Week 6: Northern and Italian High Renaissance

The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin

• Jan van Eyck

• c. 1430 - 1435

• oil on panel

• Sacra Conversazione- “holy conversation”

• Applied to an altarpiece in which a grouping of the Virgin Mary, The Christ Child and saints are in a unified setting

• linear perspective

• bridge and rive in the background

• Christ and patron ae connected through bridge and hand gesture

• home of the wealthy

• not a large painting, so the artist used tiny brushes

• gothic cathedral

• Baby Jesus holding cross to show God controls the universe

• thick clothing, feels heavy

Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban

• Jan van Eyck

• Turban (self-portrait)

• c. 1433

• oil on oak panel

• beard hairs growing in

• red lines in his eye (realistic)

• wrinkles

• huge level of detail

• “As I Can” written on frame in Greek, means I’m trying my best

• Using Latin & Greek to show he’s smart, promoting his artistic skills

Arnolfini Portrait or Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife or Arnolfini Marriage

• Jan van Eyck

• c. 1434

• Oil on wood

• Wedding portrait: possibly a marriage contract

• Gender norms

• Dog as a symbolic of fidelity

• Rich in iconography: objects have layers of meaning

• Artist signature

• wife has a large belly to show she will get pregnant

• the couple will get pregnant

• in the background, there is a painting of Saint Margaret (fertility)

• closed hands to show contract

• broom to show woman’s chores

• chandelier with lion

• took off shoes to show sacredness of their marriage

• oranges show they can buy exotic products (wealthy)

• floor and shoes made of wood, yet the artist could distinguish them (is incredible)

A Goldsmith in his Shop

• Petrus Christus

• c. 1449

• oil on oak panel

• man seated

• man wrapped arm around woman, shows they might be married

• sitting man is a goldsmith, runs a pawn shop

• couple is trying to make a purchase

• convex mirror here, shows artist skills in different perspectives

• shows couple outside peeking in the store

• ring is being weighed

• artist has his signature on the wood

Portrait of a Young Woman

• Petrus Christus

• c. 1470

• Oil on Oak

• Rise of portrait during northern and Italian renaissance

• likeness and presence incorporated into the image

• shows the unique fashion of the time

Deposition or Descent from the Cross

• Rogier van der Weyden

• c. 1435

• Oil on Oak panel

• Museo del Prado, Madrid

• Luminious quality

• detailed

• intuitive (ground) perspective: ground appears upwards

• Deposition = removal of Christ from cross

• sallow foreground = “in your face” experience

• Symmetrical composition

• Christ and Mary: contrapposto poses

• Christ’s cross is not realistic

Early Northern Renaissance FACTS:

• WHEN: c. 1400 - 1500

• WHERE: North of Alps, Kingdom of France, Duchy of Burgundy, Flanders, England (modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, England…)

• WHAT: naturalism, realism, the artist as genius, moralizing subject matter, psychological expression

• INFLUENCES: Classical Rome, Courtly, Byzantine, Gothic, International Gothic

High Northern Renaissance FACTS:

• WHEN: c. 1500 - 1550

• WHERE: North of the Alps, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Duchy of Burgundy, Flanders, England (modern Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, England…)

• WHAT: increases in naturalism, realism, the artist as genius, moralizing subject matter, psychological expression, complex, layered iconography (symbols)

• INFLUENCES: International Gothic, Italian Renaissance (classicism), the contemporary Flemish style

Albrecht Durer: Self Portrait

• self-potrait

• c. 1498

• oil on panel

• colors we haven’t really seen before

• refined wearing gloves, undergarments looks made of silk

• close to the alps in the background

• he wrote the date on the signature

• presents himself as a courtier (person from the European court)

• which is what he strives to one day be

• artists are officially now intellectuals and scholars

• contemporary of Michelangelo

Albrecht Durer: Self Portrait (as Jesus Christ)

• c. 1500

• Germany

• Deliberately constructed to look like an early Christian / Byzantine icon

• figure seems to emerge into light due to an extremely dark background

• looks directly at the audience (similar to Byzantine art 200 years earlier)

• monogram (left), and signature (right)

• hand gesture similar to other Christian Jesus art poses

• pose reserved for Christ

• emotionless, showing Christ is a judge

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

• Albrecht Durer

• c. 1498

• Germany

• artist labeled: “Leonardo of the north”

• first artist outside of Italy to achieve international; celebrity

• 1 of 15 wood engravings rendering scenes from Book of Revelations

• Apocalyptic imagery popular at milestones in history

• Fusion of Italian and German styles

• can make copies of the same image

• prints are a much quicker process that painting

• he became wealthy from selling prints

• prints were cheaper to buy

• Based on the Book of Revelations in the Bible

The Fall of Man (Adam & Eve):

• Albrecht Durr

• c. 1504

• Engraving Germany

• Mix of classical and gothic styles

• The FOUR HUMORS:

  • sanguine (blood) rabbit

  • choleric (yellow bile) cat

  • melancholic (black bile) elk

  • phlegmatic (phlegm) ox

• their composition within the body was considered to determine a patient’s personality and health concerns

• every human body was considered to determine a patient's personality and health concerns

• Adam and Eve are in perfect balance internally (mountain goat)

• After the Fall, one humor predominates in everyone, throwing our temperaments into imbalance

Knight, Death and the Devil

• Albrecht Durer

• Nuremberg, Germany

• c. 1513

• One of three Master prints

• Embodies: Moral Virtue

• Death is holding an hourglass (life is short)

• devil with pig snout

• signature next to a skull

• based on western portraits

• the rider is not scared nor worried

• Northern European Landscape

• Italian renaissance influence - heroic equestrian portraits

• exemplifies the vita active (active life)

• signature at oblique angel to show technical prowess

Melancholia:

