16thc. Italy Questions Flashcards

1
Q

Describe Stanza Della Segnatura

A

Raphael. 1510-11. Vatican, Rome.

  • Room of the Signature
  • intended to be Pope Julius II’s library and study.
  • based mural on traditional organization of library into theology, philosophy, the arts, and justice. created allegories to illustrate these themes.
  • one wall, churchmen discussing sacraments represent theology.
  • ancient philosophers debate in the School of Athens, led by Plato and Aristotle
  • on window wall, Justice, holding sword and scales, assigns each his due.
  • arts represented by Apollo and the Muses.
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2
Q

Describe The Last Supper

A

Leonardo da Vinci. 1495-98. Tempera and oil on plaster. Wall painting in refectory of Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie

  • Jesus and disciples seated at long table.
  • stagelike space recedes to three windows at back
  • vanishing point lies behind Jesus’s head
  • Jesus forms an equilateral triangle.
  • scene captures moment of Jesus saying who will betray him.
  • Judas recoils, clutching his money bag in shadows to left of Jesus.
  • vivid and expressive human emotions
  • symbolic of Jesus’s coming sacrifice for salvation and institution of ritual of mass.
  • Judas placed with John and Peter. Judas sets in motion events leading to Jesus’s death. Peter leads Church after Jesus’s death. John foretells Second Coming and Last Judgment in Apocalypse.
  • four groups of three = numeric symbolism
  • sense of gravity, balance, and order
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3
Q

Describe Virgin and Saint Anne with the Christ Child and the Young John the Baptist

A

Leonardo. 1500. Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper.

  • may be model for painting
  • Mary sits on knee of mother, Anne, and turns right to hold Christ, who strains to reach towards John.
  • created illusion of high relief by modeling figures with strongly contrasted light and shadow (chiaroscuro)
  • carefully placed highlights create interlocking circular movements. underscore individual importance of each figure while making each an integral part of the whole
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4
Q

Describe Mona Lisa

A

Leonardo. 1503. Oil on wood panel.

  • subject may have been Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, wife of prominent merchant
  • remarkably, she has no jewelry
  • solid pyramidal form of half-length figure is silhouetted against distant mountains, reinforces mysterious atmosphere
  • gentle smile not accompanied by warmth in eyes
  • fashion of plucked eyebrows and shaved hairline to increase height of forehead adds to her arresting appearance
  • unsettling is bold and slightly flirtatious way her gaze has shifted towards right to look straight out at viewer
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5
Q

Describe Vitruvian Man

A

Leonardo. 1490. Ink.

  • diagram for ideal male figure
  • based on Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius’s stuff.
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6
Q

Describe The Small Cowper Madonna

A

Raphael. 1505. Oil on wood panel.

  • named for a modern owner
  • delicate tilt of heads and tranquil mood
  • pyramid with child’s twisting shape
  • solidly modeled forms are softened by clear, even light of outdoor setting
  • Domed Church of San Bernardino painted in background.
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7
Q

Describe School of Athens

A

Raphael. Fresco in Stanza della Segnatura.

  • summarizes ideals of Renaissance papcy in harmoniously arranged forms in rational space and calm dignity of figures
  • viewed through trompe l’oiel arch, Plato and Aristotle silhouetted against sky
  • Plato gestures upward, indicating “ideal” as impossible to obtain on earth
  • Aristotle, with outstretched hand, emphasizes importance of gathering knowledge from observing material world
  • statues of apollo and minerva look down from niches
  • around them are mathematicians, naturalists, astronomers, etc. debating and demonstrating their theories to each other.
  • scene flooded with single light source takes place in immense barrel-vaulted interior
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8
Q

Describe Pope Leo X with Cardinals Guilio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi

A

Raphael. 1517. Oil on wood panel.

  • facing the pope is cousin, Guilio.
  • behind pope stands luigi.
  • pope looks up from manuscript that he was examining with magnifying glass
  • they dont look at each other
  • uneasy mood; disconnected.
  • clearly depicted contrasting textures and surfaces including visual distortion caused by magnifying glass on book page.
  • polished brass knob on pope’s chair reflects window and painter himself.
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9
Q

Describe Miraculous Draft of Fishes

A

Shop of Pieter van Aelst. 1515-16. Tapestry, wool and silk with silver-gilt wrapped threads.

