1.
David
–
David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. He is described as a man after Gods own heart in 1 Samuel 13,14 and Acts 13,22. The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah, the New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus. God is angered when Saul, Israels king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine instruction to not only all of the Amalekites. Consequently, he sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul. Sauls courtiers recommend that he send for David, a man skillful on the lyre, wise in speech, and brave in battle. So David enters Sauls service as one of the royal armour-bearers, and plays the lyre to soothe the king, war comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Sauls army, refusing the kings offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the heros father. Saul sets David over his army, all Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him. Saul plots his death, but Sauls son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his fathers schemes and David flees. He becomes a vassal of the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but Achishs nobles question his loyalty, Jonathan and Saul are killed, and David is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Sauls son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, with the death of Sauls son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David, Your throne shall be established forever. David wins more victories over the Philistines, while the Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, during a battle to conquer the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David seduces Bathsheba and causes the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. In response, Nathan prophesies the punishment that shall fall upon him, in fulfillment of these words Davids son Absalom rebels. The rebellion ends at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, Absaloms forces are routed, and Absalom is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree, and killed by Joab, contrary to Davids order. Joab was the commander of Davids army, David laments the death of his favourite son, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
David
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Statue of King David by
Nicolas Cordier in the Borghese Chapel of the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
David
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Samuel anoints David,
Dura Europos,
Syria, 3rd century CE
David
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"David Giving Thanks to God After the Death of Goliath", 18th century painting attributed to
Charles Errard the Younger
David
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David holds the impaled head of Goliath and marches before a general on a white horse, as envisioned by Poussin, ca. 1632
2.
Apostolic Palace
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The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, Palace of the Vatican and Vatican Palace, the Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V in honor of Pope Sixtus V. The modern tourist can see these last and other parts of the palace, the Scala Regia can be seen into from one end but not entered. In the fifth century, Pope Symmachus built a palace close to the Old St. Peters Basilica which served an alternative residence to the Lateran Palace. The construction of a fortified palace was sponsored by Pope Eugene III. The Vatican Palace had fallen into disrepair from lack of upkeep, in 1447, Pope Nicholas V razed the ancient fortified palace of Eugene III to erect a new building, the current Apostolic Palace. In the 15th century, the Palace was placed under the authority of a prefect and this position of Apostolic Prefect lasted from the 15th century till the 1800s, when the Papal States fell into economic difficulties. In 1884, when this post was reviewed in light of saving money, the major additions and decorations of the palace are the work of the following popes for 150 years. In the 20th century, Pope Pius XI built an art gallery. Construction of the Papal Palace at the Vatican in Vatican City, covering 162, 000m squared, it contains the Papal Apartments, offices of the Roman Catholic Church and Holy See, chapels, Vatican Library, museums and art galleries. The Apostolic Palace is run by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, the palace is more accurately a series of self-contained buildings within the well-recognized outer structure which is arranged around the Courtyard of Sixtus V. It is located northeast of St Peters Basilica and adjacent to the Bastion of Nicholas V, the Apostolic Palace houses both residential and support offices of various functions as well as administrative offices not focused on the life and functions of the Pope himself. Perhaps the best known of the Palace chapels is the Sistine Chapel named in honor of Sixtus IV and it is famous for its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and others. One of the functions of the chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive Pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. In this closed-door election, the cardinals choose a successor to the first pope, St. Peter and this suite of rooms is famous for its frescos by a large team of artists working under Raphael. They were originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II and he commissioned Raphael, then a relatively young artist from Urbino, and his studio in 1508 or 1509 to redecorate the existing interiors of the rooms entirely. It was possibly Julius intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor Pope Alexander VI and they are on the third floor, overlooking the south side of the Belvedere Courtyard. After the death of Julius in 1513, with two rooms frescoed, Pope Leo X continued the program, following Raphaels death in 1520, his assistants Gianfrancesco Penni, Giulio Romano and Raffaellino del Colle finished the project with the frescoes in the Sala di Costantino
Apostolic Palace
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A view of the
Papal Apartments from
Saint Peter's Square
Apostolic Palace
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The Portone di Bronzo at the Vatican Apostolic Palace entrance.
