4B - The Renaissance and Christian Art

Question 1

lying-buttress

Answer 1

elongated arch of stone and brick

-allowed builders to construct taller cathedral walls by distributing the weight away from the center

– thus creating a stable form that allowed for large windows (usually of stained-glass) and elaborate additions to cathedral design.

Question 2

Medieval artwork was often very ornate or full of symbols but often lacked in any naturalistic elements, emotions,
movements or scenery. There was often little realism in this type of art and they were generally designed to encapsulate the theocentric or God-centered perspective of a story or concept to the exclusion of the human or anthropocentric viewpoint.

Answer 2

read

Question 3

theocentric

Answer 3

or God-centered perspective of a story

Question 4

anthropocentric

Answer 4

concept to the exclusion of the human

Question 5

he common experience in the Middle Ages was an endless cycle of drudgery in which there seemed little beauty. Centuries of war, plague and famine had led many literate individuals to look to the achievements of Greek and Roman societies as a kind of golden age of humanity. This new focus became known as _____ and it brought about a rebirth, or ______, in creativity.

Answer 5

humanism, Renaissance

Question 6

Many scholars today consider Renaissance art to have begun in _____- around the year 1300 with the frescoes painted in the ________

Answer 6

Padua, Italy,

–Scrovegni (or Arena) chapel.

Question 7

The artist ______ was hired by the Scrovegni family to decorate their burial chapel in a way that might diminish their shame over acquiring their fortune through usury, or high interest rates on loans.

Answer 7

Giotto

Question 8

usury

Answer 8

acquiring their fortune through usury, or high interest rates on loans.

Question 9

what was unique about grottos art style

Answer 9

Giotto also portrayed real emotional tension in the faces of his figures. This was something altogether new to art, though Giotto was to reserve most of his emotional tension for those around Christ.

Question 10

what concept did Giotto use in his art

Answer 10

Introduction to the concept of using linear perspective*, or lines that orient to a horizon line to give the illusion of depth within a flat surface, originated from study of Greek and Roman symmetrical principles, particularly Euclidian geometry.

Question 11

memento mori,

Answer 11

reminder of death,

Question 12

St. John and Mary are more elevated than the donors, so that the viewer has to look up to see them. When they do, they see Mary looking out at them with her hand directing their view to the Trinity, in evidence of her special role as intercessor. The Trinity is depicted above the viewer’s head, so that they have to look up to see it, in reverence to God’s divinity. This painted fresco demonstrates how Renaissance artists utilized perspective to add symbolism and to create more visual interest within two- dimensional surfaces.

Answer 12

just read I guess Das pretty coo actually

Question 13

Renaissance sculptures began to focus less upon elongated bodies and intricate drapery folds and more upon realistic accuracy or actual bodily movement, whether they were nudes or not. —— known as the epitome of a “Renaissance man”

Answer 13

Leonardo da Vinci,

Question 14

_________- excelled at depicting the perfection of the human form through sculpture. His emotional sculpture, Pieta, focuses not upon not Mary’s joy but her profound loss over losing her son, exemplifying how humanism affected the visualization of Catholic doctrines and scenes.

Answer 14

Michelangelo

Question 15

who’s artwork is on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel within the Vatican.

Answer 15

michelangelo

Question 16

An indulgence

Answer 16

is a remission of sins made to assist individuals or their departed loved ones in the afterlife

Question 17

Expenses incurred by long and elaborate projects would lead corrupted popes to sanction the sale of indulgences to finance construction. An indulgence is a remission of sins made to assist individuals or their departed loved ones in the afterlife. As we shall see in subsequent chapters, the abuse of their sale during the Renaissance led to some very public criticism by the Augustinian priest, Martin Luther and were a contributing factor in the Protestant Reformation.

Answer 17

–

Question 18

______became known as the literary equivalent of Giotto’s Arena chapel because he found the letters of the ancient Roman, Cicero, and used their beautiful language to utter his own contemplative thoughts about the soul. To this day, the format for the sonnet is referred to as a Petrarchan sonnet because of his revival of the Classical form. Petrarch also influenced many other writers living in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries to contemplate the world around them in interesting ways.

Answer 18

Francesco Petrarch

Question 19

the _______- by Francesco Petrarch relates 100 tales of a group of young men and women passing the time during a plague at a villa outside Florence. His use of the vernacular language and realistic explanations of human triumphs and sufferings also exemplifies humanistic ideals.

Answer 19

Decameron of Boccaccio

Question 20

Dante Alighieri took a different approach to his criticism of society in his grand work, the Divine Comedy. In this work he sought

to

Answer 20

find a way to admonish society to reform through describing in harrowing detail his own visionary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

Question 21

Not all writers, however, sought to encourage admirable values in society. It is widely believed that _____wrote his theoretical political philosophy, The Prince, after being inspired by the unscrupulous and immoral actions of the corrupt Pope Alexander VI’s illegitimate son, Cesare Borgia.

Answer 21

Machiavelli