50 slides SEMESTER 1

Cimabue, 1290 - 95, Virgin Enthroned with Angels, tempera and gold leaf on wood

Giotto, 1304 – 06, Lamentation of Christ or Deposition, the Arena Chapel, Padua, fresco

Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1425-1452, Gates of Paradise, Baptistery, Florence Cathedral gilded bronze relief approximately 17 ft. high

Brunelleschi, 1440 - 69, Dome for Sta. Maria del Fiore, Florence

Andrea Mantegna, circa 1453-1454, The Agony in the Garden, Tempera on wood

Piero della Francesca, 1455–1460, The Flagellation of Christ, tempera on wood

Architect unknown, St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, 1048, new façade in 18th C

Giovanni Bellini, 1501, Doge Leonardo Loredan, oil on panel

Antonello da Messina, 1474, Portrait of a Man, Oil on wood

Van Eyck, 1432, the Ghent Altarpiece, oil on wood

Hieronymous Bosch, C 1490,  Christ Mocked- crowning with thorns, oil on wood

Donatello David ca. 1428-1432 bronze 5 ft. 2 1/4 in. high

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1501-1504, David, marble 14 ft. 3 in. high

Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1485, Virgin of the Rocks, oil on wood, 200 × 120 centimetres

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1537-41, Last Judgment, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, fresco

Donato d’Angelo Bramante, 1502, Tempietto San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy

Raphael, 1509 – 11, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy, Fresco approximately 19 x 27 ft.

Raphael, 1505, Madonna of the Meadows, oil on panel 3 ft. 8 1/2 in. x 2 ft. 10 1/4 in.

Albrecht Durer, 1500, Self-portrait, oil on panel

Giorgione, 1506, Portrait of a Young Bride (Laura), oil on panel

Titian, 1559 - 71, Death o Acteon, oil on canvas

Andrea Palladio, ca. 1566-1570, Villa Rotunda near Vicenza, Italy

Jacopo da Pontormo, 1528, Entombment, Santa Felicità, Florence, oil on panel

Giambologna, 1562, Rape of the Sabine Women, marble

Tintoretto, 1592, The Last Supper, oil on canvas

Hans Holbein the younger,  1533, The Ambassadors, oil on canvas

Annibale Caracci, 1602, Domine Quo Vadis? oil on canvas

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, The Taking of Christ, oil on canvas,

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-22, David, marble

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1656-67, St. Peter’s Square,

Francesco Borromini, 1638 – 46, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Peter Paul Rubens, 1618, Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, marble

Peter Paul Rubens, 1611, Descent from the Cross, oil on canvas

Rembrandt van Rijn,1628, The Nightwatch, oil on canvas

Judith Leyster, 1629, Serenade, oil on canvas

Johannes Vermeer, 1655 – 60, Officer and Laughing Girl, oil on canvas

Diego Velasquez, 1618, Old Woman Cooking Eggs, oil on canvas

Diego Velasquez, 1656, Las Meninas, oil on canvas

Nicolas Poussin, 1633-1635, Landscape with man frightened by a snake, oil on canvas

Claude Lorrain, 1648, The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, oil on canvas

Mansart and Le Brun, begun 1678, Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles

Artists unknown, 1750’s The Rococo Basilica at Ottobeuren, Bavaria

Louise Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783, Marie-Antoinette with the Rose, oil on canvas

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin,1738, Woman Cleaning Turnips, oil on canvas

William Hogarth, 1743 – 65, from Marriage a la Mode, oil on canvas

Thomas Gainsborough, 1750, Mr and Mrs Andrews, oil on canvas

Jacques Louis David, 1784, The Oath of the Horatii, oil on canvas

Designer unknown, Late 18th C/Early 19th C, Napoleon's bedchamber in the Grand Trianon, Versailles

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1810, La Grande Odalisque, oil on canvas

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1830, Merry Joseph Blondel, drawing

slide list from lecture 7

Jacques-Louis David, 1800, Portrait of Madam Récamier
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1810, La Grande Odalisque
Ingres, 1824, Vow of Louis XVIII
Ingres, 1832, Portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin
Ingres, 1853, Portrait of Princesse Albert de Broglie, née Joséphine-Eléonore-Marie-Pauline
de Galard de Brassac de Béarn

Ingres, 1862, The Turkish Bath
Ingres, 1861, Study for Turkish Bath
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1830, Merry Joseph Blondel, drawing
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1829, Portrait of Madame Louis-François Godinot,

Camera obscura
Tomaso da Modena, 1352, Hugh of Provence, Cardinal Nicholas of Rouen. Isardo of Vincenza
Albrecht Durer, 1525, Underweysung der Messung, 2nd edition , woodcut
Camera obscura, from a manuscript of military designs. 17th century
Camera Obscura, Foredown Tower, Sussex England

Johannes Vermeer, 1655 – 60, Officer and Laughing Girl
Johannes Vermeer, 1665-1666 Girl in a Red Hat
Anthony van Dyck, 1621 - 27 Portrait of a Man in Armor
Agnolo Bronzino, 1545, Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni,
Canaletto, 1730, The Grand Canal and the Church of the Salute
Canaletto, 1725, Four drawings by representing Campo San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice,
Turin Shroud
Turin Shroud and Leonardo da Vinci self portrait (drawing)

notes from lecture 7

Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was his portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest legacy.

A huge number of changes took place in art and society in the 19th C which we will be coming back to next semester. The most significant of these changes in the early part of the 19th C was Romanticism; Ingres furiously resisted Romanticism and its ideals; he painted in what was known as an Academic style, that is a style approved by the French Academy, which was very conservative and dogmatic about what kind of painting could be shown. Ingres assumed the role of a guardian of academic orthodoxy. He said of himself “ I am a conservator of good doctrine, and not an innovator” and he saw himself working in a line desceded from Raphael.

He studied with David, and followed his master's neoclassical example but according to David he had "a tendency toward exaggeration in his studies”. He spent a number of years working in Rome, with his work much criticised in France for these same exaggerated tendencies. Not until 1824, with this work, was he really accepted as a painter in France. From this time on he was seen as the standard-bearer of classicism against the romantic school. He received a lot of state commissions; in 1830, following the fall of Napoleon, the monarchy was restored in France, although it was a constitutional monarchy, meaning that it had little enough power.

This work was exhibited in 1832 at the Salon; the public found its realism spellbinding, but some of the critics declared its naturalism vulgar and its colouring drab.  It depicts the journalist Louis-François Bertin; the portraits from this time demonstrate the rising economic and political power of the bourgeoisie.

Ingres’ paintings were always characterized by a firmness of outline, reflecting his view that drawing was the essence of Art. You might remember this is a very Floretine idea, as we saw in the early Renaissance.

3rd duc de Broglie

This is called the Hockney-Falco thesis, because it is advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles M. Falco. This thesis is disputed – but in a way, it doesn’t matter whether it’s true, or some of it is true. What is important is that there is a relationship between art and technology that goes back a long way.

