**Nicola Pisano, Nativity, Pisa Baptistery Pulpit, 1259/60 [For Pisa Baptistery, see p. 508]

Inscription: “In the year 1260 Nicola Pisano carved this noble work.  May so greatly gifted a hand be praised as it

deserves.”

Giovanni Pisano, The Annunciation, Nativity, and Annunciation to the Shepherds, Pistoia Pulpit, S. Andrea, 1297-1301

Bardi St. Francis Master (Bonaventura Berlinghieri?), St. Francis with Scenes from his life, Santa Croce

Coppo di Marcovaldo, Crucifix, c.1250-70

St. Francis Master, Miracle of the Crib at Greccio, Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi, c.1290s

Duccio, Maestà, Siena Cathedral, high altarpiece, 1308-1311

Duccio, Nativity (with prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel), detail from front predella of Maestà

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory and Effects of Good Government, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, 1338-40

• one of the most remarkable accomplishments of the Renaissance - is the fresco series that lines three walls of the room in the PalazzoThe composition is built up from three horizontal bands. In the foreground the figures of contemporary Siena are represented. Behind them, on a stage, there are allegoric figures in two groups, representing the Good Government. The two groups are connected by the procession of the councillors. The upper band indicates the heavenly sphere with the floating bodyless ghosts of the virtues.
• The enthroned man on the right side of the middle band represents the city of Siena and embodies the Good Government. Around his head the four letters C S C V (Commune Saenorum Civitatis Virginis) explain his identity. At his feet the two plating children are the sons of Remus, Ascius and Senius, the founders of Siena according to the Roman legends. On both sides of Siena the virtues of Good Government are represented by six crowned, stately female figures: Peace, Fortitude and Prudence on the left, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice on the right. On the far left of the fresco the figure of Justice is repeated as she is balancing the scales held by Wisdom.

[Duccio, Ruccellai Madonna, c.1285]

The brilliance of colour, the curving outlines and the sinuous movement of the gilded edging of Mary's cloak are all new. 

The iconographical interpretation is also new in that the angels holding up the throne no longer form the crowning part of a solemn and magnificent background but are all looking towards the Virgin in attitudes of intense emotional participation.

Cimabue, Virgin and Child Entrhoned (Sta. Trinita Madonna), c.1280

• tempera on oil

• influenced by the formal style of Byzantine painting

Giotto, Virgin and Child Entrhoned (Ognissanti Madonna), c. 1305-10

Bonaventura Berlinghieri's altarpiece of Saint Francis is painted in the Italo-Byzantine style, which is characterized by a strict formality, a linear flatness, a shallow space, and an emphasis on the spiritual.

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Grisalle 

is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome, usually in shades of grey or brown, particularly used in decoration to represent objects in relief.

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fresco that appears to have relief 

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark) is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body.

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predella

the platform or step on which an altar stands

Tempera

Tempera or "egg tempera" is a type of paint made by mixing powered pigments with egg yolks. Tempera pigments usually came from natural sources such as minerals, wood, plants or clay. Because tempera dried right away, artists had to apply it quickly with small brushstrokes. Rapid drying also made it difficult to change or correct the painting later.

Altarpiece 

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two, three, and multiple panels respectively.

Quatrefoil 

In art, the quatrefoil is a type of decorative framework (mainly used in engraving), consisting of an architectural quatrefoil combined with a square

Among the most famous works of art employing the quatrefoil are the bronze panels on the South Doors of the Baptistery in Florence by Andrea Pisano, the bronze panels of the North Doors of the Baptistery in Florence by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and also Filippo Brunelleschi's famous competition entry for the same doors

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Sacrifice of Isaac- Gilberti 

The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian artist Gentile da Fabriano. The work, housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is considered his finest work, and has been described as "the culminating work of International Gothic painting", 

The painting was commissioned by the Florentine literate and patron of the arts Palla Strozzi, at the arrival of the artist in the city in 1420. Finished three years later, it was placed in the new chapel of the church of Santa Trinita which Lorenzo Ghiberti was executing in these years.

The works shows both the international and Sienese schools' influences on Gentile's art, mingled with the Renaissance novelties he knew in Florence. The panel portrays the path of the three Magi, in several scenes which start from the upper left corner (the voyage and the entrance into Bethlehem) and continue clockwise, to the larger meeting with the Virgin and the newborn Jesus which occupies the lowest part of the picture. All the figures wear splendid Renaissance costumes, brocades richly decorated with real gold and precious stones inserted in the panel. Gentile's typical attention for detail is also evident in the exotic animals, such as a leopard, a dromedary, some apes and a lion, as well as the magnificent horses and a hound.

**(Italian Renaissance), Masaccio, Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, c.1425-27/28

The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors (Italian: Santa Trinità) is a famous fresco by the Early Italian Renaissance painter Masaccio. It is located in the church of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence.

A close-up view of the skeleton in the sarcophagus also revealed the ancient warning, in clear letters: I WAS WHAT YOU ARE AND WHAT I AM YOU SHALL BE.

**(Italian Renaissance), Masaccio, Expulsion, from Brancacci Chapel, 1427

**(Italian Renaissance), Masaccio, The Tribute Money, from Brancacci Chapel, c. 1427

The figures are arranged according to horizontal lines, but the overall disposition is circular: this semicircular pattern was of classical origin (Socrates and his disciples), although it was later adopted by early Christian art (Jesus and the Apostles), and interpreted by the first Renaissance artists, such as Brunelleschi, as the geometric pattern symbolizing the perfection of the circle.

The characters are entirely classical: dressed in the Greek fashion, with tunics tied at the waist and cloaks wrapped over their left shoulder, around the back, and clasped at the front, below their left forearm. And even Peter's stance, as he extracts the coin from the fish's mouth, with his right leg bent and his left one outstretched, is reminiscent of postures of many statues by Greek artists, as well as reliefs on Etruscan funerary urns and Roman carvings.

**(Italian Renaissance), Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper, 1445-50

(Italian Renaissance), Fra Angelico, Annunciation, Monastery of San Marco, Florence, c. 1438-45

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**(Italian Renaissance), Piero della Francesca, Bacci Chapel, San Francesco, Arrezzo, 1454-58

**(Italian Renaissance), Andrea Mantegna, frescoes in Camera Picta (Room of the Newlyweds), Ducal Palace, Mantua, 1465-74