Mona Lisa to Modernism Exam 1

Renaissance

French, rebirth. The term used to describe history, culture, art of 14th-16th century western Europe during which artists consciously revived classical style.

Saint

From the Latin word sanctus, meaning "made holy by God." Applied to persons who suffered and died for their Christian faith and who merited reverence for their Christian devotion, while alive. Canonized by the pope.

Arcadian

In Renaissance and later art, depictions of an idyllic place of rural peace and simplicity. Derived from Arcadia, an ancient district of the central Peloponnesos in southern Greece

Lustro

In painting, the use of light to reveal texture by how the light reflects off or is absorbed by various surfaces. Gombrich associates lustro especially with fifteenth-century Netherlandish art.

Humanism

In the Renaissance, an emphasis on education and on expanding knowledge, the exploration of individual potential and a desire to excel and a commitment to civic responsibility and moral duty

Capriccio

Italian for originality. One of several terms used in Italian Renaissance literature to praise the originality and talent or artists.

Sfumato

Italian, smoky, a smokelike haziness that subtly softens outlines in painting; particularly applied to the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Correggio

Emulation

Modeling one's art after that of another artist with the goal of innovation and improving upon the ideas of the original

Iconography

"the writing of images;" evaluating the objects represented in a work of art. refers both to the content, or subject, of an artwork and to the study of content in art. It also includes the study of the symbolic, often religious, meaning of objects, persons, or events depicted in works of art.

Foreshortening

use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight

Portico

A structure consisting of a roof supported by columns in regular intervals. a roofed colonnade; also an entrance porch

Idealism

An approach to philosophy that regards mind, spirit, or ideas as the most fundamental kinds of reality, or at least as governing our experience of the ordinary objects in the world.

Perspective (linear and aerial)

a method of presenting an illusion of 3D world on a 2D surface. Linear: most common, all parallel lines or surface edges converge on one, two, or three vanishing points located with reference to the eye level of the viewer, and associated objects are rendered smaller the father from the viewer they are intended to seem. Aerial: creates illusion of distance by greater diminution of color intensity, shift in color toward an almost neutral blue, and blurring of contours as the intended distance between eye and object increases.

Altarpiece

a panel, painted or sculpted, situated above and behind an altar

Mannerism

a style of later Renaissance art that emphasized "artifice," often involving contrived imagery not derived directly from nature. Such artworks showed a self-conscious stylization involving complexity, caprice, fantasy, and polish. Mannerist architecture tends to flout classical rules of order, stability, and symmetry, sometimes to the point of parody.

The Medici family

also known as the House of Medici, first attained wealth and political power in Florence in the 13th century through its success in commerce and banking. Beginning in 1434 with the rise to power of Cosimo de' Medici (or Cosimo the Elder) who founded the first public library since antiquity. The family's support of the arts and humanities made Florence into the cradle of the Renaissance, a cultural flowering rivaled only by that of ancient Greece. The Medicis produced four popes (Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV and Leon XI), and their genes have been mixed into many of Europe's royal families. The last Medici ruler died without a male heir in 1737, ending the family dynasty after almost three centuries.

Imitation

is the doctrine of artistic creativity according to which the creative process should be based on the close imitation of the masterpieces of the preceding authors

Fresco

on lime plaster, either dry or wet. Pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the freshly laid lime plaster.

Donor portraits

portrait of the individuals who commissioned a religious work, for example, an altarpiece, as evidence of devotion

Book of Hours

prayer book for personal use that is commissioned by wealthy people, has liturgical calendar. similar to a breviary, an often extravagantly illuminated book used to recite prayers that replaced the traditional psalters. It contained liturgical passages for different times of day as well as a calendar illustrations

Naturalism

style of painted or sculpted representation based on close observation of the natural world that was at the core of the classical tradition

Italo-Byzantine

the art style inspired by Byzantine artists made in Italy that can be characterized by flat, severe figures, geometric representations of folds and dimension, absence of lights and darks, and heavy use of gold leaf similarities to byzantine as frontal figures, halos, lack of modeling, use of gold leafing and gold backgrounds, floating, -Combined with italian through medieval influence, illuminated manuscripts, stigmata (3 wounds of christ crucification shown on saints) -shifted more towards naturalism and showing figures in their real state, containing more depth, dimension, weight, substance, and perspective

Historia

the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings

Great Schism

the division or conflict in the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417, when there were rival popes at Avignon and Rome. also called Schism of the West.

engraving

the process of incising a design in hard material, often a metal plate (usually copper); also the print or impression made from such a plate