Quattrocento & Cinquecento Art: Characteristics, Painters, and Architecture

Quattrocento Painting Characteristics

The Quattrocento painting style is characterized by:

• Naturalism and realism with a great interest in the study of human anatomy.
• Greater freedom regarding rigid Gothic schemas.
• Use of the laws of perspective with the creation of a vanishing point toward which most lines of composition converge.
• Emphasis on drawing.
• Importance of using light planes to define and unify the environment.
• Panel paintings were still used as a support with tempera as the primary technique, but in the second half of the 15th century, oil on canvas began to be used.
• Religious themes remained prevalent in churches.
• Portraiture emerged as a consequence of the bourgeoisie's desire to be immortalized by leading painters.

Leading Quattrocento Painters

Key figures of the Quattrocento include Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, and Botticelli.

Masaccio (1401-1428)

Masaccio is considered the initiator of Quattrocento painting. He, along with Brunelleschi and Donatello, represents the affirmation of the new style. His painting style looks directly into the paint, similar to Giotto. Masaccio is characterized by his mastery of space, perspective, and proportion. His most important works are the frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Novella and the Brancacci Chapel, commissioned by Felice Brancacci.

Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455)

Fra Angelico was born in a Tuscan village and spent his life in the convent of San Marco, Orvieto, and Rome, where he participated in decorating the Vatican. He maintained the Gothic tradition on one hand, while studying the works of Masaccio and introducing perspective and architectural elements into his compositions. His most representative work is the Annunciation.

Piero della Francesca (c. 1415-1492)

Piero della Francesca worked for well-known families of the time, such as the Malatesta of Rimini and the Montefeltro of Urbino. His style was very personal and diaphanous. He utilized illumination to create lights and shadows that define figures. He manifested great interest in mathematics and geometry, which led him to write three theoretical treatises on geometry, perspective, and the abacus. His most outstanding works are the Flagellation of Christ and the diptych with portraits of the Dukes of Urbino.

Botticelli (c. 1445-1510)

Botticelli trained in the workshop of Filippo Lippi and opened his own workshop around 1470. He marks the end of the Quattrocento and the beginning of the Cinquecento, both in style and form. A great admirer of feminine beauty, he endowed his works with great pleasure, sinuous bodies, almost ethereal, with long wavy hair, and dressed in fine gauze that revealed the human anatomy. His technique is known for the quality of the drawing of curved lines and the feeling of grace and harmony that it transmits. He was the first Renaissance painter to create mythological narratives, following classical details. His most important landscape paintings are Spring and The Birth of Venus.

Cinquecento Characteristics

The Cinquecento is characterized by classicism, where art is valued as an expression of beauty and something inaccessible. The objective of the artist is to share beauty and unsurpassed truth. Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian are the geniuses of this era. The artistic focus shifted from Florence to Rome, thanks to the patronage of Popes Julius II and Leo X.

Architecture in the Cinquecento

Rome became the center of public and religious power, as well as the artistic and religious capital of Europe. The medieval city was transformed into a new city where the best artists realized their most ambitious projects. Architecture was characterized by rationalism, equilibrium of forms, and harmony of proportions. Monumentality was emphasized for its impact. Bramante is considered a true scholar.