Some people interpret this as an accusation that the Old Masters "cheated" and intentionally obscured their methods. Others have argued that the technical claims that Hockney makes don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Hockney was not the first to suggest this use of optical aids. The camera obscura is a natural phenomenon. The term 'camera obscura' means 'dark chamber', because the instrument up until the 16th century typically took the form of a closed room, the windows shuttered, with a small hole in a blind or door. Light entering the room through the hole then cast an image onto a screen or onto the wall opposite the door. One problem is that the image in such a 'pinhole' camera, even of a sunlit summer landscape, is very dim. The one object that is clearly visible is the sun itself. Indeed this remained the only real application of the camera up until the 1550s: for astronomers to make solar observations without . damaging their eyes. The first published illustration of a camera (of this or any type), is in a book from 1545, by the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Gemma Frisius.

For well over a hundred years, it has been suggested that the great 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer made use of the camera obscura as an aid to his painting. There is absolutely no documentary evidence to support this idea. The only source of information is the paintings themselves. The first person to make the suggestion, as long ago as 1891, was the American graphic artist Joseph Pennell, who pointed to what he called the 'photographic perspective' of Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl. The two figures sit very close across the corner of the table. But the image of the officer's head is about twice as wide as that of the smiling girl. The perspective is perfectly correct in a geometrical sense: the discrepancy arises because the viewpoint of the picture is close to the soldier.

Scholars have however pointed to effects in Vermeer's canvases that seem to carry more distinctive marks of an optical way of working. For example, it is significant that there are several passages where Vermeer seems to paint in very soft focus, as in his portrait of the Girl with a Red Hat.

Vermeer has a very characteristic way of showing highlights on reflective surfaces like pottery, polished wood or - in this case - polished brass. In reality a highlight takes the shape of the light source that it reflects. Since Vermeer is painting indoors, the sources of light would be the windows; and so the resulting highlights would in reality be rectangular in shape, perhaps distorted into four-sided shapes with curved edges where they are formed on curved surfaces. Here, however, Vermeer has tended to paint the highlights on the lions' heads as true circles. It has been suggested that what he is doing is imitating accidental effects of slightly unfocussed optical images.

It is well established that in the 18th century some other famous painters employed the device, the best-known being Canaletto, whose own camera obscura survives in the Correr Museum in Venice. The English portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds owned a camera; and the device was widely used by landscape artists, both professional and amateur, up until the invention of chemical photography in the 1830s.

Wollaston invented the camera lucida in 1807 adding another lens-based instrument to the artist's toolbox. Ways of chemically fixing the image were simultaneously invented by Daguerre and Fox Talbot's around 1839.

Turin Shroud: The image on the cloth has been proven to be a hoax and is possibly worthy of being called a Da Vinci Invention. Is it by coincidence that ghostly figure looks remarkably like a Leonardo Da Vinci image? The shrouds’ ghostly image is believed by a minority of academics to have been created with photographing technology dating from the high Renaissance period. 

In 1988, the cloth was carbon tested. Three separate institutes proved the cloth material dated from the 12th to the 14th century. Though the cloth is considered to be before Leonardo's birth, Leonardo would have acquired a cloth considered old to add to the further illusion of its age to convince people that it came from the time of Christ.

slide list from lecture 6

Peter Paul Rubens, 1618, Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
Peter Paul Rubens, 1621 - 25, Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles, Medici Cycle
Peter Paul Rubens, 1611, Descent from the Cross,
Rubens, 1615, Venus at a Mirror
Peter Paul Rubens, 1636 - 38, Landscape with a rainbow
Rembrandt van Rijn, ,1633, Storm on the Sea of Gallilee
Rembrandt van Rijn, ,1642,Portrait of Haesje van Cleyburg
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, c. 1628
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1640
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1665 - 69
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1669
Rembrandt,1628, The Nightwatch
Rembrandt,1628, The Jewish Bride
Gerrit van Honthorst, 1625, The Procuress
Gerrit van Honthorst, 1648, Allegory of Painting
Gerrit van Honthorst, 1652, Margareta Maria de Roodere and Her Parents
Judith Leyster, 1630, Self-portrait aged nearly 21
Judith Leyster, 1629, Serenade
Johannes Vermeer, 1656, The Procuress
Johannes Vermeer, 1657–58, The Milkmaid
Jan Vermeer, 1666, The Art of Painting
Vermeer, 1662, View of Delft
Diego Velasquez, 1618, Old Woman Cooking Eggs
Diego Velasquez, 1656, Las Meninas
Velasquez, 1650, Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Nicolas Poussin, 1624, Venus and Adonis
Nicolas Poussin, 1633-1635, Landscape with man frightened by a snake
Annibale Caracci, 1590, River Landscape,
Annibale Caracci, 1602, Domine Quo Vadis?
Claude Lorrain, 1648, The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba
Louis LeVau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart,1660 – 85, Versailles Palace,
Louis LeVau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart,1660 – 85, Versailles Palace,
Le Brun, LeVau and Perrault,1667 – 70, Palais du Louvre
Mansart and Le Brun, Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles, begun 1678

notes from lecture 6

THESE NOTES ARE A STUDY AID ONLY. DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE NOTES OR COPY THEM IN ANY WAY, AS THEY ARE NOT REFERENCED. 

Rubens was a Flemish Baroque painter, with a style that emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality. As a young apprentice he studied with two Mannerist painters, and subsequently he travelled to Italy. In September 1609 Rubens was appointed as court painter by the monarchs of Spain and Austria who were sovereigns of the Low Countries.  

The Northern provinces of the Netherlands, which were largely Protestant, rebelled against the rule of the Catholic Spanish king, and following years of revolt they declared an independent Dutch republic in 1581. People no longer wanted Catholic artworks linked to Spanish rule and many artists turned to painting the flat, recognisable landscape of the Dutch Republic, which reflected national pride.

The Dutch Republic, which was initially led by William of Orange, did not favour a nobility or monarchy, instead it saw the rise of a merchant class, what would later become known as the bourgeoisie or middle-class. The Dutch Republic was informed by a Protestant ethic that favoured hard work and the accumulation of capital. They developed the largest merchant navy in the world and began to establish colonies, particularly in the East Indies. Amsterdam has the oldest stock exchange in the world, dating from 1602.The work of Rembrandt shows the typical strong contrasts of light and shade that we see in the period, and a strong sense of drama and foreshortening. We also see a lot of attention to the details of the real world. Sometimes the figures in the work seem to be the source of the light. In his early years he was a very successful portrait painter, famed for an ability to capture a physical likeness and a kind of psychological insight, not unlike the work of Holbein which we looked at before. He lived beyond his means and had a number of common-law relationships that he subsequently had to support financially he ran into financial troubles towards the end of his life, and was actually buried as a pauper in an unmarked grave. His self-portraits, of which there are at least forty, show him progressing from an uncertain young man, through the dapper and very successful portrait-painter of the 1630s, to the troubled but massively powerful portraits of his old age. Together they give a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance and his psychological make-up, revealed through the face, pose and costumes.

The representation of everyday life is something that we have seen emerging through this period, and we see it again here in the work of Gerrit van Honthorst. This painting shows the inside of a brothel, not an unusual thing for a 17^th C Dutch painting, but given that prostitution, procuring and adultery were criminal offences and the word whoredom referred to any kind of nonmarital sex, it’s very odd that a market existed for these kinds of images. These paintings are a kind of puzzle, displaying a certain double standard amongst the supposedly pious Calvinists of the region.

