Art History Quiz 1

Proto-Renaissance

Transitional period in Italy (12th-14th century) from middle ages to Renaissance. Art evolved from Byzantine to more realistic and humanistic styles.

Renaissance

Period in European history, from the 14th to 17th century, characterized by a revival of art, architecture, and culture inspired by classical antiquity. Artists focused on realism, perspective, and humanism, leading to significant advancements in art.

Humansim

• An outlook or thought that attaches prime importance to human rather an divine holy power

• Common human needs

• Trust in humans to solve issues, saw humanity as inherently good

• Major shift from middle ages’ focus on divine

(Protestant) Reformation

16th-century movement led by Martin Luther challenging the practices of the Catholic Church, resulting in the creation of Protestantism.

(Catholic) Counter-Reformation

Effort by Catholic Church to respond to Protestant Reformation, emphasizing spiritual renewal, education, and enforcing Catholic doctrine. decided art must be compiling, emotional, dramatic, and motivate religious devotion

Iconoclasm

The destruction of religious images or symbols, often due to a belief that they are idolatrous or against religious teachings.

Protestant sects did this a lot in 16th century

Mannerism

Artistic style characterized by distortion of proportions, vivid colors, and exaggerated poses. Emerged in the late Renaissance period as a reaction against the harmonious ideals of the High Renaissance. Dominant stylistic movement of 16th century

Baroque

• deliberately evokes intense emotional responses from viewers, Meant as an insult by classical theorists who wanted a return to values

• dramatic lighting, highlight technical skill, against mannerist

• Arose from rulers’ economic strength slipping, artists finding patrons in church and secular state, and in newly confident and prosperous middle classes

• Developed after the protestant reformation, during counter-reformation

• Fundamentally naturalistic style

altarpiece

a painted or sculpted panel set above an altar

• diptych

  • two panels

• triptych

  • three panels

• polyptych

  • multiple panels

fresco

• ____ is a painting technique where pigments are applied to wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, becoming a permanent part of the surface as it dries.

• Buon ____

  • Occurs when plaster is still wet

  • Pigment applied to plaster before it dries

  • More durable and preferred

  • However you cant paint chunks and could only work on a small part at a time and had to be quick with no mistakes 

• ____ Secco

  • Paint applied to a dry plastered wall

  • Color flakes off over time

tempera

Painting technique using pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder such as egg yolk. Known for its quick drying time and matte finish.

oil paint

_____ is a type of paint made with pigments suspended in drying oils, like linseed oil. It is known for its rich colors, smooth texture, and slow drying time.

modeling

Technique for creating the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface using light and shadow, or shaping materials in sculpture to create depth.

sfumato

• Painterly technique that gives haze effect in image

• Gives blackish brown tone to all of his paints in Mona Lisa

chiaroscuro

Extreme contrasts of light and dark to give illusion of depth/volume

impasto

A painting technique where paint is applied thickly, creating texture and allowing brush or palette knife strokes to be visible.

venus pudica pose

covers private parts w/hands, exemplifying modesty and chastity

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem

•  Blue sky for naturalism

• Jesus is in focus against blue sky, elevated above crowd

• Puts more emphasis on the figures

• this artist scales it back since he’s more interested in clearly conveying the story (don’t need huge crowd to how story)

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Lamentation of the Death of Christ

• Back-facing people draw attention to Jesus

• Everyone facing christ draws attention to him

• Blurred strokes behind the angels in the sky show movement

• Giotto added heightened emotionality instead of depicted stoicism of previous holy figures

Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece (Annunciation Triptych)

- Workshop involved, parts painted by assistants

- Center: Annunciation scene

- Left: Portrait of the commissioner

- Small altarpieces popular in 15th century for home prayer

- Minute attention to detail, maintains viewer interest

- Visible knees under clothes, but garments prioritized over anatomy

- Down-to-earth holy scene, similar to Giotto

- Tiny spirit flying through window symbolizes Mary's conception while maintaining her purity

- Right panel: St. Joseph as a carpenter

- Familiar setting for contemporary viewers

- Drilling holes references wine/blood of Christ

- Mouse traps reference St. Augustine, giving ordinary objects religious meaning

- Woodworking tools foreshadow Christ’s death/sacrifice

- No one-point perspective, uses warped and up-tilted floor for immersion

- Angled table to clearly display contents

- Uses tempera, not oil paint

Jan Van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait, 1434

• Not pregnant, shows wealthy class and desire to be pregnant

• Consistently interested in high degree of detail, but figures are elongated to appear more graceful

• Hidden symbolism

  • Artist’s signature on wall in BG

  • Self-portrait in mirror on wall in BG

• Represented a shift in recording the world around them realistically in Renaissance, equal attention is being applied to all elements throughout

• Oil on wood

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, 1420-32,Closed Ver.

