Introduction
Before the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, though, the field of inquiry was completely different than it would be afterward. There was only one religious establishment during that time period, and that establishment had the power of eternal fear over everyone and everything. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church had the power to ban someone not just from church but from any chance of salvation radically altered the calculus of anyone interested in pursuing any sort of intellectual endeavor. Remember, this is the same institution that sought to excommunicate Galileo and Copernicus because of their claims that the Earth was not the center of the universe. It is difficult (actually, not all that difficult) to imagine what the Church would have done with someone like Jackson Pollock, who simply splattered paint onto canvases without any desire to represent anything in a way approaching realism at all, let alone producing a canvas that would bring glory to God.
The Protestant Reformation threw a metaphysical hand grenade into the inner workings of the Catholic Church but also into the way that people felt about the world around them. All of a sudden there was not just one religious authority on the planet; in fact, the Reformation taught that the Bible was supposed to be the divine authority, not the word of a priest (who would preach at you in a Latin language that he was one of the few people on the planet who could read).
With the emancipation of the soul came a whole different way to approach intellectual and artistic pursuits. But during the Renaissance, there was an entirely different climate. When people took up brushes to paint, they did so knowing that the Church representatives could easily review their work and determine whether or not that work of art passed the standards of providing glory and honor to God. When the wealthy patrons in Renaissance Italy sought to have a work completed, they went along with the pressure from the Church to hire religious subject matter. They would honor themselves sometimes by having their own portrait worked into the scene, but the vast majority of the paintings that emerged during this time focused on stories that told the history of the church, particularly scenes from Scripture. The task of the artist was to represent the scene in a realistic way that brought glory and honor to God. While there are still some artists who work in that vein, but there is no longer that pressure to conform to a set guideline when it comes to subject matter. So while the Italian Renaissance saw an explosion in the field of painting, the Church limited the subject matter significantly.
Philosophical Influences during the Renaissance
Even though the Church maintained an iron grip over thought, there was also a growing interest in classical philosophies from antiquity. This meant that humanism began to take root during the Renaissance, a philosophy that differed somewhat from the ideas that the Church taught about humanity. Given the pedagogical interests of the Church, it was difficult for religious leaders to argue against the study of the classics, and as a result the sculptor Donatello and the architect Brunelleschi undertook a study of the remains of antiquity that were still present in Rome. Their study led them to revive architectural styles from that point in time. Painting began to show a similar homage to the classical era, in the works of such painters as Paolo Uccello and Masaccio.
When reviewing texts from antiquity, researchers also found works dealing about higher mathematics that went back to the early Byzantine era. Thanks to the invention of the printing press, it became easier for publishers to distribute this knowledge more widely than ever before in human history. Combined with the classical works about the arts, this led to the application of academic practices to the pursuit of art.
At the same time, Florence became the locus of more wealth than had ever accrued at one place before, through the financial prowess of the Medicis. This family was the first to establish separate patronage of the arts; before this, either ruling families or the Church had been the only ones to provide funding for works of art. It helped that Florence was the home of a number of promising artists, such as the aforementioned Uccello and Masaccio, as well as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. These artists created a culture in the city that encouraged other artists to maximize their potential and create works that have stood the test of time.
The Influence of the Church on Italian Renaissance Painting
While the philosophical underpinnings of society were broadening, the fact remains that the Catholic Church commissioned so many of the most important art works meant that the subject matter would remain religious. However, Italian Renaissance painters were also interested in emulating the success that classical artists had had in rendering the human form and other elements of nature with such perspective and realism – as well as furthering the discipline. This is where the work of Masaccio becomes so important. The Expulsion from the Garden is one of a series of frescoes that appears in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria de Carmine (Masaccio). The work shows the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden, but it also shows one of the few topics in which one can paint an almost complete nude without earning the censure of the archbishopric. If you look at the painting, you can see that the light enters the picture from the right, and the facial expressions of Adam and Eve both teach a moral lesson (which pleases the church) while exploring the boundaries of light and shadow in painting. Adam’s face is buried in shame; Eve’s face has a groan of sorrow; the angel above them hovers with a face that is calm with justice. The lesson (that Eve would face great discomfort throughout life, particularly in the experience of childbirth) appears in the painting, but so does the expert modeling of light and shadow. The realism of the forms and the work of the shadow on the side of the bodies away from the light makes the forms look almost like sculptures. So Masaccio used the aegis of church patronage (and topic control) to make advances in atmospheric perspective, which would become one of the great achievements of the Italian Renaissance (Fleming).
