Notes from The Oxford Companion to Art (Oxford: OUP, 1970), s.v. ‘Florentine School’
–was for two and a half centuries the principal center of Western art; first assumed leadership in the arts gradually in the 13C at time of Dante; Florence produced such artists as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo
–Florence was the site of the first academy of art, founded by Vasari
–’The Florentines always retained a special affection for their Baptistery, which dates perhaps from the 5th c., was consecrated in 1059, became a great centre of mosaic work in the 13th c., and in the 15th a centre of sculpture, led by Ghiberti’
–’During the 13th c. the growth of the Arti, or Guilds, assured to the city, now a republic, a fervid political life. The Florentines took part in the quarrels b/w Empire and Church’
–in the 13C artists were reacting to French Gothic style which Franciscans and Dominicans had adopted, and to the revival of painting in Rome and Assisi towards end of 13C; ‘The Franciscan church, Sta Croce, and the Dominican, Sta Maria Novella, prepared the way for a grand conception, the new cathedral of Sta Maria del Fiore’, which was planned by Arnolfo di Cambio from 1296 on; the dome was not built until 1420-6 by Brunelleschi
–city’s ecclesiastical center was formed by the cathedral, its Campanile (by Giotto, 1331, completed 1355), and the Baptistery
–the other great complex of buildings, which employed the permanent group of workshops that had emerged for construction of ecclesiastical center, was the municipal center: Palazzo Vecchio, Loggia dei Lanzi, Bargello, Or San Michele
–mosaics of Baptistery were perhaps first place of training for Cimabue and Giotto
–’In all the arts a meticulous style prevailed, laborious and often dry, as in Orcagna’s painting and Arnoldi’s sculpture’
–expansion of Florence in 15C was guided by Medici leaders, its culture by energetic humanists, its art by men of strong personality
–Brunelleschi invented perspective, which was then used by Masaccio in the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel (c. 1425); ‘Brunelleschi…was the first to re-employ classical forms; his churches (S. Lorenzo, S. Spirito), which belonged to the basilica-type, became models’
–’The sculptor Donatello alternated b/w unspairing naturalism and a classical concern w/ elegance’
–’It was Verrocchio, the master of Leonardo, who reconciled the two strains of realism and delicacy’
–’the taste for colour and clear light…dominated the art of Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’
–one of the most important architects of the 15C was Giuliano da Sangallo, ‘who designed the Palazzo Gondi, the church of Sta Maria delle Carceri at Prato, and the Villa at Poggio a Cajano’
–’The death of Lorenzo (1492), the French invasion (1494), the fall of the Medici, and the experiment of a ‘Christian republic’ led by the Dominican preacher Savonarola (1494-8) were followed by the return of the Medici (1512), whose rule was supported, and after a few upheavals imposed, by Spanish overlords. Siena was absorbed and Florence became the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1569′
–’Just after 1500 it seemed for a short while that Florence might once again, as at the beginning of the 15th c., become the focus of Italian art….But the leadership was usurped by Rome’
–’The new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, built by Michelangelo when he carved the Medici tombs, confirmed the direction which Florentine art was taking. It led to the artifices and inventions, often charming’ of later architects, sculptors, and painters
–’Florentine art gave little to the Baroque except the church of S. Firenze by F. Ruggini and some decorative work by Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano’