• oil on wood

•   Mult-panel altarpiece

  • Polyptych altar

• Commissioned to show wealth and penance/salvation

• Almost burned by Calvinists

• Stolen many times

• Top part

  • Gabriel come to virgin Mary 

• grisaille or something

• Early mother European 

• Donors on bottom far left/right

  • Common donor pose

• Words going across panels to Mary again

• Too large for space they’re in, shows interest in light for revealing different textures

• The clock thing is symbolic of Mary’s purity

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, 1420-32,Open Ver.

• oil on wood

• Open version of thing

• Adam and Eve on right/left of top register

  • Looks more human due to model that posed for him

  • Earlier international gothic style

  • Rounded stomach, holding forbidden fruit

    • Not much expression

    • Figures in between panels are more extravagant ig

    • Halos behind show virgin Mary god and pearls on crown show purity

    • Don the baptist on right middle green 

• Bottom register crows of people coming to altar, “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”

• Lamb represents Christ, bleeding into chalice representation of passion and catholic mass

  • Humanoid eyes reflect this

• Musical subject matter and textures and variety appeals to viewer’s various senses

• Making trenatarian message since he’s showing father son holy spirit or something

Donatello, St. Mark, 1411-1413

• Marble, Florence

• More detail in face

• Contrapasto pose

  • Right arm engaged but right leg relaxed, left arm engaged left leg relaxed

• Commission of this was a competition between the guide

  • Competition led to high output of art in the renaissance

• this artist altered it so that it looks better when looking at it from below since it was on an upper niche

  • Neck longer, etc.

Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, 1425

• fresco

• Florence

• Utilizes linear perspective to emphasize the sense of naturalism and create a relationship w/ the viewer

  • Leads to highly organized piece w/ clear foreground, midground, etc.

  • Furthest away from most divine figures

  • Organized in order of importance

    • Mary st. John Holy sprint, God

    • W example of one-point perspective

    • Memento mori is a reminder of impermanence of life

      • Focus not on pleasures of here and now but be aware of the afterlife w/heaven/hell type stuff

Della Francesca, The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, 1473-1475

• oil on wood, Florence

• Portraiture depicts individual human subjects

  • Concerned w/ capturing physical likeness of person

• Artists start to engage with personality of their models

• Wealthy use portraiture to further their goals

• Has memorial function as well, stand in for person in their absence

• Use of profile views like this were common in renaissance portraiture

  • Women’s stayed as side profiles for longer than men’s

• Although on two-different panels, there is connections

  • Shown as relative equals since on same height

  • Landscape connects them across panels

  • River and ships suggest worldliness and duty for the dutch

  • Lack of emotion is common for early renaissance portraiture

    • More about display of social status and strong traits

  • Jewelry and fancy clothes display wealth and social status

    • Purity is reflected w/ pearls

• Women are shown in profile view to objectify them because straight on portrait w/eyes to viewer shows agency

Sandra Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1485,

• Tempera on canvas

• Florence

• Pagan subject matter

• Burned many of his paintings due to religious stuff or sm

• Made for humanist education of major ruling family of Florence

  • Would’ve taught young child of greco-roman values of beauty

• Paining is allegory of beauty

  • Symbolizes and ideal concept or principle

  • Venus is beauty personified

    • Figure in seashell implying pearl

    • Venus pudica pose

• Unusual stylistic approach

  • Botticelli uses black outlines for clear contour lines

  • Emphasizing/exaggerating curvature of her body (no shoulders)

  • Uses golden hue for hair

  • Patterning across robe, canvas, and ocean 

  • More stylized piece not trying to hide the flatness of a painting

• Bottecelli is interested in interesting values/colors more than forms

  • Emphasize graceful poetic qualities

  • Departing from direct observation

  • Using a more stylized approach

• Although he still makes religious works

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-1505

• oil on panel

• Florence

• Commissioned to paint this, was supposed to be madonna scene

• Smile is a way to identify her, since last name is basically “smile”

• Compositionally breaks tradition by having woman with direct gaze and slight smile

• Leonardo interested in emotionality not just wealth/status 

• Sfumato

  • Painterly technique that gives haze effect in image

  • Gives blackish brown tone to all of his paints in this painting

• Chiaroscuro

  • Extreme contrasts of light and dark

• Painting intentionally mysterious

• After this painting, DaVinci only did inventions and stuff

Raphael, Madonna of the Meadow (Madonna del Prato), 1505-1506

• this artist more natural and organic babies actions than da Vinci’s version of this scene

• More evenly lit paintings than Leonardo 

• Increasing naturalism and engagement between the Madonna and baby, this artist studies babies and moms for this

contrapposto

Right arm engaged but right leg relaxed, left arm engaged left leg relaxed

istoria (narrative)

historical painting
To qualify as history painting according to Alberti:

