FINAL EXAM- art his 40b terms

contrapposto

• (counter-posed) intimation of a weight shift to one leg

• Associated with classical, Greco-Roman sculpture

• Provides illusion of immanent motion, making the sculpture appear more lifelike

• Donatello, St. Mark

woodblock painting/relief

• printmaking process where image is formed from the raised parts of a wood block

  • artists carve designs into wood, ink the raised surfaces (relief), and press them onto paper or textile

• Albrecht Dürer, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

perspective (geometric)

• Associated w/ rendering 3d space on 2d plane

• artists: B M LBA

1) Brunelleschi (the experimenter, provided geometric basis, experiment, hole through panel at point that stood for centric ray of medieval optical theory, turned panel around and held to mirror, stood inside door way of cathedral while looking at mirror reflection)

2) Masaccio (the painter, used geometric understructure formulated from optical geometry )

3) Leon Battista Alberti (the humanist, rules and geometric justification for technique, perspective turned to geometric formula rendering 2D illusion on 2D plane). 

• Masaccio, Tribute Money

engraving/intaglio

• Reverse of woodblock; metal plates instead of wood and entails an intaglio process

• lines are carved into a metal plate w/ burin, ink fills just the lines, and a press transfers the ink onto paper.

• Deep shadows created by scratched lines and cross-hatching, making figures and space look three-dimensional and complex 

• Albrecht Dürer, Melencholia I

perspective (atmospheric)

• recognition that colors become hazier and more greyed as they recede into the distance like landscapes

• Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa

paragone

• literary comparison of different art forms in the Renaissance

• based on phrase from Horace meaning “As is painting, so is poetry” 

• Poetry thought to be better and higher formed when aligned w/ liberal arts cause it could evoke all cerebral aspects of man and nature

• Paragone debate- Leonardo said painting could surpass poetry in invoking nature because painting could make what was absent seem present

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa

sfumato

• softening edges of forms, erasing hard outlines to creating illusion of roundedness and 3D

• make transitions from light to shadow less distinct

• done by leonardo de vinci

• Leonardo, Mona Lisa

vitruvian man

• idea that man is the "mode and measure of all things"

• represents man as a microcosm mirroring the divine perfection of the universe (macrocosm)

• Linked to humanism and measurements of ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius

• human figure inscribed within a circle and a square

• Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian man

horizon-line isocephaly

• the eye-level of a viewer where all parallel lines in a perspective system converge

• Used to align head of figures 

• Masaccio, Tribute Money

fresco

• Technique where pigment (colors) are added to wet plaster to create a painted surface

• painting becomes a part of the wall, incorporated directly into the architecture

• Michelangelo, Last Judgement

contract

• Legal document of agreement between artists and patrons outlining details of commission 

• 15c contracts focused on materials like gold or ultramarine; to later how things should be painted

• indicates paintings were becoming more prized by patrons 

• Piero della Francesca, Madonna della Misericordia

oil painting

• Medium using oil-based binders that dry slowly and allow for mixing, greater range, transparency, and lets painters work on one painting over long period of time 

• Experimented by Leonardo 

• Leonardo, Mona Lisa 

guild

• Association of artists, craftsmen and/or merchants

• In contrast to Florence, Nuremberg generally forbade guilds, allowing for more competitive entrepreneurial activity for artists like Dürer.

• Donatello, St. Mark

nominalism

• Religious philosophy saying universe can only be understood through direct experience instead of speculations about ideal/abstract nature of things

• Focuses on small experiences of nature, taking the ordinary/mundane stuff in life as signs of divine intention

• reveals observed details of ordinary life are the microcosm that represents the idea of perfect nature (macrocosm) in God’s mind.

• Jan van Eyck, Madonna and Chancellor Rolin

ultramarine

• Blue pigment made from semi-precious stone Lapis lazuli in renaissance

• Pinturicchio, Pala di S. Maria de’ Fossi,

iconographic analysis

• Study of symbolic content in a work of art

• Created by Erwin Panofsky when studying Arnolfini and his Wife

• Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini and his Wife

Mihrab

• Niche marking orientation toward Mecca

• Great Mosque of Tunisia

telescopic/microscopic view

• microscopic view (attention to small details from up close: the rug, the hair, fabric) 

• telescopic view (attention to describing really far details: tiny city in the landscape out the window, which seems to be a contemporary Flemish city, but may be intended to refer to New Jerusalem

• contrast between the two 

• Jan van Eyck, Madonna and Chancellor Rolin

macrocosm/microcosm

• microcosm (a small, perfect form) who represents the macrocosm (the world in its entirety imagined by God)

• Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian man

genre painting

• paintings depict subjects w/ moral subtext, but not explicitly religious

• depict tavern scenes, landscapes, or still life arrangements

• sold on the open market to the burgher class

• came before the Protestant Reformation, but conformed to Protestant ideas and were produced in greater numbers after 1517.

