Author: Sophie (Page 2 of 3)

In this class, we first took a look at Master of Frankfurt’s Portrait of the Artist and his Wife. We discussed two points that show it is a self-portrait: one is that his left hand (how is right using hand shown in a mirror) is hind in the painting, another is that his glance goes out from the painting, which implies he is looking at a mirror while painting. The fly over his wife’s head is impressive as it’s an intentional design of Frankfurt to present his high skills of mimicking nature and fool/trick the audiences’ eyes. This brings us to the concept of representation, which means presenting again what is observed in reality into the artworks.

Then we moved to some Greek and Roman sculptures. The balance applied in the pose of the sculptures stood out to me. Artists like to have weight shifted to one leg to show a potential to act, so the direction of the hip tilted a little bit, and the direction of the shoulders is opposite to that of the hip. Such a design in sculpture is called “contrapposto”.

Later we talked about Albrecht Dürer’s Adam and Eve. The four animals in the scene that represent four body liquids and correspond to four temperaments are interesting. I am impressed by how the balance of such four liquids is related to the harmony between yin-yang, cold-warm, in traditional Chinese medicine, where I finally encounter something I am familiar with! The high hill in the background as a pun of balance is also interesting.

Finally, we compared works from Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci. Though both of them draw and represent nature vividly with great details, which shows their close and careful observation of nature, Dürer tends to draw down everything he observes and reproduce any details, while Leonardo isolates objects from their environment and tries to understand the system and big picture. This is a difference between northern and Italian artists and their emphasis.

In this class, we first continued with our discussion on panels in the Scrovegni chapel. The narrative frescoes on the walls of the chapel that depict the life story of Jesus Christ stood out to me. In each panel half body of some figures are out of the frame, which gives a sense of continuity: with one scene, the audience gets the sense that actually more scenes are coming up. It is interesting that the gesture of Jesus in the “Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem” panel is similar to that in other paintings by other artists. Also, in “Lamentation”, only the back of some figures already conveys the grief without their face and expression being depicted. This reveals the high painting technique of Giotto, as he creates a sense of emotion with a limited depiction of the characters. The “crush down” atmosphere is also created by the figure’s position in this panel.

Then we moved to an introduction of St. Francis, who had a legendary life. It is admirable of him to leave his wealthy family and spend time with people in poverty. His idea that being poor make people closer to Christ and his advocation of the value of poverty stood out to me. I am impressed by the fact that he was canonized less than 2 years after he died, as, in general, the canonization is a long process to show a person has done miracles and is worthy to be recognized as a “saint”. This definitely shows the great contribution of St. Francis to contemporary society and his influence on Christanity.

In this class, we first took a look at the Limbourg brothers’ Original Sin, which is a continuous narrative because four different scenes of Adam and Eve were depicted on the same canvas. What stood out to me is the position of Adam in the second scene, where Eve was leaning forwards to share the apple and Adam was kneeling down, a position similar to that of a defeated soldier depicted in some Greek and Roman Art. Here the scene illustrates the sense that Eve was forcing Adam for eating the apple. It’s also amazing to notice that in the last scene Adam and Eve were walking out of Eden into the white black paper sheet–our world. This design connects the painting with the audience’s world, which reminds me of other similar technics artists would like to use to build the bridge between the art world inside and the outside real world.

Then we moved on to the Scrovegni chapel. The fresco about the last judgment was placed at the exit and is impressive to me. It is interesting to see how the scene of Hell was depicted vividly on the right side of this huge fresco, where monsters were eating bodies and sinners were suffering in the body part where they committed sin. This definitely played an important role in reminding people to be conscious about their behavior or otherwise they will be sent to Hell by the last judgment.

In this class, we are introduced to John the Duke of Berry, a bibliophile who was so interested in art and collected many ancient arts, relics, buildings, paintings, and manuscripts. He traded and even stole manuscripts, and had a group of artists working for him. it is interesting that he often challenged his artists by using ancient arts and asking them to create better artworks, thus making an atmosphere of competition. A decreased emphasis on the religious practice function of the manuscript was shown by he owning 6 books of hours. (definitely didn’t need 6!) And the sizes of his manuscripts were bigger and bigger, being unuseful if we consider its original function for holding and reading when praying. So, these books of hours were not created/collected for use but were perceived as places to store art.

