The development of the Flemish school of painting during the 15th century is the brilliant end of the Gothic period. At the same time, in Italy, a new and exciting movement had sprung up. It was called the Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" (See Renaissance from 1300-1600)
This was a period of exploration, invention, and discovery. Mariners sailed the seas to find new lands. Scientists studied their world and the heavens. Anatomists and artists found the human body to be a marvel of mechanics and beauty. The culture of antiquity was rediscovered. It was one of the most exciting periods in the history of man and of art.
The birthplace of Renaissance art was Florence. There a young painter-named Masaccio (ma-zat cho) introduced many bold new ideas into painting. 'The Tribute Money' is a fresco done by him in a chapel in Florence. Here we see the figures of Christ, the disciples, and the tax collector all composed in an area to conform to the wall surface on which the picture is painted.
Like Giotto, Masaccio gave his pictures a monumental quality, but he was more interested than Giotto in making his people human. All his figures look different from one another. Masaccio had learned a great deal about drawing the human figure. Notice the solidity of the figure of the tax collector (back to the spectator). Although the bodies of the other figures in the composition are not as clear, we are aware of muscles and bones and movement. The background shows his sense of space in treating landscapes. The near hill is dark in value and brownish in color. The ones behind are lighter in value and bluish, which make them appear to go back in the picture. The work of Masaccio represents a great stride forward in the problem of representing the visual world in painting. (See also Masaccio.)
The Battle of San Romano' is by another Florentine, Paolo Uccello (ot-chel lo), who was working at the same time as Masaccio. Uccello was a mathematician as well as an artist. He was more interested in the mechanical and scientific problems of painting than in the human and psychological problems.
This painting, done about 1457 to celebrate the victory of Florence over Siena some 25 years earlier, is a study in perspective. Uccello has drawn the figures of men and horses in a great variety of positions in order to test his knowledge of perspective and anatomy. In the foreground are broken lances and spears, all arranged to make the ground on which the battle is being fought seem flat and real.
In the left foreground we see a fallen figure lying with his feet toward the front of the picture, his head away from the observer. Artists in describing such positions refer to them as "foreshortened." Although we know that a human body is several times higher than it is wide, in views such as this the width of the body is as great as the height. To draw a drastically foreshortened figure convincingly is difficult. That Uccello set himself this problem shows the interest in discovering the laws of drawing at the time.
The background is also a study in perspective, with roads, fields, and hill going back into the distance. No use has been made of atmosphere. Only lines are used to show distance. Uccello's battle does not seem very ferocious or his figures and animals very real. Yet his work was revolutionary in the discoveries that were made about the visual world.
The work of such men as Masaccio and Uccello characterized the period of the early Renaissance. Botticeiii, an example of whose work we have already seen, was active during the last part of the 15th century. About the beginning of the 16th century we enter a period known as the High Renaissance. It was not only an exciting time but a troubled one. Discoveries in science were changing man's ideas about himself. The Reformation, begun in Germany, had split the Christian world. The growth of wealth and the discovery of new lands had set off a struggle for power, and many wars resulted. The challenges which the age presented acted as a spur to a group of brilliant artists.