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When preserving the gradual shift in the depiction of space with the development of a systematic method for linear perception and the evolution with which painting undertook away from the traditional forms of figural rendering of the human form during the Florentine Renaissance, one categorization of type for painting can be isolated to render to exemplify is impact: the Madonna with Child. The two elements in painting are inseparable in that the one impacts the other with such significance. Selecting six different paintings by differing artists to represent the growth of two centuries, the progression of optical perspective and the naturalism or realism in form will be illustrated. Not comparing each painting against the others but to identify the development of artistic technology. Starting with Cimabue to Raphael the Madonnas of Florence put further their innovation of their time.

“At the start of the trecento when the representation of space was both more tentative and less systematic and when painted tended to be relatively shallow or restricted” (Andrews, 96). The artist Cimabue is most well know for being the said discoverer of Giotto, but the artwork produced by him stands on its own merit. The Madonna is question is Cimabue’s Madonna in Majesty dating to 1285-86. In contrast to this particular piece of artwork the “Byzantine tradition is much more clearly reflected in those earlier works” then that of the one in question (Grassi, 79). Cimabue’s work in the trecento provides a baseline from which Florentine painting diverted. Madonna in Majesty “still shows the influence of Byzantine tradition” yet a slight alteration in composition Cimabue “the attempt to create spacitial death, which is rendered by the superimposing the figures” (Kren, 1). This treatment of the angles on either side of the centralized throne was the temporary solution to spacial illusion. One has to consider the motive behind an artist approaching a compositional problem that does not have precedence in their contemporary works. This start on the road to developing a methodology which permits imagery to approach that of reality is not isolated to the placement of forms but the forms themselves.

The main focus is on the centralized figures are that of the Madonna and Christ Child. The Madonna here appears as a chair for that of the Christ Child and an interlocker as she gazes towards the view and gestures to the Child on her lap. This reduces her function to the composition and limits her to be “vehicle for display” (Frick, 127). Beyond her placement in relationship to the Child, several deviations from tradition can be observed in her drapery and form of her throne. Cimabue makes the active choice “rather than using typical fishbone striation merely as abstract patterns on the surface of the painting. Cimabue understood that gold highlights referred directly to actual folds and creases in drapery” (Paoletti, 84). The drapery’s folds fall in a manner that references the form of the body that it is over; bring a greater sense of figural volume then in Byzantine stylistics. The form of facial expression and the composite of different prophets and angles follows the traditional form “but his work is distinctive in so far as it depicts a deep and complex space around the figures” (Paoletti, 84).

The Christ Child is the main thematic concentration of such a work. It “is representative of a whole class of painting done at the time […] to stimulate devotion and instruct the faithful, it is not a picture of something so much as a fusion of imagery” (Turner, 93). Though the type of image is a Madonna with Child the Child’s form takes an ambiguous form. “The Child’s appearance as a miniaturized adult dressed in a philosopher’s toga” takes away any maternal expression of emotion with the visual idea of Child but not (Fondaras, 17). Yet the lack of emotional expression was a preference to depict the immortal. An alternation to the rigidity, that restricts a sense of human emotional relationship, “strain the ability of the Byzantine art to invoke the transcendent nature of the divine” (Paoletti, 85).

The spacial illusion presented in Cimabue’s piece can be isolated to certain areas within his painting but there is no presence of a consistent treatment of space. “The arm of [the Madonna’s] architectonic throne suggest a degree of perspective, although some special ambiguities” (Paoletti, 84). It is a gradual uniformity that Giotto is able to achieve after his ‘teacher’ gone.

