WEBVTT

00:00:06.341 --> 00:00:07.693
Voiceover: Here we have a view of Florence

00:00:07.693 --> 00:00:10.348
where we can see the bell tower,

00:00:10.348 --> 00:00:13.724
the Campanile in the
center, and then on the left

00:00:13.724 --> 00:00:16.508
just a little corner of the Baptistry,

00:00:16.508 --> 00:00:19.412
and on the back end the
Cathedral of Florence

00:00:19.412 --> 00:00:21.292
with Brunelleschi's dome at the top.

00:00:21.292 --> 00:00:21.916
Voiceover: Right.

00:00:21.916 --> 00:00:24.085
The Baptistry is a medieval building

00:00:25.238 --> 00:00:27.156
from the 10th century probably.

00:00:27.156 --> 00:00:29.740
The Cathedral, the Duomo, they began

00:00:29.740 --> 00:00:31.899
building almost around 1300

00:00:31.899 --> 00:00:33.635
and the bell tower starts going up

00:00:33.635 --> 00:00:37.361
a little bit after that
and then the dome is built

00:00:37.361 --> 00:00:40.156
from the early 1400s and
finished in the 1470s.

00:00:40.232 --> 00:00:42.200
Voiceover: So what are we
looking at with the bell tower?

00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:43.601
Voiceover: The bell tower, right now,

00:00:43.601 --> 00:00:45.568
we're gonna concentrate
on the very bottom.

00:00:45.568 --> 00:00:47.697
Around 1340, even though the tower

00:00:47.697 --> 00:00:51.640
wasn't complete yet, they decided,

00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:53.177
the town and the guilds of Florence,

00:00:53.177 --> 00:00:56.976
specifically the wool
guild that was in charge

00:00:56.976 --> 00:00:58.672
of decorating the cathedral,

00:00:58.672 --> 00:01:00.072
decided that they wanted to decorate

00:01:00.072 --> 00:01:01.488
the bottom of the tower
because even though

00:01:01.488 --> 00:01:03.001
it wasn't complete, it was embarrassing

00:01:03.001 --> 00:01:05.561
having just this bare undecorated surface

00:01:05.561 --> 00:01:06.905
where everyone's walking around,

00:01:06.905 --> 00:01:08.570
as you can see, all the time.

00:01:08.570 --> 00:01:10.114
And so the two very bottom layers

00:01:10.114 --> 00:01:13.163
are decorated with many reliefs

00:01:13.163 --> 00:01:15.242
and these are in stone marble

00:01:15.242 --> 00:01:17.762
rather than the bronze
that's on the Baptistry.

00:01:17.762 --> 00:01:19.115
The reliefs cover a lot of subjects.

00:01:19.115 --> 00:01:20.722
There are Biblical scenes.

00:01:20.722 --> 00:01:22.763
There are signs of the Zodiac.

00:01:22.763 --> 00:01:26.758
There are also scenes of
local art and industry.

00:01:27.783 --> 00:01:29.388
Some of these things may sound unusual.

00:01:29.388 --> 00:01:30.693
Of course, the Biblical scenes makes

00:01:30.693 --> 00:01:32.124
sense on the church building.

00:01:32.124 --> 00:01:33.468
Voiceover: Industry and the - ?

00:01:33.468 --> 00:01:34.828
Voiceover: Those are a little bit unusual.

00:01:34.828 --> 00:01:36.757
We'll see why they might
want to include those.

00:01:36.757 --> 00:01:39.453
We should also say that the Zodiac signs

00:01:39.453 --> 00:01:43.347
are not unusual because
the medieval Christians

00:01:43.347 --> 00:01:47.412
were very able or very comfortably blended

00:01:47.412 --> 00:01:49.940
their belief in Christianity

00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:50.948
and their Christian devotion

00:01:50.948 --> 00:01:52.268
with interest in the horoscope.

00:01:52.268 --> 00:01:52.981
Voiceover: Yep, and we see that

00:01:52.981 --> 00:01:54.273
a lot on medieval churches.

00:01:54.273 --> 00:01:55.141
Voiceover: That's right.

00:01:55.141 --> 00:01:56.777
Let's look at some of these reliefs.

00:01:56.777 --> 00:01:58.845
Here's one of the religious scenes.

00:01:58.845 --> 00:02:00.627
This is the Creation of Adam.

