CHAPTER 16
The Renaissance in Quattrocento ITALY -- The 15th Century
p. 447
The Medici Family of Florence becomes synonymous with the Italian Renaissance
$ Banker Giovanni di Bicci de'Medici $ (ca. 1360 - 1429) and son Cosimo (1389 - 1464) become enormous patrons of the arts and passion for education $$$
Cosimo de Medici provides $20 million to establish the first library since the ancient world
What makes the Renaissance so special?
p. 448
- The principal tenets linked to the philosophy of HUMANISM that began in the 14th c. became amplified in the 15th century
- It emphasized ideals of: education and expanding knowledge (especially classical antiquity), the exploration of the individual potential, moral duty and commitment to civic responsibility, and the desire to excel in all things.
- Knowledge came from the Greeks and Romans (Greco-Roman world): writings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, others
- Development of literature based in Tuscan dialect
- The invention of movable type in Germany (1450) allowed for wide distribution of books throughout Renaissance Italy - by 1464, Florence had produced a printing press as well, 1469 one is created in Venice
- First books printed in Italy is the vernacular work of DANTE in his DIVINE COMEDY (about Heaven and Hell)
- Learned Humanists became passionate about a wide range of knowledge including the natural sciences: botany, geology, geography, medicine, engineering, etc.
- The modern notion of a Renaissance Man
- The educated human was valued, whereas people in earlier medieval society felt that their lives were controlled by the divine.
- Renaissance Italy adopted a more secular stance that was passionate about human improvement - achieving excellence was rewarded, and this happened through hard work
- Politically, Quattrocento had constant political fluctuations economically
- As a result, humanist doctrines and ideals began to permeate in the production of art which illustrated their love for the 1. Classical world (Greco-Roman) and adopting myths and imbue them with Christianity. 2. Their passion of the natural world and depicting anatomy and through linear perspective, and 3. Their love in portraiture, celebrating patronage and religious art.
- Florence, ITALY becomes a hot spot for $$ > The Medici Family
Sandro Botticelli (1444 - 1510)
- Botticelli's work imbues the values of the Medici values (education, humanist scholar, art, literature and painter of mythological allegories from the Greco - Roman world)
- Recall: Greco - Roman ancient world = polytheist in the understanding of gods and goddesses
- Here, mid-15th century, the Greco - Roman myths were interpreted through the tenets of Neo-Platonic thought and Christianity (and thus monotheism)
The three Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Aglaia, Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia. The Three Graces may refer to: Charites, known in Greek mythology as The Three Graces, goddesses of such feminine virtues as charm, beauty, and creativity
- Painted for Lorenzo de' Medici (a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent cousins)
- A Greco-Roman allegory that secures Christianity morals and ideals
- Venus stands almost in the center in her red shroud in front of a naturalistic landscape - portion of the sky around her head serves as a type of halo
- Cupid flies above his mother, Venus
- To the left of the painting are the Dancing 3 Graces (based on ancient types, however, clothed)
- Mercury is in the far left, reaches for a staff (the caduceus) possibly symbolic to release storm clouds (note his winged sandals)
- To the right of the painting is blue ice-cold Zephyrus (the West Wind) is about to carry off the nymph Chloris to abduct and marry her. Zephyrus transforms Chloris into Flora - appropriately dressed in the floral gown (thus the figure is shown twice 'before and after')- note her hand gesture that rests on her abdomen.
- Thus, the painting sums up the Neo-Platonic view that earthly love is compatible with Christian theology.
- Venus = love through Cupid. Her desire can lead to either lust or violence and through reason and faith (Mercury) to the love of God. This painting serves a symbolic testament for humans to seek God through love and thus procreate
- Such humanist themes permeated art and led into the Church.
In sculpture...
