Category: Italian Renaissance

Due to the fact that different periods showed social classes in countless ways, social classes show the style of art from different periods. This remains true even though the Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance use different styles and ideas to show the middle class. The social classes were represented differently by the people and styles.

In the time of Early Italian Renaissance art, the social classes that were peasants, middle class, clergy, and nobility. Each class meant something different, so if you were peasants, you worked mostly on rural dirt farms. If you were the middle class that was created because of guilds, which made them have more money than peasants. They became an important member of society even though they weren’t a duke. Clergy meant that you were associated with the church, so you were higher up than peasants. If you were nobility, you owned land and had money. The stone-carved Guild Scene shows the sculpture guild making new sculptures on it. There was a system to the guilds that went apprentice to journeymen to master. While you are an apprentice you had to do menial work for several years just to be moved up to a journeyman. A journeyman is graduated to more responsibilities for several more years before making it to master. A master is the final step in a guild in which you open up your own shop, take in an apprentice, but first, you had to present a masterpiece of your creation and have to be qualified. As shown on the Guild Scene you can see some sculptures that are journeymen and masters showing an apprentice what to do. The guilds of painters and sculptors charged more for their art and became rich creating the middle class. In the Early Italian Renaissance, you saw a lot of art created from guilds making them artists more and more rich making them work their way up the social classes. Some members of the guilds worked up from the middle class to higher up just because of the money.

During the time of High Italian Renaissance art, you can see many religious paintings showing social class. As you can see in ‘The Last Supper’ with it being a very religious painting the location is of high importance. The location of ‘The Last Supper’ is in a cafeteria of monks showing that the clergy paid for it and it represented religion since the painting was painted there. There are six people on each side of Jesus showing the balanced composition of them all gesturing to Jesus showing that he is either higher class or he is just higher in the class of people who are there. The color of robes even having meanings for social class. The red robes mean high social status in the church, orange means peasants and middle class imitating upper class, beige means poverty class, grays mean religious and show the poverty class, and black means nobility and wealthy.

In the time of Northern Renaissance art the peasants or unskilled workers were the lowest class because they didn’t have job protection and were dependent on their jobs. Middle class/tradesmen were craft workers and shopkeepers and belonged to guilds. The merchants gained their wealth in industries like wool processing, shipbuilding, and banking. The nobilities were warriors, soldiers, and social talents with a lot of money and status. ‘Les Tres Riches Heures’ show the months of January and February out of the calendar. On the January side, you can see a feast of people. You see Duke of Berry sitting in a chair wearing a blue peacock feather dress with a brown hat on. You can see all the nobility and underlings around bringing gifts to show signs of loyalty and social contracting going on. Most of the people are captains and lieutenants pledging loyalty. Again, on ‘Les Tres Riches Heures’ on the February side, you see people of the working class. It shows a strong estate because the people are working. It also shows the land and people being productive. Each month of the calendars shows different classes doing different jobs. For example, you have jobs for each month like wool harvesting, making honey and mead, and knocking out acorns.

As seen above different periods showed social classes in countless ways, social class reflects the style of the art from different periods. The Early Italian Renaissance used guilds to represent the middle class. The Northern Renaissance used calendars to show the different classes. The High Italian Renaissance used gestures, colors/clothes, and locations to show the different classes. Each period displays social classes in numerous ways and still does to this day.

Orsanmichele: The Birthplace of the Italian Renaissance

Orsanmichele is a building located in the Italian city of Florence, north of the Arno River, and currently serves as a church. Being known primarily as the Church of Orsanmichele since the 1340s, it is surprising to believe that it was not always situated for religious purposes but had commercial intentions in its original construction. Over a period of time, the building underwent a transition from an open loggia for the market towards a closed place of worship. This unique duality of Orsanmichele’s function not only depicts a connection between religion and government in Renaissance Florence but shows a strong unification of these two bodies in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The name “Orsanmichele” is a condensed version of its original, “San Michele in Orto”. This name draws reference to Saint Michael in Christianity, who “serves as the patron saint of sick people who are suffering from any type of illness.” Before the modern-day building, the site of Orsanmichele held a smaller building called an oratory, or a small chapel for the purpose of private worship. Fully surrounding the oratory was a garden, which was part of the Benedictine monastery. This description helps us understand the translation of the original name ‘San Michele in Orto” to English meaning, “Saint Michael in the Garden.” The oratory had been around since approximately the late 800s, but after nearly five hundred years, the small structure was demolished to pave the way for bigger plans concerning the site in the late 1230s.

