ANTH 201 Artists

Jan van Eyck

ARTWORKS: Man in a Red Turban, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife, Ghent Altarpiece

• Northern renaissance, Netherlands

• credited for inventing (use of) oil paint

• pioneer of portrait-painting, showing regular people instead of religious/sacred subject matter

• included signature

Roiger van der Weyden

ARTWORKS: Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, Portrait of a Lady, Deposition

• Northern Renaissance, Netherlands

• same period as Eyck

• used oil over tempera

• fine detail but not as much as Eyck

Filippo Brunelleschi

ARTWORK: Duomo

• Italian Renaissance

• lost door competition to Ghiberti

• viewed as founding father of Renaissance architecture

Lorenzo Ghiberti

ARTWORK: Gates of Paradise

• Italian Renaissance

• credited with invention of one-point-perspective (use of vanishing point)

• winner of door competition against Brunelleschi bc he used less metal, which would be cheaper

Donatello

ARTWORKS: Saint Mark, David

• Italian Renaissance

• lost wax method

Masaccio

ARTWORKS: Holy Trinity, Tribute Money, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden

• Italian Renaissance

• fresco master

• died incredibly young

Fra Angelico

ARTWORK: Annunciation

• Italian Renaissance

• member of monk group he painted for

• extremely devoted, gained “Angelico” as name for being so good & holy; close to being a saint (step between humans and saints)

Leon Battista Alberti

ARTWORKS: West facade of Santa Maria Novella church, presumed self-portrait medallion

• wealthy on his own accord, not reliant on patrons

• wrote the first theoretical treatise on painting (prev. ones were only on technique/instructions while this one was philosophical)

• believed artists must be well-rounded (study math, anatomy, etc.; “renaissance man”)

  • introduced idea of intellectual artists/art as a humanist endeavor instead of artists as just mindless craftsmen

• emulate but not copy antiquity; artists must prove their originality

Sandro Botticelli

ARTWORKS: Primavera, Birth of Venus, Young Man Holding a Medal of Cosimo de’ Medici

• obsessed w/ idea of love as the energy of the universe

• renaissance idea that love of beautiful things in the world reminds one of God’s power and their love for him (neoplatonism)

  • paintings reflect idea that Christian church is eternal; ancients understood religion through fables and were/would’ve been christian (they just didn’t know it yet)

• painted scenes that weren’t biblical

Leonardo da Vinci

Artworks: Madonna of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Mona Lisa

• often argued with his clients; left many paintings unfinished or just wouldn’t give them to the patrons

• use of sfumato; hazy, almost tangible atmosphere surrounds figures, subtle transition from light to dark; atmospheric perspective

• experimented with paint, first to use oil paint

  • mixed paints in a weird way that led to them deteriorating more

• moved from Florence to Milan to Florence to France

• wasn’t as interested in his art as his other exploits; used it as a means of getting money

Piero della Francesca

Artworks: Battista Sfarza and Federico da Montefeltro

• 1st double portrait in Italian Renaissance

Raphael

Artworks: Madonna in the Meadow, Philosophy (School of Athens), Marriage of the Virgin, Baldassare Castiglione

• High Renaissance

Michelangelo

Artworks: Pieta, David, Moses, Sistine Chapel (Creation of Adam, Fall of Man, Libyan Sibyl, Last Judgement)

• huge neoplatonist

• bright colors

• very muscular, idealized features; even women are masculine

Bramante

Artworks: Tempietto

• Raphael’s uncle

Quentin Matsys

Artworks: Money-Changer and His Wife

• Northern Renaissance, flemish (Belgium)

Matthias Grünewald

Artworks: Isenheim Altarpiece

• Northern Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer

Artworks: Self-Portrait, The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), Melencolia I, Great Piece of Turf

• considered northern Leonardo bc of his interest in anatomy & antiquity

• travelled to Italy twice, influenced; met Raphael, who sent him a drawing of a nude man

