Late 14th – first half of the 15th century

After the economic and social crisis of the second half of the 14th century, caused by bank failures, the Black Death, famine and civil wars culminating in the Ciompi revolt of 1378,^[1] an economic recovery began in Florence. The population began to grow, and public works began again under the initiative of the bourgeois oligarchy. In 1391, construction began on the Mandorla Gate at the Duomo.^[2] In 1404, the Arti decorate the outer niches of Orsanmichele.^[3]

The recovery was threatened by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who laid siege to Florence with the aim of creating a national state in Italy under the domination of Milan. Nevertheless, the Florentines held on to their independence.^[4] With the death of Visconti in 1402 and the loosening of the military stranglehold on the city, economic recovery resumed and Florence conquered Pisa in 1406 and the port of Livorno in 1421.^[5] In 1424, Florence suffered defeat at the hands of the Visconti and Lucca.^[6] The burden of war and the cost of completing the dome of Saint Mary of the Flower necessitated new taxes.^[7] Thus, in 1427, the Signoria imposed the catasto, taxing families according to their wealth, i.e. at the time taxing the families of merchant bankers.^[7][8]

Medici seigneury

Benozzo Gozzoli, frescoes in the Magi Chapel (1459), a celebration of the Medici family's power.

During the 1430s, Cosimo de' Medici began to take political action, bringing in men he trusted, while he remained in the second line, but the confrontation with Florence's other powerful families, such as the Albizzis and the Strozzi, turned against him and he was forced into exile.^[9] Nevertheless, the dissatisfied population^{[Note 1]} chased away his enemies and forced his return.^[10] Received with acclaim, he was dubbed Pater Patriaecode: lat promoted to code: la .^[11] From then on, the Medici family took power and held it for three centuries.^[12]

In 1439, with Cosimo reigning, the Council held in Ferrara was transferred to Florence because of the plague. Although this council aimed to settle the problem of the Eastern schism, its concrete result was hardly visible.^[13]

The reign of Lorenzo de' Medici, in power from 1469 to 1492, after a difficult start with the Pazzi Conspiracy,^[14] was a period of peace, prosperity and cultural refinement.^[15] Florence became an influential center, exporting its art and know-how to the other courts of Italy and Europe by sending its artists and scholars as ambascerie culturali ("cultural ambassadors"). The first decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome was the work of a group of Florentine artists, including Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Perugino.^[16]

After Lorenzo's death, a dark era began with the appearance of Jerome Savonarola, who, after the exile of Piero II de' Medici, established the Republic and created a theocratically-inspired state. His proclamations from the pulpit of St. Mark's Basilica had a profound influence on Florentine society, which, fearful of the political crisis sweeping the Italian peninsula, turned to a more austere, fundamentalist religion, in contrast to the humanist ideals inspired by the classical world that had run through the preceding period. Many artists, such as Botticelli and the young Michelangelo, abandoned creations of "profane inspiration", sometimes destroying, as did Fra Bartolomeo and Botticelli, earlier productions, which were burnt at the bonfire of the vanities.^[12]

The confrontation between Savonarola and Pope Alexander VI put an end to the influence of the monk, who was condemned as a heretic and burned in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498. From then on, the social situation became even more confused, and many artists left the city.^[17]

Meanwhile, Lorenzo the Magnificent's son Giovanni, now a cardinal, intimidated the population with the Sack of Prato (1512) and was given the keys to the city. He became pope under the name of Leo X (1513), and governed the city from Rome through members of his family.^[12]

In 1527, the sack of Rome sparked a new rebellion. The siege of Florence^[18] in 1529-1530 put an end to the Florentine Republic, which became a duchy under Cosimo I of Tuscany, who became Grand Duke after the conquest of Siena, making Florence the capital of Tuscany.^[19]

Guild influence

The Medici were bankers, not soldiers raised on chivalric ideals, and many of their commissions were more deliberately aristocratic than those of their prince counterparts. Many of the skills that gave Florentine art its distinctive form, such as practical mathematics, letters and numbers, were products of Florence's mercantile ethics. The guilds representing these interests, from silk and wool merchants to stonecutters and woodcarvers, commissioned most of the public works of the first decades of the 15th century, subjecting them to rigorous control. Like the princes, they competed with each other for prestige, alongside the wealthy Florentine entrepreneurs who built increasingly elaborate palaces and private chapels.^[20]

Sculpture

Architecture

Filippo Brunelleschi was a leading figure of the early Florentine Renaissance. Initially active as a sculptor, he turned to architecture in the first decade of the 15th century, taking advantage of his travels to Rome to refine his observations on the architecture of ancient monuments, in order to establish practical rules for construction. He was initially commissioned by the Florentine Republic to design military works such as the fortifications of Staggia^[45] and Vicopisano,^[46] before turning his attention to the problem of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore.^[47]

In his architectural work, he addresses technical-structural issues by strictly associating them with the forms' stylistic characteristics. Gray pietra serena, for example, is used for the architectural frames, contrasting with the pale rendering of the walls.

He uses classical elements inspired by architectural classical orders, concentrating only on a few modules combined in various ways to avoid repetition, in contrast to the thousand facets of Gothic architecture. The clarity of his architecture is a function of a precise harmonic union of the various parts of the building, which does not come from geometric forms, but emerges from the simple and intuitive repetition of the basic measure, often the Florentine fathom, whose multiples and submultiples generate all the useful dimensions.^[48] The Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419-1428), for example, features a portico with semicircular arches supported by columns that form nine bays with a square plan. The module is based on the length of the column, which determines both span and depth. The space thus appears clear and measurable to the naked eye, with a harmonious rhythm highlighted by a few decorative elements.^[48]

In 1421, Brunelleschi created the nobiliary chapel known as the Old Sacristy for the Basilica of San Lorenzo, before Michelangelo built the New Sacristy in 1521. This was the first centrally-planned Renaissance building: a cube surmounted by a hemispherical dome with a figurative sky, the vaults of which rest on pendentives.^[49]

In 1425, he began rebuilding the Basilica of San Lorenzo, adopting a basilica plan with three naves.^[49]

Nevertheless, the major element of his work is the cupola of Florence's Duomo,^[25][22] a project initiated by Giotto's successors and which he took over again:^[22] a testament to his architectural savoir-faire, through its dimensions, the techniques employed and the quality of the work carried out.^[50] It brings into play his conception of an open, "rationally decomposed" space.^[22]

• 
  View of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore from Giotto's campanile.
• 
  The Spedale degli Innocenti's square, Santissima Annunziata.

Painting

Masaccio

Original Sin (Masolino)

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Masaccio)

Masaccio, The Triniy or Holy Trinity, 1425. Crucifixion with vertical Trinity. Santa Maria Novella

In painting, Masaccio, whose activity was concentrated on a short period from 1422 to 1428, was an important figure in the Florentine Renaissance. In 1417, he was in Florence, where he met Brunelleschi and Donatello. On the basis of their contributions concerning the occupation of space and the strength of plastic expression, he revised Giotto's work, as evidenced in his first known work, the San Giovenale Triptych (1422). He set up a studio in collaboration with Masolino da Panicale, and the two artists influenced each other, as shown by their first studio work, Sant'Anna Metterza, exhibited at the Uffizi Museum.^[51]

Masolino's style moves away from the late Gothic of his earlier works, such as his Madonna of Humility, while Masaccio already develops a mode of painting that creates solid figures with shadow effects reminiscent of sculptures coherently placed in the pictorial space.^[52]

This strength in the construction of the figures and their position in space, which emphasizes their expressions and postures, is further developed in the Pisa Altarpiece, begun in 1426 and now dispersed, and in the frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel, begun in 1424 in collaboration with Masolino, continued by Massaccio alone from 1426 to 1427 and completed by Filippino Lippi in 1481 and 1482. The work is considered crucial to the renewal of painting, and has been studied by generations of painters, including Michelangelo.^[53]

Another major work is the Holy Trinity fresco in the church of Santa Maria Novella, with its spectacular coffered vaulted ceiling behind Christ on the Cross. Vasari, in the second edition of his Lives (1568), describes this trompe-l'œil in detail: "It is a barrel vault, drawn in perspective, and divided into caissons decorated with rosettes that diminish, so that it looks as if the vault is sinking into the wall."

