AP Art History Content Area 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas

Rottgen Pieta

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1300- 1325

Artist: Unknown

Material: Painted wood

Facts: Earlier medieval representations of Christ focused on his divinity (left). In these works of art, Christ is on the cross, but never suffers. These types of crucifixion images are a type called Christus triumphans or the triumphant Christ. His divinity overcomes all human elements and so Christ stands proud and alert on the cross, immune to human suffering.

Arena Chapel

Location: Padua, Italy

Time Period: 1303 C.E

Artist: Giotto di Bondone

Material: Brick and fresco

Facts: Giotto is perhaps best known for the frescos he painted in the Arena (or Scrovegni) Chapel. They were commissioned by a wealthy man named Enrico Scrovegni, the son of a well-known banker (and a banker himself). According to the Church, usury (charging interest for a loan) was a sin, and so perhaps one of Enrico's motivations for building the chapel and having it decorated by Giotto was to atone for the sin of usury. The chapel is known as the Arena Chapel since it is on the site of an ancient Roman arena (or amphitheater) that later became the property of Scrovegni, whose palace abutted the chapel (the palace was torn down in the nineteenth century, though parts of the arena remain).

Golden Haggadah

Location: Spain

Time Period: 1320 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Illuminated Manuscript

Facts: The book used to tell the story of Passover around the seder table each year is a special one, known as a haggadah (haggadot, pl). The Golden Haggadah, as you might imagine given its name, is one of the most luxurious examples of these books ever created. In fact, it is one of the most luxurious examples of a medieval illuminated manuscript, regardless of use or patronage. So although the Golden Hagaddah has a practical purpose, it is also a fine work of art used to signal the wealth of its owners.

Chartres Cathedral

Location: Chartres, France

Time Period: 1145- 1155 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Limestone, stained glass

Facts: The Chartres Cathedral's spiritual intensity is heightened by the fact that no direct light enters the building. All the light is filtered through stained glass, so that the whole experience of visiting the Chartres Cathedral seems out of this world.

Catacomb of Priscilla

Location: Rome, Italy

Time Period: 200-400 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Excavated tufa and fresco

Facts: The Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome, Italy, is situated in what was a quarry in Roman times. This quarry was used for Christian burials from the late 2nd century through the 4th century

Santa Sabina

Location: Rome, Italy

Time Period: 422-432 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Brick and Stone

Facts: The Basilica of Saint Sabina is a historical church on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. It is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well and Jacob wrestling the Angel

Location: Ravenna, Italy

Time Period: Early 6th century

Artist: Unknown

Material: Illuminated Manuscript (tempera, gold and silver on purple vellum)

Facts: The visual arts have undergone numerous changes and transitions from their prehistoric origins to the present. In Europe, artists and patrons of the ancient world loved realistic details and veracity. Medieval artists and patrons instead valued symbolism and abstraction.

San Vitale

Location: Ravenna Italy

Time Period: 526-547 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Brick, marble, and stone veneer; mosaic

Facts: The Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy, and one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe.

Hagia Sophia

Location: Constantinople (Istanbul)

Time Period: 532-537

Artist: Unknown

Material: Brick and ceramic elements with stone and mosaic veneer

Facts: Hagia Sophia is a great architectural beauty and an important monument both for Byzantine and for Ottoman Empires. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum at the Turkish Republic, Hagia Sophia has always been the precious of its time..

Merovingian looped fibulae

Location: Europe

Time Period: Mid 6th century

Artist: Unknown

Material: Silver gilt worked in filigree

Facts: Fibulae (singular: fibula) are brooches that were made popular by Roman military campaigns. They all consist of a body, a pin, and a catch. Ornate fibulae became all the rage in the early middle ages, and are one of the most commonly found objects in barbarian* grave sites.

Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George

Location: Europe

Time Period: 6th to early 7th century

Artist: Unknown

Material: Encaustic on wood

Facts: The icon shows the Virgin and Child flanked by two soldier saints, St. Theodore to the left and St. George at the right. Above these are two angels who gaze upward to the hand of God, from which light emanates, falling on the Virgin.

