Renaissance Art History Test

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

Artist: Jan van Eyck

Year: 1434

Medium: Oil on oak wood panel

Culture: Flemish

Background: Wealthy merchant and his wife, likely a marriage or legal record.

Features: Realism, depth, luminosity, humanism.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: Primavera

Artist: Sandro Botticelli

Year: 1445-1510

Medium: Tempera Grassa on Wood Panel

Culture: Florentine

Background: 9 gods/goddesses in an orange tree grove. 

Features: Celebration of love, peace, prosperity.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: The Birth of Venus

Artist: Sandro Botticelli

Year: 1485

Medium: Tempera on canvas

Culture: N/A

Background: Commissioned by the Mediei, the goddess of love born from the sea.

Features: Revival of nude, beauty, grace, mythological allegory of spiritual love.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: David

Artist: Donatello

Year: 1430-1432

Medium: Bronze

Culture: Florentine

Background: Commissioned by the Mediei, first free-standing nude since antiquity.

Features: Contrapposto stance, nudity, youth, psychological calm.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: Mary Magdalene

Artist: Donatello

Year: 1454-1455

Medium: Polychrome wood

Culture: Florentine

Background: A penitant, emaciated saint created for the Baptistery.

Features: Realism, spirituality, anatomy.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: Peter and the Tribute Money

Artist: Masaccio

Year: 1427

Medium: Fresco

Culture: Florentine

Background: Depicts a story from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus and his apostles encounter a tax-collector.

Features: Humanism, naturalism, geometry, unity, realism.

Proto/Early Renaissance

Title: Sta. Maria Novella

Artist: Leon Battista Alberti

Year: 1456

Medium: Marble

Culture: Florentine

Background: N/A

Features: Symmetry, proportion, harmony.

High Renaissance Art

Title: Pieta

Artist: Michaelangelo Buonarroti

Year: 1498

Medium: Marble

Culture: N/A

Background: Commissioned by Cardinal Jean de Bilheres for his funerary monument.

Features: Beauty, proportion, anatomy, harmony.

High Renaissance Art

Title: Creation of Man

Artist: Michaelangelo Buonarroti

Year: 1508-1512

Medium: Fresco

Culture: N/A

Background: Commissioned by Pope Julius II for the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Features: Humanism, anatomy, symbolism, space, color.

High Renaissance Art

Title: School of Athens

Artist: Raphael Sanzio

Year: 1508-1511

Medium: Paint and plaster

Culture: Umbrio-Florentine

Background: Raphael and helpers created a painting of cycle of frescoes in the Vatican papal apartments where the pope lived.

Features: Balance, harmony, beauty.

High Renaissance Art

Title: Dead Christ

Artist: Andrea Mantegna

Year: 1501

Medium: Tempera on canvas

Culture: Venetian

Background: Created in an age of spiritual questioning, reflects the growing Renaissance interest.

Features: Foreshortening, realism, emotion.

High Renaissance Art

Title: Venus of Urbino

Artist: Titian

Year: 1538

Medium: Oil on canvas

Culture: Venetian

Background: Painted for the Duke of Urbino, reflects Renaissance attitudes.

Features: Beauty, modelling, symbolism, colour.

High Renaissance Art

Title: Self Portrait

Artist: Albrecht Durer

Year: 1493

Medium: Oils and engravings

Culture: German

Background: Created during the rise of individualism.

Features: Realism, proportion, harmony.

Late Renaissance/Mannerist Art

Title: Madonna of the Long Neck

Artist: Parmigianino

Year: 1534-1540

Medium: Oil on wood

Culture: Italian

Background: Painted for a funerary chapel of a nobel family when artists were moving away from realism.

Features: Distortion, unbalanced composition.

Late Renaissance/Mannerist Art

Title: Abduction of a Sabine Woman

Artist: Giambologna

Year: 1579-1583

Medium: Marble

Culture: Italian

Background: Symbolized artistic skill during a time of artistic competition.

Features: Figure serpentinata.