THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450)
By Renaissance, new birth, we mean the rapid, many-sided, intellectual
development which started forward in Italy at this time. It was really a
stage in the movement which began a hundred years earlier, but the
textbooks confine the term Renaissance to the period which began at the
opening of the fifteenth century; and just as the first beginning took
place in Florence, so this fresh start, like a stream of energy issuing
at a divine touch, also burst out of the city of Florence. The simplest
way to get an idea of this period, known as the Early Renaissance, will
be to notice a few of the men, leaders in their several spheres, in whom
that energy became incarnate.
We must not let ourselves think that the Renaissance was a merely
artistic movement. A few men are known to us, and we think of them as
wandering about in artistic isolation, as if they were hermits in a
Thebaid. But, in reality, only a slight fraction of even the deeper
feelings and interests take artistic or literary form; the great
majority are put into life. The celebrated Florentine artists of those
days were merely representative of their fellows; they were surrounded
by crowds of neighbours, all crammed full with ardour for living, for
expression, for discussion, for money-making, for glorifying their
city. In recognition of this fact, and of the great service rendered to
the arts throughout the Renaissance by men who were not artists, but
potent signors of wealth and cultivation, whether merchants, dukes, or
cardinals, I take Cosimo dei Medici (1389-1464) as the first figure in
this brief account of the Early Renaissance.
Cosimo's father, the richest banker in Italy, and one of the chief
citizens of Florence, had been active in politics, and chief of the
party which was opposed to the ruling oligarchy. Cosimo succeeded to his
father's position, and when the oligarchy fell became the actual head of
the city, though he always affected the role of private citizen. His
quick intelligence and his broad cultivation gave him keen sympathy with
the fermenting intellectual life about him, and his great wealth enabled
him to express that sympathy in most substantial ways. He got his first
schooling from a Florentine humanist, and then went abroad, travelled in
Germany and France, and visited the Council of Constance then in
session. After that his attention was devoted to business and to
political affairs. His position in Florence during early manhood was
always precarious, for the sharp-witted Florentines were not easily
hoodwinked and saw whither Cosimo's masterfulness was tending. For a
time he was in exile, but after a tussle he won his place and banished
his enemies. Wealth was his great instrument. He lent and gave lavishly.
In later life he used to say that his chief error had been that he had
not begun to spend money ten years sooner than he did. He was a serious
man, given to intellectual matters, and averse to buffoons and strolling
players, so popular then; by virtue of wide experience in the conduct of
large affairs, of extensive reading, of a retentive memory, and a
natural gift for language, he was both an interesting talker and good
company. He talked literature with men of letters, but he was equally
ready to talk divinity, in which he was well read, or philosophy, or
astrology in which he believed although some men did not. He liked
gardening, and enjoyed going out of town to his country-place; there he
would prune the vines for two hours in the morning, and then go indoors
to read. His connection with the arts of the Renaissance, however, is
our chief concern. He employed the famous architect Michelozzo to build
his palace, now known as Palazzo Riccardi, his villa, and also the
Dominican convent of San Marco. He employed the still more famous
Brunelleschi to rebuild the abbey of Fiesole. He was fond of sculptors,
especially of Donatello, and had statues by the best masters of the day
in his palace. He employed Fra Angelico to paint in the convent of San
Marco, and Benozzo Gozzoli in his private chapel. Benozzo painted a
procession of the Three Wise Men, with Cosimo, his son, and his
grandson, young Lorenzo the Magnificent, riding in their train. Cosimo's
greatest interest, however, was in the humanities. He built several
buildings for libraries in Florence, and one in Venice, and interested
himself greatly in the preservation and increase of the libraries
themselves. For the library in the abbey at Fiesole he employed a man
of letters (Vespasiano da Bisticci, his biographer), who hired
forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two months finished the two hundred
volumes deemed necessary for a good library. His list included the Bible
and concordances and commentaries, beginning with that by Origen; the
works of St. Ignatius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John
Chrysostom, and all the works of the Greek fathers which had been
translated into Latin; St. Cyprian, Tertullian, and the four doctors of
the Latin Church; the mediaeval masters St. Bernard, Hugo of St. Victor,
St. Anselm, St. Isidore of Spain; the scholastic philosophers, Albertus
Magnus, Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura; Aristotle, and
commentaries; books of canon law; the Latin prose classics, Livy, Caesar,
Suetonius, Plutarch, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, Cicero,
Seneca; the Latin poets, Virgil, Terence, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Plautus;
and "all the other books necessary to a library." One wonders if this
clause includes Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, or whether the humanists
did not regard them as necessary or appropriate to culture.
