1.
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
2.
1500s in architecture
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C.1500 - Chateau de Blois largely rebuilt. 1500 - St. Annes Church, Vilnius is completed,1501 Expansion of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. Chichester Cross is built in Chichester, England, Construction of the Jerónimos Monastery at Belém in Portugal begins, it will take 100 years to complete. Construction of spire of St James Church, Louth, Lincolnshire, England begins, 1501/2 - Construction of the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa in the Duchy of Braganza begins. 1502 Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, designed by Donato Bramante, is built, Construction of St. Marys Church, Gdańsk, begun in 1379 by Heinrich Ungeradin, is completed with the installation of vaulting by Heinrich Haetzl. Vladislav Hall in Prague Castle, designed by Benedikt Rejt, is completed, Expansion of Great Malvern Priory in England is completed. 1504 - Matsumoto Castle in Japan built,1505 - Archangel Cathedral in Moscow begun. 1505–1508 - Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the Grand Canal rebuilt by Fra Giovanni Giocondo,1506 - Construction of St. Peters Basilica in Rome to the design of Bramante begins. Construction of the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome, rebuilding of Wawel Castle in Kraków begins. 1508 Church of San Rocco, Venice, designed by Bartolomeo Bon, Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione is begun. 1509 Palazzo Loredan on the Grand Canal, begun by Mauro Codussi in 1481, is completed, fugger Chapel of St. Annes Church, Augsburg, Swabia, is begun. 1503, November 1 - Pope Julius II becomes Pope, he will be patron to Bramante, Raphael, 1506/07 - Conrad Pflüger, Swabian architect
3.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
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.
Sandro Botticelli
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Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticellis posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, since then, among Botticellis best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera. Botticelli was born in the city of Florence in a house in the Via Nuova, BorgOgnissanti, Vasari reported that Botticelli was initially trained as a goldsmith by his brother Antonio. By 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, many of his works have been attributed to the elder master. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccios painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate, by 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop. The Adoration of the Magi for Santa Maria Novella, contains the portraits of Cosimo de Medici, his sons Piero and Giovanni, the quality of the scene was hailed by Vasari as one of Botticellis pinnacles. In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned Botticelli and other prominent Florentine, the iconological program was the supremacy of the Papacy. Sandros contribution included the Temptations of Christ, the Punishment of the Rebels, thus Vasari characterized the first printed Dante with Botticellis decorations, he could not imagine that the new art of printing might occupy an artist. Recent scholarship suggests otherwise, the Primavera was painted for Lorenzos townhouse in Florence, by 1499, both had been installed at Castello. In these works, the influence of Gothic realism is tempered by Botticellis study of the antique, but if the painterly means may be understood, the subjects themselves remain fascinating for their ambiguity. The complex meanings of these continue to receive widespread scholarly attention, mainly focusing on the poetry. The works do not illustrate particular texts, rather, each relies upon several texts for its significance, of their beauty, characterized by Vasari as exemplifying grace and by John Ruskin as possessing linear rhythm, there can be no doubt. The pictures feature Botticellis linear style emphasized by the soft continual contours, in 1491 he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the Cathedral of Florence. For this reason, persisting in his attachment to that party, Botticelli biographer Ernst Steinmann searched for the artists psychological development through his Madonnas. In the deepening of insight and expression in the rendering of Marys physiognomy, Botticelli was already little employed in 1502. In 1504 he was a member of the appointed to decide where Michelangelos David would be placed. After his death, his reputation was eclipsed longer and more thoroughly than that of any other major European artist and his paintings remained in the churches and villas for which they had been created and his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were upstaged by those of Michelangelo. The English collector William Young Ottley, however, had brought Botticellis The Mystical Nativity to London with him in 1799 after buying it in Italy, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood incorporated elements of his work into their own
6.