The status of the painter varied considerably, from day labourers all the way to independent masters with their own schools, some of whom would have been court painters. These two paintings by van Honthorst are very unusual; first he represents a woman as the figure of Pictura, an allegory for painting; second he paints a portrait of an amateur artists Margarita xx, well-to-do, painting for pleasure. The vast majority of painters were men, but a few dozen women in the Dutch republic are recorded as having received Master status; Judith Leyster was probably the most famous, her first known work is dated 1629, by 1633 she is recorded as a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, the artists’ guild.
In great contrast to much of the work that was happening around him, Vermeer was a painter of light, specializing in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He made a series of paintings in this particular interior, which is his own studio.

While landscape was emerging as a force in Dutch art, it was not regarded as a subject worthy of high painting in Catholic Europe. The counter-reformation urged painters to use instructive themes – typically religious or mythical. Pure landscape was thought to lack moral seriousness. The Italian painter Anniable CAracci had made some landscape paintings, although he was better known for his typical Baroque religious works.

Nonetheless, landscape began to emerge in the works of some French painters, who obeyed convention by including classical ruins or figures. Poussin spent many years working in Rome, he learned an orientation towards Disegno, the drawing as opposed to the colour. His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. Claude Lorrain’s paintings also use elements of classicism to justify his interest in landscape – precursor to the Romantic movement.

We have already looked at the Baroque in architecture in Italy in the early 1600s. There was a love of complex shapes, extravagant ornament, opulent illusionist paintings, and bold contrasts. The Baroque style became more restrained in France. While lavish details were used, French buildings were usually symmetrical and orderly. The Palace of Versailles is a landmark example, as is the Louvre. The Hall of Mirrors was commissioned by Louis XIV.

 The rapidly expanding mercantile culture produced class divisions far more destructive than those of earlier periods and the legal status of women declined seriously in the process. The Italian Renaissance was also the period that Europeans rediscovered slavery. The market in human slave labor in southern Europe began as early as the 12th century. Initially the Spaniards were the key trafficers in human life, but as the Italian city-states grew, their demand for slaves also grew and they became one of the largest consumers of human slaves. The slavery that they practiced was not yet racial slavery: most slaves sold in Italy were Muslims from Spain, North Africa, Crete, the Balkans, and the Ottoman Empire. There was a trickle of black slaves into Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but they were only a very small minority.

Almost all the slaves in Italy were domestic servants and most wealthy in most cities had at least one. When a slave was acquired, the owner acquired full rights, including the right to sell and "enjoy," that slave. For the most part, the slaves were incorporated into the household and their children were always born free. In many cases when a slave-owner produced a child with a slave, the slave-owner would raise the child as a legitimate child. A more insidious side of slavery was developing, however, in this period. In the Venetian sugar cane plantations in Cyprus and Crete, a new kind of "plantation slave" grew into existence. Since sugar is a labor intensive industry, this new type of slave was acquired for purely economical reasons: the cheapest labor possible.

The practice of abducting slaves from Africa began with the Portuguese in the 15^th C. In 1539 12,000 slaves were sold in the main market in Lisbon. The Transatlantic slave trade began in the 16^th C. The French involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade is thought to have begun with small traders in the 1540s bringing enslaved Africans to the Spanish colonies, but increased dramatically with the development of France's own colonies in Saint Domingue (today's Haiti) Martinique, and Guadeloupe in the 1660s through to the 1680s. In 1700 there were roughly 30,000 slaves in the French colonies.In 1631 a band of North African pirates, led by a Dutch captain, sacked the village of Baltimore in Co. Cork, making off with around 120 people, who spent the rest of thelr lives in slavery in the Maghreb region of North Africa. 

slide list from lecture 5

Jacopo da Pontormo, 1528, Entombment, anta Felicità, Florence
Annibale Caracci, 1602, Domine Quo Vadis?
Annibale Caracci, 1580–1600, Lamentation of Christ
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Conversion of St. Paul, 1601, oil on canvas,
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ, 1601, oil on canvas,
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus, 1601, oil on canvas, 55 x 77 inches, 141 x 196.2 cm (National Gallery, London)
Guido Reni, Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist, 1634, oil on canvas,
Andrea Pozzo, 1691-94, Apotheosis of St Ignatius
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-22, Pluto and Proserpina
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-22, David
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-22, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1656-67, St. Peter’s Square,
Carlo Maderno, 1603 - 1612, Façade for St. Peter’s Basilica
Carlo Maderno, 1597 – 1603, Façade for Sta. Susanne
Francesco Borromini, 1638 – 46, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
Francesco Borromini, 1642 – 60, Sant Ivo della Sapienza

Lecture 5 notes

THESE NOTES ARE A STUDY AID ONLY. DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE NOTES OR COPY THEM IN ANY WAY, AS THEY ARE NOT REFERENCED. 

“Baroque” – the word, the style, the period 

In the context of European history, the period from c. 1585 to c. 1700/1730 is often called the Baroque era. The word “baroque” derives from the Portuguese and Spanish words for a large, irregularly-shaped pearl. 18^th C century critics were the first to apply the term to the art of the 17th century. It was not a term of praise. To the eyes of these critics, who favored the restraint and order of Neoclassicism, the works of this period appeared bizarre, absurd, even diseased—in other words, misshapen, like an imperfect pearl.

By the middle of the 19th century, the word had lost its pejorative implications and was used to describe the ornate and complex qualities present in many examples of 17th-century art, music and literature. Eventually, the term came to designate the historical period as a whole. Scholars continue to debate the validity of this label, admitting the usefulness of having a label for this distinct historical period, while also acknowledging its limitations in characterizing a huge variety of artistic styles present across Europe in the 17th century.

When Martin Luther tacked his 95 theses to the doors of Wittenburg Cathedral in 1517 protesting the Catholic Church’s corruption, he initiated a movement that would transform the religious, political, and artistic landscape of Europe. For the next century, Europe would be in turmoil as new political and religious boundaries were determined, often through bloody military conflicts. Only in 1648, with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, did the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics subside in continental Europe.

Martin Luther focused his critique on what he saw as the Church’s greed and abuse of power. He called Rome, the seat of papal power, “the whore of Babylon” decked out in finery of expensive art, grand architecture, and sumptuous banquets. While the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Catholic Church ardently embraced the religious power of art. The visual arts, the Church argued, played a key role in guiding the faithful, many of whom were illiterate. In order to be effective in its pastoral role, religious art had to be clear, persuasive, and powerful. Not only did it have to instruct, it had to inspire. It had to move the faithful to feel the reality of Christ’s sacrifice, the suffering of the martyrs, the visions of the saints. This desire to communicate with the faithful in a direct way led to a backlash against Mannerism –  a desire to return to the Classical values of the Renaissance, because Mannerism is too difficult to read, distracting.

The Church’s emphasis on art’s pastoral role prompted artists to experiment with new and more direct means of engaging the viewer. Annibale settled on a classical visual language, inspired by the vibrant palette, idealized forms, and balanced compositions of the High Renaissance. Facial expressions are very dramatic, easier to interpret, in contrast to the ambiguities of Mannerism.

Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated by bold contrasts of light and dark, and tightly-cropped compositions that enhance the physical and emotional immediacy of the depicted narrative.

Guido Reni trained with the Caracci studio, where he learned their tradition of clear firm draughtsmanship.

Pozzo was best known for his grandiose frescoes using illusionistic technique called quadratura, in which architecture and fancy are intermixed. His masterpiece is the nave ceiling of the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome. Through his techniques, he has become one of the most remarkable figures of the Baroque period. This is typical of the daring feats of illusionism that characterise this period; they blurred not only the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture, but also those between the real and depicted worlds.

In so doing, the divine was made physically present and palpable. Whether through shocking realism, dynamic movement, or exuberant ornamentation, seventeenth-century art is meant to impress. It is meant to show the interweaving of earthly and divine rule.

By the end of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was once again feeling optimistic, even triumphant. It had emerged from the crisis with renewed vigor and clarity of purpose. Shepherding the faithful—instructing them on Catholic doctrines and inspiring virtuous behavior—took center stage. Keen to rebuild Rome’s reputation as a holy city, the Papacy embarked on extensive building and decoration campaigns aimed at highlighting its ancient origins, its beliefs, and its divinely-sanctioned authority.

Contrapasto – opposition of movements

Two arms – the motherly arms of the church reaching out to the faithful, reuniting the heretics with the church (the protestants) Very baroque idea of using art to reach out to the faithful.

Ceremonical forecourt, the language of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, doric columns, balustrade, ends of the collonades there are pediments.

Della sapienza; a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.

Carlo Moderno; façade of Sta. Susanna (was given the job of finishing St. Peter’s following Michaelangelo’s designs)

This work has not yet broken completely with  classical architecture, but has a dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, with a protruding central bay and condensed central decoration add complexity to the structure. 

Baroque

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmvs8uKz15U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ1o_WMcGik

slide list from lecture 4

Albrecht Durer;
1484, Self-portrait at 13
1495, City of Trento
Albrecht Durer, 1502, Young Hare
Head of a Stag
Adam and Eve, 1507

Raphael;1504,  Marriage of the Virgin, Chapel of Saint Joseph in Città di Castello near Florence, Italy
oil on wood 5 ft. 7 in. x 3 ft. 10 1/2 in.

Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1537 - 41, Last Judgment, fresco, Vatican City, Rome,

Jacopo da Pontormo, 1528 - 30, Portrait of Halbadier,
1528, Entombment, Santa Felicità, Florence

Parmigianino, 1534, Madonna of the Long Neck

Bronzino, 1540 – 45, Allegory of the Triumph of Venus

Giambologna, 1562, Rape of the Sabine Women
1562, Samson Slaying a Philistine

Paulo Veronese, 1570, The Dream of St. Helena

Tintoretto, 1592, The Last Supper
1553, The Presentation of the Virgin

Artist unknown: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 1546

Hans Holbein the younger, 1527, Portrait of Sir Thomas More
1523, Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam oil and tempera on wood
The Artist's Family, c. 1528.
Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, c. 1527–28.
Darmstadt Madonna with donor portraits 1525–26
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, 1521–22, 30.5 × 200 cm
Portrait of Sir Thomas Elyot,c. 1532–34.
Henry VIII and Henry VII, part of cartoon forwall-painting at Whitehall, 1537.
The Ambassadors, 1533

notes from lecture 4

THESE NOTES ARE A STUDY AID ONLY. DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE NOTES OR COPY THEM IN ANY WAY, AS THEY ARE NOT REFERENCED. 

Albrecht Durer is sometimes called the Leonardo of the Northern Renaissance. Multi-skilled, insatiably curious, given to making very detailed sketches from life. He took his first journey to Italy at the age of 24, and his work shows how he began to integrate Italian developments into his own work.

Venetian influence combined with a Northern European sensibility.

The Renaissance describes a moment – a period of about 120 years, where the cultural works present a kind of belief  and confidence in humanity – the possibility of harmony, perfection, order; nowhere is this better represented than in Raphael’s painting.

Following the death of Raphael at the beginning of the 16^th C, the confidence that his work characterised seemed to give way to a kind of anxiety, partly as a result of the developing social and religious instability that I discussed last week. Italian art went through a very different stylistic period, from about 1520 – 1580. The term Mannerism is often used to describe this development which directly succeeded that of the Renaissance and preceded the Baroque. The term is really pejorative – mannered suggests over-stylisation, trying too hard – certainly we see very elaborate distortion, imbalance, a lack of or a kind of twisted perspective, and a sort of anxiety. Many of those artists who worked in this way were in fact Raphael's students Jacopo da Pontormo being one of those – his compositions exhibit a disturbing psychological tension.  

Venetian Painting in the 16th Century, carrying on from its painterly character in the 15^th C saw the increasing use of canvas rather than wood, which encouraged looser brushstroked. Painters experimented with textural differences by applying thick and think applications of paint. They also developed new compositional approaches, like asymmetry, constructions on the diagonal, and they developed new subjects like landscape and the female nude.

Tintoretto Last Supper; While Leonardo depicted the scene from a frontal perspective, with the figures seated at a table placed parallel to the picture plane, this composition departs radically from that, with the centre of the scene occupied not by the apostles but instead by secondary characters, such as a woman carrying a dish and the servants taking the dishes from the table. The table at which the apostles sit recedes into space on a steep diagonal. The focus is on light and motion. There are characteristics that are typical of Mannerism -  complex and radically asymmetrical composition. The movement and emphasis on the everday and vernacular —the setting is similar to a Venetian inn—points the way to the Baroque which is to follow.

Mannerism emerged at a few other points in Europe – a school developed at Fontainbleu in France and in Prague. Rare English example . . . .

Northern Europe at this time. Hans Holbein he really didn’t belong neatly to any style or tradition. He drew and painted with a precision and attention to detail that we recognise from the work of Van Eyck and van der Weyden. His portraits were renowned in their time for their likeness; there is also a kind of penetration into the character – as a result he was commissioned to paint painted many of the famous figures of the day. He was never content with outward appearance, he embedded layers of symbolism, allusion, and paradox in his art "

slide list from lecture 3

Donatello, 1409 – 1411, St John the Evangelist,

Donatello, 1415 - 26, Bearded prophet (detail)

Donatello 1425, Crucifixion, St. Croce

Donatello, 1457, Mary Magdalene, wood

Donatello, David, ca. 1428-1432, bronze, 5 ft. 2 1/4 in. high

Michelangelo Buonarroti, David

1501-1504, marble, 14 ft. 3 in. high

Michelangelo Buonarroti,Bound Slave, 1513-1516, marble
6 ft. 10 1/2 in. high

Michelangelo Buonarroti,Moses, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513-1515
marble, approximately 8 ft. 4 in. high

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pieta, 1498 - 99

Leonardo da Vinci, 1472 – 75, The Annunciation

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks, ca. 1485, oil on wood, 200 × 120 centimetres

Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man,  c1490

Leonardo da Vinci, Featus in the Womb, ca. 1510, pen and ink on paper

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John, ca. 1505-07
charcoal heightened with white on brown paper
4 ft. 6 in. x 3 ft. 3 in.

Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy ca. 1495-98  Fresco (oil and tempera on plaster) 29 ft. 10 in. x 13 ft. 9 in.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (La Giaconda), ca. 1503-1505
oil on wood, 2 ft. 6 in. x 1 ft. 9 in

Michaelangelo Buonarotti, 1508 - 12, Sistine Chapel , (view facing west), Vatican City, Rome,

Michaelangelo Buonarotti, 1508 - 12, Sistine Chapel , (view facing east), Vatican City, Rome,

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1508-12, fresco
approximately 128 x 45 ft.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City, Rome, Italy , 1511-12, fresco approximately 18 ft. 8 in. x 9 ft. 2 in.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Last Judgment, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1537-41, fresco

St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome,

Donato d’Angelo Bramante,Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy

1502

Donato d’Angelo Bramante, Plan for the new Saint Peter’s, 

1505

Michelangelo Buonarroti, plan for Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1546

Michelangelo Buonarroti, elevation for Saint Peter’s,

Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1546-1564

Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura (1509-1512) 

Raphael,  Stanza della Segnatura (1509-1512)

Raphael, Justice from the Stanza della Segnatura

Raphael, Mount Parnassus from the Stanza della Segnatura

Raphael, Theology (The Disputation) from the Stanza della Segnatura

Raphael, 1509 – 11, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy, Fresco approximately 19 x 27 ft.

The Ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura with details of the tondos

Raphael, 1504, Marriage of the Virgin, Chapel of Saint Joseph in Città di Castello near Florence, Italy, oil on wood, 5 ft. 7 in. x 3 ft. 10 1/2 in.

Raphael, 1501, Madonna of the Meadows, oil on panel, 3 ft. 8 1/2 in. x 2 ft. 10 1/4 in.

Giorgione, 1504, Judith

Giorgione, 1505, The Tempest

Giorgione, 1506, Portrait of a Young Bride (Laura)

Titian, 1510, Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo

Titian, 1515, Woman at a mirror

Titian, 1510, Assumption of the Virgin

Titian, 1522 – 1523, Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne, oil on canvas, 5 ft. 9 in. x 6 ft. 3 in.

Titian, 1559 - 71, Death of Acteon

Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotunda, near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1566-1570

Andrea Palladio, plan and elevation for Villa Rotunda near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1566-1570

Andrea Palladio, west façade ofSan Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, begun 1565

Notes from Lecture 3

THESE NOTES ARE A STUDY AID ONLY. DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE NOTES OR COPY THEM IN ANY WAY, AS THEY ARE NOT REFERENCED. 

READ THE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY FOR ACCURATE INFORMATION

High Renaissance;

Donatello, was an early Renaissance sculptor from Florence operating from the beginning to the ¾ of the 15^th C. His work demonstrated a familiarity with classical Roman sculpture, but also incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism. As an apprentice, he assisted Ghiberti with the North Doors of the Baptistry.  In 1409–1411 he executed the colossal seated figure of Saint John the Evangelist, which marks a decisive step forward from late Gothic in the search for naturalism and the rendering of human feelings. While the face, the shoulders and the bust are still idealized or stylized, the hands and the fold of cloth over the legs are more natural.

 He made a series of figures for the campanile of St. Maria del Fiore, which follow the classical models of sculpture portraits and are characterized by strong character details. But his work also occasionally referenced the gothic style – this crucifixion from 1425 which portrays Christ in a very unclassical, human form, his eyes and mouth partially opened, his body contracted in an ungraceful posture.

The Mary Magdalen is highly unusual, not just for Donatello but for the time. It is almost gothic in the emotive distortion of the figure. The Magdalen stands nearly two meters tall - almost freakishly tall for either a man or a woman - and is composed entirely of wood. At first glance, the Magdalen appears to be shrouded completely in rags; however, upon closer inspection it is clear that she is represented as she was reputed to be in life - covered from head to toe by her famously long, blond locks.

In 1430 Cosimo de Medici, the ruling family of Florence, commissioned David. This is the first known free-standing nude statue produced since ancient times. Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings. It is considered to be the first major work of Renaissance sculpture, because of this breaking free of architecture, and also because of the expressivity of the work. He is not just following convention, he has a kind of personal vision that comes through.

Michaelangelo Buonarotti was born around the same time that Donatello died, 1475, so he is literally the next generation. The influence of Donatello on Michaelangelo is quite obvious, especially in works like David (1501-1504), the 18ft sculpture. In addition to the physical realism and naturalism that Donatello had developed, Michaelangelo’s figures show a kind of psychological insight. His sculpture encompassed many pieces including elaborately decorated tombs. As an old man, he was tapped by the Pope to complete the half-finished St. Peter's Church in the Vatican. Not all of the plans he drew were utilized but, after his death, architects built the dome still in use today. His poetry was very personal and not as grand as his other works, yet is of great value to those who wish to know Michelangelo.

Before we move on to look at M’s paintings, we should look at the work of Leonardo da V.

Da Vinci was what we would call a polymath - painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist cartographer, botanist, writer. He has been described as the archetype of Renaissance, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He was born out of wedlock, which meant that he was prevented from studying Latin or Greek. For much of his youth he was self-taught and this , gave him a very quirky, freestyle perspective. He was apprenticed to the painter Verocchio, who himself had been a student of Donatello’s.

Vitruvian Man is a drawing based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise de Architectura.. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical Orders of architecture. Vitruvius determined that the ideal body should be eight heads high. Leonardo's drawing is traditionally named in honor of the architect.

Last supper a masterpiece of design and characterisation.

Mona Lisa the artist has subtly shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes so that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called sfumato. The unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details, the dramatic landscape background in which the world seems to be in a state of flux, the subdued colouring and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique

Michaelangelo did not consider himself a painter, and (justifiably) complained throughout four straight years of the work, but created one of the greatest masterpieces of all time on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512). Additionally, he painted The Last Judgement (1534-1541) on the altar wall of the same chapel many years later.

Tempietto; despite small scale, the construction has all the rigorous proportions and symmetry of Classical structures, surrounded by slender Doric columns, surmounted by a dome. 

Marked the spot where St. Peter, founder of the church, had been crucified.

Embodies the stable circular and closed cosmos of the High Renaissance

Earth is at the center of the cosmos and the church is at the center of the earth in terms of power and authority. Places the church symbolically at the center of the cosmos

Aligns papal authority with the authority of the empires of the past. 

16 Doric columns with 48 metopes bearing papal symbols.

In November 1503, Julius engaged Bramante for the construction of the grandest European architectural commission of the 16th century, the complete rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica.. a centralized Greek cross plan that symbolized sublime perfection for him and his generation was fundamentally altered by the extension of the nave after his death in 1514. 

In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter’s Basilica. The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the 4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Bramante, and developed his ideas with for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually. His great achievement was in the designing of the dome.

As construction was progressing on St Peter's, there was concern that Michelangelo would pass away before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable.

