1.
1420s in art
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The decade of the 1420s in art involved some significant events. It is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,1420, Giovanni di Paolo paints a tiny gold-ground triptych 1422, Masaccio - San Giovenale Triptych 1423, Gentile da Fabriano - Adoration of the Magi c. 1424, Masaccio - Virgin and Child with St. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Florence 1425, Donatello - The Feast of Herod, baptismal font, Siena Cathedral 1424, Masolino sculpts his Pietà1423, Ghibertis sculpture of St. S
2.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
3.
Tapestry
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Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous, the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and it is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design. Most weavers use a warp thread, such as linen or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, the earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek
4.
John, Duke of Berry
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John of Berry or John the Magnificent was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was the son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxemburg, his brothers were King Charles V of France, Duke Louis I of Anjou. He is primarily remembered as a collector of the important illuminated manuscripts and other works of art commissioned by him and he was born at the castle of Vincennes on 30 November 1340. When Poitiers was ceded to England in 1360, John II granted John the newly raised duchies of Berry, by the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny, signed that May, John became a hostage of the English Crown and remained in England until 1369. Upon his return to France, his brother, now King Charles V, appointed him lieutenant general for Berry, Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Forez, Sologne, Touraine, Anjou, Maine, and Normandy. Upon the death of his older brother Charles V in 1380, his son and heir, Charles VI was a minor, so Berry and his brothers, following the death of Louis of Anjou in 1384, Berry and his brother Burgundy were the dominant figures in the kingdom. John was also stripped of his offices in Languedoc at that time, Berry and Burgundy bided their time, and were soon able to retake power, in 1392, when the King had his first attack of insanity, an affliction which would remain with him throughout his life. The two royal dukes continued to rule until 1402, when the king, in one of his moments of lucidity, took power from them and gave it to his brother Louis, Duke of Orléans. Simon of Cramaud, a canonist and prelate, served the Duke in his efforts to find a way to end the Great Western schism that was not unfavorable to French interests, in his later years, John became a more conciliatory figure in France. It was largely due to his urging that Charles VI and his sons were not present at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and he died a few months after the battle, which proved as disastrous as he had feared, on June 151416 in Paris. In 1389 he married his wife, Joan II, Countess of Auvergne. John of Berry was also a patron who commissioned among other works the most famous Book of Hours. His spending on his art collection severely taxed his estates, works created for him include the manuscripts known as the Très Riches Heures, the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry and the Turin-Milan Hours. Goldsmiths work includes the Holy Thorn Reliquary and Royal Gold Cup, among the artists working for him were the Limbourg Brothers, Jacquemart de Hesdin and André Beauneveu. The web site of the Louvre says of him, Emmerson, key Figures in Medieval Europe, An Encyclopedia. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–