This Trinity, considered a milestone in the history of art, represents the translation into painting of the laws of perspective revealed by Brunelleschi. Some critics believe that Brunelleschi himself drew the perspective lines. Others maintain that Masaccio interpreted Brunelleschi's innovations.^[54]

Massaccio is considered the greatest painter of the early Renaissance and is traditionally presented as the first modern painter. He introduced the notion of optical truth, perspective and volume into Western art. Remarkable for his ability to depict the expressions and postures of his figures, he was one of the first to put into practice architect Filippo Brunelleschi's research into perspective.^[22][55]

Masaccio's followers

Filippo Lippi, Madonne Trivulzio (1430-1432).

Masaccio's first disciples were some of his pupils and the artists who studied the master's innovations in the Brancacci Chapel. Among these, the most prominent were Fra Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico.^[56]

Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico, a pupil of Lorenzo Monaco, had already moved away from the international Gothic style. In his early works as an illuminator, he created elongated geometric figures with simple, heavily pleated clothes and luminous colors in a well-defined space. These elements can also be found in his early works on panel, such as the San Pietro Martire Triptych (1427-1428). He incorporated the stylistic innovations introduced by Masaccio, Masolino da Panicale and Paolo Uccello (interlocking interiors thanks to artificial perspective), initiating the artistic movement known as the "painters of light" by playing with light and shadow to give depth to his paintings or modelling to his figures, thus abandoning the flat tints of Gothic painting, the only relief previously given by small white touches on borders or edgings, simulating light.^[57]

Fra Filippo Lippi

Fra Filippo Lippi was initially influenced by Lorenzo Monaco and above all by Masaccio, of whom he was a pupil and whom he had seen working at the Carmine convent in Florence. Later, Filippo Lippi met Fra Angelico, who in turn influenced his art.^[58]

In his early works, such as the Madonna Trivulzio, the figures are dilated with strong contrasts and the use of color. In the group of wingless angels and in the saints depicted as children, lively expressions appear, reminiscent of the cantories of Donatello and Luca della Robbia.^[59]

Fra Filippo Lippi is renowned for his numerous depictions of the Virgin Mary.^{[Note 2][60]} These are famous for the elegance of their silhouettes and the delicacy of their facial features.^[58]

Home of innovations

Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi (1423), Florence

The innovators of Florentine art were held in high esteem and influenced artistic production. Clients, on the other hand, favored less radical changes. The best example is that of the wealthy humanist merchant Palla Strozzi, who commissioned Gentile da Fabriano to paint the retablo in the chapel of the Basilica of Santa Trinita. Gentile da Fabriano completed the Adoration of the Magi in 1425, still very much in the international Gothic style. The work comprises several scenes placed side by side, where the eye is lost in a myriad of small details and anecdotal scenes, organized in a manner faithful to the Byzantine literary model Ekphrasis, i.e. the description and interpretation of works of art accessible in Florence since 1415.^[61]

"Storytelling" artists like Lorenzo Monaco, or refined personalities whose style is halfway between Gothic fashion and "old-fashioned" novelty, like Lorenzo Ghiberti, remain popular.^[61]

The framework that emerges is based on the detachment of radical, innovative artistic positions from those of the humanist world, which in the early decades sidelined the group of innovators who remained misunderstood. The "old-fashioned" model favored by humanists offered eclectic, sometimes opposing points of view. Artists can draw inspiration from this heritage, choosing what best suits the taste and mentality of the moment.^[61]

Alberti's theorization

From 1435 onwards, innovative fervor gave way to the theorization of experimentation. The key player in this process was Leon Battista Alberti, who settled in Florence in 1434, just as the figurative revolution was coming to an end. Alberti sought to give a scientific foundation to the work of art.^[22][62] He begins to evaluate the results obtained, attenuating the differences between artists in favor of an overall vision that has the "renaissance"^[62] as its common denominator. In his tract De pictura, he includes Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia and Masaccio in the dedication.^[59]

Alberti seeks out the objective foundations and philosophical path that allowed the Renaissance to blossom, confronting technical and aesthetic themes. He dedicated himself to the three "major arts": De pictura in 1436, De re aedificatoria in 1454 and De statua in 1462.^[62] His writings served as the basis for the training of subsequent generations, facilitating the dissemination of Renaissance precepts and the transformation of the artist from "medieval craftsman" to "modern intellectual".^[59]

Intermediary artists

Lorenzo Ghiberti, The Story of Joseph, panel from the Gates of Paradise.

The next phase took place around 1450, with a more intellectual codification of the previous innovations. During these years, the political situation on the peninsula stabilized with the Treaty of Lodi (1454), which divided the territory into five major states. In the towns, the political class made the decisions, bringing dominant figures to power. Princely families, at the head of city-states, competed to produce the most beautiful expressions of their power. The bourgeoisie, less active, invested in agriculture and behaved like the old aristocracy, far from the ideals of sobriety, stubbornly showing off their wealth. The figurative language of these years is cultivated, ornate and flexible.^[63]

Once an anonymous craftsman, the artist became an important figure in society. The great creators were humanists, familiar with ancient culture and often with mathematics.^[26] Curious minds, they asserted their identity in their work. Thus, unlike the works of the Middle Ages, their creations are now often signed and dated.^[64]

Masolino

Main article: Masolino da Panicale

Masolino, Banquet of Herod, Batistery in Castiglione Olona

Masolino navigated between international Gothic and Renaissance styles. In his works created after the end of his collaboration with Masaccio, he developed a style that was easy to assimilate in places where Gothic culture was still predominant, such as in Siena, where Vecchietta was his pupil and collaborator, or in northern Italy with the frescoes at Castiglione Olona.^[69]

This cycle of frescoes is one of the greatest testimonies to the transition from Gothic to Renaissance style.^[70]

Michelozzo

Main article: Michelozzo

Michelozzo, courtyard of Palais Medici-Riccardi.

