Art History 102 Midterm Works

1308-11. Duccio. Madonna Enthroned, center of the Maestà Altar. Tempera on panel. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

-Byzantine idiom (composition ...) with Gothic sensibility ... ref. fluid drapery, natural figures, interaction among figures -Nb how Duccio begins to convey sense of individual personality among saints through facial features and expression ... Central panel 7' x 13' ... Churchgoers can imagine themselves joining with saint ... saints as intercessors - we can pray to saints (especially to BVM) to gain access thereby to Jesus and God (much like a court of justice ...)

1475-6 (ca). Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi. Tempera on panel. Uffizi.

Botticelli born about 1445 in Florence - apprenticed as goldsmith ... Then with Filippo Lippi - own studio by mid-1470s ... Only one of his paintings is dated, though others can be dated from other records with varying degrees of certainty, and the development of his style traced with confidence. He was an independent master for all the 1470s, growing in mastery and reputation, and the 1480s were his most successful decade, when all his large mythological paintings were done, and many of his best Madonnas. Adoration painted for Sta Maria Novella

1330-36. Andrea Pisano. South doors, baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. Bronze.

In 1330's Andrea Pisano commissioned to make bronze reliefs for South doors ... LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST ... Quatrefoil frame is common Gothic deco motif - figures stand separately, little sense of illusionistic space ... Straightforward - just tell the story - emphasis on the divine interaction

1482.Pietro Perugino, Delivery of the Keys. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican

Later example by Perugino but clear example of experimenting with new system devised by Brunelleschi, called "scientific or linear perspective" Enables artist to build a "box of space" on 2D by measuring recession via orthogonals VERSUS INTUITIVE APPROACH Presumes the presence of a viewer - plan is calculated from viewer's location ... Enables artist to adjust viewpoint based on shift vantage point of assumed viewer Artist then arranges figures and structures on spatial plane as if a chess board ...

1395-1406. Claus Sluter. The Well of Moses. Stone. Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France.

Well head symbolized blood of Christ "washing" grieving angels and prophets (like baptism) - and redemption for all who drank from the well Well recognized as masterpiece from early date - 1418 papal legate grants indulgence to whomever visits it ... Sculpture is a fragment - originally surmounted by cross, as in example on right - recent scholarship indicates that this was a cross with figure of Mary Magdalen at the base ... Six OT prophets who foretold the death of Jesus à "like six voices rising up to the cross" ...

1259-60. Nicola Pisano. Pulpit. Marble. Baptistery Pisa.

- Marble - Baptisitery -Controppasto -Lack of expression -Good sense of anatomy -Proportional

1302-10. Giovanni Pisano. Nativity, detail of pulpit. Marble. Pisa cathedral

- Nicola looks back to Rome - but Giovanni, 50 years later is more interested in natural surroundings: flora and fauna ... How the Holy family lived within the world ...slimmer, more elegant proportions ... recall Gothic elegance in France ... CONSTANT DIALOGUES - BORROWING ...

1280-90 (ca). Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned. Tempera. Uffizi Gallery, Florence

-Also the Santa Trinità Maestà -Divinity Hierarchy of scale -Flat because it's gold -Depth in the outfits -Lack of individuality -The saints below are from the old testament -Mary and Jesus are highlighted by the throne -Mary is depicted as the "seat of wisdom" & "Mary the Mother of God" -Pre-figuration -12 ft

1508-11. Raphael. The School of Athens. Fresco. Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome

-Setting up Vatican / Papacy as center of knowledge of the complimentary/intertwined branches of modern learning -PATH TO TRUTH REPRESENTS A BALANCE BETWEEN SECULAR PHILOSOPHY and INQUIRY INFORMED BY FAITH & REVELATION -ONE -- Ancient Greek philosophers and scientists portrayed ... -NB PERSPECTIVE ... Proportions of figures - color scheme ...

1305-06. Giotto. The Lamentation, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua.

-Christ's death -The collaboration of heaven and earth -Unique because of the various positions -Expression: curiosity and anguish -Landscape -The halos signify divine figures -Jesus is pale and weak, showing him more as human than divine -Expression with the angels -Lack of individuality -Vibrant -Note juxtaposition of OT episode (Jonah and whale ...) -> foreshadows the resurrection ... absence of superfluous detail allows the unexaggerated gestures of the participants to register with full dramatic force. The space is legible and coherent, the forms within it tactile, weighty, and active.

