Unit Six: Africa, 1100–1980 CE

Form: centrally planned space, harmonious proportions

Function: chapter room (meeting place) for the monks in the nearby monetary; funeral home for the Pazzi family

Content: lantern oculus, triumphal arch (may not be apart of the original design), tilted dome roof, circular windows (let light in), dome sits on top of a square, which sits on top of four arches,

Context: during this time period, rich families like the Pazzi believed they could "purchase" forgiveness from god by building/donating religious building like this to the Catholic church

Pazzi ChaPlpel

Basilicia di Santa Croce. Florence, Italy. Filippo Brunelleschi (architect) c. 1429-1461 C.E. Masonry

Form: 3 registers, emphasizes measure and harmony and horizontal motion

Function: physical representation of the Palazzo's wealth, status, power and importance

Content: rounded arches, classical tabister registers (have images or words), lower register (Tuscan style pillars), middle (ionic), upper register (Corinthian), Medicci emblem (diamond with 3 feathers)

Context: The Rucellai were wealthy wool manufacturers who made a fortune selling red dye, this building modernizes Renaissance architecture (looks as if it should be built during the late 1800s), Battista was the 1st Renaissance architect to have a complete understanding of Roman architecture, architect believed that walls should be flat with decorations

Palazzo Rucellai

Florence, Italy. Leon Battista Alberti (architect). c. 1450 C.E. Stone, masonry

Form: contrapposto stance, archaic smile

Function: symbolize Florence's (David) struggle against Milan (Goliath), made for the Medici family (not on public display)

Content: depicts David after defeating Goliath, eyes looking down contemplating his accomplishment (humble), holding Goliath's sword in right hand, wearing a Shepard's hat with laurel wreath (symbolizes victorying Greece), standing with foot on Goliaths head

Context: Milan was very powerful and wealthy from gun manufacturing, carved by Donatello (brings back many ideas of classical sculptures), 1st large scale male nude since the ancient Greeks

David

Donatello. c. 1440-1460 C.E. Bronze

Form: atmospheric perspective, realistic, naturalism

Function: painted for the Medici family to show their wealth and remind others of Christ's story

Content: light falls off in the distance, everything gets cloudier, background depicts the landscape surrounding Florence (recognizable to the viewers), depicts Mary, hand clasped in prayer, eyes looking down (not engaged with the viewer), faint halo above her head, holding the Christ child, her face is peaceful/passive

Context: humanistic emotion/style/era, showcases Mar's humanization, not just her divinity, Filippo Lippi painted his son as an angel in the bottom right corner

Madonna and Child with Two Angels

Fra Filippo Lippi. c. 1465 C.E. Tempera on wood

Form: naturalism of the human form, contrapposto, movement

Function: to create an 'other worldly form' to separate real from not real in order to depict a seminude woman

Content: depicts the birth of Venus from the sea foam, woman and some of the other figures are oddly proportioned, Venus is modestly concealing herself, on the right the goddess of Spring is depicted, standing on top of a white shell, roses falling by her face

Context: Venus was the Greek goddess of love, painting her naked was a bold statement, only proper to paint a woman naked if she was a mythological figure, would not have been accepted by the church during earlier time periods

Birth of Venus

Sandro Brotticelli. c. 1484-1486 C.E. Tempera on canvas

Form: atmospheric perspective, attempt at linear perspective, sense of naturalism, big heavy geometric folds in the clothes, very little negative space,

Function: home alter for private/religious use

Content: figures were not proportionally accurate, shows a lot of detail (surface realism), consists of three hinged panel, central: the annunciation, Mary, and the angel Gabriel, left: depicts the patron and his wife (wife painted later after their marriage), right: Joseph in his carpentry shop

Context: only wealthy tradesmen and merchants could afford art like this, no concern with the classical style in northern Europe, from the Northern Renaissance

Annunciation Triptych

Workshop of Robert Campin. 1427-1432 C.E. Oil on wood

Form: oil on oak panel, realistic, 82.2cm x 60 cm

Function: historians aren't really sure what is happening between the man and the woman (married? engaged? woman is dead?), generally believed that the purpose is to document a marriage

Content: man on the left is an Italian merchant who worked in Bruche, joining hand with a woman who is holding swaths of her dress, she is not pregnant, fruit on the window ceil (symbolizes wealth), shoes are off and shown in bottom left corner, dog (represents fertility), single candle on the chandelier (represents the prescience of God), words above the mirror say: Jan van Eyck was here (artist)

Context: created by applying thin layers of oil paints on top of each other, oil paints were distinctive of the Northern Renaissance

