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1. Bonaventura Berlinghieri, 1205/10-c. 1274, Gothic Art, Italian, St Francis and Scenes From his Life, 1235, Tempera on wood, 160 × 123 cm, San Francesco, Pescia

Following the Romanesque period, the Gothic period emerged in northern France. The centres of religious and intellectual authority moved from a rural-monastic environment to urban centres.

The Gothic ribbed vault, because it was light and thin, allowed for a new aesthetic to develop in which lux nova defined the new architecture. “New light” was communicated through the uplifting vaults and the stained glass that illuminated the new lofty spaces made technologically possible by flying buttresses on the exterior that provided support for the thin walls. Phillip II (r.1180–1223) built Paris into the capital of Gothic Europe. He paved the streets, embraced the city with walls, and built the Louvre to house the royal family.

Thomas Aquinas, an Italian monk, came to Paris in 1244 to study at the renowned university. He began, but never finished, the Summa Theoligica in the Scholastic model being taught in Paris. Based on Aristotle’s system of rational inquiry, Aquinas used a model in his treatise that organised the work into books, then questions within the books, and articles within the questions. Each article then included objections with contradictions and responses, and answers to the objections became the final element in the model. Aquinas’s work is a foundation of Catholic teaching.

When King Louis IX (1215–1270) assumed the throne, the Parisian “court style” of Gothic was at it height. Paris was not only revered for its university faculty and architects, but also for its manuscript illuminators. In Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Divine Comedy he noted Paris as the capital of the art of book illumination.

The rest of Europe tried to emulate the Gothic style of the Ile-de-France, but the German and English traditions did not emphasise the soaring height in the way that the cathedrals of Reims or Amiens did. England’s great achievements in the thirteenth century were political, including the Magna Carta (1215), generally thought by later generations to be a guarantor of human rights for all, and the establishment of Parliament during the reign of Edward I (1272–1307).

The crusades were in full force by the thirteenth century, but the battles were largely defined by Muslim counterattacks. The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was mainly played out in Constantinople and served to discredit the crusading trend, as Christians attacked Christians, and the schism between the Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Roman Catholics widened.

These military ventures did, however, create long lasting cultural exchanges. New foods and luxury items such as silks and brocades entered into circulation. Italian traders particularly benefited from this merchant exchange with the East, even expanding its reaches.

The famous Venetian explorer, Marco Polo (1254–1324), travelled from Europe to Asia and spent seventeen years in China developing Merchant contracts. While Italians used timber beams rather than high stone vaults to roof their structures, thereby limiting the height of their churches, they did soar in the arena of international trade, setting the stage for the “golden age” of the Renaissance.

2. Master of the Crucifixion, Gothic Art, Italian, Crucifixion and Eight Stories of the Passion of Christ, late 12th c. – early 13th c. Tempera on panel, 250 × 200 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

3. Tuscan Master, Gothic Art, Italian, Crucifixion and Six Stories of the Passion of Christ, 1240–1270. Tempera on panel, 277 × 231 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

4. Master of St Mary Magdalen, Early Renaissance, Italian, St Mary Magdalen and Eight Stories from her Life, 1265–1290. Tempera on panel, 164 × 76 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

5. Workshop of Louis IX, Early Renaissance, France, Danish, Joshua Stops the Sun and Moon, From the Psalter of Louis IX of France, c. 1258–1270. Manuscript illumination, 21 × 14.5 cm, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

6. Workshop of the Ingeborg, Early Renaissance, Danish, Embalming of the Body of Christ and the Three Marys at the Empty Tomb, From the Psalter of Queen Ingeborg of Denmark, c. 1213. Manuscript illumination, 30.4 × 20.4 cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly

7. Master of San Gaggio, Early Renaissance, Italian, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Ss. Paul, Peter, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Tempera on panel, 200 × 112 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

8. Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo), 1240–1302, Early Renaissance, Italian, S. Trinitá Madonna, c. 1280. Tempera on panel, 385 × 223 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Cimabue painted this altarpiece for the Holy Trinity church in Florence, which is unprecedented, albeit at first it appears very similar to other of his works of the previous decade. It is smaller than his Maestà (1260), to which it can be contrasted on several key points. The differences are important as the artist moves himself and the art world beyond the rigid poses of the Byzantine icons to more three-dimensionality. While there remains a strict symmetry of figures, the intentional distortion of figures as in his earlier art is abandoned for more natural animation. It is seen in each of the fourteen figures, including the prophets (left to right) Jeremiah, Abraham, David and Isaiah, as they apparently find apposite scriptural references.

Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo)

(c.1240 Florence – 1302 Pisa)

After learning the art of making mosaics in Florence, Cimabue developed in the medieval Byzantine style, advancing towards more realism. He became the first Florentine master. Some of his works were monumental. His most famous student was Giotto. He painted several versions of the Maestà, “majesty, enthroned in glory”, traditionally referring to Mary in setting, that show some human emotions, such as Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Prophets.

9. Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo), 1240–1302, Early Renaissance, Italian, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels and Ss. Francis and Dominic. Tempera on panel, 133 × 82 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

10. Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1255–1319, Sienese School, Florence, Italian, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Six Angels (Rucellai Madonna), 1285. Tempera on panel, 450 × 290 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Duccio’s Madonna is seated on an elaborate throne. Although Our Lady and her child appear to be three-dimensional and realistic, the surrounding environment is stylised, disregarding the principles of perspective. Hierarchic scale, often used in medieval times, is featured, depicting the most important subject, Mary, as the largest. The symmetrical distribution of the six angels, three on each side of the Madonna, may be symbolic of the order that Mary, as Mother Church, imposes on her subjects. Yet above all she remains the loving mother.

Duccio di Buoninsegna

(1255–1319 Siena)

Duccio di Buoninsegna, originally a carpenter and manuscript illuminator, was influenced by Cimabue and the Sienese school of painting. With Giotto, he was one of the transitional artists between the Gothic and the Renaissance ages, showing Byzantine elements throughout. Also a profound innovator, he painted his figures with greater weight and solidity, and more characterisation than had been seen previously in Siena. He is considered as one of the seminal artists in the development of the Sienese school.

11. Anonymous, French, The Rheims Missal, c. 1285–1297. Manuscript illumination, Stolen from the Library St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg

12. Gautier de Coinci, 1177–1236, French, Life and Miracles of the Virgin, late 13th c.. Manuscript illumination, Stolen from the Library St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg

Illustration of the death of a money lender whose soul is taken away by the devil, and a beggar woman to whom the Virgin and the Holy virgins appear.

13. Giotto di Bondone, 1267–1337, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, The Demons are Cast out of Arezzo (detail), 1296–1297, Fresco, Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi

14. Giotto di Bondone, 1267–1337, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Legend of St Francis: St Francis Preaching before Pope Honorius III, 1296–1297, Fresco, Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi

Giotto di Bondone

(1267 Vespignano – 1337 Florence)

His full name was Ambrogiotto di Bondone, but he is known today, as he was in his own time, by the contraction, Giotto, a word which has come to stand for almost all the great things that art has accomplished. In his own day Giotto’s fame as a painter was supreme; he had numerous followers, and these Giotteschi, as they were styled, perpetuated his methods for nearly a hundred years. In 1334, he designed the beautiful Campanile (bell tower), which stands beside the cathedral in Florence, and represents a perfect union of strength and elegance, and was partly erected in his lifetime. Moreover, the sculptured reliefs which decorate its lower part were all from his designs, though he lived to execute only two of them. Inspired by French Gothic sculpture, he abandoned the stiff presentations of the subjects as in Byzantine styles and advanced art towards more realistic presentation of contemporary figures and scenes so as to be more narrative. His breakthrough influenced subsequent development in Italian art. His significant departure from past presentations of the Maestà, starting around 1308 (in Madonna di Ognissanti), brought to it his knowledge of architecture and its perspectives. However, the disproportion of subjects in the presentation is a device intended to rank the subjects by their importance, as was done in Byzantine icons.

Thus, architect, sculptor, painter, friend of Dante and of other great men of his day, Giotto was the worthy forerunner of that galaxy of brilliant men who populated the later days of the Italian Renaissance.