1420s-60s (ca). Donatello. David. Bronze. Bargello Museum, Florence. 62 in. high

-Compare to Donatello's - adult male - more explicitly classical -Nb no head of Goliath - implies watchful for any and all threats -Unlike Leonardo, M studied with leading humanist philosophers - becomes an accomplished poet (like Lorenzo, his mentor) -M's youth embodies the revived independent Florentine republic -FIRST NUDE TO BE CARVED @ THIS SCALE SINCE ANTIQUITY

Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Ghent Altarpiece (open), Completed 1432. Oil on panel. Church of St. Bavo, Ghent,

-Complex iconography Painting meant to be read - much like prayer book ... viewer must focus carefully and sequentially ... VISION of Earthly Paradise - lamb on altar symbolizes Jesus as paschal lamb (sacrifice) ... Church as institution and as gateway to heaven ...

1472-5 (ca). Leonardo, Annunciation. Oil [and tempera]. Uffizi.

-Earliest known work 1472 - L listed as member of Company of St Luke. Painting thought to have been started by Verrocchio - finished by L - scholars still trying to figure out who did what ... -TRADITIONAL COMPOSITION & CONTENT - Hortus Conclusus -HOW LEONARDO INNOVATES IN PAINTING ... experiments with new oil technique - careful study of plants and anatomy ref paintings composed according to principles of organic growth -USING OIL - recent analysis indicates oil throughout... -LILY IS SYMBOL OF FLORENCE

1290 (?) it began. Artist unknown. St. Francis Preaching to the Birds. Fresco. Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi.

-Flat -He is divine (i.e. his halo) -Nature -Portrays a moment of his life -Humans & nature are just as divine -No expression -Lack of depth -Validating interest in nature ... world is not sinful ... devout human can establish a special connection with nature ... But nb that artist does not provide especially detailed view of the landscape setting ... -TRANSITIONAL RELIGIOUS POLITICS -> Mendicants - Francis as interesting example of charismatic preacher - populist, but memory exploited as EXEMPLARY CHRISTIAN/CATHOLIC ... - POPULISM - CONNECTION WITH THE PEOPLE (versus hidden in monasteries ...) PREACHING AS IMPORTANT ACTIVITY -> Denounces worldly goods ... finds inspiration and spiritual fulfillment in nature - legend

Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Completed 1432. Oil on panel. Church of St. Bavo, Ghent, Belgium.

-Greatest work is Ghent Altarpiece for St. Bavo - commissioned by Jodicus Vijd - portrayed on exterior with wife Elizabeth Borluut... Opened only on high feast days

1483-88 (ca). Andrea del Verrocchio. Equestrian Monument of Colleoni.

-Interest in antiquity brought by artists - as with Donatello, hired by Paduan authorities to commemorate Gattamelata, Verrocchio hired by Venetians in 1483 (after competition) ... (Colleoni was rival of Montefeltro) -Had spent most of career in service to the Medici - undertaking major commissions of both public art and private pieces (including a David) ... -Dies just after completing clay model for Colleoni - statue is cast -Not a portrait ...Compare to "calm command" of the Donatello - contained energy ... TWISTING FIGURE - SCALE OF FIGURE TO HORSE

1513-15 (ca). Moses. Marble. San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

-M summoned to Rome by Julius II (elected pope in 1503 ...) -Initially Julius wants M to design and execute tomb (thinking ahead!!!) -Planned for new Saint Peter's - massive structure -most complex sculptural program ever attempted ... FREE STANDING combination and integration of sculpture and architecture -Ref to Roman imperial funerary monuments - Julius sees self as heir to Julius Caesar -M works on it for 40 years off and on ... (only Moses used for actual tomb (and Julius isn't actually there) never finishes In part b/c Julius dies in 1513 ... sculptures dispersed and/or unfinished

