Lepotni ideal v upodabljanju Marije v florentinskem slikarstvu druge polovice 15. stoletja
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| Title | Lepotni ideal v upodabljanju Marije v florentinskem slikarstvu druge polovice 15. stoletja |
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| Abstract | An idealized type of Virgin Mary prevails in Florentine painting of the second half of the fifteenth century. Painters depicted Mary according to Florentine art theory, philosophy, and poetry of the fifteenth century as a woman of physical and spiritual beauty. Ideal female beauty was very precisely defined and it was used not only for images of the Virgin but also for other female figures in art – and, as can be seen from contemporary female portraits, it was also followed by Florentine women (and women from some other Italian regions as well) in the fifteenth century. Treatises on painting by Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci were very important for the development of the idealized human figure in Florentine fifteenth-century art theory. Both authors agreed that nature is the only true source of beauty, but they urged painters to select the most beautiful parts of nature and create a new, ideal whole. They emphasized the significance of shading, and da Vinci considered sfumato a means of beauty. Both authors connected body movements with inner feelings, “movements of the soul;” movements must coincide with inner feelings. They presented the ideal proportions of the human body: Alberti’s figure measures 7.5 head heights and Leonardo’s 8, and both proportional systems can be found in Florentine fifteenth-century painting. Marsilio Ficino, the leading Florentine renaissance Neoplatonist, defined beauty as an idea that dwells in the world of ideas and shows itself in the terrestrial world as beautiful bodies. He connected beauty with good, and considered beauty as a splendor of good. Poetry of the Medici circle presented idealized women with much in common: they had blonde hair with shiny curls, pale skin, dark sparkling eyes, a long neck, round shoulders, a slim waist, long elegant arms and legs, and small feet. The ideal woman was virtuous, intelligent, and pious. She smiled so lovingly that she could open the gates of Heaven. Descriptions of female beauty originate in earlier poetry, such as troubadour lyrics and the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. These descriptions influenced Medicean poets such as Luigi Pulci, Agnolo Poliziano, and Lorenzo de’ Medici. Fra Filippo Lippi represents an important starting point in depicting the idealized Virgin Mary in Florentine painting of the second half of the fifteenth century. His ideal beauty was based on poetics, and the painters of Andrea del Verrocchio’s workshop followed it. One of these painters was Sandro Botticelli, who represents the peak of the trend in idealized depictions of Mary. Botticelli connected the beautiful form, grace, and melancholy into an ideal figure of Mary. His paintings of the Virgin can be understood as an allusion to Ficino’s philosophy: the Virgin is complete in form and spiritual beauty; she is an image of the ideal that embodies perfection and rises above terrestrial beauty. This idealizing manner was concluded by Botticelli’s pupil Filippino Lippi with a sweet and gentle Virgin. Leonardo da Vinci initially followed Verrocchio’s ideal beauty of a round face and ornamented hairstyle, but later developed his own ideal beauty of a narrow face, high cheekbones, and a gentle smile. Sfumato is used to depict the soft skin and her ethereal expression. Domenico Ghirlandaio developed his own ideal of female beauty. He concentrated on plastic form, and his Virgin is less melancholy than his contemporaries’. Florentine painters of the second half of the fifteenth century succeeded in connecting the spiritual and physical beauty in Virgin Mary and depicting her as the most beautiful woman that ever lived. |
| Publisher | Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakulte / Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts |
| Date | 1970-01-01 |
| Source | Ars & Humanitas: Revija za umetnost in humanistiko Vol 2, No 2 (2008) |
| Rights | @ Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta |