I was really interested in our class today about how we talked about the concept of “linear progression” of art and how this idea can be problematic. I liked how we first started with Vasari, who set up this idea that artists will always do better (truer to life) than the artist previous to them. This idea is problematic because it doesn’t take into account the context from the time. I liked how we returned back to Ancient Greek art with the 3 male sculptures and discussed how through time the representations of these men changed. Though throughout time in Ancient Greek artists became more focused on created naturalistic art and emulating the human body in an accurate and beautiful way, but this doesn’t mean that the archaic sculptures were not sufficient in their own period and that they lacked skill. For example, the archaic sculptures could fulfill the artistic needs of the time and was idealized in more of an abstract way. I thought this discussion was important because I always have to remind myself of this idea of how the degree of naturalism is not related to a sort of “linear progression” instead it could be just the artistic needs of the time period as well as reactive to the time periods surrounding it.

In this class we talked about the story of St. Francis, a rich merchant who left his family, and found the most important thing in life is perspective. He saw the benefit of living in poverty and reveled in the perspective it gave him. Francis became canonized less than 2 years after he died, which is incredibly quick in comparison to others. I also enjoyed talking about the alchemy of distillation and purification. We talked about the four stages: conjunction, coagulation, putrefaction, and washing and their relation to the bible.

In this class, we talked about the Limbourg Brothers Original Sin. This work is especially important as it relates to my idea for my midterm project of the outsiders in renaissance art history. The work shows continuous narration, a new type of art we haven’t seen before as the story is told in one picture with different timelines. It parallels Filippo Brunelleschi’s competition panel for the Baptistery.

In class on Thursday, we learned about the Franciscan order, the life of St. Francis, and the associated artwork. I found the formation of a new order interesting because it brings upon new works of art that tell a different story compared to other works. For example, we see scenes of St. Francis renouncing his inheritance to his father and the Franciscan order getting approved by the Pope. These scenes place emphasis on the individual saint instead of Mary and Jesus.

What I found interesting was the creation of religious works that were made with the individual in mind. I found the inclusion of the patron praying in The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ to be fascinating because it seems to be a great way for the patron to show his/her devotion to the church. However, I find this detail to be almost as bad as buying/selling indulgences because it’s an easy way to show the patron is devoted to the church without actually having to put in the effort and attend service.

Additionally, I found The Garden of Earthly Delights to also show this same concept. Since this work of art was not created for a church setting, it depicts a lot more Earthly objects as opposed to the heavily gilded church works. This is quite unusual especially because artists usually emphasized the difference between Since this work is a conversation piece, I believe this opens the door to another use of religious art – for intellectual stimulation and learning.

This class finished our exploration of the Arena Chapel. Giotto’s use of posture and positioning of figures to direct sightlines to key parts of the fresco was interesting. The artist simplified scenes and backgrounds, only including the most essential elements. Placing extra people on the edges of scenes looking or gesturing towards the center prompts the viewer to see the parts that matter first. This serves to boost the didactic aspects of the works, as elements key to the story depicted are made prominent. Every scene, therefore, supports the overall message of the chapel. Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Desires, which we viewed at the end of class, presented a very different depiction of religious subjects than the ways we have seen before. Religious imagery is harnessed for secular and personal use. The utilization of the alchemical process in the triptych reflects something that may have been significant to the patron or artist. Bosch’s handling of the stages reveals interesting comments on life, as conjunction, coagulation, and putrefaction are represented by marriage, copulation, and burning in Hell. It would certainly have made an interesting conversation piece in the patron’s collection.

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.

Today in class, we went over works from a plethora of artists, but the Sassetti Chapel with the Life of St. Francis most interested me. St. Francis as a character is very unique. St. Francis left his home and family to become a hermit, ultimately deciding on becoming an itinerant preacher. His focus for preaching was the value of poverty and gratitude, and throughout his career, St. Franic gained a large amount of followers. Therefore, it makes sense that he was canonized two years after his death, which is a very fast timeline. The Life of St. Franic is an altarpiece with paneled narration. My favorite panel is the miraculous resurrection of a child. Not only does this symbolize the legacy of St. Francis, but it also has an interesting representation of him from the afterlife. We have not come across a lot of dead saints in the real world, but the way in which St. Francis spirit was represented was both logical and creative.

In this class, we finished our discussions of the Arena Chapel, paying close attention to how the composition of pieces contributed to explaining the narrative. We additionally talked about the life of St. Francis, and the movement he inspired, as well as the ties between The Garden of Earthly Delights and alchemical tools. Specifically, within the frescoes of the Arena Chapel, I found it interesting that Giotto might have used the same guides for multiple scenes, as we talked about with the pose of Christ in the raising of Lazarus and his entrance to Jerusalem. The choice of Giotto to portray the story of Jesus kicking the merchants out of the Temple was also an interesting element to the narratives in the frescoes, as it thematically matched the Arena Chapel’s goal of charity and disapproval of greed. The Lamentation scene was interesting in the ways in which it differed from the other frescos in the narrative. As we discussed, Giotto’s use of body language to convert emotion is quite spectacular, and even with this use of body language, he is able to build the composition in a manner that makes it bottom-heavy, towards Christ’s body. This, which is the primary difference between the earlier frescoes, conveys the gravity of the death of Christ, which at the time, would have felt like the end of the movement for His followers.

We continued our discussion of the chapel from the last class today. More specifically, we discussed how the artist created a sense of connectivity throughout the pieces by accounting for left to right movement and similar or continuous backgrounds.

After this, we discussed the Life of St. Francis. In order to discuss this piece, we were first given more information on who St. Francis was. One of the prominent moments in his life was when his brotherhood was recognized by the pope in 1210 which allowed his followers to properly organize themselves. We also discussed The Lamentation Over The Dead Christ which was interesting because it is a work that was created using life size painted terracotta and placed a focus on the lamentation process of the death of Christ rather than depicting the actual death itself.

However, what truly caught my eye during this class was the discussion on The Garden of Earthly Desires. This painting stood out from the very beginning because it is a painting that depicts religious images yet is a work that will not be shown in churches. Looking at it in closer detail told us that the painting was modeled upon the alchemic process of distillation and purification but a part of this process was represented through copulating figures which was why it was not meant for churches. This work also had an interesting depiction of hell as it represented the putrefaction process which is why it showed burning objects and eternal fire.

Today’s class gave some more attention the Arena Chapel and some of continuities among the scenes depicted. The parallels were very interesting to note, especially because most of them dealt with the composition of the work rather than a narrative element. In many of the scenes, the figures were mirrored or their postures were similar, but in all the background, although rather minimal and quiet, gave a lot of help in the flow of the eye. Specifically, with the Adoration of the Magi and the Washing of the Disciples’ Feet, it was really fascinating to see the same posturing and the landscaping work so seamlessly, along with the flow of the narrative, having Christ adored as King of kings first, then performing an act of utter humility, essentially the work of a servant, washing the feet of His disciples. We also got to talk about the life of St. Francis and some of the things he was most notable for.