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A Reassessment of Early Renaissance Inscriptional Letters

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A Reassessment of Early Renaissance Inscriptional Letters A REASSESSMENT OF EARLY RENAISSANCE INSCRIPTIONAL LETTERS by Gerald Evans B.A. , The University of Houston, 1971 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Fine Arts) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA November 1980 (c) Gerald Evans, 1980 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Arts Departmenr> t ofr Fine The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 15 October 1980 ii ABSTRACT The early inscriptional display letters which were the immediate successors of the Italian Gothic Uncialesque of the fourteenth century were the so-called lettere antiche of the fifteenth century. Very similar to the letters which today are called sans serif, the lettere antiche were not used for all purposes, but only on monuments having antique associa• tions. They were employed by the renowned artists of the early Renaissance for a period of some seventy years (1400-1470) until they were supplanted by the so-called neo-Trajanic letters, display letters of exceptional beauty and grace which resembled quite faithfully the original Trajanic letters of the Roman Empire. Neo-Trajanic letters remained canonic for some three centuries until, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, letters of the sans serif variety reappeared and have remained quite popular and widely used to this day. Early inscriptionals were viewed by nineteenth and early twentieth century art historians and palaeographers as transitional between the Gothic Uncialesque and the neo-Trajanic letters. They were thought to be experimental efforts at achieving an authentically antique style and therefore only marginally antique. That opinion was reinforced by a seeming lack of stylistic continuity among the lettere antiche. After the mid- twentieth century, however, art historians began to question the generally negative appraisal that early inscriptionals had hitherto received. In reappraising the lettere antiche, however, these modern critics were not systematic enough to provide an adequate explanation either of the subtlety of the assumptions that supported the traditional view of the early iii inscriptionals or of the historical and calligraphic significance of the lettere antiche. The objective of this thesis is twofold: to establish first that the lettere antiche are genuinely antique, where antiqueness is stylistically conceived; second, that they express a stylistic continuity that reveals the conscious calligraphic intention of the early Renaissance artists. In short, I intend to question the negative appraisal that early inscriptionals have received in the past by challenging the assumptions that supported that appraisal. In order to facilitate an understanding of the misinter• pretations of the inscriptional evidence implicit in the traditional view, it will be necessary to provide a comprehensive view of epigraphy in the early Renaissance. To accomplish these ends, I have adopted the following structure for my thesis. The Introduction and Chapter I will give an overview of the general problem and of the historical process by which the transition from the Gothic Uncialesque to the Trajanic letters was made. From this it will also become clear why critical opinion was led to a negative appraisal of the lettere antiche. Chapter II delineates the views of the two modern critics most responsible for the contemporary reassessment of the lettere antiche, giving the substance of these views and evaluating them. Chapter III introduces a method of stylistically determining the 'antiqueness' or 'gothicness' of a script independent of its authenticity as a known period style. By that method the lettere antiche are then evaluated and found to be genuinely antique. Chapter IV sets forth a neutral system of analysis, employing an objective palaeographic methodology, by which early inscriptionals may be iv analyzed and classified in terms of their qualities, and not in terms of their departure from or adherence to a norm. Drawing on the conclusions of Chapter III, and employing the method• ology introduced in Chapter IV, Chapter V concludes the argument of this thesis with a reclassification of early inscriptionals by which valid lines of stylistic continuity may be demonstrated. In the Conclusion of the thesis, I apply the pattern of stylistic continuity which emerged from the classification of early inscriptionals in Chapter V to reveal significant variations in the manner of letter execution from the beginning to the end of the seventy year period under consideration. These variations disclose the real nature of the experi• mentation which can be said to have characterized the efforts of early Renaissance calligraphers. V TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgements xiii I. Introduction 1 II. Chapter One: Humanist Lettering vs. Scriptura Monumentalis . 