Art History

ART102 Art History II

Unit 1 Lecture Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Art before the time of the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, was designed to be symbolic, where images represent Christian ideals and/or philosophies. This resulted in art having a flat, stylized look. You can see here that the images around the figure of St. Claire are stacked on top of each other.

Artists rarely, if ever, signed their work, because the concept of originality was not important. Instead, images were being created to look the same, so they would be recognizable, even from a distance.

Yet starting in 13th century Italy, Artisans became inspired by a surge of art pieces coming back into Europe from the East during the Crusades. These images used a great deal of gold, and the human figures take on a more life-like form (Note the shading in the faces and hands).

Altarpiece of Saint Claire Ca. 1280

Tempera on panel

Convent of Santa Chiara

Assissi, Italy

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Cimabue created images where space and realism took on more significance than symbolism.

Instead of stacked images depicting Christian stories and motifs, we have crowds of angels layered in the background, which gives the illusion of space.

The faces and hands are shaded, which represents realism.

The throne base also has elements of space, in the way that it has a front and sides.

This altarpiece is over 12 feet high, and 7 feet wide.

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned Ca. 1280-1290

Tempera on panel

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Giotto, an Italian artist famous in his own time, was crucial in the development of this new Italian painting style.

Giotto’s work is monumental, both in size and emotional power.

Take note of the angels surrounding the Madonna and child. Instead of looking out onto the viewer, they are all looking at the Madonna and child, heightening their importance.

Giotto’s use of shading becomes more sophisticated than his predecessors. His figures have the look of being bathed in light, where the shading is a gradual shift from dark to light, in the same direction, across the entire image.

Giotto Madonna Enthroned Ca. 1310

Tempera on panel

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Giotto’s greatest achievement is the Arena Chapel, in which he painted floor-to-ceiling frescoes, a process of painting directly into wet plaster.

Giotto The Arena Chapel Ca. 1305-06

(Scrovegni) Chapel

Padua, Italy

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Duccio, an Italian painter from Siena, elevated this new style of painting through his depiction of drapery. The cloth folds and falls in complex, realistic ways across the forms (Giotto’s draperies are more simplified).

Duccio Madonna Enthroned Ca. 1308-11

Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

Florence is becoming a significant city in the history of art in the 13th century. Their iconic cathedral was started in 1296, but their design was so complex and on such a grand scale, it took centuries of study for the building to be completed.

Florence Cathedral and Baptistery Cathedral begun in 1296

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

In addition to grand projects for religious structures, Florence also established impressive structures for their government.

Palazzo Della Signoria Begun 1298, Florence

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

Altarpiece of Saint Claire

Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

Giotto Madonna Enthroned

Giotto The Arena Chapel

Duccio Madonna Enthroned

Florence Cathedral

Palazzo Della Signoria

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

ART 102

In the Netherlands, artists were expanding on the new ideas of painting coming out of Italy, based on the concepts of creating more life-like imagery.

Throughout Europe, the agrarian economy of the Middle Ages evolved into an economy based on manufacturing and trade. Urban communities flourished, and a wealthy middle class evolved from these shifts.

Artists were being commissioned not only by the Church, but by private collectors. Here, we see a move away from Christian motifs an into genre painting, which is scenes from everyday life.

Les Tres Riches Heures (The Book of Hours) was commissioned in 1413 and was never finished. Pages depicting the months in the calendar show images of pastoral scenes, humans interacting with nature through seasonal activities.

Limburg Brothers Les Tres Riches Heures (July) Illumination on vellum

Musee Conde

Chantilly, France

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Robert Campin Merode Triptych Ca. 1425-30

Oil on panel

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (The Cloisters).

A triptych is linked images across three panels. This is the traditional format for altarpieces in the Netherlands.

Campin placed religious narratives into contemporary, urban settings. He sets the scenes into boxes of space, like a diorama. His rich colors and incredible sense of light gives the illusion of reality. He accomplished this by using a newly created medium: oil paint.

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Jan Van Eyck mastered the new medium of oil paint, and his work became the standard of New Realism in the Netherlands.

Opposed to Campin’s intimate scenes, Van Eyck creates grand displays of celebration. Realistic textures, forms, color and light all add to the majesty of this piece.

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece (open) Ca. 1432

Oil on panel

Cathedral of St. Bavo

Ghent, Belguim

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Jan Van Eyck also made secular paintings (paintings that do not have a religious theme), commissions from wealthy nobility and merchants.

The items in this paintings have symbolic meaning, a tradition in paintings commonly found in the Netherlands.

The couple are holding hands, while the man is raising his hand as if taking an oath. This piece is considered to be a wedding portrait.

The mirror on the back wall has a reflection of the guests, one believed to be Van Eyck. Van Eyck signed his name on the wall above the mirror.

The dog symbolizes fidelity. The common name “Fido” comes from the Latin fides, which means faithfulness.

An emblem of St. Margaret is on the bed behind the woman, the Patron Saint of child bearing.

All of these elements, and many more, are still being debated today by art historians.

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait Ca. 1434

Oil on panel

The National Gallery, London

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Along with the developing style of representational accuracy, artists developed the ability to create powerfully emotional scenes.

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross Ca. 1435

Oil on panel

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds Ca. 1474–76

Oil on panel

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Van der Goes created a great sense of space by incorporating atmospheric perspective, where objects in the distance take on the bluish hues of the atmosphere itself. Note the blue-toned hills in the background, as well as how the sky is lightest at the horizon line.

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102

Although arranged in the traditionally religious format of the triptych, this image is highly unorthodox! Hieronymus Bosch is creating satirical scenes of human exchanges in a natural setting. The left panel represents Adam and Eve with God in the Garden of Eden. The center panel is pure debauchery, where humans are participating in sordid scenes. The final panel is dark and scary, like an aftermath. And throughout, there are fantastical creatures and plants, created entirely from imagination.

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights Ca. 1480–1515

Oil on panel

Museo del Prado

Innovations in Northern Europe 15th century

Limburg Brothers

Robert Campin Merode Triptych

Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

Jan Van Eyck The Arnolfini Portrait

Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross

Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Shepherds

Hieronymus Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights

Innovations in Italy 13th–14th centuries

ART 102