IHUM 202 Midterm Flashcards
point of class
How Western civilization has modified its cultural identities over time through art, sculpture, photography, film, architecture, literature, music, and philosophy
western culture lost the wisdom and learning of ancient civilization for 1500+ years
- -where would we be now if ancient civilization had not collapsed?
- -we learn about past to prevent from happening again
- -learn to be better equipped to value and protect the culture we, as humanity, have labored thousands of years to cultivate
Ch. 1 - The collapse of classical civilization
753 BC 509 BC 44 BCE-14 AD 395 AD 410-554 AD
753 BC - alleged founding of Rome
509 BC - establishment of Roman Republic
44 BCE-14 AD - Roman Republic becomes Roman Empire
395 AD - Roman empire separates into E and W halves
410-554 AD - Rome sacked repeatedly - western Empire collapses and dark ages begin in Italy
leads to rise of CHRISTIAN CHURCH during this period with many new ideas (medicine, physics, astronomy, literature, philosophy) - church sees these ideas as heretical and many priceless works are destroyed
- -some classical works were passed into monasteries where monks translated them
- -others preserved in Arab world
Medieval art
flat planes
–focus on spiritual things not realism
scientific perspective
Brunelleschi first mastered art of scientific perspective 15th century
- -ancient greeks and romans had partially understood but methods had been lost
- -he studied Arab science and came to understand
- -mostly studied Alhazen’s Perspectiva - integrated works of Euclid, Ptolemy and Galen
scientific perspective - AKA single-point perspective
Alberti’s!!! perspective diagram — showed viewer at VANTAGE POINT
- -orthogonals
- -base line
- -horizon line and the VANISHING point on the horizon line
look at picture
Brunelleschi created Il Duomo in Florence, iTALY - 1436
Scientific perspective seen in a Florentine Fresco
- -FRESCO - is a watercolor done on a wet plaster wall or ceiling - the colors sink in before plaster dries
- -all converge on a single point - with horizon line at base of Christ’s cross
Da Vinci has the Last Supper painting also with the scientific perspective - vanishing point on Christ’s head
–orthogonals show the lines leading to the vanishing point
the Medici Family
- -wealthy banking family that controlled political and artistic developments in Florence, Italy btwn 1418 and 1494
- -fostered and patronized the arts - bankrolling many of most glorious works of Renaissance
- -some Medici family members became popes in Catholic church – and cont. to sponsor artists like Michelangelo and Raphael
- –alleged extravagance of Medici popes was one of the many objections Martin Luther had to the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church
Imp. details about Renaissance in South (Italy) - 1
- period during 1400s-1500s AD was a cultural and intellectual “RE-BIRTH” - meaning of word “Renaissance”
- Ppl of Italy sought to revive the lost knowledge of the classical era - era of the Greeks and the Romans that crumbled w/ collapse of Roman Empire in 5th century AD
- Art of Renaissance in the south (frescoes and sculptures) celebrated the beauty of the human form and the dignity of human kind
- art and architecture of the period and region employed the principles of linear/scientific perspective
Imp. details about Renaissance in South (Italy) - 2
- Paintings done primarily in form of frescoes – wet plaster applied to a wall or ceiling and then TEMPERA (paint where pigments were mixed w/ water or egg) was used to paint over the wet plaster - paint seeped into the plaster as it dried
- Renaissance in South sought to celebrate humankind and its potential
- -it re-birthed the idea that humans were fulfilling God’s will when they tried to max their potential and become more like him artistically and intellectually
- -attitude was very diff. from Middle ages - where humans were constantly taught they were sinners who should submit themselves to God’s will and not aspire to higher things - rich banking family - Medicis - helped to bankroll the Renaissance in Florence, Italy
Ch. 2 - northern renaissance in Europe - btwn wealth and want
Bruges, Flanders
on Map - Bruges - chief financial, commercial and artistic centers were in N Europe in 15th-16th centuries
Bruges, Flanders
- -a major TRADE and ART hub
- -home of Medici banking interests in N Europe
- -merchant class (like nobility) supported the arts - court was obsessed w/ chivalry, poetry, art, music - Bruges was home to thriving community of painters so dukes were attracted to it
- –nobility and merchant class contributed to the city’s position at the center of arts in Europe
–oil paintings
Antwerp, Flanders
another major trade and art hub
- -replaced Bruges after canal system system filled with SILT - Antwerp became center of art commerce
- -in 1533 - 300 painters lived nearby - sent Portguese ships full of paintings
- -huge quantities of art were bought and sold at building where fair was held – Antwerp received goods from other cities
- -art and commerce now linked!! - way to trade and transport them
other N trading hubs
- -Antwerp
- -Tournai - tapestries
- -Arras
- -Paris - manuscripts
- -Cologne - manuscripts
- -Nuremburg - invention of printing press brings more fine art prints
Imp. details about Renaissance in N
- rather than on wet plaster (frescoes in S) - artists in Germany and Flanders painted on boards and on linen or canvas
- N artists used oil points not tempera - discovered that layers of oil on painting create a certain translucency that reflects light back at the viewer
