Francesco di Lorenzo Mochi was born at Montevarchi on June 29, 1580. He was trained in Florence by the painter Santi di Tito. Santi di Dito favored simple composition and natural form, and rejected the artificiality of Mannerism. [1] With this training, there is a pictorial clarity to Mochi’s relief style. This is shown well in all of Mochi’s works. Mochi’s work is never cluttered, and is always able to convey emotion with any work he takes on. It confirms the positive effect of training in another medium. He is a fantastic sculptor, but is often overshadowed by Bernini, who was also a famous Italian sculptor of the same generation. Mochi died in Rome on February 6, 1654. He created the Tabernacle Door with the Crucifixion from 1635-1640. It’s a bronze relief that represents the moment when Jesus was hung on the cross, telling his mother “Woman, behold your son,” then taken into the care of his disciple, John. It is assumed that Mochi’s work acted as a door because of it’s large size, gilding, keyhole, and hinge. [2] The doors of the tabernacles were considered very important to the Church at this point in time. Tabernacles are not just a holy place, but are utilized for protection and preservation of the Body of Christ. The hosts are kept locked away behind the tabernacle doors, because they are considered sacred and only meant to be handled by a special few. The doors held a great purpose: to keep the Eucharist withdrawn from normal citizens, and the tabernacle door’s decorations reflect this ideal. Mochi’s tabernacle door not only shows the importance of relinquishing the visibility of the representation of the Body of Christ, but also exhibits Mochi’s talent as an artist through his meticulous approach to...
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...ortening in the clouds, and didn’t fail to meticulously sculpt realistic-looking hair. He made a beautifully crafted door that held the sacred duty of hiding the hosts from unworthy eyes. The hosts were hid behind the locked tabernacle to prevent contamination and protect it’s sacred nature. Changes to the appearance and position of tabernacles to protect the Body of Christ show the initial concerns of the Church in that time period. The Church had control on whether the inherit holiness of the hosts was being dissipated. What the doors of the tabernacles offered were symbols on the blocked doorway to the Blessed Sacrament to substitute for the experience. This was the devotees’ access to the Blessed Sacrament, the images on the door. Mochi’s portrayal of the Crucifixion was one of many religious decorations that made it onto the door of the tabernacles.
La Pietà of Giovanni Della Robbia is amazing religious glazed and painted terracotta dated 1510-1520. It was mainly intended to introduce the meaning of the Bible story to large and mainly illiterate audiences. One of the things that this image can tell us about life in western civilization is how much the artists were focused on translating the bible and trying to understand it without the help of the Catholic Church through art and humanism. La Pietà is one of the richest and best known collections of Della Robbia sculptures at the springtime of the renaissance. The creator of the sculpture is Giovanni Della Robbia; the first and epic of a dynasty of important pottery artists, decorators, potters, and terracotta workers. Della Robbia developed a unique pottery glaze that made his creations much more durable in the outdoors and therefore much suitable for use on the exterior of buildings. This was an extraordinarily formal and refined technique that immediately met with great success, so much so that the Della Robbia family’s work flourished for over one hundred years. It uniquely combines archaeometric and stylistic time-related information about the renaissance age in Western Civilization. In its context, La Pietà was created in the 15th century, the renaissance age , when there was a surge in artistic, literary, and scientific activity , especially in Florence, the third largest city in Europe, an independent republic where the Italian Renaissance began, and a banking and commercial capital after London and Constantinople. The renaissance era when this sculptured was created was also marked by few major events such as: religious problems in church, Erasmus publishing Greek edition of the New Treatment ...
