The Nativity and the Coronation of the Virgin series by Durer highlights an interesting example of technological impacts on the art world. The series portrays the coronation of the virgin Mary by the Holy Trinity. Durer’s series is made with woodblocks enabling multiple copies of each scene to be produced. This reigns a new air to how society interacts with art. Prior there was a patron, artist, and singular work made, now Durer could distribute multiple of the same scenes. And in fact, in the 1500s, there were apocalyptic fears which helped with sales of the Virgin series. The printing press and other technological advancements coincide with the Renaissance time period, and thus, their impact on art is very interesting to observe.

Today in class, we discussed various manuscripts. One particular collection that stood out to me was the Duke of Berry’s Books of Hours. The Duke owned six of these, thus signifying that he was collecting them as objects of art rather than purely devotional objects. I thought it was interesting that the largest of these books of hours was too large to be used practically. Thus, it was designated as a sort of coffee table book, something to be admired, but not practical for everyday prayer. This demonstrates a larger shift of religious objects becoming luxury items meant to be collected rather than for purely pious purposes. Books such as these books of hours allowed collectors to indulge their desire for luxury whilst appearing to conform to the Christian ideal of avoiding excess.

In class last Thursday we discussed the emergence of manuscripts and the significance of owning one of these books. What I found most interesting about these manuscripts such as the Master of Mary Burgundy, Hours of Engelbert of Nassau was the artist’s decision to draw the accompanying images on each page look three-dimensional. For example, in both St.Barbara and Hours of the Virgin: Annunciation pages the artist(s) worked on naturalism by drawing shadows under the flowers and depicting each peacock feather with different designs to show individuality. I found this move towards naturalism to be interesting because it seems to show patrons had a new taste for the life-likeness of the works they commissioned. Additionally, this makes me wonder if how naturalistic the artwork in a manuscript shows a higher status symbol for the owner. Additionally, a lot of the text written in the manuscripts was abbreviated — I think this speaks to the switch from more formal language to vernacular. Furthermore, another way I believe artists worked on naturalism in their artwork can be seen in the Grimani Breviary where most of the page is taken up by a landscape drawing. In this case, the text is incorporated into two banners in the foreground of the scene. This choice by the artist ensures that the viewer sees the landscape as a whole instead of being broken up by the text.

Our discussion in this class introduced printing, specifically woodblock techniques. The printing of art presented a significant change in availability and distribution, as it was both mass-producible and cheap compared to other types of art we have examined so far. It allowed many more people to see the exact same work of art and even to own prints, whereas altarpieces and sculptures generally do not travel and are seen only by those who travel to them. I found it interesting how the storytelling we discussed last class carried through. Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypse series, for example, presents the stories of the Bible in a widely available visual format. He was able to distribute immensely intricate prints to many people since he only needed to create the art once. Dürer’s work provides an example of widespread popular art with a reach we have not seen before in that era. The release of the series in conjunction with mass panic related to the year 1500 and the potential for apocalypse led to huge success for the artist, making him a household name across vast areas.

In this class we discussed prints. More specifically, we discussed prints that were done by carving wood blocks. Parts would be carved out and the lines left would create the image wanted. Although wood block was difficult due to the delicacy and difficulty in getting precise lines, it was a chosen method for some because it allowed artists to easily make multiple copies of a single image. This paired with his detailed images, are what allowed Albrecht Durer to reach the level of fame that he did. He was able to create a book with the images he created and copies of this book were easily made thanks to the images being prints and it was the distribution of this book that allowed his work to gain such popularity. More specifically, it was his use of crosshatching and timing that allowed him to reach such heights. This was because crosshatching was a difficult technique to do with prints because it would make the wood fragile in those areas. In terms of timing, Durer took advantage of the belief that the world would be ending soon and created an image of the Four Horsemen which quickly became something that everyone wanted to get, due to this belief.

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 our class today, a part of our discussion focused on the practice of creating art through wood prints. This was a desirable medium of creating art because it was more favorable for mass production, as mass producing individual drawings would be much more time consuming and wood prints is more efficient. This reminds me of how the famous artwork “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai is also a woodblock print. It is interesting to see how artistic medium techniques are used across centuries as well as different cultures as well. Something else that interested me from our class discussion today was how 15th century people were attracted to manuscripts with the topic of the Book of Revelations. Since this part of the Bible is very apocalyptic, these manuscripts could be used for pleasure reading comparable to how people today watch / read horror movies or books. I thought it was interesting to see a similarity to pastimes in humans even though we are centuries a part.

In Thursday’s class we began to talk about woodblock printing as we examined some of the scenes created using that medium. The first set of artwork we looked at using this method were the prints of Albrecht Dürer. I thought it was fascinating that Dürer took advantage of the public fears about an impending apocalypse ahead of the year 1500 to publish a book of his prints with print scenes from the apocalypse. These artworks are done in astounding detail and Dürer’s book began a trend of artists producing books about the apocalypse. These books were considered a luxury item, and went hand-in-hand with the books of hours that were beautiful works of art as well as status symbols.

Our discussion in Tuesday’s class focused on the theme of story telling / narratives. We looked at Vittore Carpaccio’s narrative “Scenes from the life of st. ursula”. To me, it was interesting how the artist invited the audience into the painting / removed the separation between the work itself and the audience through the open railing and ascending staircase from the viewers point of view. These artistic choices invite the audience into the scene. This artwork also exhibits artistic choices that promote the narrative style with the left to right flow of events (the delegation being to the right of the painting). I thought it was interesting how the multiple images told one cohesive story (how St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins were inevitably killed by the Turks).

In class we views Vittore Carpaccio’s Scenes from the Life of St. Ursula. This painting utilizes our typical viewing path of left to right to show a passing of time. In the painting itself, we knew the girl was Ursula as there were multiple Christian relics to indicate this. We then viewed St. Ursula’s reliquary which gave the greater story of her life, including her ultimate demise when her 11,000 female colleagues and herself were massacred by the Huns. We also viewed The Miracle of the profaned host, which was many panels that displayed a story of a scene that shows many symbols of Jews, scorpion, and a Moors head. The story ends with the massacre of some Jews, another theme that is becoming more and more prevalent in the Christian altarpieces we view.