The Arnolfini Portrait. Jan van Eyck. c. 1434 C.E. Oil on wood

Form: Influence from the Italian renaissance (idealized nude forms, contrapposto), proportionate, forms in a state of equilibrium

Function: to depict a biblical story using recognizable imagery

Content: Adam and Eve (referencing famous statues), elk ox, rabbit, cat = 4 animals represent the four humors (perfectly in balance until the fruit was eaten)

Context: engraving instead of traditional woodcuts, offers more detail and more variations in shadows and highlights, engraving involves etching a design onto a metal plate - ink is applied then paper is used to absorb the ink - creating the artwork, wood would warp in the cold a wet northern environment, Durer became the first famous artist outside of Italy

Adam and Eve

Albrecht Dürer. 1504 C.E. Engraving

Form: polypiptic (multiple panels), imagery fits with certain practices of the church (changes with holidays), crudela (base)

Function: emphasize suffering, connects Christ's suffering with those of the patients to comfort them, Matthias wanted to find a way to show those suffering that there is hope in death because if you believe in Jesus you will have life after death

Content: St. Sebastian patron saint for plagues, gilded sculptures on the very inside, St. Anthony (patron St for ergotism)

Context: commissioned by Antonite monastery (had a hospital ward that treated people sufferings from ergotism), came from eating rye bread, skin turned green and was often fatal

Isenheim altarpiece. Matthias Grunewald. c. 1512- 1516 C.E. Oil on wood.

Form: lines, shape, monotone (black and white), outlines and shading

Function: made as a pamphlet to quickly spread Protestant ideas

Content: 2 scenes, Left=old testament: Adam and Eve (reason for the law), man being hunted (viewer) by evil figures and Moses with the 10 commandments (represents the viewer), shows that good deeds are not enough to get to heaven, Right=new testament: Christ promises salvation to all who believe in him, Lamb (symbolizes the sacrifice Jesus made), Jesus standing on top of the demons, John the Baptist

Context: made during the protestant reformation, in which people were beginning to read and interpret the bible for themselves, pamphlets became the most effective way for the ideas of the Reformation to spread

Allegory of Law and Grace

Lucas Cranach the Elder. c. 1530 C.E. Woodcut and letterpress

Form: lots of detail (surface realism from the northern renaissance), depth (foreground, middle ground, background), movement (from trees to skating to mountain peak to trees...), uses golden mean (mathematical precision)

Function: represent the hardships and enjoyment of winter time, depict everyday life

Content: hunters and dogs in left corner, single animal noticeable (not a successful hunt), people on the pond playing hockey and curling, Alps mountains seen in the back ground (artist would've seen these when traveling to Italy)

Context: painted during the coldest winter recorded in Northern Europe, Bruegel traveled to Italy to study with Renaissance paintings etc., mixes things he learned in Italy with his roots in northern Europe

Hunters in the Snow

Pieters Bruegel the Elder. 1565 C.E. Oil on woods

Form: fresco painted on a wall, linear perspective (perspective lines point to Jesus), atmospheric perspective, fills the frame

Function: to depict the last supper over the dining hall of a Dominican monastery in Milan

Content: depicts Jesus's last supper with his disciples before his crucifixion, 12 disciples surround Jesus (in groups of three that form triangles), coffered ceiling, Jesus doesn't have a halo but the window behind him creates a heavenly glow,

Context: frescos are made with a water based paint and plaster, but da Vinci attempted to experiment by mixing oil paints into the water based fresco paint, caused the painting to fade overtime

Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci. c. 1494-1498 C.E. Oil and Tempera

Form: ceilings, walls,and floors were all covered in mosaic frescos

Function: Chapel used for mass and where cardinals meet to elect a new pope, elicit a religious experience

Content: one side depicts Sibyls (secular women/figures who are believed to predict the coming of Christ), Sibyls were female figures but looked as if they had male proportions because Michelangelo worked from male models, middle depicts 9 stories from Genesis in 3 groups (creation of heaven/earth, creation of Adam/Eve, The Fall/Noah's Arc), round arches show the ancestors of Christ,

Context: painted in about 3 years, more than 3x the length of a standard classroom, Pope asked Michelangelo to repaint clothes on his nude figure in the Last Judgement, painted it starting with Noah's arc (backwards)

Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescoes

Vatican City, Italy. Michelangelo. Ceiling frescoes: c. 1508-1512 C.E.; altar frescoes: c. 1536-1541 C.E. Fresco

Form: perspective lines (point to the space between Plato and Aristotle)

Function: located in an apartment library, to create an inspirational piece for the Pope while he is studying

Content: Barreled vaults, coffered ceilings, Plato and Aristotle in the middle, both had very different philosophical ideas and concerns, Left: Philosophers (Plato, carrying the Timeus, Pythagoras), Right: Mathematicians (Aristotle, Ptolemy), Raphael painted himself in the background

Context:

Its pictorial concept, formal beauty and thematic unity were universally appreciated, by the Papal authorities and other artists, as well as patrons and art collectors. It ranks alongside Leonardo's Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and Michelangelo's Vatican frescoes, as the embodiment of Renaissance ideals of the early cinquecento.