Apostolic Palace
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A model of the palace in the
Vatican Museums. The buildings are arranged around a central courtyard.
Apostolic Palace
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Under the patronage of
Julius II, Michelangelo painted the
chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512.
3.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
Fresco
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Fresco in the church Mariä Verkündigung in Fuchstal,
Bavaria, Germany from Thomas Springer
Fresco
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Fresco
Sistine Chapel in the
Vatican, Rome, Italy.
Fresco
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Etruscan fresco of Velia Velcha from the
Tomb of Orcus,
Tarquinia.
Fresco
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Fresco of "
Sappho " from
Pompeii, c. 50 CE.
4.
Raphael
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Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running a large workshop and, despite his death at 37. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, the best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings and he was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region and his poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture, growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a humanistic education however, it is unclear how easily he read Latin. His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1,1494 by his father, Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven, his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master and he had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great help to his father. A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity and his fathers workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter, and Luca Signorelli, according to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, an alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters, the Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a master, that is to say fully trained and his first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was named in the commission
Raphael
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Presumed Portrait of Raphael
Raphael
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Self-portrait with a friend (1518 circa),
Louvre,
Paris
Raphael
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Giovanni Santi, Raphael's father; Christ supported by two angels, c.1490
Raphael
–
The
Mond Crucifixion, 1502–3, very much in the style of
Perugino
5.
Giovanni da Udine
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Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine, was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine. A painter also named Giovanni da Udine was exiled from his city in 1372. These included the work in the Loggia di Raffaello and the heavy fruit-laden wreaths in the loggia di psiche in the Villa Farnesina. He also assisted in the construction of a few monumental fountains and he is also renknown for his drawings of birds and fruit. After the death of Raphael, da Udine continued to work on projects initiated by his master, in Udine, he worked as an architect on the Torre dellOrologio and the Fontana di Piazza Nuova. In Cividale, he helped in the construction of Santa Maria dei Battuti and he returned to Rome in 1560 to work on the third floor of the Logge Vaticane, and died in this city in 1564. Painters of reality, the legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Giovanni da Udine
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Portrait in Vasari's Vite
Giovanni da Udine
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Decoration for Loggia of Cardinal Bibbiena
Giovanni da Udine
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Loggia di Psiche frescoes
Giovanni da Udine
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Eagle Heads
6.
Domus Aurea
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Some scholars place it at over 300 acres, while others estimate its size to have been under 100 acres. Suetonius describes the complex as ruinously prodigal as it included groves of trees, pastures with flocks, vineyards, Nero also commissioned from the Greek Zenodorus a colossal 35.5 m high bronze statue of himself, the Colossus Neronis. Pliny the Elder, however, puts its height at only 30.3 m, the statue was placed just outside the main palace entrance at the terminus of the Via Appia in a large atrium of porticoes that divided the city from the private villa. This statue may have represented Nero as the sun god Sol and this idea is widely accepted among scholars but some are convinced that Nero was not identified with Sol while he was alive. The face of the statue was modified shortly after Nero’s death during Vespasian’s reign to make it truly a statue of Sol, Hadrian moved it, with the help of the architect Decrianus and 24 elephants, to a position next to the Flavian Amphitheater. This building took the name Colosseum in the Middle Ages, after the nearby, or, as some historians believe. The Golden House was designed as a place of entertainment, as shown by the presence of 300 rooms without any sleeping quarter, Neros own palace remained on the Quirinal Hill. No kitchens or latrines have been discovered, rooms sheathed in dazzling polished white marble were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras that concentrated or dispersed the daylight. There were pools in the floors and fountains splashing in the corridors, some of the extravagances of the Domus Aurea had repercussions for the future. The architects designed two of the dining rooms to flank an octagonal court, surmounted by a dome with a giant central oculus to let in light. It was a use of Roman concrete construction. One innovation was destined to have an influence on the art of the future, Nero placed mosaics, previously restricted to floors. According to some accounts, perhaps embellished by Neros political enemies, Pliny the Elder watched it being built and mentions it in his Naturalis Historia. Frescoes covered every surface that was not more richly finished, the main artist was one Famulus. Fresco technique, working on damp plaster, demands a speedy and sure touch, Famulus, Pliny, in his Natural History, recounts how Famulus went for only a few hours each day to the Golden House, to work while the light was right. The swiftness of Famuluss execution gives a wonderful unity and astonishing delicacy to his compositions, Pliny the Elder presents Amulius as one of the principal painters of the domus aurea, More recently, lived Amulius, a grave and serious personage, but a painter in the florid style. By this artist there was a Minerva, which had the appearance of looking at the spectators. He only painted a few hours each day, and then with the greatest gravity, for he kept the toga on
Domus Aurea
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Domus Aurea
Domus Aurea
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Statue of a muse in the newly reopened Domus Aurea
Domus Aurea
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The style of wall paintings in Domus Aurea inspired Raphael's
Vatican Stanze and 18th-century Neoclassicism alike.
