Florence: Painting
The Florentine School of Painting is characterized by the naturalism in art that started to emerge in Florence in the 13th century. This set the stage for what would become the great period of Florentine art in later centuries that would include the work of great artists such as Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Donatello, and Lippi.
However, art in Florence and northern Italy during the period between 1200 and 1400 was still in transition; it was a bridge in Art History between the Medieval period and Byzantine and Gothic styles, and the Early Modern period and Renaissance styles. Sometimes referred to as the proto-Renaissance period, art and architecture in northern Italy provided important hints at the trends that would take hold over the next centuries in the rest of Europe.
City states and duchies such as Pisa, Milan, Lucca, and Florence were the main homes of these developments. In spite of the many challenges during the period, such as the ongoing ravages of the Black Plague, these city states experienced periods of politically stability and economic growth, which provided a good foundation for new experimentation in art.
In Florence, leading families prospered under the economic growth promoted through trade. Each of these leading families vied for power, but also for cultural prominence, and became great patrons of the arts (the Medici family being the prime example).
At the same time, there were great changes occurring in art both in terms of styles and philosophies. One important change was a focus on the individual in religious practices, which also translated into a greater naturalistic and humanist focus in art.
Florence
Painters in this city wholeheartedly embraced naturalist styles. Harkening back to classical figures, they created images with attention to portraying strong emotions and relationships between figures—painting that expressed a type of realism not present in Byzantine styles.
One painter who demonstrated the shift that was occurring in Florentine painting during this time is Cimabue (c.1240-1302). In his Maesta the viewer may observe elements of both the earlier Byzantine style of painting, as well as the emerging Renaissance style. The work retains the gold background that was familiar in Byzantine icons, and his figures are rendered in a Byzantine style. However, Cimabue made efforts to create space in this work, which would become an important aspect in Renaissance art. His angels surrounding the Virgin and Child overlap one another to indicate space and Cimabue paid great attention to the Virgin's throne to create a realistic depiction of space as well.
Cimabue, Maesta, c.12801285.
Cimabue's art work reflects the changes that were occurring in Florentine painting during this period by demonstrating both the older Byzantine style as well as the emerging Renaissance style.
Artists were able to work in Florence at least in part due to the influential art guilds, including the painters' guild Arte dei Medici e Spezeiali. These guilds also became important patrons of the arts, and took over the maintenance and improvements of religious buildings.
Siena
The Sienese School of painting was more conservative than painting in Florence, but nonetheless important, flourishing between the 1200s and 1400s. Some of the important painters from this period included Duccio and his pupils Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, and Matteo di Giovanni.
Duccio di Buoninsegna is one of the best known Siena painters of the time. His work was often ornate with the use of gold leaf and jewels, demonstrating how Siena was focused on the physical materiality of work. His work in egg tempera also used brighter colors, rounded out features in faces and hands, and played with light and dark colors to highlight the figures under the drapery creating natural form, which was very unlike Byzantine figures but important to emerging Renaissance artists.
Duccio's work was considered quite emotional, with a renewed focus on storytelling through the interactions of figures in the images and the selection of strong interpretations of biblical stories. The altarpiece Maestà (1308–1310) is one of his great works. Composed of multiple paintings and commissioned by the city of Sienna, the piece depicts the life of the Virgin Mary and Christ. The Virgin's knee juts out toward the viewer as Duccio has created a realistic sense of form–an essential element of the emerging Renaissance style. While his work retains the gold background and gold halos so important in Byzantine art (and to Sienese patrons), this art acts as a bridge between the late Medieval era and Early Renaissance.
Duccio, Maestà, 1308–1311
Duccio's work demonstrates the emerging Renaissance style, as seen in the developed form of the figures, as well as the older Byzantine styles and the Sienese preference for materiality with the use of gold.