5 III. Chapter Two: Modern Art Historical Appraisal of Early Inscriptionals 18 IV. Chapter Three: A Stylistic Re-evaluation of the Lettere Antiche 25 V. Chapter Four: A Classification System for Early Renaissance Display Letters 33 VI. Chapter Five: A Classification of Fifteen Early Renaissance Inscriptions 44 VII. Conclusion 53 VIII. Illustrations 58 IX. Glossary 95 X. Bibliography 99 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FIGURE 1: ' Donatello and Michelozzo, Tomb of John XXIII (1422- 27); Baptistry, Florence (from Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, 1971, Fig. 58) 58 2: Donatello and Michelozzo, Inscription on the Tomb of John XXIII; Baptistry, Florence (from Gray, "Sans Serif and Other Experimental Inscribed Lettering of the Fifteenth Century," Motif, 5 [1960], Fig. 6) 58 3: Michelozzo, Detail of the Bronze Inscription for the Aragazzi Tomb (c. 1430); Montepulciano, Duomo (from Caplow, Michelozzo, New York, 1977, II, Fig. 72) ... 59 4: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Inscription above the Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds (1404-07); North Door, Baptistry, Florence (from Krautheimer and Krautheimer-Hess, Lorenzo Ghiberti,. Princeton, 1956, II, PI. 27) 60- 5: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Inscription above the Adoration of the Magi (1404-07); North Door, Baptistry, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Pi. 28) . 60 6: Luca della Robbia: Cantoria (1431-38); Museo del Opera del Duomo, Florence (from Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea Delia Robbia, London, 1902, facing p. 47) ... 61 7: Luca della Robbia, Detail of the Inscription below the Singing Boys on the Cantoria; Museo del Opera del Duomo, Florence (from Gray, "Sans Serif," Fig. 8) . 61 8: Tomb of Spinello di Bonsignore de' Spinelli; Santa Croce, Florence (from Saalman, "Tommaso Spinelli, Michelozzo, Manetti, and Rossellino," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 25 [1966], Fig. 6) 62 9: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Inscription on the Shrine of St. Zenobius (1434-42); Duomo, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Pi. 78b) 62 vii FIGURE PAGE 10: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Close-up of the Inscription on the Shrine of St. Zenobius; Duomo, Florence (from Goldscheider, Ghiberti, London, 1949, Fig. 112) .... 63 11: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Detail of the Inscription on the Shrine of St. Zenobius; Duomo, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Pi. 80a) 63 12: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Shrine of the Three Martyrs (c. 1428); Bargello, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, PI. 76) 64 13: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Close-up of the Inscription on the Shrine of the Three Martyrs: Bargello, Florence (from Goldscheider, Ghiberti, Fig. 111A) 64 14: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Inscription on the Scroll of John the Baptist (1412-16); Or San Michele, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, detail of Pi. 11a) 65 15. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Detail of the Inscription on the Hem of John the Baptist (1412-16); Or San Michele, Florence (from Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, detail of PI. 11a) 65 16: Bernardo Rossellino and assistants, Tomb of the Beata Villana (ca. 1451); S. Maria Novella, Florence (from Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino, Fig. 96) 66 17: Desiderio da Settignano and assistant of Bernardo Rossellino, Detail of the Inscription on the Tomb of the Beata Villana; S. Maria Novella, Florence (from Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino, Fig. 103) 66- 18: Bernardo Rossellino and assistants, Tomb of Leonardo Bruni (1444-51); S. Croce, Florence (from Pope-Hennesy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, Fig. 60) . 67 19: Bernardo Rossellino and assistants, Detail of the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni; S. Croce, Florence (from Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino, Fig. 50) . 67 20: Bernardo Rossellino and assistants, Detail of the Inscription on the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni, left side; S. Croce, Florence (from Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino, detail of Fig. 61) 68 viii Bernardo Rossellino and assistants, Detail of the Inscription on the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni, right side; S. Croce, Florence (from Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino, detail of Fig. 60) . Desiderio da Settignano, Tomb of Carlo Marsuppini (ca. 1451); S. Croce, Florence
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