Critics of Renaissance Florence
Article by Astrid Bridgwood
The tradition of art criticism as we have come to understand it in contemporary history began during the Renaissance, where “detailed analysis and deliberate evaluation of artists began,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). These analyses came from men of Florentine origin or interest in particular, ranging from iconic figures of the Renaissance like Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Leon Battista Alberti, to the writings of Filippo Villani. Those who wrote about Renaissance-era art had an “empirical canon of excellence,” in the form of acclaimed and highly referenced Greco-Roman artworks and treatise on art, by which they were able to evaluate the work produced in the contemporary by their peers (Hood). The Renaissance is characterized by this “classical style,” defined by Art Historian Erwin Panofsky as work distinct from the Middle Ages through it’s “classical form with classical content,” harkening back to the “high art,” of the Western world: the archaic Greco-Roman (Hood). Many of these artists referenced or studied from such works directly; sculptures, frescoes, and architectural monuments come to mind. Still others referenced and explored the writing of Greco-Roman artists and critics, of which Pliny the Elder was a vital figure.
“Pliny the Elder,” from Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pliny-the-Elder/images-videos, © Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd/age fotostock). Accessed 14 Feb., 2023.
It is important to begin discussions of Renaissance-era art criticism by noting where the original theories of design and aesthetics by which Renaissance-era art was compared; one the best and most well-known frameworks of this “empirical canon,” was found in the work of Pliny the Elder. Pliny’s writings in Books 34-36 of his iconic literary piece “Natural History,” identified “specifically Roman traits within the artistic production of their age,” exploring conventions which ruled Roman art and architecture (De Angelis). He emphasized the figurative arts— bronze and marble sculpture, as well as painting, which he labeled as originating in Greece. Pliny notably used Greek examples of painting and painterly techniques throughout the work, before presenting that the “art of painting had (then) been brought to perfection also in Italy,” citing paintings from Latium and Etruria (De Angelis). Pliny uniquely emphasizes the social status of painters, especially in Rome, as he explores the spread of painting throughout the Philosophical West, claiming painting was an academic practice instead of a craft. His exploration of bronze and marble sculpting underscores the cultural and historic importance of a variety of subjects: “athletic statues, variously clad standing statues, equestrian statues, and statues in chariots, statues on columns, statues on arches, statues of women,” each with sociohistorical connotations as Pliny acknowledges the origins of especially bronze statuary in Greece (De Angelis). He expressed the vitality of distinct aesthetic choices: “clad in the toga... naked figures holding spears,” including the addition of a breastplate, expanding upon what he called “Graeco ritu,” or the “Greek way,” of figurative depictions (De Angelis). These techniques of presentation, in particular, were referenced by Renaissance artists as they sought to revive these Classical images and techniques; painting, alongside bronze and marble statuary, were some of the most common mediums used during the Renaissance, all having roots in Greco- Roman antiquity.
“Filippo Villani,” Unknown Artist, 15th Century (https://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=3822624). Accessed 14 Feb., 2023.
Filippo Villani’s “Cronica,” or “Chronicles,” was one of the first important evaluations of art and artists; a series of books written by Filippo and his brothers Giovanni and Matteo. Where Giovanni and Matteo notably focused on historical interpretation and ritual processes, Filippo explored what has come to be known as the beginnings of formal art criticism. Filippo “celebrates his native city (of) Florence as the climax of civilization,” addressing ideas initially presented by Pliny the Elder. In particular, the social and cultural status of painters in Florence is mentioned, alongside the importance of painting as an academic or “liberal,” art instead of what we now call an “applied,” art (Encyclopedia Britannica). This idea— of painting as a liberal art, and thus a method of self-cultivation— greatly influenced the humanist philosophy which shaped Italian Renaissance art. To paint is a manner of investigation, exploring not just yourself or the world you reference, but your place as a maker in a greater cultural and social context— by extension, evaluating the place of man in the mortal and immortal worlds. Present is the idea that painting is an analytic art, a method of careful observance and record of the natural world which required both a creative and historic mind. Filippo elevated painters “over other partitioners of the liberal arts,” in detail, which allowed for a literary precedent to be set for “more analytic, in- depth considerations of art,” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
“Italian poet, architect, musician, philosopher, painter and sculptor Leon Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472), posing with a pair of compasses, circa 1460.” Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Accessed 14 Feb., 2023.
