1.
Arno
–
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber, the river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a southward curve. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, with a length of 241 kilometres, it is the largest river in the region. It has many tributaries, Sieve at 60 kilometres long, Bisenzio at 49 kilometres, and the Era, Elsa, Pesa, the Val di Chiana, a plain drained in the 18th century, which until then had been a marshy area tributary of the Tiber. The upper Valdarno, a valley bordered on the east by the Pratomagno massif. The Sieves basin, which flows into the Arno immediately before Florence, the middle Valdarno, with the plain including Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Prato, and Pistoia. The lower Valdarno, with the valley of important tributaries such as the Pesa, Elsa, and Era and in which, after Pontedera, the Arno flows into the Ligurian Sea. The river has a variable discharge, ranging from about 6 cubic metres per second to more than 2,000 cubic metres per second. The mouth of the river was once near Pisa but is now several kilometres westwards and it crosses Florence, where it passes below the Ponte Vecchio and the Santa Trìnita bridge. The flow rate of the Arno is irregular and it is sometimes described as having a torrentlike behaviour, because it can easily go from almost dry to near flood in a few days. At the point where the Arno leaves the Apennines, flow measurements can vary between 0.56 and 3,540 cubic metres per second, new dams built upstream of Florence have greatly alleviated the problem in recent years. The flood on November 4,1966, collapsed the embankment in Florence, killing at least 40 people and damaging or destroying millions of works of art, new conservation techniques were inspired by the disaster, but even decades later hundreds of works still await restoration. The philologist Hans Krahe related this toponym on a paleo-European basis *Ar-n-, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *er-, flow, move
Arno
–
View of the Arno from the
Ponte Vecchio
Arno
–
"Ponte vecchio" (The old bridge)
Arno
–
River Arno in Florence
Arno
–
River Arno in
Pisa, near the Ponte della Fortezza (Fortress Bridge)
2.
Florence
–
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
Florence
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
3.
Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Italy
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering of ancient history.
Italy
–
Flag
Italy
–
The
Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the
Kings of Italy.
Italy
–
Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor
Frederick II,
UNESCO World Heritage site
4.
Art museum
–
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
Art museum
–
The Louvre in
Paris,
France, is one of the world's largest museums and
the most visited art museum in the world.
Art museum
–
The Gallery of
Cornelis van der Geest,
Willem van Haecht, 1628. A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.
Art museum
–
University of Tartu Art Museum is the oldest museum in
Estonia.
Art museum
–
The art collection at the
Palace of Versailles in
France was periodically open for 'respectable' public viewing.
5.
Hellenistic art
–
A number of the best-known works of Greek sculpture belong to this period, including Laocoön and His Sons, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It follows the period of Classical Greek art, while the succeeding Greco-Roman art was largely a continuation of Hellenistic trends. The term Hellenistic refers to the expansion of Greek influence and dissemination of its ideas following the death of Alexander – the Hellenizing of the world, in artistic terms this means that there is huge variety which is often put under the heading of Hellenistic Art for convenience. Each of these dynasties practiced a royal patronage which differed from those of the city-states, in Alexanders entourage were three artists, Lysippus the sculptor, Apelles the painter, and Pyrgoteles the gem cutter and engraver. The period after his death was one of prosperity and considerable extravagance for much of the Greek world. Royalty became important patrons of art, Sculpture, painting and architecture thrived, but vase-painting ceased to be of great significance. Metalwork and a variety of luxury arts produced much fine art. Some types of art were increasingly sophisticated. There has been a trend in writing history to depict Hellenistic art as a decadent style, the 18th century terms Baroque and Rococo have sometimes been applied to the art of this complex and individual period. A renewed interest in historiography as well as recent discoveries, such as the tombs of Vergina. In the architectural field, the dynasties following Hector resulted in vast urban plans, the Doric Temple was virtually abandoned. This city planning was quite innovative for the Greek world, rather than manipulating space by correcting its faults, One notes the appearance of many places of amusement and leisure, notably the multiplication of theatres and parks. The Hellenistic monarchies were advantaged in this regard in that often had vast spaces where they could build large cities, such as Antioch, Pergamon. It was the time of gigantism, thus it was for the temple of Apollo at Didyma. It was designed by Daphnis of Miletus and Paionios of Ephesus at the end of the fourth century BC, the Corinthian order was used for the first time on a full-scale building at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Pergamon in particular is an example of Hellenistic architecture. Starting from a fortress located on the Acropolis, the various Attalid kings set up a colossal architectural complex. The buildings are fanned out around the Acropolis to take account the nature of the terrain
Hellenistic art
–
The
Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Hellenistic art
Hellenistic art
–
Pergamon Altar,
Pergamon Museum,
Berlin.
Hellenistic art
–
Laocoön Group,
Vatican Museums, Rome.
6.
Niobe
–
In Greek mythology, Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in todays Aegean Turkey that was called Tantalis or the city of Tantalus, or Sipylus. The city was located at the foot of Mount Sipylus and its ruins were reported to be visible in the beginning of the 1st century AD. Pliny reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus was built in its place. References to his son and Niobes brother as Pelops the Lydian led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be grounds for believing that she belonged to a primordial house of Lydia. Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and although being a stone, she broods over the sorrows sent from the Gods. Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated. Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female, the number varies in different sources. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of a woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks, what folly, said she, is this. To prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes, why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I. My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods and my husband built and rules this city, Thebes, and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power, nor is my form, to all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride, will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titans daughter, with her two children. I have seven times as many, fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain. Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobes daughters and Apollo killed Niobes sons, according to some versions, at least one Niobid was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, devastated, Niobe fled back to Mount Sipylus and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a rock formation which resembles a female face
Niobe
–
A 1772 painting by
Jacques-Louis David depicting Niobe attempting to shield her children from
Artemis and
Apollo.
Niobe
–
Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons – Penn Provenance Project
Niobe
–
The Weeping Rock in
Mount Sipylus,
Manisa,
Turkey, has been associated with Niobe's legend since Antiquity
Niobe
–
Daughter of Niobe bent by terror, Niobe room in
Uffizi gallery.
7.
Italian language
–
By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
Italian language
–
Dante Alighieri (above) and
Petrarch (below) were influential in establishing their
Tuscan dialect as the most prominent literary language in all of
Italy in the
Late Middle Ages
Italian language
–
The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world: large Italian-speaking communities are shown in green; light blue indicates areas where the Italian language was used officially during the Italian colonial period.
Italian language
Italian language
–
Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage
8.
Piazza della Signoria
–
Piazza della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio and it is the focal point of the origin and of the history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political hub of the city. It is the place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Plazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo. The impressive 14th-century Palazzo Vecchio is still preeminent with its crenellated tower, the square is also shared with the Loggia della Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery, the Palace of the Tribunale della Mercanzia, and the Palazzo Uguccioni. Located in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is the Palace of the Assicurazioni Generali, the Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany, the building acquired its current name when the Medici dukes residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti. The Loggia dei Lanzi consists of wide open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals, the wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines, that Michelangelo even proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria. The vivacious construction of the Loggia is in stark contrast with the architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art including the Medici lions, the Tribunale della Mercanzia is a building where in the past lawyers judged in the trial between merchants. Here was a porch painted by Taddeo Gaddi, Antonio del Pollaiolo and Sandro Botticelli, built for Giovanni Uguccioni since 1550, its design has been variously attributed to Raphael, Michelangelo, Bartolomeo Ammannati or Raffaello da Montelupo. The Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1871, on the ground floor of this palace is the historical cafè Rivoire. Other palaces are the palazzo dei Buonaguisi and the palazzo dellArte dei Mercatanti, various imposing statues ring this square including, Copy of Michelangelos David. At the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, the original by Michelangelo is housed in the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, later there was a church San Romolo, a loggia and an enormous 5th-century basilica. This was shown by the treasures found beneath the square when it was repaved in the 1980s. Even remains of a Neolithic site were found, the square started taking shape from 1268 on, when houses of Ghibellines were pulled down by the victorious Guelphs. The square remained a long time untidy, full of holes, in 1385 it was paved for the first time. In 1497 Girolamo Savonarola and his followers carried out on this square the famous Bonfire of the Vanities, burning in a large books, gaming tables, fine dresses
Piazza della Signoria
–
Piazza della Signoria
Piazza della Signoria
–
Panorama of the piazza
Piazza della Signoria
–
Palazzo Vecchio
Piazza della Signoria
–
Loggia dei Lanzi
9.
Historic Centre of Florence
–
The historic centre of Florence is part of quartiere 1 of the Italian city of Florence. This quarter was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982, built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th centuries. Closed inside the avenues traced on the old walls, the historic centre of Florence collects the citys most important cultural heritage sites. Delimited by the 14th century wall circuit, built thanks to the economic and commercial power reached at the time, knew its maximum splendor in the following two centuries. From here to the north there are the Palazzo Medici Riccardi by Michelozzo, crossing the Ponte Vecchio we arrive at the Oltrarno district with the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. Still in Oltrarno, there are the Basilica of the Holy Spirit by Filippo Brunelleschi, in the area west of the Duomo is situated the imposing palace Palazzo Strozzi and the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, with the facade designed by Leon Battista Alberti. Criterium 1, the complex of Florence is in itself a unique artistic realization, a chef-doeuvre absolute. It was in the Florentin milieu that two universal geniuses of the arts- Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo- were formed and asserted. Criterium 3, the centre of Florence attests in an exceptional manner. From its past, Florence had preserved entire streets, fortified palaces, logge, fountains, a bridge of the 14th century lined with shops. Various trades, organized into prosperous arte have left several monuments such as the Or San Michele, criterium 5, Florence is materially associated with events of a universal importance. It was in the milieu of the Neo-platonic Academia that the concept of the Renaissance was forged, Florence is the birthplace of modern humanism inspired by Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, etc. Squares of the centre of Florence City of Florence
Historic Centre of Florence
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
10.
