The Middle Ages, from Byzantium to Giotto
In the Middle Ages, Byzantium inspired Florentine primitive painters. Also under Byzantine influence, with his icons and gilding, Cimabue (1272-1302) nevertheless found a personal style that would leave its mark on Italian art, with crucifixes painted in tempera and gold on wood, with particularly sensual swaying lines. A well-known example can be seen in Florence's Museo dell'Oeuvre di Santa Croce.
Tuscan sculptors Nicola Pisano and his son Giovanni are two of the key figures of Italian Gothic. The essential role of their work remains in the tradition of this "Bible of the poor". The aim was to illustrate the divine Word. They referred to ancient sculpture, heralding a gesture characteristic of the Renaissance. They are mainly responsible for the pulpit in Siena Cathedral (1265), on which Arnolfo di Cambio collaborated, and the magnificent fontana della Piazza (1278) in Perugia.
Giotto (circa 1265-1337) was the best representative of modernity at the time. His early work in the basilica of Santa Croce, for example, was already free of the Byzantine style. Within this building, he dedicated the Peruzzi chapel to his patrons, the Bardi family, a powerful Florentine banking and trading family, and retraced the life of St. Francis in the best-preserved Bardi chapel. After traveling around Italy, Giotto was appointed by the city to oversee the construction of the Municipality and the Duomo. He then drew the plans and bas-reliefs for Florence's campanile, which were executed by Andrea Pisano (1290-1348), who succeeded him in Florence after his death.
The Florentine and Tuscan Renaissance
In the Quattrocento, Masaccio (1401-1428) was a precocious genius who moved to Florence at the age of 15 and quickly established his style. He was the first to use the perspective discovered by Brunelleschi, as in theTrinity of Santa Maria Novella and his famous Madonna of theChild. What's most impressive about this young painter, who died at the age of 27, is the anxiety that shines through in his faces and gazes. His personality and innovative staging inspired many of the great artists of later centuries, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
A contemporary of Masaccio, Guido di Pietro (c. 1395-1455), alsoknown as Fra Angelico, literally "Brother of the Angels" and "Painter of Angels", was born near Florence and dedicated part of his life to the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, where he became a monk. From his earliest works, his painting is distinguished by its Gothic architecture, precise line, clearly delineated spaces, blond angels and biblical themes. At the time, he worked for the San Marco convent, whose restoration was financed by Cosimo de' Medici. In Florence, he is currently exhibited at the Uffizi, while The Last Judgment, painted around 1431, is in the San Marco Museum. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
In both sculpture and architecture, Brunelleschi (1377-1446), along with Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), played a key role in the transition to the Renaissance. Ghiberti, one of the greatest goldsmiths of his time, was responsible for the North Door of the Baptistery and the Gate of Paradise (1425-1452) in Florence, both of which are of exceptional refinement, in stark contrast to the abrupt work of the Middle Ages.
But the key figure of the age, a visionary genius and precursor, was unquestionably Donatello (1386-1466). His radical interpretation of the Gothic style paved the way for the Renaissance. Real name Donato di Betto Bardi, he was born and lived in Florence, where his first works appeared around 1408. He incorporated ancient mythology and hagiography into his paintings, and excelled in both religious scenes and portraiture. Many of his works are classics, such as his bronze David , in Florence's Museo Bargello, or his Mary Magdalene, sculpted at the end of his life and on view at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
With Paolo Ucello (1397-1475) and Piero Della Francesca (1415-1492), geometry became the focus of his pictorial preoccupations. Piero, an unclassifiable monument to the history of Western art, with his highly modern style, impressed Picasso and the whole of the 20th century. A keen mathematician, the shapes and colors of his Arezzo frescoes heralded abstraction. The breathtaking precision, eerie silence and unreal light (of dreams or nightmares) that permeate his paintings have won the admiration of the greatest filmmakers, such as Fellini and Tarkovski, who paid tribute to him in Nostalghia, made in 1983 during his exile in Florence.
Of all the humanist Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 ), born in Vinci, near Florence, had the greatest impact. His contribution to pictorial art would probably have been enough to earn him a place in history, despite a relatively small number of paintings, many of them destroyed, lost or irreparably damaged. In addition to being a brilliant artist, he was also a revolutionary engineer (especially in the military field), inventing the helicopter and the tank. The artist learned the basics of his art and his first notions of science at Verrocchio's workshop in Florence, starting in 1469.TheAdoration of the Magi and Madonna of the Rocks stand out from his early Tuscan output. After several trips around Italy, he returned to Florence in the early 16th century. It was here that he painted the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous pictures in the history of painting and a milestone in the art of portraiture, with the erasure of contour through the sfumato process.
Sandro Filipepi Botticelli (1445-1510) is also one of the best-known painters of the Renaissance. But it wasn't until the 19th century that he was rediscovered. After having frequented the neoplatonic humanist philosophers of the time, and after the Medici had made him their official painter, at the end of his life he unfortunately decided to disavow his work, some of which he brought to be burned at the stake of the fundamentalist priest Savonarola. He died in poverty. TheAdoration of the Magi, The Birth ofVenus and Spring have fortunately been preserved: they can be seen at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Botticelli also illustrated Dante's DivineComedy .