Something also stood out to me is the meaning of gift-giving in that culture and time period. Powerful or superior people give gifts to the subordinate ones as a way to show their dominant place, which is very different from the meaning of gift-giving nowadays. The Limbourg brothers, a group of artists the Duke of Berry appreciated, gave gifts to the Duke, and the gift was actually fake! That the Duke and his artists were in a close relationship with each other is definitely revealed by such an interesting event.

In this class, we first talked about the woodcut technic, which allowed mass production in a relatively short time. Through the use of the new medium, an artist’s artwork could be spread widely. It is interesting that Albrecht Dürer had his name and symbol cut on the woodcut and thus be printed out and recognized by the audience. His woodcut of The Four Horsemen, The Babylonian Whore from the Apocalypse series stood out to me, and the name of the four horsemen “conquest”, “war”, “plague”, “death”, respectively, are interesting. I was impressed at how the people in the 15 century were obsessed with apocalypse stories and perceive reading manuscripts as a way of relaxing, just like we 21-century people get pleasure from scary movies and books. The duality of sacred and secular aspects of artworks is well-presented by the manuscript, as it is both read by devout followers in their personal devotional practice but also a means to relax in daily life. In Master of Mary of Burgundy, Hours of Engelbert of Nassau, objects depicted at the border are so vivid with shadows that they almost appear as real, which is a technic called “trick the eyes”. My favorite one is the Annunciation page, where the scene itself seems to be put on some beautiful real peacock feathers. The feathers are related to the wings of Gabriel, showing this artwork has not only aesthetic value but also religious meanings.

In this class, we mainly discussed Vittore Carpaccio’s Scenes from the Life of St. Ursula. The artist used the same outfit of characters to show that two scenes in the piece happened at different times, thus indicated the narrative of the story in the painting. Comparing this piece to Hans Memlic’s Shrine of St. Ursula, we find Carpaccio’s piece was more formal and ceremonial. The reason for such a feature had very direct relevance for the patron, as the visual narrative structure mirrored the actual ceremonial structure of the confraternity’s own ritual. A confraternity in Venice is a religious and social organization that holds ceremonies and had masses together. The notion that sacred and secular meanings were embedded in the same piece at the same time was not new. In Raphael’s Entombment, we have already seen that a significant religious scene was combined with a personal emotion of regret and care from the patron whose son died.

In the class, we move on talking about the last opening of Matthias Grünewald’s Insenheim Altarpiece. The temptation of St. Anthony, where he was assault by various hybrid creatures, stood out to me. I like the parallel between assault by monsters and assault by illness. Since the audience was mostly the ergotism patients, the lines at the right bottom of the piece aimed to show these followers that the sense of abandon was what you would feel like when you are “assaulted” by illness, and thus you should get prepared for being tempted, as Demo will tempt you even at the last moment of your life. The so-called “the art of dying” that taught people how to die well so that they can go to heaven was new to me and very interesting.

Then we moved on to Tilman Riemenschneider’s Altar of the Holy Blood. That the carpenter, who made the shrine-like structure that housed Riemenschneider’s carvings, got even more money than the artist himself left me a great impression. This revealed the fact that the patrons’ key attention was in its function rather than its aesthetic value.

We also compared different art pieces of Entry into Jerusalem and got the idea that these pieces had the same iconography but distinctive styles and art forms.

Raphael’s The Entombment was discussed lastly and was compared to Pietro Perugino’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ, where the characters were more separated and statue-like. How the personal emotion, political standing, and religious believes were at the same time embedded in the same piece of art was fascinating, showing Raphael’s high skill in artworks.