Domus Aurea
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Evidence of algae damage, February 2007
7.
Grotesque
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In art, performance, and literature, however, grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity. More specifically, the forms on Gothic buildings, when not used as drain-spouts, should not be called gargoyles. The word first was used of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins that were called at that time Le Grotte due to their appearance. Spreading from Italian to the other European languages, the term was used largely interchangeably with arabesque and moresque for types of decorative patterns using curving foliage elements. Rémi Astruc has argued that there is an immense variety of motifs and figures. Beyond the current understanding of the grotesque as an aesthetic category, moreover, Astruc identifies the grotesque as a crucial, and potentially universal, anthropological device that societies have used to conceptualize alterity and change. Such designs were fashionable in ancient Rome, as fresco wall decoration, floor mosaics, the Roman wall decorations in fresco and delicate stucco were a revelation. The first appearance of the word appears in a contract of 1502 for the Piccolomini Library attached to the duomo of Siena. Light scrolling grotesques could be ordered by confining them within the framing of a pilaster to give them more structure, giovanni da Udine took up the theme of grotesques in decorating the Villa Madama, the most influential of the new Roman villas. In the 16th century, such artistic license and irrationality was controversial matter, more familiar material for grotesques could be drawn from Ovids Metamorphoses. This large array provided a repertoire of elements that were the basis for later artists across Europe, counter Reformation writers on the arts, notably Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, bishop of Bologna, turned upon grottesche with a righteous vengeance. Vasari, echoing Vitruvius, described the style as follows, Grotesques are a type of extremely licentious, other 16th-century writers on grottesche included Daniele Barbaro, Pirro Ligorio and Gian Paolo Lomazzo. In the meantime, through the medium of engravings the grotesque mode of surface ornament passed into the European artistic repertory of the 16th century, from Spain to Poland. Later Mannerist versions, especially in engraving, tended to lose that initial lightness and be more densely filled than the airy well-spaced style used by the Romans. Soon grottesche appeared in marquetry, in maiolica produced above all at Urbino from the late 1520s, then in book illustration, in the 17th and 18th centuries the grotesque encompasses a wide field of teratology and artistic experimentation. The monstrous, for instance, often occurs as the notion of play, the sportiveness of the grotesque category can be seen in the notion of the preternatural category of the lusus naturae, in natural history writings and in cabinets of curiosities. The last vestiges of romance, such as the marvellous also provide opportunities for the presentation of the grotesque in, for instance, the mixed form of the novel was commonly described as grotesque - see for instance Fieldings comic epic poem in prose. Grotesque ornament received an impetus from new discoveries of original Roman frescoes and stucchi at Pompeii
Grotesque
–
Mother Nature is surrounded by grottesche in this fresco detail from
Villa d'Este.
Grotesque
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Renaissance grotesque motifs in assorted formats.
Grotesque
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Roman frescos in Nero's
Domus Aurea
Grotesque
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Ceiling of the
Piccolomini Library