Michelozzo was a sculptor and architect, a great connoisseur of Ghiberti, Donatello and Brunelleschi, with whom he collaborated. A connoisseur of the Gothic tradition, he used the new concepts of the Renaissance to refine and enrich the old tradition. Cosimo de' Medici commissioned his most important works, including the construction of his own palace and the restructuring of the old Dominican convent and the library of the San Marco convent.^[71]

The construction of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in 1444 was the archetypal Florentine palace, in which Michelozzo closely blended the sober Florentine Gothic style with the new classical trends inspired by Antiquity. Michelozzo thus played an active role in the spread of the new style.^[72]

The arts under Cosimo de' Medici

With Cosimo de' Medici's return from exile in 1434, the Florentine Republic remained in place, but Cosimo de' Medici gradually established his de facto power through a subtle strategy of alliances, enabling his most trusted men to control the decision-making bodies while remaining personally aloof from the city government. Medici's patronage of the arts began with him, and his behavior resembled the Ciceronian Stoic model of seeking the common good and moderation, rejecting personal prestige and the display of wealth. Based on these principles, he commissioned major works, had Fra Angelico paint the frescoes of the San Marco convent and modernized the Palazzo Medici.^[77] He took a keen interest in art and science, and all Florence followed his example.^[12]

Private works have different characteristics, like Donatello's David, satisfying the demands of a cultivated environment. His heroic nudity was revolutionary at the time, counterbalancing the androgynous nature of the sculpture. Thus, according to Giorgio Vasari, "She is so natural and of such beauty that it seems incredible to the artists that she was not molded on a living model."^[78]

Cosimo conceived the idea of reviving "a kind of Academy": the Platonic Academy of Florence,^{[Note 3][79]} founded in 1459, which endorsed the intellectual trends and currents of culture by developing humanist disciplines.^{[Note 4][79][80][81]}

The arts under Piero di Cosimo de' Medici

Under Piero di Cosimo de' Medeci, son of Cosimo, the taste for the "intellectual" became more pronounced. Public works tended to focus on the collection of precious and often small objects, sought more for their intrinsic value than for their rarity, demonstrating social prestige.^[80]

Piero de' Medici ruled Florence for five years (1464-1469). He adopted the refined fashions of the aristocratic courts, emulated by the city aristocracy.^[12]

The emblematic work of his era is the frescoes covering the walls of Benozzo Gozzoli's Magi Chapel, the private chapel of the Palazzo Medici (1459), decorated on his initiative. In the sumptuous procession of the Magi appear members of the Medici family and their supporters, transported into the sacred episode in which myth becomes a pretext for representing the glittering bourgeois society of the time.^[80]

Piero de' Medici was a pious man. In 1448, he commissioned Michelozzo to build the Tabernacle of the Crucifixion at San Miniato al Monte. Around 1450, he commissioned Michelozzo and Luca della Robbia to build his studiolo, which was destroyed in 1659. He was also a great bibliophile: Filarete tells us that he looked at his books "as if they were a pile of gold."^[82] He was also a scholar, like his father, the patron of Marsilio Ficino.^[12]

Sculptors often drew inspiration from the principle of Copia and Varietas theorized by Alberti, i.e. the reproduction of similar models with slight modifications and evolutions in order to satisfy taste through a donor fashion effect. In this respect, the evolution of funerary monuments is exemplary, from Bernardo Rossellino's Leonardo Bruni (1446-1450), through Desiderio da Settignano's Carlo Marsuppini (1450-1450) to Andrea del Verrocchio's Piero and Giovanni de' Medici (1472). In these works, starting from the common Arcosolium model, we arrive at ever more refined and precious results.^[80]

Cardinal of Portugal's Altarpiece, cardinal's tomb.

One of the most significant works from this period is the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal at San Miniato al Monte, a celebration of James of Portugal, who died in Florence in 1458, and his royal household. The chapel is an example of the typical taste of mid-15th-century Florence, characterized by a diversity of materials, techniques, methods of expression and cultural references. Together, they create an elegant, finely staged effect. The architecture is in the form of a Greek cross, with each arm featuring a different decoration. The whole is unified by a continuous frieze featuring the arms of the Portuguese royalty and by the use of porphyry and serpentine coating. All surfaces are decorated, from the pavement in cosmate to the cloister-arched vault with terrecotte invetriate by Luca della Robbia.^[83]

The highlight is to the east, where the cardinal's tomb is sculpted by Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino. The theatrical space is completed by a curtain held on either side of the great arch by two painted angels. Each decoration contributes to the staging of the cardinal's "triumph of the afterlife."^[83] The overall style is characterized by the richness of the figures and their supple attitudes, creating an elegant animation never before experienced.^[83] The modelling of the sculptures is highly sensitive, creating illusionistic effects, far removed from the rational research that had animated the Renaissance artists of the first generation. The base relief features one of the earliest examples of ancient myths reused in Neoplatonist and Christian doctrine: the bullfighting theme of Mithraist descent, a symbol of resurrection and moral strength, the charioteer on the chariot (a Neoplatonist symbol of thought that guides the soul and dominates the passions), the unicorns clashing (a symbol of virginity) and the genii seated on leonine heads (a symbol of strength).^[84] In the center, above the garland, is a skull surrounded on either side by a lily and a palm, symbols of purity and the immortality of the soul. The symbolic ensemble alludes to the young prelate's moral virtues, victory over the passions and asceticism.^[83]

The actors

Fra Angelico

Madonna of the Shadows

Detail of a capital and its shadows

Main article: Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico was one of Masaccio's first followers and, in his mature phase, played an important role in Florentine art. His Dominican Thomist background encouraged him to consolidate the advances of the Renaissance, especially the use of perspective and realism, with the values of the medieval world, such as the didactic function of art. In the 1440s, his production moved towards "light painting", influenced by Domenico Veneziano, with the rational use of light sources to arrange and unify all the elements of the scene.^[56]

Examples include The Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre with its predella, where typically Gothic rhythms and symmetries are updated by a powerful spatial composition and vivid color, rich in highlights and shadows that give volume and sensitively highlight materials. His interest in the rendering of luminous phenomena led Fra Angelico in his mature phase to abandon indistinct, generic illumination in favor of a careful, rational rendering of light and shade, where each surface is associated with its own specific luster.^[85]

His decoration of the San Marco convent, financed by Cosimo de' Medici, which began in 1436 and lasted until the 1450s, was an important work for the Florentine Renaissance. Fra Angelico and his workshop created a cycle of frescoes that were intended to be a source of meditation and prayer for the monks. The scenes, intended for the monks' cells, show St. Dominic, whose attitude serves as an example of how to behave in each episode: meditation, compassion, humility, prostration, etc.^[56]

Among the frescoes created for the convent's communal areas, the Madonna of the Shadows stands out for its originality. It is painted in the narrow corridor on the second floor, lit from the left by the light coming from a small window. Even in the painting, Beato Angelico seeks to use this same source of illumination, with the shadows of the painted capitals appearing lengthwise on the plaster, while on the right, the saints have the reflection of the window in their eyes.^[85]

Domenico Veneziano

Santa Lucia de' Magnoli Altarpiece

Main article: Domenico Veneziano

Domenico Veneziano was one of the first Florentine artists to assimilate the characteristics of Nordic painting, in particular Flemish painting, which was particularly in vogue at the time and aroused considerable interest among collectors, as it met the taste of variety then dominant.^[86]

The artist's training is uncertain (Venice? But more likely Florence itself), but he acquired all the foundations available in Italy. An early example, commissioned by Piero I de' Medici, is the tondo for The Adoration of the Magi (1438-1441), in which he adds space and volume to the elegance and sanctity of the International Gothic style, unifying the view from the small details in the foreground to the landscape in the background. The work must have pleased the client, for in the following years Domenico was commissioned to decorate the church of Sant'Egidio. The fresco cycle, in which Andrea del Castagno, Alesso Baldovinetti and the young Piero della Francesca also participated, was lost. During these years, Domenico Veneziano developed a palette of light tones that seem to be imbued with pale light.^[86]

His masterpiece, Santa Lucia de' Magnoli Altarpiece (1445-1447), demonstrates his complete mastery of the rules of linear perspective in this painting with three vanishing points. The dominant element of the painting, however, is the play of light falling from above, defining the volumes of the figures and architecture, and minimizing linear suggestions: the profile of St. Lucia, for example, stands out smoothly from the contour line thanks to the contrast of the glow against the green background.^[86]

