FLEMISH 15TH C. PAINTING

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FLEMISH 15TH C. PAINTING

• subject human being and the world around him/her
  as a reflection of, or in relation to the Divine
• style/form EMPIRICAL ART- depiction of a visual
  detail not interested in underlying structure
  or the rules that govern the world but only in an
  EXACT APPEARANCE of things (i.e., surface
  realism) based on detailed careful empirical
  observations. DISQUISED SYMBOLISM i.e.,
  almost all objects have symbolic meaning beyond
  their immediate appearance.

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key concepts

• slow shift from Theocratic God-oriented view of
  the world to the human-centered world
  (increasingly materialistically oriented
  culture).
• NOT a revolutionary rebirth (Renaissance) of
  antiquity as in Italy, but instead, a gradual
  evolution based on Gothic style.

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Painting (Manuscript Illumination)

• Limbourg Brothers Tres Riches Heures de duc de
  Berry, before 1416, prayer book
• Calendar pages often combined with the
  labors-of-the-month scenes typical activities in
  a landscape. Later lead to the development of
  genre scenes (i.e., scenes from everyday life)
• February 440
• May

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Painting

• Robert Campin (akka, Master of Flemale) Mrode
  Altarpiece c.1425-28 TRIPTYCH, HORROR VACUI,
  EXTERNAL EXACTNESS, microscopic-telescopic
  visionDISGUISED SYMBOLISM - everything has a
  religious meaning (double meaning), almost a game
  in which all details and actions are connected
  with Christs mission of salvation, etc. Worldly
  existence is synchronized with the divine
  plan.

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Painting cont.

• Jan van Eyck c.1370-1441often seen as the
  inventor of the OIL PAINTING technique which
  allows for luminous effects. Arnolfinis Wedding
  1434 438 Madonna of Chancellor Rolin 1433-4
  191

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ITALIAN EARLY RENAISSANCE ART

• subject religion, and occasionally some subjects
  derived from antiquity (mythology etc.)
• style/forms 15th c.was a period of
  experimentation combining Classical antiquity,
  International Gothic, observations of Nature and
  scientific interests.
• key concept rebirth of the ideals (not just
  forms) of antiquity. This in art meant not mere
  copying of the surviving models, but an attempt
  to recreate the principles of harmony,
  proportions, illusionism etc. Very rule
  oriented, in order to understand the underlying
  principles governing Nature.

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Perspective

• Unlike the North, NOT interested in mere exact
  appearance of the surface of the things but in
  the perfection of the STRUCTURE.
• ONE POINT SCIENTIFIC/MATHEMATICAL PERSPECTIVE
  mathematical/geometric abstraction of reality
  simulating a measurable 3-D space on 2-D surface.
  (ORTHOGONALS, TRANSVERSALS, VANISHING
  POINT)Influenced by HUMANISM.

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Early Italian Renaissance Sculpture

• Donatello 1386-1466David (bronze) c.1440s?
  first free-standing nude since antiquity (private
  patronage) 427 Mary Magdalen 428

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Early Italian Renaissance Painting

• Masaccio 1401-1428 Brancacci chapel frescoes,
  The Tribute Money CHIAROSCURO, FORESHORTENING
  builds upon the ideas introduced by Giotto, but
  they are organized and expanded, the rules of
  nature now govern the whole structure of the
  painting
• The Trinity, 1428 426 truly measurable
  space, very logical structure
• Later generations reintroduced emotion and grace
• Sandro Botticelli 1445-1510 Birth of Venus
  c.1482 429 MYTHOLOGY

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ITALIAN HIGH RENAISSANCE PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

• subject same as earlier Renaissance, but
  mythology more common in Venice, more sensuous
  subjects in combination with landscape
• style/forms perfect harmony between form and
  content (i.e., the perfection of the form
  expresses the perfection of the meaning Nature
  is idealized and controlled) use of
  pyramidal composition (stable, balanced, etc.)

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key concept

• reconciliation between seeming opposites
  physical description and expression of a state of
  spirit, and reconciliation of the newly
  discovered material world with its inheritance of
  Christianity.
• Scientific exploration of the natural reality in
  order to be able to express perfect beauty
  through manipulation of the understood reality.
  Nature is only a point of departure, something
  to be recreated on higher level.

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Central Italy

• Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 433 The Infant and
  Womb 430 Five Grotesgue Heads 21 Last
  Supper c.1495-98 432 La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)
  c.1503-5 431
• Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564 434 (also
  172) Pietà, 1498-99 132 (cf.133) David,
  1501-4 435 cf. Doryphoros cf. Donatellos
  David Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Creation of
  Adam, 1508-1512 436 LINEAR STYLE

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Central-Italian High Renaissance cont.

• Raphael 1483-1520
• Sistine Madonna 1512 437 (also 126)
• Stanza della Segnatura, The School of Athens
  (Philosophy), 1509-11 82
• High Renaissance in Venice
• Titian 1588-1576
• Pastoral Concert 1512
• Venus of Urbino 1538
• Rape of Europa c.1559-62 (POESIE) PAINTERLY,
  IMPASTO, GLAZES

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RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE

• High Renaissance Architecture completely rule
  oriented!
• Andrea Palladio 1508-80 Villa Rotonda
  441 cf. Pantheon

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MANNERISM

• subjects often arcane, difficult,
  intellectualized and/or emotionally charged (but
  the emotion is aestheticized, i.e., the viewer
  is not truly emotionally engaged in the depicted
  scene but in the look of it)
• style/forms strained, artificial, unnatural
  stylized forms following NOT nature but the art
  of the High Renaissance.
• key elements aristocratic elegance, reflecting
  the emotional turmoil of Reformation and
  Counter-Reformation

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MANNERISM

• Pontormo, Deposition
• Michelangelo, Last Judgment (Sistine Chapel)
  1534-41
• Parmigianino 1503-40 Madonna with the Long Neck
  1534-40 cf. Raphael
• Paolo Veronese 1528-88 Feast in the House of
  Levi (Last Supper) c.1573,
• Jacopo Tintoretto 1518-94Last Supper 1592-94 442
  cf. Leonardo

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GERMAN FLEMISH 16TH C. PAINTING

• subject religion, moralizing genre painting,
  landscape
• style/forms based on personal preference ranging
  from almost Medieval (Gothic) revival to almost
  Italian Renaissance
• key elements response to humanism, Italian
  Renaissance, Reformation and religious upheavals
  diminishing art production in the Protestant
  areas, periods of iconoclasm (destruction of
  images).

