seem alive.”  Renaissance sculptors and painters reproduce the actual features of living and dead people to immortalize them in art.

Is this interest in portraiture a renewed interest in human beings as opposed to divine beings? Christian subjects do not go away, but they exist side by side with human witnesses, and great emphasis is given to the human nature of the holy figures.                                                                             

5) The rebirth of the ancient propensity to credit individual artists for their contributions to culture; as a result, the status of artists grows in proportion to their talent. Vasari's own writings are testament to the increased appreciation of artistic worth in Italian society. Self-portraits and signatures are added to art works more frequently. One example: Michelangelo signs the strap of the Virgin of his Pieta with his own name, "Michelangelus Bonarotus Florentini Facebat" (Michelangelo Buonaroti the Florentine made this") because he wants the credit for his artistic achievement.

 

6) With the increased appreciation for ancient art comes the desire to compete with and surpass ancient artists. Several Italian artists mentioned by Vasari create art works purposely to compete with well-known ancient artists:

Botticelli’s Calumny of Apelles (c.1494) competing with a famous painting by same name by Apelles described by Lucian (not extant - original 4th cent. B.C.)

 Michelangelo’s David (1501-04) competing with the Doryphorus of Polykleitos (Roman copy of Greek original of 5th cent. B.C.)

 Brunelleschi's Cathedral dome (1420-1436) competing with Hadrian's Pantheon dome (126 A.D):

 

 

Art in Vasari's era, according to Vasari, needed to rival the greatness of ancient art, and artists needed to reach "la perfezzione." (perfection) But because of certain great artists, like Brunelleschi, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, Vasari sees his own period as keeping up with, and surpassing the great works produced during the time of the Greeks and Romans. Michelangelo and Brunelleschi are "perfezzione" to Vasari. Vasari himself was a painter and architect, and his own models and mentors are not medieval but rather both classical and contemporary.
A review of the main ideas in the REBIRTH that is the RENAISSANCE:
1) pagan subject matter for painting and sculpture
2) Greek and Roman architectural forms
3) accurate anatomy in sculpture and painting,  and space, color, and light in painting
4) portraiture
5) individual artists get credit for works with self-portraits and signatures
6) competition to make art more refined and beautiful

WHAT IS NEW IN THIS REBIRTH?

a) Though ancient painters can paint space that appears to recede, as in this Villa of the Mysteries fresco in Pompeii (50 A.D.), we have no extant example of the use of 1-point perspective in ancient times, so their painted images are not mirroring space in the same way that Renaissance images are; Vasari understands that 1-point perspective is an addition that makes Renaissance artists even greater than their classical counterpoints. 1-point perspective is a painting technique where all the diagonal lines in the painting meet at one point. The space created on the wall seems to mirror reality more closely.

b) In addition, a consistent natural light source in painting is an element that goes beyond medieval and classical examples as well.
These two NEW CONCEPTS in painting are RENAISSANCE concepts but not ancient: one-point perspective and a consistent natural light source.

The term "rinascimento" (also Italian for rebirth) is still applied to an era where the ancients are treasured but where the artists produce works which stand on their own right in a new era to be emulated.
The "REBIRTH" becomes a "NEW BIRTH" in sculpture, painting, and architecture.

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.