Chapter 16 Study Guide

The Renaissance in Quattrocento Italy

Early Italian Renaissance

• Filippo Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-1402
• Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-1402
• Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise (east doors of the baptistery of San Giovanni), 1425-1452
• Donatello, David, c. 1440-1460
• Verrocchio, David, c. 1465-1470
• Masaccio, Holy Trinity (from Santa Maria Novella), c. 1424-1427
• Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano, c. 1435 or c. 1455
• Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, c. 1484-1486
• Filippo Brunelleschi, Florence Cathedral Dome (Duomo), 1420-1436
• Leon Battista Alberti, west facade of Santa Maria Novella, 1456-1470
• Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, 1481-1483
• Andrea Mantegna, Foreshortened Christ (Lamentation over the Dead Christ), c. 1500

1. Renaissance Florence saw itself as the inheritor of which ancient civilization?

2. Which biblical personage did Renaissance Florence associate itself with? Which mythological figure did it associate itself with?

3. Why is the Medici family important to the development of the Renaissance? How did they gain their wealth?

4. Explain what perspective is and name the two kinds of perspective discussed in class.

5. What is contrapposto? Give an example of a Quattrocento sculpture that exhibits the use of contrapposto.

6. How do Botticelli’s paintings such as Birth of Venus and Primavera reflect Renaissance culture and ideology?

7. How does Brunelleschi’s loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti emulate classical  aesthetics and rationality? (3 examples)

8. Who was Girolamo Savonarola? What were his beliefs regarding the Medici and humanism and what effect did his beliefs have on Florence in the 1490s?

9. What is the significance of Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter to the papacy?