Week 4: Early Renaissance in Venice and Northern Europe:

Venice Italy:

• City in the shape of a fish

• city keeps sinking into the ocean with every year that goes by

• links to the Byzantine Empire

• right near the Ottoman Empire

• 3 domes similar to mosques

• covered in mosiacs made of gold (like Byzantine)

Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II

• Gentile Bellini

• c. 1480

• oil on canvas

• Sultan invited the artist to come over

• known as the Conqueror

• life size portrait

• showed his wealth & rank

• only slightly turned forward to show the illusion

• Spanish monarch pushing out Muslims

• religious wars

• significant how its not a stereotype

Saint Mark’s Bell Tower and the Doge’s Palace seen from the water

• protected by the lagoon

• Islamic & Byzantine Influence

• stolen from Egypt brought to Italy

Palazzo Ducale

• c. 1340 and after

• Venice, Italy

• stone wall with diamond pattern

• balcony with balustrade (railing)

• pointed arches

• quatrefoils (four-lobed cutouts)

• Islamic patter on the wall

Ca’ d’Oro

• c. 1422 - 1440

• Venice

• decorations by Bartolomeo and Giovanni Bon

• originally covered in gold

• built for prominent family

• palace of wealth

• entrance is on the canal

• upper / middle balcony / lower loggia

• quatrefoils / balustrade

• Islamic and Gothic influence

Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Rialto Bridge:

• Vittore Carpaccio

• c. 1496

• Tempera on canvas

• heart of the city

• people would cross over the bridge

• relic: objects or body parts of saints that are thought to have healing powers

• one of the first times a black man was depictied in art

Colorito:

• “coloring” not only color but aslo its judicious application

• was deemed fundamental to concieving painted images charged with the look of life

tempera:

• egg-based paint

• dries quickly

• opaque (hatching)

fresco:

• water-based paint on wet plaster

• dries quickly

oil paint:

• glazing

• dried slowly

• comes from Europe

• translucent

Madonna of the Trees:

• Giovanni Bellini

• Oil on wood

• Venice, Italy

• c. 1487

• Venetian style: sensuous, colorful

• oil paint instead of tempera

• one of more than 80 small-scare devotional Madonna’s Bellini painted

• this artist is known for his Madonna’s

San Giobbe Altarpiece:

• Giovanni Bellini

• oil on wood

• Venice, Italy

• c. 1490

• “worm’s eye” perspective

• crowded composition

• pyramid composition

• inspired by his previous work: San Zaccaria Altarpiece)

San Zaccaria Altarpiece

• Giovanni Bellini

• c. 1505

• oil on wood transferred to canvas

• trick of eye

• linear perspective

• made when he was in his 70s'

• Jerome translated Bible from Hebrew to Latin

• keys to heaven, an intellectual

• Catherine, palm, wrench

• Lucy is represented with a wooden wheel, it broke, holding an oil lamp to showcase light

• Angel playing violin to resemble harmony thanks to oil paint you can see the extreme depth

• Jesus actually looks like a baby amd has baby mannerisms

• Jesus lifting his foot

• carved head of King Solomon, theory to practice

• Mosaic on roof/top, birds and floral motifs

• suspended lantern held by an egg

• ostrich eggs hatched by the heat of the sun or animal, connection to the the miraculous nature of Christ

Dead Christ

• Andrea Mantegna

• tempera on canvas

• c. 1480 - 1500

• radical perspective

• sense of death

• Christ laying on stone

• spread oil

• Christ propped up for us to see

• very thin halo

• feels close up

• wounds with hands and feet

• most likely used a model

• emotions of sorrow

• in artist’s possession till he died

• feet small compared to head, unproportional everywhere, artists experiment, results not perfect

• tears, desperation from ppl nearby

Dukes of Burgundy:

• Philip the Bold

• John the Fearless

• Philip the Good

• Charles the Bold

The Renaissance in Northern Europe:

• The inventionThe adventProtestantfrom of the printing press c.1450

• Advent of mechanically reproducible media such as woodcuts and engravings

• formation of a merchant class of art patrons that purchased works in oil on panel

• Pprotestant Reformation and the translation of the Bible form the original languages into the vernacular or common languages such as German and French

• Internation trade in urban centers

The Northern Renaissance Style:

• Blending of Late Gothic art with:

  • Contemporary ideas about observation

  • The European mind in the North at this time saw their Christian God in every aspect of the world, and so the world was depicted with an exacting naturalism that verged on the spiritual

  • reformation ideology

  • interest in partiture

St. Luke Drawing the Virgin Mary

• Artist: Rogier van der Weyden

• Brussels, Belgium

• c. 1435 - 1440

• An image within an image

• advent of new artistic techniques in 15th century northern Europe

• Movement towards realism, naturalism, observation

• small scale, deviotional image

• he had a vision of Mary, which is why he is there

• very intimate scene

Annunciation Triptych

• From the workshop of Robert Campin

• c. 1427

• Oil on wood

• oil on panel is different than tempera used in Italy

• Oil paint as charactersristic of Northern renaissance art

• rise of the wealthy middle class

• ordered by a giuld

• troptic (three panels)

• tilted up, intuitive perspective: gives depth but not mathmatically correct

• iconography: symbols with meanings

• from the window, angel Gabriel, holding cross

• vase of Lilies (Mary’s innocent)

• Holy Spirit

• water in the house means baptism

• candle, fireplace, lion carved on wooden bench

• Joseph was a carpenter, carving, he has nails symbolizing Jesus getting nailed to the cross

• outside has houses from Northern Europe

• moustrap: trapping of evil

• to the left are the commisiners of the painting

• birds flowers, nature

• they are peeking in (maybe showing they are having a vision)

Ghent Altarpiece (closed)

• Jan van Eyck

• Oil on wood

• Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium

• Polyptich: multi paneled altarpiece

• donor potraits: not idealized, rather new naturalism

• 3 registers

• John the Baptst

• John the Evangelist

• The Annuciation

• urban scene from the windows

• 2 prophets and 2 siblys

Ghent Altarpiece (open)

• Jan van Eyck

• c. 1432

• oil on wood

• Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium

• 2 registers

• upper registers: heavenly no mortals

• lower registers: panoramic landscape

• landscape includes recognizable northern European churches not just a mystical landscape

• God wearing three-tiered crown like Pope would wear

• Heaven, no mortals here

• angels playing music

• Adam and Eve

• More grisaille

• Mary , crown of flowers, reading a book, green for nature

• Adoration of the lamb buildings is from Northern Europe

• blood from lamb poured blood into a cup

• by cleaning it, the lamb actually was made to have a human face