The Merode Altarpiece is a triptych painting that represents the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. This work displays the main characteristics of the Northern Late Gothic period. There is so much detail in this work of art. Campin utilizes many symbols in this altarpiec. The setting of the painting is in a Flemish middle class house. The Annunciation theme is being depicted in the central panel. A scene of Saint Joseph at work as a carpenter occupies the right-hand panel. The portraits of the donors are depicted in the left hand panel. Campin failed to understand the scientific perspective. To illustrate, there is no focal point in the painting and the table looks tilted. Campin used no aerial perspective. To illustrate, the background is still very crisp when seen from a distance. The most important aspect of the painting is the symbolism. For example, the lilies represent Mary's purity, the candle represents the Holy Spirit, even the mouse traps represent trapping evil. Campin also made use of bright, rich colors. In the central panel, the drapery of the figures are filled with colors of red and white. Campin has also made a good use of illusion of the space by making the town seem to be far away by distance by making them appear blurry. Furthermore, Campin has created figures that are not in proper proportion. To illustrate, the figure’s head is small and the bodies are big and it seems that if they get will hit their head if they get up. They look very unrealistic. Although they are not in proportion, the figures seem to have very sharp edges. The figures also look very stiff and rigid. In Merode Altarpiece, the light is arbitrary and the figures do not cast any...
The painting, the Way of Salvation was created between the years of 1365-1368 by Andrea da Firenze and is located in the region of Florence Italy. This picture, a religious painting, demonstrates the fresco technique and shows the role of Dominicans and the struggle for salvation (Davies 463). Religious Paintings were often “categorized as historical paintings and therefore the most prestigious genre by the French Academie de peinture et de sculpture” (Way of Salvation). They also depicted “incredibly detailed biblical scenes and generally large in size” (Way of Salvation). This time period followed the Black Death and saw many different types of tombs and chapels be endowed so that people and communities would have a place to be buried.
The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the
The Middle Ages, contrary to its name, was a dynamic period of innovations. Throughout this period, visual arts were employed to communicate important messages to the public as well as private wealthy patrons. A variety of mediums were used to disseminate ideas. Though, the sense of decorum shifted, the purpose of these moralizing images of religious figures remained the same. Art was, as it still is an extremely useful and powerful tool for both religious and political advancements. The two pieces to be considered in this paper were created using scenes from the life of Christ. Themes from the old and new testaments were frequently used in art of the Middle Ages to convey important messages to a largely illiterate populous, display the wealth of few individuals, and create feelings of patriotism and support for the Monarch by relating them to divinity. Both pieces are from different mediums and likely different forms of patronage. To be analyzed in this paper is an illuminated manuscript page (fig 1) and an ivory diptych (fig 2). There are several similarities, as well as differences throughout the works. I will describe each piece then continue to compare and contrast them, this will work to facilitate a greater understanding of the Middle Ages through works of art.
In his Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning (c.1460), a piece within the Northern Renaissance collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rogier van der Weyden portrays a stark image of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The right panel of the diptych depicts the gruesome image of a crucified Christ. Weight pulls the emaciated body down into a Y-shape, contrasting the T-shape of the cross it is mounted on. The only movement comes from the loincloth wrapped around Christ’s waist that dances in the wind. Blood visibly trickles from the corpse’s wounds. Behind the body, a red cloth is draped down the grey wall. At the base of the cross sits a skull and bone. The left panel portrays the Virgin Mary swooning in despair as Saint John attempts to support her weight. Her hands are clasped in prayer as she gazes up at her lifeless son. Both figures are clothed in pale draping robes. The vibrant red of the cloth that hangs from the grey wall in the background contrasts the subdued colors of the
...e, a new generation of sculptors who excelled in the treatment of marble surfaces had rose in Florence. With the change in Florentine taste, all of Donatello’s important requests came from outside Florence. They included the bronze group “Judith and Holofernes” which is now standing before the Palazzo Vecchio and a bronze statue of St. John the Baptist for Siena cathedral, also undertook the work of the pair of bronze doors in the late 1450’s. This project, which might have rivalled Ghiberti’s doors for the Florentine baptistery, was abandoned about 1460 for unknown reasons.
