donatello, saint mark Following Brunelleschi, artists
began to adjust their measurements by shortening or
elongating figures to be viewed from different angles and
distances, an idea that was adapted to sculptural com-
missions as well. One such major sculptural program was
found at Orsanmichele, a rectangular building near the
Duomo that had served as a granary and then as a church,
with administrative offices for the guilds upstairs. These
guilds were asked to fill the building’s exterior niches with
public sculpture, and guild leaders considered it their
civic duty to beautify the city with public art commis-
sions. In 1411, Donatello received a commission from the of its heavier weight and its tendency to shear or shift
laterally under stress.
All of these materials, including more than four
million bricks, were hoisted up the side scaffolding using
a reversible hoist invented by Brunelleschi and powered
by pairs of oxen that moved in a circle. The hoist was
devised in a way that allowed the ropes to go up and
down without workers having to rehitch and reverse
the oxen for each delivery. After Brunelleschi’s death,
Michelozzo di Bartolommeo built a lantern on top of the
dome, and in 1469 a copper ball made by the Florentine
sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488) was raised
to the top of the lantern using one of Brunelleschi’s
pulley systems. The end result was a magnificent dome
375 feet tall, built with a sophisticated understanding
of construction practices realized in Florence, made
possible through access to both Classical knowledge
and new technical advances.
Perspective and the Viewer
Brunelleschi was also interested in perspective drawing,
and he devised a mathematical method of rendering
three-dimensional images onto a flat surface with a con-
vincing spatial realism. Artists throughout history have
found ways to depict space in painting, as in the more
intuitive orthogonal lines visible in the ancient Roman
wall murals at Boscoreale (see Fig. 18.18) and, much later,
in the Virgin’s throne in Giotto’s Madonna and Child
Enthroned, c. 1305–10 (see Fig. 37.14). Brunelleschi’s goals
were different, however. Using a grid, he analyzed the
way orthogonal lines converge at a vanishing point on
the horizon line, creating an illusion of space and depth
that better approximates how the eye sees objects in the Arte dei Linaioli (linen-weavers' guild) to carve a marble
sculpture of its patron saint, St. Mark. Donatello carved
St. Mark (Fig. 38.5, p. 631) standing on a soft pillow with a
linen cover held together with buttons—a nod to the guild
that financed the sculpture. His imposing and realistic
figure fills the niche; a robe draped across his shoulders
falls across his arms and down his legs in a display of
billowing fabric. Because the sculpture was to be placed
in a niche several feet above street level, Donatello elon-
gated the torso and enlarged the head slightly to take
into account the angle of the viewer’s line of sight. This
manipulation caused the guild to reject the sculpture aspoorly proportioned—until they saw it in its intended
location, where the proportions appeared correct.
Classical artists had observed that human bodies
are constantly in movement and that harmony can be
achieved through counterbalance. Donatello’s St. Mark
stands on his right leg with his left leg relaxed, creating
the Classical contrapposto. His legs are counterbalanced
with his arms, as his right arm hangs down and his left
arm carries the weight of a book. Donatello reveals the
shape of St. Mark’s body beneath the drapery that flows
in a straight line down the tense right leg, while fabric
pools around the bent knee of the relaxed left leg.
lorenzo ghiberti, gates of paradise Naturalistic
developments also appeared in relief sculpture. After
Ghiberti finished his first set of bronze doors for the
baptistery of San Giovanni, he was hired in 1425 to com-
plete another set. These doors were placed on the east
side, facing the cathedral, and his first set of doors was
moved to the north side. The new doors came to be called
the Gates of Paradise (Fig. 38.6), perhaps because the area
between the baptistery and the earlier church was the
site of a cemetery.
The Gates of Paradise features ten large relief panels
flanked by medallions. Each scene reveals a sophisticated
use of depth, with larger figures in high relief used in the
foreground, diminishing to various degrees of low relief
and smaller figures in the background to give the impres-
sion of distance. In the panel featuring the story of Jacob
and Esau (Fig. 38.7), from the biblical Book of Genesis,
the Classically inspired space includes an arched portico
that appears to recede backward into space with a grid of
floor tiles that create orthogonal lines to a vanishing point
through the central arch. This system of organization
allows for a clear movement between the seven separate
scenes that appear on the panel in a compressed-narra-
tive format (see box: Looking More Closely: Finding the
Narrative in Ghiberti’s Jacob and Esau).
Ghiberti included a self-portrait head among the
medallions of prophets that flank the reliefs, one of
the earliest artist self-portraits in the Renaissance.
Ghiberti also wrote Commentaries, an art treatise that
focuses on the importance of Classical art and includes
an autobiography, one of the earliest in art history. This
self-referencing is an example of the emerging impor-
tance of the individual during the Renaissance, where
a self-conscious, public display of one’s worth was con-
sistent with civic virtue.
masaccio, holy trinity The mathematical language
found in Brunelleschi’s studies of perspective and propor-
tion also had a profound impact on painters, including
Tommaso “Masaccio” di Ser Giovanni di Simone (1401–
1428). In his short career, Masaccio moved away from the
Late Medieval style of painting—with gold backgrounds
and two-dimensional surface patterns—toward a greater
realism of space and form.
Masaccio’s Holy Trinity (Fig. 38.8), c. 1425–27, is a fresco
on the nave wall of the Dominican church of Santa Maria
Novella in Florence and was perhaps commissioned by the
wealthy merchant and writer Domenico Lenzi as a painted
funerary monument. Lenzi and his wife appear opposite
each other at the outer edges of the fresco, kneeling in profile with their hands clasped together in prayer at a
painted altar, which was originally an actual altar ledge
attached to the wall. Beneath the altar and tilted toward
the viewer is a painted sarcophagus with a skeleton above
that reminds us in a memento mori: “I once was what now
you are, and what I am, you shall yet be.” The sarcophagus
appears to project forward into the real space of the nave,
where viewers of the painting would be standing. Above
the altar, the figures around the central Crucifixion scene
are set into a single unified space—a Classical chapel with
Ionic columns and Corinthian pilasters, and a barrelvaulted
space that appears to recede. Masaccio used the
new system of linear perspective to measure orthogonal
lines that can be traced from the bottom of the cross up
through the square coffers to create the painted illusion
of an eight-foot-deep chapel.
Four figures are arranged in a triangular composition.
John the Evangelist (gospel writer) and an elderly Virgin
Mary flank Christ, who is elevated on the cross with the
white dove of the Holy Spirit above his head. God stands
at the top of the triangle on the platform, supporting
the cross with his hands. Light emanates from Christ’s
body and reflects off the donors’ robes, modeling their
forms. The viewer must stand directly in front of the
fresco to observe the convergence of orthogonal lines
at the vanishing point in the middle of the horizon line
at the base of the cross, located at the viewer’s eye level.
This fresco reveals Masaccio’s fusion of linear perspec-
tive and religious symbolism, which helped to expand
the iconographic language of art in the Renaissance.
The triangular composition creates solidity and stabil-
ity, while the number three,implied by the composition,
reinforces the symbolism of the Trinity (Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit).
paolo uccello, battle of san romano A series of
three wood panels by Paolo Uccello (1397–1475), a painter
born outside Florence who studied with Ghiberti, com-
memorates the Florentine military victory in 1432 over
its rival, the neighboring city-state of Siena. In one panel,
Battle of San Romano (Fig. 38.9), the Florentine condottiero
(mercenary soldier) Niccolò da Tolentino, confident in
his large red hat, leads his men into victory on a white
horse. On the viewer’s right, his colleague, Micheletto
Attendolo Sforza, dressed in full armor, pushes forward
on his dark horse to clash with an opposing soldier. Clean,
bright colors draw the viewer’s eye around the painting.
Uccello offers an unusual interpretation of linear
perspective, with lances broken on the ground at ninety-
degree angles to impose a grid. At the viewer’s left, a
foreshortened soldier lies face down on the ground, and
his body recedes into space parallel to the lance next to
him, showing us a man who has died in perfect linear
perspective. The ground seems to glow, allowing us to
see the lances that otherwise would have been hidden in
the meadow foliage, and the background tilts up rather
than backward to form a tapestry-like backdrop that again
directs our eyes to the battle in the foreground. Uccello
seems to acknowledge the paradox of linear perspective,
as spatial constructions are ultimately artificial arrange-
ments on a two-dimensional surface. Documents show that the three panel paintings
originally belonged to two Bartolini Salimbeni broth-
ers. Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–1492) convinced one of
them to sell the paintings to him, but when the other
refused, Lorenzo considered the contract broken and
sent an armed guard to steal the paintings from the
Bartolini palace. He then had the panels cut down to
fit his bedroom—an action that somewhat tarnishes
Lorenzo’s image as a generous art patron who sought to
protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Florence.
Color and Light
In addition to perspective, Renaissance artists were inter-
ested in optics (the study of sight), and they studied
ancient writings on light and vision. The ancient Greek
mathematician Euclid (300s BCE) identified the law
of reflection, where a surface reflects light, while the
ancient Roman scholar Ptolemy (100–170 CE) observed
and described the law of refraction (which states that a
light wave changes direction when it enters a medium,
such as a glass prism, at an angle). A complete theory
of optics was first introduced in western Europe by Ibn
al-Haytham (known as Alhazen, 965–1040) in his Book
of Optics, which Muslim traders brought to the Spanish
caliphate of Al-Andalus. The book was then brought to
Italy in the thirteenth century and translated into Latin.
