Seeing Renaissance Glass

Front matter

Art, Optics, and Glass of Early Modern Italy, 1250-1425

SARAH M. DILLON

With the invention of eyeglasses around 1280 near Pisa, the mundane medium of glass transformed early modern optical technology and visuality. It also significantly influenced contemporaneous art, religion, and science. References to glass are found throughout the Bible and in medieval hagiography and poetry. For instance, glass is mentioned in descriptions of Heavenly Jerusalem, the Beatific Vision, and the Incarnation. At the same time, a well-known Islamic scientific treatise, which likened a portion of the eye’s anatomy to glass, entered the scientific circles of the Latin West. Amidst this complex web of glass-related phenomena early modern Italian artists used glass in some of their most important artworks but, until now, no study has offered a comprehensive consideration of the important role glass played in shaping the art of the Italian Renaissance.

Contents

Illustrations Acknowledgments

Introduction to Secing Renaissance Glass: Art, Optics, and Glass of Early Modern Italy, 1250-1425

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1: Arnolfo di Cambio, Madonna and Child, ca. 1296-1302, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. Source: Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).

Figure 1.2: Simone Martini, Detail of Maestà showing diamond-shaped panels of glass, ca. 1315, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.

Source: Alinari Archives, Firenze.

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1: Duccio, Rose Window with Scenes of the Dormition, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin, ca. 1288, Cathedral, Siena. Source: José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Figure 2.2: Duccio, Maestà, Detail of central panel showing Madonna, Child, and Saints, ca. 1308-1311, Cathedral, Siena.

Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Figure 2.3: Duccio, Maestà, Detail with Last Supper, ca. 1308-1311, Cathedral, Siena. Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 2.4: Simone Martini, Stained Glass Windows in Saint Martin Chapel, ca. 1317, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi. Source: Franco Cosimo Panini Editore © Management Fratelli Alinari.

Figure 2.5: Ceiling of Lower Church with light reflecting off silver-backed glass insets, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi. Source: Author.

Figure 2.6: Taddeo Gaddi, Baroncelli Chapel, ca. 1330, Santa Croce, Florence. Source: Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-2.5).

Figure 2.7: Giotto and Workshop, Pinnacle for the Baroncelli Altarpiece, ca. 1334, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam (1945.26).

Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 2.8: Taddeo Gaddi, Musionistic Niche with Liturgical Vessels, ca. 1330, Baroncelli Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence.

Source: Raffaello Bencini/Alinari Archives, Florence.

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1: Simone Martini, Detail of Maestà showing diamond-shaped panels of glass reflecting light, ca. 1315, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Source: Author.

Figure 3.2: Orcagna, Detail of Tabernacle showing gilded glass, 1359, Orsanmichele, Florence. Source: Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Figure 3.3: Byzantine Workshop, Bowl Base with Saints Peter and Paul Flanking a Column with the Christogram of Christ, late 4th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1916 (16.174.3). Source: Public Domain, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0).

Figure 3.4: Nicola Pisano, Arca of San Domenico, 1264-1267, Basilica of Saint Dominic, Bologna. Source: Georges Jansoone via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5).

Illustrations | xiii

Nicola Pisano, Detail of Pulpit showing two glass panels on

either side of the trilobed arch, 1265-1268, Siena Cathedral,

Siena. Source: Author. 61 Workshop of Giotto, Christ Surrounded by Mary and St. John,

ca. 14th century, The Bandini Collection, Fiesole. Source: Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). 68 Paolo di Giovanni Fei, Detail of Madonna and Child showing

the central roundel and four glass roundels in the frame, ca.

1370s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest

of George Blumenthal, 1941 (41.190.13). Source: Public

Domain, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0). 68

Chapter 4

Syrian Workshop, Beaker, ca. 1260, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (47.17). Source: Public Domain, The Walters

Museum (CCO0). 83 Roman Workshop, Pilgrim Flask, 1st-5th century, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Gift of the executors of the Estate of

Colonel Michael Friedsam (32.739). Source: Brooklyn

Museum (CC BY). 86 Roman-Syrian Workshop, Glass Hexagonal Jug, 6th-early

7th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

(X.243). Source: Public Domain, The Metropolitan Museum

of Art (CCO). 87 German Workshop, Cross of Nikomedes of Borghorst, ca. 1050, Pfarrgemeinde St. Nikomedes, Steinfurt-Borghorst, Germany. Source: Markus Còsters via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). 92 Master of the Legend of Saint Francis, Verification of the

Stigmata, ca. 1300, Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi.

Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 100 Giotto, Detail of an illusionistic niche with hanging lamps,

ca. 1305, Arena Chapel, Padua. Source: Raffaello

Bencini/Alinari Archives, Florence. 101 xiv | Seeing Renaissance Glass

Chapter 5 Naddo Ceccarelli, Reliquary Tabernacle with Virgin and Child

ca. 1350, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Acquired by

Henry Walters, 1920 (37.1159). Source: Public Domain,

The Walters Art Museum (CCO). 116 Lippo Vanni, Reliquary Triptych with Virgin and Child with

Saints, ca. 1350-1359, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection,

1902 (37.750). Source: Public Domain, The Walters Art

Museum (CCO0). 117 Pietro Lorenzetti, Reliquary Tabernacle with Madonna and

Child, early 1340s, Florence, Villa I Tatti, Collezione

Berenson, reproduced by permission of the President and

Fellows of Harvard College.” Photo: Paolo De Rocco,

Centrica srl, Firenze. 118 Sienese Workshop, Reliquary Tabernacle, 14th century,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers

Fund, 1918 (18.70.17). Source: Public Domain,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0). 119 Simone di Filippo (Simone dei Crocifissi), New Testament

and Apocryphal Scenes with Saints, ca. 1360-1370, The Walters

Art Museum, Baltimore, Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902 (37.723). Source: Public Domain,

The Walters Art Museum (CCO). 120 Pietro Lorenzetti, I/lusionistic Niche with Transparent Glass Liturgical Vessels, ca. 1320, Left Transept, Lower Church,

San Francesco, Assisi. Source: Author. 132 Unknown Artist in the Style of Altichiero, Petrarch in His

Study, from the frontispiece of Petrarch’s De viris illustribus, ca. 1400, Darmstadt, Universitàt- und Landesbibliothek, MS 101. Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia. 141 Giotto, Detail of Arena Chapel Ceiling, ca. 1305, Padua.

Source: José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro via Wikimedia

Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). 142 Taddeo Gaddi, Detail of Baroncelli Chapel Ceiling, ca. 1330,

Santa Croce, Florence. Source: Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5). 142

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