Italian Renaissance painting
–
The city of Florence in Tuscany is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and in particular of Renaissance painting. A detailed background is given in the companion articles Renaissance and Renaissance architecture, Italian Renaissance painting can be divided into four periods, the Proto-Renaissance, the Early Renaissance, the High Renaissance, and Mannerism. These dates are approximations rather than specific points because the lives of individual artists, the Proto-Renaissance begins with the professional life of the painter Giotto and includes Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagna and Altichiero. The Early Renaissance was marked by the work of Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, the High Renaissance period was that of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. The Mannerist period included Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Tintoretto, Mannerism is dealt with in a separate article. The influences upon the development of Renaissance painting in Italy are those also affected Philosophy, Literature, Architecture, Theology, Science, Government. The following is a summary of points dealt with more fully in the articles that are cited above. A number of Classical texts, that had been lost to Western European scholars for centuries and these included Philosophy, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on the Arts and Early Christian Theology. The resulting interest in Humanist philosophy meant that mans relationship with humanity, a revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello. Simultaneous with gaining access to the Classical texts, Europe gained access to advanced mathematics which had its provenance in the works of Byzantine and Islamic scholars. The advent of movable type printing in the 15th century meant that ideas could be disseminated easily, the development of oil paint and its introduction to Italy had lasting effects on the art of painting. The establishment of the Medici Bank and the subsequent trade it generated brought unprecedented wealth to a single Italian city, Cosimo de Medici set a new standard for patronage of the arts, not associated with the church or monarchy. A similar heritage of artistic achievement occurred in Venice through the talented Bellini family, their influential inlaw Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, much painting of the Renaissance period was commissioned by or for the Catholic Church. These works were often of large scale and were frequently painted in fresco of the Life of Christ. There were also many paintings on the theme of Salvation. Churches also commissioned altarpieces, which were painted in tempera on panel, apart from large altarpieces, small devotional pictures were produced in very large numbers, both for churches and for private individuals, the most common theme being the Madonna and Child. Throughout the period, civic commissions were also important, during the 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Portraiture was to become a subject for High Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Titian
Italian Renaissance painting
–
Raphael,
The Betrothal of the Virgin
Italian Renaissance painting
–
Giovanni Bellini, The
San Zaccaria Altarpiece
Italian Renaissance painting
–
Masaccio,
The Tribute Money for the Brancacci, a fresco cycle that had great influence upon subsequent artists
Italian Renaissance painting
–
Domenico Ghirlandaio,
The Birth of the Virgin Mary, shows the introduction of patron's families into religious cycles.
11.
House of Medici
–
The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, the Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Leo XI, two regent queens of France—Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence, in 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, the grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. They, along with families of Italy—such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara. The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, there are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy, a notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system, the Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region, north of Florence, being mentioned for the first time in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain, Medici is the plural of medico, also written del medico or delmedigo, meaning, medical doctor. It has been suggested that the derived from one Medico di Potrone, a castellan of Potrone in the late 11th century. The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank, until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293 the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, which became the constitution of the republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. The citys numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses, built by the ever prospering merchant class. In 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europes largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence, in 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria was elected, the Medici became the citys leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders, some examples of these families include the Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti, and the Tornabuoni
House of Medici
–
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, founder of the Medici bank.
House of Medici
–
Medici
House of Medici
–
The Confirmation of the Rule by
Domenico Ghirlandaio.
House of Medici
–
Cosimo I the Great, founder of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
12.
Tourist attraction
–
Factory tours, industrial heritage, creative art and crafts workshops are the object of cultural niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. Many tourist attractions are also landmarks, tourist attractions are also created to capitalise on legends such as a supposed UFO crash site near Roswell, New Mexico and the alleged Loch Ness monster sightings in Scotland. Ghost sightings also make tourist attractions, ethnic communities may become tourist attractions, such as Chinatowns in the United States and the black British neighbourhood of Brixton in London, England. In the US, owners and marketers of attractions advertise tourist attractions on billboards along the side of highways and roadways, tourist attractions often provide free promotional brochures and flyers in information centres, fast food restaurants, hotel and motel rooms or lobbies, and rest area. Such places are known as tourist traps. Within cities such transport tourist attractions as rides by boats and buses are very popular, novelty attractions are not limited to the American Midwest, but are part of Midwestern culture. It may contain one or more tourist attractions and possibly some tourist traps, siem Reap town for example is a popular tourist destination in Cambodia, mainly owed to its proximity to Angkor temples. A tropical island resort is an island or archipelago that also depends on tourism as its source of revenue, according to the World Tourism Organization, •698 million people travelled to a foreign country in 2000, spending more US$478 billion. Lists of tourist attractions Attractions at DMOZ
Tourist attraction
–
The
Eiffel Tower in
Paris,
France, a popular tourist attraction. Almost 7 million visit the tower each year.
Tourist attraction
–
Tropical beaches and
Balinese culture are attractions that draw tourists to this popular
island resort, such as
Melasti rituals performed on the beach.
Tourist attraction
–
Sea otters, like this one near
Moss Landing, are a popular tourist attraction in the
Monterey Bay, California area.
13.
Michelangelo
–
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
Michelangelo
–
Portrait of Michelangelo by
Daniele da Volterra
Michelangelo
–
The
Madonna of the Stairs (1490–92), Michelangelo's earliest known work
Michelangelo
–
Michelangelo's
Pietà, St Peter's Basilica (1498–99)
Michelangelo
–
The
Statue of David, completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of the Renaissance.
14.
Tondo Doni
–
The Doni Tondo or Doni Madonna, sometimes called The Holy Family, is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. The painting is in the form of a tondo, or round frame, the Doni Tondo features the Christian Holy family along with John the Baptist in the foreground and contains five ambiguous nude male figures in the background. The inclusion of these figures has been interpreted in a variety of ways. The Virgin Mary is the most prominent figure in the composition, Mary sits directly on the ground without a cushion between herself and the ground, to better communicate the theme of her relationship to the earth. The grass directly below the figure is green, which contrasts to the grassless ground surrounding her, although the green is now darker. Saint Joseph has a position in the image compared to Mary, perhaps as the head of the family. Mary is located between his legs, as if he is protecting her, there is some debate as to whether Mary is receiving the Christ child from Joseph or vice versa. Saint John the Baptist, the saint of Florence, is very commonly included in Florentine works depicting the Madonna. He is in the middle-ground of the painting, between the Holy Family and the background, the elements around the family include plants and perhaps water. The painting is still in its frame, one that Michelangelo might have influenced or helped design. The frame is ornately carved and rather unusual for the five heads it contains which protrude three-dimensionally into space, similar to the nudes of the background, the meanings of these heads has been subject to speculation. The frame also contains carvings of crescent moons, stars, vegetation and these symbols are, perhaps, references to the Doni and Strozzi families, taken from each one’s coat of arms. As depicted on the frame, “the moons are bound together with ribbons that interlock with the lions, there is a horizontal band separating the foreground and background, whose function is to separate the Holy Family from the background figures and St. John the Baptist. The background figures are five nudes, whose meaning and function are subject to much speculation, the Holy Family is much larger in size than the nudes in the background, and there appears to be water in between the land where the Holy Family and the nudes are situated. The Holy Family all gaze at Christ, but none of the nudes look directly at him, the far background contains a landscape. The juxtaposition of bright colors foreshadows the same use of color in Michelangelo’s later Sistine ceiling frescoes, the folds of the drapery are sharply modeled, and the skin of the figures is so smooth, it looks as if the medium is marble. The surface treatment of the massive figures resembles a more than a painting. The nude figures in the background have softer modeling and look to be precursors to the ignudi, Michelangelo’s technique includes shading from the most intense colors first to the lighter shades on top, using the darker colors as shadows, a technique called cangiante
Tondo Doni
–
Doni Tondo (Doni Madonna)
Tondo Doni
–
Evidence of Michelangelo's painting style is seen in the Doni Tondo. His work on the image foreshadows his technique in the
Sistine Chapel.
Tondo Doni
–
The Doni Tondo was influenced by an early version of
Leonardo da Vinci 's
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. This is the completed version, painted in 1510.
Tondo Doni
–
The nude figures in the tondo background are said to have drawn influence from the statue of
Laocoön and His Sons
15.
Giorgio Vasari
–
Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
Giorgio Vasari
–
Vasari's self-portrait
Giorgio Vasari
–
Giorgio Vasari, Italian humanists, Tuscan Poets: Dante, Petrarch, Guido Cavalcanti, Boccaccio, Cino da Pistoia and Guittone d'Arezzo
Giorgio Vasari
–
Giorgio Vasari, The Garden of Gethsemane
Giorgio Vasari
–
The Uffizi Loggia.
16.