Cosimo Rosselli
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He painted almost entirely religious subjects, with a few portraits. He did other large frescos with his workship, from which Fra Bartolomeo and Piero di Cosimo and these include a chapel in SantAmbrogio, Florence and one of the large spaces in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. In 1460, at the age of fourteen, he became a pupil of Neri di Bicci, a first youthful work of Cosimo mentioned by Giorgio Vasari is the Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece in the third chapel on the left of the nave in SantAmbrogio in Florence. In the same church, on the wall of one of the chapels, is a fresco by Cosimo which Vasari praises highly, especially for a portrait of the young scholar Pico of Mirandola. The scene, a bearing a miracle-working chalice, is painted with vigor. A picture painted by Rosselli for the church of the Annunziata, barbara, Matthew and the Baptist, is in the Academy of Florence. Rosselli also spent some time in Lucca, where he painted altarpieces for various churches. A picture attributed to him, taken from the church of St. Girolamo at Fiesole, is now in the National Gallery of London, though dry and hard in treatment, the figures are designed with much dignity. Rosselli and his collaborators executed two or three frescoes, the Descent from Mount Sinai, the Last Supper and, perhaps, the Sermon of the Mount, the Passage of the Red Sea is variously attributed to him, to Ghirlandaio or to Biagio dAntonio. The Gemäldegalerie, Berlin has three pictures by Rosselli, The Virgin in Glory, The Entombment of Christ and The Massacre of the Innocents. In 1480 Rosselli, together with the painters of Florence, was invited by Pope Sixtus IV to Rome to assist in the painting of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Three of these were executed by him The Destruction of Pharaohs Army in the Red Sea, Christ Preaching by the Lake of Tiberias and his chief pupil was Fra Bartolomeo. Among Rosellis other pupils were Angelo di Donino and Giovanni Battista Vanni, according to Vasari, Rosselli died in 1484, but this is a mistake, as he was known to have been living on 25 November 1506. Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Pope-Hennessy, John & Kanter, Laurence B, the Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings. New York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
7.
Piero di Cosimo
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Piero di Cosimo, also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was a Florentine painter of the Italian Renaissance. Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the subjects have an individual. He trained under Cosimo Roselli, whose daughter he married, and he was also influenced by Early Netherlandish painting, and busy landscapes feature in many works, often forests seen close at hand. Several of his most striking secular works are in the landscape format used for paintings inset into cassone wedding chests or spalliera headboards or panelling. He was apparently famous for designing the temporary decorations for Carnival, from him, most probably, Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds and he journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. Inspired to the Vitruvius account of the evolution of man, Pieros mythical compositions show the presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire. The multitudes of nudes in these shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Pieros art. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the trees of his orchard, he lived, wrote Vasari. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Pieros morose elder years, the Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola. With the exception of the background in Rossellis fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, Vasari gave Pieros date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522, madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari tempera and oil on panel, St. Louis Art Museum, media related to Piero di Cosimo at Wikimedia Commons Italian Paintings, Florentine School, a collection catalog containing information about di Cosimo and his works
8.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
9.
David (Michelangelo)
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David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504 by Michelangelo. It is a 5. 17-metre marble statue of a male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a subject in the art of Florence. The eyes of David, with a glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Galleria dellAccademia, Florence, in 1873, the history of the statue begins before Michelangelos work on it from 1501 to 1504. In 1410 Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta, a figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatellos direction. Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David, a block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and his association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, and ten years later Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off. Rossellinos contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble remained neglected for 25 years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of concern to the Opera authorities, as such a large piece of marble not only was costly but represented a large amount of labour. In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as a figure of marble called David, badly blocked out. A year later, documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this piece of marble. They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, raised on its feet so that an experienced in this kind of work might examine it. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was Michelangelo, only 26 years old, on 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September and he would work on the massive statue for more than two years. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, while nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites. Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral. In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatellos bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes and it took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelos workshop into the Piazza della Signoria
10.
Palazzo Vecchio
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The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelos David statue as well as the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, the building acquired its current name when the Medici dukes residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti. The cubical building is made of rusticated stonework, with two rows of two-lighted Gothic windows, each with a trefoil arch. In the 15th century, Michelozzo Michelozzi added decorative bas-reliefs of the cross, the building is crowned with projecting crenellated battlement, supported by small arches and corbels. Under the arches are a series of nine painted coats of arms of the Florentine republic. Some of these arches can be used as embrasures for dropping heated liquids or rocks on invaders, the solid, massive building is enhanced by the simple tower with its clock. This tower contains two cells, that, at different times, imprisoned Cosimo de Medici and Girolamo Savonarola. The tower is named after its designer Torre dArnolfo, Duke Cosimo I de Medici moved his official seat from the Medici palazzo in via Larga to the Palazzo della Signoria in May 1540, signalling the security of Medici power in Florence. Cosimo commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build a walkway, the Vasari corridor, from the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi. Cosimo I also moved the seat of government to the Uffizi, the palace gained new importance as the seat of united Italys provisional government from 1865–71, at a moment when Florence had become the temporary capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The tower currently has three bells, the oldest was cast in the 13th century, above the front entrance door, there is a notable ornamental marble frontispiece, dating from 1528. In the middle, flanked by two gilded lions, is the Monogram of Christ, surrounded by a glory, above the text, Rex Regum et Dominus Dominantium (translation, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This text dates from 1851 and does not replace an earlier text by Savonarola as mentioned in guidebooks, between 1529 and 1851 they were concealed behind a large shield with the grand-ducal coat of arms. Michelangelos David also stood at the entrance from its completion in 1504 to 1873, a replica erected in 1910 now stands in its place, flanked by Baccio Bandinellis Hercules and Cacus. The first courtyard was designed in 1453 by Michelozzo, in the lunettes, high around the courtyard, are crests of the church and city guilds. In the center, the fountain is by Battista del Tadda. The Putto with Dolphin on top of the basin is a copy of the original by Andrea del Verrocchio and this small statue was originally placed in the garden of the Villa Medici at Careggi. The water, flowing through the nose of the dolphin, is brought here by pipes from the Boboli Gardens, in the niche, in front of the fountain, stands Samson and Philistine by Pierino da Vinci
11.