  • two boats make friezelike composition and huge straining figures remind of Raphael’s competition with Michelangelo.
  • Christ’s face copied from 15thc. bronze copy.
  • landscape behind includes crowd on shore, and city of Rome with walls and churches.
  • three cranes in foreground = ever-alert and watchful pope.
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10
Q

Describe Pieta.

A

Michelangelo. 1500. Marble.

  • commissioned by French cardinal and installed as tomb monument.
  • very young Virgin of heroic stature holding smaller body of Christ.
  • inconsistencies of age and size forgotten in sweetness of expression, finely finished surfaces, and softly modeled forms.
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11
Q

Describe David

A

Michelangelo. 1501-04. Marble.

  • originally planned to be placed high atop buttress of Cathedral, but placed at eye-level in square instead.
  • became reminder of Florence’s republican status, briefly reinstated after Medici’s expulsion.
  • embodies athletic ideal of antiquity and emotional power of expression and concentrated gaze is new.
  • frowns and stares into space. implies heroic qualities
  • represents supremacy of right over might
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12
Q

Interior, Sistine Chapel

A

1475-81. Vatican, Rome.

  • Michelangelo objected to pope’s original plans
  • illusionistic marble architecture establishes framework for figures on vault of chapel
  • around ceiling is painted cornice supported by short pilasters with putti
  • Seated on cornice are heroic figures of nude young men
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13
Q

Describe Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel

A

Michelangelo. 1511-12. Fresco
-moment when God gives Adam life.
Adam’s pose matches God’s.
-below Adam is ignudo grasping oak leaves and giant acorns, refers to Pope Julius’s name or to passage in OT.

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14
Q

Describe Moses

A

Michelangelo. 1513-16. Marble. Tomb of Julius II

  • gigantic muscular figure, in great sheets of drapery, seated in restless contrapposto that strains against confines of niche.
  • hand tugging at beard signifies tour de force
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15
Q

Describe New Sacristy (Medici Chapel)

A

Michelangelo. 1519-34. Church of San Lorenzo

  • each of two monuments has idealized portrait of deceased
  • men dressed in 16thc. classical armor above pseudoclassical sarcophagi.
  • on top of sarcophagi are male and female figures representing times of day
  • Giuliano represents Active Life, and his sarcophagus figures represent Night and Day.
  • huge mask behind Night may allude to Death
  • Lorenzo represents Contemplative Life, supported by Dawn and Evening.
  • pierta serena pilasters and architraves
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16
Q

Describe The Great Grotto, Boboli Gardens

A

1583-93.

  • recess constructed of irregular stones and shells covered with foliage and slime to suggest natural cave
  • contained four marble captives by Michelangelo
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17
Q

Describe Tempietto, Church of San Pietro in Montorio

A

Donate Bramante.

  • “Little Temple”
  • combined principles of Vitruvius and Alberti
  • Vitruvius advised that Doric order be used for temples to gods of forceful character
  • centralized plan and tall drum
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18
Q

Describe Palazzo Farnese, Rome

A

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Michelangelo. 1517-50.

  • main facade faces public square
  • task of rebuilding into largest, finest palace in Rome
  • massive central door emphasized by elaborate rusticated stonework
  • piano nobile, first floor (2nd floor)
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19
Q

Describe Assumption of the Virgin

A

Correggio. 1526-30. Fresco.

  • softly modeled forms, spotlighting effects of illumination, slight haze (sfumato)
  • swirling vortex of clouds
  • sensuous flesh and clinging draperies contrasts with spirituality of theme
  • swirling, upward motion
20
Q

Describe Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

A

Properzia de Rossi. 1525-26. Marble.

  • famous for her miniature carvings.
  • inspired by love of man.
  • Joseph escapes, running
21
Q

Describe The Tempest

A

Giorgione. 1506. Oil on canvas.

  • imaginative and sensual aspects of the poesie.
  • right, woman seated on ground, nude except for cloth. nudity seems maternal as she nurses child.
  • across is man wearing uniform of German mercenary soldier.
  • focus more on landscape. thunder in the sky. fountain gushing into stream. affluent town in the background.
  • gave importance to nature.
22
Q

Describe The Pastoral Concert or Allegory on the Invention of Pastoral Poetry

A

Titian. 1510. Oil on canvas.

  • fertile landscape bathed in golden sunlight.
  • two men, aristocratic musician in rich red silks and barefoot, singing peasant in homespun cloth turn toward each other, ignoring two women.
  • one woman plays a pipe and other pours water into well.
  • shepherd and animals nearby.
  • evokes mood of golden age of love and innocence recalled in Roman pastoral poetry.
23
Q

Describe Pesaro Madonna

A

Titian. 1519-26. Oil on canvas.