Church of Sainte- Foy

Location: Conques, France

Time Period: 1050- 1130 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Stone and paint. Gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood

Facts: Located in Conques, the Church of Saint-Foy (Saint Faith) is an important pilgrimage church on the route to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. It is also an abbey, meaning that the church was part of a monastery where monks lived, prayed and worked. Only small parts of the monastery have survived but the church remains largely intact. Although smaller churches stood on the site from the seventh century, the Church of Saint-Foy was begun in the eleventh century and completed in the mid-twelfth century. As a Romanesque church, it has a barrel-vaulted nave lined with arches on the interior.

Bayeux Tapestry

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1066- 1080 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Embroidery on Linen

Facts: The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy.

Lindisfarne Gospel

Location: Europe

Time Period: 700 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Illuminated Manuscript

Facts: The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated manuscript gospel book produced around the year 700 in a monastery off the coast of Northumberland at Lindisfarne and which is now on display in the British Library in London.

Great Mosque

Location: Cordoba, Spain

Time Period: 785- 786 C.E

Artist:

Material:

Facts: The buildings on this site are as complex as the extraordinarily rich history they illustrate. Historians believe that there had first been a temple to the Roman god, Janus, on this site. The temple was converted into a church by invading Visigoths who seized Cordoba in 572. Next, the church was converted into a mosque and then completely rebuilt by the descendants of the exiled Umayyads—the first Islamic dynasty who had originally ruled from their capital Damascus (in present-day Syria) from 661 until 750

Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescoes

Location: Vatican City, Italy

Time Period: 1508- 1512 C.E

Artist: Michelangelo

Material: Fresco

Facts: Michelangelo has used the physical space of the water and the sky to separate four distinct parts of the narrative. On the right side of the painting, a cluster of people seeks sanctuary from the rain under a makeshift shelter. On the left, even more people climb up the side of a mountain to escape the rising water. Centrally, a small boat is about to capsize because of the unending downpour. And in the background, a team of men work on building the ark—the only hope of salvation.

Annunciation Triptych

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1427- 1432 C.E

Artist: Robert Campin

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: The Annunciation Triptych is an oil-on-panel triptych by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, dating from around 1434. It was originally formed by three panels, the central one being now at The Louvre museum in Paris, France; the side panels are at the Galleria Sabauda of Turin, northern Italy.

Isenheim Altarpiece

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1512-1516 C.E

Artist: Matthia Grunewald

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: it was constructed and painted between 1512 and 1516, the enormous moveable altarpiece, essentially a box of statues covered by folding wings, was created to serve as the central object of devotion in an Isenheim hospital built by the Brothers of St. Anthony. St. Anthony was a patron saint of those suffering from skin diseases (Isenheim is a village about 15 miles south of Colmar).The pig who usually accompanies St. Anthony in art is a reference to the use of pork fat to heal skin infections, but it also led to Anthony's adoption as a patron saint of swineherds, totally unrelated to his reputation for healing and as the patron of basket-weavers, brush-makers and gravediggers (he first lived as an anchorite, a type of religious hermit, in an empty sepulchre).

Entombment of Christ

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1525- 1528 C.E

Artist: Jacopo da Pontormo

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: One of the first things you might notice about Caravaggio's style, and we see it here in his painting of The Entombment, is the darkness. There's actually a word for it: tenebroso, which means dark style. Caravaggio painted this scene as though it was happening in the black of night with almost a spot-light effect on the figures. There is no background—only darkness. No architecture, no landscape, and so as a result, we focus on the figures who are all located in the foreground of the painting. The spotlight effect of the lighting is very dramatic, and so we have very stark contrasts of light and dark. In other words, where modeling is usually a slow movement from light to dark, here we have very dark shadows right next to areas of bright illumination. The effect is very dramatic.