Fra Filippo Lippi

Barbadori Altarpiece

Main article: Filippo Lippi

Fra Filippo Lippi was initially influenced by Lorenzo Monaco and, above all, Masaccio. He mastered the expressions and postures of characters, and put into practice Filippo Brunelleschi's research into perspective. Later, Flemish painting and Fra Angelico also influenced his style.^[58]

After a stay in Padua, he returned to Florence in 1437 and painted the Madonna of Tarquinia, where his attention was focused on volumes, inspired by Masaccio, lighting effects and the meticulously depicted landscape. The artist was also inspired by the Flemish masters, as can be seen in the details through the window on the left, the presence of precious objects and the cartellino at the base of the throne.^[87]

His art gradually moves towards line, as in the Barbadori Altarpiece (1438), where the unity of the scene is the result of the rhythmic evolution of the contours. Light seems to envelop the figures from the drawing in a chiaroscuro that restores relief in a more subdued manner.^[87]

The frescoes Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist in Prato's Duomo (1452-1464) mark a turning point in Fra Filippo Lippi's career. In these scenes, human figures and their dynamism dominate the representation, with deep glimpses of architectures built from multiple vanishing points. The stories told are fluid and faithfully convey the human truth of the characters.^[87]

Fra Filippo Lippi had a great influence on Florentine artists, emphasizing the research of poses and the predominance of contour. This dominant trend was opposed by a minority of artists who sought harmony between limpid colors and pure volumes, proposed by Domenico Veneziano, whose success lay mainly in Umbria and the Marches.^[87]

Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Castagno, David with the head of Goliath, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Main article: Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Castagno, close to Masaccio in terms of the power of the model, developed a rigorous style based on accentuated contrast and a more dramatic rendering through the use of high-contrast tints. His figures are realistic, and their sometimes exasperated attitudes reach expressionism.^[88][89]

His most representative work is the fresco painting in the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia in Florence, and particularly the Last Supper, with figures clearly delineated by a clear outline, highlighted by cold lateral illumination. The upper part of the cycle contains the Deposition, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, which, despite their poor state of preservation, highlight episodes with a highly expressive atmosphere, going against the common image spread by Vasari "of an artist incapable of tenderness who, through his dark chromaticism, rendered the works rather raw and harsh."^[89]

In subsequent works, such as the Holy Trinity with Saints, he accentuates expressive values through the foreshortening of the cross and the realism of the figures. His style, little appreciated in Florence where the dominant taste prefers the harmony of light hues, was the foundation of the School of Ferrara.^[88]

Leon Battista Alberti

Palazzo Rucellai

Main article: Leon Battista Alberti

In Florence, Leon Battista Alberti worked mainly as an architect for the wealthy merchant Giovanni Rucellai.^[90] Unlike Brunelleschi, Alberti approached architecture not as a practitioner, but as a researcher and theorist.^[91] Alberti's particular conception of architecture is based on a purely intellectual activity aimed at creating the project, without ensuring a constant presence on the building site. For him, it's a "practical philosophy" nourished by a range of literary, philosophical and artistic experiences, leading to meditations on ethics and aesthetics.^[90]

From 1447 onwards, he completed the Palazzo Rucellai, the facade of Santa Maria Novella (1456) and finally the Rucellai Sepulchre. These were always partial interventions that Alberti downplayed as "parietal decoration". At the Palazzo Rucellai, he unified various existing buildings, concentrating above all on the facade, composed of a grid of horizontal and vertical elements between which windows are inserted. Using classical elements such as portals, cornices and capitals, he added elements from the medieval tradition, such as the rustication and geminated windows, creating a varied and elegant aesthetic result, thanks to the variation of light between the light, smooth areas of the lesene and the dark areas of the openings and grooves of the rustication.^[90]

At Santa Maria Novella, the facade has remained unfinished since 1365, its progress reaching as far as the first order of arcades, with certain elements such as the rose window already defined. Alberti seeks to integrate the old with the new, continuing the inlaid decoration in bichromatic marble and leaving the small lower arcades, inserting a classical portal in the center (derived from that of the Pantheon), with pillar-column motifs on the sides. The upper area is separated from the lower by a cornice with a square inlaid band. The two side volutes act as connectors. The whole is governed by the principle of modular composition based on the use of the square and its multiples, mitigated by a few asymmetries such as the decentering of certain vertical elements and the inlay on the attic.^[92]

Even for the tempietto del Santo Sepolcro, Giovanni Rucellai's funeral monument, Alberti used the white and green marble marquetry of the Florentine Romanesque tradition, creating a classical structure whose dimensions are derived from the golden ratio.^[93]

The return of Donatello

Donatello, Pulpit of the Passion, panel from the Compianto (1460-1466).

The gap between the artists of the first humanism and those of the new generation, oriented towards a varied and decorated artistic taste, became evident when Donatello returned to Padua in 1453, after a ten-year stay. His poignant Penitent Magdalene (1453-1455), with its rough realism and disfigurement caused by asceticism and old age, could not be more outmoded compared to Desiderio da Settignano's contemporary work, which focuses on naturalism and aesthetics.^[94]

Donatello thus found himself isolated in Florence and received his last commission, the two pulpits in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, thanks to the intervention of Cosimo de' Medici. In the Pulpit of the Passion (1460-1466), in scenes such as the Lamentation and Deposition, the artist ignores the rules of perspective, order and harmony. It is difficult to distinguish the main characters in the mass of figures. The composition cuts off parts of the scene, such as the thieves on the cross, whose feet alone are visible, giving the sensation of an indeterminate space, amplifying the unbalanced, dramatic pathos of the scene.^[94]

• 
  Donatello: Penitent Magdalene, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
• 
  Desiderio da Settignano: Penitent Magdalene, Basilica Santa Trinita.

The artist and the bottega

The lantern in Florence's Duomo, reused in Antonio Pollaiuolo's Silver Cross.

The Quattrocento saw an important evolution in the image of the artist. The figure of the manual craftsman producing "objects" on commission evolved towards a more intellectual conception aspiring to become part of the liberal arts.^[95] Writings on the theory of Leon Battista Alberti played a fundamental role. Already, in De pictura, he paints a portrait of the cultivated, literate, technically adept artist who masters all phases of the work, from idealization to manual realization. Alberti's portrayal is nevertheless idealized, and would only become truly effective in the 18th century with the dichotomy between artist and craftsman and the distinction between major and minor arts, which in the Quattrocento were still unrecognized.^[95]

The basic unit of artistic production is the bottega (workshop), which is simultaneously the place of production, trade and formation. The master's journey begins in the workshop, where apprentices enter at a very young age, between thirteen and fifteen, in practical contact with the basics of the trade, starting with the humblest tasks such as cleaning and tidying tools, then progressively taking part in the creation and realization of works.^[95] The practice of drawing is essential, whatever the art chosen. Theoretical preparation was limited to a few basic notions of mathematics and geometry. Complex processes such as linear perspective were learned empirically, without any knowledge of theoretical principles.^[95]

Botteghe are involved in two types of production:^[95]

• works commissioned by contract, in which the characteristics of the object, the materials used, the execution time and the terms of payment are precisely listed. The workshop often has complete freedom in matters of composition and style;
• routine production and marketing, such as cassoni nuptials, birth trays, votive images and furniture, which are usually produced without a specific order. Mass-produced pieces, such as Madonnas in stucco, raw terracotta or invetriata, are made from molds, templates and matrices.