  • asymmetrical setting of huge columns on high bases.
  • Virgin ans Child on high throne and arranged saints and Pesaro family at sides.
  • central figure of Saint Peter.
  • red of Franceso Pesaro’s garment and banner set contrast of primary colors against Peter’s blue and yellow, and red and blue of Virgin
  • Saint Maurice holds banner with coat of arms of the pope, and cowering Turkish captive reminds viewer of Christian victory.
  • Light floods in from above.
  • built on diagonal grid.
24
Q

Describe Venus of Urbino

A

Titian. 1538. Oil on canvas.

  • inspired by flesh-and-blood beauty
  • gestures seem deliberately provocative.
  • sheets and pillows set off glowing flesh and golden hair
  • spaniel (fidelity) sleeps at her feet
  • maid in background lends comfortable domestic air
25
Q

Describe Pieta

A

Titian. 1570-76. Oil on canvas.

  • sought essence of form and idea, not surface perfection
  • Virgin mourns her son against huge arched niche
  • Titian painted himself as Saint Jerome kneeling before Christ.
  • figures emerge out of darkness
  • diagonal composition
26
Q

Describe Isabella D’Este

A

Titian. 1534-36. Oil on canvas.

  • huge patron of the arts
  • Renaissance woman
27
Q

Describe Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel

A

Michelangelo. 1536-41. Fresco.

  • above chapel altar
  • writhing swarm of rising and falling humanity
  • left, dead are dragged from graves and pushed up into vortex of figures around Christ, who wields arm like a sword of justice
  • shrinking Virgin = change from Gothic tradition
  • right of Christ’s feet is Saint Bartholomew who was skinned alive, holds his flayed skin
  • rejected souls plunged into Hell at right, leaving unjudged in uncomprehending state
  • Charon, ferrymen of dead to underworld
  • cloth added because nudity
28
Q

Describe Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican

A

Michelangelo. 1546-64

  • flat, angeled walls and three hemicycles (semicircular structures)
  • colossal pilasters, blind windows, and niches form sanctuary
29
Q

Describe Pieta (Rondanini Pieta)

A

Michelangelo. Marble. 1559-64.

  • expression of lonely, disillusioned, and physically debilitated man
  • unfinished since he died.
  • struggle between artist and medium
  • ignored Renaissance ideals of human perfectability and denied own youthful idealism
  • uncovered new forms that mirrored tensions in Europe
30
Q

Describe Facade of the Church of Il Gesu

A

Giacomo della Porta. Rome. 1573-84.

  • congregational purpose
  • wide, barrel-vaulted nave, shallow connected side chapels without aisles, and short transepts
  • enabled all worshipers to gather in central space
  • single huge apse and dome over crossing directed attention to altar
  • facade emphasized central portal with classical pilasters, engaged columns and pediments, and volutes scrolling out to hide buttresses of central vault and to link tall central section with lower sides.
  • possessed verticality and centrality.
31
Q

Describe Mannerism

A

intellectually intricate subjects, highly skilled techniques, and art concerned with beauty for its own sake.

  • an attitude, a point of view
    characteristics: extraordinary virtuosity, intricate compositions, sophisticated, elegant figures, and fearless manipulations or distortions of accepted formal conventions
  • longer torsos, bigger heads. serpentine figure.
32
Q

Describe Entombment.

A

Pontormo. 1525-28. Oil and tempera on wood panel. Capponi Chapel.

  • Virgin accepts angel’s message, and sorrow as she sees son’s body lower from cross.
  • some figures press into viewer’s space while others levitate or stand on smooth boulders.
  • emotional atmosphere expressed in the odd poses, and drastic shifts in scale
  • use of secondary colors and colors shot through with contrasting colors
  • predominantly blue and pink
  • tone is set by the color treatment of the crouching youth
33
Q

Describe Madonna with the Long Neck

A

Parmigianino. 1534-40. Oil on wood panel.

  • elongated figure of Madonna, with massive legs and lower torso contrast with skinny upper figure, resembles large mental vase on left
  • sleeping Christ recalls pose of pieta
  • background, Saint Jerome unrolls scroll beside columns.
  • challenges viewer’s intellect while it exerts its strange appeal to aesthetic sensbility
34
Q

Describe Portrait of a Young Man

A

Bronzino. 1540-45. Oil on wood panel.

