Test on the Renaissance

1
Test on the Renaissance
2
Scholasticism Humanism

• Scholasticism a church-based intellectual system
  in which reason was applied to explain all
  aspects of life, but most importantly, to why
  Christianity was the only logical belief system
  (1200s-1300s)
• Humanism a more secular system seeking to apply
  reason to all aspects of life, not just religion
  an attempt to apply ancient Roman principles,
  filtred through Christianity and a Christian
  World view, to contemporary life (1390s-1600)

3
19-9 Giotto, Lamentation over the Dead Christ

• Scene from Life ofChrist immediatelyafter
  Crucifixion
• Not biblical
• Shallowstage/landscape forfigures
• Emotionalism inresponse of apostles,angels

4
19-10 Giotto, Meeting of Joachim and Anna

• Fresco from life ofMarys parentsJoachim
  Anna
• Not Biblical
• Note different scalefor architecture figures
• Use of light shadeto model figures

5
19-21 Ambrogio Lorezetti,Allegory of Good
Government
6
The 15th Century Outside of Italy

• 1348-1400 General instability due toaftermath
  of plague, continuing outbreaks.
• 1337-1453 Hundred Years War betweenEngland and
  France.
• Flanders, chief market for Englands wool,became
  a major battle ground.
• French incursions into Flanders aggravatedthis
  prolonged conflict.

7
Cloth More Precious than Gold

• Textiles among the most valuable
  Europeancommodities up to the 19th century.
• Process labour intensive hand work,
  elaboratedesigns, rich materials.
• Value of cloth often surpassed that of
  jewelry,books, artwork.
• Fully equipped bed mattress, hangings,sheets,
  blankets, pillows, etc. could equal halfthe
  value of a cottage in England c. 1525.

8
Of Capitalism and Kings

• Kings consolidated power over large
  territories,established common currencies, legal
  systems,bureaucracies. New national monarchies
  (nationstates) emerge.
• Barter system replaced by cash economies.
• Money financed new industrial (e.g.
  textiles)ventures as well as the art market.
• Emerging urban middle classes, with
  largeincomes, changed the market for art in
  northernEurope.

9
20-1 Limbourg Brothers,Très Riches Heures du Duc
de Berry
10
20-11 Robert Campin,Mérode Altarpiece

• Oil on wood, 64 x 118 cm, Metropolitan Museum of
  Art, New York

11
20-11 Robert Campin, Mérode Altarpiece
12
20-11 Robert Campin, Mérode Altarpiece

• The centre panel focuses on the Virgin in prayer.
  As she has not yet recognized the presence of the
  archangel Gabriel, the event depicted is the
  moment just before the Annunciation. Some
  objects, such as the lily and the laver,
  symbolize the Virgin's purity expressed through
  the divine birth of Christ. The tiny figure of
  the Christ Child bearing a cross and descending
  on rays of light from the round window indicates
  that the primary subject is the Incarnation. This
  understanding is borne out by the flame of the
  candle, symbolic of God's divinity, which has
  just been extinguished, a further reference to
  the Incarnation, the moment when God became man.
  This significant detail is placed in the exact
  centre of the composition.

13
20-11 Mérode Altarpiece

• The presence on the right panelof Joseph, who is
  not usuallyattendant at the Annunciation,can
  also be explained in thecontext of the
  Incarnation.Joseph has made twomousetraps,
  whose meaning iselucidated by the
  Augustinianspeculation that the Incarnationwas
  God's means of ensnaringthe devil, much as bait
  entraps amouse.

14
20-12 Jan Van Eyck,Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

• National Gallery, LondonOil on oak, 82.2 x 60
  cm, 1434.
• This work is a portrait of Giovanni diNicolao
  Arnolfini and his wife,Giovanna Cenami, but is
  likely notintended as a record of theirwedding.
  Arnolfini was a member ofa merchant banking
  family fromLucca living in Bruges.
• His wife is not pregnant, as is oftenthought,
  but holds up her full-skirteddress in the
  contemporary fashion.
• The couple are shown in a well-appointed
  interior, a scene rich insymbols of marriage and
  family life.