At the beginning of the Cinquecento, the religious paintings of Fra Bartolomeo (1472-1517), despite their often dark backgrounds, denote a sober, solemn character. This Florentine painter was a zealous disciple of Savonarola, and was convinced of the mystery of faith, which he portrayed time and again. His works can be found in many Tuscan museums and religious buildings, including the cathedrals and museum in Lucca, and the Accademia gallery in Florence.
Raffaello Sanzio, known as Raphael (1483-1520) , was born in Urbino. Another monument of art history, he is often compared to Mozart for his precocious genius and short life. After studying in Perugia, he moved to Florence for four years. He was 21 years old at the time. Leonardo da Vinci welcomed him to his studio and he studied Michelangelo. He painted several Madonnas and perfected his art. Most of his works in Florence can be found at the Uffizi, including a self-portrait painted between 1504 and 1506 and the Madonna in the Meadow, holding an open book, proof of his humanism, painted between 1506 and 1507, while the gallery at Palazzo Pitti conserves La Donna gravida (Pregnant Woman).
Michelangelo (1475-1564) said that, for the artist, it was not a question of "creating, but of letting beauty reveal itself in bare marble". Sculptor and painter, but also poet and architect, he apprenticed in the Ghirlandaio workshop, then with Bertoldo di Giovanni in the gardens of the Medici palace. He thus discovered antique statuary, of which the family possessed an abundant collection, and secured the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He rubbed shoulders with the greatest minds of the age, and was particularly taken by Plato's ideas, which were widely discussed at the time. Michelangelo was shocked by the death of his protector and abhorred Savonarola's preaching. He fled to Bologna, then to Rome. It was here that the artist matured, already shaking up conventional wisdom with the Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica. He was (rightly) recognized for all his qualities: technical perfection and happy inspiration, energy and anatomical precision. He then moved between Rome and Florence, working for the greatest names (the Medici in Florence and the popes in Rome) and producing one masterpiece after another: the David or the Sagrestia Nuova, the Medici funeral chapel in Florence.
Another major sculptor of the period, but somewhat overshadowed by Michelangelo, was Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), whose fiery Perseus adorns the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. This Florentine left his mark on his time not only through the quality of his work, but also through the account of his turbulent and passionate life(La Vita), faithfully transcribed by his assistant and which inspired an opera by Hector Berlioz. He became famous at an early age, when, at just 20, he received a commission from Pope Clement VIII and moved to Rome. He was responsible for numerous bronzes (of François I, for example) and remarkable portraits.
The legacy of the Renaissance was overwhelming in Florence, and apart from Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and Luca Giordano, to whom we owe the frescoes in the Palazzi Pitti and Medici, Ludovico Cardi, Il Cigoli (1559-1613), remained the most inventive painter of the period. And in sculpture, one of the few to stand out in the 18th century was Antonio Canova (1757-1822), a favorite of the Bonapartes.
From Macchiaioli to street art
In the 19th century, Tuscan painters such as Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega and Telemaco Signorini found a new path for painting, the Macchiaioli movement, which spread throughout Italy. They fought against academicism, rejected traditional and historical subjects and proposed a naturalism that had nothing to envy of Impressionism, to which they were assimilated.
A pupil of the Scuola Libera di Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, directed by Fattori, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), a child of Livorno and exiled in Paris, remains without question the great name in Tuscan painting of the 20th century, liberated from the Renaissance and an original and influential player in modernism.
20th-century Italian art is on show at Florence's Museo Novecento. The permanent collection features many Florentine and Tuscan artists, including Gino Severini, Ottone Rosai, Vinicio Berti, Gualtiero Nativi, Mario Nigro, Alberto Moretti, Lorenzo Viani, Venturino Venturi and Alberto Magnelli. In addition to the museum's permanent program, temporary exhibitions enrich its activities. Some exhibitions and special projects focus on artists born or based in Tuscany. For example, during 2019, the museum exhibited specific works and installations by Maurizio Nannucci, Remo Salvadori, Paolo Masi, Marco Bagnoli and Luciano Caruso, among others. Among the temporary exhibitions, the one devoted to drawing featured a selection of works by Tuscans Massimo Bartolini, Emanuele Becheri, Chiara Camoni, Antonio Catelani, Giulia Cenci, Daniela De Lorenzo, Carlo Guaita and Paolo Meoni, among others.
Also preserved at the Museo Novecento, the work of Marino Marini (1901-1980), born in Pistoia, Tuscany, friend and collaborator of Stravinsky and Henry Miller, has been brought together in the Marino Marini Museum dedicated to him, and there is a documentation center on his works in Pistoia.
In the 21st century, Sandro Chia (born 1946 in Florence), painter and sculptor, protagonist of the Italian Trans-avant-garde movement that emerged in the 1970s. The Palazzo Strozzi, founded in 2006, is a symbol of the Florentine Renaissance, an internationally renowned cultural center and one of Florence's leading temporary exhibition spaces. Its cultural program also includes a permanent exhibition on the palace itself and a café. The courtyard hosts concerts, performances, contemporary art installations and theatrical shows.
Street art, meanwhile, makes discreet appearances in the city, thanks to Clet Abraham's hijacked road signs and fashionable graffiti artist Blub. Look closely, and you'll be right in the heart of Tuscan activism.