• Quentin Massys, Money-changer and his Wife

sprezzatura

• ability to do many things well, and make them all look entirely effortless

• Persona of Leonardo da Vinci

reformation

• A 16th-century religious movement that challenged the authority of the Catholic Church.

• Caused a shift toward secular patterns of patronage and led to bouts of iconoclasm.

• Related artworks: Dürer, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

terribilità

• fearsome strength of character, and outsized will and determination

• Persona of Michelangelo

Counter-Reformation

• Catholic Church's internal reform and reaction to the Protestant Reformation.

• Used council of trent to make new rules 

• Pasquale Cati de Iesi, The Council of Trent, 1588

Humanism

• pursuit of an education in a secular context

• laymen began to study works of philosophy, science, and literature 

• shift toward an individualized, man-centered worldview

• Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian man

satirical broadsides

• cheap to produce single sheet prints (usually woodcuts)

• used images and minimal text to convey anger w/ social and religious institutions and human behavior

• helped spread the Protestant Reformation through Europe by lampooning and skewering the church in Rome

• Contrastingly, Roman church used them in turn to castigate Luther and Protestant ideas

• Pope as Antichrist, 1545

melancholia/melancholy

• Connected in medical medicine to black gall

• One of the four humors associated artists bc it caused creative genius but also depression

• Associated with the sign of Saturn, it became the defining myth of the "artistic temperament".

• Michelangelo prime example of artists defined by this notion 

• Often depicted as a brooding figure resting their head on their hand.

• Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I

sola fide

• “Faith alone”

• Luther believed: an individual believer can have certainty of salvation only through his or her faith alone

  • stated church couldn’t provide remittance through indulgences because nothing but sola fide could guarantee remittance for sin in the eyes of God

• Lucas Cranach, Portrait of Martin Luther (1526)

indulgence

• A remittance for sin provided by the Church

• German broadside show Johan Tetzel selling indulgences(the little round rings hanging from the box he is holding) and has a poem that includes these lines: “As soon as gold in the basin rings, Right then the soul to heaven springs

• The sale of indulgences (e.g., by Johan Tetzel) was the primary target of Luther's 95 theses

Council of Trent

• Used for counter reformation against Protestant Reformation 

• First meeting in 1545, final meeting in 1563 

• For Sola Fide, the church affirmed the Decree of Justification, sin cannot be remitted without penance, charity and good work, reaffirming the Sacrament of Penance (and defended the sale of Indulgences).

• The Church reaffirmed its divine right to perform and consecrate the seven sacraments.

• Council reaffirmed the invocation and veneration of saints and their relics. 

• Council addressed issue of images, declaring they were critical to teaching scripture to the unlearned but should obey rules of decorum to lead common worshippers astray. 

• Religious art should be used to cultivate piety among laymen. 

• However images of all types should follow the scriptures exactly, w/ no errors or deviations from the sacred text, and no unnecessary adornment.

• Pasquale Cati de Iesi, The Council of Trent

decorum

• rule of art first defined by Leonardo da Vinci

• works of art should stylistically fit the subjects being portrayed

• For Aretino, Michelangelo failed to follow the rule of decorum because he did not represent the Last Judgment in a way that was fitting to the subject.

•  Paolo Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi (criticized for including "dwarfs" and "buffoons")

The Three Magi/Kings

• Three kings who visited the infant Christ; their imagery became a vehicle for representing the world's races.

•  By late 15th century, the third Magus (Balthazar) was increasingly depicted as Black African.

• Shift occurred as colonialism was emerging as a critical economic system.

• Memling, Adoration of the Magi

Protestant iconoclasm

• Deliberate destruction of religious images by Protestant groups

• The Church shouldn’t engage in idolatrous practices: the worship of saints; the performance of masses that produce idolatrous substances like the Eucharist; images that might lead the faithful astray.

• Franz Hogenberg, Dutch Calvinist Iconoclasm

Mannerism

• highly decorative, late Renaissance artistic style focusing on aesthetic qualities of art and the beauty of human form in emulation of Michelangelo

• Agnolo Bronzino, Martyrdom of St. Lawrence