Jacopo de' Barbari
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He moved from Venice to Germany in 1500, thus becoming the first Italian Renaissance artist of stature to work in Northern Europe. His few surviving paintings include the first known example of trompe loeil since antiquity and his twenty-nine engravings and three very large woodcuts were also highly influential. Since the earlier part of the range would have him achieve sudden prominence at the age of nearly fifty, there have also been suggestions he was of German extraction, but it now seems clear he was Italian, there are surviving documents of his in Italian addressed to Germans. He signed most of his engravings with a caduceus, the sign of Mercury, and he was probably not of the important Venetian Barbaro family as he was never listed in that familys genealogy. Nothing is known about his first decades, although Alvise Vivarini has been suggested as his master and he left Venice for Germany in 1500, and thereafter is better documented. In Germany he was known as Jacop Walch, probably from Wälsch meaning foreigner. He may have returned to Venice with Philip the Handsome of Burgundy, by March 1510 he was working for Philips successor Archduchess Margaret in Brussels and Mechelen. In January 1511 he fell ill and made a will, and in March the Archduchess gave him a pension for life, on account of his age and weakness. His earliest documented work is his huge and impressive aerial view Map of Venice, for which a privilege was granted to its publisher in 1500. This clearly drew on the work of many surveyors, but was a spectacular feat nonetheless and it was later updated by others to reflect major new building projects in a second state of the print. These may have also produced before 1500, they are clearly strongly influenced by Mantegna. He showed me a man and a woman which he had according to measure. Jacobus did not want to show his principles to me clearly, de Barberi spent a year in Nuremberg, where Dürer lived, in 1500–1, and influences flowed in both directions between him and Dürer for a number of years. None of his engravings are dated, so much of the dating of them depends on resemblances to dated prints by Dürer, five of his engravings were in an album of Hartmann Schedels, which was bound up in December 1504, which gives further evidence as to dating. De Barberi had probably made some engravings before leaving Italy, some of his paintings are dated as,1500,1503,1504,1508. Documents relating to his employment by Maximilian suggest his work was to include illuminating manuscripts and his only generally accepted drawing is a Cleopatra in the British Museum, apparently done as a study for an engraving which has not survived. His style is related to his master, Alvise Vivarini and to Giovanni Bellini. Apart from Dürer, the influence of Mantegnas technique also appears in what are probably the earlier engravings, done around the turn of the century and his engravings are mostly small, showing just a few figures
12.
Hieronymus Bosch
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Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter from Brabant. He is widely considered one of the most notable representatives of Early Netherlandish painting school and his work is known for its fantastic imagery, detailed landscapes, and illustrations of religious concepts and narratives. Within his lifetime his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, little is known of Boschs life, though there are some records. He spent most of it in the town of s-Hertogenbosch, where he was born in his grandfathers house, the roots of his forefathers are in Nijmegen and Aachen. His pessimistic and fantastical style cast a wide influence on art of the 16th century. His paintings have been difficult to translate from a point of view. Today he is seen as a hugely individualistic painter with deep insight into humanitys desires, attribution has been especially difficult, today only about 25 paintings are confidently given to his hand along with 8 drawings. Approximately another half dozen paintings are attributed to his workshop. His most acclaimed works consist of a few triptych altarpieces, the most outstanding of which is The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch was born Jheronimus van Aken. He signed a number of his paintings as Jheronimus Bosch, the name derives from his birthplace, s-Hertogenbosch, which is commonly called Den Bosch. Little is known of Boschs life or training, nothing is known of his personality or his thoughts on the meaning of his art. Boschs date of birth has not been determined with certainty and it is estimated at c.1450 on the basis of a hand drawn portrait made shortly before his death in 1516. The drawing shows the artist at an age, probably in his late sixties. Bosch was born and lived all his life in and near s-Hertogenbosch and his grandfather, Jan van Aken, was a painter and is first mentioned in the records in 1430. It is known that Jan had five sons, four of whom were also painters, Boschs father, Anthonius van Aken, acted as artistic adviser to the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady. It is generally assumed that either Boschs father or one of his uncles taught the artist to paint, Bosch first appears in the municipal record on 5 April 1474, when he is named along with two brothers and a sister. In 1463,4,000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic fire and he became a popular painter in his lifetime and often received commissions from abroad. In 1488 he joined the highly respected Brotherhood of Our Lady, a religious group of some 40 influential citizens of s-Hertogenbosch
13.