• At least a few life-size characters

• Clearly articulated feelings and expressions

• Postures need to be appropriate to their reactions

• Demonstrate expert knowledge of anatomy and scale

• Clear foreground mid ground and background

• Contrasting human types should be depicted

  • Dead/living, men/women, young/old

• Variety of elements in painting like landscape, humans or something

• Various movements

• Gazes to lead viewers eye to important stuff

portraiture

Portraiture depicts individual human subjects

• Concerned w/ capturing physical likeness of person

Raphael, School of Athens, Stanza della Segnatura, 1508-1512

Fresco, Rome

- Uses one-point linear perspective

- Positioned below the horizon line to depict the earthly realm, no holy figures

- Foreground, midground, and background separated by stairs

- Euclid in right foreground, Pythagoras opposite

- Emphasizes importance of mathematics in art, depicted by Raphael's presence amongst them

- Philosophers centered, elevated both literally and figuratively

- Plato points upward (importance of ideas), Aristotle gestures to ground (understanding through nature)

- Reflects ancient Greek and Roman architecture

- Features illusionistic statues of Apollo and Minerva/Athena

- Heraclitus in bottom middle, representing Michelangelo, added later

Michelangelo, Pieta, 1498-1499

• Marble, Rome

• Dead christ being comforted by mother Mary

• More popular in northern renaissance art making it more French ig

• Reduces pieta down to two essential figures, Mary and Christ

• Fluid yet weighty figures

• Mary open hand is grief + acceptance

• Both have ideal beauty

• Christ is not shown with injuries he’s endured

  • Slight smile read as implying is upcoming resurrection

  • Mary cloak reference to transubstantiation since its used to handle eucharist thing

• Michelangelo signs this which is unusual for him

Michelangelo, David

• 1501 - 1504

• Florentine, which became a republic at this time

  • As a republic called “Florentine commune” governed by elected official who wanted ppl to give back to Florence

  • Wanted this sculpture to become civic icon of giving back

  • Debate over where to place finished sculpture due to beauty/political significance

  • Placing it in Palazzo Vecchio would be dope for civic icon, putting in Loggia die Lanzi would neutralize political stuff since it would just be another sculpture among others

• From David and Goliath

  • Shown moment before he shoots rock with sling in contrast to Donatello and Verrocchio’s version where it’s after

  • Shown nude since its associated with Heroism 

• Classic contraposto pose

• Hands are big to account for being on top of cathedral 

• Meant to embody classical ideal of the male body

• First example since antiquity of nude male sculpture for public outdoor viewing

Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, Sistene Chapel Ceiling

• 1509-1510, Rome

• Location: Sistine Chapel ceiling

• Completed: 1512

• Depicts: God creating Adam (Book of Genesis)

• Iconic image: God reaching out to Adam

• Symbolism: Divine (right arm) and humanity (left arm)

• Anatomical accuracy

• Famous gesture: Almost-touching hands

• Part of a larger work: 9 scenes from Book of Genesis

Titian, Venus of Urbino

• 1538, Rome, Oil on Canvas

• Roses in her hand are iconography

  • Associated with godddess Venus

  • Dog by feet is sign of fidelity

• Cassone (marriage trunks)

  • Large furniture chests made for couples after being married

• Thus is not just erotic love, but marriage

• Does look at viewer though coyly

• Venetian painting values

  • Sensual subject matter

  • Rich and complex colors

  • Softness + sensuality of brushwork

Titian, Portrait of Laura Dianti [with a Black Page]

• 1520 - 1525, Venice

• Page Noire portraiture 

• Wealthy start to have African servants

• Her status portrayed in domination of composition

• Notably older compared to page who is a child

• Self-possessed meditative gaze

• Elaborate attire + accessories show wealth

• Page is smaller, in profile, and looking up in wonder

  • Attire is supposed to be comical

Sofonisba Anguissola

• Father was not an artist, so she studied under other artists

• Women cant enter into the guild system and apprentice under them since they would have to live with a man

• 12 self-portraits

  • Uncommon for renaissance artsits

Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola

• 1559, oil on Canvas, Cremona (Northern Italy)

• Double portrait painted by Anguissola

• Depicts herself as wealthy

• Campi (her teacher) shown holding tools of their shared trade

• Female artists try to represent themselves, but not show as objects

  • Which is being commentated on here since her portrait is larger than Campi’s

• Anguissola’s style vs. her teacher

  • Stating she’s surpassed her instructor since he uses tool deemed weak/ amateur

• Could be homage to her teacher, but also pushes against limitations of being a woman artists and surpasses some thing

