Architecture. Participants in the new cultural attitude that had been maturing in Florence since the end of the fourteenth century, F. Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio are the interpreters of the new conception of art and space; measure and proportion are the basis of the architectural structure, of the sculptural and pictorial composition. Another protagonist of 15th century architecture is LB Alberti, the greatest theorist, who alternated the volumes and variety of details of Roman architecture with Brunelleschi’s linearism. Brunelleschi is linked to Michelozzo (to whom we owe the creation of the private palace, exemplified in the Palazzo Medici in via Larga in Florence), Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano (also active in Faenza, Loreto, Rome, Naples), the Chronicle and later G. da Sangallo and A. da Sangallo the Elder, also active in Rome, Naples, in Loreto, Lyon and Avignon, lively interpreters of Roman antiquities, authors of innovative fortified structures (Sarzana, Civitacastellana, Nettuno etc.). The feat of the Ducal Palace of Urbino, characterized by classical ways, was remarkable, with the contribution of figures such as L. Laurana, F. di Giorgio Martini, etc.
According to ACEINLAND.COM, the principles of the new Tuscan architecture spread throughout Italy. Filarete, author of a treatise on architecture and sensitive to the problems of urban conformation (Sforzinda), and Michelozzo worked in Milan, trying to reconcile the new order with the Lombard Gothic tradition, while fully mastering their own language, despite practical difficulties, Alberti operated in Rimini and Mantua. Very particular styles were created in Lombardy by the Solari, by GA Amadeo, by the Rodari, and in Venice by the Lombardo and M. Codussi. Other notable architects of the early Renaissance were L. Fancelli, B. Rossellino. Lombard stonecutters and architects continued to be very active, including Pietro da Milano in Naples and A. Barocci in Urbino. The position of F. di Giorgio Martini, great military architect and essayist,
Sculpture. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, hegemony in sculpture passed from Pisa to Florence, the center of radiation of the Renaissance: Nanni di Banco tackled the humanistic theme of the statue with classicistic language; L. Ghiberti is a refined mediator between late Gothic sensibility and new means of expression; Donatello (also active in Padua) is a decisive advocate of ancient forms, but increasingly distant from the serenity of his conception. A notable innovator in Siena was Iacopo della Quercia (also active in Bologna), who draws inspiration from Roman art and the dramatic values of Gothic art. The naturalistic polychrome and glazed terracottas, also used in architecture, were a typical product of the Della Robbia family, which lasted until the sixteenth century. Imaginative creator of figures in soft relief, with refined neo-attic linearisms, was Agostino di Duccio, also active in Perugia, Rimini and Modena; Desiderio da Settignano was an acutely penetrating portrait painter, who had a large following (Antonio Rossellino, Benedetto da Maiano) and who proposed exemplary solutions to the theme of the portrait bust and the type of Renaissance tomb. A. del Pollaiolo developed a new linear dynamism in Florentine sculpture; A. del Verrocchio dealt with the problem of movement and the relationship between sculpture and atmospheric space. Among the eminent personalities, in Bologna Niccolò dell’Arca; in Modena G. Mazzoni; in Liguria and Sicily D. Gagini; in Lombardy Amadeo and A. Bregno, active especially in Rome; Giovanni da Traù and F. Laurana came from Dalmatia. The late Gothic traditions persist in Lombardy and especially in Venice thanks to B. Bon and Giorgio da Sebenico, while the Veronese A.
Painting. The painting of the fifteenth century begins with the success of international gothic: in Tuscany, with Lorenzo Monaco, with whom Beato Angelico is related, while Masolino da Panicale adheres to it with a less dramatic charge, but with a more complex culture; outside Tuscany, with Gentile da Fabriano, then with Pisanello, Italy Bellini, Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini in Venice, however close to the first Renaissance novelties; while the painters of Lombardy (Michelino di Besozzo, Belbello da Pavia, B. Bembo and a host of anonymous masters, especially illuminators) reach the extreme stylistic consequences of the Gothic style and, in Piedmont and Savoy, J. Jaquerio and J. Bapteur. In Florence, Masaccio interprets the new humanistic and Renaissance demands; Masaccio’s example had a profound effect on Beato Angelico (who also worked in Rome and Orvieto; his pupil was also B. Gozzoli), on Masolino himself, on Filippo Lippi, on Domenico Veneziano. Paolo Uccello elaborated a fairytale interpretation, of surviving Gothic taste, in the perspective resolution of the compositional elements in areas of color; Piero della Francesca took the regularity of geometric shapes and their dependence on perspective composition to extreme expression: he also worked in Rimini, Ferrara and Venice; Andrea del Castagno developed linear dynamism and plasticism linked to chiaroscuro: his presence in Veneto had great influence. Antonio del Pollaiolo also works in painting on linear dynamism. Pupil of Filippo Lippi, S. Botticelli reaches an intense spirituality; in secular paintings he deals with themes of profound complexity. A balanced narrator and portraitist was D. Ghirlandaio. TO.
In Siena, painting reveals the crisis of the Gothic world with Sassetta and Giovanni di Paolo: more conservative with Matteo di Giovanni, she participates in the Renaissance novelties with Domenico di Bartolo and then with F. di Giorgio. Linked to Piero della Francesca, as well as to the great Florentine formalists, is L. Signorelli. Melozzo da Forlì refers to Piero, a representative of monumental painting in Rome, a profound interpreter of Flemish painting known in Urbino. Antoniazzo Romano and various painters from the Marches and Romagna were affected by his teaching. In Umbria G. Boccati, G. Caporali and, above all, Perugino stood out; among his numerous pupils is Raphael.
From Tuscany the new conquests reached the northern Italy through A. del Castagno, P. Uccello, Piero della Francesca: the highest representative of the humanities was A. Mantegna, educated in antiquarian taste in Padua, in the workshop of F. Squarcione; in Ferrara, C. Tura, F. Cossa, E. de Roberti translate the lessons of Donatello and Mantegna with dramatic incisiveness. The Ferrarese painters were also active in other parts of Emilia, where they left works M. Zoppo, L. Costa and the Modenese B. Bonascia.
Antonello da Messina brought Flemish experiences to Venice, later perhaps elaborated by the encounter with the works of Piero della Francesca; it had a great impact on Venetian painting, based on color, sensitive to the values of light and atmosphere. While the Murano school, with the Vivarini, broke away from traditional taste (Alvise resented Antonello, Bartolomeo from the first phase of Giovanni Bellini, and Mantegna), the greatest interpreter of this moment of Venetian art was Giovanni Bellini, who summarizes every previous conquest preparing the sixteenth-century developments; V. Carpaccio, great storyteller, partly shares this function. Aware of the Renaissance experiences, but more tied to tradition, was C. Crivelli, active above all in the Marche. In Lombardy V. Foppa and Borgognone stand out, the first to give an authentically Lombard interpretation of Renaissance painting; also important was the pictorial activity of D. Bramante.