1498 (ca.). Michelangelo. Pietà. Marble. St. Peter's, Rome

-M. to Rome after Medici exile in 1494 (Piero) -Commissioned by French cardinal for funerary chapel in St. Peter's -M's amazing ability to describe contrasting surfaces and textures - translucency of marble lends itself to translucency of skin ... -Pathos - emotion - but achieved through close observation of human physicality -Importance of access to materials - CARRARA is ca 70 miles NW of Florence - still the world's greatest source of carveable/malleable marble Legend that M. hides & carves name in belt when he heard it had been credited to another artist - FACIEBAT (Pliny on Praxiteles) IN PROCESS

Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi. Foundation stone laid in 1228 by Pope Gregory IX; consecrated in 1253

-Made after Francis Assisi -Was started 2 years after he died -He found the Franciscan Order -He preached to anyone -COMPARE TO frescoes from this church -> celebrate ordinary man who found God, who was not a divinity -> built after Francis's death in 1226 à foundation stone laid in 1228 by Gregory IX; consecrated in 1253 by Innocent IV -> alliances between successive popes and mendicant orders ... -Take vows of poverty but build elaborate churches - to gather laity; to preach - spaces of reconciliation before death ...

1310 (ca). Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna. Tempera on panel. Uffizi, Florence

-More depth -More individualism -More sense of space as shown with the angels

SCROVEGNI (Arena) CHAPEL, Padua. Fresco cycle by GIOTTO completed in 1305

-Private Chapel -No exterior design -Was built on the arena chapel -Completely covered in paintings inside -Water-based pigment is painted onto a lime-plaster surface that makes it become one with the building -Portrays Jesus and Mary -Chapel is fairly unprepossessing building THOUGH built next to new Scrovegni family palace (demolished) ... Called "Arena" because built on site of ruined Roman amphitheater ... (acquired by city of Padua in 1880s) -On the two lateral walls, the three tiers of scenes for the most part neatly cover six sections of the narrative

1506 (ca). Raphael. Madalena Doni. Oil on panel. Galleria Palatina, Florence

-Raphael absorbs lessons from older artists -Leonardo in Florence at turn of century when Mona Lisa commissioned -Note pose of Doni, landscape - engagement with viewer

1434. Jan van Eyck. The "Arnolfini Portrait". Oil on panel. National Gallery, London.

-Strong vertical positioning of figures conveys sense of stability Symmetry also conveys balance, order Saturated but muted color Light source from window illuminates faces and emphasizes volume Meticulous drawing of figures and contents of room reflects attention to perception and desire to record appearances with accuracy Similar attention to rendering of texture in fabrics, fur, furniture ... Proportions are odd - figures too big for the room? -Even secular portrait has devotional implications ... Scholars now stumped by this painting - who is it? Why? Again, BOX OF SPACE - EVERY OBJECT CARRIES MEANING SO MUST BE RENDERED CAREFULLY AND ACCURATELY...

1308-11. Duccio. Maestà Altar. Tempera on panel. Dispersed polyptych.

-Tempera on panel -More beautiful than the last -Made because they were convinced Mary interfered to help them -Transitional: gold, flat, lack of expression -Starting to introduce individuality -Hierarchy of scale -Life of Mary on front / Christ on the back

1305-6. The Last Judgement. Fresco. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

-This is what people saw as they left -Mandorla around God -Heaven vs Hell -A way to convince people or scare them into staying faithful -Hierarchy of scale -Satan is literally consuming the damned -Propaganda -Vibrancy What do we see as we leave? -- the Last Judgement -> Scrovegni reminding visitors that all shall encounter God's judgment at death... Complex symbolic composition - some elements still awkward but looks forward to future treatments ... Angels rolling back walls of heaven... BLUE!!! -> ultramarine ... lapis lazuli ... most expensive pigment b/c of complex refining to get purest color -> typically used for BVM's robes IRONY OF HUMAN INTENTION -> penance for wealth, but ADVERTISES that wealth throughout his penance (contrast to Francis ...) -ordered blue applied on SECCO plaster to preserve brilliance so its actually flaked faster The arrangement with the large Last Judgment on the entrance wall and long narrative biblical sequence on the sides, reflects the Italian version of Byzantine church decoration.

