The class today continued to concern altar pieces and religious works of art. Many works’ subjects were the Madonna or the virgin Mary. Time period is a large determiner in the type of style and way in which this scene is shown. I noticed the different types of blocking among the other subjects drastically changed. For example, in Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned, the surrounding people’s position relative to Mary and baby Jesus is less overarching, in a position lower than when comparing the same scene as depicted by Cimabue. For me, this changes the level of importance that Mary is being presented. It also alters the focal points on each work. Giotto’s baby Jesus and Mary’s womb is far more emphasized. I think this is important to think about moving forward. With religious works of art, there can be similar scenes shown in a vast amount of ways. When thinking about the exhibition, I plan to analyze the works of art in the context of other similar works, as well as the time period they were made.

Today’s class was chock full of iconography and I guess you could call them, typical iconographic examples for that time and place in art history. We focused on the different ‘renditions’, if you want to call them that of Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned and Child (1280-90). Some major takeaways were the physical and spatial depiction of the Madonna and the child Christ. Typical to that time period, the figures were not very realistic looking, nor were their clothing, or locations. Some iconography we saw was that of the prophets, given away by their physically lowered position and the incorporation of scrolls and the Madonna, who was in her classic blue and elevated physically. Then we looked at Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned (1310), which gave a more realistic rendering of the mother and child. There was a lot less linearity and the Madonna appears much more nurturing. Lastly we looked at Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna Enthroned. All three helped us get a better understanding of how the work of the time in Italy evolved as time went on.

In this class we jumped right into a discussion about what iconography actually is. Using the etymology of the word (‘icon-‘ Greek for image, ‘-graphy’ coming from the Greek graphine, or to write) we came to the working definition of the study of the ways a subject matter is represented. I believe today was the first day we were formally introduced to the polyptych style of altarpieces. Those or pieces with several panels and the general progression as time went on was to go from the segmented polyptych style to a more unified piece. Although we did get to see in one piece that although it was one unified piece, it still incorporated the panel-like separate.

Two other parts of class I found especially interesting were (1) the beatific vision that was captured in many an artwork and (2) where altarpieces originated from. I had never heard of the beatific vision but its interesting to see artists takes on it, seeing as those its a vision premised on the fact that you’ve made it to Heaven already. The second was also interesting because it seemed a bit contradictory to me. Thinking of Christ as someone who was for the masses, yet those who felt the most pious made a point to use their riches to create a privatized worshipping experience. All the while, the worshipping assistant is being pushed to the wall, but who am I to judge?

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.

In Thursday’s class we learned about the different portrayals of Madonna over time. It was interesting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same. It was also interesting to get a look into the change that occurred in type of painting that artists did, going from using gold and being extravagant to being more realistic. This also led to the idea that some aspects of painting had turned competitive as artists started to try and one up one another. It was also very interesting to see just how artists have always been able to direct they eyes of the viewer in order for them to get the full experience the artist created and meant for them to have.

In Thursday’s class we examined a number of different pieces depicting Madonna Enthroned. I enjoyed learning about the ways in which Renaissance artists worked to make their paintings look more lifelike. Learning that artists know exactly how to control your gaze when you look at their art was fascinating to me, and made me reconsider how I have been looking at art for my whole life. Along those lines, the most astonishing moment of class for me was when Professor Plesch zoomed in on Duccio’s Maestà and showed us the intricate details of the rich fabric that each of the people on either side of the throne were wearing. I was blown away by these details because I had not noticed them in the slightest until Professor Plesch brought our attention to it. She explained that the gorgeous fabrics likely looked like a lot of the expensive fabrics being imported from the Middle East and Asia at the time and were a powerful symbol of status and wealth. This made me wonder what other magnificent elements of art I have missed because I did not know to look for them.

In today’s lecture, we spent most of our time talking about the different ways the Madonna enthroned is depicted / the sacred conversation. It was really interesting to see how the skill of showing depth perception advanced throughout time and how artists used specific shading, eye gazing, and colors to illustrate a more naturalistic image. This progression also has a cultural component in Italian art as it was more or less a competition between artists to always do better than the previous artist. We also talked about how altarpieces are ritualistic in mass with the priest elevating the body of Christ and how this action would juxtapose with the altarpiece of the Virgin and baby Jesus. We also talked about the different ways artists tried to depict baby Jesus, from illustrating him larger than life (hierarchitic scale) and also showing him naked with human body parts to show incarnation.

In class, we discussed a variety of artwork. I was especially impressed by the altarpieces we discussed, specifically our discussion of the iconography of The Trinity. The miniscule details were fascinating ranging from the purgatory to the different classes of people. I especially liked our discussion of the babies baptized through bloodshed as it was information I was not previously disposed to.

In this class we discussed the holy trinity in detail, and the many different interpretations of it. The idea of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were portrayed in many different ways, depending on the region and artist. This is a form of iconography. We also went into detail about purgatory, both what it is and how it works. I found it interesting the different illustrations and how purgatory was interpreted back then. Some forms being much more extreme than others.

I found it to be very interesting in our discussion about altarpieces about how there was a distinct change from the gold background to the more realistic altarpieces. The gold background lacked a realistic setting, and appeared in an other world which elevated the feelings of holiness to me. It is interesting to think about how orthodox churches still to this day have more gold / Byzantine altarpieces. The newer style of altarpieces has a more realistic background and has much better depth perception. It was also interesting to dissect such a long contract with unique requests for the time period (like asking for the holy trinity to all be represented identically).