Allegory of Law and Grace

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1530 C.E

Artist: Lucas Cranach the Elder

Material: Woodcut and letterpress

Facts: Right ("gospel") side

On the "gospel" side of the image (the right side), John the Baptist directs a naked man to both Christ on the cross in front of the tomb and to the risen Christ who appears on top of the tomb (see detail at top of page). The risen Christ stands triumphant above the empty tomb, acting out the miracle of the Resurrection. This nude figure is not vainly hoping to follow the law or to present a tally of his good deeds on the judgment day. He stands passively, stripped down to his soul, submitting to God's mercy.

Left ("Law") side

In the left foreground a skeleton and a demon force a frightened naked man into hell, as a group of prophets, including Moses, point to the tablets of the law. The motifs on the left side of the composition are meant to exemplify the idea that law alone, without gospel, can never get you to heaven. Christ sits in Judgment as Adam and Eve (in the background) eat the fruit and fall from grace. Moses beholds these events from his vantage point toward the center of the picture, his white tablets standing out against the saturated orange robe and the deep green tree behind him, literally highlighting the association of law, death, and damnation.

Venus of Urbino

Location: unknown

Time Period: 1538 C.E

Artist: Titian

Material: Oil on canvas

Facts: The Venus represents an ideal woman. The dog at her feet is emblematic of loyalty--"fides" (hence "Fido") is the Latin root of faith and fidelity. The woman standing in the background is a matron, a chatelaine, the lady of the household. She supervises a servant who is placing things into a chest. The chest may be a cassone, a wedding chest that would have been filled with linens and such. In sum, it is a picture of a perfect home managed by the perfect woman, a "domestic goddess," if you will.

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza

Location: Spain

Time Period: 1541- 1542 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: Ink and color on paper

Facts: At the center of the schematic diagram of Tenochtitlan is an eagle on a cactus growing from the midst of a lake. The eagle and the cactus relate to the narrative surrounding the capital's establishment. According to Aztec myth, their patron deity, Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird Left), told the Aztecs' ancestors to leave their ancestral home of Aztlan and look for a place where they saw an eagle atop a cactus growing from a rock. He informed them that when they saw this sign, they should settle and build their city. For the Aztecs, they observed the sign in the middle of Lake Texcoco, and so established their capital on an island in the lake.

II Gesu, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco

Location: Rome, Italy

Time Period: 1568-1584

Artist: Giovanni Battista Gaulli

Material: Fresco and Stucco

Facts: The façade of the church is divided into two sections. The lower section is divided by six pairs of pilasters with Corinthian capitals, while the upper section is divided with four pairs of pilasters. The upper section is joined to the lower section by a volute on each side. The main door stands under a curvilinear tympanum, while the two side doors are under a triangular tympanum. Above the main door one can see a shield with the letters IHS representing the Christogram. The façade also shows the papal coat of arms and a shield with the initialism SPQR, tying this church closely to the people of Rome.

Hunters in the Snow

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1565 C.E

Artist: Pieter Brugel the Elder

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: The painting shows a wintry scene in which three hunters are returning from an expedition accompanied by their dogs. By appearances the outing was not successful; the hunters appear to trudge wearily, and the dogs appear downtrodden and miserable. One man carries the "meagre corpse of a fox" illustrating the paucity of the hunt. The overall visual impression is one of a calm, cold, overcast day; the colors are muted whites and grays, the trees are bare of leaves, and wood smoke hangs in the air. Several adults and a child prepare food at an inn with an outside fire.

The Arnolfini Portrait

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1434 C.E

Artist: Jam van Eyck

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting.Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier.

Calling of Saint Matthew

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1597- 1601

Artist: Caravaggio

Material: Oil on canvas

Facts: The picture is divided into two parts. The standing figures on the right form a vertical rectangle; those gathered around the table on the left a horizontal block. The costumes reinforce the contrast. Levi and his subordinates, who are involved in affairs of this world, are dressed in a contemporary mode, while the barefoot Christ and Saint Peter, who summon Levi to another life and world, appear in timeless cloaks. The two groups are also separated by a void, bridged literally and symbolically by Christ's hand. This hand, like Adam's in Michelangelo's Creation, unifies the two parts formally and psychologically. Underlying the shallow stage-like space of the picture is a grid pattern of verticals and horizontals, which knit it together structurally.