“None were to be more significant for the later course of Italian art then Giotto in Florence” (Grassi, 79). Praised for his genius and talent from Giorgio Vasari rings down the centuries with his “Florentine supremacy in the visual art to the canonical statues it would enjoy for centuries” (Turner, 21). The painting Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà) by Giotto dated 1310 is that which one can identify his own deviation from the Byzantine tradition even more so then Cimabue. “Giotto’s picture represents a decisive break with the imagery of previous centuries […but] the space in these images is far from expansive” (Andrews, 96). The arrangement of the figures of the angles surrounding the throne take that superimposing of Cimabue but Giotto presents a “clear perspectival composition” (Kren). The use of perspective centralizes the view to the throne and the Child on the Madonna’s lap. “Perspective is used to draw us to the psychological center”, that is that of the relationship created optically by Giotto (Turner 107).
The placement and interaction is present between the Madonna and Child is particularly significant in the composition that includes other figures to emphasize the center image. “The Virgin […] gazes away from the Child into the distance” not in a position of motherly or natural attention to a child on one’s lap (Grassi, 79). Though the gaze of the Madonna remains towards the view the form of the Madonna has undergone a shift in the projection of volume. The use of shading for light and shadow present around her face and neck and a cast shadow on the Child’s own lap from the Madonna’s gesture towards him. Giotto created a “monumentalized Virgin hold[ing] the Child on her lap as the seat” (Fondaras, 17). The use of the Madonna as a throne for the Christ Child transfers over in the composition of Cimabue’s painting. The Christ Child, though more child-like then Cimabue in his facial features, the body remains that of a miniaturized adult in his proportions. The throne as an architectural element contains a greater consistency of the use of perspective. Giotto sets his mark as the major breakaway from the Byzantine tradition for those that would follow him. “Artists from Giotto onward became increasingly interested in depicting tangible forms in illustionistic space” (Turner, 91).

“The quattrocento imagery […] becomes even more convincing with the advert of one point perspective” (Andrews, 98). Said to be the heir of Giotto is artistic talent, Masaccio bring the development of a one-point perspective systematic solution to spacial depiction. Fillipo Brunelleschi developed the method for constructing one-point perception. This evolution in art is considered “the single most import artistic break through of the Renaissance: the rediscovery of linear perspective” (Walker, 61). But surviving examples of its usages are not numerous. “Experiments in perspective began with sculpture [;] Donatello […] was the first to apply the lessons to sculptural relief” in the depiction of St. George and the Dragon (Walker 141) . Masaccio’s work is the first example of one-point perspective in the medium of painting; integrating Brunelleschi’s system of perspective with his own prodigious talent” (Walker, 145). In addition to the influence of Brunelleschi’s method Masaccio’s “study of perspective was allied to a equally profound analysis of light” (Kren).

The Madonna and Child and Angeles is dated to 1426 demonstrates the increase in realistic positioning and volumic qualities of figures. “His naturalistic forms demonstrate, rather, the influence of Donatello” (Paoletti, 85). The form of the Madonna has exceeded the illusion of mass that Giotto was able to depict. “The Virgin, as voluminous as a Roman statue” sits in on a throne that dominates the space of the composition (Kren). The body as well as the head are turned to a three quarters to the right side, with the Madonna’s head turned towards the Child on her lap. Both of her hands are visibly present: the right wrapped in holding the Child and the other ambiguously placed to appear that she is gesturing to him but also is held out while the Child eats grapes out of her hand. The grapes that the Child is stuffing down are in reference to the ucrious. The drapery is treated with greater “concern with bringing […] to life and making them as plausible and as compelling as possible” (Andrews 98).

With the ability to position forms within a picture plan the attention spent on depicting the figures increase with “the growth of realism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries” (Andrews 98). The shift in a relationship projected between the figures as seen in Masaccio’s painting is a change in the mannerism more then the technical advancement. “The emotional change of this otherwise rigidly fixed type was apparently so marked” in not only rendering the realistic form of the human body but also the emotional implications with movement (Ringbom, 59).

The Child demonstrates as drastic change in the imagery of the Christ Child. “The Child, himself, is naked and plump like a […] putto and is performing the common behavior of infants of putting everything, stuffing, into his mouth (Kren). The change in the mannerism of depicting figures alters how each image is then viewed, creating figurative language” (Grassi, 79). The halo of the Child is of significance in that is it not treated in the style of those belonging to the angels. It is “foreshorten[ed, defining] his position on his mother’s lap” (Kren). The angles have disk-like halos that are stationary in that the position of the head does not change the form of the halo. Masaccio brings elements of a lively and increased concern of realism, in form and position.