- -oil paints dry more slowly – allows artists to blend colors in minute amts. - create subtle tone modulations that suggest sense of light falling across an object - use of oil paints in N enables artists to use fine-tipped brushes - tech. that helps disguise the visibility of brush strokes
- S art was focused on realism and a celebration of Classical idea of idealized human body - N art focused on detail and pessimism about life and Catholic Church
- S began using scientific perspective in early 1400s - N did not understand scientific perspective until Albrecht Durer introduced in early 1500s
Robert Campin 2 paintings in my photos
Johannes Stradanus - oil painting - Jan van Eyck’s Studio
- -drawing or wood cut - of what he saw in Van Eyck’s oil painting studio - not an oil painting itself - it is a print
- -shows the studio as an oil painting factory for consumption by rising middle class in N Europe
oil painting details
oils had been used in tempera painting before - but flemish painters realized that using oil as the primary vehicle for the paint creates layers of paint with greater or lesser translucency depending on the density of the pigment suspended in the oil
- –sense of seeing colored light reflected back through painting is what distinguishes flemish painting
- -oil dries slowly and allows painters to blend colors
- -gives sense of light falling across an object
- -oil paints allow use of soft, fine brushes - which eliminates brushstrokes and inc. realism
Robert Campin
Master of Flemalle
- -oil painting depicts annunciation by Gabriel to Mary
- -Mary’s dress color - oils allow blending of the reds - and add layer of realism to painting
2nd piece
- -fine detail of campin’s painting made possible through oil paints
- -entire life of Christ, including the passion itself, enter’s mary’s body at the moment of conecption
- -extinguished candle symbolic of old faith (Judaism) being extinguished
- -reflects anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe which originated in Spain during crusades and followed in Renaissance
- -light glazing on angel’s wings
- -spiritual becomes real through use of oil paints that illuminate light
Jan Van Eyck - Arnolfini and his wife - wedding portrait
in his paintings - Van Eyck expresses his love of detail through his ability to render in oil paint the texture of things and the way light plays across their surfaces
- -no brushstrokes – which is hallmark of N Renaissance paintings - BRUSHSTROKES are what distinguished N art from S
- -above all painting represents material well-being or wealth of Arnolfini
some say this painting is exchange of marriage vows but others think it is an engagement bc of the way they are touching hands
- -the dog represents fidelity
- -shoes off represent the characters are standing on ground made sacred by exchange of vows
- -single candle on chandelier represents Christ
- -atop char at back of room is wooden carving of Saint Margaret - represents Childbirth or Saint Martha
Roger Van der Weyden
worked out of Brussels!!!
- -Descent from the cross painting
- -tension btwn material well-being and suffering and spiritual narrative appears in all N paintings
- -pain and emotion on faces of Christ’s followers - contrasts the richness and luxuriant detail in their clothes as pained with oil paints
- -deposition takes place in golden sepulchre not detailed landscapes –allows us to focus on details of figures and not the landscape
- –postures of Christ and Mary copy each other
- -weight of painting falls on both of them as if both fall under weight of Christ’s body
Hieronymus Bosch
worked out of Hertogenbosch
- -pessimism about life and cynicism about catholic church
- –gives satirical, grotesque edge in his works
- -carrying of the cross - see sincere figure of Christ surrounded by grotesque evil appearances
- -bosch seems to have felt that way about the material culture around himself
- -typical painting of Northern pessimism - roots in the horrors of the Bubonic plague - which spread across the N killing millions btwn 1340s and 1500s
Matthias Grunewald
placed in hospital that specialized in Gangrene - shows the greenish, sickly appearnace of Christ
- -physical illness was viewed as a function of spiritual illness - so this piece designed to move sinners to repentance
- -also to remind patients they were not alone in their suffering and that Christ had suffered like them
- –Christ looks emaciated, ripped and Ashen
- -cross bends under his weight - his hands are contorted in pain
on Holy days (Easter) or sundays - closed altarpiece is open to reveal a brighter beautiful piece
- -Mary is at left of panel at annunciation
- -center is Mary caring for pure Christ child - same way patients in Abbey in Isenheim were cared for
- -in right panel Christ is resurrected
- -all representing the N occupation w/ death since the plague - but a desire to overcome these bounds and rise again like Christ
Albrecht durer - N detail meets S Humanism
Durer became one of leading painters of Renaissance
- -beauty for representing the human figure
- -1505-1506 he died in Italy
Ch. 3 - The reformation
–new church and the arts
Holy Roman Empire was multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe
- -from Otto I as emperor in 962 to Francis II dissolved imperial title in 1806
- -largest territory w/in empire was kingdom of Germany
- -office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally Elective - but freq. controlled by dynasties
- -German prince-electors were the highest ranking nobleman of empire, usually elected one of their peers as “king of the romans” where he would be crowned emperor by the Pope
coming apocalypse?