1305-6. Giotto. Christ Entering Jerusalem. Fresco. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

-Vibrant -Monumental mass -Developing light & shadow -Starting to paint reactions -Halos -Hierarchy of scale with Christ -Painted like the people are in a play -Lack of depth with the landscape -The people in the trees are trying to get a better look -The woman covering her head is doing so as a tribute -God is incorporated into the halos and gowns -The background was made of lapis which is from Afghanistan -The lapis was a way to show off money

1409-16/17 (ca). Nanni di Banco. Quattro Coronati (Four Saints). Marble. Orsanmichele, Florence

Architecture and sculpture interconnected - sculpture as crucial public art form ... Oratory of Saint Michael - built in 1330s as market and grain storage ... Niches along street level adopted by different guilds Design of many niches reflects Gothic date of initial construction ...

1472 (ca). Piero della Francesca, Virgin and Child with Saints, called the Brera Altarpiece. Tempera and oil on panel. Brera, Milan

Better example of Piero's mastery is this painting ... Nb recession (diagram) Classical details - barrel & coffered vault; corinthian pilasters; shell niche Note how perspective is anchored by the EGG (symbol of Mary's fecundity; regeneration) SACRA CONVERSAZIONE: Saints John the Baptist, Bernardine of SIena, Jerome, Francis of Assisi, Peter Martyr, and John the Evangelist, Four Angels, and Federico da Montefeltro Commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro. The painting comes from the church of San Bernardino in Urbino, which houses Federico da Montefeltro's tomb. May commemorate birth of Guidobaldo - death of Battista Sforza

1413-16. Limbourg Brothers. July page, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Watercolor on vellum. Musee Condé, Chantilly

Book of Hours like a digest of prayers - for lay people - could be customized for the owner - often a wedding present Available in many formats - "price ranges" Book of Hours like a digest of prayers - for lay people - could be customized for the owner - often a wedding present •Calendar of Church Feasts •Gospel excerpts •Prayers to the Virgin Mary •Psalms •Prayers to Saints •Office for the Dead •Hours of the Cross

1435 (ca). Lorenzo Ghiberti. The Story of Jacob and Esau, panel of the Gates of Paradise, Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence.

Both bronze reliefs; both OT stories; both commissioned by the Wool Merchants Guild But structure of image is entirely different ... arrangement on perspectival plane versus piling up; creation of fictive "environment" into which viewer can enter ... Michelangelo called Ghiberti's new doors The Gates of Paradise ...

1423. Gentile da Fabriano. Adoration of the Magi. Tempera on panel. Painted for Sacristy of Santa Trinità - now at Uffizi, Florence.

By comparison with more sustained reference to ancient Rome in sculpture, painting at this time still in tune with International Gothic style Wealthy Italians, like courtiers in northern Europe attracted to complex and intricate images and structures - emphasis on play of line and light across surfaces Strozzi family commission this from Gentile for church of Sta Trinita Richness of Magi = courtiers ... Crowded of figures produces opportunity for lively play of line and shape Rich textures - in costume as well as gilded frame ... Space is deep and comprehensible, though still described by piling up forms ... intuitive rather than calculated ... FIGURES CREATE THE SPACE

1425 (ca). Masaccio. The Tribute Money. Fresco.

CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE ... Roman tax collector (the figure in the foreground in a short orange tunic and no halo) demands tax money from Christ and the twelve apostles who don't have the money to pay. Christ (in the center, wearing a pinkish robe gathered in at the waist, with a blue toga-like wrap) points to the left, and says to Peter "so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours" (Matthew 17:27). Christ performed a miracle—and the apostles have the money to pay the tax collector. In the center of the fresco

1425-30 (ca). Robert Campin and workshop. Mérode Triptych. Oil on oak. Metropolitan Museum.

Campin give s us sense of seeing through the canvas into a logical box of space - objects are to scale, and sit within receding space ... -> The donors' portraits enable us to share devotion... Light falls in logical and consistent fashion ... BUT nb detail - every object has meaning ... WORLDLY SPACE (donors) / DIVINE SPACE / WORDLY SPACE (Joseph) MOUSETRAP St. Augustine, considering the redemption of man by Christ's sacrifice, employs the metaphor of the mousetrap to explain the necessity of the incarnation. The human flesh of Christ is a bait for the devil who, in seizing it, brings about his own ruin.