Continuing on the development of a visual relationship between the Madonna and the Child, Fra Filippo Lippi emphasizes that relationship in the elimination of all other figures in his painting Madonna with Child dated to1437. “New demands on emotional approaches and psychological characterization” bring about an increase in facial expression (Ringbom, 35). At this time in history Florence came to access to the works of northern painters. “Vivid measures of how Flemish oil painting, meticulously detailed symbolically loaded, impacted Florentine artists” (Paoletti 276). The influence is seen as artists push tempera to the limits of its abilities in attempting the same sense of imagery achieved by oil paintings. “The close affinity between Lippi’s style in this period and Flemish painting” are discernable in the treatment of the facial futures and the delicacy of cloth (Kren).

The positioning of the figures is that of human relation of maternal affection. The appeal of the maternal figure is that of the human connection that the viewer experiences (Fondaras, 7). Lippi’s imagery is “characterized by its special and perspective structures and a plastic quality in the figures” (Kren). Though in this piece the fine delicacy that he eventually developed in female depiction is not so much present as the use of lighting to create a three dimensional quality to his figures. “Filippo’s assimilation of the massive sculptural forms of Masaccio’s Painting; the realistically lively Christ Child show the influence of Donatello’s Sculpture” are exemplified between the two forms of Madonna and Child (Paoletti 227). The maternal relationship that is created in the positioning of the bodies can not be misconstrued. The Madonna holding her child with both her arms, welcoming him in a motherly embrace, portrays that of both the motherly figure but also diverges to a contemporary depiction of the female. “In accordance with the quattrocento practice of depicting antique themes in contemporary guise” Lippi creates a Madonna that encompasses the ideal beauty of a Florentine woman (Wohl, 50). “The simplification of physical feature of the women, in the fascination with jeweled and embroidered details in the cope and miter […] in the general volumetric massing of drapery forms” (Paoletti, 235). The movement towards realism in imagery of painting, the depiction of holy, divine, or mythological were not kept to the historical or even racial characteristics of appearance. Including “a very stylish plucked hairline” “the virgin’s hair is gathered in the fashionable Florentine style of the time and she is very informally dressed” (Frick, 131 Benedetti, 55). The Madonna seen as model for females of the city, in Lippi’s painting he creates not only the ideal of beauty but also that of the religious ideal for women.

The Child somewhat digresses in realism in the features of a baby. “Christ, who reaches his chubby arms around her neck and presses his face against hers” seems to be in inexplicable pose (Palmer74). Lippi has depicted the Child with a “large head, thick limbs and heavy trunk and almost grotesque” in his facial features (Kren). Yet the imagery of the Madonna and Child in their movement, contrary to the statue-like rigidity for its predecessors. The movement of an embrace “becomes one of the most popular forms of composition for Madonna in relief and panel” (Ringbom, 43). It is believed that “this pose was favored by women patrons, and thus often produced for female gaze” (Thomas 115). The majority of Madonna imagery created of private devotion encouraging the piety among the female population.

The elements of perception seen around that of the figures are in the space created by Lippi that places the Madonna within a room. Showing the influence of the internal space and use of windows within a painting of the Flemish paintings, Lippi creates the view of a bedroom as his backdrop for the Madonna. “The perspective is almost forced, but the sharply foreshadowed upper shutter of the window is adventurous” (Kern). “The steeply tipped perspective of the framing architecture” overly compensates in its exaggeration of the view point for the diminishing line (Paoletti, 233). The full technical method of Brunelleschi is still being integrated into the vocabulary of skills for painters. “Another effective feature of the painting is vigorous light and show used both for building and illuminating within the interior space” (Kren).