In this case, the products are often copies of well-known original works. Even the most innovative pieces end up in the common catalog and are thus reproduced. Motifs are taken up and revisited in all disciplines, and models are frequently found indiscriminately in painting, sculpture, architecture and goldsmiths' and silversmiths' work, such as the miniature reproduction of the lantern of Santa Maria del Fiore in the Silver Cross at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, as well as in reliquaries, candelabras and monstrances.^[95]

Architecture

The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano.

The villa at Poggio a Caiano was one of Lorenzo de' Medici's most important projects. The villa was commissioned around 1480 to Giuliano da Sangallo.^[100] Its piano nobile is developed with terraces on all sides, starting from a base surrounded by a loggia with a continuous arcade. The volume has a square base over two floors, with a large central salon whose height is the same as the height of two floors, with a barrel vault instead of the traditional courtyard. The roof is simple, projecting over the walls on either side, with no cornice.^[101]

The façade features an Ionic tympanum that leads to a loge-vestibule with a barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling. Inside, the rooms are arranged symmetrically around the salon.^[101][102]

The villa is open to the garden thanks to the loggia, which allows a gradual transition from the inside to the outside. This feature, combined with ancient techniques such as barrel vaulting and Ionic elements, made the villa at Poggio a Caiano a model for private villa architecture, which was exported to other towns in Veneto and Rome.^[102]

The actors

Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Battle of the Nudes (1471-1472)

Andrea del Verrocchio

Verrocchio, David.

Main article: Andrea del Verrocchio

Andrea del Verrocchio, a versatile artist skilled in drawing, goldsmithing, painting and sculpture, was inclined towards naturalism and rich ornamentation.^[105] During the 1470s, he produced elegant works that gradually became monumental, such as David, a theme taken up by other illustrious artists, to which he applied "courtly" canons, in the effigy of a daring, elusive youth revealing unprecedented psychological expressions. The space, which is occupied in a complex manner, solicits various points of view on the part of the spectator. The soft modeling, anatomical precision and psychology of the figure probably influenced Verrocchio's pupil Leonardo da Vinci.^[105]

During the 1470s, Verrocchio's versatile workshop was one of the most solicited in Florence, a melting pot for new talents such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi and Domenico Ghirlandaio.^[98]

Sandro Botticelli, formation and maturity

Botticelli, Madonna of the Magnificat (1483-1485 approx.)

Main article: Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli was closely associated with the Medici court and its ideal of harmony and beauty.^[107] Already in his first dated work, Fortitude (1470), he demonstrates his dexterity in the refined use of color and chiaroscuro derived from his first master, Filippo Lippi, but animated by a greater solidity and monumentality, in the manner of Verrocchio, with a linear tension learned from Antonio Pollaiuolo. Botticelli's style is a particular result of all these influences, with the figure seemingly placed on the surface rather than seated on the foreshortened throne, animated by a set of lines that dematerialize its appearance. The fundamental characteristic of Botticelli's style is the drawing and evidence of the contour line.^[107]

Botticelli's research led him to develop an incisive, "virile" style, with a progressive detachment from the natural. In the Madonna of the Magnificat (1483-1485), for example, he experimented with optics, with figures that appear as if reflected in a convex mirror, and whose dimensions are greater than those at the center, thus moving away from the rational, geometric space of the early Quattrocento.^[107]

Primavera (c. 1478) is probably his most important work, perfectly in tune with "Laurentian" ideals in which myth reflects moral truths and modern style inspired by Antiquity. Spatiality is barely hinted at, with the scene set in front of a shady copse where nine figures are arranged in a semi-circle. The Venus in the center represents the axis, with two symmetrical groups on the sides, with rhythms and pauses reminiscent of a musical undulation. The dominant motif is the linear cadence, linked to the metrical aspect, as in the very fine veils of the Graces, with their supple volumes and the search for a type of ideal, universal beauty.^[108] The same considerations apply to The Birth of Venus (c. 1485), probably through the Primavera.^[109]

The first symptoms of a crisis are already apparent in Florence, with the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the establishment of Savonarola's republic. This gradual shift was already evident in other artists such as Filippino Lippi.^[109]

• 
  Botticelli, Fortitude (1470)
• 
  Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1485)
• 
  Botticelli, Primavera (c. 1478)

The young Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo, Ginevra de' Benci (c. 1475)

Main article: Leonardo da Vinci

In 1469, Leonardo da Vinci entered Verrocchio's workshop as an apprentice.^[110] From the 1470s onwards, he received a series of commissions demonstrating his adherence to the "finito" style, with its meticulous rendering of detail, supple pictorial execution and openness to Flemish influences, such as the Annunciation (c. 1472-1475) and the Madonna of the Carnation (1475-1480).^[98] In the latter work, the artist's style is already rapidly maturing towards a greater fusion between the elements of the image, with more sensitive and fluid passages of light and chiaroscuro; indeed, the Virgin emerges from a room in semi-darkness, in contrast to a distant, fantastic landscape that appears through two windows in the background.^[111]

The rapid maturation of Leonardo's style brought him into confrontation with his master. In the past, a series of sculptures by Verrocchio have been attributed to the young Leonardo, such as Verrocchio's Dama col mazzolino (1475-1480), in which the tender rendering of the marble seems to evoke the atmospheric effects of Leonardo's pictorial works such as Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci (c. 1475). The similarities between these two works can also be seen at iconographic level, if we consider that Leonardo's painting was originally larger in size, with the presence of the hands in the lower part, of which a study of hands on paper remains in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.^[111]

The Baptism of Christ (1475-1478), a collaborative work between the two artists, marks the closest point of contact, however, in 1482 Leonardo's Florentine experience came to an end when, having begun the Adoration of the Magi, he distanced himself from the artists called to work on the Sistine Chapel and moved to Milan.^[110][111]

Domenico Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Conferma della Regola francescana, Sassetti Chapel (1482-1485).

Main article: Domenico Ghirlandaio

Along with Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli and Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio was one of the members of the mission ambasceria artistica set up by Lorenzo de' Medici to reconcile with Pope Sixtus IV. He was sent to Rome to decorate the Sistine Chapel.^[112]

Domenico Ghirlandaio trained first in the workshop of Alesso Baldovinetti,^[99] where he came into contact with Flemish art, whose style remained a constant throughout his career, and then probably with Verrocchio.^[113]

To this specificity, from his earliest works he added an attraction for serene, balanced compositions and for the creation of highly expressive portraits from a physiognomic and psychological point of view. On his return from Rome, he enriched his repertoire with reproductions of ancient monuments.^[114] All these characteristics, combined with his ability to organize an efficient workshop with his brothers, made him the main artist in demand by Florentine high society clients during the 1480s. From 1482, he worked on the Histories of St. Francis in the Sassetti Chapel of the Santa Trinita Basilica, and from 1485 on the Tornabuoni Chapel in Santa Maria Novella.^[115]

His talent for storytelling and the clarity and attractiveness of his language were the keys to his success. His audience was not to be found in Neoplatonist intellectual circles, but among the upper-middle class, more accustomed to trade and banking than to ancient literature and philosophy, eager to see themselves portrayed as participating in sacred stories, and little inclined to the frivolities and anxieties that ran through the minds of painters like Botticelli and Filippino Lippi.^[116]

Late Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli's last works are all characterized by religious fervor, and reflect a rethinking of the principles that had guided the artist's previous activity. The return to early Quattrocento modes highlights the abandonment of traditional figurative systems.^[107]