The Garden of Earthly Delights
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The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. It dates from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between about 40 and 60 years old, and is his best-known and most ambitious surviving work. The triptych is painted in oil on oak and is composed of a square middle panel flanked by two other oak rectangular wings that close over the center as shutters, the outer wings, when folded, show a grisaille painting of the earth during the biblical narrative of Creation. The three scenes of the triptych are probably intended to be read chronologically from left to right. The left panel depicts God presenting Eve to Adam, the panel is a broad panorama of socially engaged nude figures, fantastical animals, oversized fruit. The right panel is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation, art historians frequently interpret the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of lifes temptations. However, the intricacy of its symbolism, particularly that of the panel, has led to a wide range of scholarly interpretations over the centuries. Twentieth-century art historians are divided as to whether the central panel is a moral warning or a panorama of paradise lost. American writer Peter S. Beagle describes it as an erotic derangement that turns us all into voyeurs, Bosch painted three large triptychs that can be read from left to right and in which each panel was essential to the meaning of the whole. Each of these three works presents distinct yet linked themes addressing history and faith, when the triptychs wings are closed, the design of the outer panels becomes visible. It was common for the panels of Netherlandish altarpieces to be in grisaille. The outer panels are thought to depict the creation of the world. God, wearing a similar to a papal tiara, is visible as a tiny figure at the upper left. Bosch shows God as the father sitting with a Bible on his lap, above him is inscribed a quote from Psalm 33 reading Ipse dixit, et facta sunt, ipse mandāvit, et creāta sunt—For he spake and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast. The Earth is encapsulated in a transparent sphere recalling the traditional depiction of the world as a crystal sphere held by God or Christ. It hangs suspended in the cosmos, which is shown as an impermeable darkness, despite the presence of vegetation, the earth does not yet contain human or animal life, indicating that the scene represents the events of the biblical Third Day. Surrounding the interior of the globe is the sea, partially illuminated by beams of light shining through clouds, the exterior wings have a clear position within the sequential narrative of the work as a whole. They show an unpopulated earth composed solely of rock and plants, as with Boschs Haywain triptych, the inner centerpiece is flanked by heavenly and hellish imagery
14.
Lucas Cranach the Elder
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Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition and he continued throughout his career to paint nude subjects drawn from mythology and religion. He had a workshop and many works exist in different versions, his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. Lucas Cranach the Elder has been considered the most successful German artist of his time and he was born at Kronach in upper Franconia, probably in 1472. His exact date of birth is unknown and he learned the art of drawing from his father Hans Maler. His mother, with surname Hübner, died in 1491, later, the name of his birthplace was used for his surname, another custom of the times. How Cranach was trained is not known, but it was probably with local south German masters, as with his contemporary Matthias Grünewald, there are also suggestions that Cranach spent some time in Vienna around 1500. According to Gunderam Cranach demonstrated his talents as a painter before the close of the 15th century and his work then drew the attention of Duke Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony, known as Frederick the Wise, who attached Cranach to his court in 1504. Cranach was to remain in the service of the Elector and his successors for the rest of his life, Cranach married Barbara Brengbier, the daughter of a burgher of Gotha and also born there, she died at Wittenberg on 26 December 1540. Cranach later owned a house at Gotha, but most likely he got to know Barbara near Wittenberg, where her family owned a house. The first evidence of Cranachs skill as an artist comes in a picture dated 1504, in 1509 Cranach went to the Netherlands, and painted the Emperor Maximilian and the boy who afterwards became Emperor Charles V. Until 1508 Cranach signed his works with his initials, in that year the elector gave him the winged snake as an emblem, or Kleinod, which superseded the initials on his pictures after that date. Cranach was the painter to the electors of Saxony in Wittenberg. His patrons were powerful supporters of Martin Luther, and Cranach used his art as a symbol of the new faith, Cranach made numerous portraits of Luther, and provided woodcut illustrations for Luthers German translation of the Bible. Somewhat later the duke conferred on him the monopoly of the sale of medicines at Wittenberg, Cranachs presses were used by Martin Luther. His apothecary shop was open for centuries, and was only lost by fire in 1871, Cranach, like his patron, was friendly with the Protestant Reformers at a very early stage, yet it is difficult to fix the time of his first meeting with Martin Luther. The oldest reference to Cranach in Luthers correspondence dates from 1520, in a letter written from Worms in 1521, Luther calls him his gossip, warmly alluding to his Gevatterin, the artists wife. He was also godfather to their first child, Johannes Hans Luther, in 1530 Luther lived at the citadel of Veste Coburg under the protection of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and his room is preserved there along with a painting of him
15.