  • intelligent, aloof, elegant, and self-assured
  • youth toys with book, suggesting scholarly interests
  • stupid eye creates slightly unsettling effect and seems to associate portrait with carved masks surrounding him
35
Q

Describe Allegory with Venus and Cupid

A

Bronzino. 1540s. Oil on panel.
-7 figures, 2 masks, and a dove in foreground
-Venus is basically making out with her son, Cupid, and being encouraged by a putto representing Folly, Jest, or Playfulness.
-Venus holds golden apple of discord from Paris.
ugly red masks = theme of duplicity
-Old man, Time or Chronos, assisted by ouraged Truth pulls back a curtain to expose the couple
-Lurking behind Venus is monstrous serpent with lion’s legs and claws and head of beautiful young girl. she crosses her hands to hold a honeycomb and scorpion’s stinger. Called Inconstancy, Fraud, and Pleasure
-In shadows, screaming head tears its hair. Female would be Jealousy or Envy. Male would be Pain.
-maybe tells the impossibility of constant love and folly of lovers
-or allegory on sin and condemnation of vice.

36
Q

Describe The Farnese Hours: Adoration of the Magi and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

A

Giului Clovio. 1546. Vellum.

  • book of hours commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
  • serpentine figures in graceful poses and elongated proportions noticeable in nudes that support frames
  • brilliant colors combine with pale atmospheric space
  • Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon prefigures Magi’s journey to Christ Child.
37
Q

Describe Self-Portrait by Anguissola.

A
  1. Oil on parchment.
    - taught by father
    - painted herself holding medallion. border spells out her name and home town, Cremona.
    - interlaced letters at the center are a ride. seem to form monogram with first letters of her sisters’ names.
38
Q

Describe Saltcellar of King Francis I of France

A

Cellini. 1540-43. Gold and enamel.

  • sea god Neptune represents source of salt, sits next to tiny boat-shaped container that carries it.
  • personification of Earth guards plant-derived pepper, contained in triumphal arch
  • representations of seasons and times of day on base refer to both daily meal schedules and festive seasonal celebrations
  • two main figures mirror each other’s pose. they lean away from each other at impossible angles yet are connected and visually balanced by glances and gestures
39
Q

Describe Astronomy or Venus Urania

A

Giovanni da Bologna (Giambologna). 1573. Bronze gilt.

  • identity suggested by astronomical device on base.
  • straining limits of human body
  • graceful form and pose
40
Q

Describe Noli Me Tangere

A

Lavinia Fontana. 1581. Oil on canvas.

  • biblical story of Christ revealing himself to Mary and warning her not to touch him
  • costume refers to passage that Mary first thought Christ was gardener
  • Christ steps forward like classical god, but dressed in short tunic and gardener’s hat
  • graceful gestures echoes that of Mary’s
  • middle distance is second confrontation. earlier meeting of women with angel at empty tomb.
  • contrasts large foreground figures with tiny figures at tomb
41
Q

Describe Feast in the House of Levi

A

Veronese. 1573. Oil on canvas.

  • grand Last Supper.
  • originally shocked Church officials by impiety of placing Jesus near host of unsavory company.
42
Q

Describe The Last Supper by Tintoretto.

A

1592-94. Oil on canvas.

  • view is from corner, with vanishing point on high horizon line at far right side
  • table, coffered ceiling, and inlaid floor seem to plunge into distance
  • figures turn and move in continuous serpentine line
  • light streams from oil lamps. second light comes from Jesus and repeated in glow of apostles’ halos.
  • returned to religious institution of Eucharist
43
Q

Describe Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

A

Palladio. 1565.

  • Renaissance facade and traditional basilica plan.
  • created illusion of two temple fronts of different heights and widths, one set inside the other
  • center, colossal columns on high pedestals support entablature and pediment that front narrow clerestory level.
44
Q

Describe Nave of Church of San Giorgio

A
  • harmoniously balanced geometry, expressed in strong verticals and arcs.
  • tall engaged columns and shorter pairs of pilasters of nave arcade echo two levels of orders on facade, unifying exterior and interior.
45
Q

Describe Villa Rotonda

A

Palladio. 1550.

  • villas originally were working farms, but this was designed as retreat for relaxation
  • placed porch with four columns, arched openings in walls, and wide staircase to afford views of countryside
  • living quarters on 2nd floor. lower level for kitchen, storage, and utility rooms
  • inspired by Roman Pantheon
  • circle inscribed in square inside larger square
  • use of central dome on domestic building was daring innovation