Art History IIInstructor Dustin M Price

Quiz 2

Please answer the following question:

What kind of natural disaster occurred in Florence, Italy in 1966 that revolutionized Art Restoration and Preservation techniques?

What did we cover last time?

- Masaccio

- Masaccio’s fresco Trinity (c. 1426, Santa Maria Novella, Florence) used full perspective for one of the first times in Western art

- The Brancacci Chapel

- Masaccio’s The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and The Tribute Money

- Chiaroscuro

- Giornate

- 1966 flood of Florence

- Mugello, nicknamed “Fra Angelico” (Angelic Brother)

Painting in Florence after Masaccio

-Fra Filippo Lippi

- Not all Florentine painting during the mid 15th century was of a religious nature, during this time portraiture comes into its own as a major form of artistic expression.

- One of the most famous of these portrait artists was Lippi

-His painting called Portrait of a Woman and Man 1435-1445 (left) is one of the earliest surviving double portraits of the Renaissance

-Lippi grew up as an orphan in the Carmelite church where Masaccio had painted his famous fresco’s in the Brancacci Chapel

- The exact reason for the painting still remains a mystery

Italian Art in the Second Half of the 15th Century

-The ideas and ideals of artists like Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Masaccio began to spread across Italy from Florence in the second half of the 15th century

- Northern Italy embraced these new ideas quickly

- Especially in places like Urbino, Mantua, Venice, and Rome.

-The palace at Urbino under Frederico da Montefeltro developed into a thriving artistic center

- The courtyard (left) reflects the newest sensations in 15th century architectural styles

- Frederico brought the artist Piero Della Fransesca to Urbino

Italian Art in the Second Half of the 15th Century

-Piero Della Fransesca

- Worked in Florence in the 1430’s

- Knew current art theory and practice – including Brunelleschi’s system of spatial illusionism and linear perspective

- Piero was so well versed in artistic theory he was one of the few artists of the time to write his own books

- Piero traveled all across Italy especially to Urbino where he would complete one of his most famous works Battista Sforza and Frederico da Montefeltro 1474 (next slide)

Madonna and Child with Saints (Montefeltro Altarpiece)1472-74

FRONT

Back

Italian Art in the Second Half of the 15th Century

-Piero Della Fransesca

- Piero traveled all across Italy especially to Urbino where he would complete one of his most famous works Battista Sforza and Frederico da Montefeltro 1474 (next slide)

- This painting was done of Battista Frederico’s recently deceased wife.

- The small panel paintings resemble Flemish paintings in their detail and luminosity (a very difficult achievement in tempera)

- The strict profile was very much an Italian tradition.

- Notice the detail in Battista’s necklace and clothing

- Also notice the atmospheric perspective being used

Italian Art in the Second Half of the 15th Century

-Piero Della Fransesca

-The typical Italian profile also allowed two horrible cars on Frederico’s face a missing eye due to a sword blow, and a broken nose

- The background in the back includes the hills around Urbino

- Frederico wears his finest Ducal robe

- you can also see that the river in the background narrows this was a famous northern European device to demonstrate depth.

-Flemish painters were present in the Urbino court so Piero would have seen artists utilizing these tactics

- It is said that when Battista passed Frederico was devastated, rarely arranged aristocratic marriages blossomed into loving relationships

Lets move to Rome for a moment:

-Rome’s development into an artistic center was greatly aided by Pope Sixtus IV calling many young Florentine and Umbrian artists to Rome in the 1480’s to work on the walls of the newly built Sistine Chapel

- Artists Botticelli and Ghirlandaio were among these artists

- But many historians believe that another artist nicknamed Perugino was the actual supervising artist in charge of the project.

- Artist Pietro Vannucci nicknamed Perugino (1445-1523) worked in Florence briefly but by 1479 had moved to Rome and was working on the Sistine murals.

Perugino The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [left panel] , c. 1482/1485

Sandro Botticelli 1445-1510

-Botticelli's early years are obscure, but he seems to have been trained in the studio of Filippo Lippi whose style informs his earliest dated work, the Fortitude panel (left)

- Many of Botticelli's paintings are undated

- in 1481-82 he was commissioned to join Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli (the most celebrated painters of the day) to paint frescoes for the Sistine Chapel

- Botticelli's two most famous paintings were painted around this time, possibly for Lorenzo de' Medici. They are the Primavera (c1478) and the Birth of Venus (c1483)

- it has been suggested, that these two works embody the moral and metaphysical Neoplatonic ideas that were then fashionable in the Medici circles.

What is your text referring to when using the word, “Neoplatonic” when describing some of Botticelli’s work?

Neoplatonic: the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists. Neoplatonists would have considered themselves simply Platonists, and the modern distinction is due to the perception that their philosophy contained sufficiently unique interpretations of Plato to make it substantially different from what Plato wrote and believed. - Neoplatonism attempted to reconcile Christian doctrine with the classical philosophies of Greek and Roman society.

Things to remember for Exam 1:

Vocab: Chiaroscuro Giornate the angeli del fango or Angels of Mud1966 Flood of Florence

Artists/Art to Remember: Masaccio Trinity and The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise Fra Filippo Lippi Portrait of a Woman and Man 1435-1445 and Battista Sforza and Frederico da Montefeltro 1474 Perugino's Crucifixion with SaintsBotticelli's Primavera

Pages to read before next class: 631 - 642