Giorgione
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Giorgione was an Italian painter of the Venetian school in the High Renaissance from Venice, whose career was ended by his death at a little over 30. Giorgione is known for the poetic quality of his work. The uncertainty surrounding the identity and meaning of his work has made Giorgione one of the most mysterious figures in European art, what little is known of Giorgiones life is given in Giorgio Vasaris Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. The painter came from the town of Castelfranco Veneto,40 km inland from Venice. His name sometimes appears as Zorzo, the variant Giorgione may be translated Big George. Contemporary documents record that his gifts were recognized early, in 1500, when he was only twenty-three, he was chosen to paint portraits of the Doge Agostino Barbarigo and the condottiere Consalvo Ferrante. In 1504, he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece in memory of another condottiere, Matteo Costanzo, in the cathedral of his native town, Castelfranco. In 1507, he received, at the order of the Council of Ten, very little of this work survives today. Vasari mentions an important event in Giorgiones life, and one which influenced his work and he was very closely associated with Titian, while Vasari says Giorgione was Titians master, Ridolfi says that they both were pupils of Giovanni Bellini, and lived in his house. They worked together on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi frescoes, and Titian finished at least some paintings of Giorgione after his death, Giorgione also introduced a new range of subjects. In the Venetian mainland, Giorgionismo strongly influenced Morto da Feltre, Domenico Capriolo, Giorgione died, probably of the plague then raging, by October,1510. October 1510 is also the date of a letter by Isabella dEste to a Venetian friend, asking him to buy a painting by Giorgione, significantly, the reply a month later said the painting was not to be had at any price. His name and work continue to exercise a spell on posterity, for his home town of Castelfranco, Giorgione painted the Castelfranco Madonna, an altarpiece in sacra conversazione form—Madonna enthroned, with saints on either side forming an equilateral triangle. This gave the background an importance which marks an innovation in Venetian art. Giorgione began to use the very refined chiaroscuro called sfumato—the delicate use of shades of color to depict light, whether Vasari is correct in saying he learned it from Leonardos works is unclear—he is always keen to ascribe all advances to Florentine sources. Leonardos delicate color modulations result from the tiny disconnected spots of paint that he derived from Illuminated manuscript techniques. These gave Giorgiones works the magical glow of light for which they are celebrated, Most central and typical of all of Giorgiones extant works is the Sleeping Venus now in Dresden. It was first recognized by Giovanni Morelli, and is now accepted, as being the same as the picture seen by Marcantonio Michiel
16.
Judith (Giorgione)
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Judith is a painting by the Italian painter Giorgione, executed around 1504. It is one of the few works by Giorgione owned by the Russian Hermitage Museum. The painting, originally attributed to Raphael, came to the Hermitage in 1772 from Paris, like many other paintings, it refers to the Judith and Holofernes motif. In 1839 the Hermitage restorer A. Sidorov accurately transferred the painting from panel to canvas, in 1967 it was decided to clean it, and the task was entrusted to A. M. Malova, a highly qualified restorer under the supervision of A. V, brianzev, head of the easel paintings restoration workshop. General control consisted of experts from Leningrad and Moscow, the painting was first thoroughly studied with UV rays and binocular microscope. UV and infrared images were taken, as well as X-rays, the examination showed that most of the damage was on the grass, ground and trunk. The old repaints covered broader areas than was necessary to restore the inflicted areas, the varnish was removed with a cotton tampon wetted in a special solution, other additional material was cleaned out using a very sharp scalpel under a microscope. Between two and six cm² of original painting was restored per day The restoration was finished in 1971, the paints became bright and deep, and a tower and hilly landscape on the background were revealed
17.
Raphael
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Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running a large workshop and, despite his death at 37. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, the best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings and he was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region and his poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture, growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a humanistic education however, it is unclear how easily he read Latin. His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1,1494 by his father, Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven, his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master and he had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great help to his father. A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity and his fathers workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter, and Luca Signorelli, according to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, an alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters, the Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a master, that is to say fully trained and his first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was named in the commission
18.
