Donatello's Mary Magdalene

This Thursday we will be discussing the early Italian Renaissance in Florence, which is in many ways a counterpart to Bruges (the hometown of Jan van Eyck) in northern Europe.  Yet unlike in Bruges, it was sculpture rather than painting that dominated the achievements of Florentine art during the fifteenth century.  The sculptor Donatello was one of the greatest artists in the city who produced several works, likely including this wooden statue of Mary Magdalene, for the Florence Cathedral.  Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who converted to Christianity and became a follower of Christ.  According to legend, she became an extreme penitent after Christ's death, living in the wilderness and devoting herself to prayer.  Donatello depicts her here during this period at the end of her life.  The sculpture would originally have been fully painted and was even partially gilded with gold leaf.  How does Donatello use details such as texture, pose, etc. to heighten the drama of Magdalene's figure and emphasize her piety?  Does anything surprise you about this work as an example of Italian Renaissance art, based on your prior knowledge and expectations?

Hieronymus Bosch's Death and the Miser

Hieronymus Bosch was one of the most original and inventive artists of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, who was active as a painter in the Netherlands a few generations after Jan van Eyck.  Yet Bosch's art is still very much bound up in the a medieval Christian world view, particularly in relation to the theme of Last Judgment.  In this painting of "Death and a Miser," Bosch shows up a man on his deathbed who has not fully prepared himself for the next life.  What details stand out to you as significant?  How does Bosch use the theme of Last Judgment and the model of the Gothic Cathedral to structure this pictorial narrative?

Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross

Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross (1435) dates over one hundred years after Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel, and it was created in the Netherlands rather than Italy.  However, it shares with Giotto's narrative scenes a new interest in expressing dramatic emotional intensity.  How would you compare Van der Weyden's approach to expressing emotion as similar and different to Giotto's approach in his Lamentation from the Arena Chapel (which we discussed in Tuesday's lecture, and which was the subject of the previous blog post)?

Giotto's Lamentation of Christ

This week we begin our discussion of the Early Renaissance period, which raises a key question: to what extent does the Renaissance constitute a break from the past and to what extent does it continue the interests, themes, and functions of art established in antiquity and the Middle Ages?  Giotto's frescoes for the Arena Chapel in Padua (c. 1305) are an excellent case study for this question.  Look closely at this scene representing the Lamentation of the Dead Christ by the Virgin Mary and his other followers.  Do any aspects of the scene (its structure, emotion, etc.) remind you of other works we have discussed already in class?  What figures in particular stand out to you for their poses and expressive qualities?  

Chalice of the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis

In your textbook (Janson, p. 393), there is an excerpt from the very famous description written by the twelfth-century Abbot Suger describing his rebuilding of the French royal Abbey Church of Saint-Denis ( 1137-1144 CE).  Suger addresses one of the questions that came up in Tuesday's lecture: what is the justification for the creation of costly treasury objects in Christian churches?  If the Christianity understands God as an invisible presence, why the emphasis on shiny visible and material things?

Suger says the following (and by "we" he really means "I"):

"We insisted that the sacred, life-giving cross should be adorned.  Therefore we searched around everywhere by ourselves and by our agents for an abundance of precious pearls and gems... Often we contemplate these different ornaments both new and old.  When the loveliness of the many-colored gems has called me away from external cares, and worthy meditation has induced me to reflect on the diversity of the sacred virtues, transferring that which is material to that which is immaterial: then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world..."

The chalice pictured above was part of Abbot Suger's treasury and was used in the ceremony of the Eucharist during the Christian Mass, and ceremonial celebration of Christ's body and blood.  The chalice would have been used for administering the wine that symbolized the blood of Christ.  Like the Lothar Cross, it combines an ancient Roman stone cup and inset gemstones with a medieval gold setting.  What is Suger's justification for creating precious objects like this chalice, and what might be the argument against his claims?

The Bronze Doors of Bishop Bernward, Hildesheim Cathedral

The bronze doors commissioned by Bishop Bernward for Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany, and completed in 1015, are one of the most seminal works of early Medieval art.  They represent an interest in reviving the art of bronze sculpture from antiquity, which we saw already in class as practiced in the ancient Near East and Etruria.  They also demonstrate the continued interest in the medium of relief sculpture as a means of conveying narrative (which we have seen in the Parthenon metopes and the Arch of Titus in Rome).  The small vignette here shows the angel expelling Adam and Eve from Paradise after they have eaten the forbidden fruit and committed Original Sin.  How do the representation of figures and choice of details included in this sparse composition convey that story?  You might also comment on how this relief sculpture differs from the narrative movement and drama of the Arch of Titus frieze we discussed last week.  

The Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France

The Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France (top image) is one of the best preserved of all ancient Roman temples.  Significantly, it is NOT in Rome but was erected in the Roman province of Gaul (as the region of France was known in antiquity).  Art and architecture in the provinces was one means for the Romans to assert their authority through visual presence, even at great distance from the ancient capital.

When the American president Thomas Jefferson traveled through France in 1787, he visited the Maison Carrée and declared that it was "the most perfect and precious remains of antiquity."  When he returned home, he also modeled his architectural design for the Virginia State Capitol (bottom image) in Richmond on the Maison Carrée.  Interestingly, Jefferson never visited Rome and so his appreciation for the temple in Nîmes may have been inflected in part by his lack of firsthand knowledge of more famous Roman buildings.  Yet even so, why do you think Jefferson might have found the Maison Carrée so appealing and how did he adapt its model in his design for the Virginia Capitol (i.e. what is similar and different between the buildings)?  And what do you notice about how the Maison Carrée itself differs from the design of the ancient Greek Parthenon?

Etruscan Tomb from Cerveteri

Across the history of art, representations of smiling figures prove to be far less common than serious expressions.  In difference to our modern inclination to smile for the camera, artists and patrons in antiquity and pre-modern Europe most often opted for portrayals that emphasized intellectual, political, or religious authority through features variously stern, pensive, and commanding.  The ancient Archaic period, however, was a notable exception to this general tendency, and this ancient Etruscan funerary sculpture pictured here is one of the most famous examples of smiling in Western Art.  Designed to serve as part of the couple's burial complex, the sculpture shows the pair not only alive but also actively engaged with one another as they recline on a bed.  Some questions to consider: How would you describe the expressions on their faces?  How are they portrayed differently from the sculptures of Egyptian ruling couples that we discussed last week?  And what features of the two figures seems especially significant/interesting to you?

Isadora Duncan and Jane Mansfield at the Parthenon, Athens

These two old photographs show the famous dancer Isadora Duncan (top) and actress Jane Mansfield (bottom) standing in the ruins of the Parthenon, the most celebrated monument of ancient Athens.  We will discuss this monument in detail during this coming Thursday's class.  As a preview to our discussion, these photographs raise an important question: what is the relationship between the body and architectural space?  How do these two images comment on that relationship and consequently emphasize different views/interpretations of the ancient structure itself?