October 19, 2009

October 19, 2009 Giorgione Sleeping Venus, c. 1505 First erotic nude Sleeping Titian Venus of Urbino, 1538 She is presenting herself in the nude to the viewer Awake Titian is saying that the viewer and the subject have a very close relationship Chest in the background Sleeping dog Myrtle plant (evergreen)- traditional symbol of marriage The painting was made for a man who was 30 and a girl who was only 12 when they wed. The painting is more addressed to the girl: what to expect with marriage. Woman are expected to carry a child. The placement of the woman?s hand is meant to be an instruction to the girl to enjoy sex. Titians invent the erotic nude As he grows older, he adopts painterly handling Andrea Palladio Perhaps the most influential of all Renaissance architects due to his Four Books on Architecture (1570) Thomas Jefferson referred to it as ?the Bible? of Architecture Much of his architecture is on the mainland of Italy, in rich suburb houses he designed for the Venetian aristocracy Villa Rotonda (formerly Villa Capra), near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1550-1570 Central plan architecture for domestic housing A way of showing off status/property Sophisticated country house Responsible for those windows now found in every mansion in America (Palladian window) Tomas Jefferson?s house resembled this design Martin Luther (1485-1546)Protestant Reformation begins 1517 Pope Paul III Farnese starts the Counter Reformation (Catholic) 1545-1648 Called for a council that met in the city of Trent to see if they could fix the problem of the Reformation, from 1545-1563 Protestants did not believe that art should be conceived in a church, so they destroyed any art that was in their churches Iconoclasm Literally, the destruction of images. Usually done for religious or political reasons Endorsed by John Calvin and others, but not Martin Luther Waves of iconoclastic riots continued throughout the 1500s in Northern Europe, beginning in Zurich, Switzerland in 1523 Ghent altarpiece escaped destruction by only a half and hour The Catholic church embraces the use of Art, but Mannerism presents a problem El Greco, Laocoon Joachim Wtewael, Deluge, 1590s Council of Trent, last session, 1563: With Mannerism being so strange, the Church felt art was not serving the needs of the faithful, and offered some guidelines for art to be once again useful to the church: Art must be real as possible, even if the subject is horrible Art must be simple, clear and legible Art should evoke a pious response The Pope?s Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena in response to Michelangelo?s Last Supper: It was a most dishonest act in such a respectable place to have painted so many naked figures immodestly revealing their shameful parts; it was not a work for papal chapel but for a bathhouse or house of ill-fame? Someone was brought in to cover privaes Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi, 1573 First called a Last Supper But there is a cat and dog fighting over a bone. Servants and dwarfs appear in the scene. There is a man picking his teeth. A man leaning over the stairway with a cloth in his hand with blood. People in turbans witness. The other side presents Germans (the Protestants leaning away from the faith). None of these people were at the Last Supper. Seen as mocking the scene, so the artist had to change the title to something more gereral Mannerism comes to an abrupt stop Baroque: 1600-1700 Caravaggio, Entombment, c. 1603 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Likely the most influential painter of the 17th century in Europe He developed a set of approaches to realism in painting that influenced every artist in Europe of that time Supper at Emmaus, 1600 Currently in Chicago Scene from after Christ resurrects and his disciples are unaware of his resurrection. They meet a stranger on the street and invite him to dinner. At dinner, Christ asks if he is recognized and everyone is shocked. Links the space of the viewer?s world to the space of the painting New dimension of time Motion Vivid psychology Judith and Holofernes, 1600 Vivid expression Medusa, 1602 Infamous for his violent temper and scrapes with the law Pioneered most of the new ideas in realism that distinguished the Baroque era Killed a man in 1606 and was on the run until his death due to illness in 1610 Basket of Fruit, c .1595 Excelled at making realistic still lives Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c. 1592-93 One of the first attempts with a portrait Viewer participation in his artwork