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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 3
Lesson 2: Sculpture and architecture in central Italy- Brunelleschi & Ghiberti, the Sacrifice of Isaac
- Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac (quiz)
- Ghiberti, "Gates of Paradise," east doors of the Florence Baptistery
- Brunelleschi, Old Sacristy
- Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence.
- Brunelleschi, Dome (quiz)
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito
- Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
- Orsanmichele and Donatello's Saint Mark
- Donatello, Saint Mark
- Donatello, St. Mark (quiz)
- A soldier saint in Renaissance Florence: Donatello's St George
- Donatello, Feast of Herod
- Donatello, Madonna of the Clouds
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David (quiz)
- Donatello, The Miracle of the Mule
- Donatello, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
- Donatello, Mary Magdalene
- Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
- Alberti, Sant'Andrea in Mantua
- Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
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Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1470.
Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris.
Want to join the conversation?
- In what ways were the Gothic style considered to be 'unordered', in comparison to the more classical styles of Greece and Rome?(6 votes)
- The gothic is often seen as organic with an emphasis on asymmetry and the irregular while the classical is often seen as an expression of ideal structure, measure, and proportion. This is not necessarily true in many cases but these generalities reflect the historical reputations of each style.(4 votes)
- Are some sculptures found in a Romanesque church, called Bibles in Stone or illuminated manuscripts?(1 vote)
- "Bible of Stone" is a medieval cathedral - because the cathedral was built and decorated in such a way that it would teach biblical stories to the illiterate population through art. Illuminated manuscripts are medieval books - manuscript means handwritten and illuminated basically means illustrated.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(gentle piano music) - [Dr. Zucker] We're in
the piazza just in front of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. We're looking at a facade that
was redesigned by Alberti, the great Renaissance architect. - [Dr. Harris] Santa Maria
Novella is an important Gothic church here in Florence. - [Dr. Zucker] One of the
two mendicant churches in the city. - [Dr. Harris] By that
we mean churches founded by the begging orders, the orders of monks who
begged for a living. The Dominicans and the Franciscans. Santa Maria Novella is a Dominican church. Now Alberti is coming here
is the mid 15th century and his patron is Giovanni Rucellai for whom he also designed a
palace just a few blocks away. Rucellai inherited the
patronage rights to this church but he inherited it from a family that had already begun
to design the facade. - [Dr. Zucker] Alberti had
some serious problems here because he was a classicist. That is he wanted his architecture to conform to what he
believed to be the ideals of classical beauty. Which were based on perfect geometry and rational order and proportion. - [Dr. Harris] Copying of
the rules of architecture handed down from ancient Rome via the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. - [Dr. Zucker] The problem is
that this was a Gothic church and Gothic is anything but orderly. - [Dr. Harris] So he
took this Gothic church and on it put a classical facade that also recalls the
Romanesque tradition of Italy. Specifically the Baptistery of Florence and also the church of
San Miniato al Monte which is just outside the
center of the city of Florence. - [Dr. Zucker] We can see
that especially in the linear geometric patterns that we see. The alternating of the white
marble and this green stone. So Alberti had an issue. Not only was he dealing
with a Gothic church but there was a preexisting facade that was only partially complete. We're not sure how much of it was there but we think that a number
of tombs had already been put in place of which six remain. - [Dr. Harris] As modern viewers we hardly recognize that those
niches are in fact, tombs. But that's what they are. - [Dr Zucker] Just above them
we see those Gothic arches which we also think predate Alberti. - [Dr. Harris] What Alberti
does with this lower story is that he frames it. On each end he gives us a
column accompanied by a pier. The column has a Corinthian capital and in the center he gives us a doorway modeled on the Pantheon. So what had been there
before was a small doorway and Alberti gives us a
magnificent entryway. - [Dr. Zucker] In fact
it's easy to picture what that original doorway
would have looked like because two earlier doorways still exist. - [Dr. Harris] He defines the
edges of the building for us. He defines the center with pilasters with Corinthian capitals, a coffered vault over the entrance. We see these references to ancient Roman architecture. But we also see a references at the top to an ancient Greek temple front. - [Dr. Zucker] It is
clearly a temple front. We have a pediment just
like we would expect to see on the Parthenon in ancient Greece. We see squared attached columns, pilasters supporting it. That Greek temple front
caused a problem for Alberti. If you look at the four pilasters that support the pediment above it those four pilasters are not aligned with pilasters below them as would be appropriate
in a classical building. - [Dr. Harris] Of course Alberti was all about following the
rules of classical architecture. - [Dr. Zucker] What he does
is he wants to distract us. - [Dr Harris] He does that really well. He creates this attic zone and he fills it with this
decorative pattern of squares. - [Dr. Zucker] With pattern
circles within them. It creates a zone of isolation between the top and the bottom. - [Dr. Harris] There is a sense of rigor and geometric order here. Aside from that one deviation. In fact the whole facade
fits into a square. - [Dr. Zucker] That
square can be sub-divided into additional squares. If you look at the
bottom zone of the church you see that you have
two of those squares. Then above that a single centered square. - [Dr. Harris] He's got yet
another problem to solve which is that he's got this
very tall nave inside the church and then the shorter
aisles on either side. So how to unify those two. He comes up with an ingenious solution and that is to use these S-shaped scrolls to unify the top and bottom stories. - [Dr. Zucker] Now he hadn't invented the idea of the scroll. This time he's borrowing it from the lantern of Brunelleschi's Dome which is just a couple of blocks away. - [Dr. Harris] Then he also puts a rosette inside that scroll and so
it echos the round window in the center of the building and that roundel is also repeated above in the pediment where
we see a child's face in the middle of a sunburst. Communicating the idea of the resurrection of the afterlife. - [Dr. Zucker] Least we
forget who was paying for all of this. Just below that sun we see Giovanni Rucellai's name as patron. - [Dr. Harris] We also
see his family insignia in the wind-blown sails
that decorate the freeze. - [Dr. Zucker] Those sails are meant to references the idea that he hoped that through his faith he
might sail to salvation. - [Dr. Harris] The Rucellai
were a very wealthy family in Florence, but the
Rucellai were not as wealthy and powerful as the Medici family. We see the Medici crest, the
diamond with three feathers emerging from it right over the central doorway of the church. - [Dr. Zucker] So we can see expression of the Rucellai's loyalty
to the Medici here. - [Dr. Harris] It's so
easy to walk by this church and miss all of this. But the 15th century is alive here in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. (upbeat piano music)