Quattrocento: Italian Renaissance Architecture and Sculpture
Quattrocento Architecture
The Quattrocento architectural renaissance saw the use of traditional building and decorative elements. The half-point arch, columns and pilasters with the classical orders, barrel vaults decorated with moldings, and half-domes were used extensively, although with some freedom, especially in decoration. Thus, the most complete fantasy reigns in the decoration of “grotesques,” which merges plant, animal, and human forms. Facades and floor plans were calculated for effects of perfection. Architects sought to resurrect the central plan and looked for clarity of spaces, as opposed to the colored shadows of the Gothic church.
Florence
In the previous century, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore had been erected in the distinctive Italian Gothic style. This left ample space to cover the dome with a cupola. The work was entrusted to Filippo Brunelleschi, who was familiar with the technique of lifting Byzantine domes. However, unlike Gothic domes, he was probably motivated by Roman domes, especially the Pantheon. Brunelleschi created a graceful dome enhanced with an octagonal drum, unlike the Roman and Byzantine domes, which were encased in thick walls.
Brunelleschi was also the true innovator of the style. In the churches of San Lorenzo and the Holy Spirit, he used all the classic architectural elements, drawing especially on Roman basilicas. He also designed the Old Sacristy for San Lorenzo. In 1429, he designed the Pazzi Chapel for the Pazzi family’s funerary use. The chapel features a portico with columns on the exterior and an interior dome on pendentives. He played with the color of the stone material, using gray for the architectural elements and lime for the wall plaster.
Another architect, Leon Battista Alberti, represented the knowledge of the Renaissance genius. He excelled in all arts and dedicated treatises to painting, sculpture, and architecture. He believed that the homes of wealthy merchants should have the same dignity as public buildings. His second focus was the temple. His early works included reshaping medieval buildings, such as the Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella, where he added a perfectly proportioned facade endowed with a musical sense. Alberti encased the Franciscan monastery in marble. His most important religious building was Sant’Andrea in Mantua.
Quattrocento Sculpture
The first great sculptor of the Renaissance was Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose formal style began with many vestiges of the International Gothic world. In 1402, he won the competition for the execution of the doors of the Baptistery in Florence. Distributed in the Gothic mode, like those Andrea Pisano had previously created, with twenty-eight lobed medallions enclosing a few characters, they nevertheless showed considerable novelty in their anatomical perfection and highly original decorative fringes.
In 1425, he was responsible for the other door of the Baptistery, called the Gate of Paradise. He decided to organize it in a totally different way, with ten large rectangular panels featuring scenes of complex composition with many figures. These were treated in an almost painterly manner, giving great volume to elements in the foreground and only a suggestion of form to those in the background, applying resources of perspective to sculpture.
The most important Florentine sculptor of the Quattrocento was undoubtedly Donatello. He was the creator of the high Renaissance style, ranging from finding classic balance and beauty to cultivating a certain expression, supported by facts that underscored dramatic values. His main subject was humanity, studying people from infancy to old age, sparing none of the deformities of aging. His youthful figures are the most typical of the artist, especially his versions of David, which possess extreme delicacy and grace. St. George, standing armed and solidly planted, is the representation of full manhood.
In his reliefs, through technical subtlety in carving marble or preparing molten bronze, he achieved effects of great refinement. Donatello also created one of the first and most important equestrian statues of the Renaissance, inspired by the Roman statue of Marcus Aurelius: the Gattamelata, the first statue in honor of a warrior of the modern world. He also occasionally painted wood sculptures, drawing on the Gothic tradition and accentuating features with strong expressive realism that did not reject the representation of the ugly and deformed.