1200-1400

Decline of Feudalism/Rise of Towns and Cities

English and French Monarchies Strengthened

Impact of Crusades

Courtly Love/Cult of Virgin Mary

Universities Founded: Aristotle Rediscovered

New Spirit: ___ Awakening

Thomas Aquinas

Gothic Era

Summa Theologica

Goal: to make "a science of faith"

-reconsile faith and reason

"Reason does not destroy faith but perfects it."

Term: barbaric

Location: 100-mile radius of Paris

Founder: Royal Abbey, Saint-Denis (Abbot Suger)

Material reveals the spiritual:

"The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material. And in seeing this light, is resurrected from its former submersion."

Mysticism of light:

"For bright is that which is brightly coupled with the bright, And bright is the noble edifice which is pervaded by the new light."

1. Religious: house of God, dedicated to Virgin Mary, closest thing to Heaven

2. Social: meeting place for entertainers and town meetings

3. Economic: very expensive burden on people, taxes=revolts, brought in money b/c church of the region

4. Political: French monarchy, statement of political authority of area, parts paid for by Kings

Function: seat of the bishop; associated with cathedral schools

Location: cities; market towns; site of important relics

Emphasis: vertical, soaring height

Interior: unified, unbroken space (flowing)

Support system: pointed arches, ribbed groin vaults, flying buttresses

Interior atmostphere: airy, bright (some dark, but most bright with stained glass windows)

Exterior: richly decorated w/sculpture; not just at portal

Chartres Cathedral:

• Background-easy trip from Paris, favorite cathedral, mideval mind known through sculpture
• Interior: nave aracde, triforium gallery, clerestory, ribbed vaults, stained glass

*play of light through windows

• Exterior: flying buttresses, sculpture

Famous relic: tunic worn by Mary at birth of Christ

Location: Chartres Cathedral

-a slender arched support that, in a vault system, typically projects from the surface along the groins where semicircular vaults intersect each other

-both reinforce the vaults and unify them aesthetically

-message: there's a God and we aren't Him

La Belle Verriere

"Our Lady of the Beautiful Window"

• Mary on throne
• Christ on Lap
• Halo and crown
• Surrounded by 4 angels kneeling

Mary: Queen of Heaven, Intercessor, Mother of God, Mother of Church, Partoness of Learning

Thru: hymns, church dedications, images, banners (battles), lives of Christian knights dedicated to her

"Gothic Gentleness"

tone of church: "God loves you"

The Annunciation and Visitation at Reims Cathedral

• P1: angel, P2: Mary, P3: Mary, P4: Elizabeth
• Special: emotion of angel, accuracy of age, Gothic 'S' curve (direction of humanism)

-'S' curve

-graceful

-well-porportioned

-realistic

-aware of body under drapery

-convincing

Perotinus, Viderunt Omnes

1170-1236 (Gothic)

• Notre Dame Polyphony
• Keeps origional chant
• Adds rhythm
• Music becomes decoration for the text
• RHYTHM
• "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Praise God all the earth"

• Importance of Paris: monarchies stronger, university est., commercial hub
• Leonin and Perotin: first composers known by name, cathedral officials

"many lines" of music

• musical texture: number of layers of sound that are heard at once, what kinds of layers there are, and how they are related to each other
• musical lines added to origional chants (glossing)
• importance of notation
• learned to notate pitches first, rhythm later
• relationship to architecture and tradition
• simple to complex
• shift from 'amateur' to 'professional' performance

"Calamitous" 1300s

• Floods/Famine (climate change)
• Hunderd Years' War: France and England
• The Black Death: bacterium carried by rodents, transmitted by fleas
• Church Authority Weakened: Avignon Papacy & Great Schism

1300s developments

(transition to Renaissance)

• beginnings of scientific inquiry: magnetic compass, clocks, windmills, eyeglasses, modern glassmaking

*focus on this life, this world, using mind to make things better

• artists attempt to depict subjects in a manner "true to nature"

Giotto, Lamentation over the Body of Jesus  1305

• fresco
• focal point low b/c of sadness
  -Jesus and Mary grieving 
• increased naturalism
• observing this world**makes religious story more accurate
• symbolism: halos

"Father of Western Painting"