In this class, we first discussed the Portinari Altarpiece. One thing that stood out to me was that the virgin was represented by the glass or a beam of light, implying “light can go through glass without changing it, so the virgin can get pregnant without not being virgin anymore”. Such an explanation for the virginity of the virgin is not convincing, but it’s still interesting to see how the ancient try their best to justify their religious legends. The demon lurking in the dark is also interesting, as it takes people centuries to discover that, and even now when I was told that there’s a demon, it was hard to find out easily. I was totally amazed by the great craftsmanship of the artist and their skills in detail. I also like the structure of this piece, which has scenes in the background that reminded people of what was happened in the story, like the virgin was pregnant on her traveling way. This kind of design made me feel like I was reading a story, which was much more vivid and impressive than simply a picture.

Then we moved on to the Isenheim Altarpiece, and what left me a great impression was how the sickness of Jesus was depicted in the piece. Jesus here was already dead with twisty ankles, worn cloth, and morbid skin, which related to ergotism many followers got during that time. Instead of being narrative as the Portinari Altarpiece, this one was more impressive and was trying to send a message to the followers, who came to pray for their skin disease, that they would reobtain a healthy body just like the resurgence of Jesus. Those uncomfortable depictions created a gruesome atmosphere and also a sense of resonance with the patients, revealing the religious function it possessed.

In this class, we basically discussed how naturalism is embedded in artworks in the 15 century. In Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, the details on clothes, jewels, and crowd are so vivid in real-life style, and the churches in the background are similar to the churches in the real contemporary world. The purpose of these natural details is to help people to relate themselves to heaven, and they become reasonable if we realize that since no living human has been to heaven before, the artist can only relate to real-life stuff when depicting and creating something in imagination. There are also other technics that embed reality into artworks, such as the use of light and shadow applied to the body of Adam and Eve to create a sense that it is the real light from the chapel windows that is shining upon their bodies. Naturalism is also revealed in Rogier van der Weyden’s Entombment, where no landscape is drawn in the background for the reason that the altarpiece is placed indoors. Symbolism also appears in this altarpiece if we look at the same position of Mary and Jesus, meaning that the virgin is in compassion (suffer with) her son. We then compared two paintings: Fra Angelico’s Entombment from Italy, which is symmetric, and Rogier van der Weyden’s another Entombment from Northern Europy, which breaks the symmetry. The symmetry of the former one makes the artwork more formal and statue-like, and Jesus in it looks less dead, peaceful, and harmonic. Weyden’s work, however, is closer to reality: the atmosphere is more gruesome, so the audience would feel more emotional suffering with Jesus and thus more compassionate. Therefore, if we reflect on all these altarpieces mentioned in class, that altarpieces have religious functions besides aesthetic value are disclosed by the artist’s application of realism: in order to help prayer in front of the altarpiece to be more related to the religious and holy scene depicted in it, these artworks must be realistic and close to the real life.

In this class, we spent most of our time watching and comparing several paintings that have the same topic–the Virgin and the child Jesus. The structures are similar: both have the Virgin somehow holding the baby Jesus with other figures surrounding them. But there is some difference and, more precisely, linear progress ( artists trying to do better than their precedents) exists–the style is becoming more “real-life” and natural. In Cimabue’s paint, the folding of cloth is shown by mere lines, and the arch where prophets standing beneath can also be seen as a step curved inwards (creating a space puzzle). In the latter paints, these situations are improved. In Giotto’s paint, the door-kind of stuff where Madonna sits on and the overlapping angels along sides start to show a sense of depth, and the use of shadow and light clearly shows the folding of Madonna’s dress. In Duccio’s paint, the reading method of Boustrophedon for the small paintings in the back is quite interesting, and the feet “out of page” reveals a bridge connecting the world within and outside the paint. It is also impressive to realize that in Domenico’s paint the penis of Jesus is in the exact middle of the canvas, emphasizing the human feature of christ. Through all these paintings to that of Giovanni’s, in which a more relaxing atmosphere is created, we see not only more human-looking faces but also more human emotion embedded. The overall moving toward more naturalistic artwork, I think, is the key feature of art progress during that period of time.