Bernardo Buontalenti
–
Bernardo Buontalenti, byname of Bernardo Delle Girandole, was an Italian stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer and artist. He entered the service of the Medici as a youth and remained with them the rest of his life and he executed a number of miniatures for Francesco, the son of Cosimo I. He was also a mechanic, and an excellent mathematician. In 1562 he travelled to Spain and his first known work is from 1568, the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello in Florence. In the Uffizi Palace of Florence, he built a great court stage and he designed costumes for the Medici extravaganzas. Despite his successes, his prodigality led Buontalenti to financial ruin, dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. York St. #4, Covent Garden, London, Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18,2007, George Bell, Bernardo Buontalenti and the Grotta Grande of Boboli, Florence, Maschietto Editore,2012
Bernardo Buontalenti
–
The famous Mannerist Buontalenti Grotto in the
Boboli Gardens.
17.
Doric order
–
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture, the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognised by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns and it was the earliest and in its essence the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above. The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, the capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained. In stone they are purely ornamental, the relatively uncommon Roman and Renaissance Doric retained these, and often introduced thin layers of moulding or further ornament, as well as often using plain columns. The Doric order was used in Greek Revival architecture from the 18th century onwards, often earlier Greek versions were used, with wider columns. Since at least Vitruvius it has been customary for writers to associate the Doric with masculine virtues and it is also normally the cheapest of the orders to use. In their original Greek version, Doric columns stood directly on the pavement of a temple without a base. The Parthenon has the Doric design columns and it was most popular in the Archaic Period in mainland Greece, and also found in Magna Graecia, as in the three temples at Paestum. These are in the Archaic Doric, where the capitals spread wide from the column compared to later Classical forms, pronounced features of both Greek and Roman versions of the Doric order are the alternating triglyphs and metopes. The triglyphs are decoratively grooved with two vertical grooves and represent the original wooden end-beams, which rest on the plain architrave that occupies the half of the entablature. Under each triglyph are peglike stagons or guttae that appear as if they were hammered in from below to stabilize the post-and-beam construction and they also served to organize rainwater runoff from above. The spaces between the triglyphs are the metopes and they may be left plain, or they may be carved in low relief. The spacing of the triglyphs caused problems which some time to resolve. The architecture followed rules of harmony, since the original design probably came from wooden temples and the triglyphs were real heads of wooden beams, every column had to bear a beam which lay across the centre of the column. Triglyphs were arranged regularly, the last triglyph was centred upon the last column and this was regarded as the ideal solution which had to be reached. Changing to stone instead of wooden beams required full support of the architrave load at the last column. At the first temples the final triglyph was moved, still terminating the sequence, even worse, the last triglyph was not centered with the corresponding column. That “archaic” manner was not regarded as a harmonious design, the resulting problem is called the doric corner conflict
Doric order
–
Temple of the Delians,
Delos; 19th century pen-and-wash restoration.
Doric order
–
An example of the early archaic Doric order- Temple of Poseidon in
Paestum, Italy.
Doric order
–
The Doric order of the
Parthenon
Doric order
–
The Roman Doric order from the
Theater of Marcellus: triglyphs centered over the end column
18.
Perspective (visual)
–
Perspective in the graphic arts is an approximate representation, on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye. If viewed from the spot as the windowpane was painted. Each painted object in the scene is thus a flat, scaled down version of the object on the side of the window. All perspective drawings assume the viewer is a distance away from the drawing. Objects are scaled relative to that viewer, an object is often not scaled evenly, a circle often appears as an ellipse and a square can appear as a trapezoid. This distortion is referred to as foreshortening, Perspective drawings have a horizon line, which is often implied. This line, directly opposite the viewers eye, represents objects infinitely far away and they have shrunk, in the distance, to the infinitesimal thickness of a line. It is analogous to the Earths horizon, any perspective representation of a scene that includes parallel lines has one or more vanishing points in a perspective drawing. A one-point perspective drawing means that the drawing has a vanishing point, usually directly opposite the viewers eye. All lines parallel with the line of sight recede to the horizon towards this vanishing point. This is the standard receding railroad tracks phenomenon, a two-point drawing would have lines parallel to two different angles. Any number of vanishing points are possible in a drawing, one for each set of lines that are at an angle relative to the plane of the drawing. Perspectives consisting of parallel lines are observed most often when drawing architecture. In contrast, natural scenes often do not have any sets of parallel lines, the only method to indicate the relative position of elements in the composition was by overlapping, of which much use is made in works like the Parthenon Marbles. Chinese artists made use of perspective from the first or second century until the 18th century. It is not certain how they came to use the technique, some authorities suggest that the Chinese acquired the technique from India, oblique projection is also seen in Japanese art, such as in the Ukiyo-e paintings of Torii Kiyonaga. This was detailed within Aristotles Poetics as skenographia, using flat panels on a stage to give the illusion of depth, the philosophers Anaxagoras and Democritus worked out geometric theories of perspective for use with skenographia. Alcibiades had paintings in his house designed using skenographia, so this art was not confined merely to the stage, Euclids Optics introduced a mathematical theory of perspective, but there is some debate over the extent to which Euclids perspective coincides with the modern mathematical definition
Perspective (visual)
–
A sharpened
pencil in extreme perspective. Note the shallow
depth of field.
Perspective (visual)
–
Railway tracks appear to meet at a distant point.
Perspective (visual)
–
A flat road approaching the horizon shows a similar effect when observed obliquely.
Perspective (visual)
–
The Doshan Tappeh Street by
Kamal-ol-molk
19.
Piano nobile
–
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of Classical Renaissance architecture. This floor contains the reception and bedrooms of the house. The piano nobile is often the first or sometimes the second storey, located above a ground floor containing minor rooms, the reasons for this were so the rooms would have finer views, and more practically to avoid the dampness and odors of the street level. This is especially true in Venice where the piano nobile of the many palazzi is especially obvious from the exterior by virtue of its windows and balconies. Examples of this are Ca Foscari, Ca dOro, Ca Vendramin Calergi, larger windows than those on other floors are usually the most obvious feature of the piano nobile. Often in England and Italy the piano nobile is reached by an outer staircase. Kedleston Hall is an example of this in England, as is Villa Capra in Italy, most houses contained a secondary floor above the piano nobile which contained more intimate withdrawing and bedrooms for private use by the family of the house when no honoured guests were present. Above this floor would often be an attic floor containing staff bedrooms, in these instances, occasionally in museums etc. the principal piano nobile is described as the primo piano nobile to differentiate it. Though often found, this usage is potentially misleading, rooms in the piano nobile are always the grandest, the term is not used in Britain. This arrangement of floors continued throughout Europe for as long as large houses continued to be built in the classical styles and this arrangement was designed at Buckingham Palace as recently as the mid-19th century. Holkham Hall, Osterley Park and Chiswick House are among the innumerable 18th-century English houses which employed this design, Life in the English Country House. Harris, John, de Bellaigue, Geoffrey, & Miller, Oliver, English Country Houses, Early Georgian 1715–1760 London, Country Life. Pavilion Books Ltd. Kaminski Marion, Art and Architecture of Venice,1999, Könemann, ISBN 3-8290-2657-9 Masson, Georgina
Piano nobile
–
An early-15th-century piano nobile at the
Palazzo dei Diamanti,
Ferrara. Its larger windows indicate its superior status compared to the rooms on the floor below
Piano nobile
–
At the
Palazzo Barbarigo,
Venice, the floor above the piano nobile is of almost equal status so is referred to as the secondo piano nobile.
Piano nobile
–
Palais Gise in Munich: A rich decor of the facade underlines the meaning of the piano nobile on the 2nd floor.
Piano nobile
–
At 18th-century
Kedleston Hall the piano nobile is placed above a
rusticated ground floor, and reached by an external staircase. The uppermost windows indicate that the upper floor is of far lower status.
20.
Grand Tour
–
The custom flourished from about 1660, until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as a rite of passage. With nearly unlimited funds, aristocratic connections and months to roam, they commissioned paintings, perfected their language skills, in addition, it provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music. A Grand Tour could last from months to several years. It was commonly undertaken in the company of a Cicerone, a guide or tutor. The legacy of the Grand Tour lives on to the day and is still evident in works of travel. In essence, the Grand Tour was neither a scholars pilgrimage nor a one, though a pleasurable stay in Venice. Catholic Grand Tourists followed the routes as Protestant Whigs. Pompeo Batoni made a career of painting English milordi posed with graceful ease among Roman antiquities, many continued on to Naples, where they viewed Herculaneum and Pompeii, but few ventured far into southern Italy or Malta, and fewer still to Greece, still under Turkish rule. Rome for many centuries had been the goal of pilgrims, especially during Jubilee when they visited the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. This is partly because he asked Inigo Jones, not yet established as an architect but already known as a traveller and masque designer. Larger numbers of tourists began their tours after the Peace of Münster in 1648, lasselss introduction listed four areas in which travel furnished an accomplished, consummate Traveller, the intellectual, the social, the ethical, and the political. The idea of travelling for the sake of curiosity and learning was an idea in the 17th century. Thus, one could use up the environment, taking from it all it offers, travel, therefore, was necessary for one to develop the mind and expand knowledge of the world. Consciously adapted for intellectual self-improvement, Gibbon was revisiting the Continent on a larger and more liberal plan, the typical 18th-century sentiment was that of the studious observer travelling through foreign lands reporting his findings on human nature for those unfortunate enough to have stayed home. Recounting ones observations to society at large to increase its welfare was considered an obligation, the Grand Tour offered a liberal education, and the opportunity to acquire things otherwise unavailable at home, lending an air of accomplishment and prestige to the traveller. The trappings of the Grand Tour, especially portraits of the traveller painted in iconic continental settings, became the obligatory emblems of worldliness, gravitas, the less well-off could return with an album of Piranesi etchings. The perhaps in Gibbons opening remark cast a shadow over his resounding statement
Grand Tour
–
The interior of the
Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by
Giovanni Paolo Panini
Grand Tour
–
The Grand Tourist, like
Francis Basset, would become familiar with Antiquities, though this altar is the invention of the painter
Pompeo Batoni, 1778. [
citation needed]
Grand Tour
–
Portrait of
Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, on his Grand Tour with his physician
Dr John Moore and the latter's son
John. A view of
Geneva is in the distance where they stayed for two years. Painted by
Jean Preudhomme in 1774.