Ottoman Empire threatened territory of Holy Roman Empire 1528-29
- -Rome was sacked by its own troops
- -Christian world was threatened by Martin Luther who published his 95 Theses on door of All Saints Church - protesting against indulgences/excesses in Catholic church
Albrecht Durer paints the “4 horsemen of the apocalypse” - pestilence, war, famine and death - as quoted by John in Revelations 6
Martin Luther
he saw the need to address the ordinary people
- -Transformed the nature of learning by translating the Latin Bible into vernacular German and writing hymns that could be sung by the entire congregation
- -he accepted all believers
- –“The papacy is a veritable torture chamber of consciences and the very kingdom of the devil”
posted 95 these on door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg - 1511
Desiderius Erasmus
Roman Catholic priest who shared Luther’s views but remained in Catholic fold
- –wrote In Praise of Fully and Julius Excluded from Heaven - satirical edge to Catholic policies
- -writings reveal he objected to church “corruption” and “excess”
Johannes Gutenberg
The first printing press in W developed by Johannes Gutenberg in city of Mainz
- -now less costly to print Bible and give to homes of indiv. citizens
- -Martin Luther approved of religious art but many Protestants did not - they purged their churches of imagery - saw it as potential for idolatry and embodiment of Catholic taste for material, not spiritual well-being
- -this led to simpler religious art and to landscapes and portraits as art
New simple christian art of reformation
Albrecht durer’s last supper
—Luther reaffirmed the sacrament of Communion — not as transubstantiation, where bread and wine literally disappear and are transformed into body and blood of Christ, but as consubstantiation - where Christ’s body and blood are present in, with, and under the bread and wine
landscape art became increasingly popular during Protestant reformation - de-emphasizing religious art
secular (non-religious) art also began to shift its focus to activities and lives of everyday common people - pushing aside traditional religious subject matter
see also painting of interior of 1600 Calvinist church - many Protestant churches were stripped of all decoration and art bc extravagances were associated with Catholic excess and idolatry
- -however, Protestant churches (Stripped of all art and decoration) left worshippers feeling spiritually empty - so Catholic church decided to make its own interiors even more extravagant and beautiful to lure converts back to Catholicism
- -practed called COUNTER-REFORMATION or in art terms (the BAROQUE)
Ch. 4 - England in the Tudor Age - “This Other Eden”
Tudor timeline 1509 - Henry VIII assumes thrown --dissolution act 1558 - Elizabeth throne 1601 - Shakespeare writes Hamlet 1611 - King James translation of Bible published
Henry VIII reign - 1509-47
- -Henry surrounded himself with humanist scholars, including Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More
- -Many marriages and desire to produce male heir contributed to his decision to break from Roman Catholic church which objected divorce and led to creation of PROTESTANT CHURCH OF ENGLAND
Tudor geneology
with exception of Prince Arthur, who died at age 15 before he could become King, the years in parentheses are not lifespans but years of reign as king or queen in House of Tudor (Royal line of Tudors)
Thomas More and Utopia
More’s book, Utopia, meant to e a profound critique of the English political system - corrupt Christian society
- -fictional narrator discovered island culture where ppl share goods and property - no war, personal vanity - education to all (Except slaves) - freedom of religion
- -although member of Royal court - More did not agree with King Henry VIII’s decisions to annul royal marriage and break away from Catholic church and establish new church
- –Henry VIII had More executed for treason
increasing prosperity and social mobility - England
there was a breakdown in traditional class distinctions accompanies by social mobility
- -wages were 50% higher in London than in provinces = inc. number of ppl moving to city
- -helped create new culture of achievement - where indiv. ability to realize desires for wealth and fame, property and respect, overthrew traditional hierarchies of medieval society once and for all
William Shakespeare
- -credited with writing 37 PLAYS!!!!!! - Stratford, England (1564 - 1616)
- -some scholars have speculated that since Hamlet was written around time during which Queen Elizabeth I was approaching death w/o an heir apparent, Shakespeare may have seized upon this moment to write his most famous play bc it told a story of court intrigue concerning a recently deceased monarch and questions of proper succession