- 1401 the cathedral's art directors held a competition to create bronze doors in the eastern entrance of Baptistery (where Andrea Pisano had designed the south doors in 1330-1335)
- Competition was won by seven semifinalists, however only two of the relief panels survive today: Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Lorenzo Ghiberti
LORENZO GHIBERTI (1378 - 1455)youngest competitor
Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for East doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence ITALY Bronze relief, gilded 1'9" x 1'5"
- Figures are smoother and in full action
- Abraham appears in a contraposto pose - recalling Greco-Roman statuary
- Abraham appears to be in contemplation of the action he is about to perform
- Ghiberti excelled in nude anatomy; muscle and skeletal structure
- Ghiberti trained as a painter and sculptor and understood gilding techniques perfectly
- He cast the work in only two pieces, he understood the engineering and technical aspects behind the pour
- Lorenzo Ghiberti wins the completion
Bronze Pour : Minneapolis College of Art & Design
p. 451
Donato di Niccolò Bardi > Donatello (c. 1384-1466)
With David, he reinvented the classical nude. His subject however, was not a Greco-Roman god, hero, or athlete but the youthful biblical slayer of Goliath who had become the symbol of the Florentine Republic -- and therefore an ideal choice of subject for the residence of the most powerful family in Florence.
p. 451
Donato di Niccolò Bardi > Donatello (c. 1384-1466)
- Incorporated Greco-Roman sculptural ideals in his marble statues
- Depicted motion in his figures that were carved in tight niches
- Contrapposto pose - shift of weight on one hip, relaxed and asymmetrical, curving the spine
- Note how the sculpted (subtractive technique in marble) moves with the anatomical correctness under it, thus accentuates the body underneath it
Donatello, Saint Mark, marble 7'9" in height, Florence, ITALY
Today, a copy stands in its place, the oringinal in a museum
- Donatello's figures were imbued with emotion and gestural bodies
- He used incise lines in the background (shallowly carved) thus introducing a type of atmospheric perspective of figures illusionary carved into, what seems, a deep space
Donatello, Saint George and the Dragon, marble relief, Florence, ITALY
ca. 1417
- Carved in both marble in the round as well as cast in bronze creating one sided reliefs
Donatello, Feast of Herod, bronze relief panel, gilded @ Baptismal font of Siena Cathedral, ITALY
1423 - 1427
p.456
Donatello's DAVID, cast bronze (hollow) ca. 1440 - 1460, 5'2"
Florence ITALY
- Donatello looks back to Classical world principles of sculpture
- The statue was created to be placed in a court yard of the Medici palace
- Within David, he dedicates the sculpture to a free standing nude figure, contropossto pose
With David, he reinvented the classical nude. His subject however, was not a Greco-Roman god, hero, or athlete but the youthful biblical slayer of Goliath who had become the symbol of the Florentine Republic -- and therefore an ideal choice of subject for the residence of the most powerful family in Florence.
p. 453
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE is an illusionary system highly developed in the 15th c. that suggests deep space.
See one-point, two-point, three-point perspective studied earlier in the term
Linear perspective illustrates how objects and figures become smaller as they lead back into the back ground space. Often times foreshortened. Whereas atmospheric perspective is the illusion of distant objects becoming out of focus (or the blue of the mountains and trees, etc.)
These were very important perspectival systems as they made possible what we call "The rationalization of sight." Remember Renaissance artists were interested in scientific discoveries! These observational discoveries could be expressed mathematically for the rational mind. Both 'systems' were an effective way to rationalize and organize complex nature.
Such projections assisted the Renaissance culture to understand numerous things including scale drawings, maps, charts, graphs and diagrams, trajectories of flying objects (cannon balls, and such) thus leading to high developments in technology.
p.454
Return to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, ITALY 1425 - 1452 -- 30 years!
Ghiberti, Isaac and His Sons detail
Gilded bronze 2'7" x 2'7"
All orthogonals travel back towards one vanishing point on the horizon line. As viewers, our eyes move along them to discover deep space.
Renaissance artists favored this system in depiction of space, as it rationalized complex nature thus attributing to the ideas of "rationalizing, controlling, and/or calming nature", attitudes of man vs. nature, nature/culture,
etc.
NOTE Linear One Point Perspective AND Atmospheric Perspective
One point perspective becomes symbolic to attitudes of monotheism -- However in this depiction of deep space the viewer can never reach God or infinity. (David Hockney)
Gentile da FABRIANO (1370 - 1427) Adoration of the Magi, altarpiece, tempera on wood, 9'11' x 9'3"
- Leading 15th c. master of the International Style
- The altarpiece was painted for a family chapel
- Densely packed polychromed composition with elaborately costumed figures and deep depiction of space through overlap and scale of figures as they recede into background
- Figures in naturalistic detail
- Elaborately carved wood Gothic style frame, gilded
- Fabriano executes the work in naturalistic trends in observation with traditional composition without sacrificing Late Gothic splendor in hue, costume and framing ornamentation
p.461
CENNINO CENNINI ON IMITATION AND EMULATION IN RENAISSANCE ART
Take notes.