The turning point is clearly evident in the allegorical work Calumny of Apelles (1496). The work pretends to recreate a lost painting by the Greek painter Apelles, which was created to defend himself from an unjust accusation described by Lucian of Samosata. In a monumental loggia, an evil judge sits on the throne advised by Ignorance and Suspicion; in front of him is Rancor, the ragged man holding Slander by the arm, a beautiful, richly dressed woman being groomed by Seduction and Deceit. Calumny drags the helpless "slandered" across the ground with one hand, and with the other clutches a flameless torch symbolizing false knowledge. The old lady on the left is Remorse, and the last female figure is Nuda Veritascode: lat promoted to code: la (Naked Truth), whose gaze turned skyward indicates the only source of Justice. The dense decoration of the architectural elements and the frenzy of the figures accentuate the dramatic sense of the painting.^[117] The whole recreates a kind of "tribunal of history", whose accusation seems directed against the ancient world, whose absence of justice, one of the fundamental values of civil life, is bitterly observed.^[119]

Examples of stylistic regression are the Altarpiece of San Marco (1488-1490), with its archaic gilded background, and The Mystical Nativity (1501), where spatial distances become confused, proportions dictated by chosen hierarchies and the expressive poses, often accentuated, end up appearing unnatural.^[117]

• 
  The Altarpiece of San Marco (1488-1492).
• 
  The Calumny of Apelles (1496).
• 
  The Mystical Nativity (1501).

Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi, Saint Philip driving the dragon from the Temple of Hierapolis, Filippo Strozzi Chapel at Santa Maria Novella (1487-1502).

Filippino Lippi, son of Fra Filippo Lippi, was one of the first artists to express a sense of unease in his style. Probably present in the Sistine Chapel alongside Botticelli during his stay, he enriched his repertoire with archaeological references, inspired by a desire to commemorate the ancient world.^[115]

Filippino Lippi was influenced by the Savonarola period and the debate between two parties, one in favor of the monk (Piagnoni) and the other in favor of the Medici (Palleschi). During these years, the choice belonged to the party chosen by the patron. So, alongside flamboyant productions for the aristocracy, we also find austere works inspired by the monk's preaching. Filippino Lippi worked for both parties. Intense mysticism can be seen in the pair of panels of Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.^[120]

Filippino Lippi set his figures in a landscape that recreates the ancient world down to the smallest detail, showing the influence of the grottesco style he had seen on his trip to Rome. It is in the frescoes of the Carafa chapel that we can detect what was to become the signature characteristic of Filippino's style: Botticellian elegance and simplicity is complicated by the introduction of more and more detail and fantastic architecture, "where he deploys astonishing archaeological splendor."^[121] In this way, he creates an "animation", mysterious and fantastic, but his disturbing style also shows unreality in a kind of nightmare. He depicts deformed, merciless executioners with dark faces who threaten the saints. In the scene of Saint Philip driving the dragon out of Hierapolis, the statue of the "pagan god" Mars is a menacing figure who seems to challenge the Christian saint.^[122]

Young Michelangelo

Michelangelo, Battle of the Centaurs (c. 1492)

Michelangelo Buonarroti entered the workshop of brothers Daniele and Domenico Ghirlandaio^{[Note 5][Note 6][123]} as a very young apprentice, copying masters such as Giotto at the Peruzzi Chapel and Masaccio at the Brancacci Chapel. Already in these early works, he shows a facility for assimilating the fundamental stylistic elements of the masters, particularly regarding plastic and monumental aspects.^[123][124]

Under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici, he studied the classical models available to the Medici in the garden of the San Marco convent, where the artist became aware of the indissoluble unity between the images of myths and the passions that animated them, rapidly becoming capable of reviving the classical style without being a passive interpreter copying a repertoire.^[124] The Battle of the Centaurs (c. 1492) is a case in point. The tumultuous movement and strong contrast recall the Roman sarcophagi and bas-reliefs of Giovanni Pisano, and the lost Sleeping Cupid, presented as a classical work and which deceives Cardinal Riario in Rome,^[125] who, once his anger has passed after the discovery of the deception, wants to meet the artist by bringing him to Rome, where he will produce his first masterpieces.^[126][127]

But alongside these lively, vigorous works, Michelangelo demonstrates an ability to adopt a variety of languages, as in the more intimate Madonna of the Stairs (1490-1492). Inspired by Donatello's stiacciato, it shows, in addition to a certain virtuosity, the ability to transmit an impression of blocked energy, given by the unusual position of the Virgin and Child, who seem to show their shoulders to the viewer.^[126]

In the following years, moved by Savonarola's preaching, he abandoned secular subjects and charged his works with psychological and moral meanings.^[126]

Leonardo's return and departure

Leonardo returned to Florence shortly before August 1500, after the fall of Ludovico Sforza.^[110] A few months later, he exhibited a cartoon with Saint Anne, described by Vasari, in the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata:

It now seems to be accepted that this is not the Cartoon de Saint Anne now in the National Gallery in London^[129] but rather a preparatory carton for The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist in the Louvre, completed much later.^[130] Both works are nevertheless faithful to the Florentine work. In the London work, the figures are tightly packed into a single block and articulated in a rich interweaving of gestures and glances, with fluid modeling of pleats and drapery; very close together in the foreground, the figures are monumental and grandiose as in The Last Supper, while the sfumato generates a delicate balance in the alternation of light and shadow. The emotional component is powerful, especially at the point of strength of Saint Anne's gaze turned towards the Virgin.^[130] The Paris work is more supple and natural, with elegant attitudes and a deep rocky landscape that sfumato links to the figures.^[130] Leonardo's lesson had a strong impact on local artists, revealing a new formal universe that opened up unexplored new horizons in the field of artistic representation.^[128]

In 1503, some time before Michelangelo, Leonardo was commissioned with a fresco to decorate part of the large walls of the Hall of the Five Hundred in Palazzo Vecchio with a depiction of The Battle of Anghiari, a victorious feat of arms for the Republic intended as a "counterpart" to Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina.^[110]

For this work, Leonardo experimented with a new technique, inspired by the encaustic painting technique described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, that would allow him to avoid being impeded by the short time needed to complete the fresco. As with The Last Supper, this choice proved unsuitable.^[131] The size of the painting meant that the fires could not reach a sufficiently high temperature to dry the colors covering the plaster, which would then fade or disappear. In December 1503, the artist interrupted the transfer of the drawing from cartoon to wall, frustrated by this new failure.^[131]

Among the best copies inspired by Leonardo's cartoon, all partial, is that by Rubens in the Louvre.^[131] The cartoon is lost, and the last traces of the work were probably covered by Vasari's frescoes in 1557. From the preparatory drawings, we can see the marked difference in representation compared to the earlier battle paintings, organized by Leonardo as a staggering whirlwind with an unprecedented wealth of movements and attitudes linked to "bestial madness" (pazzia bestialissima, as the artist called it).^[132]

The Mona Lisa, probably a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of "Giocondo", dates from these same years. One of Leonardo's most important works, it is characterized by minute light fades (sfumato), atmospheric perspective of the landscape and the enigmatic smile that has contributed to the development of the myth.^[132]

In 1508, the artist returned first to Milan, then in 1516 to the French court, becoming painter to Francis I.^[110][133]

• 
  The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist cartoon, National Gallery
• 
  The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, Louvre
• 
  Study of faces for the The Battle of Anghiari.