Grand Tour
–
Northerners found the contrast between Roman ruins and modern peasants of the
Roman Campagna an educational lesson in
vanities [
citation needed] (painting by
Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem, 1661,
Mauritshuis)
21.
Leonardo da Vinci
–
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
Leonardo da Vinci
–
Portrait of Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci
–
Leonardo's childhood home in
Anchiano
Leonardo da Vinci
–
Leonardo's earliest known drawing, the Arno Valley (1473),
Uffizi
Leonardo da Vinci
–
The Baptism of Christ (1472–75)—
Uffizi, by Verrocchio and Leonardo
22.
Statue
–
A statue is a sculpture representing one or more people or animals, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. A small statue, usually enough to be picked up, is called a statuette or figurine. Statues have been produced in many cultures from prehistory to the present, the worlds tallest statue, Spring Temple Buddha, is 128 metres, and is located in Lushan County, Henan, China. Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings. Some statues gain fame in their own right, separate from the person or concept they represent, Ancient statues often survive showing the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, most of the colour was weathered off over time, small remnants were removed during cleaning, in some cases small traces remained which could be identified. Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The colouring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, as excavated classical sculptures, the Löwenmensch figurine from the Swabian Alps in Germany is the oldest known statue in the world, and dates to 30, 000-40,000 years ago. The Venus of Hohle Fels, from the area, is somewhat later. Throughout history, statues have been associated with images in many religious traditions, from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece. Egyptian statues showing kings as sphinxes have existed since the Old Kingdom, the oldest statue of a striding pharaoh dates from the reign of Senwosret I and is the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt witnessed the growth of block statues which then became the most popular form until the Ptolemaic period, the oldest statue of a deity in Rome was the bronze statue of Ceres in 485 BC. The oldest statue in Rome is now the statue of Diana on the Aventine, the wonders of the world include several statues from antiquity, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While Byzantine art flourished in various forms, sculpture and statue making witnessed a general decline, an example was the statue of Justinian which stood in the square across from the Hagia Sophia until the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. While making statues was not subject to a ban, it was hardly encouraged in this period. Starting with the work of Maillol around 1900, the human figures embodied in statues began to move away from the schools of realism that had held them bound for thousands of years. The Futurist and Cubist schools took this even further until statues, often still nominally representing humans, had lost all. By the 1920s and 1930s statues began to appear that were abstract in design
Statue
–
The Thinker, by
Rodin c. 1902, Bronze,
Copenhagen
Statue
–
Easter Island moai statues
Statue
–
Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest
monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.
Giza,
Egypt.
Statue
–
The
Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC,
Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece
23.
Bargello
–
The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo, is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy. The word bargello appears to come from the late Latin bargillus, during the Italian Middle Ages it was the name given to a military captain in charge of keeping peace and justice during riots and uproars. In Florence he was hired from a foreign city to prevent any appearance of favoritism on the part of the Captain. The position could be compared with that of a current Chief of police, the name Bargello was extended to the building which was the office of the captain. The palace was built to house first the Capitano del Popolo and later, in 1261, the podestà and this Palazzo del Podestà, as it was originally called, is the oldest public building in Florence. This austere crenellated building served as model for the construction of the Palazzo Vecchio, in 1574, the Medici dispensed with the function of the Podestà and housed the bargello, the police chief of Florence, in this building, hence its name. When Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor Peter Leopold was exiled, the makeshift Governor of Tuscany decided that the Bargello should no longer be a jail, the original two-story structure was built alongside the Volognana Tower in 1256. The third story, which can be identified by the blocks used to construct it, was added after the fire of 1323. The building is designed around a courtyard with an external staircase leading to the second floor. An open well is found in the center of the courtyard, the Bargello opened as a national museum in 1865, displaying the largest Italian collection of gothic and Renaissance sculptures. The museum houses masterpieces by Michelangelo, such as his Bacchus, Pitti Tondo, Brutus, benvenuto Cellini is represented with his bronze bust of Cosimo I. There are a few works from the Baroque period, notably Gianlorenzo Berninis 1636-7 Bust of Costanza Bonarelli, the museum also has a fine collection of ceramics, textile, tapestries, ivory, silver, armours and old coins. Honolulu Hales interior courtyard, staircase, and open ceiling were modeled after the Bargello
Bargello
–
The Bargello.
Bargello
–
Stairs and inner courtyard.
Bargello
–
Inner courtyard.
Bargello
–
Lorenzo Ghiberti 's Isaac's Sacrifice.
24.
Massacre of via dei Georgofili
–
The via dei Georgofili bombing was carried out by the Mafia very early in the morning of 27 May 1993 in Florence, Italy. The attempt was carried out with a Fiat Fiorino packed full of explosives, parked near the Torre dei Pulci, the edifice was the seat of the Accademia dei Georgofili. The bombing was followed by two, on 27 July, in Rome, near the churches of St. John Lateran and San Giorgio al Velabro and at Milan, in via Palestro. Later, pentito Gaspare Spatuzza claimed to have repented for his participation in the incidents, terrorism in the European Union Website of the Massacres Victims Association
Massacre of via dei Georgofili
–
The Torre dei Pulci, the main target of the bombing incident
25.
Neoclassicism
–
The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model. In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
Neoclassicism
–
Antonio Canova 's
Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss
Neoclassicism
–
Henry Fuseli, The artist moved to despair at the grandeur of antique fragments, 1778–79
Neoclassicism
–
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, often called "the father of archaeology"
Neoclassicism
–
Print of a drawing by
John Flaxman of a scene in
Homer 's
Iliad, 1795
26.
Fresco
–
Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
Fresco
–
Fresco in the church Mariä Verkündigung in Fuchstal,
Bavaria, Germany from Thomas Springer
Fresco
–
Fresco
Sistine Chapel in the
Vatican, Rome, Italy.
Fresco
–
Etruscan fresco of Velia Velcha from the
Tomb of Orcus,
Tarquinia.
Fresco
–
Fresco of "
Sappho " from
Pompeii, c. 50 CE.
27.
1966 Flood of the Arno River
–
The 1966 flood of the Arno in Florence killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. It is considered the worst flood in the history since 1557. With the combined effort of Italian and foreign alike, or angeli del fango. New methods in conservation were devised and restoration laboratories established, however, even decades later, much work remains to be done. Located in the Tuscany region of Central Italy, the Arno river is approximately 240 kilometres long and it flows from the Mount Falterona hills of the Apennine Mountains to the Ligurian Sea, just 11 kilometres west of Pisa. Lush vineyards and olive groves line the rivers course to the west. Principally utilized for irrigation purposes, only 32 kilometres of the river is used for navigation, the highest flows of the river generally occur in spring and autumn of every year, when rainfall in the Apennines is at its greatest. The intensity of the 1966 flood was further increased by both the orography of the Apennines, which contributed to the high rates and river discharges. After a long period of rain, the Levane and La Penna dams in Valdarno began to discharge more than 2,000 cubic metres of water per second toward Florence. At 14,30, the Civil Engineering Department reported an exceptional quantity of water, cellars in the Santa Croce and San Frediano areas began to flood. Police received calls for assistance from villagers up the Arno Valley, the floods first victim, a 52-year-old worker, died at the Anconella water treatment plant. At 04,00, engineers, fearing that the Valdarno dam would burst, at 07,26, the Lungarno delle Grazie cut off gas, electricity and water supplies to affected areas. By 08,00, army barracks were flooded, by 09,00, hospital emergency generators failed. Landslides obstructed roads leading to Florence, while narrow streets within city limits funneled floodwaters, increasing their height, by 09,45, the Piazza del Duomo was flooded. The powerful waters ruptured central heating oil tanks, and the oil mixed with the water and mud, Florence was divided in two, and officials were unable to immediately reach citizens of the city past the Piazza Michelangelo. At its highest, the water reached over 6.7 metres in the Santa Croce area, by 20,00, the water began to lower. The flood has had a impact on Florence, economically and culturally. City officials and citizens were extremely unprepared for the storm and the devastation that it caused
1966 Flood of the Arno River
–
Square in Florence with a white
high water mark of the 1966 flood. At this point the marker is about 4 metres (13 ft) high.
28.