Fra Bartolomeo
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Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo OP, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di S. Marco, and his original name Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Roselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola and he remained friends with Raphael, and they both influenced the other. His portrait of Savonarola remains the most famous image of the reformer, Fra Bartolomeo painted both in oils and fresco, and some of his drawings are pure landscape sketches that are the earliest of this type from Italy. He was born in Savignano di Prato, Tuscany and he received the nickname of Baccio della Porta for his house was near the Gate of San Pier Gattolini. Starting from 1483 or 1484, by recommendation of Benedetto da Maiano and he was one of the greatest painters of his time. In 1490 or 1491 he began a collaboration with Mariotto Albertinelli, in the late 1490s Baccio was drawn to the teachings of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced what he viewed as vain and corrupt contemporary art. Savonarola argued for art serving as a visual illustration of the Bible to educate those unable to read the book. From 1498 is his famous portrait of Savonarola, now in the Museo Nazionale di San Marco in Florence, the following year he entered the convent of San Marco. He renounced painting for several years, not resuming until 1504 when he became the head of the workshop in obedience to his superior. In that year he began a Vision of St. Bernard for Bernardo Biancos family chapel in the Badia Fiorentina, soon thereafter, Raphael visited Florence and befriended the friar. Bartolomeo learned perspective from the younger artist, while Raphael added skills in coloring and handling of drapery, with Raphael, he remained on the friendliest terms, and when he departed from Rome, left in his hands two unfinished pictures which Raphael completed. As the Dominicans did not pay for the work, he took it back to Lucca, also in Lucca, in the October 1509, he painted by Albertinelli an altarpiece with Madonna and Child with Saints for the local cathedral. On November 26,1510 Pier Soderini commissioned him an altarpiece for the Sala del Consiglio of Florence, two years later he finished another altarpiece for the cathedral of Besançon. After a promised Feast of Venus for Duke Alfonso I dEste of Ferrara, of only drawings remain. He died in Florence in 1517, initially, his works showed the influence of Rossellis assistant, Piero di Cosimo, and those of Domenico Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. After his hiatus from 1500 to 1503, he seemed to change vision, taking from Raphael the representation of light, Fra Bartolomeos figures are generally small and draped. Among his pupils were Cecchino del Frate, Benedetto Ciamfanini, Gabriel Rustici, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Fra Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. Vol. III, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1911, p.124
19.
Triptych
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A triptych is a work of art that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works, the middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels. The form can also be used for pendant jewelry, despite its connection to an art format, the term is sometimes used more generally to connote anything with three parts, particularly if they are integrated into a single unit. The triptych form arises from early Christian art, and was a standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the Celtic churches in the west, renaissance painters such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form. Triptych forms also allow ease of transport, from the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were often in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two examples by Rubens, and Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can also see the form echoed by the structure of many stained glass windows. Although strongly identified as a form, triptychs outside that context have been created, some of the best-known examples being works by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann. The then highest price paid for an artwork at auction was $142.4 million for a 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud. The record was broken in May 2015 by $179.4 million for Pablo Picassos 1955 painting Les Femmes d’Alger, the format has migrated and been used in other religions, including Islam and Buddhism. Likewise, Tibetan Buddhists have used it in traditional altars, a photographic triptych is a common style used in modern commercial artwork. The photographs are arranged with a plain border between them. The work may consist of images that are variants on a theme
20.
Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate
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The story is not in the New Testament, but is in the Protoevangelium of James and other apocryphal accounts, however it was tolerated by the Church. The print shows an embracing couple beneath an ornamental archway, surrounded by neighbours, the work is one of 16 woodcuts and prints in Dürers Life of the Virgin series, which he executed between 1501 and 1511. Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate is the work in the series to include a date. Throughout the series, the Virgin is displayed as an intermediary between the divine and the earth, yet shown with a range of human frailties, the full series of prints was first published in 1511. Printed on the reverse of each was a Latin text written by a member of his circle in Nuremberg. An angel informs Anne of her conception, while at the time asking her to meet her husband at the city gate in Jerusalem. On meeting, the couple entwine in joy, according to Chelidonius, Overjoyed Anne threw herself into the arms of her husband, together they rejoiced about the honour that was to be granted them in the form of a child. For they knew from the messenger that the child would be a Queen, powerful on heaven. In traditional depictions of the occasion, the embrace. Dürer here follows an early Renaissance convention involving the illusion of looking through an open window and he framed many of his works in this way, including Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate, which is outlined by a Renaissance arch. The artists mix of classical and sixteenth-century Nuremberg motifs, as well as the northern European setting, were utilised to bring the images closer to the audience. According to the critic Laurie Meunier Graves, these prints manage to illuminate the sacred while at the time providing scenes of homely. They are a blend of the holy and the secular. In addition, woodcuts are an art form that gives plenty of latitude to the imagination, as with the other works in the series, it is distinguished by virtuoso use of line and highly skilled cutting. The complete woodcuts of Albrecht Durer, New York, Arden Book Co,1935. Dürer in Dublin, Engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, strauss, Walter L. Albrecht Durer Woodcuts and Woodblocks. The Burlington Magazine, Vol.124, No, Albrecht Durer in the History of Art
21.