Venetian Renaissance;

Giogione is best known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work. He carried on the distinctive Venetian style of painting in the Renaissance period achieving effects through colour and mood.

oon after his death the size of paintings began to increase with the prosperity and palaces of the patrons.

This gave the landscape background an importance which marks an innovation in Venetian art, and was quickly followed by his master Giovanni Bellini. Giorgione began to use the very refined chiaroscuro called sfumato— the delicate use of shades of color to depict light and perspective — around the same time as Leonardo. Whether Vasari is correct in saying he learned it from Leonardo's works is unclear — he is always keen to ascribe all advances to Florentine sources.

The Tempest has been called the first landscape panting in the Western European canon. The subject is unclear, but its artistic mastery is apparent. The Tempest portrays a soldier and a breast-feeding woman on either side of a stream, amid a city's rubble and an incoming storm. The multitude of symbols in The Tempest offer many interpretations, but none is wholly satisfying

Titian 1488/90-1576 was a contemporary of Girogione’s and worked for a period as his assistant. but he lived much longer. He probably worked in the Bellini studios as a young man, learning much of his craft there.

In Titian's later works, the forms lose their solidity and melt into the lush texture of shady, shimmering colors and unsettling atmospheric effects. In addition to energetic brushwork, Titian was said to put paint on with his fingers toward the completion of a painting.

Andrea Palladio (30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was a vEnetian architect, incfluenced by Classicl Greek and Roman architecture. He was so influential that he gave his name to a style – Palladian architecture.

His work is the quintessence of High Renaissance calm and harmony" Many of his buildings are of brick covered with stucco. Stuccoed brickwork was always used in his villa designs in order to portray his interpretations of the Roman villa typology.

slide list from lecture 2

Piero della Francesca, 1450’s, Baptism of Christ, tempera on panel

Piero della Francesca underpainting, In oil
Pisanello, Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este, (1436-1449), tempera on wood
Jacopo Bellini, 1455, Madonna and Child Blessing Tempera on wood

St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, 1048, new façade in 18th C

Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Shepherds, circa 1455-1456 Wood transferred on canvas
Giovanni Bellini, 1480 – 85 Saint Jerome reading
Giovanni Bellini, 1501, Doge Leonardo Loredan, oil on panel
Giovanni Bellini, c. 1480, Portrait of a Young Man in Red, oil and tempera on panel
Antonello da Messina, 1474, Portrait of a Man Oil on wood
Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Man, about 1475-6, oil on wood
Antonello da Messina, c 1470, Christ Crowned with Thorns, Oil, perhaps over tempera, on wood

The Wilton Diptych; c. 1395-99; each panel is 53 x 37 cm
Limburg Brothers, 1413-16 The Book of Hours-Les Tres Riches Heures
Limburg Brothers, 1413-16, The Book of Hours-Les Tres Riches Heures
Jan Van Eyck, 1434, The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait
Van Eyck, the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432
Jan Van Eyke- Rolin Madonna
Jan Van Eyke, 1434, The Annunciation, Oil on panel
Jan van Eyck, Man in a Red Turban, 1433
Rogier Van Der Weyden, 1435, The Deposition of Christ 8ft 6in x 7ft 3in
Roettgen Pieta, c 1325, polychromed wood
Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece (closed), ca. 1510-15, oil on panel, center panel, 9 ft. 9 1/2 in. x 10 ft. 9 in.
Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece (fully open), ca. 1510-15 oil on panel, center piece carved, polychromed wood, 9 ft. 9 1/2 in. x 10 ft. 9 in.
Hieronymus Bosch, St. Jerome at Prayer , 1482, oil on panel, 77 cm × 59 cm
Hieronymus Bosch , The Garden of Earthly Delights, Oil-on-wood panels, 220 x 389 cm
Hieronymous Bosch Christ Mocked- crowning with thorns, C 1490
Rogier Van Der Weyden, 1460, Portrait of a Lady, oil on panel

Second session - image analysis;
Lady Lilith Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1863 Oil on canvas 38 x 33 1/2 inches.

Notes from Lecture 2

Notes from Lecture 2

Please remember that these are rough lecture notes, cobbled together from a lot of sources. They are not REFERENCED so do not use these for anything other than study aids.

READ THE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY FOR ACCURATE INFORMATION

Venice was a maritime republic, heavily involved in trading with the east. The first inhabitants of the city were most likely refugees from neighbouring cities and countryside who fled into these marshes to escape invasions and attacks. They developed great skill in ship building and sea-trading, and eventually developed a commercial ship-building industry that was very efficient and highly lucrative for individuals and for the state. For a long time the city operated with little social distinction, there was no nobililty as such, familiies took turns sitting on the council. That changed in 1297 when a group of wealthy merchants who were sitting on the Grand Council at the time took a vote that henceforth the membership of that body would be ‘closed’ meaning that only descendants of those families present could sit on the Grand Council, so this established an artificial nobility where previously there had been none. There was little enough rebellion and the Venetian republic became a serene and politically stable society.

Tempera was the primary medium of painting at the time. It was typically applied onto a wood panel that had been prepared with layers of gesso – a mixture of glue and chalk – the tempera, made up of pigment and a fast drying binder like egg yolk, had to be built up slowly in thin transparent layers. The benefits – the colours are long lasting and doo not deteriorate over time. The disadvantages – if produces a very matte finish and cannot usually attain the deep colour saturation that oil paintings are able to manage.

This is a work by Pisanello, who was one of those nomadic Italian renaissance artists he doesn’t fit neatly into any category. He was trained by Gentile da Fabriano, who worked in the international gothic tradition.

Jacopo Bellini also a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, but he was a Venetian and his work developed in a different direction.

More than any city in Italy, Venice was heavily influenced by trade, culture and ideas coning froom the east; you can see that very clearly in the architecture. The palaces of the merchants doubled as warehouses, with the ground floors opening onto the water so that boats could be brought in for loading and unloading. The Basilica of St. Mark was built in the 11^th C and marks the beginning of the development of great public buildings. The city that could erect the half-Oriental Basilica of St Mark, pale and glittering like an opal, was bound to develop a very different kind of painting from the city that approved of the stern proportions of young Brunelleschi's dome in Florence.

Artists from different parts of Italy approached the representation of nature differently and, as a result, produced works that differ not only in execution and appearance but in their very conception. In Florence, disegno, that is, "drawing" or "design," was viewed as the essential beginning of artistic endeavor, the primary means for making art approximate nature. Giorgio Vasari, a Florentine artist and writer, described disegno as the father and foundation of all the visual arts, "the animating principle of all creative processes." For the Florentines and other Central Italian artists, the act of drawing was not only the art of using line to define form: it was the artistic underpinning of a work whereby an artist could express his inner vision. Florentine painters therefore used drawing to study movement, anatomy, and the natural world, and they developed compositions in detailed drawings before transferring them to surfaces prepared for painting.

