DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61670#0069
CHARACTERISTICS OF LUCA’S ART 43
but embodied it in the stateliest, most vigorous forms, as became
his classic proclivities.
Indeed, the main characteristic of Luca’s sculptures is vigour.
Spontaneity and vital force are absent from none of them.
His figures are invariably robust and athletic. It is this
blending of a splendid physique with spiritual purity and
radiance which is his greatest gift to fifteenth century art.
Since with few exceptions his themes are those of the Church,
it will be as well to see in what spirit he approaches them and
where he chiefly diverges from previous and contemporary
representation. In his broad and significant conception of his
subject he more nearly resembles Giotto than any other
Florentine artist, for Giotto also embodied universal ideals in
the imagery of the Church. In Luca’s own day the reaction
from didactic symbolism had begun to take the form of a
commonplace realism, and where before the human element
had been ignored, now it was the turn of the divine to be
forgotten. The unconvincing imagery of the earlier schools,
whose meaning had to be explained by a scroll, had given place
to a treatment so natural, that the idea supposed to be em-
bodied was for the most part conspicuous by its absence.
Donatello forgets the God in his realistic representation of
human agony ; Ghiberti and Paolo Uccello make the most
solemn subjects subordinate to their interests in perspective.1
A little later we know how completely secularised the treat-
ment became, so that we have to search for the subject-matter
among a group of portraits or some household scene conceived
in the most mundane spirit. The art of Luca stands midway
between the earlier symbolism and the growing realism of his
own day. Take, for example, his most usual conception of
the Madonna. He accentuates her superhuman side, giving
1 Donatello, in the Crucifixes of S. Croce and Padua. Ghiberti, noticeably
in his “ Marriage of the Virgin,” in the East Gates, where the chief figures are
well-nigh lost in the confused crowd and deep architectural perspective. Paolo
Uccello’s grotesquely foreshortened figure of God the Father in the Chiostro
Verde will occur to every one.
but embodied it in the stateliest, most vigorous forms, as became
his classic proclivities.
Indeed, the main characteristic of Luca’s sculptures is vigour.
Spontaneity and vital force are absent from none of them.
His figures are invariably robust and athletic. It is this
blending of a splendid physique with spiritual purity and
radiance which is his greatest gift to fifteenth century art.
Since with few exceptions his themes are those of the Church,
it will be as well to see in what spirit he approaches them and
where he chiefly diverges from previous and contemporary
representation. In his broad and significant conception of his
subject he more nearly resembles Giotto than any other
Florentine artist, for Giotto also embodied universal ideals in
the imagery of the Church. In Luca’s own day the reaction
from didactic symbolism had begun to take the form of a
commonplace realism, and where before the human element
had been ignored, now it was the turn of the divine to be
forgotten. The unconvincing imagery of the earlier schools,
whose meaning had to be explained by a scroll, had given place
to a treatment so natural, that the idea supposed to be em-
bodied was for the most part conspicuous by its absence.
Donatello forgets the God in his realistic representation of
human agony ; Ghiberti and Paolo Uccello make the most
solemn subjects subordinate to their interests in perspective.1
A little later we know how completely secularised the treat-
ment became, so that we have to search for the subject-matter
among a group of portraits or some household scene conceived
in the most mundane spirit. The art of Luca stands midway
between the earlier symbolism and the growing realism of his
own day. Take, for example, his most usual conception of
the Madonna. He accentuates her superhuman side, giving
1 Donatello, in the Crucifixes of S. Croce and Padua. Ghiberti, noticeably
in his “ Marriage of the Virgin,” in the East Gates, where the chief figures are
well-nigh lost in the confused crowd and deep architectural perspective. Paolo
Uccello’s grotesquely foreshortened figure of God the Father in the Chiostro
Verde will occur to every one.