The Medici susidiced and endowed the Reniassance :-)

The First Half of the Fifteenth Century

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI (1377-1446)--Sacrifice of Isaac--for baptistry of Florence (lost the compentition)--overly busy, high realism in the attack

LORENZO GHIBERTI (1378-1455)--Sacrifice of Isaac--for baptistry of Florence (won the competition)--excellent, classical musculature in Issaic, elegant cuves, more cohesive and unified than BRUNELLESCHI’s, but less daring

NANNI DI BANCO (c. 1380-1421)--Quattro Santi Coronati--(c. 1408-1414)--first example of statues unified with architecture--not entierly sucessfull in that they are still qutie distinct--related together by their postures and jestures which gives good unity--will be brought futher by Leonardo--classical influences in the heads and beards--beginning to realize that you can and should convey something about the people thorught the sculptures.

DONNATELLO (c. 1386-1466)--new forms for expressing the new Humanistic Early Renaissance ideas--humanistic: roman virtue and form--masters the form of all men--motion in the human figure through the principle of contrapposition

St. Mark (1411-1413)--first modern use of weight shifting ideas to convey motion--the drapery is for the first time used to accentuate the motion and form rather than as merely to hide it.

St. George (1415-1417)--perfection of a youthful fighter--projection of individual personality: characteristic of the Early Renaissance in Italy

Zuccone (1423-1425)--strong features and emotions--no longer the weak perfectionism of the saints but a true individual

Feast of Herod--c. 1425--the varying effect on the different groups of people of Herod’s head is dramatic--first time being used--staging the scene for effect--use of accurate perspective in the background

LORENZO GHIBERTI-- "Gates of Paradise" (1425-1452) east doors to Baptistry, Florence--gets perspective right in his panels but does not place his figues in the perspective but rather in the foreground

DONATELLO, David c. 1428-1432--fist freestanding nude since ancient times--shows an awareness of his own beauty: dominant theme in Renaissance art

Gattamelata c. 1445-1450--first horse statue to rival those of classical times

Mary Magdalene c. 1454-1455--ugly, personal side of nature--demonstrates DONATELLO’s vast versitility

The Second Half of the Fifteenth Century