Alhazen was the first to describe accurately how percep-
tion occurs and how the eye functions. The ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle’s (384–322 BCE) ideas about the per-
ception of color and light also influenced the Renaissance
color palette and how artists modeled with light and dark.
Renaissance artists sought to create figures with color and light that could better replicate how we experience
things in the natural world.
masaccio, tribute money Masaccio was interested not
only in linear perspective (for more about the linear per-
spective used in Tribute Money, see: Seeing Connections:
The World in Perspective), but also in modeling his figures
in shading and color. He was hired to assist Masolino da
Panicale (c. 1383–1447) in painting the Brancacci Chapel
in Santa Maria del Carmine, and he took over the project
when Masolino left for Hungary. Masaccio’s Tribute
Money (Fig. 38.10, p. 636) features a story from the life of
St. Peter. This fresco compresses three parts of the story
into one scene. The story begins in the middle, where a
tax collector facing away from the viewer confronts Christ.
Christ, wearing a bright blue robe, points to St. Peter in
an orange-yellow drape, directing him to Lake Galilee.
Peter also points in that direction to lead the viewer’s eye
left, where Peter appears again, having removed his robe
as he bends down to extract a coin from the mouth of a
fish. On the right side of the scene, Peter appears a third
time, back in his robe, thrusting a coin into the hand of
the tax collector. Masaccio uses color as a visual tool to
identify the figures that repeat through the compressed
narrative. In addition, he begins the story in the middle
to balance the need for visual hierarchy with the eye’s
natural movement, as in Ghiberti’s Jacob and Esau panel.
The figures stand out against the bare, muted land-
scape. The colors of their robes include a deep yellow, an
orange, and red vermillion, while Christ’s blue robe is
an ultramarine made from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious
stone, imported from Afghanistan, that was ground into powder. Masaccio modeled his figures, mimicking
the effects of light reflecting off an object to give them a
solid physical presence, unlike the flattened figures of
medieval art. The figures also cast shadows, confirming
their volume and providing depth to the foreground. While the building to the right provides orthogonal lines
that pull the space backward, the landscape reveals a
different method of depicting depth, called atmospheric
perspective. Found in ancient Roman wall murals, this
perspective relies not on straight lines but on the type of
curves found in nature. The mountains are painted in a
light gray-blue pigment made from carbon soot. The hue
is similar to the color seen when viewing mountains from
a great distance, a result of the scattering of light. The
mountains also appear smaller, less saturated in color,
and less detailed than the foreground figures. With this
fresco, Masaccio took Giotto di Bondone's naturalism
(see Fig. 37.14) a step further, to include a type of atmos-
pheric depth not seen since antiquity.
gentile da fabriano, adoration of the magi While
Masaccio and Ghiberti experimented with naturalism and
spatial developments, the contemporary painter Gentile
da Fabriano (c. 1370–1427) created a unique style of paint-
ing that demonstrates the magnificent effects of light on
color, showing not only reflection but also refraction,
which makes colors seem to shimmer. His Adoration of
the Magi altarpiece from 1423 was commissioned by Palla
Strozzi for his family chapel in Santa Trinità in Florence,
and Gentile was paid the unprecedented sum of 300 gold
florins for this public work, six times the medieval artist's
annual salary. This fee included the cost of the extensive
use of gold leaf throughout the work.
Panel paintings made from attached wood boards,
such as in this altarpiece, were the most common form
of painting before canvases were introduced later in the
Renaissance. Dense hardwoods such as poplar and oak
were typically used, and the boards were sanded and
coated with a priming mixture of glues, resin, and linen
before gesso was applied in as many as fifteen sanded
layers to create a smooth surface. The design was then
sketched in with pencil or charcoal before painting. Adoration of the Magi depicts three distinguished
foreigners, the Magi, visiting Jesus after his birth; the
work comprises a large altarpiece with an elaborate
gold frame, a predella below, and medallions above
(Fig. 38.11). On the left side of the altarpiece, the Virgin
Mary holds the Christ Child, and the Star of Bethlehem
that signaled Christ’s birth shines above Joseph’s head.
At the center, the three richly robed Magi kneel before
the Holy Family in front of a crowd of courtiers, while a
royal procession curves through the landscape back to a
distant castle, creating a long, undulating line through
the painting. The Magi and their entourage, some of
whom are thought to depict Strozzi family members,
wear ornate robes and golden crowns. Gentile painted
these robes in saturated colors with the appearance
of gold brocade and jeweled inlay. He also included
horses, donkeys, a dog, and monkeys and falcons in
the crowd. The predella scenes depict the Night Nativity
(featuring the birth of Jesus), the Flight into Egypt (in
which Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee Bethlehem to avoid
persecution by King Herod), and the Presentation in
the Temple (in which the baby Jesus is brought to the
temple forty days after his birth). In the Night Nativity,
light emanates directly from the body of Christ to illu-
minate the dark sky like a twinkling star.