The influence of the Flemish paintings begins to show their greatest influential impact in the cross over to the use of oil paint is observed in Florentine Renaissance paintings. Leonardo di Vinci known for his lustrous flesh tones and illustionistic volume of the figure. Leonardo developed the “method of chiaroscuro- a lighting/shading technique that makes the figure appear three dimensional” (Kren). This in combination with the systematic perspective of linear perception caused the level of realism or naturalism within Leonardo’s imagery to rise expeditionary. “Naturalistic its mode of representation” being that of humanism (Fondaras, 7). Humanism is the study of the al antica. Taking the artistic expressions and achievement into study as part of one’s trying allowing for the past to be built upon. Leonardo’s understanding of optical perception of landscape and figures came from “means of nature studies” (Kren). “Florentine humanism at the end of the fifteenth century, which sought to synthesize all human learning into a single unified system” sought a heightened expression of realism (Paoletti, 276). Thusly the obsession of the depiction of emotion, movement, as well as perception had added to it the integrity of the scene projected.
Leonardo’s painting Madonna with Flower dated to 1478 takes that increase from just the realistic portrayal of the figural body to a naturalism of behavior. “The Virgin Mary’s informal relationship with her Child” is apparent within the given painting (Thomas, 132). The Madonna presented is one of an extremely youthful face but one that is full of emotional and expression. “Mary and her child are naturally engrossed in their game and their gazes make them appear life like” (Kren). The Madonna sits with one had around her child and is playing with him with the other. The expression of gleeful joy propels from the open mouth and smile that Leonardo has given her. Her drapery is voluminous and folds depicted in relation to the body underneath them as to show its form. Also seen here is the Florentine ideal of beauty with the plucked hairline and light hair. The use of chiaroscuro on the Madonna’s figure gives her a solid feel within the space created.

The Child on the Madonna’s lap is one of heightened realism. The form of the body is that of a physically proportionate infant. The gaze and total attention of the Child is on the flower with which the Madonna is playing with. She “holds a plump Child who is a playful […] it is entirely naturalistic” (Benedetti, 55). The behavior of a infant is also captured in the movement and placement of the form. “Scenes with the Virgin and Christ as participates” synthesize the realistic imagery of the form itself (Ringbom, 60). As the integrity of the reality created by the artists is not only depended on the naturalistic imagery of the physical body and objects but also with the use and movement/behavior of that form. “Each person’s bodily movements in keeping with dignity should be related to the emotions wished to express” (Wohl, 23). It is with this sentiment that the realism of relationships between the two figures, the Madonna and her Child, demonstrate the humanity of their mother-son emotional connection.

The expression of “the sentiment of anxious motherhood” can be observed in Raphael’s Madonna and Child dated to 1508 (Kren). The relationship developed between the mother and child expressed in the Madonna and Child type steps further from the common behavior of a child to that of the emotional tenderness of the maternal nature. “The natural embrace is the overriding theme” seen in this genre of painting as the century progresses (Palmer, 76). “Many such works seem to have depicted the Virgin tenderly embracing the Christi Child” (Thomas, 114). The progression from the ridge forms of the Byzantine tradition to one of idealized delicacy through Florentine artworks. Raphael shows the Madonna standing while holding her Child in her arms. Unlike the variously discussed which placed the Child on a lap, “the interlocking forms of the Virgin and Child” are isolated even from the establishment of architectural framing (Paoletti, 390). “The Virgin is holding the Christ Child closely and tenderly” in a typical gesture of a new mother (Kren). Raphael utilities the light and shadows to create a dramatic sense of volume for the forms of both the Madonna and Child. The Madonna’s drapery is not emphasized in the depiction of her form but the modeling of the hands demonstrates the then current methodology of studies or drawings to render them perfectly. “The Virgin gazes tenderly at her chubby infant son” instead of being the bridge between viewer and painting (Palmer 76). That role lies in the direction of gaze placement of the Child. “The relationship between the Madonna and Child […] treated in this warm, naturalistic” way which takes the expression into that of the Florentine woman’s life; that shared emotional connection of the female and offspring even though the majority of Florentine children were taken into the care of a wet nurse (Benedetti, 55).

