Art History: Northern Renaissance Altarpieces and Contest Announcements

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Northern Renaissance artists, techniques, key altarpieces, and university contest details discussed in the lecture.

America at two fifty contest

A university art and essay contest for high school and LSUE students focusing on sharing a positive vision of American values or contributions to the human story, offering scholarship prizes of $\$500$ and $\$250$.

Doctor Billy Vontnos

The faculty member to whom submissions for the America at two fifty art and essay contest must be sent by email no later than October 30.

Archer's gilts

The guild that commissioned an altarpiece prominently featuring bow symbolism as a way to symbolically represent its patron group.

Rohner Bounder Biden

The Northern Renaissance artist noted for compressing figures into a shallow, tight, shadow box-like space to heighten emotional tension and render intense sorrow.

Polyptych

A multi-paneled artwork, such as the Last Judgment altarpiece painted by Rohner Bounder Biden featuring connected panels depicting fabric drapery and sorrowful figures.

Petrus Christus

A painter similar in style to Jan van Eyck who settled in Bruges in 1444 and created the vocational painting Goldsmith in his shop.

Goldsmith in his shop

A painting by Petrus Christus depicting a master goldsmith interacting with an elegantly attired couple choosing wedding rings among symbolic vocational and religious items.

Saint Elias

A master goldsmith who committed his life to God, traditionally identified as the subject in Petrus Christus's painting and regarded as the patron saint of metalworkers, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths.

Betrothal girdle

A symbolic cloth object depicted in Petrus Christus's Goldsmith in his shop that serves as a traditional symbol of chastity.

Derek Bounce of Harlem

The artist who depicted the Last Supper inside a contemporary domestic interior using linear perspective earlier than Leonardo da Vinci.

Linear perspective

A mathematical, single-point perspective system utilizing a vanishing point to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth on a flat surface.

Hugo van der Dockx

A Flemish master who joined the painters guild of Ghent in 1467, served as its dean from 1473 to 1475, and painted the Portonari altarpiece.

Portonari altarpiece

A large-scale Flemish triptych painted by Hugo van der Dockx for a family chapel in Florence at the church of Saint Egidio.

Tommaso Portonari

An Italian ship owner and Bruges agent for the Medici Bank of Florence who commissioned the Portonari altarpiece and appears on its wings with his family.

Hierarchy of scale

A visual convention seen in the wings of the Portonari altarpiece where patron saints and religious figures are rendered much larger than the mortal donor family members.

Mystery plays

Fifteenth-century theatrical church performances whose tilted stage floors likely inspired Northern Renaissance painters to compose artworks on steep, tilted, and shallow planes.