16thc. Italy Questions Flashcards
Describe Stanza Della Segnatura
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.
Describe The Last Supper
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
Describe Virgin and Saint Anne with the Christ Child and the Young John the Baptist
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
Describe Mona Lisa
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
Describe Vitruvian Man
Leonardo. 1490. Ink.
- diagram for ideal male figure
- based on Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius’s stuff.
Describe The Small Cowper Madonna
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.
Describe School of Athens
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
Describe Pope Leo X with Cardinals Guilio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi
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.
Describe Miraculous Draft of Fishes
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.
Describe Pieta.
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.
Describe David
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
Interior, Sistine Chapel
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
Describe Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel
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.
Describe Moses
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
Describe New Sacristy (Medici Chapel)
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
Describe The Great Grotto, Boboli Gardens
1583-93.
- recess constructed of irregular stones and shells covered with foliage and slime to suggest natural cave
- contained four marble captives by Michelangelo
Describe Tempietto, Church of San Pietro in Montorio
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
Describe Palazzo Farnese, Rome
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)
Describe Assumption of the Virgin
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
Describe Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife
Properzia de Rossi. 1525-26. Marble.
- famous for her miniature carvings.
- inspired by love of man.
- Joseph escapes, running
Describe The Tempest
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.
Describe The Pastoral Concert or Allegory on the Invention of Pastoral Poetry
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.
Describe Pesaro Madonna
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.
Describe Venus of Urbino
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
Describe Pieta
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
Describe Isabella D’Este
Titian. 1534-36. Oil on canvas.
- huge patron of the arts
- Renaissance woman
Describe Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel
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
Describe Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican
Michelangelo. 1546-64
- flat, angeled walls and three hemicycles (semicircular structures)
- colossal pilasters, blind windows, and niches form sanctuary
Describe Pieta (Rondanini Pieta)
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
Describe Facade of the Church of Il Gesu
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.
Describe Mannerism
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.
Describe Entombment.
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
Describe Madonna with the Long Neck
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
Describe Portrait of a Young Man
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
Describe Allegory with Venus and Cupid
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.
Describe The Farnese Hours: Adoration of the Magi and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
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.
Describe Self-Portrait by Anguissola.
- 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.
Describe Saltcellar of King Francis I of France
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
Describe Astronomy or Venus Urania
Giovanni da Bologna (Giambologna). 1573. Bronze gilt.
- identity suggested by astronomical device on base.
- straining limits of human body
- graceful form and pose
Describe Noli Me Tangere
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
Describe Feast in the House of Levi
Veronese. 1573. Oil on canvas.
- grand Last Supper.
- originally shocked Church officials by impiety of placing Jesus near host of unsavory company.
Describe The Last Supper by Tintoretto.
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
Describe Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
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.
Describe Nave of Church of San Giorgio
- 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.
Describe Villa Rotonda
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