Michelangelo. The Fall of Man and The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Cf relationship of figures and painted architecture ... Ignudi - nude adolescents set between prophets and sibyls - variously interpreted as angels or symbols of the rational soul But also used visually to mask the join between upper zones - ie they link the ceiling to scenes below ...

1478 before. Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece. Oil on panel. Accademia, Venice

Commissioned by the Confraternity of Saint Job - these groups tended to support innovative work more than aristocrats Mosaic dome does evoke continuity with Byzantium ... But traditional Venetian altarpiece are multi-paneled ... Bellini here consolidates into single niche space Space continues space of church Light entering @ right + architecture heightens sense of reality SACRA CONVERSAZIONE - Holy Conversation Saint Francis, John Baptist, Job, St Anthony Abbott, St Stephen Church was Franciscan; built after plague

1465-74. Andrea Mantegna. Camera Picta - Ducal Palace, Mantua.

Courtly patronage ... Duke of Mantua Mantegna spends most of career at the court of the Gonzaga in Mantua Paints fresco cycle in Ducal bedroom & audience chamber that references new approaches to rendering of political imagery - and how perspective is enabling painters to break through the surface of the wall... GLORIFY THE FAMILY ... Uses architecture of room to structure the narrative ... moving beyond in direction laid out by Masaccio ... Exact subject still unclear - may celebrate son's election as Cardinal NB no specific EVENT is depicted - just daily life

1480-1515 (ca). Hieronymous Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights (wings open). Oil on panel. Prado, Madrid

Creation - pursuits of man after exile from paradise - Paradise/Earth/Hell ...

1445-50. Donatello. Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata. Bronze. Piazza del Santo, Padua.

Donatello as leading sculptor of his generation - hired by patrons throughout Italy, ie in Venice for Gattamelata Condottiere - mercenary soldiers often hired by city states (in lieu of having to pay for a standing army) Attention to Roman sources - Marcus Aurelius - riding in triumph as funerary memorial ... Baton of commander Ongoing conversation with ancient sculpture - NB TECHNICAL CHALLENGE REF HOW TO BALANCE MASSIVE BRONZE HORSE AND FIGURE ... Attention to detail - portrait likeness ... armor and bridle etc.

Jan Van Eyck, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Oil on vellum. 5 x 5 ¾ inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art

During a forty-day fast in the wilderness, Francis of Assisi had a vision in which he received the wounds of the crucified Christ, who here appears held aloft by a seraph. Although Jan van Eyck positioned the scene in the rocky mountain of the legend, in a bravura display of his microscopic technique, he included a bustling Netherlandish city in the distance. May have been "exemplum" - carried about to advertise new technique

1588 (ca). George Gower, The Armada Portrait. Oil on canvas. Woburn Abbey.

Elizabeth engineers effective personal imagery Positions self as the Virgin Queen who is the embodiment of her realm ... England in midst of political and religious wars -- Elizabeth reaffirms Prot hegemony and is fortunate that Philip II's Armada of 1588 run into storms ... Here memorialized in so-called Armada portrait - note elaborate costume and jewelry - she literally wears the (purported) wealth of her kingdom ... She controls the globe ... -- stiff frontality offsets any human weakness ...

1510-20 (ca). Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael. The Judgment of Paris. Engraving. Yale University.

Example of Raphael exploiting engraving as means of disseminating his own celebrity via his designs ... Drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo and others increasingly sought after by collectors ... So R uses engraving to showcase his ability as a draughtsman and designer as well as knowledge of antique sources - based on sarcophagus relief "reinterpreted" by R ... CHARACTERS ALL IDENTIFIABLE STORY OF JUDGEMENT OF PARIS -- Wedding of Peleus and Thetis to which all of the gods were invited, all except Eris, the goddess of discord. When she appeared at the festivities, she was turned away, and in her anger cast a golden apple amongst the assembled "To the Fairest." Three goddesses laid claim --Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Zeus commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris of Troy to decide the issue. He chose Aphrodite, swayed by her promise to bestow upon him Helene, the most beautiful woman, for his wife. The subsequent abduction of Helene led directly to the Trojan War and the fall of the city.

1410-20 (ca). Donatello. St. George. Marble.