Cimabue
–
Cimabue, also known as Cenni di Pepo or Cenni di Pepi, was a Florentine painter and designer of mosaics. Although heavily influenced by Byzantine models, Cimabue is generally regarded as one of the first great Italian painters to break from the Italo-Byzantine style, according to Italian painter and historian Giorgio Vasari, Cimabue was the teacher of Giotto, the first great artist of the Italian Proto-Renaissance. However, many scholars today tend to discount Vasaris claim, citing earlier sources which suggest this was not the case, little is known about Cimabues early life. One source that recounts his career is Giorgio Vasaris Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and he was born in Florence and died in Pisa. Hayden Maginnis speculates he could have trained in Florence under masters culturally connected to Byzantine art, many scholars today discount Vasaris claim that he later had Giotto as his pupil, citing earlier sources which suggest this was not the case. Cimabues Christ is bent and the clothes have the golden striations introduced by Coppo di Marcovaldo, around 1272 Cimabue is documented as being present in Rome, and a little later he made another Crucifix for the Florentine church of Santa Croce. In the same period, Cimabue painted the Maestà, originally displayed in the church of San Francesco at Pisa and this work established a style which was followed subsequently by numerous artists, including Duccio di Buoninsegna in his Rucellai Madonna, as well as Giotto. A workshop painting, perhaps assignable to a later period, is the Maestà with Saints Francis. During the pontificate of Pope Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope, at Assisi, in the transept of the Lower Basilica of San Francesco, he created a fresco named Madonna with Child Enthroned, Four Angels and St Francis. The left portion of this fresco is lost, but it may have shown St Anthony of Padua, Cimabue was subsequently commissioned to decorate the apse and the transept of the Upper Basilica of Assisi, in the same period of time that Roman artists were decorating the nave. The cycle he created there comprises scenes from the Gospels, the lives of the Virgin Mary, St Peter and these paintings are now in poor condition due to the oxidation of the brighter colors which the artist used. The Maestà of Santa Trinità, dated to c, 1290–1300, which was originally painted for the church of Santa Trinità in Florence, is now in the Uffizi Gallery. The softer expression of the characters suggests that it was influenced by Giotto, Cimabue spent the last period of his life,1301 to 1302, in Pisa. There he was commissioned to finish a mosaic of Christ Enthroned, originally begun by Maestro Francesco, Cimabue was to create the part of the mosaic depicting St John the Evangelist, which remains the sole surviving work documented as being by the artist. Cimabue died around the year 1302. he would destroy the work. His nickname, Cenni di Pepo, translates as ‘bull-head’, but also possibly as ‘one who crushes the views of others’, from the Latin word cimare, meaning top, shear, and blunt. The conclusion for the meaning is drawn from similar commentaries on Dante. History has long regarded Cimabue as the last of an era that was overshadowed by the Italian Renaissance, in painting Cimabue thought he held the field but now its Giotto has the cry, so that the others fame is dimmed
Cimabue
–
Maestà, 1280–1285,
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Cimabue
–
Fresco in the Lower Basilica of Assisi
Cimabue
–
St. Francis of Assisi
Cimabue
–
Crucifix, 1287–1288, Panel, 448 cm × 390 cm (176.4 in × 153.5 in),
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence
29.
Duccio
–
Duccio di Buoninsegna was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He is considered to be the father of Sienese painting and, along with a few others and he was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Duccio is credited with creating the painting styles of Trecento and the Sienese school, although much is still unconfirmed about Duccio and his life, there is more documentation of him and his life than of other Italian painters of his time. It is known that he was born and died in the city of Siena, other details of his early life and family are as uncertain, as much else in his history. One avenue to reconstructing Duccios biography are the traces of him in archives that list when he ran up debts or incurred fines, some records say he was married with 7 children. The relative abundance of archival mentions has led historians to believe that he had difficulties managing his life, another route to filling in Duccios biography are by analyzing the works that can be attributed to him with certainty. Information can be obtained by analyzing his style, the date and location of the works, due to gaps where Duccios name goes unmentioned in the Sienese records for years at a time, scholars speculate he may have traveled to Paris, Assisi and Rome. Nevertheless, his talents were enough to overshadow his lack of organization as a citizen. In the 14th century Duccio became one of the most favored, where Duccio studied, and with whom, is still a matter of great debate, but by analyzing his style and technique art historians have been able to limit the field. Little is known of his career prior to his first documented commission. In 1278, at the age of 23, he was hired to paint 12 wooden panels to cover government documents for The Nine, although Duccio was active from 1268 to about 1311 only approximately 13 of his works survive today. Furthermore, of Duccios surviving works, only two can be securely dated, Duccios known works are on wood panel, painted in egg tempera and embellished with gold leaf. Different from his contemporaries and artists before him, Duccio was a master of tempera and managed to conquer the medium with delicacy, there is no clear evidence that Duccio painted frescoes. Duccio’s style was similar to Byzantine art in ways, with its gold backgrounds and familiar religious scenes, however it was also different. Duccio began to break down the lines of Byzantine art. He used modeling to reveal the figures underneath the heavy drapery, hands, faces, duccio’s paintings are inviting and warm with color. His pieces consisted of many details and were sometimes inlaid with jewels or ornamental fabrics. Duccio was also noted for his organization of space
Duccio
–
Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints, detail
Duccio
–
The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (from the Maestà), c. 1308-1311.
Duccio
–
Madonna with child, the child pulling the madonnas hair
Duccio
–
Annunciation
30.
Rucellai Madonna
–
The Rucellai Madonna is a panel painting by the late medieval Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna from Siena. Originally painted for the Societa di S Maria Virginis for Florences Santa Maria Novella church, the painting depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned, surrounded by angels on a gold background. The altarpiece was commissioned by the Compagnia dei Laudesi for the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, the Rucellai Madonna is Duccios earliest work for which there is documentation. The work was designed for the altar of the church. In a contract dated 15 April 1285, Duccio was commissioned to paint a panel for which he was to be paid 150 lire. The contracts only requirements were that the Virgin and Child and other figures should be present, the document stated that if the final work failed to please, the artist would retain possession of the painting and no payment would be made. In 1889, however historian Franz Wickhoff compared stylistic choices between the Rucellai Madonna and Duccios Maestà, and soon other critics agreed that Duccio had indeed painted the Madonna. The work, measuring 4.5 by 2.9 meters and it is tempera on a five-pieced poplar panel, the frame is of the same wood. The Virgins robe was found during its 1989 cleaning to be azurite-based paint, the Virgin is shown looking directly at the viewer, as the Christ Child is seen sitting on her lap, giving a blessing. The Madonna is large in scale, taking up the majority of the frame and her robe is finely modelled and her gold halo incised as if to illuminate her presence. Duccios use of gold represents the familys holiness and the realm they inhabit. Six angels are holding the ornate throne, and are painted in shades of green, pink, lilac. Their positions in front and behind the throne suggest they are either lifting it up, the frame is decorated with thirty roundels containing portraits of Apostles, prophets, saints and patriarchs. It is clear from the attention to detail that Duccio was highly concerned with idealism and beauty, rendering each figure softly, with delicate features and adoration. The Rucellai Madonna has spatial complexity, emotion, intimacy and a choice of color. Duccio had improved upon the popular Byzantine art, characterised by two-dimensionality and hard contours, and had created one of the first pieces of what became known as the Renaissance
Rucellai Madonna
–
Rucellai Madonna
Rucellai Madonna
–
The façade of Santa Maria Novella (1470) where the Rucellai Madonna originally was displayed.
Rucellai Madonna
–
Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna Carried in Procession (1853-5) by
Frederic Leighton
31.
Giotto
–
Giotto di Bondone, known mononymously as Giotto and Latinized as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is generally considered the first in a line of artists who contributed to the Renaissance. Giottos masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, also known as the Arena Chapel and this fresco cycle depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Early Renaissance. That Giotto painted the Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the Commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new campanile of Florences Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Tradition holds that Giotto was born in a farmhouse, perhaps at Colle di Romagnano or Romignano, since 1850, a tower house in nearby Colle Vespignano has borne a plaque claiming the honor of his birthplace, an assertion commercially publicized. However, recent research has suggested that he was born in Florence. His fathers name was Bondone, and he is described in surviving records as a person of good standing. Most authors accept that Giotto was his name, but it is likely to have been an abbreviation of Ambrogio or Angelo. The year of his birth is calculated from the fact that Antonio Pucci, however, the word seventy fits into the rhyme of the poem better than would have a longer and more complex age, so it is possible that Pucci used artistic license. In his Lives, Giorgio Vasari states that Giotto was a shepherd boy, the great Florentine painter Cimabue discovered Giotto drawing pictures of his sheep on a rock. They were so lifelike that Cimabue approached Giotto and asked if he could take him on as an apprentice, Cimabue was one of the two most highly renowned painters of Tuscany, the other being Duccio, who worked mainly in Siena. Vasari recounts a number of stories about Giottos skill as a young artist. He tells of one occasion when Cimabue was absent from the workshop, later when Cimabue returned, he tried in vain several times to brush the fly off. The messenger departed ill pleased, not doubting that he had made a fool of. The messenger brought other artists drawings back to the Pope in addition to Giottos, many scholars today are uncertain about Giottos training, and consider Vasaris account that he was Cimabues pupil as legend, citing earlier sources which suggest that Giotto was not Cimabues pupil. About 1290, Giotto married Ciuta, the daughter of Lapo del Pela of Florence, the marriage produced four daughters and four sons, one of whom became a painter. By 1301, Giotto owned a house in Florence, and when he was not traveling he would return there and live in comfort with his family
Giotto
–
Statue representing Giotto, outside the Uffizi
Giotto
–
A portrait of
Dante by Giotto
Giotto
–
One of the Legend of St. Francis frescoes at
Assisi, the authorship of which is disputed
Giotto
–
The
Crucifixion of Rimini
32.
