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14th and 15th Century Italian Art Theme Essay
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14th and 15th Century Italian Art Theme Essay ‘The Annunciation’ Throughout the 14th and 15th century in Italian art there were common religious themes depicted by the artists. Prominent themes tended to be fixed around Christ and showed stories that had something to do with his life, before, during and after. Each painting was based on a section from the bible. In the 14th century it is the Florentine artist Giotto with his frescoes that adorn the Arena Chapel that narrate important sections of Christ’s life and Duccio with his similar depictions in the Maesta that best show paintings of prominent religious themes by artists at the time. In the 15th century artists such as Piero Della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci continued these themes, producing paintings that had the same preoccupation with the religious stories of the bible as the artists of the century before. An important theme which runs through this time period is the story of the Annunciation to Mary, when Mary is visited by the archangel Gabriel, the moment of the conception of Christ, nine months before his birth into the world as depicted by another common theme; the nativity scene. The Annunciation has been painted almost obsessively by a wide range of artists which include Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini and Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti of the 14th century and Fra Angelico, Dominico Venezaino, Piero Della Francesca, Leonardo Da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli of the 15th. Despite the personal and also evolving style of each painter their Annunciation’s are all similar in their close following of the moment as told in the bible and many elements in the painting are influenced by previous paintings of the Annunciation . Symbolic references are also common in the paintings with many similarities between them, as each artist was interested in portraying the narrative in the most truthfully expressive way possible. However from the 14th century to the 15th the paintings of the Annunciation become much more realistic and believable with the discovery of Linear perspective due to Brunelleschi, and Alberti’s theories becoming widely known and applied by the artists in their own paintings. The prominent artists who painted the Annunciation to Mary are Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero Della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. Each painter combines their own personal painting style with trends and ideas of the time, making the same basic depiction of the story slightly different in both style and expression. In the Arena Chapel in Padua is Giotto’s Annunciation. Due to its importance (it is the event to which the chapel is dedicated) it has been placed in the most conspicuous wall surface of the Chapel, below the badly preserved painting of God sitting on his throne amid a throng of angels. The Annunciation takes place in the lower section of the fresco, in the two spandrels flanking the sanctuary arch. The primary figures of the Annunciation; the archangel Gabriel and Mary, have been simply depicted, facing each other on opposite sides of the arch. Each figure kneels within a shrine that has been set at an angle to suggest that it faces the other. Because of this we only see the exteriors and a small part of the interiors of the two structures. The two figures are placed on a stage and this has probably been derived from constructions used in the dramatization of the Annunciation that took place in Padua during the Trecento. Giotto has used the cuspid Gothic arch for the balconies to either side and this links with the rest of his work in the chapel. Throughout Giotto uses the round arch to refer to the old law and the pointed, Gothic arch as a symbol for the New Testament. In the Annunciation we see the introduction of the first Gothic arches in the cycle. Giotto has represented the Annunciation in a new and intimate way for the time period. In the fresco there is both the understanding of religion as well as that of human emotions. The moment in which Mary accepts her responsibility as mother of the Son of God has been particularly emphasized. Like in the bible when she utters ‘Be it done to me according to thy will,” she indicates her resignation by solemnly crossing her hands across her chest and kneeling, in a mimic of the angels pose. The profile figures of Mary and Gabriel have been given an extra-ordinary solidity in line with his tendency for solid monumental figures as derived from the Roman pictorial style. There is realism created by the careful foreshortening of Mary’s arms, and the precision is an anticipation of the technical accomplishments of the 15th century. Giotto has also created the allusion of depth with profile poses, the overlapping of the figures and the architecture and rudimentary oblique perspective of the balcony. The sense of space is further heightened by his attempt at foreshortening the haloes through making them appear as ovals behind Mary and Gabriel’s heads. Giotto has also used light effectively.
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