Return of Michelangelo (1501-1504)

Michelangelo, David

In the spring of 1501, after four years in Rome, Michelangelo also returned to Florence. The consuls of the Arte della Lana and the workers of the Duomo of Florence entrusted him with an enormous block of marble to sculpt a David, an exhilarating challenge on which the artist worked throughout 1503, completing the finishing touches in early 1504. The "colossus", as the sculpture was called at the time, is a triumph of ostentatious anatomical virtuosity, depicting David as a dreamy, already victorious adolescent, a striking departure from the traditional iconography of the athletic biblical hero depicted until then in the prime of life and preparing for battle. The David's limbs are all in tension, and the face is focused, showing maximum concentration, both physical and psychological. The nudity, beauty and sense of domination of the passions in order to defeat the enemy make the David a symbol of the virtue of the Republic, as well as the perfect embodiment of the physical and moral ideal of Renaissance man. The original location on the buttresses of the Duomo was quickly walled up, and the statue was finally placed in front of the Palazzo dei Priori.^[134]

The work aroused great enthusiasm, establishing the artist's reputation and securing him a large number of commissions, including a large series of Apostles for the Duomo, of which he only sketched St. Matthew, a Madonna for a merchant family in Bruges, and a series of sculpted and painted tondi. Michelangelo left suddenly for Rome in March 1505, leaving many projects unfinished.^[135]

Michelangelo was influenced by the Saint Anne of Leonardo. Indeed, he took up the theme in a number of drawings, including one in the Ashmolean Museum, in which the circular movement of the group is blocked by deeper, almost sculptural chiaroscuro effects. In the Madonna of Bruges, the cold rigidity of Mary contrasts with the dynamism of the Child, who seems to project himself towards the viewer, taking on symbolic meanings. Their figures are inscribed in an ellipse of great purity and apparent simplicity, exalting their monumentality.^[135]

Given the "unfinished" nature of some tondi, such as the Pitti Tondo and the Taddei Tondo, it is difficult to determine whether Michelangelo intended to draw inspiration from Leonardo's atmospheric sfumato. A clear reaction to such a suggestion can be seen in the Doni Tondo,^{[Note 7][136]} probably painted for the wedding of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi.^[136] The figures of the Holy Family are linked in a spiral movement, with clearly distinct planes of light and shadow, prominent profiles and intense colors.^[137]

From 1504 onwards, Michelangelo worked on a major public commission: the fresco decoration of the Hall of the Five Hundred with the Battle of Cascina, which was meant to be a counterpart to the work begun by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist prepared only a cartoon, which was much admired and studied, but was a victim of its own success, first vandalized and then destroyed. The cartoon had become a fundamental model for the study of the human figure in motion, both for local and visiting artists. Numerous figures were depicted in extremely lively, dynamic attitudes, with many elements borrowed from antiquity, as evidenced by the few copies and variants studied in the preparatory drawings.^[138]

• 
  St. Anne with Virgin and Child Christ, Ashmolean Museum.
• 
  Madonna of Bruges.
• 
  Taddei Tondo.
• 
  Pitti Tondo.
• 
  Aristotile da Sangallo, copy of Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina.

Raphael in Florence (1504-1508)

Madonna del Prato (1506)

In 1504, echoes of the innovations unveiled by Leonardo and Michelangelo's cartoons reached Siena, where Raphael, a pupil of Perugino and now a promising young artist helping Pinturicchio decorate the Piccolomini Library,^[139] was staying. Deciding to go to Florence, he had a letter of recommendation prepared for him by Giovanna Feltria, Duchess of Sora, sister of the Duke of Urbino Giovanni della Rovere. In Florence, Raphael studied the local artistic tradition from the quattrocento to the most recent innovations, demonstrating an extraordinary capacity for assimilation.^[140]

Raphael worked mainly for private commissions, creating numerous small- and medium-format devotional paintings, especially of the Virgin and Child and the Holy Family. He also painted portraits. In these works, he continually varies the theme, seeking new groupings and attitudes, with a particular attention to naturalness, harmony and rich, intense color with a background derived from the Umbrian style.^[140]

The starting point for his compositions is varied, and he takes certain suggestions from Donatello's Pazzi Madonna, Tempi Madonna, or Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo, Small Cowper Madonna or Bridgewater Madonna.^[140] From Leonardo, Raphael adopted the principles of plastic-spatial composition, but avoided allusions and symbolic implications. Moreover, he prefers spontaneous, natural feelings to "Leonardian indefiniteness". This is evident in portraits such as that of Maddalena Strozzi, where the mid-figure placement in the landscape, with hands folded, reveals his inspiration from the Mona Lisa, but with results where the description of physical lines, clothes, jewels and the luminosity of the landscape prevail.^[141]

Alternating between Umbria and Urbino, during this period he produced a work in Perugia, the Baglioni Altarpiece, created in Florence and inspired by Florentine trends. In the central compartment, he depicts The Deposition, the culmination of his studies and elaborations based on Perugino's Lament over the Dead Christ from the Florentine church in the Palatine Gallery of Florence's Palazzo Pitti. The artist thus created a dramatic, dynamic monumental composition in which clear signs of Michelangelo's style and of antiquity shine through, particularly in the Morte di Melagro, which the artist saw during a trip to Rome in 1506.^[142]

His last work from the Florentine period of 1507-1508 is the Madonna of the Baldacchino, a large altarpiece with a Holy Conversation organized around the central point constituted by the Virgin's throne, with a grandiose architectonic background cut into the sides to amplify its monumentality. The work was a model for the following decade for artists such as Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolomeo.^[142]

• 
  Small Cowper Madonna.
• 
  Tempi Madonna.
• 
  Bridgewater Madonna.
• 
  Portrait of Maddalena Doni.
• 
  The Deposition.
• 
  Madonna of the Baldacchino.

Other artists

Piero di Cosimo, Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (c. 1480)

During the early Cinquecento, many other artists worked in Florence. They often brought with them alternative styles and content, but did not leave their mark on the period in any significant way.

Among them is Piero di Cosimo, the last great artist of the Florentine art tradition that stretches from Filippo Lippi to Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. Piero, who owes his nickname to his master Cosimo Rosselli, was an ingenious and imaginative artist, capable of creating singular and bizarre works. His work explores religious painting, portraits and mythological pictures. Many of his paintings play on a dualism between charming naivety and troubled eroticism that appears very "modern". Some seem to follow the theme of "Histories of Primitive Humanity."^[143]

In sculpture, Andrea Sansovino^[144] and his pupil Jacopo were alternatives to Michelangelo. Sansovino was a craftsman of slender, vibrant forms.

Other sculptors, such as Benedetto da Rovezzano,^[145] although very active and in demand, did not renew their repertoire, remaining faithful to the tradition of the 14th century.

In architecture, Giuliano^[146] and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder excelled in "central plan" sacred buildings,^[147] while in private construction Baccio d'Agnolo imported classical "Roman-style" models, as in the Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni.^[148]

Fra Bartolomeo

After a four-year break caused by his taking of the vows, and influenced by Savonarola's preaching, Fra Bartolomeo began painting again in 1504. Initially influenced by his master Cosimo Rosselli and the entourage of Domenico Ghirlandaio, he moved towards a severe, essential conception of sacred images, opening himself up to the suggestions of the "greats", in particular Raphael, with whom he had made friends during his Florentine stay.^[149]

A trip to Venice enriched his palette, as evidenced by the altarpiece The Eternal Father with Saints (1508), characterized by austere, orderly eloquence. In The Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena (1511), he followed the pattern of Raphael's Madonna of the Baldacchino, amplifying the monumentality of the figures and further varying the attitudes of the figures.^[149]

A trip to Rome allowed him to see the works of Michelangelo and Raphael at the Vatican, which, according to Vasari, disturbed him to such an extent that he eventually withdrew into himself, diminishing his vigor and innovative enthusiasm.^[149]

Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto, Madonna of the Harpies (1517)

Even for Andrea del Sarto, trained in Piero di Cosimo's workshop, the point of reference is the works of the three "geniuses" in Florence.