Ognissanti Madonna
–
Madonna Enthroned, also known as the Ognissanti Madonna, is a painting by the Italian late medieval artist Giotto di Bondone, housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. The painting has a traditional Christian subject, representing the Virgin Mary and this particular representation of the Virgin is called a Maestà, a popular representation at the time. It is often celebrated as the first painting of the Renaissance due to its newfound naturalism and it is generally dated to around 1310. There are many sources that show he spent many years living and creating in Florence, however, the main source that documents Madonna Enthroned specifically is artist Lorenzo Ghibertis autobiography, I Commentarii. An earlier manuscript document of 1418 also attributes the painting to Giotto, one of Giottos later works, Madonna Enthroned was completed in Florence, upon the artists return to the city. It was originally painted for the Ognissanti Franciscan church in Florence, built for the Humiliati, a small religious order at the time, the church had many acclaimed paintings designed for it. Specifically, Giottos Madonna Enthroned was designed for the high altar, the Madonna Enthroned shows the numerous styles of art that influenced Giotto. In both the gold coloring used throughout the artwork and the gold background, Giottos art continued the traditional Italo-Byzantine style so popular in the proto-Renaissance time period. Giottos figures however escape the bounds of Byzantine art and his figures are weighty and are reminiscent of three-dimensional sculptures, such as that in classical Roman sculpture. The Madonnas intricately decorated throne, which itself is an Italian Gothic design, has a specific use of colored marble as a surface decoration. This use of marble was a style that ended in the early Christian time period, there were, additionally, a number of specific artists whose styles heavily influenced The Ognissanti Madonna. The influence of Cimabue, traditionally recognized as Giottos teacher, is shown first in the symmetrical composition of the piece. Cimabue portrayed the subject in his 1280 Virgin and Child Enthroned. Additionally, the two depictions of the wings in Giotto and Cimabues pieces clearly resemble each other. Both pieces share a similar, initial feeling of severity, yet there is more to each piece than the drama, Giotto adopted from his teacher the importance of, and the concern for, volume and forms in space. The tranquility of Giottos figures resembled also the style of Pietro Cavallini, lastly, Giotto took cues from many contemporary sculptors, including Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, whose work shares influences of Northern Gothic art. In the work of artists, Giotto saw great, dramatic compositions that would certainly influence his Ognissanti Madonna. Giotto was the first artist to depict figures in western European art
Ognissanti Madonna
–
Ognissanti Madonna
33.
Badia Polyptych
–
The Badia Polyptych is a painting by the Italian artist Giotto, painted around 1300 and housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence. Contemporary sources such as Lorenzo Ghibertis Commentarii and Giorgio Vasaris Lives agree in mentioning the presence of a polyptych by Giotto at the altar in the Badia Fiorentina. However, the work is no document for centuries, and was considered to be lost. In the 19th century, however, it was found in the archives of the Museum of Santa Croce of Florence, and identified thanks to a cartouche on it saying Badia di Firenze, which was added in 1810. The dating of the work is disputed, ranging from the early 14th century to a period following Giottos work in the Cappella degli Scrovegni, the polyptych was restored in the 1958 and again, after escaping the 1966 Flood of the River Arno, in 2000. The work is composed by five framed paintings with a triangular cusp, Nicholas of Bari, John the Evangelist, Pieter and Benedict, identified by their names below and their traditional attributes. Giotto made a use of chiaroscuro. Details include the rich garments and the crosier of St. Nicholas, similar details were used by Giotto also in Rimini Crucifix and the Stigmata of St. Francis, and have led to the 14th century dating. Page at the Florentine museums website Page at Google art
Badia Polyptych
–
Badia Polyptych
34.
Simone Martini
–
Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a figure in the development of early Italian painting. It is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, martinis brother-in-law was the artist Lippo Memmi. Very little documentation of Simones life survives, and many attributions are debated by art historians, Simone was doubtlessly apprenticed from an early age, as would have been the normal practice. Among his first documented works is the Maestà of 1315 in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, a copy of the work, executed shortly thereafter by Lippo Memmi in San Gimignano, testifies to the enduring influence Simones prototypes would have on other artists throughout the 14th century. During this stay, putative pupils were his son Francesco, Gennaro di Cola, francis Petrarch became a friend of Simones while in Avignon, and two of Petrarchs sonnets make reference to a portrait of Laura de Noves that Simone supposedly painted for the poet. A Christ Discovered in the Temple is in the collections of Liverpools Walker Art Gallery, Simone Martini died while in the service of the Papal court at Avignon in 1344. Memmo di Filippuccio Vasari, Giorgio, translation by George Bull, Art of Simone Martini Simone Martini – Gothic Painter
Simone Martini
–
Petrarch 's Virgil (title page) (c. 1336) Illuminated manuscript, 29,5 x 20 cm Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan
Simone Martini
–
The
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus, 1333
Simone Martini
–
Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych, 1319
Simone Martini
–
Virgin and Child with Saints (Boston Polyptych), c. 1321-5
35.
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus
–
The Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus is a painting by the Italian Gothic artists Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, now housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. It is a triptych painted in tempera and gold, with a central panel having double size. Considered Martinis masterwork and one of the most outstanding works of Gothic painting and these included the Presentation at the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the Nativity of the Virgin by Pietro Lorenzetti, and a Nativity, now disassembled, attributed to Bartolomeo Bulgarini from 1351. All the paintings should represent stories of the Life of the Madonna, the artists use of expensive lacquer, extensive gold leafing and the difficult to obtain lapis lazuli in the painting demonstrates the communal prestige of the commission. The date of the painting is specified in a fragment of the original frame and it lists the name of Simone Martini and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi, although it is unknown which parts they executed. A hypothesis is that Martini painted the panel, while Memmi was responsible of the side saints. The work, in size and style, has no similarities with any other contemporary painting in Italy. It can be compared instead to French illuminated manuscripts of that time, the painting remained in the cathedral until 1799, when Grand Duke Peter Leopold had it moved to Florence in exchange of two canvasses by Luca Giordano. The original frame, carved by Paolo di Camporegio and gilt by Memmi, was renovated in 1420, the Annunciation shows the archangel Gabriel entering the house of the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will soon bear the child Jesus, whose name means savior. Gabriel holds a branch in his hand, a traditional symbol of peace. The dove is descending from heaven, from the center of the mandorla of eight angels above, in fact, along the path of the dove, viewers see Gabriels utterance, ave gratia plena dominvs tecvm. The angels mantle shows a detailed tartar cloth pattern and fine gilt feathers, Mary, sitting on a throne, is portrayed at the moment that she is startled out of her reading, reacting with a graceful and composed reluctance, looking with surprise at the celestial messenger. Her dress has an arabesque-like pattern, at the sides, the two patrons saints of the cathedral are separated by the central scene by two decorate twisting columns. The background, completely gilt, has a vase of lilies, Presentation at the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti Fossi, Gloria. Media related to Annunciation by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence at Wikimedia Commons High resolution image via the Google Art Project
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus
–
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus
–
Detail of the central panel.
Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus
–
External video
36.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
–
Ambrogio Lorenzetti was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active from approximately 1317 to 1348 and he painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. His elder brother was the painter Pietro Lorenzetti, Lorenzetti was highly influenced by both Byzantine art and classical art forms, and used these to create a unique and individualistic style of painting. Individuality at this time was due to the influence of patronage on art. Because paintings were commissioned, individualism in art was infrequently seen. His body of work shows the innovativeness that subsequent artists chose to emulate. His work, although more naturalistic, shows the influence of Simone Martini, the earliest dated work of the Sienese painter is a Madonna and Child. His presence was documented in Florence up until 1321 and he would return there after spending a number of years in Siena. Later he painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, the frescoes on the walls of the Room of the Nine or Room of Peace in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena are one of the masterworks of early Renaissance secular painting. The nine was the assembly of guild and monetary interests that governed the republic. Three walls are painted with frescoes consisting of an assembly of allegorical figures of virtues in the Allegory of Good Government. In the other two facing panels, Ambrogio weaves panoramic visions of Effects of Good Government on Town and Country, the better preserved well-governed town and country is an unrivaled pictorial encyclopedia of incidents in a peaceful medieval borgo and countryside. The first evidence of the existence of the hourglass can be found in the fresco, Allegory of Bad Government and Its Effects on Town, like his brother, he is believed to have died of bubonic plague in 1348. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzetti in his Lives, annunciation,1344 Lorenzettis final piece, telling the story of the Virgin Mary receiving the news from the Angel about the coming of baby Jesus, contains the first use of clear linear perspective. Though it is not perfect, and the background that is traditional for the time renders a flat feeling. Madonna and Child,1319 In Madonna and Child, there is a debt to Byzantine art. The image of the Madonna is noted for its frontality, which is a characteristic of Byzantine art. The Madonna faces the viewer, as the Child gazes up at her, though not as emotionally intense as subsequent Madonnas, in Lorenzetti’s Madonna and Child, the Virgin Mary belies a subtle level of emotion as she confronts the viewer
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
–
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
–
Allegory of bad government, two soldiers
robbing a woman
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
–
Annunciation, 1344
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
–
Madonna and Child, 1319
37.
