Art History Exam 3

Breakfast pieces

A still life that includes bread and fruit.

Genre painting

A style or category of art; also a kind of painting that realistically depicts scenes from everyday life.

Vanitas painting

A term describing paintings that include references to death.

Treaty of Westphalia

In 1648 had formally recognized the principle of religious freedom, serving to validate Protestantism, mostly in the German states. Concluded the Thirty Years' War and was responsible for the political restructuring of Europe.

Memento mori

In Latin it means a reminder of death. In painting, a reminder of human mortality, usually represented by a skull.

Counter Reformation

In the 16th century the Roman Catholic Church launched this in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Council of Trent was an initiative that firmly resisted Protestant objections to using images in religious worship.

Louis XIV

Sought to determine the direction of French society and culture. Economy was not as expansive as the Dutch Republics, but France became the largest and most powerful nation in the 17th century. Master of political strategy and propaganda. Anchored his rule in divine right. Called the Sun King because he believed he was the center of the universe. Wanted to regularize taste and establish the classical style as the preferred French manner.

Phillip IV

The Netherlands broke from the Habsburg Empire in the late 16th century in an attempt to escape Spanish control. There continued to be flare ups between the Dutch and Spanish. This king send General Ambrosia di Spinola to Breda to reclaim the town for Spain.

Divine Right

The belief in a king's absolute power as God's will.

Nave

The central area of an ancient Roman basilica or of a church, demarcated from aisles by piers or columns

Atrium

The central reception room of a Roman house that is partly open to the sky. Also the open, colonnaded court in front of and attracted to a Christian basilica.

Iconoclasm

The destruction of religion or sacred images. In Byzantium, the period from 726 to 843 where there was an imperial ban on such images. Destroyers were known as iconoclasts. Those who apposed the ban were called iconophiles.

Chasing

The engraving or embossing of metal.

Proscenium

The part of a theatrical stage in front of the curtain.

Baroque

Traditional blanket designation for European art from 1600 to 1750. Art that features dramatic theatricality and elaborate ornimantation in contrast to the simplicity and orderly rationality of Renaissance art.

La Pittura

Gentileschi portrayed herself in the guise of La Pittura with brush and palette. To paint a self-portrait from the side, she had to set up a pair of mirrors to record her features.

Lost-wax process

A bronze casting method in which a fire is modeled in wav and covered with clay. the whole is fired, melting away the wax and hardening the call, which then becomes a mold for molten metal.

Baldacchino

A canopy of columns, frequently built over an altar. Derived from baldacco, which means silk from Baghdad.

Quadro riportato

A ceiling design in which painted scenes are arranged in panels that resemble framed pictures transferred to the surface of a shallow, curved vault.

Marie de' Medici

A famous royal patron of Ruben who was a member of the famous Florentine house and widow of Henry IV the first Bourbon King of France. Commissioned him to paint huge canvases memorializing her career.

Still Life

A picture depicting an arrangment of inanimate objects.

Thirty Years' War

Between 1562 and 1721 Europe was at peace for a mere 4 years. This was the major conflict between Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. Roots were conflict between Catholics and militant Protestants, but then became secular, dynastic, and nationalistic. Bourbon Dynasty of France, the Habsburg dynasties of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire wanted more power.

Monochromatic

One color

Tenebrism

Painting in the shadowy manner, using violent contrasts of light and dark as in the work of Caravaggio.

Dutch Republic and Flanders

The founding of the Bank Of Amsterdam in 1609 initiates an era of Dutch preeminence in international trade. The Netherlands had come under the brown of Habsburg Spain when Charles V retired leaving Spanish Kingdoms, their Italian and American possessions, and the Netherlandis provinces to his only son, Philip II. His repressive nature against Protestants led the northern provinces to break from Spain and set up the Dutch Republic. Southern Provinces were Flanders.