Woodcut
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Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print, the block is cut along the wood grain. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with a roller, leaving ink upon the flat surface. Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks, single-leaf woodcut is a term for a woodcut presented as a single image or print, as opposed to a book illustration. Among these the best known are the 16th century Hieronymus Andreae, Hans Lützelburger and Jost de Negker, all of whom ran workshops, the formschneider in turn handed the block on to specialist printers. There were further specialists who made the blank blocks and this is why woodcuts are sometimes described by museums or books as designed by rather than by an artist, but most authorities do not use this distinction. The division of labour had the advantage that a trained artist could adapt to the medium relatively easily, there were various methods of transferring the artists drawn design onto the block for the cutter to follow. Either the drawing would be made directly onto the block, or a drawing on paper was glued to the block, either way, the artists drawing was destroyed during the cutting process. Other methods were used, including tracing, in both Europe and the Far East in the early 20th century, some artists began to do the whole process themselves. In Japan, this movement was called sōsaku-hanga, as opposed to shin-hanga, in the West, many artists used the easier technique of linocut instead. Compared to intaglio techniques like etching and engraving, only low pressure is required to print, as a relief method, it is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. In Europe a variety of woods including boxwood and several nut and fruit woods like pear or cherry were commonly used, in Japan, there are three methods of printing to consider, Stamping, Used for many fabrics and most early European woodcuts. Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the fifteenth century, also used for many Western woodcuts from about 1910 to the present. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top, the back is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton. A traditional Japanese tool used for this is called a baren, later in Japan, complex wooden mechanisms were used to help hold the woodblock perfectly still and to apply proper pressure in the printing process. This was especially helpful once multiple colors were introduced and had to be applied with precision atop previous ink layers, printing in a press, presses only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. Printing-presses were used from about 1480 for European prints and block-books, simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe before the print-press, but firm evidence is lacking
22.
Castelfranco Madonna
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The Madonna and Child Between St. Francis and St. Nicasius, also known as Castelfranco Madonna, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giorgione executed around 1504. The picture has all the elements of a sacra conversazione, with the Madonna enthroned with the Child with St. Francis to the right. It is one of a handful - perhaps three - of paintings which can be firmly attributed to Giorgione. The armored figure has formerly been identified as the fighting saint St. George or St. Liberalis, Matteo and his brother Bruto Muzio were members of the Knights of Rhodes, whose ensign is borne by St. Nicasius. The traditional scheme of composition is lightened by the use of such elements as the throne and the landscape. Noteworthy is also the absence of any reference to elements of architecture. The technique of painting is an example of what Vasari called pittura sanza disegno and this was a new approach to painting which revolutionised the Venetian school and is famously used in The Tempest. Titian, a pupil of Giorgione, later one of the most important exponents of this style. The figure of St. Francis is very similar to that in Giovanni Bellinis San Giobbe Altarpiece, the altarpiece was commissioned by the condottiero Tuzio Costanzo in memory of his son Matteo, who died of a fever whilst serving the Republic of Venice, in 1499. Also commissioned was a chapel, containing the tombs of Matteo and Tuzio. The church was demolished and replaced with the Cathedral of Castelfranco in 1724. The new building, which today, contains a small chapel housing the painting. The Costanzo coat of arms, three pairs of ribs, can be seen on the tomb on the base of the Virgins throne, the work has suffered bad restorations in the past centuries, and was stolen on December 10,1972
23.
The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
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Its central scene depicted four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the Battle of Anghiari in 1440. Many preparatory studies by Leonardo still exist, the composition of the central section is best known through a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens in the Louvre, Paris. Rubens succeeded in portraying the fury, the emotions and the sense of power that were presumably present in the original painting. Similarities have been noted between this Battle of Anghiari and the Hippopotamus Hunt painted by Rubens in 1616, the search was discontinued in September 2012, without any further progress having been made, due to conflict among the involved parties. In 1504 Leonardo da Vinci was given the commission by gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, at the same time his rival Michelangelo, who had just finished his David, was designated the opposite wall. This was the time that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo worked together on the same project. The painting of Michelangelo depicted an episode from the Battle of Cascina, however Michelangelo did not stay in Florence long enough to complete the project. He was able to finish his cartoon, but only began the painting and he was invited back to Rome in 1505 by the newly appointed Pope Julius II and was commissioned to build the Popes tomb. He drew a scene of a violent clash of horses and a battle of men fighting for the flag in the Battle of Anghiari. This painting was to be his largest and most substantial work, since he had a bad experience with fresco painting, he wanted to apply oil colours on the wall. He began also to experiment with such a thick undercoat, that after he applied the colours, trying to dry the painting in a hurry and save whatever he could, he hung large charcoal braziers close to the painting. Only the lower part could be saved in a state, the upper part couldnt dry fast enough. Michelangelos and Leonardos unfinished paintings adorned the room together for almost a decade. The cartoon of Michelangelos painting was cut in pieces by Bartolommeo Bandinelli out of jealousy in 1512, the centerpiece of The Battle of Anghiari was greatly admired and numerous copies were made for decades. Vasari himself painted new frescoes on the now-extended walls, in the upper part of Vasaris fresco,12 meters above the ground, a Florentine soldier waves a green flag with the words Cerca trova. These enigmatic words are suggested to be a hint from Vasari, Seracini believes it is unlikely that Vasari would have willingly destroyed da Vincis work. Vasaris concealment and preservation of another painting, Masaccios Holy Trinity, using non-invasive techniques, such as a high-frequency, surface-penetrating radar and a thermographic camera, Seracini made a survey of the hall. Among other findings, he discovered that Vasari had built a wall in front of the original east wall
24.
