1.
1480s in art
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The decade of the 1480s in art involved some significant events. 1482 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, commissions Leonardo da Vinci to make a statue that would have been the largest in the world. A clay cast is made over sixteen years but the bronze is appropriated for use in cannons,1483 – In the Republic of Venice A competition to design a monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni is won by Andrea del Verrocchio with an equestrian design. Giovanni Bellini is named official painter to the Republic,1484 – Albrecht Dürer makes a Self-Portrait at the age of 13 in silverpoint. C. 1485-1489 – Jean Colombe completes the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry for Charles I,1487 Leonardo da Vinci creates his Vitruvian Man drawing. Bernt Notke creates his painted wooden sculpture of Saint George and the Dragon for the Storkyrkan in Stockholm,1488 - Giovanni di Stefano makes floor intarsia showing Hermes Trismegistus, Plato and Marsilio Ficino in the west entrance of Siena Cathedral
2.
1490s in art
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The decade of the 1490s in art involved some significant events. The Renaissance is in full swing during the 1490s, and Leonardo da Vinci is painting in realistic, in music, many new musical styles are being created, including the motet and madrigal, replacing an emphasis on chanting with polyphony and homophony. Christopher Columbuss explorations of the New World captivates the artistic imagination of artists and the public. 1490, July 13 – John of Kastav finishes a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church,1496 – Juan de Flandes joins the court of Isabella I of Castile. Peters Basilica, Rome, in Carrara marble c,1490, Giovanni Bellini paints two Sacred Conversations and a presumed portrait of Bartolomeo dAlviano c. 1490–1497, Leonardo da Vinci or one of his school paints La belle ferronnière c,1495, Gerard David paints Triptych of the Sedano family c. 1490–1500, Giovanni Bellini paints the Holy Allegory and Portrait of a Gentleman c,1495, Pedro Berruguete paints Saint Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fe c. 1495, Jan Provoost paints a Crucifixion c, 1495–1496, Leonardo da Vinci probably draws the Portrait of a Young Fiancée for the Sforziada c.1495 and beyond, followers of Martin Schongauer paint the colossal Buhl Altarpiece c. 1496, Juan de Flandes paints Portrait of an Infanta and Herodias Revenge c,1495, Albrecht Dürer - The Holy Family with the Dragonfly 1497, Albrecht Dürer - The Four Witches c. 1498, Albrecht Dürer Apocalypse Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon The Temptation of the Idler or The Dream of the Doctor c
3.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
4.
Leonardo da Vinci
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He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the Universal Genius or Renaissance Man, an individual of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination. Much of his working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded to him by Francis I of France, Leonardo was, and is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait, Leonardos drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings have survived, Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated power, an adding machine. Some of his inventions, however, such as an automated bobbin winder. A number of Leonardos most practical inventions are nowadays displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, today, Leonardo is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452 at the hour of the night in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. He was the son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense – da Vinci simply meaning of Vinci, his birth name was Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci, meaning Leonardo. The inclusion of the title ser indicated that Leonardos father was a gentleman, little is known about Leonardos early life. He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother and his father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera Amadori, who loved Leonardo but died young in 1465 without children. When Leonardo was sixteen, his father married again to twenty-year-old Francesca Lanfredini, pieros legitimate heirs were born from his third wife Margherita di Guglielmo and his fourth and final wife, Lucrezia Cortigiani. Leonardo received an education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life, Leonardo recorded only two childhood incidents, one, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face
5.