Taken altogether Cosimo may stand as an heroic model of the Florentine
burgher, such as one sees in the frescoes of the time, shrewd, prudent,
thoughtful, cautious in plan and prompt in action, interested in the
best things of this world, and in a measure generous, but wholly without
romance, chivalry, or idealism. At the close of his life he used to stay
hours at a time, wrapt in thought, without speaking a word. One of the
women of the house asked him the reason of this. He answered: "When you
have to go out of town, you spend a fortnight all agog to prepare for
going; and now that I have to go from this life to another, doesn't it
seem to you that I have something to think about?" The last book he is
reported by his biographer to have read was the "Ethics" of Aristotle.
Cosimo was named _Pater Patriae_, though his real work was the foundation
of the House of the Medici, which ruled in Tuscany for centuries and
mingled its blood with the royalties of Europe; but for us he is the
patron of the arts, the friend of artists, and serves as the central
figure round which to group the men of artistic genius.
In architecture the greatest name is that of Brunelleschi (1377-1446).
His biography by Vasari opens with these words: "Many men are created by
nature little in person and features, who have their souls so full of
greatness and their hearts so full of the inordinate fury of genius,
that, unless they are at work on things difficult to impossibility, and
unless they finish them to the astonishment of the spectator, they never
give themselves any rest all their lives; and whatever things chance
puts into their hands, no matter how mean and cheap, they bring to worth
and dignity.... Such was Brunelleschi, no less insignificant in person
than Giotto, but of so lofty genius, that it may be said he was endowed
by heaven to give new form to architecture, which for hundreds of years
had gone astray [such was the Renaissance view of the Gothic and
Romanesque]. Moreover, Brunelleschi was adorned with the greatest
virtues; among which was friendship to such a degree, that there never
was a man more kind or more loving than he. His judgment was wholly free
from passion; wherever he saw the worth of another man's merits, he
totally disregarded any advantage to himself or to his friends. He knew
himself; he inspired others with his own noble qualities, and he always
succoured his neighbour in time of need. He declared himself a deadly
enemy of the vices, and a lover of those who practised virtue. He never
wasted time, for he was always busy with his own affairs or with the
affairs of others when they had need of him, and when out walking he
used to stop and see his friends and always lent them a hand."
Brunelleschi was no scholar, but, being a Florentine, he was very fond
of talking, and did not hesitate to take part in conversation with
learned men, especially when the talk ran on Holy Writ, and then, as a
friend said, he talked like a second St. Paul.
He began life, as most architects did, as a member of the guild of
goldsmiths, and learned to model, but he had a bent towards physics and
mechanics, and developed naturally into an architect. A great event in
his life was a trip to Rome with Donatello; there the two examined all
the classical remains in the city and in the country round about, taking
measurements and learning all they could.
In Florence besides the abbey of Fiesole, built for Cosimo, Brunelleschi
built the church of San Lorenzo for Cosimo's father, and he designed and
began the lordly Pitti palace across the Arno, but his great
achievement was the dome of the cathedral. The cathedral, first begun by
Arnolfo di Cambio, had been in charge of a succession of famous
architects, and was nearing completion; but the gap at the intersection
of the nave and transepts presented a most difficult architectural
problem. The diameter of this gap was about one hundred and thirty-five
feet, and the height above the ground was about one hundred and
forty-five feet. No such span had been vaulted since the building of the
Pantheon. A public competition for a dome was held in which Brunelleschi
took part. After long discussion, for Florence was "a city where every
one speaks his mind," and after much consideration, Brunelleschi was
chosen architect. His great dome, though no copy of Roman forms, was
thoroughly classic in its simplicity and its spirit, and is the great
achievement of the Early Renaissance in architecture.
Brunelleschi and his fellow architects, no doubt, wished to revive the
old Roman art, and did so as far as they could, but their problems were
new and their models few, so they were forced, in the main, to follow
their own principles of construction and limit their use of Roman forms
to ornament and detail. Other famous men seconded Brunelleschi; and
Florentine, or at least Tuscan, architects spread the ideas of the new
art. To them is really due the foundation of the various schools of
Renaissance architecture which sprang up in Milan, Venice, Pavia,
Bologna, Rimini, Brescia, Siena, Lucca, Perugia, and in almost every
city of Northern Italy.
In sculpture, the puissant Donatello (1386-1466) is the greatest
figure. It has been said, that Michelangelo's soul first worked in
Donatello's body or that Donatello's soul lived again in Michelangelo.
Donatello was a realist; he shows classic influence at times, in
technique and in sundry bits of detail, but his instinct was to imitate
what he could see and touch. His vigour, his energy and variety produced
a profound effect on sculpture and also on painting. His earlier works
were statues for the outside of the Campanile and of the church of
Orsanmichele, of which the most famous are that known as _Zuccone_,
Baldhead, and the splendid St. George. Afterwards he modelled a young
David, the first nude bronze since the Romans, and the statue of
Gattamelata at Padua, the first equestrian statue since that of Marcus
Aurelius in Rome. The spectator who examines the collection of
Donatello's works in the Bargello is chiefly struck by his intellectual
power, and by the immense variety of his style, from the simple outline
of the lovely St. Cecilia in low relief, to the passionate dramas carved
in altars and pulpits.