Ch. 5 - early counter-reformation and mannerism
–restraint and invention
Council of Trent
- –Charles V became holy roman emperor and he and Francis I of France turned to Pope Paul III to create a general council to be held in Trento, Italy to confront Protestant challenge
- -called halt to selling of church offices and religous goods
- -bishops req. to maintain strict celibacy
- -council did not give in to the Protestants on a single doctrinal point - reaffirming role of GOOD WORKS IN SALVATION
- -Transubstantiation (conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ)
- -veneration of Saints and relics
- -letters of indulgence
- -council enforced a NEW STANDARD OF DISCIPLINE - it strongly reinforced traditional Catholic doctrine
Michelangelo and Mannerism
Demand for clarity and directness marks art and music of counter-reformation - but did NOT constrain Michelangelo
Mannerism - beginnings characterized by “active, dynamic, physically distorted realization of human figure”
- -artificial, distorted poses, mysterious or obscure settings, elongated proportions
- -marked by rejection of classicizing tendencies of High Renaissance and by artist’s display if virtuosity through manipulations and distortions of conventional figure
Michelangelo - DAVID
- –also Contrapposto in his sculpture, Victory - an inheritance from the Ancients
- -traditional contrapposto pose (pose that gives illusion of movement) hails from classical Greece - exagerrated here with dynamic spiral of body
- -result is serpentine figure
also did work in Sistine Chapel in Vatican
- -looking towards altar wall with Last Judgment
- -painting of Adam - finger seen in ET, Star Wars
Double Standard in counter-reformation
- –more secular approach to life arose, originating in the High Renaissance’s love for artistic genius and originality
- -courts supported production of works of art w/o religious themes
- -a clear division arose btwn public face of courts, which were almost uniformly aligned with Church, and the tastes that those courts felt free to indulge in private
wealthy court nobles commissioned erotic and sensual art for their palaces and courts, despite edicts from Council of Trent regarding restraint in religious art
Mannerists found themselves working in a religious context - still tended to paint works designed to unsettle the viewer
The inquisition in Italy and Spain
artists had to find ways to blend their Mannerist style with properly decorous religious imagery
- -Muslims and Jews living in Catholic countries had to convert or be expelled
- -Catholics inspired by a diff. kind of spirituality than the Church recognized were deemed a special threat and suffered greatly under repression or worse
Veronese and El Greco
in their art - Mannerist inventiveness sought to accomodate itself in the more conventional aspirations of counter-reformation and the Roman Catholic Church’s inquisition in Italy and Spain
–inquisition prosecuted the Spanish mystics bc of intensely personalized faith
in last half of 16th century - in context of widespread emphasis on inventiveness and originality - a # of women were encouraged to display their artistic virtuosity - particularly in N Italy
–painted very modestly dressed and regal
Ch. 6 - The Baroque in Italy
–the church and its appeal
French term “Baroque” comes from Portuguese “barroco” - means “a large, irregularly shaped pearl” –orig. used in derogatory way to imply a style so heavily ornate and strange that it verges on bad taste
by 1540s - Catholic church began reform and renewal to mitigate appeal of Protestantism that came to be known as counter-reformation
- -building and decoration programs that developed in response to this religious program evolved into a style known as Baroque
- -appeal not just to intellect but the range of human emotion and feeling - art took a sensual turn
Attention to the way viewers would emotionally experience a work of art is a defining characteristic of the Baroque
Baroque style
During Renaissance - art was frontal, w/ visual parallel planes and rules of scientific perspective - sense of calm, balance and symmetry
- -Baroque brought elements placed on a diagonal and seemed to swirl or flow into one another
- -sense of action, excitement and sensuality
- -dramatic contrasts of light and dark created theatrical effects designed to move viewers and draw them into the emotional orbit of the composition
- -brutally direct naturalism
- -taste for elaborate and decorative effects
style in CENTRAL ITALY - Vatican, Rome
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Bernini’s Colonnade circumscribing the Piazza (Square) before St. Peter’s Basilica
also crossing of St. Peter’s in the Vatican
and also Ecstasy of St. Theresa in the Vatican
also another David by Bernini
Caravaggio
the revelatory power of light - its ability to reveal the world in all its detail