Chiaroscuro
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Chiaroscuro is an oil painting technique, developed during the Renaissance, that uses strong tonal contrasts between light and dark to model three-dimensional forms, often to dramatic effect. The underlying principle is that solidity of form is best achieved by the light falling against it, artists known for developing the technique include Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. It is a mainstay of black and white photography and these in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum. Such works used to be called chiaroscuro drawings, but are often described in modern museum terminology by such formulae as pen on prepared paper. Chiaroscuro woodcuts began as imitations of this technique, when discussing Italian art, the term sometimes is used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colours, more generally known in English by the French equivalent, grisaille. The term broadened in meaning early on to cover all strong contrasts in illumination between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning. The invention of these effects in the West, skiagraphia or shadow-painting to the Ancient Greeks, traditionally was ascribed to the famous Athenian painter of the fifth century BC, Apollodoros. Chose her place to sit for that purpose in the alley of a goodly garden. In drawings and prints, modelling chiaroscuro often is achieved by the use of hatching, washes, stipple or dotting effects, and surface tone in printmaking are other techniques. Chiaroscuro woodcuts are old master prints in woodcut using two or more blocks printed in different colours, they do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and they were first produced to achieve similar effects to chiaroscuro drawings. Other printmakers to use the technique include Hans Wechtlin, Hans Baldung Grien, in Germany the technique achieved its greatest popularity around 1520, but it was used in Italy throughout the sixteenth century. Later artists such as Goltzius sometimes made use of it, in most German two-block prints, the keyblock was printed in black and the tone block or blocks had flat areas of colour. In Italy, chiaroscuro woodcuts were produced without keyblocks to achieve a different effect. Manuscript illumination was, as in areas, especially experimental in attempting ambitious lighting effects since the results were not for public display. The development of compositional chiaroscuro received an impetus in northern Europe from the vision of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden. Hugo van der Goes and his followers painted many scenes lit only by candle or the light from the infant Christ. As with some later painters, in their hands the effect was of stillness, strong chiaroscuro became a popular effect during the sixteenth century in Mannerism and Baroque art. Divine light continued to illuminate, often rather inadequately, the compositions of Tintoretto, Veronese, tenebrism was especially practiced in Spain and the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples, by Jusepe de Ribera and his followers
6.
Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
7.
The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)
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The Last Supper is a late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. It is one of the worlds most famous paintings, the painting represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, as it is told in the Gospel of John,13,21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. The Last Supper measures 460 cm ×880 cm and covers an end wall of the hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The theme was a one for refectories, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it. The main church building had recently been completed, but was remodeled by Bramante. The painting was commissioned by Sforza to be the centerpiece of the mausoleum, the lunettes above the main painting, formed by the triple arched ceiling of the refectory, are painted with Sforza coats-of-arms. The opposite wall of the refectory is covered by the Crucifixion fresco by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498—he did not work on the painting continuously. The beginning date is not certain, as the archives of the convent for the period have been destroyed, one story goes that a prior from the monastery complained to Leonardo about the delay, enraging him. The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him, all twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. The apostles are identified from a manuscript with their names found in the 19th century, from left to right, according to the apostles heads, Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Andrew form a group of three, all are surprised. Judas Iscariot, Peter, and John form another group of three, Judas is wearing green and blue and is in shadow, looking rather withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a bag, perhaps signifying the silver given to him as payment to betray Jesus. He is also tipping over the salt cellar and this may be related to the near-Eastern expression to betray the salt meaning to betray ones Master. He is the person to have his elbow on the table. Peter looks angry and is holding a knife pointed away from Christ, the youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon. Jesus Apostle Thomas, James the Greater, and Philip are the group of three. Thomas is clearly upset, the index finger foreshadows his incredulity of the Resurrection
8.
Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. South Slavic language Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC
9.
Juan de Flandes
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Jan Sallaert, who became a master in Ghent in 1480, has also been suggested. He was born around 1460 in Flanders and he evidently trained in his home country, most likely in Ghent, as his work shows similarities to that of Joos van Wassenhove, Hugo van der Goes and other Ghent artists. He is only documented after he became an artist at the court of Queen Isabella I of Castile and he is described as court painter by 1498 and continued in the queens service until her death in 1504. He mostly painted portraits of the family, but also the majority of a large series of small panels for a polyptych altarpiece for the queen. The panels have been dispersed and the largest number of panels is in the collection in Madrid. After Isabellas death in 1504 Juan de Flandes turned to ecclesiastical commissions from Spanish churches and he was later based in Palencia, where there is a large reredos in the Cathedral. In Palencia his wife was described as a widow in December 1519, the overwhelming majority of his work held in collections outside Spain dates from this later period during which he concentrated on religious themes. Panels from an altarpiece from a Palencian church are divided between the Prado and National Gallery of Art, Washington, who have four panels each. His works show the Early Netherlandish style of Ghent adapted to the Spanish taste and landscape, hand & M. van Elslande, Juan de Flandes met name Jan van der Straten, in, Brugs Ommeland, 26ste jg
10.
Isabella I of Castile
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Isabella I was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon and their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms, Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974. Isabella was born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, to John II of Castile, at the time of her birth, she was second in line to throne after her older half-brother Henry. Henry was 26 at that time and married but childless and her younger brother Alfonso was born two years later on 17 November 1453, lowering her position to third in line. When her father died in 1454, her half-brother ascended to the throne as Henry IV, Isabella and Alfonso were left in Henrys care. She, her mother and her brother Alfonso then moved to Arévalo and these were times of turmoil for Isabella. Living conditions in their castle in Arévalo were poor, and they suffered from a shortage of money, even though living conditions were lackluster, under the careful eye of her mother, Isabella was instructed in lessons of practical piety and in a deep reverence for religion. Alfonso was placed in the care of a tutor while Isabella became part of the Queens household, some of Isabellas living conditions improved in Segovia. She always had food and clothing and lived in a castle that was adorned with gold, Isabellas basic education consisted of reading, spelling, writing, grammar, mathematics, art, chess, dancing, embroidery, music, and religious instruction. She and her ladies-in-waiting entertained themselves with art, embroidery, and she lived a relaxed lifestyle, but she rarely left Segovia as Henry forbade this. Her half-brother was keeping her from the political turmoils going on in the kingdom, though Isabella had full knowledge of what was going on, the noblemen, anxious for power, confronted King Henry, demanding that his younger half brother Infante Alfonso be named his successor. They even went so far as to ask Alfonso to seize the throne, the nobles, now in control of Alfonso and claiming that he was the true heir, clashed with Henrys forces at the Second Battle of Olmedo in 1467. Henry agreed to recognise Alfonso as heir presumptive, provided that he would marry his daughter, soon after he was named Prince of Asturias, Alfonso died in July 1468, likely of the plague. The nobles who had supported him suspected poisoning, as she had been named in her brothers will as his successor, the nobles asked Isabella to take his place as champion of the rebellion. However, support for the rebels had begun to wane, the question of Isabellas marriage was not a new one. Indeed, she had made her debut in the market at the tender age of six, with a betrothal to Ferdinand. At that time, the two kings, Henry and John, were eager to show their love and confidence
11.
Tilman Riemenschneider
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Tilman Riemenschneider was a German sculptor and woodcarver active in Würzburg from 1483. He was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the period between late Gothic and Renaissance, a master in stone and limewood. Tilman Riemenschneider was born around the year 1460 at Heiligenstadt im Eichsfeld in present-day Thuringia, when Riemenschneider was about five years old, his father was involved in a violent political conflict, the Mainzer Stiftsfehde, so the family had to leave Heiligenstadt and all their possessions. They resettled in Osterode, where his father became Master of the Mint, Riemenschneider likely came to Würzburg for the first time at the age of 18 in 1478/9. His uncle served as notary and financial advisor to the bishop there, around 1473, Riemenschneider learned the trade of sculpting and woodcarving, likely in Swabia or the Upper Rhine — possibly in Strasbourg and/or Ulm. At that time, the statutes of the guild of sculptors required that a travel to many different workshops to gain experience. Very little is known about this period of his life, but he came in contact with the work of Martin Schongauer. In 1483, he settled in Würzburg, on 7 December 1483, he joined the Saint Lukes Guild of painters, sculptors, and glass workers as a painters assistant. On 28 February 1485, he married Anna Schmidt, a widow of a goldsmith with three sons. This marriage not only brought him property, but it meant that he could end his apprenticeship. Also in 1485, Riemenschneider became a citizen of Würzburg, which made it possible to attain the status of master craftsman and his earliest confirmed work is the gravestone of Eberhard von Grumbach in the Pfarrkirche at Rimpar. This may be the type of work he started out with before obtaining large church commissions and he started to receive numerous orders from the town councils of Würzburg and neighboring towns. In 1490, the council of Münnerstadt ordered an altarpiece for the altar of St Maria Magdalena, the parish church. In 1491, the council of Würzburg ordered two life-sized stone figures of Adam and Eve for the south portal of the councils church. In 1494, Riemenschneiders first wife died, leaving him with three stepsons and a daughter, in keeping with the times and his status, he remarried in 1497, Anna Rappolt. She bore him two daughters and three sons, all of whom seem to have inherited their fathers artistic talent, in 1495, he created the statue of Mary with child. More high-profile work followed, In 1496 Riemenschneider received the order to carve the tomb of Prince-Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg at Würzburg Cathedral and it was delivered in 1499, the same year in which an order arrived for the Imperial tomb at Bamberg Cathedral. By 1500, he had developed a reputation as an artist and had become a wealthy Würzburg citizen
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