Fra Angelico, who first worked in Florence and later in Rome, combined Gothic influences with naturalism in his work, which was exclusively religious, distinguishing itself with its blissful depth of feeling. His artistic roots lay in his devout disposition, which was reflected in his numerous figures of the Virgin Mary and angels. His skilful work with colours is shown to their best advantage both in his numerous frescoes, which have mostly been well preserved, as well as in his panel paintings. The most important frescoes (around 1436/1446) can be found in the chapter house, the cloister and some cells in the former Dominican monastery San Marco. The Coronation of the Virgin is seen by many experts as outstanding amongst all other frescoes. Fra Angelico took up this subject several times.
One of Fra Angelico’s most well-known successors is the Florentine Fra Filippo Lippi (around 1406 to 1469), who lived as a Carmelite monk for approximately five decades and was ordained priest in Padua in 1434, but later left the order. He took on Masaccio’s school of thought and sense of beauty with his softly modelled line-work and splendid colours. He gave the female element a significant role – not only in his life but also in his frescoes and his numerous panel paintings. In his figures of angels, he uses girls from his surroundings as models and shows a sense and understanding for the fashion of that time. In his frescoes he achieved monumental greatness and left his most beautiful creations in his panel paintings. Similar to Fra Angelico, the Coronation of the Virgin (1441/1447) was also an important subject for him. Contrary to Fra Angelico however, he pushed the actual coronation somewhat to the background, and clearly put a lot more emphasis on the figures of the clergymen kneeling in the foreground as well as the women and children he portrayed. This tendency towards portraying and therefore honouring the individual is mainly demonstrated in his Madonna pictures, expressing significant religious feelings. This becomes increasingly apparent in his painting Madonna with Two Angels (mid-fifteenth century). In comparison, he created a lively background to the Madonna, who sits at the front with the portrayal of the confinement of St Anna on the round picture Madonna and Child (around 1452). This childbed served later artists as a welcome model.
Fra Filippo Lippi’s most important student was without doubt Sandro Botticelli (around 1445 to 1510). But the headstrong Sandro, his Adoration of the Magi contains a self-portrait on the right side, insisted on becoming a painter, thus finally ending up at Fra Filippo Lippi’s as an apprentice. Later on, he was close to the circle of humanists around the chief councillor Lorenzo de Medici (The Magnificent; 1449 to 1492). Botticelli was one of the first to become deeply involved in the subjects of antique mythology, for instance in the most famous of his paintings, the Birth of Venus (around 1482/1483), and he liked to include antique buildings in the background of his work. Above all, he created allegorical and religious work, and during his activities in Rome between 1481 and 1483 also frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in cooperation with others. Another of his pictures is Spring (1485/1487), in which the merry and festive life in Florence is reflected.
Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna with the Child and Two Angels, 1465.
Tempera on wood, 95 × 62 cm.
Galleria degi Uffizi, Florence.
In many of his pieces of work there is a lavish abundance of flowers and fruit, into which he places his slender girls and women with their fluttering, flowing gowns, as well as the Madonna’s, surrounded by serious saints. In some Madonna portrayals we can feel the influence of the repentance-preacher and Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola (1452 to 1498), of whom Botticelli remained an ardent follower, even after his violent death. He also repeatedly painted the Adoration of the Magi, once also commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici, and in this painting we do not only see the members of this family but also their immediate circle of friends and his followers. His individual portraits such as Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap (around 1474), Giuliano de’ Medici (around 1478) and Portrait of a Young Woman (around 1480/1485) prove that he was also a brilliant portraitist. From his time in Rome he also left one of his most mysterious paintings: The Outcast (1495), with the crying or desperate figure of a woman on the steps in front of the fortress-like wall with the closed gate. Botticelli, who had been wrongly forgotten for a long time, is now regarded as one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), Madonna of the Book, c. 1483.
Tempera on wood panel, 58 × 39.5 cm.
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan.
His most significant student was doubtlessly Filippino Lippi (around 1457 to 1504), the son of Fra Filippo Lippi. Initially strongly influenced by Botticelli, he later freed himself from him and created several significant pieces of work in his own right. Among these are an Adoration of the Magi, commissioned by the Medici, and following its interruption due to Masaccio’s death, the completion of the painting of the Brancacci Chapel showing a fresco cycle with Scenes from the Life of St Peter (1481/1482), a Coronation of the Virgin and a Madonna.
In spite of these indisputable performances, his reputation and awareness level do not measure up to those of his contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449 to 1494). Like Botticelli, Ghirlandaio also first completed an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, and was already unquestionably successful when he dedicated himself entirely to painting. In 1480 and 1481 he created monumental and beautifully designed frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and in 1482/83 to 1485 in the Florentine Santa Trinità, among which The Last Supper in the Church of Ognissanti stands out in particular, and can be considered a forerunner to Leonardo’s. Ghirlandaio included life around him into his work and did not hesitate at all to arrange biblical stories as scenes of contemporary Florentine good living, in order to give the viewer a better understanding of its deeper meaning. This is especially apparent in the frescoes he painted in the choir of Santa Maria Novella (1490).
Among the absolute masters of Italian painting outside of Florence is Piero della Francesca (1416 to 1492), who should be regarded as one of the most brilliant painters of the Early Renaissance and was particularly outstanding due to his excellent knowledge of anatomy and perspective. Piero della Francesca created a style that combines monumental size with the transparent beauty of colour and light, and therefore influenced the entire northern and middle Italian painting of the Quattrocento. His main work is the cycle of frescoes from the Legend of the True Cross in the choir of San Francesco in Arezzo (1451/1466) and a Baptism of Christ (1448/1450).
One of Piero della Francesca’s most important students was Luca Signorelli (1440/1450 to 1523). His harshly modelled nudes, in movement and the adoption of ancient subjects, made him one of Michelangelo’s role models. What kind of mastery he had already achieved in the portrayal of the human body as a young man is depicted in a mythological picture, rich in figures and probably commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici. Michelangelo paid Signorelli his respects, when he adopted the woman riding on the Devil’s back in one of his pieces of work, without any changes. But we can also still find Signorelli’s frescoes and altarpieces in other large and small villages and towns in southern Tuscany and in Umbria. From their relatively good condition in relation to the colours, we may conclude that he made use of the new technique with oil-paint that originated in the Netherlands. Signorelli also worked in Rome for some years, where in 1481/1482 he painted the fresco with The Testament and Death of Moses in the Sistine Chapel. In Venice, Jacopo Bellini, the father of the famous Gentile Bellini became his student. Among Jacopo’s main work is the altar with the Adoration of the Magi (1423) as well as frescoes, of which only one Madonna (1425) has been preserved in the Orvieto Cathedral.
Piero di Cosimo, Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, c. 1485.
Oil on panel, 57 × 42 cm.
Musée Condé, Chantilly.
Domenico Ghirlandaio, An Old Man with his Grandson, 1488.
Tempera on