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German Painting

• Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528 a key personality
  brought Italian Renaissance to the North and
  incorporated it into Northern idiom and thus
  making it accessible to Northern artists.
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse c.1497-98
  WOODCUT
• Adam and Eve (The Fall of Man) 1504 ENGRAVING
  cf. Classical sculpture
• Knight, Death, and the Devil 1513 208

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Flemish 16th c. painting

• Hieronimus Bosch c.1450-1516Garden of Earthly
  Delights Triptych c.1510-15 almost medieval in
  depiction, obsessed with sinfulness of human
  kind, personal symbolism, devotional but for
  private contemplation only.
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1525/30-69Hunters in
  the Snow (Winter) 1565 439 cf. Limbourg
  Brothers, February

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ITALIAN FLEMISH BAROQUE (Catholic Countries)

• subject scenes stirring religious feelings
  great passion, action, conversions, visions, etc.
• style/forms asymmetrical, strong light effects,
  diagonals in and out of the picture plane, etc.,
  narrative focus on key moments of the story
• key concepts continuation of Counter-Reformatory
  religious fervor, demand for religious imagery
  that was dramatic and theatrical, that would
  bring viewers back to the Catholic Church
  (inspirational, emotional) 1st half of 17th c.
  was the so-called High Baroque - highly emotional

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Italy

• Caravaggio 1573-1610 Conversion of St.
  Paul 443 action spilling into the viewers space
  making the experience more immediate, sharp light
  TENEBRISM, gritty naturalism Christ with
  Doubting Thomas Calling of St. Mathew
  thematically related to the Counter-Reformation
• Artemisia Gentileschi Judith and Holofernes
  457

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High Baroque in Flanders (Belgium)

• Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640 Raising of the
  Cross 446 Allegory of the Outbreak of War
  painterly technique cf. Titian
• Diego Velazquez The Maids of Honor 447

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BAROQUE SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE (1600-1780)

• Sculpture essentially same issues as in the
  painting
• Architecture style/forms High Baroque(Italy)
  manipulations of light and space, inclusion of
  movement and sound if possible, to heighten the
  drama dynamic architectonic form replaced
  stable and ordered forms of the Renaissance
  (e.g. oval instead of circle, trapezoid instead
  of circle, etc.)French Baroque preference for
  classical forms, less drama, more
  grandeur Rococo essentially mannered
  Baroque, following more the High Baroque

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Italy

• Gianlorenzo Bernini 1598-1680 David 444 cf.
  David by Donatello cf. David by
  Michelangelo Ecstasy of St. Teresa
  445 GESAMSTKUNSTWERK
• Francesco Borromini 1599-1677 San Carlo alle
  Quattro Fontane dynamic, undulating, moving

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DUTCH BAROQUE (Protestant)

• subjects array of new subjects genre,
  landscape, still-life, group-portraits, etc.
• style/forms various personal styles, intimate,
  informal, naturalistic
• key concepts protestant art favored scenes that
  would reflect the middle-class morality and
  everyday life, obvious religious subject less
  common (somewhat iconoclastic attitude). On
  the other hand the moral (religious) lessons
  permeate in a hidden form most of the works
  (drawing of the tradition of the disguised
  symbolism)

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Dutch Baroque cont.

• Rembrant van Rijn 1606-69 Blinding of
  Samson Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning
  Cocq (The Night Watch) 448
• Drawings prints ETCHING, INTAGLIO TECHNIQUE,
  HATCHING, CROSS-HATCHING Christ Preaching
  211 Self-Portrait 449 (also 10, 192)

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Dutch Baroque cont.

• Frans Hals Merry Drinker
• Jan Vermeer 1632-1675 A Maidservant Pouring
  Milk 451 The Girl with the Red Hat 450
• Maria van Oosterwyck 1630-93 Still Life with
  a Vanitas Theme 7-41 VANITAS
• Jacob van Ruisdael 1628/9-1682 Jewish Cemetary

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FRENCH CLASSICAL BAROQUE Catholic

• subjects religion and/or mythology,
  intellectual, thoughtful
• style/forms turn away from emotion and drama,
  return to classicism (Raphael), linear (not
  painterly)
• key concepts calm, intellectual, thoughtful,
  un-emotional, related to ABSOLUTISM (French
  Monarchy and the rule of Louis XIV)
• Nicolas Poussin 1694-1665 Et in Arcadia Ego II
  Holy Family on the Steps 121 Versailles
  452 expression of absolutistic/ monarchical
  power in scale, drama is toned down

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ROCOCO

• subjects aristocratic, playful subjects (love,
  etc.), frivolous, erotic,
• style/forms painterly, flamboyant, fluffy,
  androgynous, (essentially mannered Baroque)
• key concepts rejection of French classical
  Baroque, light-hearted, pre-Revolutionary
  aristocratic art
• Boffrand, Salon de la Princes 453
• Antoine Watteau 1684-1721 A Pilgrimage to the
  Island of Cythera FÊTE-GALANTE
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard 1732-1806 The Swing 454