15
Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (symbols)

• Van Eyck surrounds the couplewith many  symbols.
  To the left,the oranges placed on the low
  tableand the window sill are a reminderof
  original innocence, of an agebefore sin. Unless,
  that is, they arenot in fact oranges but apples,
  inwhich case they would representthe temptation
  of knowledge andthe Fall.
• Above the couple's heads, thecandle left burning
  in broaddaylight on one of the branches ofan
  ornate copper chandelier can beinterpreted as
  the nuptial flame, oras the eye of God.
• The small dog in the foreground isan emblem of
  fidelity and love.
• The marriage bed with its brightred curtains
  evokes the physicalact of love which, according
  toChristian doctrine, is an essentialpart of
  the perfect union of manand wife.

16
Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (mirror)

• The mirror is the focal point of thewhole
  composition. It has oftenbeen noted that two
  tiny figurescan be seen reflected in it,
  theirimage captured as they cross thethreshold
  of the room. They arethe painter himself and a
  youngman (van Eycks brotherHubert?), perhaps
  arriving to actas witnesses to the marriage.
  Theessential point, however, is thefact that
  the convex mirror is ableto absorb and reflect
  in a singleimage both the floor and theceiling
  of the room, as well as thesky and the garden
  outside, bothof which are otherwise
  barelyvisible through the side window.
• The mirror thus acts as a sort of holein the
  texture of space. It sucks theentire visual
  world into itself,transforming it into a
  representation.

17
20-15 Jan Van Eyck,Man in a Red Turban

• Secular Portrait possibly aself-portrait
  (artists wouldsometimes wrap their hair tokeep
  paint off)
• Direct gaze of sitter - new sinceantiquity
• May reflect the increasingpatronage of
  portraiture by thegrowing middle class.
• Avoid psychological reading!His gaze may
  merely be intomirror!

18
20-17 The Garden of Earthly Delights

• The Millenniumaltarpiece, closed,
  byHieronymous Bosch,c. 1500 (in the Prado).
• Exterior of Boschsaltarpiece containingthe
  Garden of EarthlyDelights
• The front depicts  theseparation of the
  earthfrom the waters duringCreation.

19
The Garden of Earthly Delights

• Hieronymous Bosch produced some of the most
  inventive fantasy paintings that have ever
  existed. His obsessive and nightmarish vision has
  its antecedents in the Gothic twilight world of
  the late Middle Ages and, although the
  allegorical medieval world view is now lost,
  there have been many recent attempts to 'read'
  his pictures, not least by those who have
  attempted to interpret Bosch by dream analysis.
  The Garden of Earthly Delights demonstrates
  Bosch's dazzling ability to build up a hugely
  detailed landscape through a series of bizarre
  exaggerations and distortions. The complete work
  consists of four paintings on a series of folding
  panels the outer panel reveals the Third Day of
  Creation when closed. Inside, The Garden of
  Earthly Delights is flanked on the left by the
  Garden of Eden and on the right by Hell. A wild
  sexual orgy features in the central panel, where
  lust is shown to be the cause of man's downfall.
  There are over a thousand figures in this work
  altogether. Standing alone in its lifetime,
  Bosch's work has a timeless and modern quality
  that greatly endeared him to Surrealists in the
  twentieth century.The A-Z of Art The World's
  Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their
  Works,Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson

20
21 17 The Garden of Earthly Delights
21
Martin Schongauer, St.Anthony Tormented by Demons

• Engraving, 1480-1490
• Produced using a metalprinting plate etched
  bymetal stylus
• Note the very fine lines, softerdetail, more
  curved lines thanin the woodblock.
• St. Anthonys vision of a soultormented by
  demoniccreatures.

22
Bottacelli Birth of Venus
23
Leonardo da Vinci Last Supper
24
Leonardo da Vinci, Embryo
25
Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks
26
Bramante Tempietto
27
Bramante Plan for St. Peters
28
Michelangelo Creation
29
Michelangelo David
30
Donatello David
31
Michelangelo Last Judgement
32
Raphael The School of Athens
33
Michelangelo St. Peters
34
Giorgione The Tempest
35
Titian Venus of Urbino
36
Titian The Assumption of the Virgin
37
Parmigianino Madonna of the Long Neck
38
Veronese Feast in the House of Levi
39
The Isenheim Altarpiece
40
Albrecht Durer Knight, Death the Devil
41
Hans Holbein, The French Ambassadors
42
Breugel, Hunters in the Snow