Florence and the Renaissance Art Era

Giotto, Cimabue, Donatello, MossaccioÐ'....these are a few artists of the Renaissance that impacted the era. With these artists a cult of genius began in the Renaissance.

There was the Age of Exploration when Columbus "discovered" America in 1492, as well as Magellan's and other Europeans' discoveries around areas of Africa. The African slave trade fueled European Renaissance. There were several works that helped establish the era such as the "Arenal Chapels at Pagua" which was a dramatization of Jesus Christ with angles flying overhead, a three dimensional scene because of the figures standing in different directions, painted by Giotto.

But a whole century passed before someone came and surpassed the infamous Giotto. Massaccio, another painter, upped Giotto with his painting called "Tribute Mary" in which the Roman tax collector is shown collecting taxes, with a second scene of the Christ figure standing in a group of other holy members with halo disks on their heads and a third scene where a man is crouched catching fish on the shore, all in one painting. In "Tribute Mary", Massaccio utilized the space to unify the elements in the space, better known as one point perspective. He utilized perspective to be able to repeat a scene. This showed that it was possible for artists to replicate scenes and aspects of them through perspective.

There were several individuals that helped revive and restore different aspects of this era. Fra Angelico, a notorious priest and talented artist helped to bridge the Gothic Age to the Renaissance. Botticelli, a painter, helped to revive classicism with bold realistic representation and mythology of ancient Rome and Greece with his work, "The Birth of Venus". Venus was born from seafoam, although some believe she could've been born from the rib of Zeus. Some see the painting as the rebirth of Aphrodite.

During the Renaissance, Florence was seen as the most affluent and powerful city in Italy, and Europe at the time with politics, and art. Donatello produced one of the first free standing sculptures since the Renaissance. These sculptures were relief objects because before, Romans weren't allowed to worship them because they were seen as heathens. One of his well known sculptures is of David, the boy who killed Goliath with his slingshot.

The Renaissance was known as a time of competition like