Experimenting with new iconographies and techniques, his first works can be found in the Chiostrino dei Voti (Cloister of The Vows) in the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata and in the monochrome frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence. The modernity of his language, narrative style and well-ordered rhythms soon made him a point of reference for a group of contemporary artists such as Franciabigio, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, who in the 1510s formed a school known as scuola dell'Annunziata, antagonistic to that of Fra Bartolomeo and Mariotto Albertinelli in San Marco convent, with its more solemn, calm stylistic accents.^[149]

Andrea del Sarto knew how to reconcile the chiaroscuro of Leonardo, the plasticity of Michelangelo and the classicism of Raphael, thanks to an impeccable execution, free and supple in its modeling, which earned him the appellation of pittore senza errori ("painter without error.")^[150] His Last Supper in the San Salvi Museum remains a model of the genre, a fresco that took him 16 years to complete.

In 1517, he produced his masterpiece Madonna of the Harpies, with its pale colors and well-calibrated monumentality, without overdoing the anatomy like his younger colleagues.^[150]

In 1518-1519, he joined the court of Francis I of France. At Fontainebleau, he worked in the wake of the aged Leonardo, who died in 1519. He produced several lost works, including Charity, signed in 1518, a work typical of Florentine culture, with its pyramid-like construction and figurative plasticity. A certain malaise shortened the artist's presence in France, making his stay a "missed opportunity" (he would remain indebted to King Francis for the sums advanced), according to Vasari, who was recalled to Florence by his wife.^[150]

In Florence, he gradually turned to revising old designs, entrusting their execution to his workshop, with the exception of a few works such as the Madonna in Glory with Four Saints (1530) in the Palatine Gallery at Palazzo Pitti, whose characteristics anticipate the devotional motifs of the second half of the century.^[150]

Pontormo

Pontormo, The Deposition from the Cross (1526-1528)

At first, Jacopo Pontormo imitated the well-ordered narrative style and rhythms of his master Andrea del Sarto, but then began a process of renewing traditional patterns. The spatial and narrative organization of episodes becomes more complex than that of his colleagues, as in Joseph in Egypt. The Pucci Altarpiece (1518) is even more innovative. The traditional pyramid structure of the Holy Conversation is overturned, with the figures arranged along diagonal lines and the wide-eyed, worried expressions of the figures reminiscent of Leonardo.^[151]

Jacopo Pontorno meticulously studies his subjects, and his work is the result of a mental process whose figures possess a suspended, crystallized beauty.^[151]

In 1521, he painted Vertumnus and Pomona, a bucolic scene in classical style for a lunette in the Medicean villa at Poggio a Caiano. From 1522 to 1525, he lived in the Carthusian monastery in Florence, where he created a series of frescoes inspired by the carvings of Albrecht Dürer. His choice of the Nordic model, already very popular throughout northern Italy, confirmed his break with the traditional canons of the Florentine Renaissance. This choice of new reformist ideas from Germany was criticized by Giorgio Vasari.^[151]

Rosso Fiorentino

Rosso Fiorentino, Volterra Deposition (1521)

Rosso Fiorentino, also a pupil of Andrea del Sarto, shared Pontormo's artistic path until 1523, when he left Florence for Rome. He participated in all the innovations of the period, revising traditional concepts. He focused on expressive, almost caricatural distortion, by drawing on the works of Filippino Lippi and Piero di Cosimo. His masterpiece, the Volterra Deposition (1521) at the Art Gallery (Pinacothèque communale) in Volterra, reveals his search for synthetic forms. In this painting, the placement of the figures is governed by an interweaving of almost paradoxical lines, such as the double direction of the ladders set against the cross. Various figures with forced expressions make frenzied, exalted gestures.^[152] In October 1530, Rosso Fiorentino joined Francis I's court. He is considered the founder of the first School of Fontainebleu, which launched the French Renaissance in the art of painting.^[153]

Michelangelo at St Lorenzo

In 1515, the solemn visit of Pope Leo X (Giovannni di' Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent) to his native city^[154] signaled the return of the Medici signoria after the Republican interlude.^[154] The city's finest artists participated in the creation of ephemeral decorative displays. Jacopo Sansovino and Andrea del Sarto created the ephemeral facade for the unfinished cathedral.^[155][156] This work impressed the pontiff, who soon afterwards launched a competition for another unfinished facade, that of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, patronized by the Medici family.^[156][157] Of the designs submitted by artists such as Giuliano da Sangallo, Raphael, Jacopo and Andrea Sansovino, the Pope finally chose Michelangelo's, characterized by a rectangular profile that differed from the "gabled" shape of the basilica's naves.^[156][158] The project, which also included a vast decoration of marble and bronze sculptures, went ahead at the end of 1517, but a series of events linked to the supply of materials slowed down the work and pushed up costs.^[155]

In 1519, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino and nephew of the Pope, died after the death of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, jeopardizing the dynasty. The Pope changed his plans and decided to build a funeral chapel known as Sagrestia Nuova^{[Note 8]} Michelangelo was commissioned to carry out the project.^[156][157]

As early as 1520, a letter from the artist, in which he complained about the delay in the facade project, reminded us that studies for the chapel had already begun.^{[Note 9][154][156]} Similar in shape and symmetrical to Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia, built a century earlier, the new chapel was intended to house the tombs of the two dukes, Lorenzo and Giuliano, respectively father and uncle of the pope.^[155][156]

Initially, Michelangelo presented a project with a central plan that followed the layout of the first project for the Tomb of Julius II, but lack of space required an alternative solution with the funerary monuments placed against the walls.^{[Note 10][156]} In terms of architecture, the layout of the walls differs from Brunelleschi's model in that the windows are inserted in an intermediate space between the lower wall and the large lunettes below the dome. The tombs are attached to the walls, with statues in niches, and take the form of aediculae above the doors and windows.^{[156][158][159]}

In 1521, the death of the Pope led to an initial suspension of work.^[156][158] Work resumed with the election of Clement VII (Giulo de' Medici), but was interrupted in 1527 following the sack of Rome and the final establishment of the Republic in Florence.

In 1530, the city was taken over by the Medici, and Michelangelo frantically resumed work until 1534, the year of his final departure for Rome.^[157] He created the statues of the two Dukes in classical style, without dwelling on the portraitist aspect, and the four Allegories of Time, elongated figures of Night, Day, Dusk and Dawn, complementary in theme and pose, as well as the Medici Madonna. The general theme is that of the survival of the Medici dynasty and the comfort provided by religion (the Madonna), to which the eyes of the two dukes are eternally turned. The other figurative allegories (of rivers) remain unresolved, as do the bronze bas-reliefs and frescoes that were probably intended to decorate the glasses.^[159][160]

From 1524, work on the sacristy was intertwined with that on another major project at San Lorenzo, the Laurentian Library, commissioned by Clement VII. The reading room, based on Michelozzo's design for the Basilica of San Marco, has a longitudinal development and numerous windows on all sides, without resorting to the partition into naves. The chording of the walls and the exact copy of the ceiling and paving create a geometric sweep of space in conflict with the violent plastic contrasts and strong verticality of the vestibule.^[157][161]

As Vasari reminds us, Michelangelo's architecture at San Lorenzo had a strong influence on the artistic culture of the time, introducing the "license" theme into classical architectural language.^[161]

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