Early Renaissance in Italy: 1400s

The engineering of Brunelleschi’s dome, the naturalism of Donatello’s David, and the humanism of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus each help define the Early Renaissance in Italy, which gets going in the early years of 15th century in Florence. In this period, Florence is not a city in the unified country of Italy, as it is now. Instead, Italy was divided into many city-states (Florence, Milan, Venice etc.), each with their own government (some were ruled by despots, and others were republics).

Contrapposto — Don’t stand so straight! Relax. Shift your weight. Bend a knee. Just respond to the world, like this spear-bearer.

Contrapposto

Scuola grande di S. Marco e chiesa SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, photo: Mark Edward Smith, by permission © Mark Edward Smith — Brotherhoods lent stability to religious and civic life. These wealthy institutions also commissioned paintings.

Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice

10 inches—that’s how far Venice has sunk. As sea levels and tourism rise, can this historic city survive?

Saving Venice

Donatello, St. Mark — When the citizens of Florence looked up at St. Mark, they saw a mirror of their own dignity—and of ancient nobility.

Donatello, St. Mark

Look for a revival of classical forms, increasingly precise anatomy, naturalistic movement, and convincing space.

How to recognize Italian Renaissance art

Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1470. — Romanesque, Gothic, or ancient Greek? Whether you divide this façade by styles or squares, its stones come alive.

Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Giovanni Bellini and Titian, The Feast of the Gods, 1514/29, oil on canvas, 170.2 x 188 cm (National Gallery of Art) — This canvas was rolled, varnished, reworked, and revised again. A classical scene, it once hung in a study.

Giovanni Bellini and Titian,The Feast of the ...

Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi — Three men arrive to bless Christ. Are they wise—or just rich? Better defer to that young painter in the crowd...

Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi

Gothic Visions: Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece — When reconstructed, the panels of this altarpiece resemble the architecture of an Italian Gothic cathedral.

Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors of the Florence Baptistery, bronze, 1425-52 — These gilded bronze doors are a masterpiece of clarity and illusionism. Space coheres, and figures move with ease.

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors ...

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Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi

Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints, c. 1410-16, marble, figures 6' high, Or San Michele, Florence (Italy) -detail — Capturing figures in thought, stonemasons understood what it meant to be human—just like the ancient Romans.

Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints

Oil paint in Venice — Their island climate didn’t suit fresco, so the Venetians tried oils instead—these paints blend when wet.

Oil paint in Venice

Donatello Mary Magdalene - detail — This difficult sculpture is an exercise in contrasts: frailty and power, pure spirituality and anatomical accuracy.

Donatello, Mary Magdalene

How linear perspective works (detail) — No Photoshop! Just a vanishing point, a horizon line, and some orthogonals—that’s the magic formula for reality.

How one-point linear perspective works

Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece — Bellini opens up this painting’s space, but holds the viewer at bay. The mood is calm, solemn, and contemplative.

Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece

Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ, tempera on canvas, c. 1480 - 1500 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) - detail — Mantegna was fascinated by perspective. His radical foreshortening and realism focus attention on Christ’s wounds.

Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ

Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece — With its decorative marble and golden light, this space looks a lot like San Marco. Shall we? St. Francis beckons.

Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece

Donatello, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata — The secrets of large-scale casting were lost for a thousand years, but bronze horses were no sweat for Donatello.

Donatello, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata

Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano, probably c. 1438-40, (National Gallery, London) — The Italian city-states were constantly at war, but this battle is between surface decoration and deep space.

Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano