Lecture 10: The Black Death and the International Style
brothers’ February from the Très Riches Heures (c. 1413–1416). Another
anonymous work, a Madonna and Child (c. 1400), is a tender representation
about the size of a manuscript page.The International style was also pervasive in Italy. Lorenzo Monaco was
born in Siena (1370–1425) but later moved to Florence where he entered
a monastery and became an artist. His paintings are marked by intimacy,
restraint, and a delicate lyricism. Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1413) is an
entire altarpiece painted by Lorenzo. Exquisite color and large, gracefully
drawn ¿ gures characterize the painting, in which some effects of volume are
countered by weightlessness.Adoration of the Magi (c. 1423) by Gentile da Fabriano (1385–1427) was
an inÀ uential painting, with its gold leaf and sumptuous color. The rich
costumes of the magi are physically enhanced by building up the surface
with molded gesso to emulate crowns or other costume elements. Note the
serpentine composition that is a signi¿ cant aspect of the painting. There is
no horizon; the land just rises straight up. Gentile’s Flight into Egypt on the
center panel of the predella of the Adoration looks to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s
Guidoriccio, but it is much smaller, and its advances are in Gentile’s love
of naturalistic detail and his exploration of atmospheric effects. In this last
development, he belongs with the Italian sculptors then at work, who are
among the most signi¿ cant artists to lay the foundation for the Renaissance.Let’s brieÀ y de¿ ne the term Renaissance. The English language took this
term, meaning “rebirth,” directly from the French. In Italian, rinascimento
means “rebirth” or “revival.” Among the intelligentsia and ruling classes of
Italy, there was a rebirth of interest in Classical literature and culture. Latin
was still the language of Italian scholarship and the Church. Some scholars
read Greek, but most read Greek literature in Latin translation. Those who
wanted to read Classical literature needed access to manuscripts or copies
of them.Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464), the ¿ rst of the Medici to rule Florence,
was a patron of Classical culture and founder of the Neo-Platonic Academy
in Florence, an early literary society. Its members included Leon Battista
Alberti, the great architect. In this pre-printing-press era, copying manuscripts