The modeling off of reality in the behavior movements and bodily relation, the continuance of the image of the Madonna as the idealized form is present. “Especially in women beauty is observed by painters with refined diligence, eliminating as far as possible with art the errors of nature” (Wohl, 52). The idealization of the female form could be altered within the artist’s eye resulting in an unrealistic presentation of the Florentine female ideal. The images of the Madonna “represent highly idealized women concordant with contemporary notions of beauty; porcelain complexions, plucked eyebrows, and stylized coiffures” (Turner, 134). The softness in the treatment of facial expression has carried over from the time of Lippi but now with the increasement of realistic imagery of the body can be fully realized. The focus on the bodily relation in regards to positional placement in which a composition, dilutes the presence of the idealization of the female and brings that to the masterly relationship between the Madonna and Child. “The mothering of Christ- protective, compassionate, and nurturing” is all projected out of the image composition of the mother holding close her child (Fondaras, 16). As if the establishment of space was a last minute reminisce or secondary, Raphael rendered a misty landscape that diminishes into the distance. “Small strip of landscape and the light blue sky in the background” (Kren). The light imagery places the Madonna into an exterior environment that depicts small symbolic imagery.

“It was at the beginning of the fifteenth century that the principal of ornateness in painting encountered the rise of the potentially incompatible phenomenon of realism and of the quest for visual truth to nature” (Wohl, 6). The development of systematic one-point perspective did not isolating affect the proportions and physical shape of compositions in Florentine Renaissance artwork. “The success of the illusion depends on the correct viewpoint” (Andrews, 96). The viewpoint is the stance with which it was meant to be preserved; this line of thought can be attributed to numerous aspects of life. Technique and skill is not an isolated evolution, the surroundings are a constant influence. Artists built upon the discoveries of the other, all in search for that perfect idealized form of the human body within space.


Works Cited

Andrews, Lew. Story and Space in Renaissance art: the rebirth of continuous narrative. Cambridge University Press: New York, 1995

Benedetti, Sergio. “A Renaissance Masterpiece” Irish Arts Review. Vol. 19 no. 3 (Winter 2002)

Frick, Carole Collier. “Gendered Space in Renaissance Florence: theorizing public and private in the ‘Rag Trade’” Fashion Theory. Vol.9 no.2 (June 2005)

Fondaras, Antonia K. “Out Mother the Holy Wisdom of God: nursing in Botticelli’s Bardi Altarpiece” Storia dell’ Arte. No. 111(2005)

Grassi, Marco. “The Metropolitan Duccio”. The Criterion. Vol.23 no. 6 (February 2005)

Leuker, Tobias. “Orgoglio e devozione Iconografia e funzioni della pala Cassotti di Andrea Previtali” Arte Vente. No. 60 (2003)

Paoletti, John T. and Gary M. Radke. Art in Renaissance Italy. 3rd edition. Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 2005

Ringbom, Sixten. Icon to Narrative: the rise of dramatic close-up in the Fifteenth-century devotional painting. 2nd edition. Davaco Publishers: Doornsplik, Netherlands, 1984

Thomas, Anabel. Art and Piety in the Female Religious Community of Renaissance Italy: iconography, space, and the religious women’s perspective. Cambridge University Press: New York, 2003

Turner, Richard A. Renaissance Florence: the invention of a new art. Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 1997

Walker, Paul Robert. The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: how Brunelleschi and Ghiberti changed the art world. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 2002

Wohl, Hellmut. The Aesthetics of Italian Renaissance Art. Cambridge University Press: New York, 1999



Images Cited



Cimabue. Madonna in Majesty (Maestà) 1285-86 Tempera on panel. Galleria degi Uffizi, Florence. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


Cassai, Tommaso (Masaccio). Madonna with Child and Angles. 1426 Tempera on popular. National Gallery, London. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


da Vinci, Leonardo. Madonna With Flower (Madonna Benois) 1478 oil on canvus. The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


di Bondone, Giotto. Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà). 1310 Tempera on wood. Galleria degi Uffizi, Florence. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


Donatello. Saint George and the Dragon. 1416 Marble. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


Lippi, Fra Filippo. Madonna with Child (Tarquinia Madonna). 1437 Tempera on panel. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html


Sanzio, Raffaello (Raphael). Madonna and Child (The tempi Madonna) 1508 oil on wood. Alte Penakothek, Münich. As seen at Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html