• human form more believable: gestures, faicial expressions, sense of bodies beneath drapery
• chiaroscuro
• shadows
• spatial sense: attempts at perspective
• simple narrative w/fussy details eliminated
• Bottom Line: using the eye to observe THIS world

1400-1600

Term def: rebirth (Greco-Roman world)/"adventure of the mind"

Location: Italy--Florence

Patronage of Art and Learning: The Medici Family

Humanism: "Study of God the Supreme Being was replaced by the study of the human being"

• Castiglione: The Well-Rounded Person
• Greek scholars flee Constantinople (to Florence)
• Printing Press=explosion of knowledge
• Global Exploration (Columbus)
• Scientific Discoveries: Copernicus and Heliocentric

Ghiberti(winner) and Brunelleschi

Renaissance

Competition for the Baptistery Doors of Florence Cathedral

Topic: Sacrifice of Isaac

Brunelleschi

• Anatomy: contorted & twisted
• Space: busy & confusing
• Distractions: servants in front
• Calm v. Emotion: Emotional
• Craftmanship: pieces of puzzle
  Renaissance time period 

Ghiberti

• Anatomy: model in Greco-Roman style
• Space: orderly
• Distractions: organized well
• Calm v. Emotion: calm
• Craftmanship: from 1 pannel of bronze
  Renaissance time period 

Ghiberti, Jacob and Esau from Gates of Paradise

1. Rebecca learns of future son's conflict
2. R. gives birth to twins
3. I. sends E. hunting
4. I. gives J. blessing and R. + J. plot against E.

• telling story in relief sculpture using perspective
• Renaissance

Linear Perspective

(Ghiberti)

1. Objects in distance appear smaller

2. Parallel lines seem to converge at a point in distance (vantage point)

Brunelleschi, Florence Cathedral Dome

• pulley system
• dome w/in a dome: inner dome>webbing>outer dome
• reinforcements
• Renaissance

Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel

• Focus: order and harmony
• in spirit of ancient Rome
• symmetrical design
• Renaissance

Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel

• inside based on module of square
• serene, quiet space
• simply decorated
• some relief
• Renaissance

Donatello, David

• choice of moment: after killing of Goliath
• 1st free-standing nude since antiquity
• bronze
• artistic liscence: nudity, hat, boots
• youthful, sensuous beauty (focus)
• contrapposto
• Renaissance Nobility (nuditiy)

Donatello, Saint Mary Magdalene

• one of last works, willing to take risks
• growth of artist: showing age and decay
• wood, trimmed with gold-7ft tall
• repentant prostitute
• focus: inner beauty, "more than one kind of beauty" different than Renaissance
• gaunt face, sunken in
• beautiful hands=beautiful faith

Masaccio, The Tribute Money

• focus on Peter
• Continuous Narrative: several parts of story in one pannel
• Linear Perspective: size, lines, shows depth
• Atmospheric Perspective: mountains blurry and dusky
• Chiaroscuro and Contrapposto
• Individuality
• Renaissance

between eye and distance is atmosphere

(effect)

Botticelli, The Birth of Venus

• Myth: born of the sea, being blown towards shore, where cloaked
• Neoplatonism: Venus=soul, sea=contamination, cloak=reason and beauty
• Renaissance work of beauty

The Soul's Journey to God

Soul befor birth: perfect>Base Matter: contamination by earth>Contemplation of Beauty and Reason: helps restore>God/ Perfection/ Truth/ "The One"

Beauty in the things of this world is God's means of making Himself manifest to humankind

*contemplation of physical beauty leads to spiritual beauty and journey to God*

Florence -->Rome and beyond

Big 3: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael

built on previous developments

handsome, bright, charming, accomplished singer

"Renaissance Man"

I wish to work miracles.

interest in beauty and composition

energy and curiosity

how we see, how light works

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper

• new recipe for fresco paint chipped
• choice of moment: after "one of you will betray me"
• linear--windows
• atmospheric
• individuals>triangle>human reactions

Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa

• interesting: turns her towards us
• focus more on the interior
• Sfumato: on features
• Atmospheric perspective
• Linear perspective
• interest in individual
• triangular composition
• lots of layers of paint=craching effect

stressed brain as the driving point behind the art, it was not just a craft

from middle class family around Florence

discovered by Medici family

picky about materials: Carra Marble

Renaissance

Versatility

(Michelangelo)

1st love: sculpture "the prime art"