Italian architect and author, Leon Battista Alberti, was one of the famed art critics of this time to explore conventions of art and making typical of the Renaissance through his treatise on painting (“Della Pittura di Leon Battista Alberto Libri tre,” 1436), his now-famous treatise on architecture which spanned ten books (“De Re Aedificatoria,” 1450-1472) and a final pamphlet on sculpture (“De Statua,” 1464), (Blunt). Alberti expands on Roman ideas of architecture as a civic activity, seen in the highly-functional development of aqueducts and amphitheaters. In his treatises, he proposes a “scheme for the building of an entire town, and every detail in his suggestions is made subordinate to the main design of the town as a whole,” (Blunt). Alberti images a coherently and holistically constructed urban environment, beginning the Renaissance and Mannerist emphasis on elegant aesthetic functionality. His framework— which detailed the best organization and order of columns— was referenced in the construction of the Venetian Piazza of Saint Marks. In comparing contemporary architectural feats to these classical structures, he again served to critique Renaissance architects and sculptors by measuring them against these established antique feats of human artistic and scientific order. Alberti emphasized a structuring of art-making which in and of itself was also nearly scientific, saying “The arts are learnt by reason and method; they are mastered by practice,” an expression which perfectly summarizes his approach to art evaluation (Blunt).
“Leonardo da Vinci,” Courtesy of National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/leonardo-da-vinci- genius-walter-isaacson). Accessed 14 Feb., 2023.
Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his iconic pantings and personal sketchbooks which have become touchstones of art and culture throughout history. He notably also wrote a great deal on the arts and Renaissance art-theories, making him both a distinctly skilled artist and critic of the period. Instead of a collected formal treatise on painting (which he intended to complete, but never did) da Vinci left a collection of sketchbooks, within which were a myriad of notes and passages that ranged from original, personal theories and observations, to notes taken referencing other notable thinkers and writers. Drawing from the writings of Alberti, da Vinci considered painting to be a science “(based on) its foundation on mathematical perspective and the study of nature,” which he called “scientific and true principles,” (Blunt). For da Vinci, panting went beyond an academic tradition of self-cultivation improving one’s mind and soul to its own kind of knowledge; da Vinci noted in specific that art must be judged by two standards: “the certainty of its premisses and methods, and the completeness of the knowledge represented by its productions,” (Blunt).
Here, we see the establishment of a contemporary Renaissance framework by which art would be judged that moved beyond established ideas of the antique and the classical, and began to explore humanist sensibilities. Da Vinci further notes his personal disapproval of old-master imitation: “Never imitate the manner of another painter, or you will be called a grandson and not a son of art,” with the only exception being young painters who must emulate established masters as they develop their skill (Blunt). Da Vinci emphasized naturalism— drawing from direct observation, detailing the way in which the world exists— over mannerism, which negates realism in favor of what the National Gallery of Art calls “self-conscious artifice.” This emphasis on naturalism and depictions of the real world over stylized or idealized images moves the Renaissance from a focus on Classical Greco-Roman works to specifically the Hellenistic; an era which emphasized the actuality of the body and its movement in and occupation of space. Such an emphasis would further shape painters and sculptors who looked to da Vinci as a master.
Particularly relevant to Florence is the writing of Giorgio Vasari, Italian artist, architect, and author whose most well-known architectural feat is the Uffizi, and the “corridor,” within it which bears his name. As an artist, he produced frescoes which are displayed in the Palazzo Vecchio (Encyclopedia Britannica). When exploring his art criticism, Vasari’s biographies of Italian Renaissance artists are famous: titled "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,” (1550), Vasari “offers his own critical history of Western art through several prefaces and a lengthy series of artist biographies,” which presents three periods of artistic development: “the excellence of the art of classical antiquity was followed by a decline of quality during the Dark Ages, which was in turn reversed by a renaissance of the arts in Tuscany in the 14th century,” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
“Giorgio Vasari - Self Portrait,” Giorgio Vasari. c. 1571–74, courtesy of the Uffizi Gallery.
