Roman Renaissance

A revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and the sculptor Donatello, both Florentines.

Pisanello and his assistants also frequently took inspiration from ancient remains, but their approach was essentially cataloguing, acquiring a repertoire of models to be exploited later.

Before the return of the papacy, repeatedly postponed because of the bad conditions of the city and the lack of control and security, it was first necessary to strengthen the political and doctrinal aspects of the pontiff.

In 1421 the church was enriched by a new Cosmatesque floor and the ceiling was repaired, while Gentile da Fabriano received a commission to create a new cycle of frescoes in the right aisle.

The two works that testify to his presence in this city, the Tomb of Giovanni Crivelli at Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and the ciborium at St. Peter's Basilica, bear a strong stamp of classical influence.

[7] While in Florence, Masaccio, first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento, became friends with Brunelleschi and Donatello, and at their prompting in 1423 travelled to Rome, along with his mentor Masolino.

He took up his residence in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella, and sent Vitelleschi, the militant Bishop of Recanati, to restore order in the Papal States.

[9] Pope Eugene IV continued in this vein in Rome, commissioning the Florentine Antonio di Pietro Averlino, known as Filarete (1400–1469), to make two bronze doors, (imposts), for the Old St. Peter's Basilica, completed in 1445.

[10][11] In 1443–1445, Leon Battista Alberti, whose many talents truly epitomised the "Renaissance Man", wrote the Descriptio urbis Romae, where he proposed a system for a geometric arrangement of the city centred on the Capitoline Hill.

Shortly after they arrived in town, Beato Angelico and French Jean Fouquet began a series of frescoes in the Old St. Peter's Basilica, which testifies to the presence of the nascent interest in Flemish painting and the Nordic generally.

[12] Although the duration of the pontificate of Eugene IV did not allow for the full implementation of his plans, Rome became a fruitful meeting ground for artists of different schools.

It became a bible of Renaissance architecture, for it incorporated and made advances upon the engineering knowledge of antiquity, and grounded the stylistic principles of classical art into a fully developed aesthetic theory.

For example, the hall was once a lacunar in concrete (taken from Pantheon or the Basilica of Maxentius) with overlapping orders and partially leaning on the pillars, as in the Colosseum or in the Theatre of Marcellus.

The decoration includes stories of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, which were interpreted by Fra Angelico in a style rich in details, erudite, and where his "Christian humanism" is expressed in its vertices.

The scenes are set in majestic architecture, born from the suggestions of ancient Rome and early Christian times, but not slavish, perhaps mindful of the projects that then circulated in the papal court for the restoration of St. Peter.

There were various collaborations between artists such as, Vivarini, Bartolomeo di Tommaso, Benedetto Bonfigli, Andrea del Castagno, Piero della Francesca, and perhaps Rogier van der Weyden.

A few years later, under Giuliano della Rovere, Melozzo painted the apse of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli with Ascension of the Apostles between Playing Angels, considered the first example of the view "from down to top".

[3] But through the intercession of Lorenzo de' Medici, the commission of the wall decoration was instead entrusted to the best Florentine artists of the time, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Roselli.

The Sistine Chapel, now the seat of the most important ceremonies of the papacy, became a point of reference for Renaissance art, setting a milestone for the character developments of the late 15th century.

During his reign, Bramante designed for Ferdinand II of Aragon the Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, on the traditional site of St. Peter's martyrdom.

He laid the cornerstone of the Basilica of St. Peter on 18 April 1506, and united the Vatican Palace with the Villa Belvedere, engaging Bramante to accomplish the project.

The famous frescoes of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms in the Apostolic Palace, the Court of St. Damasus with its loggias, the Via Giulia and Via della Lungara, even the statue of Moses which graces his tomb in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, are lasting witnesses of his great love of art.

He had San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, on the Via Giulia, built, after designs by Jacopo Sansovino and pressed forward on the reconstruction of St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican under Raphael and Agostino Chigi.

Sculpture was not as favored under Leo X as painting, and while Michelangelo worked on a marble façade for the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, he did not finish it.

The so-called Counter-Maniera style was a reaction to Mannerist excesses supported by several patrons around the mid-century, with plainer and more naturalist depictions in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation.