Art Hum Midterm

• Theodore Gericault

• The Raft of the Medusa

• 1818-1819

• The form/structure is a triangle

• the skin tones are darkening moving up which contrast the colors of the blue sea

  • this helps create a sense of horror, drama, and tension

• all the living people are eagerly seeking rescue, an aspiration for salvation

• those on the bottom left are those who have lost hope and are already dead

• bodies are depicted in great realism

• Diego Velazquez

• Las Meninas

• 1656

• tension between observing and being observed

• piece about perspective

• subjects in the painting are the ones being observed

• the king and queen which should be the stars are put in the mirror as small figures

• it constitutes you as a king or queen as through the mirror since you are looking at it externally - but you are not a king

• the mirror and door creates a space that recedes - depth illusion

• Jeremy Bentham

• Panopticon

• 1787

• works in a way that you never know if you are being watched

• all cells are facing a guard tower, so the guard can see you but you can’t see them

• this creates a fear which prevents you to commit crimes

• a discipline because you are self-regulating because of fear of punishment

Panopticon

• circular prison with cells arranged around a central well

• prisoners can be observed at all times

• Parthenon

• 447 - 432 BCE

• Architects Iktinos and Kallikrates

• Overseen by Pheidias

• Athenian Exceptionalism

• every metope is carved

• doric order

• post-and lintel system

• Architect: Mnesikles

• Propylaia

• 437 - 432 BCE

• Acropolis is a site of religious worship

• bronze statues outside

• there’s a path that you can take to the statues

• politics of sequencing

  • power is something that is sequenced

• ¾ view- don’t get to see entire thing

• Architect: Mnesikles

• Propylaia

• 437 - 432 BCE

• physically elevated —> privileged, elevate status

• Megaron

• first architectural program where a series of typologies that architects use to develop a space

• basic setting for a family’s house

• in Ancient Greece and the Middle East, architectural form consisting of an open porch, a vestibule, and a large hall with a central hearth and throne

• Doric Order

• simple

• rigid

• strength

• militaristic structure

• Athens

• Parthenon exterior - tough on outside

• Ionic Order

• Elaborate

• Crafty

• Scrolls

• intelligence

• philosophy

• learning

• Parthenon interior - intelligent on the inside

• Columbia

• Corinthian order

• success

• flourishing

• Athens

• Temple of Olympian Zeus

• Corinthian Capital

• c. 170

• NYSE - to support the idea that finance is timeless

• Parthenon (447 - 432 BCE)

• Athens, Acropolis

• optical refinements

• the columns incline/tilt inwards and taper in gradual curve, not in a straight line

• Parthenon (447-432 BCE)

• Athens, Acropolis

• plan of the parthenon

• domed in two directions to reflect the true state of the temples base

• Parthenon (447 - 432 BCE)

• Athens, Acropolis

• optical refinements

• entasis: the slight convexity in the taper of the columns

• Parthenon metopes

• Acropolis, Athens

• ca. 440 BC

• Phidias and other artists

• South Metope 27

• Centauromachy

• Humans vs. animals

• Can see idealized body

• continuous ionic frieze

• 442 - 438 BC

• part of the parthenon

• no satisfactory angle for which any human eye could fully appreciate/examine image —> divine viewership

• continuous ionic frieze

• 442 - 438 BC

• 1m in height

• 160 m in length

• relief no deeper than 5-6 cm

• 114 blocks of pentelic marble

• continuous ionic frieze

• 442-438 BC

• amazonomachy

• mythological battle between ancient greeks and amazons of all female warriors

• part of the parthenon metopes

• Acropolis, Athens

• 447-432 BCE

• Gigantomachy

• fighting giants

• talking about scale

• human vs. giants

• part of parthenon metopes

• Acropolis, Athens

• 447 - 432 BCE

• Trojan War

• defining identity between people

• part of the parthenon metopes

• Acropolis, Athens

• 447-432 BCE

• west pediment

• Athena and Poseidon competing for the possession over the land of Attica

• meant to be read from the top

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• 438 - 432 BCE

• east pediment

• birth of Athena

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• 438-432 BCE

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• right side of East Pediment

• Birth of Athena from the head of her father Zeus

• 447- 432 BCE

• L to R Hestia, Dione, Aphrodite

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• far right side of East Pediment

• 447 - 432 BCE

• Right of Hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite

• head of weary horse pulling the moon goddess Selene’s chariot

• flaring nostrils and gaping mouth

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• left side of East Pediment

• 447 - 432 BCE

• only pediment sculpture to survive with head intact

• Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

• farthest left side of East Pediment

• 447 - 432 BCE

• chariot of helios

• New York Kouros

• 590 - 580 BC

• New York, MET

• Archaic (more Egyptian)

• purely conceptual

• abstract/hieratic idealism: essence over reality

• “idealized but not in this world”

• Kritios Boy

• 480 BCE

• Marble

• Athens, Acropolis Museum

• Early Classical

• position of ponderation

• Doryphoros Polykleitos

• 450 - 440 BCE

• Classical

• Roman copy of a Greek bronze original
  Naples, National Archaeological Museum

• Position of contrapposto

• distribution of weight

• one leg is straight and the other is relied

• idealized naturalism: perfected reality

• signifying that something more familiar to our own experience of bodies in the world

• Drunk Old Woman

• 200 - 180 BCE

• Roman marble copy of a Greek original Munich, Glyptothek

• Hellenistic

• realism and pathos

• psychology, inflection, pathos, with emotion and eruption

• quotidian or degraded reality

• Laocoon

• 2nd century BCE - 1st century AD

• Hellenistic

• tortuous death Laocoon and his sons by snakes

• marble

• clearly defined, exaggerated musculature

• clenched muscles

• Laocoon’s face of agony as snake sinks its teeth into his hip

• right son has expression of sorrow and confusion on his face

• theatrically and exaggerated realism

• Athens, Acropolis

• Parthenon

• 447 - 432 BCE

• Reconstruction of interior of cella

• demonstrates monumental chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenon by Phidias

• made of gold and ivory

• around 40 ft tall

• holds Nike (Victory) on right hand as if offering to Athenian citizen

• outer surfaces of golden drapery

• Cathedral of Notre Dame

• Architect: Robert de Luzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• Gothic Architecture

• the top of building is shaped as a cross - sense of divinity

• pointed arches, allowing for buildings to be built higher

• light is key - lighter than romanesque

• light is being sculpted and brought in, and manipulated and naturalized

• Cathedral of Notre Dame

• Architect: Robert de Ljuzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• ground plan of Cathedral of Notre Dame

• Robert de Luzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• flying buttress and exterior of Cathedral of Notre Dame

• Robert de Luzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• the actual structural support of the building is being outsourced to the exterior - flying buttress

• weight falls onto the weight on the outside

• pointed arches pointing up creates a sense of divinity

• looking up in the force

• the scale makes you look small

• Nave and tripartite elevation of Notre Dame

• Robert de Luzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• nave - central, large space for congregation

• tripartite (bottom to top) - arcade (where pointed arches are), triforium, clerestory (stained glass windows are)

• inside is more open and has space in contrast to dense and opaque outside

• light is being sculpted and brought in

What are the tripartite

arcade, triforium, clerestory

• quadripartite vaults of Cathedral of Notre-Dame

• Robert de Luzarches

• Amiens

• 1220 - 1269

• infinite vertical in height (vertical space)

• create open, airy space with a large central area

• the Xs on the ceiling

• Vierge Doree (Golden Virgen)

• ca. 1250

• location: south transept portal

• Portals of the Amiens Cathedral of Notre Dame

• completed between 1225- 1250

• from L to R, Saint Firmin, Last Judgement, Virgin Mary

• each portal tells an important christian story

• Central Portal: Last Judgment

• Yellow - archivolts

• Green - tympanum (divide into registers)

• Blue - Lintel

• Light Blue - Jamb Figures - different saints

• Further down not shaded are quatrefoils (virtues and vices)

• First Arrow - Apocalyptic Christ w/ two swords coming out of his mouth

• Second Arrow - Christ the Judge, presiding over the Last Judgement

  • sitting between St. John and Vrigin Mary

• Third Arrow - Blessing Christ Trumeau

• Last Judgement, Amiens Cathedral of Notre-Dame

• Central Portal

• Completed Between 1225 -1250

• sculpted with high degree of realism

• heavy drapery

• West Facade of Amiens Cathedral of Notre Dame

• 1220 - 1269

• Quatrefoils: Virtues and Vices

• presents in pairs

• Virtues - represented by seated female figures holding shields

• Vices - narrative scenes

• suggest to viewer that they can follow life of virtue than life of vice

• transverse section of the Amiens Cathedral of Notre Dame

• 1220 - 1269

• Robert De Luzarches

• shows culées which are massive pylons that launch the flying buttresses

what launches flying buttresses?

culees

Parthenon vs. Notre Dame Cathedral

• Parthenon

  • Post and lintel

  • on top of a hill, separate of the city

  • rituals take place outside building

  • pagan gods; pantheistic

• Notre Dame Cathedral

  • exterior supports: flying buttresses

  • pointed arches

  • rituals take place inside in the nave

  • gothic cathedral within city walls; cathedral is the “hill”

  • christian gods; monotheistic

• Both

  • have carving of stories on the exterior

What is the Renaissance?