  • sort of bridge between northern & Italian renaissance

• made prints bc they got him more money & fame

• authored treatises on the theory of art & anatomy

• very vain, painted many self-portraits, always had detailed signature (similar to Michelangelo)

Hans Holbein the Younger

Artworks: The French Ambassadors

• Northern Renaissance, German

Giovanni Belini

Artworks: Madonna and Child with Saints, Feast of the Gods

• Venetian Renaissance

• Considered father of Venetian Renaissance bc he had so many students

• Often depicted musical angels to symbolize peace & harmony

• mostly painted religious scenes

Giorgione da Castelfranco

Artworks: The Tempest

• Venetian Renaissance

• student of Bellini

Titian

Artworks: Assumption of the Virgin, Venus of Urbino

• Venetian Renaissance

• student of Bellini

Tintoretto

Artworks: Last Supper

• Venetian Renaissance

• very religious

Paolo Veronese

Artworks: Christ in the House of the Levi

• Venetian Renaissance

Jacopo da Pontormo

Artworks: Entombment of Christ (Deposition From the Cross)

• Mannerism (Italy)

• weirdly-posed, identically-faced, almost floating figures

• undefined background

Parmigianino

Artworks: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

• Mannerism (Italy); “the one from Parma”

• very young

• wants to show himself as an intellectual artist by creating puzzle-like paintings (is it a mirror or a painting)

• idealized himself; dressed in great clothes, some jewelry, looks nice (connection to Dürer)

Hieronymus Bosch

Artworks: Garden of Earthly Delights

• Mannerism (Northern Europe), Netherlands

  • grouped with mannerism despite that being more of an Italian thing bc his paintings were SO WEIRD

• highly concerned w/ state of world & church (right before Protestant Reformation); idea that world was upside-down

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Artworks: Netherlandish Proverbs, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

• Mannerism (Northern Europe)

• considered the younger Bosch

• like Bosch, highly concerned with state of world/christianity

• introduces Northern landscape depiction

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Artworks: St. Peter’s, Baldacchino, David, Apollo and Daphne, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

• Italian Baroque

• like the Michelangelo of the 1600s (instead of 1500s) bc he was everywhere

  • wanted to show he was better than him

• huge rivalry with Bernini

Francesco Borromini

Artworks: facade of San Carle alle Quattro Fontaine

• Italian Baroque

• huge rivalry with Bernini; wanted to prove he was better

• funded by church

Fra Andrea Pozzo

Artworks: Glorification of Saint Ignatius

• Italian Baroque

Caravaggio

Artworks: Calling of Saint Matthew, Conversion of Saint Paul

• Italian Baroque, came from Northern Italy and then moved to Rome

  • brought naturalism to Rome

• unfortunate life; got super famous, walked around town with a sword, got into a duel with and killed another painter, forced to flee Rome, died while trying to later return

  • lots of other painters emulated his style following his death

• very realistic & natural but full of symbols

Artemisia Gentileschi

Artworks: Judith Slaying Holofernes

• Italian Baroque (Rome), a WOMAN & proto-feminist

• early follower of Caravaggio, emulated his style w/ chiaroscuro

• very dramatic life; father was a painter & taught her, one of her father’s assistants raper her so she told her father, who believed her & sued, church didn't believe her and told her to repent for “lying”, she refused so she was tortured with thumb screws, church eventually went with father and let her go

  • later got married & had children, grew famous, painted for the Medicis and communicated with Galileo

• wanted strongly to prove that women could paint just as well as men

José de Ribera

Artworks: Martyrdom of Saint Phillip

• Spanish Baroque

Francisco de Zurbarán

Artworks: Saint Serapion

• Spanish Baroque

Diego Velázquez

Artworks: Water Carrier of Seville, King Phillip IV of Spain, Surrender of Breda, Las Meninas

• Spanish Baroque (Seville)

• grew popular, became a court painter

• painting themes: humble things can be very sophisticated & emphasize humanity (of the royal court)