We've started our discussion of Northern European Art of the 15th Century with a look at sculpture, Claus Sluter's Well of Moses, and the graphic arts, The Buxheim St. Christopher, with your second assignment. Today we'll be looking at the developments Northern European artists were involved with in the form of painting, and they are substantial. The Renaissance period is associated with Italy and the developments made there by scholars, particularly humanist scholars, and the artists who brough those humanist ideals to life. However, Northern Europe also made substantial contributions to scholarship and the arts at the same time and in communion with its southern European neighbors. The continent was linked through trade and commerce, religion and political influence, and scholastic endeavor at the prominent universities throughout Europe. Our study of painting here brings us to Flanders in the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) and the Northern Netherlands (present-day Holland), as we look at the work of Robert Campin, Hubert and Jan van Eyck, and Rogier van der Weyden. Your task for today is to watch the videos associated with each masterpiece below by these Northern European artists. Select ONE of these works to evaluate, and evaluate that work based on ONE design principle we've been introduced to in class. Describe the design principle you are working with and how it's depicted in the artwork you've chosen. Your description need not be lengthy but considered and clearly stated. Enjoy learning about these beautiful OIL paintings now… Attributed to Robert Campin or the Master of Flémalle Mérode Triptych ca 1425-30 Oil on Wood panel center section: 25 3/16” x 24 7/8” each wing: 25 3/8” x 10 7/8” Metropolitan Museum of Art Khan Academy, Mérode Altarpiece (Video, 11:32) Hubert and Jan van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece (Open polyptych, above) (Closed polyptych, below) Completed 1432 Oil on Panel 11’5” x 7’6” Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent, Belgium Khan Academy, Ghent Altarpiece, Part 1 (Video, 5:18) Khan Academy, Ghent Altarpiece, Part 2 (Video 7:23) Rogier van der Weyden
Descent from the Cross (Deposition) ca 1435 Oil on panel 7’ 2 5/8” x 8’ 7 1/8” Prado Museum, Madrid Khan Academy Rogier van der Weyden's Deposition (Video, 7:09)
These two works of art we have been introduced to represent models of Byzantine and Late Middle Ages Italian (Protorenaissance) Art.
Byzantine art made a powerful impact on 13th- and 14th-century Italian painting. Panel paintings such as this Madonna and Child on Curved Throne by an anonymous artist were highly influential in the development of Italian painting. Painting on wooden panel had not been common in medieval Europe as church decorations were mostly on the walls themselves, in fresco, such as Giotto's series of wall paintings for the Scrovegni Chapel, or mosaic (images created using varied colored stones or pieces of glass). Regardless of the type of painting–illuminated manuscript, panel painting, altarpiece, or fresco–the common and binding theme for the majority of the works produced in Europe in the 13th- and 14th-centuries, as well as the following centuries, was the representation of the life of Jesus, his mother and the saints. Christian themes dominate as the unifying force in Europe at this time was religion. The threat of Muslim forces from the East, the western Crusades that launched missions to the Holy Lands in Jerusalem to stave off control of these sacred sites from non-Christian regimes, and European monarchs who proclaimed their support and acquired legitimacy to their rule from the Church, all strengthened this visual representation. Review the class handout, The Life of Jesus in Art, and choose a subject from that reading that speaks to you. For your post, conduct a web search for a work of art that depicts this subject and provide the website url for the work to share with your classmates. A site I recommend for your search is listed on the Resources page, Web Gallery of Art. Please post by 11:59 pm, . I look forward to posting those images on the blog. Daniel Chester French Lincoln Memorial (detail) 1911–1922 Photograph (1922) of full-sized plaster model of head (1917–1918) 50-1/2" tall As introduced in our lecture, What Is Art?, we have come to identify the elements with which an artist works to successfully communicate their meaning and purpose. Along with line, shape, mass, space, time and motion, color and texture, an artist heavily relies on light, whether actual or implied. Our eyes are light-sensing instruments and everything we see is made visible by light. Implied light is achieved in a painting when an artist utilizes hues in values from light to dark, from bright white accents to dark shades in order to illuminate their subjects, to show their volume and mass. Actual light, whether it is sunlight, moonlight, or artificial light, also plays a role in how a work of art communicates. The way light falls on a subject influences, greatly, how we see it, as can be evidenced in the plaster model of the head of Abraham Lincoln shown here.
How does the application of light on a three-dimensional object, the portrait of Abraham Lincoln here, change your perception of the man being represented? Please respond by
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