Henri IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de' Medici

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1621- 1625 C.E

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens

Material:

Facts: This canvas is the sixth in a series of twenty-four paintings on the life of Marie de' Medici commissioned by the queen herself from Peter Paul Rubens in 1622 to adorn one of the two galleries in the Luxembourg Palace, her newly-built home in Paris. In both scale and subject matter, this cycle is unprecedented. Not only is it unique in its dedication to the major life events of a queen, but it also includes events that were both quite recent and quite humiliating. After Henry was assassinated in 1610, Marie—acting as regent for their young son, Louis XIII—ruled the kingdom of France for seven years. The position suited her; but many French nobles begrudged her power. Divisions in the court, including tensions with her own son, led to Marie's exile from the Paris in 1617. The commission of the biographical cycle marked her reconciliation with Louis and her return to the capital city in 1620. It vindicated her reign as the queen of France.

Self Portrait with Saskia

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1790 C.E

Artist: Elisabeth Louise Vigree Le Brun

Material: Oil on canvas

Facts: The two figures are presented in half-length, seated around a table before a plain background. Rembrandt dominates the image as he engages the viewer with a serious expression. The brim of his hat casts a dark shadow over his eyes, which adds an air of mystery to his countenance. Saskia, rendered on a smaller scale and appearing rather self-absorbed, sits behind him. It's almost as if we have interrupted the couple as they enjoy a quiet moment in their daily life.

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Location: Rome, Italy

Time Period: 1638- 1646 C.E

Artist: Francesco Borromini

Material: Stone and stucco

Facts: It was commissioned in 1634 and was built during 1638-46, except for the tall facade, which was added about 1677. Built to fit in a cramped and difficult site, the church has an unusual and somewhat irregular floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross defined by convex curves. The facade is similarly undulating in plan, and this effect was subsequently adopted by other Baroque architects in their church designs. The unifying design feature in the interior is the use of the triangle, a motif for the Trinity.

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Location: Rome, Italy

Time Period: 1647- 1652 C.E

Artist: Unknown

Material: stucco, marble and gilt bronze

Facts: Bernini's sculptural group shows a cupid-like angel holding an arrow. His delicate touch and lithe figure give him an air of grace. With her head thrown back and eyes closed, Teresa herself collapses, overcome with the feeling of God's love. Her physical body seems to have dematerialized beneath the heavy drapery of her robe. Twisting folds of fabric energize the scene and bronze rays, emanating from an unseen source, seem to rain down divine light. The combined effect is one of intense drama, the ethereality of which denies the true nature of the work of art. Despite being made of heavy marble, saint and angel—set upon a cloud—appear to float weightlessly.

Las Meninas

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1656 C.E

Artist: Diego Velazquez

Material: Oil on canvas

Facts: The painting shows a large room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. Velázquez looks outwards, beyond the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on.

David

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1440- 1460 C.E

Artist: Donatello

Material: Bronze

Facts: the statue symbolizes the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.

Woman Holding a Balance

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1664 C.E

Artist: Johannes Vermeer

Material: Oil on canvas

Facts: The visual juxtaposition of the woman and the Last Judgment is reinforced by thematic parallels: to judge is to weigh. This scene has religious implications that seem related to Saint Ignatius of Loyola's instructions, in his Spiritual Exercises, that the faithful, prior to meditating, first examine their conscience and weigh their sins as if facing Judgment Day. Only such introspection could lead to virtuous choices along the path of life. Woman Holding a Balance thus allegorically urges us to conduct our lives with temperance and moderation. The woman is poised between the earthly treasures of gold and pearls and a visual reminder of the eternal consequences of her actions.