Albrecht Durer, Self Portrait

• 1500, Oil on wood, Germany

• Likens himself to Jesus

• Front-facing pose reserved for Jesus paintings

• Claim artist as intellectual

  • Someone blessed with ability to create

• Use of shadows/highlights draw attention to tools of artists

  • Eyes and hands

• Puts his own signature on his work

  • he’s not racist btw

• Humanist influnce reveal influence of Italy

  • Combining northern renaissance that he escaped from with this outside Italy culture 

Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve

• 1504, engraving, Germany

• Contrapasto pose, statue-like

• Northern artistic tradition is where detailed background comes from

• Hidden symbolism

  • Four animals represent four bodily humors

    • Rabbit (glut/lust), elk (melancholy), ox (lazy), cat (angry)

• First print artwork

  • Make it possible to produce multiples of an original artwork

• Durer known for his printwork

• Wood-block prints have less detail than engraving

  • This thing is an engraving

Catharina van Hemessen, Self-portrait

• 1548, Tempra on Wood, Flanders

• Shows herself holding tools of their trade

• Gazes directly outward at viewer, giving her sense of agency

  • Testament/proof of her ability to make art

• Shows herself in finery to show her social status 

Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights

• 1505, Netherlands

• Left: Adam seeing Eve, sexual awakening

• Center: Humans doing sins and stuff

• Right: nightmarish depiction of hell

• Controversy over intended meaning

  • Only shows hell, not heaven 

  • Black bodies associated with barbarism

Pastoral

Landscape painting whose subject matter is based on idealized lives of shepherds

Disegno vs. Colore (line vs. Color) debate

A Renaissance art argument between the Florentine emphasis on design and drawing (disegno) and the Venetian focus on color and emotional impact (colore)

Poesia

• Emphasizes secular over religious subject matter

• Evoke emotional sensation within viewer

• Poetry inspired

Netherlandish Proverbs

• Pieter Bruegel the elder

• Doing his own thing over high renaissance artists

• Non-religious popular subject

The Deposition [or Descent] from the Cross

• Pontormo, (Mannerism), 1528, Florence

• Crowded composition, some near front of picture frame

• Placed around the frame, unusually creating void at center of frame

• Bright & jarring colors, different from darker tones used by other artists like Raphael

Madonna with the Long Neck

• Parmagianino

• Exaggerated features to give greater sense of grace/elegance

  • Both have elongated bodies

• Foreshadow Christ’s sacrifice

• Curvilinear and graceful

• No one-point linear perspective, not interested in a naturalistic image

• rejecting Renaissance art ideas

  • Artists like breaking standards to push into new boundaries

Caravaggio

- Italian baroque artist

- Rebellious

- Introduced new type of frank naturalism

- Rejected ideals of antiquity like geometry and rational ideas

- Doesn’t idealize his models

Calling of Saint Matthew

• Caravaggio, 1600, oil on canvas, Rome

• Due to his use of naturalism and lack of idealization, most of his church-commissioned pieces end up going to private collectors since church didn’t want non-idealized figures

• Individual being called to convert to Christianity

  • But unusually set in dark alleyway with Christ shown in red in shadow

• Anti-mannerist, thus very dark

• Christs hand recalls Adam’s in Creation of Adam, christ aka second Adam

  • Sees natural world as vehicle for spiritual meaning, trying to bring viewers into painting

• More accessible since doesn’t require advanced knowledge and shows It more achievable to everyday person

• Matthew is either guy pointing at himself or guy hunched over counting coins

• Reinvents biblical narrative with tenebrism, grittiness, baroque diagonal, and naturalism/humanism

Tenebrism

• Light plays an active role in the work

• Exaggerated form chiaroscuro 

  • Stark contrasts of light and dark that create depth 

• Paintings with this often appear to have a spotlight within them

Artemisisa Gentilsechi

• Went to some academy for painters, was first woman there

• History paintings centering on female protagonists

Judith and Holofernes

• Artemisia Gentileschi, 1620

• More typical to show moment after beheading, instead shows them during violence

Bernini

• Learned to sculpt from father and from looking at ancient sculptures

• Figures idealized and idealistic

• Attention to anatomic details, capture bodies in complex movements

• Meant to walk around sculpture and view different figures/continue story

• Hellenistic greek sculpture

  • More dynamic and naturalistic 

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa

• Bernini, 1650, Rome

• Spiritual vision in art would increase piety and devotion

  • Capturing St. Teresa’s vision would do this

  • Space around it was also designed by him, enhancing her vision story thing

  • Gilded rays as if godrays are emanating down onto teresa

• Showing moment of cupid about to pierce her

  • Finely carved, whereas Teresa is dematerializing under the cloths showing spirituality stuff

• Both figures appear weightless

• Relief sculptures appear like windows on right/left

  • Cornaro Family who commissioned the work