You likely noticed that during the two hundred years covered in this week’s stud

Question

You likely noticed that during the two hundred years covered in this week’s study there were radical changes in how the human figure is depicted in Italy, from something that was highly stylized to an idealized form that looked more real yet was strongly influenced by the Classical Age of ancient Greece and Rome. In the Northern Europe, however, depiction of the human form remained rooted in the Middle Ages and remained somewhat stylized.

Use the textbook and/or online sources to locate and capture three works of art.

one from the Early Renaissance (fourteenth century, 1300–1399)

one from the Northern European Renaissance (fifteenth century, 1400–1499)

one from the Italian Renaissance (fifteenth century, 1400–1499)   

Your works of art must either be all paintings or all sculptures.

Place these images in a Word document. Then do the following:

For each image identify:

The artist

Title of the work of art

The date(s) it was created

The medium or materials used to create the work of art, such as oil paint, marble, etc.

Where the work is located now.

In a well-developed paragraph (4–6 sentences) provide at least two important historical facts about each piece that makes the piece important to the history of art.

In another well-developed paragraph (4–6 sentences), describe how the artist had depicted the human figure, supporting your observation using vocabulary from this week's reading.

In a 6–10-sentence concluding paragraph(s):

Compare and contrast how the depiction of the human figure has changed. Be sure to note such things as general appearance of the figures; their body types; whether the figures have been stylized, elongated, or idealized; and whether their clothing, colors, and other visual details have changed.

Based on your reading and what you learned from the historic facts you have for each work of art discuss what may have been influencing factors behind these changes.

Offer a citation of your sources for each image and the information provided as appropriate.

Explanation / Answer

This portrait was doubtless started in Florence around 1503. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. After his death, the painting entered François I's collection.

The Mona Lisa is the earliest Italian portrait to focus so closely on the sitter in a half-length portrait. The painting is generous enough in its dimensions to include the arms and hands without them touching the frame. The portrait is painted to a realistic scale in the highly structured space where it has the fullness of volume of a sculpture in the round. The figure is shown in half-length, from the head to the waist, sitting in a chair whose arm is resting on balusters. She is resting her left arm on the arm of the chair, which is placed in front of a loggia, suggested by the parapet behind her and the two fragmentary columns framing the figure and forming a "window" looking out over the landscape.

The perfection of this new artistic formula explains its immediate influence on Florentine and Lombard art of the early 16th century. Such aspects of the work as the three-quarter view of a figure against a landscape, the architectural setting, and the hands joined in the foreground were already extant in Flemish portraiture of the second half of the 15th century, particularly in the works of Hans Memling. However, the spacial coherence, the atmospheric illusionism, the monumentality, and the sheer equilibrium of the work were all new. In fact, these aspects were also new to Leonardo's work, as none of his earlier portraits display such controlled majesty.

he Mona Lisa's famous smile represents the sitter in the same way that the juniper branches represent Ginevra Benci and the ermine represents Cecilia Gallerani in their portraits, in Washington and Krakow respectively. It is a visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is this notion which makes the work such an ideal. The nature of the landscape also plays a role. The middle distance, on the same level as the sitter's chest, is in warm colors

The artist : Leonardo da Vinc

Title of the work of art : Mona Lisa

The date(s) it was created : painted between 1503 and 1506

The medium or materials used : oil painting on a poplar wood panel

Where the work is located now : The Louvre Museum Paris, France.

The Netherlandish Proverbs, or the Blue Cloak as it is sometimes called, includes visual representations of perhaps more than 90 individual proverbs. The precise number of proverbs remains somewhat uncertain because modern scholarly interpretations vary and, in some case, more than one proverb might be assigned to the same component in the painting.

Proverbs were well-known to the people of 16th-century Flanders. For example, a contemporary of Bruegel, Frans Hogenberg, produced an engraving around 1558 illustrating some 40 proverbs. Proverbs were well-known to the people of 16th-century Flanders. For example, a contemporary of Bruegel, Frans Hogenberg, produced an engraving around 1558 illustrating some 40 proverbs.

When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Proverbs abound in the Bible, in early Greek and Roman literature, and in the gnomic verse of the Anglo-Saxons. In medieval literature proverbs serve in homilies and exempla to drive home moral lessons and, as in the works of Chaucer, to add a humorous note. To the traditional folk sayings the Renaissance writers added the more literary proverbs from the classics; the most famous collection was Adagia by Erasmus (1500). Proverbs were extremely popular among the Elizabethans, the most famous collections being those of John Heywood (1549?) and Florio (1578). Although the popularity of proverbs declined in the 18th century, they have become a subject for research and classification in more modern times.

The artist : Pieter Bruegel

Title of the work of art : Bruegel - The Netherlandish Proverbs

The date(s) it was created : 1525 - September 9, 1569

The medium or materials used : oil painting on a poplar wood panel

Where the work is located now : Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

After the decoration of the Upper Basilica of Assisi, Giotto is thought to have painted the Madonna and Child Enthroned in the church of San Giorgio alIa Costa in Florence. The painting takes the name of the church in which is had been conserved until a few decades ago. The Madonna of San Giorgio alla Costa was attributed to Giotto only in 1939 by German art critic Robert Oertel. For many years, it was left in the deposits of the Santo Stefano al Ponte church, where is was damaged on May 27, 1993 in a mafia bombing that claimed the lives of five people. It was restored by experts at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. During its restoration, the painting was cleaned and parts mended with chromatic solutions. Experts purposefully left a tear (in the left corner) in the canvas, caused during the bombing, as testimony to the horrible event that shook Florence. The shape of the painting today is not like the original: the painting has been cut on both sides and the lower part during the Baroque transformation of the church at the end of the 17th century. The triangular cusps were cut off, as were the sides of the painting.

At the end of the thirteenth and during the first years of the fourteenth century, a debate was going on in religious and theological circles between those who emphasized Christ's humanity, favored images of his suffering and death, and those especially the Dominicans who wanted to return to the more ancient theological tradition that emphasized the divinity of Christ and thus favored images of glory. For the latter group, death and the cross signify not only the moment of suffering, but the concept of resurrection. Giotto's panel, not by chance executed for a Dominican convent, is connected with this new theological and spiritual movement, and reveals a seldom noticed aspect of Giotto's personality. Even in his first works, and then throughout his long and finely articulated artistic career, he was an attentive and sensitive interpreter of the most gripping theological and spiritual problems of his day.

In the painting, the Virgin Mary is sitting on a marble throne. The painting has a three-dimensional feel. Here, Giotto distances himself from the Byzantine style of painting which characterized art in those years. Indeed, the Virgin Mary is wearing the traditional red cap, but a few locks of hair are falling onto her shoulders. The gold engraved decorations are of particular relevance: some say this aspect was inspired by a mix of both Arabic writings and the French gothic style. Giotto’s early style is evident in this work, and can be linked to his frescos in Assisi, the Crucifix in Santa Maria Novella and the fragment in Borgo San Lorenzo. The date of its execution, therefore, cannot be far from the date of the frescos in Assisi. Many believe it was completed in the late-1200s.

The artist : Raphael Sanzio

Title of the work of art : Madonna di San Giorgio alla Costa

The date(s) it was created : 1512

The medium or materials used : painted on canvas, oil painting

Where the work is located now : Basilica in Bologna, northern Italy

References:

Planet, Lonely. "Basilica Santuario Della Madonna Di San Luca In Bologna, Italy". Lonely Planet. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 June 2017.

Ionita, Silvia. "11 Most Beautiful Paintings By Pieter Bruegel The Elder". Culture Trip. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 June 2017.

Planet, Lonely. "Basilica Santuario Della Madonna Di San Luca In Bologna, Italy". Lonely Planet. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 June 2017.

"Where Is The Mona Lisa Kept Now?". Reference. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 June 2017.

"Art In Tuscany | Giotto, Madonna Of San Giorgio Alla Costa". Travelingintuscany.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 June 2017.

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