Theories: it's the most god-like artistic activity b/c you can make man

Freed 'prisoner' from stone: could see person insides stone before he sculpted it

Michelangelo, Pieta at Vatican

• means "pity"--Mary grieving over death of Christ
• Triangular composition
• Renaissance: beauty/calm--face is devotional, controlled emotion
• Artistic license: youthful, beautiful, tall (foundation for Christ's body)
• Signed: afterward on ribbon
• Anatomy: knew body well, detail in Christ's hand

Michelangelo, David

• Choice of moment: before he kills the giant
• greek influence
  -idealized beauty
  -human form (nude)
  -anatomy
  -contrapposto
• Renaissance confidence
• Energy in reserve: ready to spring into action at any moment

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling

• Stories: usually OT--Genesis/Creation, Genesis, Prophets
• "Painted sculpture" larger than life nobility, bring the human form to life

Raphael, School of Athens

• Includes: himself, Plato/Leonardo, Aristotle, Socrates, Ptolemy, Elucid/Bramante. Pythagoras, Heraclitus/Michelangelo
• Items: sculpures of Apollo and Minerva, books
• Contrapposto/proportion/anatomy
• Balance/Summetry
• Antiquity: architecture, heroes, mythology
• Chiaroscuro
• Linear and atmospheric perspective

Villa Rotonda, Vicenza Italy

• secularizes the dome--used for domestic home
• influential: Greco-Roman, temple fronts on each side, decorative triangular pediments
• gentleman's home=knowledge of history and appreciates style
• Palladian influence (Renaissance time)

• sensitive to words: text must be clear
• calm/restrained
• no extreme contrasts or dynamics, tone, color, rhythm
• polyphonic: texture/full of sound
• a capella (unacompanied voices)
• rhythm: gentle flow
• mind and beauty

Josquin, Ave Maria...virgo serena

• Salutation>attributes of Mary>prayer
• Latin, performed in Rome
• Key words: conception, birth, annunciation, purification, assumption
• Changing textures
• Follows pronunciation
• Follows meaning
• "full of great jubiliation"
• Mind: sensitive meaning and pronuncing of words/wants words understood
• Beauty: avoids dissonance/smooth/pleasing sound/balance--voices equal and varies polyphony and harmony

Josquin Desprez

(Renaissance)

• master of R__ music; "master of notes"
• most versatile and gifted composer of Mid-R___
• contemporary of the BIG3
• from N. France, but international career
• known for smooth, flowing sound; sensitivity to words
• known for church music

Motet

Ave Maria...virgo serena

Imitation

Ave Maria...virgo serena

Homophonic Texture

Ave Maria...virgo serena

Word Painting

Ave Maria...virgo serena

musical representation of specific poetic images; illustration of the words

Example: falling meloic line to accompany the word 'descending'--often found in Renaissance and Baroque music

• 1 of most important secular genres during time
• for sever solo voices (one per part)
• sets short poem, usually about love
• combines homophonic and polyphonic textures
• word painting common (cleverness)
• shows importance of printing press, education, leisure time, and music-making as sign of good breeding
• began in Italy>England

• Greek influence
• more education (literacy)
• interest in this world (humanism)
• leisure time
• $ for music, instruments, lessons
• music printing--part books

Weelkes, As Vesta Was Descending

• about Queen Elizabeth
• Vesta: goddess
• Word painting: descending, ascending, running down, two, two, three, three together, all alone, long

1600-1750

Term: irregularly shaped pearl--distortion--over the top

Religion: division between Protestant and Catholic (outgrowth of Reformation)

Council of Trent: what to do in response to Preotestant Reformation

Goal: impress, make church "place to be"

Jesuit Order: experiential, emotional faith

Affirmed: value of art in worship, teachings regarding Pope/Saints/Virgin Mary

Interested in space, time light

Energy: busy, suggests movement

Extravagance: excessive, opulent, dazzling

Emotion: theatrical, dramatic, sometimes violent (tug at heartstrings)

Goal: touch--appeal to emotion

Bernini, Cathedra Petri

• "Seat (throne) of St. Peter"
• stained glass: Dove of Holy Spirit=God's presence and approval
• hat of Pope being upheld by angels
• St. Peter was first Pope
• 4 saints--2 E. part of Church, 2 W.--upholding seat
• Message: triumph of Christianity and papal claim to doctrinal supremacy