Presentation at the Temple (Ambrogio Lorenzetti)
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The Presentation at the Temple is a painting by the Italian late medieval painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti, signed and dated 1342, now housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. It is one of the largest works by the Italian medieval painter, all the paintings should represent stories of the Life of the Madonna, and were crowned by Duccio di Buoninsegnas Maestà. The use of lacquer in the paintings and lapis lazuli shows the prestige of the commission. Two 15th century descriptions mention the work as a triptych, with two side panels portraying St. Michael Archangel and St. Crescentius Martyr and, below, a century later, artists including Giovanni di Paolo and Bartolo di Fredi executed copies of the painting. It was later disassembled and placed in a nunnery in Siena, grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany had his transferred to Florence in 1822. It became part of the Uffizi collection in 1913, the painting depicts the presentation at the temple, an event which, according to the Hebraic Law, should occur forty days after a childs birth, to allow the mother to purify herself. Within two central, slender columns are the Madonna, the child, and Simeon the Righteous, at the far left is Joseph, preceded by two women, the latter have no aureolae, to mark that they have no holy status. At the right is Anna, accompanied by a Latin cartouche with a citation from the Gospel of Luke Behind the altar is a priest with the doves for the sacrifice and, in the left hand, in front of him a flame is burning on the sacrifice altar. Two other priests are partly visible at his left behind the architectural elements, the scene is set within church, finely decorated in Gothic style with a nave and two aisles, each surmounted by three-foiled ogival arches. Above the priests, within the church, is an arch with two angels, they hold a clipeus with the Blessing Christ. In the upper part, above the marble intarsia of the arches, finally, the central top arch includes the figures of Moses and Malachi, who also have cartouches with Latin verses taken from the Bible
Presentation at the Temple (Ambrogio Lorenzetti)
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Presentation at the Temple
38.
Gentile da Fabriano
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Gentile da Fabriano was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic painter style. He worked in places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany. His best-known works are his Adoration of the Magi from the Strozzi Altarpiece, Gentile was born in or near Fabriano, in the Marche. His mother died some time before 1380, and his father, Niccolò di Giovanni Massi, retired to a monastery in the same year, where he died in 1385. Little is known of his formation, one of his first known works, by around 1405, Gentile da Fabriano was working in Venice. He painted a panel for the church of Santa Sofia, now lost, between 1408 and 1409, he painted a fresco in the Doges Palace depicting the naval battle between the Venetians and Otto III. In Venice he knew Pisanello and perhaps Michelino da Besozzo, from 1410–1412 is one of his first masterworks, the Valle Romita Polyptych. In 1410–1411 he was at Foligno, where he frescoed the Palazzo Trinci, in 1414 he moved to Brescia, at the service of Pandolfo III Malatesta, and painted the Broletto Chapel, a work now mostly lost. In the Spring 1420 he was again in Fabriano and his other works in Florence include the Quaratesi Polyptych. In June–August 1425 he was in Siena, where he painted a Madonna with Child, now lost, until October he was in Orvieto, where he painted his fresco of the Madonna and Child in the Cathedral. In 1427 he arrived in Rome, commissioned by Pope Martin V the decoration of the nave of the Basilica of St. John in Lateran, Gentile is known to have died before 14 October 1427. He is commonly said to have buried in the church now called S. Francesca Romana in Florence, but his tomb vanished, there is evidence, however, that he may be buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, in Rome, the place of his death. He left no works in the Marche, except possibly a Madonna and Child in the Duomo at SantAngelo in Vado and he also left one painting in Venice. Fabio Marcelli, Gentile da Fabriano, Silvana,2005, andrea De Marchi, Gentile da Fabriano. Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico, Federico Motta,2006, Gentile da Fabriano biography-paintings-curiosity-publications Italian Paintings, Sienese and Central Italian Schools, a collection catalog containing information about Fabriano and his works. 5 paintings of Gentile da Fabriano
Gentile da Fabriano
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Adoration of the Magi (1423)
Gentile da Fabriano
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Pseudo-Arabic script in the
Virgin Mary 's
halo, detail of Adoration of the Magi (1423) by Gentile da Fabriano. The script is further divided by
rosettes like those on
Mamluk dishes, executed in
pastiglia
Gentile da Fabriano
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Gentile da Fabriano Coronation of the Virgin
39.
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)
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The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian painter Gentile da Fabriano. The work, housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is considered his finest work, the painting was commissioned by the Florentine literate and patron of the arts Palla Strozzi, at the arrival of the artist in the city in 1420. Palla paid 300 florins for the altarpiece, or about six times the salary of a skilled labourer. According to other opinions, the falcon trainer depicts the commissioner Palla Strozzi with his eldest son Lorenzo to his right, finished in 1423, the painting was placed in the new chapel of the church of Santa Trinita which Lorenzo Ghiberti was executing in these years. The works shows both the international and Sienese schools influences on Gentiles art, combined with the Renaissance novelties he knew in Florence, all the figures wear splendid Renaissance costumes, brocades richly decorated with real gold and precious stones inserted in the panel. Gentiles typical attention for detail is evident in the exotic animals, such as a leopard, a dromedary, some apes and a lion, as well as the magnificent horses. The frame is also a work of art, characterized by three cusps with tondoes portraying Christ Blessing and the Annunciation, the predella has three rectangular paintings with scenes of Jesus childhood, the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt and the Presentation at the Temple
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)
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Adoration of the Magi
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)
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Scene of the Nativity in the predella.
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)
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Scene of Flyght in Egypt in the predella.
40.
Paolo Uccello
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Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book, Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective, while his contemporaries used perspective to narrate different or succeeding stories, Uccello used perspective to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. His best known works are the three representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the Battle of Sant Egidio of 1416 for a long period of time. Paolo worked in the Late Gothic tradition, emphasizing colour and pageantry rather than the classical realism that other artists were pioneering and his style is best described as idiosyncratic, and he left no school of followers. He has had influence on twentieth-century art and literary criticism. The sources for Paolo Uccello’s life are few, Giorgio Vasari’s biography, written 75 years after Paolo’s death, due to the lack of sources, even his date of birth is questionable. It is believed that Uccello was born in Pratovecchio in 1397, and his tax declarations for some years indicate that he was born in 1397 and his father, Dono di Paolo, was a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio near Arezzo, his mother, Antonia, was a high-born Florentine. His nickname Uccello came from his fondness for painting birds, from 1412 until 1416 he was apprenticed to the famous sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. Ghiberti was the designer of the doors of the Florence Baptistery, ghibertis late-Gothic, narrative style and sculptural composition greatly influenced Paolo. It was also around this time that Paolo began his friendship with Donatello. In 1414, Uccello was admitted to the guild, Compagnia di San Luca. These featured a scene that might well have impressed itself in the mind of the young Uccello. According to Vasari, Uccello’s first painting was a Saint Anthony between the saints Cosmas and Damianus, a commission for the hospital of Lelmo, next, he painted two figures in the convent of Annalena. Shortly afterwards, he painted three frescoes with scenes from the life of Saint Francis above the door of the Santa Trinita church. For the Santa Maria Maggiore church, he painted a fresco of the Annunciation, in this fresco, he painted a large building with columns in perspective. According to Vasari, people found this to be a great and beautiful achievement because this was the first example of how lines could be used to demonstrate perspective. As a result, this became a model for artists who wished to craft illusions of space in order to enhance the realness of their paintings. Paolo painted the Lives of the Church Fathers in the cloisters of the church of San Miniato, Uccello was asked to paint a number of scenes of distempered animals for the house of the Medici
Paolo Uccello
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Portrait of Paolo Uccello (unknown artist) Louvre Museum, Paris
Paolo Uccello
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Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood
Paolo Uccello
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Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1470), showing Uccello's Gothic influences.
Paolo Uccello
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The Battle of San Romano, c. 1438–1440. Egg tempera with walnut oil and linseed oil on poplar. 181.6 x 320 cm.
Uffizi.
41.
The Battle of San Romano
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The Battle of San Romano is a set of three paintings by the Florentine painter Paolo Uccello depicting events that took place at the Battle of San Romano between Florentine and Sienese forces in 1432. They are significant as revealing the development of perspective in early Italian Renaissance painting. The paintings are in egg tempera on wooden panels, each over 3 metres long, according to the National Gallery, London, the panels were commissioned by a member of the Bartolini Salimbeni family in Florence sometime between 1435 and 1460. The paintings were admired in the 15th century, Lorenzo de Medici so coveted them that he purchased one and had the remaining two forcibly removed to the Palazzo Medici. They are now divided between three collections, the National Gallery, the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The three paintings are, The Uffizi panel was designed to be the central painting of the triptych and is the only one signed by the artist. The sequence most widely agreed among art historians is, London, Uffizi, Louvre and they may represent different times of day, dawn, mid-day and dusk – the battle lasted eight hours. In the London painting, Niccolò da Tolentino, with his large gold and red patterned hat, is seen leading the Florentine cavalry. He had a reputation for recklessness, and doesnt even wear a helmet, in the foreground, broken lances and a dead soldier are carefully aligned into orthogonals, so as to create an impression of perspective. Similar to that of a tapestry, the landscape rises up in a plane as opposed to receding deeply into space. This illusion of a backdrop and a theme resembling a stage. Many areas of the paintings were covered with gold and silver leaf, the original impression of the burnished silver would have been dazzling. All of the paintings, especially that in the Louvre, have suffered from time and early restoration, the panels were a subject in the BBC series The Private Life of a Masterpiece,2005. The dark horse in the Louvre panel, mounted by Micheletto Attendolo, can be painted in a tapestry. In the 4th Episode of the 2011 TV Series The Borgias, starn, Randolph and Loren Partridge, Representing war in the Renaissance, The shield of Paolo Uccello, Representations, No
The Battle of San Romano
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Detail of Niccolò da Tolentino from the left panel, now in London
The Battle of San Romano
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Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano (probably c. 1438–1440), egg tempera with walnut oil and linseed oil on poplar, 182 × 320 cm,
National Gallery, London.
The Battle of San Romano
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Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Ciarda at the Battle of San Romano (dating uncertain, c. 1435–1455), tempera on wood, 182 × 320 cm,
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
42.