• Albrecht Durer

• c. 1514

• Engraving

• Germany

• 2 of 3 master prints

• Embodies: intellectual

• rise of the artist in the 16th century

• artistic temperament is the main idea

• emphasizes the thought that artists were distinct from population

• born under the sign of Saturn, named after a Roman god, and shared the deity’s melancholy

• Excess of black bile: eccentric, capable of inspired frenzy and melancholic depression

• Christian overtones

• Bat: artist works at night

• sun, means there’s hope for her

• melancholy: unbalanced

• person with a strong body, soft angelic wings

• dog: loyalty

• nails (from Christ) musical tools unused since the

• 2 of artist is stressed, scales (judgement)

St. Jerome in his study

• Albrecht Durer

• c. 1514

• Engraving

• Nuremberg, Germany

• 3 of 3 Master prints

• Embodies: theological

• St. Jerome as exemplar of the Christian scholar

• placed within a typical Northern Renaissance study

• overall sense of peach and harmony

• he translated the Bible from Greek to Latin

• creative placement of signature on the floor

• well lit room

• peace and calm

• good sense of perspective

The Four Apostles

• Albrecht Durer

• c. 1526

• oil on wood

• Back: Peter

• Front: John

• Back: Mark

• Front: Paul “The just shall live my faith alone”

• artis went Catholic to Protestant

• lost a huge amount of funding from Catholics

• gave this painting to the town of Nuremburg

• Peter, the closest disciple (who by Catholics considered him to be the first Pope) was in the back, which was deemed disrespectful for not showing him as the protagonist

Martin Luther

• Lucas Cranach the Elder

• c. 1529

• Oil on beech panel

• Started a revolution against the Catholic Church and began the Protestant Church

The Judgement of Paris:

• Lucas Cranach the Elder

• c. 1530

• Oil on wood

• Germany:

• In Northern Renaissance art, modern ideas about sexuality

• naked bodies was an object about pity and shame

• c. 1525 artists began to portray male and female nudes in sexually explicit ways

• Northern European landscape as setting, clasical subject matter

• illustrates pain and suffering

Reclining River Nymph at the Fountain:

• Lucas Cranach the Elder

• c. 1518

• Oil on wood

• nude woman laying on grass

• made for the male gaze

The Ambassadors:

• Hans Holbien the Younger

• c. 1533

• oil on oak

• influenced by early Dutch painters

• oil pait, everyday objects that are highly symbolic

• double potrait

• artist spent most of his life in England

• intellectuals, well traveled, one on the right wearing simplier clothes, left is a land owner

• skull on the floor

• musical instrument (string broken(

• book of hymes by Martin Luther

• skull is anopores, distored image viewer must look at a certain angle to see what the image truly is, is a mementomori, a symbol of death

• heavens, celestial globe

• humans- music books

• death/afterlife: skull stretched

High Italian Renaissance FACTS:

• WHEN: c. 1500 - 1600

• WHERE: courts, city-states, papal states, duchies of Italy

• WHAT: heightened interest in perspective, naturalism, humanism, realism, the artist as genius, more complex compositions (landscapes, figural poses), more complex symbolic meanings (classical mythology)

• INFLUENCES: Classical Rome, Early Italian Renaissance

The Virgin of the Rocks:

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Oil on wood

• Milan, Italy

• c. 1485

• Leonardo was known as the face of the Italian Renaissance

• he disected bodies (illegal)

• he was the bridge between arts and sciences

• he was an engineer, canals, tunnels for families to escape from in case of an emergency

• rocky landscape gives a mood to the painting

• implied lines between everyone

• hinting towards Jesus getting baptized by John the Baptist

• Sfumato & Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro:

• intense lights and darks

Sfumato:

• smoky, loose brushstrokes

Cartoon for the Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper

• Milan, Italy

• c. 1498

• Baby John the Baptist

• Mary pointing at the sky to symbolize God is here

Madonna, Child, and St. Anne:

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Oil on wood

• c. 1505

• no more baby John the Baptist

• there is a visible background

• Mary looking at her cousin

• cousin reaching for Jesus

• Baby Jesus playing with lamb

• figures in complicated poses

• pyramidal composition

• composition shows narrative, genealogy

• Dramatic landscape

• Sfumato: loose, smoky brushstrokes

The Last Supper:

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Oil and tempera on plaster

• Milan, Italy

• c. 1495 - 1498

• Depicts the moment when Jesus tells the Apostles that one will betray him

• Not a fresco

• Located in the refectory (monastic dining hall)

• 1 point perspective, Jesus is the vanishing point

• divided apostles into three
  Jesus reaching for wine and bread

• wine: blood

• bread: body

• Judas (the one who betrays Jesus) is reaching for the same bowl as Jesus

• Each apostle has their own reaction to it

• tablecloth has details like its been folded

• paint faded, had to be fixed multiple times

Mona Lisa:

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Oil on Word

• Florence, Italy

• c. 1503 - 1505

• Dramatic landscape

• Chiaroscuro: intense lights and darks

• Sfumato: loose, smoky brushstrokes

• we know so little about it, that is why it’s mysterious

• discovered in the 19th century

• possibly the wife of a banker

• 3 quarter view of a woman

• her emotions are ambiguous

• people always make replicas of this

Salvador Mundi (Savior of the World)

• Leonardo?

• Salvador Mundi (Savior of the World)

• c. 1499 - 1510

• frontal portrait

• blessing hand gesture

• found in New Orleans by art dealers

• found in mold & worms

• purchased in 2005

• had a restorer

• purchased 2017 for 415 million by Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture

• most expensive artwork ever sold

Vitruvian Man

• Leonardo da Vinci

• c. 1492

• Pen, ink, watercolor, and metal point on paper

• interested in animals, machines, life, birth

• he would write from right to left