Fortunately commissions not initiated til first ¼ of 15th century when community of sculptors thriving Unusual coming together of very talented individuals ... Thing to consider is how the sculptor attacks the problem of figure in a niche - contained yet outward looking Patron saints or admired religious figures for guilds ... How to identify the figure so passers-by will recognize easily ... Nanni tackles particular challenge - four figures in niche ... not surprising that this was for Guild of Wood & Stone Carvers - Echoes of Roman sculpture EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYR-SCULPTORS (refused to make pagan idol for Emperor) Donatello more echoes of International Gothic in sinuous curves but massive figures ... NOTE HOW DRAPERY SHOWS ANATOMY ...

1411-13 (ca). Donatello. St. Mark. Marble.

Fortunately commissions not initiated til first ¼ of 15th century when community of sculptors thriving Unusual coming together of very talented individuals ... Thing to consider is how the sculptor attacks the problem of figure in a niche - contained yet outward looking Patron saints or admired religious figures for guilds ... How to identify the figure so passers-by will recognize easily ... Nanni tackles particular challenge - four figures in niche ... not surprising that this was for Guild of Wood & Stone Carvers - Echoes of Roman sculpture EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYR-SCULPTORS (refused to make pagan idol for Emperor) Donatello more echoes of International Gothic in sinuous curves but massive figures ... NOTE HOW DRAPERY SHOWS ANATOMY ...

1440-45 (ca). Fra Angelico. Annunciation. Fresco. San Marco Museum, Florence.

Fra was Dominican - moved to new monastery in Florence - meets Cosimo de'Medici who had cell in convent for prayer -- encourages him to decorate convent spaces (Annuciation is at top of stairs leading to cells) Example of artist borrowing from different trends - combining to achieve singular style and approach Delicate sinuous figures are ref International Gothic But carefully measured box of space of loggia reflects Angelico's knowledge of perspective ... Angel's features still pretty generic, but more sense of individualism/personality in face of Virgin ...

1485 (ca). Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Venus. Tempera on canvas. Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Greek scholars flee Ottoman overthrowal of Constantinople and end of Byzantine empire in 1453 Cosimo de'Medici hires scholars ... Ficino studies with Greek scholar Cosimo wants to revive Plato's Academy - 1462 - gives Ficino copies of Plato's treatises - Ficino translates into Latin (published 1484) Ficino's student Poliziano translates passages from Iliad; publishes commentaries on Virgil Poliziano's "conscious adoption of a new standard of accuracy and precision" enabled him "to prove that his scholarship was something new, something distinctly better than that of the previous generation":

1479-85. Giovanni Bellini, Saint Francis in the Desert. Oil on panel. Frick Collection, New York

Leading painter of late 15th/early 16th century was Giovanni Bellini (born about 1450) ... Close study of natural world - influence from northern artists ref technique and rendering of detail Still within religious context Landforms are rather additive - some sense of space but rather airless ... Figure still placed in foreground saint who is also a man, and of a world that is divine, but also not

1508-12. Michelangelo. Studies for the Libyan Sibyl. Red chalk. Metropolitan Museum.

M among artists whose working drawings have survived ... Study from the model to develop figures ... not COPIED per se, but adapted from close study of reality ... Nb M's palette - bright intense hues revealed with cleaning in 1980s: juxtaposed colors versus blended ... ...

1482 (ca). Sandro Botticelli. Primavera. Tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Mercury appears in one of two paintings likely commissioned by Medici family members or associates... May explain extremely shallow ledge of space in Botticelli's composition ... tapestry-like Iconography complex - still not fully deciphered - requires knowledge of classical sources - as adapted by humanist scholars ORANGE TREES - "mala medica" (medicinal apple)- ref to Medici Mercury / Hours / Venus+Cupid/Flora/Zephyr & Chloris Laurel trees - Laura - Lorenzo (homophone) Botticelli invents new kind of monumental painting (nb painting is 6' x 9')

Right wall of Brancacci Chapel, Florence, with frescoes by Masaccio, Masolino and Filippo Lippi, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence

Multiple artists ... Masolino and Filippo Lippi Note how surface of wall opens out - fictive architecture provides implicit frame - versus cartoon frames/panels of Giotto ... Brunelleschi's invention an outgrowth of urban living - ie close observation of how eye perceives buildings receding in space ... Or a straight road ... Here playing with perspective in architecture and landscape setting ... Nb how figures are more sculptural - drapery defines anatomy - looking at Donatello et al... ECHOES OF GIOTTO ... Nb multiple episodes in one "tableau"

