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