\paperw4095 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Giotto is the artist responsible for the great renewal in Italian painting that took place at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
He introduced a new concept of space, through which the figures moved with greater naturalness and realism. He also showed a new sensitivity to the human and dramatic characterization of his models, expressed through their natural gestures and expressio
ns.\par
GiottoÆs pictorial language constituted a fundamental reference point for Florentine painting throughout the fourteenth century.\par
One of his earliest followers, \b \cf4 \ATXht1098 Bernardo Daddi\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , developed the lyrical side o
f his masterÆs work, while adapting the lessons of the Sienese school and Northern European Gothic culture. This resulted in the introduction of decorative linear effects and precious colors into his work.\par
At the end of the century, \b \cf4 \ATXht1102 Lorenzo Monaco\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 imbibed the Giottesque tradition through his teacher Andrea Orcagna, but was also profoundly influenced by the innovations of the International Gothic style and of the manner introduced into Florence, at the beginning of
the fifteenth century, by Lorenzo Ghiberti.\par
The style of the next generation of Florentine painters was shaped by the revolution in pictorial language brought about by Masolino and Masaccio.\par
\b \cf4 \ATXht1097 Fra Angelico\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , a D
ominican friar at the monastery of San Marco, created a language of high religious spirituality that reconciled MasaccioÆs new plastic and spatial ideas with the culture of the Humanists. He had a strong influence on the work of \b \cf4 \ATXht1099 Benozz
o Gozzoli\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who was the friarÆs close collaborator and developed great skills as a lively and attractive painter of decorative frescoes. \par
The paintings of another monk,\b \cf4 \ATXht1093 Filippo Lippi\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , show the infl
uence of Masaccio in their simplified and sculptural forms, which are set inside in the Flemish manner, with their pale and transparent shades of color and linear elegance. The painters\b \b0 known as the\b \cf4 \ATXht1096 Master of the Castello Nativi
ty \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and\b \cf4 \ATXht1101 Pesellino \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 were at times strongly affected by Filippo LippiÆs teachings, as well as those of his collaborators. In their production of small works of a devotional character in particular, they st
uck closely to the friarÆs style.\par
\b \cf4 \ATXht1103 Giovanni di Francesco\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , another painter active in Florence around the middle of the century, was initially influenced by Paolo Uccello but then came to adopt the tendency introduce
d by Domenico Veneziano and develop it further, painting pictures bathed in a clear light that defines the outlines of forms and underlines the rigorous perspective of the compositions.\par
One of the outstanding figures in the panorama of Florentine pa
inting in the second half of the century was \b \cf4 \ATXht1100 Sandro Botticelli\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who had close ties to the court of the Medici family, particularly Lorenzo the Magnificent. He imparted a more graceful and precious quality to the manner
of his teachers, Verrocchio and del Pollaiolo. This allowed him to present an ideal world set in a realm of perfection remote from the contingencies of daily life, evoking a serenity that had long vanished and was regarded with nostalgia and regret.
\par
The first symptoms of crisis, linked to the expulsion of the Medici from Florence and the crumbling of the great ideals of the Renaissance, were already discernable in the works of \b \cf4 \ATXht1104 Filippino Lippi\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , FilippoÆs son. He
took the examples set by his teachers, Botticelli, \b \cf4 \ATXht1199 Leonardo \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and Signorelli, as well as by painters from across the Alps, and reworked them in an original and troubled manner, producing works that are a clear expression
of the uneasy climate of the day and of his individual search for unfettered innovation.\par
With\b \cf4 \ATXht1094 Pontormo \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and Rosso Fiorentino the new period of Mannerism opened in Florence, at the start of the Cinquecento. Restles
s, introverted, gloomy and solitary spirits, they gave rise to a new and fascinating current in art, which set out to discover new possibilities of expression through an exploration of the artistÆs inner world that relied on abstractions of the imaginati
on or intellectual concentration. PontormoÆs pupil, and initially his assistant, was \b \cf4 \ATXht1095 Angelo Bronzino\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who went on to become court painter to the Medici, executing numerous famous portraits of members of the family. In
his paintings he soon moved away from PontormoÆs individualistic and fantastic vision, returning to a lucid and objective representation of reality and eventually developing a style in which extreme purity of form and cold-eyed analysis led him toward ab
straction.\par
Another painter of portraits was \b \cf4 \ATXht1092 Paolo Zacchia\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , an artist from Lucca who received his training in Florence at the beginning of the century and then in Rome, where he was influenced by \b \cf4 \ATXht1201 Raphael\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 .