00:02:00.627 --> 00:02:02.693
The artist is Andrea Pisano,

00:02:02.693 --> 00:02:05.036
who around the same time is working on

00:02:05.036 --> 00:02:07.532
the bronze reliefs just across the street

00:02:07.532 --> 00:02:09.921
on the south doors of the Baptistry.

00:02:09.921 --> 00:02:11.257
Those scenes were about John the Baptist

00:02:11.257 --> 00:02:14.161
and here's one of the Biblical
scenes on the bell tower.

00:02:14.161 --> 00:02:16.336
And again, this is typical of his style

00:02:16.336 --> 00:02:17.632
as we've described it.

00:02:17.632 --> 00:02:19.544
It's very, very simplified with mostly

00:02:19.544 --> 00:02:22.376
a blank background, just
a few things to give

00:02:22.376 --> 00:02:25.601
you a sense of the setting,
here a few stylized trees,

00:02:25.601 --> 00:02:28.697
and we have God leaning
over and creating Adam.

00:02:28.697 --> 00:02:31.968
Voiceover: Yeah, literally
out of the dust of the earth

00:02:31.968 --> 00:02:33.920
and he sort of takes form.

00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:36.000
Voiceover: Right and this
is another good example

00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.392
of how Andrea Pisano
combines a kind of gothic

00:02:39.392 --> 00:02:41.993
stylization with a
naturalistic classicism.

00:02:41.993 --> 00:02:43.753
Voiceover: Where do you
see the gothic stylization?

00:02:43.753 --> 00:02:45.552
Voiceover: Well, the
figure of God the Father,

00:02:45.552 --> 00:02:47.416
in some ways the way
the robes are rendered

00:02:47.416 --> 00:02:49.872
without a great sense
of the body underneath,

00:02:49.872 --> 00:02:51.592
the kind of rhythmic folds,

00:02:51.592 --> 00:02:53.256
all of this is pretty traditional.

00:02:53.256 --> 00:02:54.672
Voiceover: Right so we
have sense of the body,

00:02:54.672 --> 00:02:58.992
but there's not an entire
sense of a real physical

00:02:58.992 --> 00:03:01.287
anatomically correct body underneath it.

00:03:01.287 --> 00:03:01.976
Voiceover: That's right.

00:03:01.976 --> 00:03:03.887
Voiceover: Like there will
be later with Donatello.

00:03:03.887 --> 00:03:05.992
Voiceover: Mm hmm and
instead, the figure of Adam

00:03:05.992 --> 00:03:08.740
is a nude athletic male

00:03:08.832 --> 00:03:10.240
even though it's damaged here,

00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.553
it's classicizing and it's naturalistic.

00:03:12.553 --> 00:03:14.320
He's in a contrapposto stance

00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:15.600
evnen though he's lying down.

00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:16.568
That doesn't make any sense.

00:03:16.568 --> 00:03:18.224
Contrapposto is usually something

00:03:18.224 --> 00:03:21.184
for standing up, but the fact that he's

00:03:21.184 --> 00:03:23.576
done that anyway shows how interested

00:03:23.576 --> 00:03:26.720
he was in giving it a classic appearance.

00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:28.531
Voiceover: Yeah, I mean,
we can see his ribs

00:03:28.531 --> 00:03:30.181
and some muscles there too.

00:03:30.181 --> 00:03:30.724
Voiceover: That's right.

00:03:30.724 --> 00:03:32.564
So this is very typical for his style.

00:03:32.564 --> 00:03:34.004
Here now we're looking at one

00:03:34.004 --> 00:03:35.692
of the scenes of local industry.

00:03:35.692 --> 00:03:37.180
Voiceover: Wow, this looks a lot like

00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:39.245
the one of God creating Adam.

00:03:39.245 --> 00:03:40.692
Voiceover: Well, it's
interesting that you say that

00:03:40.692 --> 00:03:42.300
because the industry that's represented

00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:46.404
here is sculpture and
this is an interesting way

00:03:46.404 --> 00:03:49.292
for an artist, Andrea
Pisano, to suggest that

00:03:49.292 --> 00:03:51.556
the work of the sculptor,
the work of the artist,

00:03:51.556 --> 00:03:53.973
is in some ways like the work of God.

00:03:53.973 --> 00:03:55.156
Both are creators.

