fra angelico, annunciation The Annunciation (Fig.
38.12) by Dominican friar and painter Fra Angelico (c. 1400–
1455) reveals a much more modest image than Gentile’s
painting. In 1436, Fra Angelico moved to the monas-
tery of San Marco. Soon thereafter Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned him to paint a series of frescoes there.
The Annunciation fresco, located in the upstairs corridor
of the monks’ dormitory, presents a simplified version
of the story, in which the Archangel Gabriel informs the
Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus.
The spare setting is rendered in perspective and
with minimal, vernacular (everyday) details. The angel
Gabriel kneels before a young Virgin Mary, who is
seated on a simple wooden stool in the loggia of an
enclosed garden. The thin, elegantly posed figures have
calm facial expressions. They humble themselves with
arms crossed and a slight bow toward each other. Their
drapery is modeled in a limited color palette illumi-
nated by a light source coming from behind Gabriel.
There is a modest use of gold in Gabriel’s pink robe,
while the Virgin’s cloak is an azurite blue over an off-
white dress that blends into her skin tone. Gabriel’s
beautiful wings in stripes of rich color lead the eye to
the dark-green meadow behind him. The architecture
frames the scene with whitewashed walls and slim
Corinthian columns braced together with iron bars to
reinforce the linear perspective of the cubed space, cre-
ating a sense of harmony and order. A door opens into
a dormitory cell beyond the portico; the cell is empty
except for one window set high on the wall.
The monastery had formerly belonged to Benedictines,
followers of the early medieval St. Benedict who estab-
lished the rules of monastic life, and was transferred to the
Dominicans and rebuilt by Michelozzo di Bartolommeo
under the sponsorship of Cosimo de’ Medici as part of
the expansion of the area that also included Michelozzo’s Medici Palace (see Fig. 38.1). Michelozzo’s renovated mon-
astery shows a spare Classicism similar to Fra Angelico’s
frescoes, appropriate for the monks, who had taken a vow
of poverty, as well as for Cosimo, who maintained a private
cell to escape his worldly affairs. Because the friars—not
the general public—were the primary intended audi-
ence for the frescoes, no didactic details were needed to
tell the story they already knew. Instead, the images
were meant to inspire piety within the silence of a clois-
tered monastery.
The Language of Classicism
The revival of Classicism not only played an impor-
tant role in art patronage and the greater emphasis on
naturalism, but it also expanded the artistic language
to include a fuller symbolic and aesthetic repertoire.
The humanist scholar Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(1463–1494) wrote Oration on the Dignity of Man in 1486
to explain humankind’s capacity for greatness through
a quest for knowledge. Pico sought to bring together
diverse branches of thought including Platonism, tied to
the ancient philosopher Plato, and Christianity, which
he argued held similar truths, and these ideas promoted
an intellectual approach to art in the Renaissance. brunelleschi, the old sacristy During the period
in which Brunelleschi was working on the Florence
Cathedral dome, he also constructed several churches,
chapels, and a hospital in Florence. Citizens marveled at
the new Classical style he introduced. The Old Sacristy
(Fig. 38.13), commissioned in 1421 by Cosimo de’ Medici,
is an excellent example of Brunelleschi’s interest in
Classicism adapted for a Christian building. This small,
square room where priests prepared for services, accessed
from inside the church of San Lorenzo, was designed
with a dome set on top of a cube, in which the altar wall
is subdivided into three rectangular sections of equal
length by Corinthian fluted pilasters and molding made
from pietra serena, a gray-green stone.
Stone gridlines divide the floor into smaller squares.
An elevated, square altar is located on the wall opposite
the entrance, while an umbrella, or ribbed, dome with
twelve ribs rises above the room. Triangular pendentives
spring from the entablature to create arches that mark
the transition from the square plan to the circular dome.
In Classical antiquity, domes symbolized the heavenly
realm, and they were used for mausolea, imperial homes,
and civic buildings such as bath houses. The same sym-
bolism appears in the Old Sacristy, which was used for
Medici family tombs.
Donatello completed the interior painted stucco
reliefs, including corner medallions with scenes of the
Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, authors
of the New Testament Gospels) above the Medici family
coat-of-arms. The numbers three, four, and twelve are
embedded in the chapel’s design principles in the form
of the triangle, square, and ribs of the dome circle. These
numbers also symbolize the Trinity (the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost), the Four Evangelists, and the Twelve
Apostles (the disciples of Jesus). According to the ancient
Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 BCE), who
was a major influence on Plato, numbers have symbolic
meaning that can generate harmony, as found in musical
ratios and proportion studies. For Brunelleschi, Classical
numerology, together with medieval number symbolism,
could be used to create a rich symbolic architectural
language where harmony is achieved through numbers.
donatello, david Art had long been commissioned by
religious institutions, wealthy families, and civic groups
for the public promotion of their ideology, but the rise of
domestic art came about with the development of larger
private family homes in the Renaissance. Historians
studying household inventories have noted an increase
in material possessions for the home during this time.
One such possession is Donatello’s bronze David (Fig.
38.14), probably made in the 1440s for the courtyard of
the Medici Palace. It was the first freestanding nude
sculpture since antiquity, and it reflects Cosimo de’
Medici’s Classical interests. In the Old Testament, the
young shepherd David, who eventually became King of
the Israelites, was challenged to fight the undefeated
Philistine giant warrior Goliath. David was victorious,
and this story became a popular subject in Florence, a
city that championed its morals and intellect over brute
strength and its cultural superiority over the lingering feudal-era military rule epitomized by rivals such as
Milan. Vasari noted an inscription beneath the figure,
now gone, that stated: “Behold, a boy overcame the great
tyrant. Conquer, o citizens!”