The beginnings of oil painting are recorded as early as the twelfth century in Northern Europe.. Admixture in oils makes most pigments translucent, allowing artists to apply their colors in thin layers, or glazes, thereby generating the rich, glowing colours,

Oil paint is highly flexible in that it admits application both in thick impasto and fine detail: countless types of descriptive brushstroke are possible in oil. Since it is slow drying, it can be carefully blended to make soft, seamless shadows essential for the suggestion of three-dimensional form, as well as worked while still wet. All these properties make it especially suitable to communicate the reflective properties of different surfaces, from polished marble to dazzling jewels, from soft velvet to luminous highlights on hard metal plate

In Venice, colorito, "colouring” was deemed fundamental to conceiving painted images charged with the look of life. Florentine color was frequently more vivid than the palette used in Venetian paintings; typically Venetian, however, was the process of layering and blending colors to achieve a glowing richness. A long-lived debate between the two positions involved theorists as well as artists and regional rivalries as well as aesthetic concerns.

The importance which Venetians placed on colour explains in part why they adopted oil painting more enthusiastically than their counterparts in Florence, since oil paint gave artists greater depth and luminosity of colour than tempera. Rather than beginning with careful drawings, Venetian painters often worked out compositions directly on the canvas, using layered patches of colored brushstrokes rather than line to define form.

Giovanni Bellini’s use of oil as early as the 1460s, reflecting an earlier knowledge of the medium, perhaps inspired in part by imported pictures. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it towards a more sensuous and colouristic style. Through the use of clear, slow-drying oil paints, Giovanni created deep, rich tints and detailed shadings. Single portraits of private individuals, however, were virtually unknown until the 1470s. Venetians credited their new popularity to Bellini. His portraits spawned such demand for likenesses of family members that his contemporaries reported it common to see the faces of four generations in a single household.

The individualized features of this young man are carefully defined but do not reveal much about his personality. In fact, all of Bellini's portraits of young men share a reserved dignity but deny a more penetrating look into the sitter's character.

Venetian men of both the patrician and the citizen classes wore a long, simple black robe, a small black hat, and a stole over the shoulder or sometimes, as here, over the head. Red gowns worn by senators were also prescribed for certain ceremonial occasions. In fact, the elderly saint and his lion companion, shifted to the lower right, occupy only a small area of the painting. The landscape commands center stage, filled with a distant view and abundant life, all washed with a radiant light. Many of the plants and animals have various symbolic meanings—the rabbits, for example, could serve as reminders of lust or Christian meekness. Rather than intending that we "read" them as symbols, perhaps Bellini means us to see them simply as part of a vast and rich nature.

His sumptuous coloring and fluent, atmospheric landscapes had a great effect on the Venetian painting school, especially on his pupils Giorgione and Titan, but also on his contemporaries.

Antonello da Messina (c 1430 –1479), was from Sicily, but he travelled around He went to Venice in 1475, and remained there until the fall of 1476. His works of this period begin to show a greater attention to the human figure, regarding both anatomy and expressivity, indicating the influence of Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. His experiments in oil were matched by his proficiency in rendering minute detail in the fashion of Northern European paintings which we will look at later.

LImbourg Brothers – International Gothic. Stylistic features are a dignified elegance, which replaces monumentality, along with rich decorative colouring, elongated figures and flowing lines. It also makes a more practised use of perspective, modelling, and setting. Figures begin to be given more space in their settings, and interest is taken in realistically depicted plants and animals. In some works, above all the famous calendar scenes of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, the beginnings of real landscape painting are seen. Decoration became increasingly ornate as the style developed in Northern Europe, whereas in Italy the increased sophistication of figure painting was absorbed into Early Renaissance painting.

The versatility of oil paint made it an essential factor in realizing the new artistic vision of early Netherlandish painting, which combined extraordinary realism with brilliant color

But it was the virtuoso handling of the medium on panel by early Netherlandish painters such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden in the fifteenth century that represented a turning point in its eventual adoption as the major painting medium in Europe in the sixteenth century.

The work of Bosch was quite unpalatable in its own time; in modern times viewers found the works easier to read, to absorb. It is believed that he was influenced by the thinking of Erasmus, a Dutch humanist, catholic priest and theologian, who lived against the background of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he was critical of the abuses within the catholic church,and called for reform, he continued to recognise the authority of the pope. Erasmus emphasized a middle way, with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, and rejected Luther's emphasis on faith alone.

Bosch – crowning with thorns; ‘Four torturers surround Christ, pressing towards him, while he looks out at us. Bosch's picture emphasises the contrast between the brutality of the tormentors and the mild, suffering Christ. emotional intensity is achieved in a variety of ways. The half-length figures create a sense of proximity, and the lack of recession in the painting makes it appear very claustrophobic. From the centre of the picture Christ seems to appeal to us to share in his suffering.

The characterisations here are not just grotesque, but reflect specific ideas. Christ's torturers were often referred to as savage beasts, which may explain why the man at the top right appears to wear a spiked dog collar. The figure at the lower left has a crescent moon of Islam and yellow star of the Jews on his head-dress, which mark him as an opponent of Christianity’.

SEcond session.

BERGER Ways of SEeing Episode 2

FEMINISM

"Lady Lilith" is one of the many "mirror pictures" completed by Rossetti during this period, of narcissistic female figures, each with potentially fatal characteristics"

The space is at once realistic and mythic. As both an interior boudoir space and a sheltered exterior alcove, this background space of "Lady Lilith"

Lilith's clothing, "clothes that look as if they are soon to be removed" (Marsh, 1985, 235). Her body, barely able to be contained by the clothing, invites the viewer to read Lilith as sensual and beautiful.

It is not only the nearly removed nature of Lilith's attire that draws attention to her image as a sexualized being. What is absent from the picture is just as important. Lilith's sexual availability is more prominently signalled by "the absence of corsetry, tight-lacing, and other marks of bourgeois moral rectitude" is evidence of a well- disciplined mind and well-regulated feelings" Her hair loose and corset absent, this Lilith is assuredly a symbol of open sexuality.

Lilith's role, therefore, is just as powerful as it ever was. The result of this portrayal is to bring her from the mythical past into what was, for Rossetti, a realistic present. One of the most essential elements of this painting is Lilith's seductive beauty, extolled especially by the "erotic entrapment" of her beautiful hair. It is this object which plays the primary role in the picture, occupying the center space and being held out by Lilith to show its full extent and beauty. This focus on the hair harkens back to earlier portrayals of Lilith, including the hair imagery of Goethe that so highly influenced Rossetti, and foreshadows the emphasis which Rossetti will place on Lilith's "castrating, cutting" golden hair in his poem entitled "Lilith" (Bullen 130).

The metaphor of women's hair has always been potent, but, during the Victorian period, this was especially so. In her article on "The Power of Women's Hair in the Victorian Imagination," Elizabeth G. Gitter states:

The more abundant the hair, the more potent the sexual invitation implied in its display. For folk, literary and psychoanalytic traditions agree that the luxuriance of the hair is an index of vigorous sexuality, even of wantonness.

Thus, Lilith's excessive hair indicates an excess of sexuality. The manner in which she holds it out, purportedly to comb it, serves to openly display her sexuality on the canvas. It is the first and last impression that a viewer will receive.

The beautiful Lady Lilith does not appear to be inviting the audience or any other to watch her. Instead, she holds a look of self satisfaction. By resisting compliance with the male gaze, Lilith, therefore, threatens the identity of the male voyeur.

