A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Renaissance Art 63

tecture emphasized elegant simplicity, an expansion of the simple rustic
fronts that had characterized medieval building. Renaissance architects
combined plain white walls with colorful, intricate arches, doors, and win­
dow frames. In the fifteenth century, expensive palaces of monumental
proportions with columns, arches, and magnificent stairways were consid­
ered sensible investments, because they could later be sold at a profit.
Like writers and painters, Renaissance architects looked to antiquity for
models. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377—1446) first applied theories of classical
architecture to the Foundling Hospital in Florence, the earliest building
constructed in Renaissance style. Fourteenth-century architects planned
churches in the form of a circle, the shape they thought was in the image
of God, with no beginning and no end. But they may also have drawn on
Rome’s Pantheon, a round classical temple. After going to the papal city to
study the ruins of classical architecture, Brunelleschi solved daunting tech­
nical problems to construct the vast dome, or cupola, of that city’s cathe­
dral (Duomo). The magnificent structure, completed in 1413 after work
lasting more than a century, reflects the architect’s rejection of the north­
ern Gothic architectural style, with its pointed arches, vaulting, and flying
buttresses. Inspired by excavations of classical ruins and the rebuilding of
Rome in the late fifteenth century, architects began to copy classical styles
closely, adding ornate Corinthian columns and great sweeping arches.

Patronage and the Arts

Renaissance art could not have flourished without the patronage of wealthy,

powerful families, though commissions by guilds and religious confraterni­

ties were not uncommon. Artists, as well as poets and musicians, were

eager, like Leonardo, to be invited into a patrician’s household, where

there were few or no expenses, and time to work. Lesser artists painted

coats of arms, tapestries, and even portraits of the prince’s pets—dogs and

falcons.

Some humanists not fortunate enough to be given the run of a powerful

patrician’s place found posts as state secretaries, because they could draft

impressive official correspondence. They tutored the children of patrician

families, and a few worked as papal courtiers. Such humanists penned ora­

tions, scrupulously imitating Cicero, for formal state receptions, clamorous

festivals, and funerals. Pope Leo X, a Medici who composed and played

music himself, brought to his court a number of distinguished artists, in

addition to Leonardo da Vinci, and musicians, as well as humanists whom

he employed as officials and envoys. At the same time, the genres of wit

and satire developed and became part of the ribald and “sharp-tongued”

life of the political and social world of the city-state. Her well-heeled

friends winked and joined in the laughter when Isabella of Mantua dressed

one of her dwarfs as a bishop to greet a visiting dignitary. The biting satires

and lampoons of Pietro Aretino (1492—1556), who enjoyed in succession