• putting classical aesthetics and science of philosophy to the service of the church

• Raphael

• View of the Stanza della Segnatura looking towards School of Athens

• fresco (1508-1512)

• in Vatican Palace, Rome

• Raphael

• Disputa (Disputation of the Eucharist)

• 1509

• circular so everything around it is building the eye to a climatic point of the central part of the piece

• the different layers demonstrate a hierarchy

• meeting of the celestial and terrestrial in the host (eucharist wafer) itself

• eucharist wafer (bread & wine) held in vessel

• Raphael

• 1509

• Detail of Dispute

• Raphael

• School of Athens (Philosophy)

• 1509 - 1510

• represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity gathered together haring their ideas and learning from each other

• all lived at different times but are gathered under one roof

• Plato and Aristotle in the center

  • Plato points up - idealist

  • Aristotle hand down - realist

• Michelangelo as Heraclitus the guy who looks depressed on the stairs

• arches frame the painting

• formally one of the best pieces of perspective ever made

• sense of receding space

• formal composition of it is what we praise it for

• form is what holds all the inconsistencies together

• Raphael self portrait in the bottom right corner

• cartoon version of the School of Athens

• Raphael

• Perugino

• Marriage of the Virgin

• ca. 1500

• static poses

• more flattened out

• Raphael

• Marriage of the Virgin

• 1504

• more natural, graceful way, frames perspective

• the door is the vanishing point

• painting is organized around that door

• lines implies that it moves into that direction infinitely

• perspective is about creating an illusion on a 2D flat surface on a receding 3D space

Perugino vs. Raphael Marriage of the Virgin Comparison

• Raphael

  • women left men on right

  • more detail

  • deeper perspective

  • perfectly balances grace and humanity

  • movements break the staticity of painting without undermining its harmony and balance

• Perugino

  • men on left women on right

  • static and posed

  • flat

• Filippo Brunelleschi

• 1387 - 1446

• Raphael

• Entombent/Deposition

• 1507

• graceful, nature like movements

• emotion on faces of pain, sorrow, death

• contrasting depictions of Jesus Christ compared to works of other artists

• Raphael

• Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione

• 1514-1515

• ¾ profile and gaze fixed on the artist

  • we looking at him are outsiders

• similar to Mona Lisa

• there is a soft luminescence of light in the background

• circular forms of the turban

• sitting on arm chair but cut off hands, which helps focuses attention on the face and intense gaze

• there is a simplicity of the colors of costume and soft-lit background

• painted during winter because of fur

• Raphael

• Sistine Madonna

• 1512-1513

• Renaissance

• the two kids sitting on the windowsill are puttis

• self commenting on the fact that it’s an illusionistic space

• signifying the allusion of a window

• there is a classical triangular arrangement

• David

• Michelangelo

• 1501- 1504

• Contrapposto

• way of naturalizing body

• Michelangelo idealizes himself as an artist

• Subtractive process from chiseling away from one block of giant marble

• horizontal and vertical axis is implied that it’s carved from a single block

• releasing the soul of the block

• Michelangelo

• Sheet with verses and studies for David

• 1501

• Michelangelo

• Atlas Prisoner

• 1530-1534

• demonstrates subtractive sculptural process

• Michelangelo

• The Last Judgement

• 1534-41

• fresco, Vatican, Sistine Chapel

• disegno: all different bodies hold their own space

  • all radiate own center, as if they are all on their own sheet of paper

• relates to aesthetic bodies

• the face of the flayed skin that St. Bartholomew holds is a self-portrait

• top - those who go to heaven

• bottom - those who go to hell

• Michelangelo

• Creation of Man

• 1508-1512

• Michelangelo is about the divine spark

• the spark that helps you become divine, creating life

• the fact that the two peopler not touching demonstrates a heavy desire

• idealized body of Adam

• Michelangelo

• Pieta

• 1498-1500

• idealized

• emphasizes mourning of Mary

• there is draping of the body to disguise her exact proportions

  • helps convince audience of how she can hold a grown man in her lap

• anatomy of christ still preserved

  • much more emaciated in anonymous pieta

• Christ position similar to Raphael, Entombment

• this one is more placid, serene, strong face of Mary compared to the anonymous Pieta w/ extreme emotions

What are some key characteristics of Sofonisba?