At this point, the site was the acquisition by the city of Florence, making it a space for the public. Florentine officials took into consideration the rapid growth of their city’s population and concluded it was a good idea to provide a grain market for the public to enjoy. Architect Arnolfo di Cambio headed the construction process, designing a loggia implementation of the building, so the market could allow plenty of foot traffic coming in and out to buy and sell. Commerce bustled inside the loggia, and on one of the columns, there was an image of The Madonna or the Virgin Mary. Due to the tough circumstances during the height of the bubonic plague in the 1340s, as well as famine and war, people came to pray to Mary, with many claiming miracles that have been done on her part. In this time period, civilians were not just “praying to pray”, but rather they were praying for the biblical saints to intervene and save them from the aforementioned circumstances. In Orsanmichele, the Virgin Mary was the most significant saint represented. As time progressed, more Florentines entered the loggia for their own religious needs rather than for the good of the market.

In an unfortunate, yet opportune turn of events, a fire in 1304 destroyed most of the loggia, since a majority of it was made of wood. With a chance a start fresh, the city was able to address the problem of heightened war threats during this time. A new loggia was constructed in 1337, and an additional two floors above it were added. The loggia was tall, and the open sides consisted of high arches, which helped create an architectural pleasance, while also structurally supporting the rest of the building. The floor above the loggia (the second floor) was used for offices and extra storage space. The third (top) floor served as a holding area for Florence’s grain supply, should there have been an occasion of siege or famine during a period of war. There were a number of columns that supported the structure but were also hollowed out, acting as chutes for quick access to the grain held in storage. The picture on the previous page shows the opening in the column on the bottom floor, where the grain would come out.

Returning to the fire destroying the original structure, the image of its Madonna was also destroyed. This prompted the city to commission a new Madonna by painter Bernardo Daddi. On a fresco, Daddi created the “Madonna delle Grazie” in 1346 (shown below) to be placed in a central location of the interior of the building. The Virgin Mary was so personable with the city that in 1359 they hired a sculptor going by the name of Orcagna to build a tabernacle enclosing Daddi’s Madonna delle Grazie (shown right). It took Orcagna about ten years to complete the project. While the project was ongoing, the building officially began its makeover towards a fully operational church. As the space in the loggia had become more crowded with religious worshipers, there was not much room with the site now functioning as both a place of commerce and worship. With the busyness inside, Orcagna did not have the space required to properly work. In response, the openings below the arched walls were filled with brick and mortar, and the market was officially put to rest inside Orsanmichele.

Circling back on the claim that the government body and religious body were closely intertwined in the 14th and 15th centuries, the city summoned guilds to erect statues of the saints they would like, to help decorate the facade of the newly found Church of Orsanmichele. The fourteen niches found on the exterior walls needed to be filled to help create an image that the building was no longer a marketplace, but instead a holy and beautiful church. The guilds selected their own patron saint, and their body’s trade identity became enmeshed with religion. Initially, work was slow on completing the statues, but after a law was passed in 1407 by the Florentine government threatening to take away guilds’ rights to their niche, the openings began to fill up with marble or bronze statues very quickly. Guilds commissioned highly renowned sculptors like Filippo Brunelleschi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, and Nanni di Banco to sculpt masterpieces of the saints such as St. Peter, St. John the Baptist, St. George, and Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Saints) respectively. Most of these statues were completed in the 15th century and took anywhere from a year to multiple years to finish. The wealthier guilds spent more to have their saint sculpted in bronze, which was far more expensive than regular stone. For a size and volume reference, Ghiberti’s bronze statue of St. John the Baptist (up and right) measures over eight feet tall. Also, notice how much volumetric space the statue resides in by observing the amount of shadow created in the image. These statues are pieces that exemplify a transition and shift in art coming into full force in the early 15th century. The amount of detail put into the process, whether additive by bronze, or subtractive by marble show that Italian sculptors had put themselves on a pedestal in the hierarchy of craft, and rightfully so.

This square and the not-overly-tall building do not necessarily stand out at first glance from the outside. But if one takes the time to research its history and know its story, it comes together beautifully. There’s an exterior decorated by the best up-and-coming artists of their time, an interior that encases the spirit of Florence, and most importantly there is a structure that is a snapshot itself of Italian Renaissance history. Although the statues that are seen in the niches today are copies because all of the originals were moved to museums for protective purposes, Orsanmichele continues to tell its story. If someone walks by Orsanmichele today, they will be able to tell that this building was special, whether it’s all of the statues of saints, the massive tabernacle encasing the Madonna, or simply the remnants of an old granary.