Donatello was a great friend of Brunelleschi, and Vasari tells this
anecdote about them. Donatello modelled a Crucifix for Santa Croce, and
thinking he had done something unusually good, asked Brunelleschi what
he thought of it. Brunelleschi, with his unswerving artistic rectitude,
answered that Donatello had put a peasant on the cross, and not Jesus
Christ. Donatello, piqued more than he had anticipated, said: "If it
were as easy to model as it is to criticise, my Christ would seem to you
a Christ and not a peasant; but let's see you take a piece of wood and
go and make one." Brunelleschi did so secretly, and when he had at last
finished his Crucifix, asked Donatello to come home and dine with him.
They walked to Brunelleschi's house together, stopping at the market to
buy eggs, cheese, and other things for the dinner. Then Brunelleschi
said, "Donatello, you take these things and go to my house, and I will
come after in a minute or two." So Donatello caught them up in his
apron, went to Brunelleschi's, opened the door, and saw the Crucifix. He
was so dumbfounded that he dropped the dinner on the floor, and when
Brunelleschi, coming in, said, "Why, Donatello, what shall we have for
dinner?" Donatello answered, "For my part I have had my share to-day. If
you want yours, pick it up. No more of that. It is my lot to model
peasants, and yours to model Christs."
Donatello was also a great friend of Cosimo's, modelled many things for
him, and inspired Cosimo with a taste for collecting antiques. He loved
Cosimo so much that he did whatever he wanted, except when it interfered
with his personal idiosyncrasies. One day Cosimo gave Donatello, who
used to go about in his workman's blouse, a cloak and a fine suit of
clothes, the costume of a gentleman. Donatello wore them for a day or
two, and then said he could not wear them, they were too fashionable. He
was buried, at his own request, near Cosimo, in the church of San
Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi had designed, and he had adorned with his
sculpture.
Donatello worked in Venice, Mantua, Modena, Ferrara, and Prato, spent
several years in Siena, and nine in Padua, and introduced the
Renaissance into the sculpture of Northern Italy. He was a man of strong
character and poetic spirit, striving in his statues to be true to
nature and to the beautiful, to mingle pagan and Christian notions,
tradition, and freedom. He and his pupils affected the whole plastic art
of Italy.
In painting, Masaccio (1401-28) stands conspicuous, even among many
painters of rare gifts. Modern critics call him Giotto reincarnate.
Masaccio is an unflattering nickname for Tommaso, and recalls the only
personal trait we know of him. Vasari says: "He was a most absent-minded
person and very casual, like a man who has fixed his will and his whole
mind on art only, and cares little about himself and less about others.
He never wanted to think in any way about the things or the cares of
this world, even of his own clothes, and he never went to get the money
due him from his debtors except when he was in extreme need. Instead of
Thomas, everybody called him Masaccio; not because he was bad, being
good nature itself, but because of his great absent-mindedness.
Nevertheless, he was as affectionate in doing useful and amiable acts
for other people as could possibly be wished." This "marvellous boy"
died at the age of twenty-seven, but left an ineffaceable mark on
Italian painting. Across the Arno, in the ugly church of Santa Maria del
Carmine, is a chapel on the right, in which, mingled with the work of
contemporaries and continuers, are Masaccio's frescoes, figures of St.
Peter and St. John, of a shivering boy, and a few others. Leonardo da
Vinci said: "After Giotto, the art of painting declined again, because
every one imitated the pictures that were already done; thus it went on
till Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect
works how those who take for their standard any one but Nature--the
mistress of all masters--weary themselves in vain."[16] In that little
chapel, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and scores of the greatest
painters of Italy have admired, studied, and copied.
Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio are but the greater names in the fine
arts. Well might Leon Battista Alberti, himself a great architect and
humanist, on return from exile to his native city, say to Brunelleschi:
"I have been accustomed both to wonder and to grieve that so many divine
arts and sciences which we see to have abounded in those most highly
endowed ancients were now lacking and utterly lost ... but since I have
been restored to this our native land that surpasseth all others in her
adornment, I have recognized in many but chiefly in thee, Philip
[Brunelleschi], and in our near friend Donato [Donatello] the sculptor,
and in those others, Nencio [Ghiberti], and Luca [della Robbia], and
Masaccio, genius capable for every praiseworthy work, not inferior to
that of any ancient and famous master in the arts."[17]
FOOTNOTES:
[16] _Leonardo da Vinci_, Richter.
[17] _Church Building in the Middle Ages_, C. E. Norton, p. 280.