History of Western Art II: Proto-Renaissance, Early Italian Renaissance, and Early Flemish Renaissance

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key art concepts, masterpieces, artists, and terminology from the Proto-Renaissance, Early Italian Renaissance, and Early Flemish Renaissance lectures.

Formal Analysis

The systematic examination and evaluation of the visual and material elements of an artwork, such as line, medium, color, composition, and physical condition.

Iconography

The branch of art history focused on identifying, describing, and interpreting the subject matter, symbols, and motifs depicted in a work of art.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

A c. 1602–1603 painting ($107 \times 146\,\text{cm}$) preserved in Potsdam, created for patrons Ciriaco Mattei and Giustiniani.

Rucellai Madonna

A monumental panel painting of the Virgin and Child Enthroned created in 1285 by Duccio, now preserved in the Uffizi.

Polyptych

A multi-panel altarpiece or painted construction consisting of more than three panels, typically divided into pinnacles, a central register, and a predella.

Predella

The horizontal lower base or tier of an altarpiece polyptych, frequently decorated with small-scale narrative panels showing scenes such as the Nativity or the early life of Christ.

Pinnacles

The upper pointed decorative sections atop a polyptych altarpiece, often depicting celestial figures such as angels or episodes from the Life and Death of the Virgin.

Maestà (Siena Cathedral)

The monumental gold and tempera polyptych altarpiece completed in 1311 by Duccio, representing the Virgin and Child Enthroned in Majesty surrounded by saints, angels, and prophets.

Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna Enthroned)

A Proto-Renaissance tempera on wood panel altarpiece painted c. 1310 by Giotto, depicting the Madonna Enthroned with substantial physical weight and spatial clarity.

Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni)

A private family chapel in Padua completely covered with extensive narrative fresco cycles by Giotto between 1305 and 1306.

Lamentation (Giotto)

A dramatic 1305–1306 fresco in the Arena Chapel by Giotto showing the intense grief of the Virgin Mary, disciples, and weeping angels over the dead body of Christ.

Florence Cathedral Dome

The pioneering octagonal masonry dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, constructed between 1420 and 1436 to structurally complete Arnolfo di Cambio's cathedral begun in 1296.

Strozzi Altarpiece

An opulent International Gothic panel painting ($300 \times 282\,\text{cm}$) dated May 1423, executed by Gentile da Fabriano depicting the Adoration of the Magi.

The Tribute Money

An Early Renaissance fresco painted c. 1424–1427 by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, featuring continuous narrative, atmospheric perspective, and cast shadows.

Linear Perspective

A mathematical system devised in 15th-century Italy that creates the convincing optical illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface using orthogonal lines receding to a vanishing point on the horizon.

Medici Venus

A celebrated classical Hellenistic marble sculpture representing the modest Venus (Venus Pudica) stance, which served as a direct prototype for early Renaissance depictions of the female nude.

Annunciation (Fra Angelico)

A devotional fresco painted c. 1438–1447 by Fra Angelico at the top of the dormitory stairs in the monastery of San Marco, Florence.

Medici Palace

A prominent urban residential palace in Florence begun in 1444 by architect Michelozzo di Bartolommeo, featuring tripartite rusticated stonework grading from rough to smooth.

David (Donatello)

A bronze freestanding sculpture created in the 1440s by Donatello, recognized as the first unsupported standing bronze nude statue since antiquity.

Birth of Venus

A mythological tempera on canvas painting created c. 1484 by Sandro Botticelli, depicting the classical goddess of love arriving on the shore standing atop a giant scallop shell.

Ducal Palace of Urbino

The Renaissance palace complex developed under Duke Federico da Montefeltro, featuring towering circular turrets and classical architectural facades.

Sacred Conversation (Sacra Conversazione)

A Renaissance format for religious paintings in which the enthroned Virgin and Child are depicted sharing a unified spatial environment with attendant saints and kneeling donors.

Brera Altarpiece

An oil on wood Sacred Conversation painted between 1472 and 1474 by Piero della Francesca, featuring the Virgin, Christ child, surrounding saints, and Duke Federico da Montefeltro in armor.

Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi)

A painted bedchamber in the Palazzo Ducale of Mantua completed between 1465 and 1474 by Andrea Mantegna, renowned for its illusionistic wall scenes and trompe l'œil vaulted ceiling with a foreshortened oculus.

Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter

A 1481–1483 Sistine Chapel fresco in the Vatican by Perugino illustrating Christ giving the keys of heaven to Peter, staged in an expansive piazza governed by rigorous one-point linear perspective.

Mérode Altarpiece

An Early Netherlandish triptych in oil on panel painted c. 1425–1430 by Robert Campin, depicting the Annunciation in a domestic Flemish interior flanked by the donors and Saint Joseph in his workshop.

Self-Portrait (Jan van Eyck)

A 1433 oil on wood portrait (also known as Man in a Red Turban) painted by Jan van Eyck, featuring his personal motto 'Als Ich Can' and meticulous realism.

Arnolfini Portrait

A 1434 (noted 1433 in lecture) oil on wood double portrait by Jan van Eyck portraying Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his companion, renowned for complex symbolic items and a convex wall mirror reflecting two figures.

Grisaille

A monochrome painting technique executed entirely in gray tones, used on exterior panels of Northern altarpieces to emulate carved stone or marble statues.

Ghent Altarpiece (Closed)

The outer configuration of the polyptych completed in 1432 for Saint Bavo Cathedral by Jan van Eyck, depicting the Annunciation, the prophets Zacharias and Micah, the Erythraean and Cumaean Sibyls, grisaille statues of the Saints John, and donors Jodocus Vijd and Elisabeth Borluut.

Adoration of the Holy Lamb

The large central lower register panel of the interior Ghent Altarpiece (1432) by Jan van Eyck, showing diverse assemblies of prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints converging on the sacrificial lamb atop an altar.

The Virgin & Child with Canon van der Paele

An oil on wood painting completed in 1434–1436 by Jan van Eyck showing the enthroned Virgin accompanied by Saint Donatian, Saint George, and the patron Canon Joris van der Paele.

Descent from the Cross (Rogier van der Weyden)

An emotional oil on wood panel painting executed c. 1435 by Rogier van der Weyden depicting the deposition of Christ into a compressed, shallow stage of highly expressive mourners.

Portinari Altarpiece

A large-scale Netherlandish triptych depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds painted by Hugo van der Goes and delivered to Florence in 1478, commissioned by agent Tommaso Portinari.

Portrait of Maria Baroncelli Portinari

An oil on wood portrait painted in 1470 by Hans Memling depicting the young wife of Florentine representative Tommaso Portinari adorned with a hennin and ornate necklace.