Pietro Perugino
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Pietro Perugino, born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil, Pietro Perugino was born Pietro Vannucci in Città della Pieve, Umbria, the son of Cristoforo Marie Vannucci. Pietros nickname characterizes him as from Perugia, the city of Umbria. Scholars continue to dispute the status of the Vannucci family. While certain academics maintain that Vannucci worked his way out of poverty and his exact date of birth is not known, although, based on his age at the death mentioned by Vasari and Giovanni Santi, he is suspected to be born between 1446 and 1452. Pietro most likely began studying painting in local workshops in Perugia such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali or Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, the date of this first Florentine sojourn is unknown, some make it as early as 1466/1470, others push the date to 1479. According to Vasari, he apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippino Lippi, piero della Francesca is thought to have taught him perspective form. In 1472 he must have completed his apprenticeship, for he was enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke, Pietro, although very talented was not extremely enthusiastic about his work. Perugino was one of the earliest Italian practitioners of oil painting, a good specimen of his early style in tempera is the tondo in the Musée du Louvre of the Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints. Perugino returned from Florence to Perugia, where his Florentine training showed in the Adoration of the Magi for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi of Perugia, in about 1480, he was called to Rome by Sixtus IV to paint fresco panels for the Sistine Chapel walls. The frescoes he executed there included Moses and Zipporah, the Baptism of Christ, pinturicchio accompanied Perugino to Rome, and was made his partner, receiving a third of the profits. He may have some of the Zipporah subject. The Sistine frescoes were the major high Renaissance commission in Rome, the altar wall was also painted with the Assumption, the Nativity, and Moses in the Bulrushes. He had a studio in Florence, and received a great number of commissions. His Pietà in the Uffizi is an uncharacteristically stark work that avoids Peruginos sometimes too easy sentimental piety, in 1499 the guild of the cambio of Perugia asked him to decorate their audience-hall, the Sala delle Udienze del Collegio del Cambio. The humanist Francesco Maturanzio acted as his consultant, on the mid-pilaster of the hall Perugino placed his own portrait in bust-form. It is probable that Raphael, who in boyhood, towards 1496, had been placed by his uncles under the tuition of Perugino, Perugino was made one of the priors of Perugia in 1501. On one occasion Michelangelo told Perugino to his face that he was a bungler in art, Vannucci brought an action for defamation of character, unsuccessfully
25.
Marriage of the Virgin (Perugino)
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The Marriage of the Virgin is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Perugino, although it is now sometimes attributed to his pupil Lo Spagna. It is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Caen, France, a very similar composition was painted by unknown artists for the church of San Girolamo in Spello in 1492. Which is about ten years earlier than Peruginos and Raphaels treatments of the same subject, composition is heavier since it does not show elegant central perspective appearing in Peruginos and later Raphaels more famous works. However the figures in the foreground are similar to both later paintings, including the unmistakable young man breaking the rod. Later, in 1797, the picture was looted by Napoleon and was taken to Caen. Attempts by the commune of Perugia, and the commitment of Antonio Canova. The painting prominently displays the Virgins engagement ring, which was kept at the cathedral as a holy relic. Raphael, Peruginos pupil, painted a version of his own of the picture in 1504
26.
Portrait of Pietro Bembo (Raphael)
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Portrait of Pietro Bembo, also called Portrait of the Young Pietro Bembo, is an oil painting by Italian artist Raphael. 1506, the painting hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the image is ostensibly a portrait of Venetian Cardinal Pietro Bembo, Raphaels long-time friend. Raphael did make a chalk drawing of Bembo during Bembos visit to Urbino in 1506. The picture hung in Bembos home for years before it disappeared, the lack of resemblance of this picture to its namesake, particularly in the nose, has led to other subjects being proposed, including Agnolo Doni, whom Raphael painted around the same time