Many of the ideas that the Renaissance put forth in regards to humanism, remains as present ideals in the Western world today.
Ideals of the importance of the 'original' as well as certain subject matter and representation practices, especially attitudes of space and how to depict it, and thus ideals of controlling nature.
Imitation
To learn the way of the masters, copy one of their works. DaVinci filled his note books with drawings of other master works while he was a student.
Emulation =
To model ones style after a famous master while using new innovations in their work, thus creating an evolution of forms. Thus developing artists would ultimately arrive in their unique style.
p.462
Masaccio - fresco c. 1424 - 1427 7' x 2'11"
Masaccio (1401 - 1428) painter - dies at 27 :(
- captured the innovative spirit of the 15th c.
- studied under Masolino da Panicale (with influences from Giotto) and moved up the ranks quickly in 6 years.
- Imitated his master's work then broke sharply from it.
- Art historians recognize Masaccio as one of the most influential painters that had contributed so many new ideas and style.
- His painted figures in his frescos remind us of Giotto's however they convey psychological and physical emotion.
- Gionarto = in a days work
- Introduced light coming from outside of the pictorial plane for the first time (not inside as we have seen prior). Thus the forms in its wake are volumetric and have a convincing light and dark tonality; moving freely and noting anatomical correctness.
- His compositions have figures (human, landscape and architecture, etc.)clumped in various spatial fields - so that all are not standing in a straight line in one space. Masaccio thus activates all grounds - foreground, middle ground and background with human activity.
- Heavy use of one point linear perspective which also amplifies the symbolism of cultural attitudes of monotheism.
- Made use of atmospheric perspective = diminishing brightness in saturation of hue and loss of focus and detail.
p.466
Piero Della Francesca (1420 - 1492) from southern Tuscany
- worked for diverse patrons - Medicis, the church, others
- Painted fescoes
- Makes use of foreshortening, linear perspective and imbues iconographic, symbolic quality
- One of the leading painters of the 15th c.
Piero Della Francesca Resurrection 1463 - 1465
Note painted Corinthian style fluted columns, exterior of painting
p.469
Botticelli (return)
Birth of Venus painted for the Medici family, rivaled his earlier Primavera
Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 1484-1486 Tempera on Canvas
- the theme was expressed in a poem by Angelo Poliziano - a leading Humanist of the time
- Again, we see Zephrurs (the West Wind) carrying in Chloris, blows Venus to the shore on a cockle shell
- Botticelli depicts his Venus as nude which was highly unusual - however because of the power of the Medici family, the depiction of a scandalous subject of the female nude figure, went without challenge and uproar
- Classical allegory adopted once again
- Botticelli does not use atmospheric perspective in this work
p.477
The Princely Courts
- Florentine artists led the way in creating Renaissance art and architecture
- Courts in Rome, Urbino, Mantau and elsewhere also produced amazing amounts of artistic production -- making each of these geographical locations important urban centers too
- The church and powerful families remained the largest patrons of art
- Pope's asked group of artists (Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, others) to complete large artistic projects in the church in frescoes, paintings, altar pieces, architecture and immense building plans
- architecture rivaled other countries, turning back to the Classical world in enormous building productions of public buildings and centers of philosophy, libraries, schools, government, etc.