Vasari began within the Florentine high-court style—one which was distinctly mannerist — before evolving to embody the style of the High Renaissance, which retains an elegance and rationalism that speaks to Antique ideas of proportion and scale, while incorporating humanist ideas of individualism and an emphasis the body. In his writing, Vasari expands on these High Renaissance ideas to “re-interpret,” and provide them with new meaning (Blunt). Vasari, too presents an idea with it’s roots in Alberti’s treatises, noting that “the foundation for any theory of painting is that this art consists in the imitation of nature,” with one of his highest forms of praise for a painting being “that the figures are so natural that they seem alive,” (Blunt). Vasari emphasizes the study of “the choicest ancient and modern works,” while firmly believing still in the High-Renaissance and mannerist idea that one who is an artist can “perfect,” nature— emphasizing the stylization and almost unnatural beauty (“artifice,”) which both da Vinci and the National Gallery of Art abhor. He diverts from da Vinci’s emphasis on learning from the master’s by instead emphasizing this perfection, the contrast of beauty and naturalism: “... he who executes portraits must contrive, without thinking of what is looked for in a perfect figure, to make them like those for whom they are intended. When portraits are like and beautiful, then they may be called rare works, and their artists truly excellent craftsmen,” (Blunt). Established is the knowledge that though these critics existed during the same period with much of the same influences found in the writings of Alberti, Pliny the Elder, and even Titian, their personal aesthetic sensibilities— and thus, the criteria by which they judged art and artists— greatly differed. Vasari’s established canon of Italian Renaissance artists noted in his biographies “endures as the standard to this day,” and it is his exploration of Renaissance art which has “formed the conceptual basis for Renaissance scholarships and continues to influence popular perceptions (of) Western painting,” making him a deeply contemporary and relevant critic even in the twenty-first century.
“The Gates of Paradise (1452),” by Lorenzo Ghiberti, photograph taken c. 1870-c. 1890; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti functions as one of the most iconic early Renaissance artisans, constructing the doors (“Gates of Paradise,” 1425-52) for the Florentine Baptistry which is still considered “one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Ghiberti also authored “I Comentarii,” three treatises on art history and theory from Greco- Roman antiquity to his contemporary Renaissance life. During his construction of the Baptistry doors, Ghiberti was involved and interested in the lives and work of other artists, ranging from Donatello to Benozzo Gozzoli; men whom he undoubtedly learned from and whose practices and processes shaped his understanding of art both as a maker and a theorist. Ghiberti’s own work is thought to be highly influential to Florentine art, making his writings seem more apt in their commentary. Notably, he explored new ways of forming pictoral space; similar to da Vinci, he emphasized lifelike figures, but attributed them with the grace and activity affiliated with Pliny the Elder’s favorite sculptural subjects. Uniquely, Ghiberti encountered and befriended Albert himself, coming to share his belief that “beauty was synonymous with the conception(s of antique art),” requiring an idealization of nature through the “capturing (of) its essence (...) revealing life by depicting movement,” after which Ghiberti’s own work began to follow in Alberti’s tradition of perspective and composition (Encyclopedia Britannica).
We can see through this exploration of Renaissance art and its critics that each writer, thinker, and maker was able to exchange ideas and influence the other. Florence in particular was culturally known as a hub for the arts and its patrons, making it a vital interchange of philosophical and artistic thought that went on to influence the canon of Western art, extending into the current-day. These critics developed manners of thought which spoke to their personal aesthetic and creative sensibilities, while also considering the previous traditions of antique and classical old masters and thinkers which they consistently referenced. They emphasized practices of “Theoretical criticism,” which “attempts to establish an artistic program on a rational basis and that also regards art as the exemplification and embodiment of ideas,” as well as developing a reading of art history and artist’s lives which is essential to our contemporary understanding not just of Florentine artists, but of the Renaissance as a whole.
REFERENCES:
Blunt, Anthony. “Artistic Theory In Italy: 1450-1660.” Oxford New York, Oxford University Press, 1962.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Giorgio Vasari". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Jul. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giorgio-Vasari. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
De Angelis, Francesco. “Pliny the Elder and the Identity of Roman Art.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 53/54, 2008, pp. 79–92. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25608810. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
Elam, Caroline. “Art and Diplomacy in Renaissance Florence.” RSA Journal, October 1988, Vol. 136, No. 5387 (October 1988), pp. 813-826. Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. JSOR, http://www.jstor.com/stable/41377296. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
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Hood, William. “The State of Research in Italian Renaissance Art.” The Art Bulletin , Jun., 1987, Vol. 69, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), pp. 174-186, CAA. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051016. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
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Salman, Phillips. “Instruction and Delight In Medieval and Renaissance Criticism.” Renaissance Quarterly , Autumn, 1979, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Autumn, 1979), pp. 303- 332. Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/ 2860183. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
Astrid Bridgwood is a student of Art History, Philosophy, and Arts Leadership & Administration currently serving as a Gallery Assistant for the Department of Art, Design, and Music, with ongoing projects focusing on liberal arts education at Black Mountain College. In her free time, she writes and publishes poetry (read more here) and hopes to pursue a career as a Professor of Art History.