The Palace at Versailles

Location: Versailles, France

Time Period: 1669 C.E

Artist: Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart

Material:

Facts: The palace was chock full of paintings and sculptures, ornately designed rooms (like the "Hall of Mirrors") and even technological innovations — such as pressurized water fountains in its gardens that jetted water into the air — and an opera house with a mechanical device that allowed the orchestra pit to rise up to the stage, allowing it to be turned into a dance or banqueting hall.

Madonna and Child with Two Angels

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1465 C.E

Artist: Fra Filippo Lippi

Material: Tempera on wood

Facts: Mary's hands are clasped in prayer, and both she and the Christ child appear lost in thought, but otherwise the figures have become so human that we almost feel as though we are looking at a portrait. The angels look especially playful, and the one in the foreground seems like he might giggle as he looks out at us. The delicate swirls of transparent fabric that move around Mary's face and shoulders are a new decorative element that Lippi brings to Early Renaissance painting—something that will be important to his student, Botticelli. However, the modeling of Mary's form—from the bulk and solidity of her body to the careful folds of drapery around her lap—reveal Masaccio's influence.

Birth of Venus

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1484- 1486

Artist: Sandro Botticelli

Material: Tampera on canvas

Facts: The Birth of Venus is probably Botticelli's most famous painting. The picture hung in the country villa of the Medici along with "Primavera", indicating that the work was commissioned by the Medici family. Venus rises from the sea, looking like a classical statue and floating on a seashell, in what is surely one of the most recognisable images in art history. On Venus' right is Zephyrus, God of Winds, he carries with him the gentle breeze Aura and together they blow the Goddess of Love ashore. The Horae, Goddess of the Seasons, waits to receive Venus and spreads out a flower covered robe in readiness for the Love Goddess' arrival.

Last Supper

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1494- 1498 C.E

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Material: Oil and tempera

Facts: The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock.

Fruit and Insects

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1711 C.E

Artist: Rachel Ruysch

Material: Oil on wood

Facts: This luscious sample of life on Earth represents at least two passions of its time: taxonomy (or categorization) and still-lifes, which emphasize the pleasure of the senses and their ephemerality. Ruysch was court painter to the elector palatine Johann Wilhelm, who gave this painting and its pendant to his father-in-law, Cosimo III de' Medici.

Adam and Eve

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1504 C.E

Artist: Albrecht Durer

Material: Engraving

Facts: Despite the chill of the forest, the two human figures appear nude. Their bodies are frontal, and they stand in a classical contrapposto, or counterpoise, where the weight of the body is shifted onto one foot. The corresponding shift in hips and shoulders creating a convincing illusion of a body capable of movement but temporarily at rest. Despite this apparent naturalism, their heads are turned to the side as they gaze at one another. This twisting configuration of head and body is distinctly artificial. The naturalizing contrapposto clashing with the artificiality of the rest of the pose establishes a pattern of contradictions that run throughout the picture. A seemingly astutely observed tree becomes distinctly odd, as we recognize that Eve is plucking an apple from a tree with fig leaves. A parrot, a tropical bird, perches on a branch to the viewer's left. Six other animals stroll disinterestedly through or stand about—an elk, ox, cat, rabbit, mouse, and goat.

School of Athens

Location: Europe

Time Period: 1509- 1511 C.E

Artist: Raphael

Material: Fresoc

Facts: The two thinkers in the very center, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up) have been enormously important to Western thinking generally, and in different ways, their different philosophies were incoporated into Christianity. Plato points up because in his philosophy the changing world that we see around us is just a shadow of a higher, truer reality that is eternal and unchanging (and include things like goodness and beauty). For Plato, this otherworldly reality is the ultimate reality, and the seat of all truth, beauty, justice, and wisdom. Plato holds his book called the Timaeus. Aristotle holds his hand down, because in his philosophy, the only reality is the one that we can see and experience by sight and touch (exactly the reality dismissed by Plato). Aristotle's Ethics (the book that he holds) "emphasized the relationships, justice, friendship, and government of the human world and the need to study it."