- Renaissance mind restored a great interest to the ancient world in mythology, architecture and the depiction of human figure
p.478
Piero Della Francesca
- produced religious works and official portraits
Piero Della Francesca paints the double portrait (diptych) of Battista Sfarza and Federico da Montefltro c. 1472-1474 oil and tempera on wood (modern frame)
NOTE: diptych of immortalizing couple, strict profile, plucked forehead of female, Duke faces left (unusual), formality of pose, birds' eye view of background in atmospheric perspective
Diptych portrait of Battista Sforza & Federico da Montefeltro VIDEO 3:57
NOTE: diptych of immortalizing couple, strict profile, plucked forehead of female, Duke faces left (unusual), formality of pose, birds' eye view of background in atmospheric perspective
Diptych portrait of Battista Sforza & Federico da Montefeltro VIDEO 3:57
p.484
Andrea Mantgena, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, ca. 1500, tempera on canvas
Mantegna, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, ca. 1500 Tempera on canvas
NOTE:
- Extreme foreshortening
- Mastery of perspective
- Monochromatic color palette
- Paying attention to naturalism, although Christ's feet would be much larger
- Theme is gruesome and intensely poignant
- probably the use of a cadaver as 'model'
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p. 487
Chapter 17
High and Late Renaissance & Mannerism in 16th Century
15th Century = Early Renaissance
16th Century = Late (High) Renaissance
- A significant interest in the Classical culture of the Ancient Greco-Roman world; perspective, proportion, human anatomy
- Including the development of atmospheric perspective and chiaroscuro > an illusionistic development in painting and drawing of volumetric forms in a high contrasting light and dark field
- A new style called Mannerism challenged Renaissance naturalism
- Renaissance Italy produced the idea of the "artist genius" theory - originating with Plato's view of the nature of poetry and artistic creation in general: ..."artists are inspired and possessed... For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine."
- The visual arts took on the most powerful status only previously held by poetry
High Renaissance artists who became international art - stars =
1. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
2. Michelangelo (1475 - 1564)
3. Raphael (1483 - 1520)
p.487
- Michelangelo (Buonarroti 1475 - 1564)
- The Church and the Pope $$ commission him
- The Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican palace was a commission he did not want - claiming he was NOT a painter
- Commissioned by Pope Julius II - was only in the papacy for 10 years - but in those 10, his most notable was his patronage for the arts
- The Sistine Chapel built in 1473, Michelangelo concentrates his frescoes painted 1508 - 1512 and 1536 - 1541 on the "body beautiful" in its physical form, its spiritual and philosophical form - the painted forms are full of volumetric anatomy, naked, without background or ornamentation. They are what they are, nothing more, nothing less.
Steven Spielberg's E.T.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
- Born in a small town near Florence
- Such talent, his intellectual interests and imagination the term Renaissance Man was used to describe him
- Leonardo's ambition in all of his work was to discover the principle laws underlying processes found in nature
- He studied the human body, its physiology and psychology
- The eyes were the most vital organ to him
1481 he leaves Florence and travels to Milan
to work for the Church
Develops chiaroscuro while expressing human emotion in his paintings:
A good painter has two chief objects to paint- man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs...A painting will only be wonderful for the beholder by making that which is not so appear raised and detached from the wall.
-- da Vinci
to work for the Church
Develops chiaroscuro while expressing human emotion in his paintings:
A good painter has two chief objects to paint- man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs...A painting will only be wonderful for the beholder by making that which is not so appear raised and detached from the wall.
-- da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks, Milan ITALY 1483
oil on wood transferred to canvas 6' 6" x 4', now at the Louvre, Paris
- Characters = Mary, infant Jesus, infant John (the Baptist) and angel
- Figures composted into a pyramid grouping
- Figures sharing the same natural environment and atmospheric perspective (scientific mind)
- Chiaroscuro lighting effects - light reveals and veils forms simultaneously = mystery
- John looks out at us, thus involving the viewer in a visual exchange
da Vinci's respect for the Classical world (although never having traveled to Greece)
Vitruvius Man drawing in Leonardo's sketch book reveals his interest in the human body and its interrelationship to architecture and its surroundings.
Temperance Brenan's lab coat on Bones at the Jeffersonian Institute - note the logo
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa,
ca. 1503-1505
oil on wood, 2' 6" x 1' 9"
now at the Louvre, Paris
- The sitter's identity is still the subject of scholarly debate
- Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo (wealthy Florentine)
- Mona Lisa wears no jewelry nor other items associated with wealth
- She gazes out at the viewer to engage us
- Renaissance etiquette dictated a woman should not look directly into a man's eyes
- Mona Lisa, is self-assured, young woman, without the trappings of power via objects of wealth, engages with her audience psychologically in her smirk
- The landscape behind her (atmospheric perspective) with roads that seemingly lead no where
- Fascination with atmospheric perspective and chiaroscuro. Mona Lisa is a prime example of sfumato - a misty or smokey haziness
- P.S. a later owner of the painting trimmed vertical edges of the painting (yikes!) eliminating the columns. A trace of these remain today
- It is also an exceptional painting as daVinci completed so few paintings
- His sketchbooks reveal his insatiable appetite for understanding the natural world - investigations in anatomy revealing precision and detail
p. 493
Raffaello Santi (or Sanzio) Raphael
(1483 - 1520)
p. 498
Michelangelo's Pieta and David
p. 517
Titian Venus of Urbino
p. 493
Raphael > Raffaello Santi (Sanzio)
1483-1520
Raphael, Marriage of the Virgin, 1504 oil on wood 5' 7" x 3' 10.5"
p. 515
TITIAN > born Tiziano Vecelli, ca.1490 - 1576
- a supreme colorist
- out of deep landscapes, that are often dark, emerge the soft, voluminous forms by Titian
Titian, Pastoral Symphony c. 1508 - 1511 oil on canvas
3' 7" 4' 6" now in the Louvre, Paris
- Greatest Master of the Venetian painting school
- He framed his paintings in lavish textures and beautiful color
- Titian often casted a psychological mood to his characters while the landscapes seemed to be paradises
- all pastoral landscapes take on a mythological theme and/or religious one - whatever the case might be, Titian painted them as GLORIOUS
Titian, Venus of Urbino 1536 oil on canvas
p. 516
- Painted for the Duke of Urbino followed a similar version by Giorgione's Venus figure
- Reclining nude looking out at the viewer
- Is she divine, or, a mortal?
- She covers her pelvis a small dog (fidelity) sleeps at her side
- Color palette that Titian uses makes use of how we move around the painting to not miss anything
16th Century SCULPTURE
p. 497
Michelangelo - famous as the painter for the Sistine Chapel frescoes - he was truly a "Renaissance Man" - a sculptor, poet and an engineer. He considered sculpture to be superior to painting because to him, he considered it a divine power "the making of man."
Michelangelo's David, marble 17' high, Florence ITALY
- Michelangelo considered the image "locked in the stone" and wanted to reflect absolute idea of beauty in his sculptures which he considered almost as "living forms"
- He mistrusted mathematical applications and methods of finding the form and placed his trust on natural observation "measurement should be kept in the eyes"
- Moved from Florence to Bologna in 1494 returning to Florence in 1501 and created David one of his most well known works
- Standing at 17' high, the sculpture IS the ideal male - inspiration from the Greco-Roman worlds and Hellenistic art
- The colossal is a HERO represented prior to the taking of Goliath's head
- The work is a collage (assemblage of sorts), using bits and pieces from various ideal men
- The work amplifies the psychological and strong physicality of David's pose
MANNERISM
Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of the Artist's Sisters and Brother
c. 1555 oil on wood 2' 5" x 3' 1"
- Emerged in 1520s in reaction to the High Renaissance
- Mannerism means "style" or "manner"
- Prime feature of Mannerism art is artifice or artificial, unlike the natural observation of their Renaissance predecessors
- Revealed the construct nature in their work
- Depicted space is often ambiguous
- Figures are often depicted in flat spaces, not natural deep ones
- High visual contrast between figure and space
p. 533 Chapter 18
High Renaissance & Mannerism in Northern Europe and Spain
Hiernoymus Bosch (ca.1450-1516, Netherlandish painter) Garden of Earthly Delights, 1505-1510
oil on wood triptych
- Bosh was an enigmatic painter of the time that remains to defy understanding
- Painting was done for the secular household of Henry VIII
- Some Scholars have proposed that it is to commemorate a wedding, because of the central motifs sex and procreation themes
- Possibly depicting the 7 deadly sins: depicting the sins of pride, covetousness (greed), lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth from the Christian tradition
- Bosh was understanding of the ideas of alchemy of the time, his in-laws were pharmacists > interest in botany, conceptions made from plants, etc.