• strong female artist in Renaissance

• signed her work as Virgo

• Feminism

• Signifies Virginity

• did many portraits

• cares about posture and how it signifies class relations

• Michelangelo

• Cleopatra

• 1530

• a gift to men he was attracted to

• not an idealized man like David for when he was commissioned

• Sofinisba

• Portrait of Amilcare, Minerva, and Asdrubale Anguissola

• 1559

• collection of different postures

• the family is a unit

• produces an enclosure of family

• a unit that builds a family

• Sofonisba

• The Chess Game

• 1555

• the three girls are not looking at the chess board

• Game of chess creates inside and outside

  • what’s happening in the game vs. what is not happening in the game

• Feminism

  • chess is a game of strategy and intellect often associated with upper echelons of society and men

• a lot of different textures with jewelry, necklaces, headbands, gold chains, etc.

• far left girl returning our gaze as if we are interrupting the scene

• Sofonisba

• Boy Bitten by a Crayfish

• 1554

• her relation to Michelangelo

• knew each other, wrote letters to each other

• Michelangelo was originally shown her drawing of a laughing girl and said crying boy would be more difficult

  • so sent this

• Sofonisba

• Portrait of Massimiliano Stampa, Marquess of Soncino

• 1557

• exploding hot dog

  • she’s critical

  • demonstrating artificiality

• body and posture and how it relates to class relations

• eyes are disproportionate, unnatural

• the boy’s posture demonstrates

  • body is upper middle class

  • not royalty but is of higher echelon

• the hand on the left holding silk gloves — status

• Sofonisba

• Self-Portrait at the Easel

• 1556

• her gaze creates inside vs. outside, as we are the outsiders looking in watching her paint, she stares out at us, like we are an imposition, interrupting her work

• she is dressed modestly and simply

• and demonstrates versatility through both as a portrait and sacred art of Virgin Mary and Jesus

• demonstrates ability to work with both light and shadow

• Sofonisba reproduces herself

• she’s just focusing on her body and not projecting an ideal fantasy

What is the Baroque?

• grandiosity, the counter-reformation

• pushed against censorship of the reformation which is the motive that is creating all of these works

• allegory

  • story that says something larger than itself

  • disruptive

• always diagonal

• Bernini

• David

• 1623

• diagonal

• additive, not carved from single block

• put together with struts, flaunting the ideal of illusionism

• in the midst of action with more emotion on his face

  • lips pursed -tension

  • focused and determined

• does not see the enemy, there is a blind spot in the narrative

• folds because look through curved space and implies infinite

• Bernini

• Apollo and Daphne

• 1622-25

• during midst of action

• mixing the real and representational

• splitting the senses

  • sees flesh of Daphne but feels the tree bark

• angle of approach

  • from back of Apollo to daphne’s bark and body

  • demonstrating to audience witnessing the transformation

• flaunting illusionism, doesn’t care about realism

• polished white stone a certain way that implied color

• Bernini

• Ecstasy of St. Theresa

• 1647-52

• Bernini

• Ecstasy of St. Theresa

• 1647-1652

• sculpture but oriented as a painting

  • read whole space like you are looking at a painting

• additive

• exploding singular block/medium

• diagonal

• folds that demonstrate infinite

  • could be seen as flowing upwards and visual evidence of levitation

• Connect the foot hand and face to create naked body underneath the folds

  • more sexualized and erotic charge

  • foot fetish, curling of the toes

• Cornaro Chapel where the Ecstasy of St. Theresa is located

• 1647-52

• Bernini

• Piazza before St. Peter’s Basilica

• 1656-1667

• circular space always about holy space

• trapezoid brings the church up front

• Doric Columns are set one floor lower than the actual church to make the church look bigger

• Although slightly different, playing with optical effects same way as Parthenon

• Bernini

• piazza before St. Peter’s Basilica

• 1656-1667

• Bernini

• Piazza before St. Peter’s Basilica

• 1656 - 1667

• Bernini

• The Baldacchino

• 1624 - 1633

• bronze canopy that created illusion of of cloth which speaks to Bernini’s belief in illusionism

• combined baroque elements

• gigantic twisted columns

• sculpture in center similar to ecstasy of st. Theresa where read sculpture like painting

• Luisa Roldan

• St. Michael and the Devil

• c. 1692

• Spanish baroque is continuation of what is happening of medieval times

• Baroque

• because intricate details, character, emotions

• Exaggerated colors

• sense of hierarchy where saint stomping on devil

• pieces meant to be moved around in contrast to Bernini’s where people move around the piece

• Luisa Roldan

• St. Michael and the Devil

• 1692

• Detail of St. Michael and the Devil

• 1692

• Luisa Roldán

• Jesus Carrying the Cross

• 1692-1700

• different elements

• robe, chain, slab of wood

• emphasized Jesus’s humanity

• connecting human to god

• personal pain

• you can see the glory from far away with the gold from the robe, but the gory and pain bits can be only seen up close

• Luisa Roldán

• The Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene

• 1690

• diagonal

• color

• private devotional object - something you would have in your room and you would pray

• putti adds angelic spirit