At this time, Italy was a group of independent city-states and republics, ruled mostly by an aristocratic elite. Dominating the international trade that connected the Europe with Russia, Byzantium, as well as the lands of Islam and China, Italy expanded trade and commerce through highly organised economic activity. This prosperity was brutally disrupted by the Black Death, or bubonic plague, in the late 1340s. In just five years at least twenty-five percent of the population of Europe, and upwards of sixty percent in some areas, were killed. Economic turmoil and social disruption ensued in Europe, while the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic states were far too strong to notice the expansion or decline of the European economic initiatives of the fourteenth century.
In the secular sphere, a great shift occurred with the development of vernacular, or everyday, literature in Italy. Latin remained the official language of Church and state documents, but intellectual and philosophical ideas became more accessible in the common language, which was based on Tuscan dialects from the region near Florence. Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75), and Francesco Petrarch (1304–74) all helped to establish the use of vernacular language. Dante’s Divine Comedy and Inferno, as well as Boccaccio’s Decameron enjoyed a wider audience because they were written in the vernacular.
Petrarch described ideas of individualism and humanism. Rather than a philosophical system, humanism referred to a civil code of conduct and ideas about education. The scholarly discipline humanists hoped to advance was based on human interests and values as separate from religion’s otherworldly values, but not opposed to religion. Humanism enveloped a separate set of concerns than religious scholarly disciplines based not on faith but on reason. Latin classics from Greco-Roman antiquity helped to develop a set of ethics governing civil society including service to the state, participation in government and in the defence of the state, as well as duty to the common good, rather than self interest. The humanists translated Greek and Roman texts that had been neglected in the Middle Ages, but they also composed new texts devoted to the humanist’s cult of fame. Just as sainthood was the reward for religious virtue, fame was the reward for civic virtue. Boccaccio wrote a collection of biographies of famous women and Petrarch wrote one of famous men who embodied humanist ideals.
16. Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267–1337, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Scenes from the Life of Joachim: Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1303–05, Fresco, Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua
17. Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267–1337, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Scenes from the Life of the Virgin: Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, 1303–05, Fresco, Cappella degli Scrovegni dell’ Arena, Padua
18. Master of St. Cecilia, Early Renaissance, Italian, Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, after 1304. Tempera on panel, 85 × 181 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
19. Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1255–1319, Early Renaissance, Sienese School, Italian, Christ Entering Jerusalem, 1308–11. Tempera on panel, 100 × 57 cm, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena
20. Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1255–1319, Early Renaissance, Sienese School, Italian, The Maestà, (back panel), Stories of the Passion: Peter’s First Denial of Christ Before the High Priest Annas, 1308–11. Tempera on panel, 99 × 53.5 cm, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena
21. Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267–1337, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà), 1305–10. Tempera on panel, 325 × 204 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
22. Simone Martini, 1284–1344, Gothic Art, Sienese School, Italian, Maestà (detail), 1317, Fresco, Palazzo Pubblico, San Gimignano
In this painting, the traces of Byzantine influence remain such as in the style of throne and stacking of figures as if on tiers. But overall the influence of the Gothic painters Duccio and Giotto are in greater evidence. Several of the saints carry symbols of themselves, often the instruments of their martyrdom. Each pole supporting the canopy is held by one of the saints. While the size of each figure is somewhat uniform, the Byzantine tradition of sizing figures in proportion to their importance still remains. This piece is the artist’s earliest known work. The transparency of the angelic gowns is not an accidental effect from top layers fading over the years, but rather the effect is the result of a clever technique. Only seven years after its competition it had to be restored because of water damage. The fresco is surrounded by a frame decorated with twenty medallions depicting the Blessing Christ, the Prophets and the Evangelists and with smaller shields containing the coat-of-arms of Siena.
Simone Martini
(1284 Siena – 1344 Avignon)
A Sienese painter, he was a student of Duccio. Influenced by his master and by the sculptures of Giovanni Pisano, he was even more influenced by French gothic art. First painting in Sienna, he worked as a court painter for the French Kingdom in Naples where he started to incorporate non-religious characters in his paintings. Then he worked in Assisi and Florence where he painted with his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi.
In 1340–41 Simone Martini went to Avignon in France, where he met Petrarch, illustrating a Virgil codex for him. His last works were created in Avignon where he died. Simone Martini gave a great sweetness to his religious compositions while, at the same time, he was the first who dared to employ his art for purposes not wholly religious.
23. Jean Pucelle, c. 1300–55, Gothic Art, French, The Betrayal of Christ and Annunciation, from the Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux, 1325–28. Tempera and gold leaf on parchment, 8.9 × 6.2 cm (each page), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
24. Francesco Traini, active 1321–63, Early Renaissance, Italian, The Triumph of Death (detail), c. 1325–50, Fresco, Campo Santo, Pisa
25. Maso di Banco, active 1320–50, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Pope St Sylvester’s Miracle, c. 1340, Fresco, Cappella di Bardi di Vernio, Santa Croce, Florence
Here Maso di Banco represents the scene of the "dragon miracle": on the left the Pope chains the dragon, then he brings the dead Magi back to life. On the right side, Emperor Constantine and his suite look at the scene in astonishment.
Maso di Banco
(active 1320–1350)
Florentine painter, Maso di Banco is undoubtedly the greatest pupil of Giotto but as he was not mentioned by Vasari we don’t know much of his career. His greatest works are the frescoes illustrating the legend of St Sylvester in the Bardi Chapel of Santa Croce in Florence where one can appreciate the clarity of his work and the harmonies of colours. As he was a follower of Ghiberti, his work also shows architectural settings and massive figures that anticipate the monumental style of Piero della Francesca and Masaccio.
26. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, c. 1290–1348, Early Renaissance, Sienese School, Italian, Scenes of the Life of St Nicholas: St Nicholas Offers Three Girls Their Dowry, 1327–32. Tempera on panel, 96 × 53 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
27. Ambrogio