1394-99. Melchior Broederlam. Infancy of Christ panels, wings of the altarpiece of the Chartreuse de Champmol. Tempera on panel. Musee des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum) Dijon

Nb multiple episodes within a single panel frame Like Sluter is constrained by required stories - from NT Romanesque - Gothic architectural elements signal Hebrew bible / New Testament Scale is not always consistent depth indicated by piling things up on each other and by reducing size of figures (ref Duccio) Nb attention to fine detail plus use of gold and ultramarine signal wealth of patron - also commissioned by Duke of Burgundy ...

1507. Raphael. La Belle Jardinière (The Beautiful Gardener). Oil on panel. Louvre, Paris

New weightier proportions extend to paintings of Mary -- Raphael as leading innovator of Marian images ... Mary with Jesus and John the Baptist ... -Figures fill canvas space -Anatomy is more realistic - proportions; movement and poses of bodies -Homey, domestic interaction - boys and mother -Naturalistic landscape in background - figures still sit at picture plane but landscape opens space into a recognizable "place" -Fall of light comes from the landscape

1509/10-15 (ca). Matthias Grünewald. The Annunciation; Madonna and Child with Angels; The Resurrection. Open view of the Isenheim Altarpiece. Oil on panel. Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar, France.

OPEN On feast days, esp. to BVM Complex interworkings of architectural stage sets ... Cycle of Salvation - Incarnation to Nativity to Resurrection Nb heroic anatomy of X ... ALSACE - back and forth between France & Germany ...

1425 (ca). Masaccio. The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors. Fresco (now detached). Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Other painters are experimenting with a new approach to rendering 3D space on 2D developed and applied by group of artists in Florence by 1420s Here illustrated in Holy Trinity ... Masaccio uses same delicate forms as Gentile, but inserts figures into complex fictive barrel-vaulted chapel ... Funeral memorial - ref skeleton at base "What I once was, you are; what I am, you will become ..." Recession calculated by square coffers of the vault and measured diminution of columns ... Figures occupy space but do not create it - as with Gentile

1474 (ca). Piero della Francesca. Double Portrait of Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro. Oil and tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Other paintings explore more innovative subjects Emergence of mythology as subject matter for large-scale imagery ... Ancient paintings very rare - some knowledge of vase painting Myth of Venus born from the sea ... Pose of goddess greeted by the winds adapted from Venus Pudica type ... New kind of courtly art, aligned with love poetry written by Italian humanists in Lorenzo's circle ... called NEO-PLATONISTS ...

1455-60. Piero della Francesco, Flagellation. Oil and tempera on board. Ducal Palace, Urbino

Piero della Francesca, from central Italy, paints portraits of Montefeltro and wife ... successful condottiere for various rulers, including (at different points in time), Florentines, Milanese, and the pope ... Ruler of Urbino - Marches district shown in background ... Paintings are important: Pendant portraits - may be tribute to beloved second wife ...

1496. Gentile Bellini, Procession of the True Cross in St. Mark's Square. Tempera on canvas. Accademia, Venice

Principal public monument is Basilica of Saint Mark (evangelist's body brought to Venice in 9th century) ... Palace of the Doge ... Art in Venice retains Byzantine influence - looks to Byzantium for civic imagery - ie 4 horses taken from Constantinople in 4th Crusade (1204) on front of St Marks Importance of civic organizations - confraternities also known as "Schools" like the Elks or the Shriners, engaged in charitable works but also politically (and culturally influential) 1366 the Patriarch of Constantinople gave a fragment of the True Cross to Filippo de Mézières of Cyprus, who in turn donated it in 1369 to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, a charitable confraternity founded in Venice in 1261. Relic is held in a small crystal caplet supported by angels that surmount a rock crystal and gilded silver cross decorated in turn with Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and angels. VENETIANS LOVE ANECDOTE ... Relic had cured man's child - happened in 1444: knelt during procession and when back home boy cured

1401-03. Filippo Brunelleschi. The Sacrifice of Isaac. Bronze. Bargello Museum, Florence

Project to install doors 7 decades later on NORTH side prompts competition Both artists trained as goldsmiths - ie practiced in metal work - casting etc. COMPARISON ... Both are Sacrifice of Isaac - both in bronze Retain Gothic quatrefoil ... Ghiberti arranges narrative around edges - activated AND CONTAINED by quatrefoil ... figure of Isaac very classical - TECHNICAL EXPERTISE - cast in single piece Brunelleschi focuses on Angel/Abraham interaction - figure of Isaac less successful Note what he's doing with foreshortened servant ...