00:03:55.156 --> 00:03:57.732
In fact, we also see
again the creator here,

00:03:57.732 --> 00:04:00.301
the artist, leaning over a bearded man,

00:04:00.301 --> 00:04:01.947
in rather stylized robes, leaning over

00:04:01.947 --> 00:04:04.804
a nude, more naturalistic,

00:04:04.804 --> 00:04:06.597
more classicizing figure.

00:04:06.597 --> 00:04:08.333
Now, of course, he's not
going to get in trouble.

00:04:08.333 --> 00:04:10.076
There's a sense of modesty here because

00:04:10.076 --> 00:04:11.996
look again and compare this to

00:04:11.996 --> 00:04:14.077
the way God creates Adam.

00:04:14.077 --> 00:04:17.325
God is in nature, He uses
a gesture of his hand,

00:04:17.325 --> 00:04:19.197
and Adam is clearly supposed to be

00:04:19.197 --> 00:04:20.612
a real living person.

00:04:20.612 --> 00:04:22.476
When we look at the
sculptor in the studio,

00:04:22.476 --> 00:04:24.956
he's in the studio, he's using tools.

00:04:24.956 --> 00:04:27.266
The use of the tools
is really conspicuous.

00:04:27.266 --> 00:04:29.875
Voiceover: He can't
create simply by his word

00:04:29.875 --> 00:04:32.067
or by some kind of spiritual action.

00:04:32.067 --> 00:04:32.699
Voiceover: That's right.

00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:34.243
And also what he's creating is not

00:04:34.243 --> 00:04:36.027
going to be mistaken for a real person.

00:04:36.027 --> 00:04:38.371
It's stiff and it's much smaller in scale.

00:04:38.371 --> 00:04:40.403
Voiceover: But still it
seems to be almost a sign

00:04:40.403 --> 00:04:44.651
of the desire to elevate
the status of the artist.

00:04:44.651 --> 00:04:46.131
Voiceover: It absolutely is a sign of that

00:04:46.131 --> 00:04:48.411
and it's also definitely
a sign of the pride

00:04:48.411 --> 00:04:50.267
that the Florentines take in their arts.

00:04:50.267 --> 00:04:52.122
I mean, this is a very important location,

00:04:52.122 --> 00:04:53.739
the bell tower of the Cathedral,

00:04:53.739 --> 00:04:56.595
and they're displaying
in a way what makes them

00:04:56.595 --> 00:04:58.916
proud and prosperous as Florentines.

00:04:58.916 --> 00:05:00.963
In one part, it's the arts.

00:05:00.963 --> 00:05:03.139
Voiceover: And so this
could be described as

00:05:03.139 --> 00:05:05.618
part of that civic pride
that I always think

00:05:05.618 --> 00:05:07.755
is so important in terms of commissioning

00:05:07.755 --> 00:05:09.131
so much art in the Renaissance.

00:05:09.131 --> 00:05:09.883
Voiceover: That's right.

00:05:09.883 --> 00:05:12.219
Here's another scene of local industry.

00:05:12.219 --> 00:05:14.971
This is weaving, which is
one of the main reasons

00:05:14.971 --> 00:05:17.970
why Florence is so very
prosperous around 1340

00:05:17.970 --> 00:05:19.506
when these reliefs are being made.

00:05:19.506 --> 00:05:21.538
You could talk about it
in terms of the style

00:05:21.538 --> 00:05:23.419
being typical for Andrea Pisano,

00:05:23.419 --> 00:05:26.251
the boiling down to the
essential ingredients,

00:05:26.251 --> 00:05:31.051
but really what stands out is
the way it celebrates industry,

00:05:31.051 --> 00:05:32.595
manual labor and the things that make

00:05:32.595 --> 00:05:34.115
this city where it is.

00:05:34.115 --> 00:05:35.627
Voiceover: It's amazing.

00:05:35.627 --> 00:05:37.571
And so the guilds were really powerful

00:05:37.571 --> 00:05:41.619
in enriching the city
and decorating the city

00:05:41.619 --> 00:05:43.852
with beautiful sculptures and reliefs

00:05:43.852 --> 00:05:45.443
and at the same time wanting to see

00:05:45.443 --> 00:05:46.987
their own image in a way.

00:05:46.987 --> 00:05:48.071
Voiceover: That's right.