David stands in a Classical curvilinear pose, looking
down upon the severed head of Goliath lying sideways
on the ground in front of his sandaled feet. The scene is
not violent. The nude David wears a cap decorated with
laurel (denoting both victory and perseverance) and holds
a heavy sword in one hand while anchoring his other
hand against his swayed hips. A feather from Goliath’s
helmet rests sensually against the inside of David’s thigh.
Rather than a heroic, victorious nude, here David is young,
with soft flesh, and many scholars have speculated on
the rationale for such a seemingly erotic version of this
biblical hero. It is possible that Donatello was inspired
by Plato, who argued in his Symposium that a person’s
physical beauty can inspire the viewer to contemplate
divine love, which is represented in the supreme, ideal
beauty of the youthful male figure.
38.14 Donatello, David,
c. 1440. Bronze, height 5 ft. 2⅛ in.
(1.58 m). Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence, Italy.
zanobi di domenico, nerli cassone In addition to
sculptures, artists created and decorated a wide range
of objects for the home, including furniture, tapestries,
and ceramics. Leon Battista Alberti’s text On the Family
(Libri della famiglia) from 1440 provides a description of
the life of a wealthy homeowner and, more importantly,
a glimpse into the elusive private lives of women at this
time when men dominated public spaces and shaped
cultural discourse. A young woman brought a dowry
into her arranged marriage and was responsible for the upkeep of the home and the early moral education of the
children, while her husband oversaw the family business.
A wooden marriage chest for the personal goods of a
bride is called a cassone. In September 1472, the Florentine
merchant Lorenzo Morelli paid Zanobi di Domenico
(active c. 1464–74) 21 florins to create a pair of cassoni in
anticipation of his arranged marriage to Vaggia Nerli,
who brought a large dowry from her wealthy family. This
cassone (Fig. 38.15, p. 639) was painted by Zanobi and two
other artists. It is a rare surviving example, with its spal-
liera (backboard) intact, as well as documentation of its
original ownership. Such rich furnishings were often
decorated with hunting scenes, jousting tournaments,
and stories from Classical antiquity, and this cassone
illustrates a scene from a history book of ancient Rome
written by Titus Livius, known as Livy (c. 64 BCE–c. 17 CE),
which highlights an example of brave patriotism. Such
scenes provided a new repertoire of moralizing stories to
remind the bride and groom of the importance of family
and societal loyalty.
antonio del pollaiuolo, hercules and antaeus
Another domestic work, this one found in the Palazzo
Medici, is Antonio del Pollaiuolo’s (c. 1431–1498) Hercules
and Antaeus (Fig. 38.16), from around 1475. Standing about
18 inches tall, this small bronze statuette is a versatile,
portable object that can be turned and viewed from all
sides. Pollaiuolo was interested in movement, specifically
of the human body, and here he shows the Greco-Roman
mythological wrestling match between Antaeus, the son
of an earth goddess, and Hercules, the son of Zeus. Both
were known for their physical strength, but Antaeus
derived his strength from the earth, so Hercules had to hoist him off the ground to gain the upper hand.
Hercules’ spine bends dramatically as he adjusts his
weight backward and wraps his arms around Antaeus,
while Antaeus cries in agony and tries to push Hercules
away. Their bodies are tense and angular, with bulging
calf muscles and exaggerated poses. Antaeus’s legs flail in
the air, encouraging viewers to look at the sculpture from
multiple vantage points, thereby solving the problem
of the one-point view. Such statuettes reflect a growing
interest in small domestic art, featuring Classical sub-
jects, that could be collected, studied, and displayed in
various locations in the home.
sandro botticelli, birth of venus Classical sub-
jects also appear in Sandro Botticelli’s (1444–1510) Birth of
Venus (Fig. 38.17), dated around 1482. This large painting
of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was created in
tempera on canvas, and may have been commissioned
by the Medici. Canvas paintings were rare at this time,
and generally they were found not in urban palaces but
in villas (country houses), where this painting could have
functioned as a less expensive alternative to a tapestry.
Although its original location is not known, Vasari saw
this painting at a Medici villa in the 1530s.
Large mythological paintings and nude female images
were unprecedented in Italy, yet they provide a subject
suited to wealthy families such as the Medici, who sought
to promote their humanist aspirations through such art-
works: In Birth of Venus, the display of this nude, Classical
figure expresses Platonic notions about the elevation of
physical love into a higher spiritual or divine love, through
an artistic idealization of the female form. Thus, while
a naked female figure would have been unacceptable by
Renaissance standards, a nude goddess of love, with its
detachment from earthly concerns, was deemed intel-
lectually uplifting.
The scene in Birth of Venus, perhaps taken from a poem
written by humanist scholar Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494)
and described in an ancient Greek Homeric hymn, shows
Venus (named Aphrodite in ancient Greece), after she is
born full-grown, standing on a large shell that washes up
on the shore of the Mediterranean island of either Cyprus
or Cythera, guided by the wind, blown by Zephyrus, who holds the nymph Chloris. A goddess of spring, sometimes
identified as the Roman garden goddess Pomona, pre-
pares to cover Venus with a floral robe, a suggestion of
her modesty. Venus was frequently depicted in antiquity,
and Botticelli echoes the modest pose of the Aphrodite
of Knidos by Praxiteles of Athens (see Fig. 15.1), a copy
of which he could have seen in Rome. Botticelli was less
interested in the spatial developments of the Renaissance and more focused on graceful, lyrical figures set against
a flat background to create a perfect harmony of parts,
epitomizing Platonic ideas of love and beauty.
While Florence was the center of the artistic inno-
vations that characterize the Renaissance, many other
city-states began to use art to assert political power and
cultural authority, resulting in rich artistic communities
across all of Europe.