Another one of Masaccio’s works that combines the innovation of atmospheric perspective with a subject matter sanctioned by the Church. Tribute Money is another fresco at the Brancacci Chapel. Each figure appears to have his own set area within the nexus of light and shadow within the work. This scene contains the story in which the tax collector approaches Jesus and the disciples, prompting a discussion as to whether Christians should pay the Roman tax. Jesus affirms the obligation that even believers must submit to the political authority when it comes to taxation. This fresco shows several points of the story at the same time, which was customary in paintings during that time. In the middle, Peter is asking the question; at the left, he is casting for the fish that Jesus provided with the coinage inside to pay the tax; at the right, he is paying the tax (Masaccio). The artistic merit of the fresco comes from the representation of light and shadow in a realistic way; the influence of the Church here, of course, comes from the subject matter at hand.
The work of Fra Angelico emphasizes the religious elements of the art more than the chance that painting provided for innovation during the Italian Renaissance. An example of this is Annunciation, which he painted for San Marco’s monastery – where he was a communicant. If you look at the painting, the visiting angel appears just as realistic as the Virgin Mary, a sign of his belief that angels were just as genuine as humanity (Fra Angelico; Fleming). Even so, there are some elements of his work that show some of the progress of Renaissance painting. Note the careful attention to architectural details that hearken all the way back to antiquity, as well as the new attention to space and perspective that other artists were also showing.
One of Fra Angelico’s pupils, Benozzo Gozzoli, also represented religious subject matter but took a much more worldly tack on it. His fresco Journey of the Magi is a particularly strong example of this. This was a particularly popular topic because it followed the restrictions that the Church had set for subject matter, but it also provided artists with the opportunity to paint a scene with a great deal of pageantry (Fleming). Note the rich costuming on the Wise Man, sitting atop a horse that is equally well decked out. The far right shows Piero d’ Medici in profile, a conceit of the painting in this era, as those who had provided the patronage for the work often appeared in the role of characters in the religious stories. On the harness of the white horse you see the word Semper, which is part of the motto of the Medici family (Fleming). It is fairly clear that, much like the corporate logos that appear on soccer jerseys in our own time, the Medicis put their mark on this fresco to stand the test of time, a sign of their support as much as anything else.
One of the more well known painters from the Italian Renaissance who managed to blend the humanist philosophy that was percolating to the surface during that time with the dictates of the Church as far as subject matter went was Sandro Botticelli. His painting Adoration of the Magi fits the model from the time period, featuring members of the Medici family among the cast. You can see Cosimo, the head of the family, kneeling at the Christ Child’s feet, along with his sons, Giovanni and Piero (Fleming). At right, Cosimo’s grandson Giuliano is leaning against the broken wall; Lorenzo the Magnificent is on the left in the foreground. The triangular shape of the composition hearkens back to clear classical principles of representation, and there is even a ruin from ancient Rome in the background to give antiquity yet another nod (Botticelli). The influence of the Church, of course, is present in the subject matter. After all, the Magi came to pay homage to the Christ Child, just like the Medicis were paying homage to the Church with all of the artistic works that they commissioned. Botticelli did not restrict himself to religious subject matter; one of his most famous works is The Birth of Venus, which shows that event from classical mythology with all of the flair and pageantry that he used to show the worship that the Wise Men brought form the East to worship the birth of the Christ Child (Fleming).
The work of Leonardo da Vinci is also worth considering in a look at the ways in which the Church influenced Italian Renaissance painting. Three of his works – Madonna and Child with St. Anne, The Last Supper and Madonna of the Rocks show the intersection between the growing artistic principles of Renaissance painting and the subject matter demands of the church. One of the early cartoon studies for Madonna and Child with St. Anne shows both the realism of the facial expressions as well as the importance of composition as far as the arranging of the figures. There is a clear line from Mary down to the Christ Child; the face of St. Anne shows the blessing that, according to the teachings of the Church, came down in such volume on Mary (da Vinci). The Catholic Church has long taught the importance of the veneration of Mary, and paintings such as this express that even while showing the advancement of painting techniques.
The Last Supper is one of the classic examples of perspective in Italian Renaissance painting. The lines above the doorways down the left and right sides of the room meet at the semi-circular arch above the head of Christ, as the architectural details themselves form a halo over him. Jesus is sitting at the center of the table, in the exact center of the composition. The expressions on the faces of the disciples at the table run the entire emotional spectrum, going from anxiety and skepticism to love and belief. The realism on those facial expressions shows the attention to detail that the classical artists had prized, and that blends with the power of this story of the New Testament. Note the intricate work that Da Vinci performed on the study of St. Philip’s face (Da Vinci). A less realistic representation of these emotions would have drained some of the power from the painting, making it look like nothing more than a storyboard of the situation. This was clearly a moment that changed the course of the lives of these eleven men in the room, who had already left their homes to follow Jesus and now were faced with the prospect of his imminent death.
