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Andrea Pisano's reliefs on the Campanile in Florence

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    Voiceover: Here we have a view of Florence
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    where we can see the bell tower,
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    the Campanile in the
    center, and then on the left
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    just a little corner of the Baptistry,
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    and on the back end the
    Cathedral of Florence
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    with Brunelleschi's dome at the top.
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    Voiceover: Right.
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    The Baptistry is a medieval building
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    from the 10th century probably.
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    The Cathedral, the Duomo, they began
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    building almost around 1300
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    and the bell tower starts going up
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    a little bit after that
    and then the dome is built
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    from the early 1400s and
    finished in the 1470s.
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    Voiceover: So what are we
    looking at with the bell tower?
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    Voiceover: The bell tower, right now,
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    we're gonna concentrate
    on the very bottom.
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    Around 1340, even though the tower
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    wasn't complete yet, they decided,
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    the town and the guilds of Florence,
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    specifically the wool
    guild that was in charge
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    of decorating the cathedral,
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    decided that they wanted to decorate
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    the bottom of the tower
    because even though
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    it wasn't complete, it was embarrassing
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    having just this bare undecorated surface
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    where everyone's walking around,
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    as you can see, all the time.
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    And so the two very bottom layers
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    are decorated with many reliefs
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    and these are in stone marble
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    rather than the bronze
    that's on the Baptistry.
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    The reliefs cover a lot of subjects.
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    There are Biblical scenes.
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    There are signs of the Zodiac.
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    There are also scenes of
    local art and industry.
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    Some of these things may sound unusual.
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    Of course, the Biblical scenes makes
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    sense on the church building.
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    Voiceover: Industry and the - ?
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    Voiceover: Those are a little bit unusual.
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    We'll see why they might
    want to include those.
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    We should also say that the Zodiac signs
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    are not unusual because
    the medieval Christians
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    were very able or very comfortably blended
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    their belief in Christianity
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    and their Christian devotion
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    with interest in the horoscope.
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    Voiceover: Yep, and we see that
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    a lot on medieval churches.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
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    Let's look at some of these reliefs.
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    Here's one of the religious scenes.
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    This is the Creation of Adam.
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    The artist is Andrea Pisano,
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    who around the same time is working on
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    the bronze reliefs just across the street
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    on the south doors of the Baptistry.
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    Those scenes were about John the Baptist
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    and here's one of the Biblical
    scenes on the bell tower.
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    And again, this is typical of his style
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    as we've described it.
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    It's very, very simplified with mostly
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    a blank background, just
    a few things to give
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    you a sense of the setting,
    here a few stylized trees,
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    and we have God leaning
    over and creating Adam.
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    Voiceover: Yeah, literally
    out of the dust of the earth
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    and he sort of takes form.
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    Voiceover: Right and this
    is another good example
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    of how Andrea Pisano
    combines a kind of gothic
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    stylization with a
    naturalistic classicism.
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    Voiceover: Where do you
    see the gothic stylization?
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    Voiceover: Well, the
    figure of God the Father,
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    in some ways the way
    the robes are rendered
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    without a great sense
    of the body underneath,
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    the kind of rhythmic folds,
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    all of this is pretty traditional.
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    Voiceover: Right so we
    have sense of the body,
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    but there's not an entire
    sense of a real physical
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    anatomically correct body underneath it.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
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    Voiceover: Like there will
    be later with Donatello.
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    Voiceover: Mm hmm and
    instead, the figure of Adam
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    is a nude athletic male
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    even though it's damaged here,
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    it's classicizing and it's naturalistic.
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    He's in a contrapposto stance
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    evnen though he's lying down.
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    That doesn't make any sense.
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    Contrapposto is usually something
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    for standing up, but the fact that he's
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    done that anyway shows how interested
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    he was in giving it a classic appearance.
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    Voiceover: Yeah, I mean,
    we can see his ribs
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    and some muscles there too.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
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    So this is very typical for his style.
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    Here now we're looking at one
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    of the scenes of local industry.
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    Voiceover: Wow, this looks a lot like
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    the one of God creating Adam.
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    Voiceover: Well, it's
    interesting that you say that
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    because the industry that's represented
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    here is sculpture and
    this is an interesting way
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    for an artist, Andrea
    Pisano, to suggest that
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    the work of the sculptor,
    the work of the artist,
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    is in some ways like the work of God.
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    Both are creators.
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    In fact, we also see
    again the creator here,
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    the artist, leaning over a bearded man,
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    in rather stylized robes, leaning over
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    a nude, more naturalistic,
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    more classicizing figure.
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    Now, of course, he's not
    going to get in trouble.
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    There's a sense of modesty here because
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    look again and compare this to
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    the way God creates Adam.
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    God is in nature, He uses
    a gesture of his hand,
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    and Adam is clearly supposed to be
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    a real living person.
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    When we look at the
    sculptor in the studio,
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    he's in the studio, he's using tools.
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    The use of the tools
    is really conspicuous.
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    Voiceover: He can't
    create simply by his word
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    or by some kind of spiritual action.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
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    And also what he's creating is not
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    going to be mistaken for a real person.
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    It's stiff and it's much smaller in scale.
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    Voiceover: But still it
    seems to be almost a sign
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    of the desire to elevate
    the status of the artist.
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    Voiceover: It absolutely is a sign of that
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    and it's also definitely
    a sign of the pride
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    that the Florentines take in their arts.
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    I mean, this is a very important location,
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    the bell tower of the Cathedral,
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    and they're displaying
    in a way what makes them
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    proud and prosperous as Florentines.
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    In one part, it's the arts.
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    Voiceover: And so this
    could be described as
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    part of that civic pride
    that I always think
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    is so important in terms of commissioning
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    so much art in the Renaissance.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
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    Here's another scene of local industry.
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    This is weaving, which is
    one of the main reasons
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    why Florence is so very
    prosperous around 1340
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    when these reliefs are being made.
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    You could talk about it
    in terms of the style
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    being typical for Andrea Pisano,
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    the boiling down to the
    essential ingredients,
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    but really what stands out is
    the way it celebrates industry,
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    manual labor and the things that make
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    this city where it is.
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    Voiceover: It's amazing.
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    And so the guilds were really powerful
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    in enriching the city
    and decorating the city
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    with beautiful sculptures and reliefs
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    and at the same time wanting to see
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    their own image in a way.
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    Voiceover: That's right.
Title:
Andrea Pisano's reliefs on the Campanile in Florence
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Khan Academy
Duration:
05:59
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for Andrea Pisano's reliefs on the Campanile in Florence Jun 16, 2020, 6:40 PM

English subtitles

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