1401-03. Lorenzo Ghiberti. The Sacrifice of Isaac. Bronze. Bargello Museum, Florence

Project to install doors 7 decades later on NORTH side prompts competition Both artists trained as goldsmiths - ie practiced in metal work - casting etc. COMPARISON ... Both are Sacrifice of Isaac - both in bronze Retain Gothic quatrefoil ... Ghiberti arranges narrative around edges - activated AND CONTAINED by quatrefoil ... figure of Isaac very classical - TECHNICAL EXPERTISE - cast in single piece Brunelleschi focuses on Angel/Abraham interaction - figure of Isaac less successful Note what he's doing with foreshortened servant ...

1438 (ca). Paolo Uccello. Battle of San Romano. Tempera and silver foil on panel. National Gallery, London

Rooms in Medici palace decorated to advertise Medici power and conflation with Florence itself FLORENCE vs SIENA-1432 acquires Pollaiuolo to decorate apartments of young Lorenzo heir apparent / takes over in 1469 @ age 20 ... accomplished scholar and poet ... By the age of twelve, the young Medici was reading Latin, studying Ovid and Dante; at sixteen, he was writing poems of his own, in his native Tuscan, using precisely the rules of rhetoric, and the Petrarchan style. J. R. Hale goes as far as to say that he was one of the "major literary figure between Petrarch and Ariosto and the only man to figure in popular anthologies who was also head of a bank and of a state[1][6]". In addition he was said to be a good musician, Nb this kind of subject typically displayed in civic buildings that this shows battle as event not as allegory(as with Lorenzetti) celebrating the exploits of local heroes ...)

1508-12. Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam. Portion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Sistine was pope's private chapel, but once word of the frescoes gets out by 1512, artists clamor to see them - and copy them ...

1505. Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Saints. Oil on panel. San Zaccaria, Venice

Space does not continue church - addition of landscape Rendering of light and shadow ... Figures set back farther in space - evocative use of shadow

1508-12. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican, Rome.

Think back to fresco cycles we've seen already - and how M's Sistine frescoes represent momentous leap into new territory ref relationship of painting to architecture and how our yes perceive illusionistic space - and how these design structure the visual narrative ... M conceives ceiling as imaginary architectural structure -- creates three distinct zones of figurative painting -- hierarchy of subjects, formulated by iconography, organized by architecture

Mary of Burgundy Painter. Page with Mary at Her Devotions, from the Hours of Mary of Burgundy. ca. 1480 (before 1482). Colors and ink on parchment. Austrian National Library, Vienna

Time moved differently in this era - ruled by seasons / agriculture ... Books of Hours reflect the integration of sacred and secular - nobles could indulge in material goods but still pursue devotions ... Nb this woman can READ ... Various kinds of prayer books to facilitate prayer and meditation - eg psalter ... Image of BVM as if real / but also in the mind ...

1509/10-15 (ca). Matthias Grünewald. St. Sebastian; The Crucifixion; St. Anthony Abbot predella: Lamentation. Isenheim Altarpiece (closed). Oil on panel. Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar, France.

important German painting Painted for monastery church of St Anthony in Colmar - hospital ... monks treat victims of St. Anthony's Fire (ERGOT - fungus on grain) ... Familiar iconography - crucified Christ - nb Magdalen ... Baptist and Lamb continuity from works like Ghent altarpiece SEBASTIAN - X - St Anthony St John Baptist there - announcing the Messiah Tortured body of Christ ref St. Bridget's visions (publ. in 1501-2 in German) - ALSO shared suffering with patients (baths, amputations to combat gangrene) ... Lamentation ... NB patients pray to saints (plague) for intercessor/support