Renaissance Sculpture in Italy (1400-1500)

• The transition from feudalism to monarchy, which occurred in Spain,

France, Germany, and England, had no precise parallel in Italy.
Feudalism was a northern, not a southern, institution, and was foreign
to the Italian spirit.
• A large portion of Central Italy was comprised in the States of the
Church; and the whole of Southern Italy and Sicily belonged to the
Kingdom of Naples. Nevertheless, a tendency toward monarchy
prevailed.
• In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the patron-age of the arts came
largely from families like the Visconti and Sforza at Milan, the Gonzaga
family at Mantua, the Montefeltro at Urbino, the Malatesta at Rimini,
the Este at Ferrara and Modena, the Bentivoglio at Bologna, and the
Medici at Florence. The same furtherance of the arts was shown by the
popes of Rome, especially by Sixtus IV. and Julius II.
• A similar transformation took place in the status of the artist. The
committee in charge of the construction of the Duomo of Florence
yielded to an individual architect—Brunelleschi. Similarly, the habit of
consigning the construction of baptistery and sacristy doors, high
altars and pulpits, to two or more sculptors passed away, and greater
recognition was given to the result of a single mind. In fact, the history
of all the arts at this period becomes less and less a history of schools,
and is more and more concerned with the works of individual artists.
• If individualism be an important feature of Renaissance civilization, a
no less striking characteristic is its natural-ism. The growth of physical
and historical science, the cultivation of classical literature, the
increase of comfort and pleasure in all forms of social life, are
witnesses to a new spirit. This is seen in sculpture in the increase of
contemporary subjects as well as in the change from a conventional to
a more naturalistic treatment of proportions, anatomical structure,
drapery, and perspective.
• Italy never wholly lost the remembrance of Greek and Roman art, but
its power was seriously checked by German and Lombard and Frankish
influences. The return to classical forms in sculpture may be said to
have begun at the time of Niccola Pisano, and, though checked in the
fourteenth century, it continued in the fifteenth century. Through a
greater part of the fifteenth century Gothic traditions survived in many
directions, but usually assumed something of a classic garb. The
classic spirit did not have an all-controlling influence until the early
sixteenth century.

SUBJECTS:
 • The demand for sculpture in the 15th and 16th centuries remained
chiefly ecclesiastical. The exteriors of churches were decorated with
sculptures, not only around and over the portals, but sometimes the
entire facade was covered with statues in niches and reliefs of figured
or decorative design.
• In the interiors were sculptured altar-pieces, pulpits, choirs, galleries,
fonts, ciboria, tabernacles, candlesticks, single statues of saints and
angels, crucifixes, Madonnas, and sometimes large groups of statues.
• Palaces and private houses were provided with sculptural ornament
about their portals, with friezes and chimney pieces, carved or
moulded ceilings, decorative furniture, portrait statues and busts,
statuettes, and a host of useful objects which were carved or beaten or
moulded into beautiful forms. Open squares and private gardens were
adorned with statues and fountains and vases, executed by the most
distinguished sculptors. Even the country highways had their shrines,
with crucifixes or reliefs of Madonnas or saints, frequently a
reproduction in terracotta or stucco of the work of a master.
• The subjects of ecclesiastical sculpture were naturally selected from
the Old and New Testament and from the lives of the saints. The
Madonna with the Child is the most universal and characteristic subject
during the Early Renaissance. Later she appears frequently
accompanied by saints. Legends from the life of Christ, of the
Madonna, of St. Francis or of special patron saints, were common in
sculpture as in painting. Decorative motives of classic origin were
freely introduced into ecclesiastical sculpture, but mythological
subjects more rarely.

MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE:

• The precious metals, gold and silver, played a less important role than
in the Gothic period. The goldsmith's atelier continued for a time to be
the art school from which issued architects, sculptors, and painters.
But his influence was gradually restricted to work in the precious
metals, and the arts became more independent of each other.
• Bronze now assumed a more important role, being used for reliefs first,
then for statues, busts, candelabra, and minor objects. It was a favorite
material with Renaissance artists, not only on account of its durability
and ductility, but also because of its brilliant effect when gilded.
• In stone sculpture the growing demand for delicate and refined form,
notably in decorative detail, led to an extensive use of marble and the
finer calcareous stones, such as the pietra d' Istria, and the finer
sandstones, such as the pietra serena. The white Carrara marble was
extensively used for monumental sculpture, but was softened in color
by the use of wax. Details such as the hair, angels' wings, ornaments
of robes, and architectural mouldings were usually gilded. The
 background, when not sculptured, was commonly colored a grayish
blue. Highly polychromatic marble sculpture was rare.
• The sphere of sculpture was considerably enlarged by the use of
terracotta. This afforded a cheap substitute for marble, and when
glazed was equally durable.

FAMOUS SCULPTORS:

• Donatello's (1386–1466) study of classical sculpture lead to his

development of classicizing positions (such as the contrapposto
pose) and subject matter (like the unsupported nude – his second
sculpture of David was the first free-standing bronze nude created
in Europe since the Roman Empire.) The progress made by
Donatello was influential on all who followed; perhaps the greatest
of whom is Michelangelo, whose David of 1500 is also a male nude
study; more naturalistic than Donatello's and with greater emotional
intensity. Both sculptures are standing in contrapposto, their weight
shifted to one leg.
• The period known as the High Renaissance represents the
culmination of the goals of the earlier period, namely the accurate
representation of figures in space rendered with credible motion
and in an appropriately decorous style. The most famous painters
from this phase are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
Their images are among the most widely known works of art in the
world. Leonardo's Last Supper, Raphael's The School of Athens and
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling are the textbook masterpieces
of the period.
• High Renaissance painting evolved into Mannerism, especially in
Florence. Mannerist artists, who consciously rebelled against the
principles of High Renaissance, tend to represent elongated figures
in illogical spaces. Modern scholarship has recognized the capacity
of Mannerist art to convey strong (often religious) emotion where
the High Renaissance failed to do so. Some of the main artists of
this period are Pontormo, Bronzino, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino
and Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano.