{"id":1786,"date":"2024-02-26T02:36:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T02:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2024-02-26T02:36:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T02:36:25","slug":"2-21-class-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/2024\/02\/26\/2-21-class-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"2.21 Class Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During class on Wednesday, we began by discussing Masaccio’s frescos in the Brancacci chapel. The patron’s name was Pietro, so he asked Masaccio to paint scenes from Saint Peter’s life. The first fresco we looked at was the Tribute Money <\/em>scene. It was interesting to consider how since this is not a commonly depicted scene in art, then the artist could not refer to other renditions and therefore must be well-versed in the bible story to ensure all the necessary details and meanings are present. We discussed the way Masaccio used a continuative narrative to tell the story, his use of gestures, framing, and color theory to direct the viewer’s eye, as well as his interest in depicting accurate and interesting human physiognomies. His skillful depiction of expressive figures is also present in his fresco The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise<\/em>. My favorite detail from this fresco is how the light in the scene is consistent with the light in Tribute Money<\/em> which connects the two adjacent frescos. The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors <\/em>was the last of Masaccio’s frescos that we looked at in class. We learned how difficult it is to depict the holy trinity, as the artist must include the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit as equals. Masaccio used space to create a meaningful hierarchy of the figures in the work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we looked at Michelozzo’s Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. The city palace had a typical three-story structure which Mechelozzo clearly separated by treating the surface of each story differently. The first floor is heavily rusticated, the middle story features lighter rustication, and the top story is smooth. This technique makes the building feel lighter as it goes up in space. Additionally, each floor is smaller than the previous one which adds to this illusion. The house was built for the Medici family and the rusticated surface on the bottom of the building affirms their authority while the increasing smoothness in the top stories represents stability. The internal courtyard is decorative and it originally featured Donatello’s David<\/em> at it’s center. We discussed how David was a civic symbol in Florence, as he is a symbol communicating the victory of the underdog. The Medici chose to have David in their courtyard to make a statement about their power, but when the Medici were expelled from Florence, the Florentine state moved the sculpture from the courtyard of the Medici palace to the courtyard of the town hall, as it was such an important figure. We also looked at Paolo Uccello’s Battle of San Romano<\/em> which was originally made for the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. I thought it was especially interesting how the Medici family’s coat of arms is disguised in the oranges in the scene. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During class on Wednesday, we began by discussing Masaccio’s frescos in the Brancacci chapel. The patron’s name was Pietro, so he asked Masaccio to paint scenes from Saint Peter’s life. The first fresco we looked at was the Tribute Money scene. It was interesting to consider how since this is not a commonly depicted scene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11953,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11953"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions\/1790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}