- -the transformative power of faith changes the way we se the world and the way we act in it
- -Caravaggio’s paintings dramatize the moment of CONVERSION through the tech. called TENEBRISM
- -as opposed to Chiaroscuro, which many artists use to create spatial depth and volumetric forms with slight gradiations of light and dark (sometimes called modeling)
- -tenebrist style is not connected to modeling at all - it makes use of dark contrasting sharply with smaller brightly illuminated areas
Ch. 1 review
400s AD is when roman empire fell —> into middle ages where manuscripts were lost and destroyed (some preserved in monasteries and others in Arab/Islamic world)
1400s Rennaissance - much of that knowledge that was lost is picked up
West collapses in 5th century AD — ancient knowledge preserved in catholic monasteries and arab world
Ch. 1 art notes - review
–Medevial art long bodies - all about spiritual message
- -scientific perspective - things get smaller going towards vantage point
1. more realistic
2. recognizes that humans are imp. - must create art how we actually SEE - there is divinity inside humans - expressions of human beauty
Brunelleschi built Cattedrale d santa maria del fiore in florence, italy
—BRUNELLESCHI BUILT IL DUOMO
florentine fresco was painting on wet plaster - color sinks in before plaster dries
Medici’s were a rich banking family - behind funding art - making Renaissance possible in Florence
Ch. 2 review
Nobility and merchants were rich and competing to support the art
- -artists in N used OIL paints and painted on boards and linin/canvas rather than wet plaster (frescoes)
- -fine-tipped brushes were characteristics of the north - greater DETAIL
Northern art focused on detail, and pessimism. South focused on human body
ALBRECHT DURER - brings scientific perspective back to north!!!!!
—-He becomes first major rock star of art, he uses printing press to distribute his art(block prints and wood cuts) to get his work into the home of thousands
1517 protestant reformation - review
1517 -The year that the protestant reformation began.
Know these three objections luther had with his 95 theses:
1. Selling of letters of indulgence (promises of less time in purgatory if you donate money)
- Excessive spending of saints in church
- Worship of saints and relics
Desiderius erasmus - tried to change catholic church from within
Printing press invented in middle of 15th century
Less demand for religious art, makes artists turn to portraits, landscapes, other forms of art
England at the time - review
King henry Vlll surrounded himself with humanist scholars - he was a HUMANIST
–wanted annulment - left church to make his own
Thomas more - wrote Utopia
Elizabeth, queen of England
- –establishes England
- -arts flourish
- –class mobility
- -STUDY THIS SLIDE
- –Increase wages
- –defeat of spanish armada,
William shakespear,
- –is play hamlet may have been inspired by elizabeths old age and who was goin to take the throne next
- -“who will take thrown next”
- –(king james who commissioned translation of bible was next)
Council of Trent - review
IMP SLIDE
–They tell pope to fight back against
1545-1563 they meet many times and address complaints raised by protestants
—Church no longer allows selling of positions inside church, bishops have to be celibate
—they changed things that had to do with corruption, but wouldn’t change points of doctrine
—Weren’t wiling to give up worship of relecs and saints
—wouldn’t give up letters of indulgence
Michelangelo - review
IMP SLIDE
- –mannerism is a new art movement initiated by Michelangelo
- -he started w/ ancient Greek style then switched to Mannerism
- –He felt like he conquered greek and roman styles, and wanted to push those and create his own style
- –Physically distorted, more of an embellishment and add-on to roman and greek
- –characterized by distorted, artificial poses
- –Contrapposto poses, all weight is on one leg
Inquisition - church steps
Double standard - review
Erotic art wasn’t allowed but at the same time the kings who pushed for these things had this art in their castles
Sofonisba anguissola
—female artist in Italy, emphasis on
Baroque in Italy review
Grow out of mannerism
- –Its highly decorative, over the top
- –Catholic uses it to try and draw people back from protestant to catholics, by generating an emotion response when they saw the art and architecture
- –Contrasts of light and dark, theater tricks, - lots of gold lots of decoration - dramatic poses,
Tenebrism and chiaroscuro:
- –Tenebrism: shaft of light, surrounded by near darkness
- –Chiaroscuro: shading, modeling, (sense of 3D or volume by use of shading)
Boroque: sensual, curves, diagonals and swirls, light and dark contrast, drama
—Bernini was famous artist at this time - used Tenebrism a lot