Rogier van der Weyden
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Rogier van der Weyden or Roger de la Pasture was an Early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces and commissioned single and diptych portraits. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity, however his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. There are few facts of van der Weydens life. What else is known of him has come from records and secondary sources. However the paintings now attributed to him are generally accepted, despite a tendency in the 19th century to attribute his work to others, all of his forms are rendered with rich, warm colourisation and a sympathetic expression, while he is known for his expressive pathos and naturalism. His portraits tend to be half length and half profile, Van der Weyden used an unusually broad range of colours and varied tones, in his finest work the same tone is not repeated in any other area of the canvas, even the whites are varied. Due to the loss of archives in 1695 and again in 1940, Rogelet de le Pasture was born in Tournai in 1399 or 1400. His parents were Henri de le Pasture and Agnes de Watrélos and he married around 1426, to Elisabeth Goffaert, and was made town painter of Brussels in 1436, and changed his name from the French to the Flemish format, becoming van der Weyden. The Pasture family had settled before in the city of Tournai where Rogiers father worked as a maître-coutelier, in 1426 Rogier married Elisabeth, the daughter of a Brussels shoemaker Jan Goffaert and his wife Cathelyne van Stockem. Rogier and Elisabeth had four children, Cornelius, who became a Carthusian monk, was born in 1427, a daughter Margaretha in 1432. Before 21 October 1435 the family settled in Brussels where the two children were born, Pieter in 1437 and Jan in 1438, who would go on to become a painter. On his move to Brussels, Rogier began using the Flemish version of his name, little is known about Rogiers training as a painter. The archival sources from Tournai were completely destroyed during World War II, the sources on his early life are confusing and have led to different interpretations by scholars. It is known that the city council of Tournai offered eight pitchers of wine in honour of a certain Maistre Rogier de le Pasture on the 17th November 1426. However, on 5 March of the year the records of the painters guild show a Rogelet de le Pasture entered the workshop of Robert Campin together with Jacques Daret. Records show that de le Pasture was already established as a painter, only five years later, on the first of August 1432, de le Pasture obtained the title of a Master painter. His later entry into apprenticeship might be explained by the fact that during the 1420s the city of Tournai was in crisis, the late apprenticeship may have been a legal formality. Also Jacques Daret was then in his twenties and had living and working in Campins household for at least a decade
Rogier van der Weyden
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Rogier van der Weyden, portrait by
Cornelis Cort, 1572
Rogier van der Weyden
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The Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), oil on oak panel, 220 × 262 cm.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Rogier van der Weyden
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Rogier van der Weyden - Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet
Rogier van der Weyden
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The Braque Triptych, c. 1452 (right panel)
43.
Lamentation of Christ (Rogier van der Weyden)
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The Lamentation of Christ is an oil-on-panel painting by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, dating from around 1460-1463 and housed in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. The work was part of the collections of cardinal Carlo de Medici. Filippo Baldinucci described it as a work by Albrecht Dürer, in 1989 it was still assigned to Hans Memling by some scholars, but in 1992 reflex photography showed the underlying drawing, which was clearly executed by van der Weyden. The painting has a shape, and shows Christ being buried with the weeping Mary. The corpse is supported by a richly dressed, and by Nicodemus dressed in refined clothing of the times and gazing out towards the spectator, once thought to be a self-portrait of the artist which is now known to portray Cosimo the elder. A kneeling Mary Magdalene is depicted in the low foreground, the composition is similar to Angelicos Pietà, but the scene here is more complex and crowded, with less geometrically ordered lines and more anguished faces. The use of oil paint also allowed van der Weyden to obtain deeper colours, the attention to details is also typical of the early Netherlandish painting school
Lamentation of Christ (Rogier van der Weyden)
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Lamentation of Christ
44.
Filippo Lippi
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Fra Filippo Lippi, O. Carm. also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento. Lippi was born in Florence in1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, when he was still a small child, both his parents died. He was sent to live with his aunt Mona Lapaccia, however because she was too poor to rear him and he was 8 years old when he left for the convent and started his education there. In 1420 he was admitted to the community of Carmelite friars of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Florence, taking vows in the Order the following year. He was ordained as a priest in approximately 1425, and remained in residence of that priory until 1432, georgio Vasari, the first art historian of the renaissance, writes that Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church. Lippis early work, notably the Tarquinia Madonna show that influence from Masaccio, in his Lives of the Artists, Vasari says, Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others. Due to his interest, the decided to give him the opportunity to learn painting. Lippi then went on to visit to Ancona and Naples, where he was captured by Barbary pirates and his skill in portrait-sketching helped to eventually release him. Louis Gillet, writing for the Catholic Encyclopedia, considers this account assuredly nothing, with his return to Florence in 1432 is paintings had became popular, warranting the support of the Medici family, who commissioned of The Annunciation and the Seven Saints. Cosimo de Medici had to him up in order to compel him to work. His escapades threw him into financial difficulties from which he did not hesitate to extricate himself by forgery and his life included many similar tales of lawsuits, complaints, broken promises and scandal. In 1441 Lippi painted an altarpiece for the nuns of S. Ambrogio which is now a prominent attraction in the Academy of Florence and it represents the coronation of the Virgin among angels and saints, including many Bernardine monks. In 1452 he was appointed chaplain to the nuns at the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Florence, in June 1456 Fra Filippo is recorded as living in Prato to paint frescoes in the choir of the cathedral. Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit for the figure of the Madonna, under that pretext, Lippi engaged in sexual relations with her, abducted her to his own house, and kept her there despite the nuns efforts to reclaim her. This relationship resulted in their son, Filippino Lippi, who became a famous painter following his father, Vasari accounts for this relationship in his publication of The Lives, which was published soon after. In 1457 he was appointed commendatory Rector of S. Quirico in Legania, despite these profits, Lippi struggled to escape poverty throughout his life. The close of Lippis life was spent at Spoleto, where he had commissioned to paint scenes from the life of the Virgin for the apse of the cathedral. In the semidome of the apse is the Christ Crowning the Madonna, with angels, sibyls and this series, which is not wholly equal to the one at Prato, was completed by one of his assistants, his fellow Carmelite, Fra Diamante, after Lippis death
Filippo Lippi
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Selfportrait of Fra' Filippo Lippi
Filippo Lippi
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Devotional image of the Madonna and Child before a golden curtain by the Workshop of Filippo Lippi. The Walters Art Museum.
Filippo Lippi
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Adoration in the Forest
Filippo Lippi
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Madonna and Child (1440–1445), tempera on panel.
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
45.
Madonna and Child (Filippo Lippi)
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Madonna with Child is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. The date in which it was executed is unknown, but most art historians agree that it was painted during the last part of Lippi’s career, the painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy, and is therefore commonly called “The Uffizi Madonna” among art historians. Fra Filippo was born in 1406 in Florence to a family where his father was a butcher. He entered a monastery with his brother at an early age, later in his life, he was moved to a monastery in Prato, and here fell in love with a nun, Lucrezia Buti, with whom he had two children. He encountered more trouble when his patrons claimed that Fra Filippo did not fulfill his contracts, Fra Filippo’s main patrons were the Medicis. The commission and the execution date of the painting are unknown. In 1457, Giovanni de’ Medici wished to gift a panel to the King of Naples, Fra Filippo, who was working in Prato at that time, decided to temporarily return to his residence in Florence to work on this project. Fra Filippo wrote letters to Giovanni that show that the abandoned the project because of a lack of funding. Although art historian Ulmann believes that Fra Filippo presented the Uffizi Madonna to Giovanni to thank him for acting as an intermediary between him and the King of Naples, Edward C, strutt states that this belief is incorrect. However, he states that the Uffizi Madonna was in all probability executed around this time. The Madonna is traditionally identified with Lucrezia Buti, as for most of Fra Filippos Madonnas, an 18th-century inscription in the rear of the panel testifies the presence of the painting in the Medici Villa del Poggio Imperiale at the time. On 13 May 1796 it entered the Gran Ducal collections in Florence, the Uffizi Madonna is associated with the taste of the new age, as the Madonna is “lovelier and more fashionable than any of Filippo’s earlier Madonnas”. The group of Madonna and Child is, unusually for the period, the Madonna sits on a chair, at the window of a house located on a hilltop, which offers a view of an elaborate landscape of “plains, distant mountains, a city and a bay”. Her eyes are pointed down and her hands are folded in prayers before child Jesus, furthermore, as in many Renaissance paintings, the Madonna’s hair is shaved farther back because, “the forehead an object of special beauty” that resembled “a glowing, beautifully set pearl”. This Madonna resembles other Madonnas from the same artist, for example, it is closely related to Fra Filippos Pitti tondo Madonna, but it lacks “the pathetic girlish loveliness” of the Pitti tondo and rather has “a more womanly and mature type of beauty”. The angel on the right is one of the most curious parts of the painting, he is looking at the viewer with a “roguish smile, more expressive of mischief than of seraphic perfection”. His pose does not resemble that of an angel, and he does not seem to be playing his part, rather he seems to be the real child. The large window placed behind the Madonna helps reducing the gap between the viewer and the figures, which are very close to the plane to assist in making the viewer feel part of the painting
Madonna and Child (Filippo Lippi)
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Madonna and Child (Lippina)
Madonna and Child (Filippo Lippi)
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A self portrait of Fra Filippo Lippi.
Madonna and Child (Filippo Lippi)
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Fra Filippo's
National Gallery Madonna and Child, c. 1440, one of the artist's earlier Madonnas.
Madonna and Child (Filippo Lippi)
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Fra Filippo's Madonna with the Child and Scenes from the Life of St Anne, also known as the Pitti tondo. It is closely related to the Uffizi Madonna.
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