School of Athens

Raphael. 1509-1511 C.E. Fresco

Form: crowded, circular composition, movement, swirling, unnatural positions, almost no background, mannerist style

Function: alter piece

Content: over exaggerated expressions, Mother Mary in extreme sorrow, Jesus after crucifixion, draped over an unnaturally positioned man, Jesus appears heavy and sunken (represents the burden Christ took on)

Context: after the Protestant reformation, mannerism is a response to the Italian renaissance (and Catholics), mannerism came after renaissance but before Baroque

Entombment of Christ

Jacopo da Pontormo. 1525-1528 C.E. Oil on wood

Form: lots of texturism, idealized woman forms,

Function: gift for Guidabaldo and his new wife, to symbolize his wife's love, sexuality, an fertility

Content: Venus lounging on a couch (titled a Venus but may not actually be her), could be the Duke's wife, chest in the background (Cassini was a traditional wedding dress), holding flowers in right hand, long hair flowing, partially covering herself

Context: Commissioned by Guidabaldo the second, oil on wood doesn't last well in Venice because of humidity, oil on canvas became the norm of Venetian artists (like Titan), socially acceptable to depict mythological people nude

Venus of Urbino

Titan. c. 1538 C.E. Oil on canvas

Form: large square with an x through the middle, profile view of the people

Function: commissioned by the Viceroy of New Spain to send back to the King to show him a bit about the Aztec culture; helps translate languages too

Content: glyphs on the borders (52 of them), represents every year on the Aztec calendar stone, building in the upper middle represents Templar Mayor, large eagle in the middle (sign of Aztec god), many plants shown (shows how important agriculture was), important people depicted (Aztec leaders, etc), Aztec shield below eagle, bottom half depicts the Aztec's military conquests

Context: painted by indigenous artists (overseen by Spanish clerics)

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza

Viceroyalty of New Spain. c. 1541-1542 C.E. Ink and color on paper

Form: square plan with octagon on top with a dome on top of that

Function: to create a large and holy space where everyone could worship inside, to make prayer more intimate

Content: one of the tallest minarets in the world (126 ft tall), intricacy of design inside, stripped arches, muqarnas, mosaics, scripts/calligraphy, open and intense space, many windows, half domes support the weight of the large dome

Context: heavily influenced by the Hagia Sophia, located in Turkey which was considered the gateway from Europe to Asia, Sinan was on of the first great architects (challenged by Renaissance architects to build something magnificent), built for Selim the second (son of Suliman the magnificent)

It is one of the most important buildings in the history of world architecture both for its design and its monumentality. It is considered to be the masterwork of the great Ottoman architect Sina

Mosque of Selim II

Edrine, Turkey. Sinan (architect), 1568-1575 C.E. Brick and stone

Form: uses gold leaf, 13 in x 19in, decorative border

Function: to show how the King values religion/spiritual power over everything else (worldly power, money etc.)

Content: Persian calligraphy, Ja Hangar (Mughal King) kneeling on an hour glass with the sands of time slipping though, gold disk behind his head (represent the sun and moon, alludes to his name), cherubs depicted (European influence), Muslim holy man giving receiving a book from the King, unknown Muslim ruler, King James 1 of England shown near bottom left corner (copy of previous portrait), Artist painted himself

Context: Mughals were Muslim rulers, capital in Delphi, capital in Delphi, artist was trained by Persian painters, books were one of the most precious gifts,

Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings. Bichitr. c. 1620 C.E. Watercolor, gold, and ink on paper.

Form: onion shaped dome, 4 minarets, exactly as wide as it was tall, harmony of design, balance of solids and voids

Function: built by Sha Jahan (Mughal king) for his deceased wife, intended to represent the throne of god on judgement day

Content: no iconography, just floral/geometric patterns and calligraphy (Kufic scripts), Iwans on the outside instead of inside, large gardens (represent paradise), chamfered corners, reflecting pool (intended for the building to look like its floating),

Context: wife died while giving birth to their 4th child, Sha Jahan was the son of Ja Hangar, had three wives,

Taj Mahal

Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Masons, marble workers, mosaicists, and decorators working under the supervision of Ustad Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor. 1632-1653 C.E. Stone masonry and marble with inlay of precious and semiprecious stones; gardens