Madonna of the Rocks shows one of the most commonly depicted scenes from Italian Renaissance painting, a portrait of the Virgin Mary alongside the Christ Child in one of a variety of settings. In this painting, da Vinci takes the existing practice of chiaroscuro, or the blending of light and shadow, and pushes it to the point of sfumato, at which point the actual lines between objects (or people) and the shadows surrounding them become fuzzy and difficult to observe. The placid face of the Madonna is an object of beauty in this painting, as is the happy form of the Christ Child at the lower left. However, the real artistic accomplishment of this painting is the way in which these figures stand out from the dark. Those who look for an allegory in the design of this painting could look at the way the Virgin and the Christ Child were ushering a new era of light into a dark world, and da Vinci might have taken pleasure in that thematic thought. However, based on da Vinci’s extensive studies in human anatomy and science, it is safe to argue that the artistic achievements were at least as important as the allegorical ones.
Conclusion
If it were not for the fact that the Roman Catholic Church saw itself not only as the guardians of the faith but also as the stewards of scholarship throughout the Dark and Middle Ages, it would have been interesting indeed to see what would have happened to humanity once the time of Charlemagne had passed and the eastern half of the Roman Empire finally found its formal collapse at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The discovery of the humanist writings from antiquity and the mathematical texts from Islamic scholars could have pushed the world in another direction. As it is, the Church motivated the creation of some of the most seminal works in all of the history of the arts. The paintings that emerged from the Italian Renaissance ushered in a new era of progress in the way that artists represented reality, moving forward from the stilted works of the Gothic era into an era of excellence and quality. While the Church may have served as a censoring factor as far as subject matter went, the fact that the Church was, by and large, one of the greatest sources of financial funding to hit the art world at that time, meant that they could control the subject matter. The freedom that they gave artists to pursue their calling and to learn about the ins and outs of their craft was valuable, as works created during and after this time period would show. The fact that Michelangelo, for example, used religious themes for his work does not detract from their artistic value one bit. In fact, it also serves as a testament to the power that faith exerted during that time period.
Works Cited
Botticelli, Sandro. Adoration of the Magi. Tempera on wood, Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence, 1475.
This is an Italian Renaissance showing the visit of the Wise Men to visit the Christ Child. It portrays several of the Medici family members in the roles of people on this sacred event, an homage to their patronage of the painting.
Botticelli, Sandro. The Birth of Venus. Tempera on canvas, Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence, 1480.
This is an Italian Renaissance painting showing an event from myth rather than from the scriptures. Mythological scenes were allowed by the Church because of their relationship to antiquity.
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Madonna and Child with St. Anne. Charcoal and white chalk
on paper. National Gallery, London, 1497.
This is a study by da Vinci for a larger painting. The inclusion of this is to show how Italian Renaissance painters blended a desire to represent the human form realistically while also covering topics that were approved by the Church.
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Madonna of the Rocks. Oil on panel, Louvre, Paris, 1483.
This is an Italian Renaissance painting that shows a popular scene (Madonna and child) with the use of sfumato, a technique that blends objects into the shadows around them.
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Study of St. Philip for the Last Supper. Black chalk on paper,
1496.
This is a study for The Last Supper. It shows da Vinci’s intense attention to detail when representing the human form.
Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Last Supper. Oil and tempera on plaster. Refectory,
Santa Maria della Grazia, Milan, 1498.
This Italian Renaissance painting is one of the most commonly cited examples of an early instance of perspective and lines moving ideally toward the center of the desired focus.
Fleming, William. Arts and Ideas. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986.
Fleming’s Arts and Ideas contains a chronological exploration of humanities and the arts, starting during classical antiquity and continuing to the present day. In each part of the book, there are connections between the most seminal works of art and the surrounding themes and ideas that are at work in their creation and in the cultural context in which they appeared. With regard to the present study on Italian Renaissance painting, Fleming’s work contains a considerable amount of insight into the growth of humanism during the early Renaissance, a tide which the Catholic Church was not able to quash because it came from the same scholastic tradition that the Church had been attempting to preserve through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages. Fleming’s book connects the swelling humanism with the art works that were produced by painters in the Italian Renaissance.
Fra Angelico. Annunciation. Fresco, Monastery of San Marco, Florence, 1450.
This fresco combined a desire to represent buildings and figures classically with the painter’s belief that angels and humans were both
Gozzoli, Benozzo. Journey of the Magi. Fresco, Chapel, Medici-Riccardi palace,
Florence, 1463.
This Italian Renaissance painting shows Benozzo Gozzoli’s more humanist bent in his themes, as well as in his representation of the Magi.
Masaccio. Expulsion from the Garden. Fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, 1427.
This fresco combines a desire to represent emotional responses in an authentic and realistic way with the Church-sanctioned subject matter of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden.
Masaccio. Tribute Money. Fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, 1427.
This fresco uses the archaic method of showing a story by giving several instances of it in the same painting. It also uses the same attention to realistic representation and perspective as one finds in antiquity.
IV. Conclusion