Representing "beauty gazing at itself," Lilith arouses desire in men but also threatens them with her power (Bullen 148). She is an unobtainable beauty filled with power. And while this combination makes her irresistible, it also leads to the capture, castration, and death of any male who enters her presence.

Extracts from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting "Lady Lilith" (1863: watercolor, 1864-1868?: oil)

http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/ladylil.html

There are tools and methods that you can use to assist you in reading images, which in turn will assist you in making an analysis of the impact of images.

You could say that the reading of an image consists of how an image looks and how it is looked at.

Reading images is something that we will do must begin with looking at images – how an image looks. First kind of interpretation that you need to do with any image is technological – what kind of an image is it, what are the technologies that have gone into its making - a painting, a film, an ad, a piece of sculpture. Following this assessment, as part of looking at the image, you should apply a formal analysis.

When you set out to ‘read’ an image, you always need to be aware that the image has been produced and distributed within a set of social conditions that determine how the image is received both by you and by other people. No image is produced in a social vacuum.

Wallis campaign - Dress to Kill series from 1997. Placed in women’s magazines, targeted at middle to upper class females of 20-35 years of age, from all ethnic backgrounds, around page 14 which is a prime site, often more expensive. The context in which the series of advertisements are found is predominantly feminine, fashion magazines, appearing amongst articles based on beauty and fashion.

Formal analysis

Content; what does the image actually show?

Photograph, showing an attractive, well dressed woman walking across the platform of an underground station. The image includes a man on an underground train, which is distant and apparently moving away from the platform. We know that the man on the train is a guard because of his uniform. The image includes a caption Dress to Kill. At the centre of the image is a small sign which reads ‘danger’.

Colour; Black and white, lit from the front, shadows in the distance, tunnel and stairs.

Light; frontal, off-camera, the woman is walking towards the source of the light.

Spatial organisation; Interior, underground space, deep space, multiple volumes, movement in two directions.

Expressive content;
The feel of the image – combination of glamour and grit, black and white makes it a bit classic, timeless, serious.

How does the organisation of space position the spectator? We are positioned as observers of a scene, not directly involved. The caption is an imperative, which is directed at us as the viewers, but none of the figures catch our eye so we are also at a remove from what is happening.

Iconographical analysis.

This is about the meaning that is woven into these images, and how that meaning is carried.

We are straying into quite an advanced area here, called SEMIOTICS – you wouldn’t be expected to get to grips with semiotics until 3^rd year. So this is a kind of beginners guide

Based on an analysis of ‘signs’ and codes, operates on the basis that images are coded - particularly true of advertisements and images that have a commercial purpose, therefore loaded with codes that are about selling something.

The codes and sub-codes that may underlie the image/sign; 

bodily codes - the appearance of the women and men, facial expressions, physical orientation and movements they make, commodity codes because the company are selling fashions which is a commodity in itself

behavioural codes- which refer to the traditional codes of behaviour men are recognised here as having when a woman walks by!

aesthetic codes due to the connotations of romanticism and class associated with black and white, and genre, black and white, which generally signifies class or nostalgia in films and television. If this applies to advertisements, then black and white could signify a romantic or reminiscent feel to the product, romance being associated with femininity. It is perhaps more likely that the black and white signifies importance, the advertisers were probably trying to establish the importance of buying quality and fashionable Wallis clothing

rhetorical and stylistic codes.

textual codes

ideological codes due to the sub-codes of individualism, freedom, patriarchy, class and gender

social codes.

Every sign is made up of two things – a signifier and a signified. Signs take the form of words,images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning. 'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign', declares Peirce (Peirce 1931-58, 2.172). Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics.

Figure 1 First sign; the woman herself. Within that one sign there are a number of signifiers, pointing to different meanings. Signifier #1 is her appearance; she is well groomed, she can afford to buy nice clothes and make up her face and hair meticulously, so she has money and leisure time. Her appearance signifies a young, confident woman with a healthy sexuality, wants to display her attractiveness and her body.

Signifier #2; her gaze. She is not looking at us or at the man who is ogling her. She is looking away, which signifies that she has somewhere to be, she is a woman with a purpose who is going somewhere.

Second sign; the man. Signifier #1; his uniform. This signifies that he is a working man, working class. He has a job to do, he is not at liberty to go where he likes.

Signifier #2; his gaze. His mind is dominated by the body of the woman, to the point of his own death.

The meaning is anchored by the caption – imperative dress to kill, with symbol of dagger in place of the I.

The images draw on typical contrasting pairs of male and female power and sexuality, using sexuality to objectify women. In this case, the ads simultaneously subvert this 'tradition', thus making the man an object of empowerment for the woman from the way she dresses.

Other kinds of pairings have to do with dominant/subordinate; the dominant figure thus being the woman over the subordinate man. Black/white, and mind/body are also binary oppositions in the text, the text presented in black and white, and the fact that the man's mind is dominated by the body of the woman.

behind the reading of the text lit other opposites are producer/consumer and freedom/oppression, the latter referring to the portrayal of the modern free woman in adverts compared to the rather oppressed, stereotypical woman of advert history which household products were mainly aimed at, whereas in these images the women are liberated, arguably, and the men are all portrayed as working men.

The three adverts connote that women can have sexual control over men, and all of these connotations can be associated with modern day views on femininity, aspects of which can almost always be found in a woman's magazine whether on the problem pages or in beauty articles.

Figure 2, we are presented with a man watching a pretty woman outside a window whilst shaving another man; his life at risk. The man who is shaving the person in the chair is indexically signified as a barber from being dressed in a white coat of his profession; the man in the chair thus signifying a customer due to his suit.

The girl is a very important sign here yet again. Such a stance in a public street could be a signifier of seduction since she assumes a provocative pose with her left leg slightly bent, her hair blowing in the wind and a sultry smile on her face. She does not seem to be looking at anything in particular either, but simply posing outside the window; perhaps a signifier that signifies her deliberate intention to attract attention, however fatally. Moreover, her dress is short and exposes her legs and arms which adds to this signified 'flirty' image.

Hair is a very important signifier in this context, as it seems to be associated with the binary opposites; enclosure and freedom. The girl's hair is free and tossing in the wind, thus signifying her independence and a carefree attitude to life, whereas the barber, himself slightly bald and cutting hair as his living, is thus enclosed and entrapped inside the shop. This signification is accentuated by the fact that he looks at the girl from the inside, while she is outside, and the shop is more shaded with blacks and greys than where the girl is standing, despite the photo being black and white. Like figure 1, this advert again presents the woman as a sign; her code of dress and appearance thus being the main signifiers which signify the concept of 'dressing to kill'.

Other aspects of the sign;

Icon; The images are iconic in that the photo of the woman signifies the clothes that Wallis are aiming to sell.

Index; The images are indexical in that the representational signs of the men near death are directly connected to the signified concept of Dress to Kill.

Symbol; The images are symbolic in that the woman is portrayed as an object of desire, and the text symbolically signifies Dress to Kill.

 of an image is it, what are the technologies that have gone into its making - a painting, a film, an ad, a piece of sculpture. Following this assessment, as part of looking at the image, you should apply a formal analysis.

 content to follow