- 16th century realignment in European geography
- Ambitious expansion > wealth, travel, art collecting, commissions, calculated political marriages, laying the foundations for today's European nations
- Political unity that occurred also cultivated art as a status symbol, commissioning and collecting was an exclusive occupation of the aristocracy
- Enormous religious crises occurring alongside all of this leading to the Reformation of the Catholic church
- Splitting the Catholic church in half and produced a hundred years of civil war between the Protestants and the Catholics
Hans Ballung Grien, Witches' Sabbath, 1510 Chiaroscuro 2 part wood cut
14" x 10"
- Woodblock - invented in Germany using two blocks instead of one - thereby creating chiaroscuro effects
- Witch craft was a counter-religion in the 15th and 16th c. for those 'outside' of Christianity --- which were depicted as evil, hags, having magical rituals > nothing more than xenophobic understanding of non-Christians
- Christian Reformation, separation from the Catholic Church, heretics, many illustrations surfaced of this "other" belief system
- Catholic Church separated, creating Also known as the Protestant Reformation and the European Reformation
- 1517 to the Thirty Years' War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
Hans Ballung Grien, Witches, woodblock print
Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528 Nuremberg, Germany)
- The first painter outside of Italy to become an International "art star"
- Traveled extensively, exceptional talent and loads of energy, he obtained widespread fame in his own time
- Fascinated with classical ideas** of the Italian Renaissance (**know them), he wrote theoretical treatises on vast amount of subjects
- Like Leonardo da Vinci he both finished and published his writings - we know quiet a great deal due to the diaries he left and a series of self-portraits
Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait, 1500, oil on wood
28" x 19"
- Inscribed with monogram - date to the left and signature, right four lines stating that the painting depicts him at 28
- Portrait intentionally evokes the idea of Christ from early medieval devotional images, the hand gesture, specifically for instance
- Hand gesture is symbolic to Byzantine icons, as well as focus on the right hand reference to the creative instrument that it is
- Painted himself as a Christ like figure
- Was an extraordinary printmaker - wood block and trained as a goldsmith from his father
- He created numerous book illustrations and became a wealthy man because of the sales of his art works
- Dürer's wife and mother were his agents
- Through his prints, he exerted strong influence throughout northern Europe and also in Italy
- His works were copied by Italians, and Dürer brought on a lawsuit against such 'forgeries,' thus illustrating his business sharp mind
pp. 540
Art and the Reformation
- Widespread dissatisfaction with the Church in Rome led to the Protestant Reformation splitting Christianity in 1/2
- Catholics and Protestants took divergent stances on the role of visual imagery in religion - rejecting the indulgences (art, church decoration, etc.)
- Catholics embraced the glorification of God, and in the church great amounts of it were commissioned and displayed
- In contrast to this, Protestants believed that such images would possibly lead to idolatry and distracted viewers from focusing on the real reason for their presence in church (to worship and communicate with a higher power) > Protestant leaders spoke against much of the religious art being produced
- Thus Protestant churches were virtually bare, although the graphic arts (prints) played a big part in the Protestant church
- King Francis I fought against the Holy Roman Empire and declared Protestantism illegal in France
"I approached the task of destroying images by first tearing them out of the heart through God's Word and making them worthless and despised....For when they are no longer in the heart, they can do no harm when seen with the eyes....I have allowed and not forbidden the outward removal of images...And I say at the outset that according to the law of Moses no other images are forbidden than an image of God which one worships. A crucifix, on the other hand, or any other holy image is not forbidden." pp. 541
pp.548
- The Netherlands was one of the most commercially advanced and prosperous countries in 16th c. Europe.
- Prints from the Netherlands depicts contemporary life and values of everyday life in the genre illustrations
- Many of the landscape paintings of the time from the Netherlands, showed the seasons changing and thus calendar time, as in the traditional Book of Hours
Quintin Massys Money-Changer and His Wife, 1514
A commentary on Netherlandish values and mores -- what are they?
Pieter Aertsen Butcher's Stall, 1551
Genre scene mixed with the spiritual life and well-being - how is depicted in this work? Symbolic motifs to accentuate the spiritual life > the seven sins, etc.
Caterina van Hemessen Self Portrait 1548
Female painter, trained by her father, she is a self confident painter
Professional women artists remained unusual in the 16th century because of the difficulty in obtaining formal training
Pieter Bruegel the Elder landscape painter, that illustrated a large amount of human activity. Bruegel chose NOT TO incorporate classical elements of the Renaissance into his paintings
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559
oil on wood
- Unusual perspective throughout his landscapes- often a birds eye view
- Cuts out most of the sky, portraying very little of it
- Depicts a wide range of people doing a variety of activities
- Within the painting, Bruegel illustrates 100 different proverbs in detail and wildness, similar to the composition of Bosh's Garden of Earthly Delights