Bernini, Baldacchino

• opulent--decorated everywhere, space filled, huge
• structure made of bronze
• term: "canopy" -- altar/St. Peter's tomb underneath
• serpentine/twisted columns combine OT (Solomon) w/NT (vines) *symbolism + history*
• reference to Pope: laurel leaves, honey bees, suns
• angest support orb and cross: triumph of RCC over universe
• Extravagance: all bronze and gold; Emotion: inspires awe

Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Theresa

• spanish misfit, died, then canonized in 1622
• mystical experience: visited by angel--pierced soul w/divine love (physical love>spiritual love)
• theatrical elements to presentation
• designed like theater/opera house w/viewers to *include audience*
• Light: literal ceiling light, represented gilded bronze rays
• Light/dark contrasts
• undercutting: cut under material to make strong contrasts

Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Bernini

Baroque

• emotional: story mingles spiritual & physical passion
• Saint's life: revearing Saints, intercessors
• encourages viewer: remote mysteries meet the viewer half way; you too can have exciting faith
• energy/business: various textures--tactile/senses, multimedia--materials it's made of, theatrical/stage--space adds drama by including viewers

Caravaggio

Baroque

• "wrong crowd"=trouble
• trademarks:
  -common people: lower class
  -gestures: express grief
  -tenebrism: strong light-dark contrasts
  -include viewer in space 

Caravaggio, Entombment

• taking Jesus down to tomb
• includes audience b/c would be up high and encouraging viewers to help lower him
• slab juts into our space

dark background and spot lighted foreground

(Baroque paintings)

Bernini, Apollo and Daphne

• greatest work
• mythology: metamorphoses--Cupid hits A, in love with D who dispises A
• Cupid's darts
• D transforms into laurel tree: father, river god, turns her
• movement, time, light, change (human>tree)

The Age of Louis XIV, The Sun King

• "The Sun King"--Apollo, light
• believed political power lay in cultural superiority
• established academies--organizations to establish different disciplines
• style combined: classical symmetry & Baroque opulence
• aspired "beyond the sumptuous to stupendous"
• everything revolves around him

Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture

(Louis XIV)

value arts

gate keepers: determine good & bad art (stifling)

supposed to encourage culture

Gardens at the Chateau of Versailles

• Paris Du Louve--added on to and remodeled
• hunting lodge was secluded place, then demand that nobility lived there
• gardens: symmetry/control (message)

Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles

• enclosed porch
• windows-->gardens: looking out to nature
• mirrors=references to light
  -windows, candles, crystal, silver
• ceremony of day and night
• "an avenue of light" 

history paintings

landscape/seascape

still life

genre

portraits

Rembrandt

(Baroque--Dutch)

• Known for: psychology of light, concern with inner life, often in religious subjects or portraits
• Life: 1st half good, happy; 2nd half difficult, sad--wife dies and bankruptcy

Rembrandt, Self-Portraits (1658)

• almost 100 of himself=record of life
• tenebrism: dark background, light foreground
• hands=means of profession--artist
• "regal" pose
• at ease--arms & legs spread, staff as if bacon of command
• declared bankruptcy this year
• tension in fingers, weariness of deep-set eyes, furrowed brow, sagging flesh, aging face, struggle

Rembrandt,  The Prodigal Son

• Father, son, onlookers
• Father: emotion, embrace; elder son: holding back emotion
• powerful treatment of light--used to show thoughts
  -face and hands of both father and older brother
• younger brother: childlike (in faith?)
• father's hands don't match--open, loving & motherly v. fatherly (different hands of God?)
• takes familiar story and heightens our awareness
• muted colors/earthy, tenebrism, quiet emotion 

Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher

• Light source>arrangement of scene>shed light on scene
• love for domestic life--esp. ladies
• painting or map usually on wall
• "prop closet"--reuses objects (cloak, earrings, chair)
• camera obscura: as compositional aid
• accurate, quiet respect
• Baroque (Dutch)

Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Tazza

• assembelage of kitchen items
• functions: celebrate "good life", remember more somber ideas
  -reminders of heaven, "you never know"--interruption
• message: be prepared--reminder of morality
• watch=passage of time
• ordinary objects & silver=mixture of prices
• portrayal of texture & light
• space: reaching into ours