Imagine pondering into a reconstruction of reality through only the visual sense. Without tasting, smelling, touching, or hearing, it may be hard to find oneself in an alternate universe through a piece of art work, which was the artist’s intended purpose. The eyes serve a much higher purpose than to view an object, the absorptions of electromagnetic waves allows for one to endeavor on a journey and enter a world of no limitation. During the 15th century, specifically the Early Renaissance, Flemish altarpieces swept Europe with their strong attention to details. Works of altarpieces were able to encompass significant details that the audience may typically only pay a cursory glance. The size of altarpieces was its most obvious feat but also its most important. Artists, such as Jan van Eyck, Melchior Broederlam, and Robert Campin, contributed to the vast growth of the Early Renaissance by enhancing visual effects with the use of pious symbols. Jan van Eyck embodied the “rebirth” later labeled as the Renaissance by employing his method of oils at such a level that he was once credited for being the inventor of oil painting. Although van Eyck, Broederlam, and Campin each contributed to the rise of the Early Renaissance, van Eyck’s altarpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb epitomized the artworks produced during this time period by vividly incorporating symbols to reconstruct the teachings of Christianity.
In the two different depictions of the scene Betrayal of Christ, Duccio and Giotto show their different styles on how they compose their paintings. The first decision into the composure of the painting would be the comparison of the size of surface they chose to paint on. Duccio in comparison to Giotto chooses to work on a wooden panel no wider than a foot, and Giotto went with a plaster surface with a width of ten feet. This detail alone lets the viewer know that Giotto’s artwork is embedded in detail and visual consumption. The size difference is the factor between who see’s it and what they see; the fine details and symbolism of the narrative will be better understood if the viewer can see every detail.
... the way that the artwork is resembled in the religious background of the gospel but reconstructed in to a celebrating impression. Throughout the fresco painting it depicts the myth of the Christ’s three fold temptations relating back to the article that “distinction between fresco and panel painting is sharp, and that painters are seen as competitors amongst themselves discriminating also, between the difference in genuine attempts in being better then the other.” Baxandall, “Conditions of Trade,” 26. in relation, the painting concerns the painter’s conscious response to picture trade, and the non-isolation in pictorial interests.
Masaccio’s famous religious painting, “The Holy Trinity”, is known for the engagement of linear perspective to create an image that goes beyond just paint on canvas, (or should I say wall?) by creating the illusion of depth. This painting addresses many religious concepts by setting up different levels and layers in the constructed space. The characters depicted are made up of four groups of human figures, which include the Trinity (God the father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit), the Virgin Mary and Saint John, a pair of donors, and a skeleton on a tomb at the bottom of the picture. There is an apparent point of separation, which is made clear due to each group being on separate levels. Their difference in power is fundamental feature in explaining the relationship that is being portrayed between mankind and divinity in this painting. Because of Masaccio’s use and manipulation of perspective and a vanishing point – a new line of finite and infinity is crossed because visual manifestations of a hierarchical division between eternal life above, death below and the living in between are expressed.
As I walked into the first gallery, I saw a wood sculpture that stood in the center of the room. This carving depicted “the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist with Angels holding instruments of the Passion”. It was painted oak and very appealing to the eye. It stood approximately 15 feet in the air. The origin of this sculpture is unknown, but it was found in a Belgium church. This kind of sculpture usually stood at the entrance or at the center of the alter in the church facing the congregation. This image of the suffering Christ relates to the Christian ideas of suffering and Christ’s salvation of all mankind.
The Italian Architects of the seventeenth century faced a huge volume of orders to carry out. The most required orders were churches. (Bazin 15) When Urban VIII became pope he asked Bernini to design a baldachino, also known as a canopy, to define the altar area. Bernini built something that was half sculpture and half architecture that had four columns that were very detailed. The columns were designed with spiraling grooves and vines made of bronze. The spiraling and decorative effects were made to symbolize the union of the new and Old Testaments, the vine of the Eucharist climbing the columns of the temple of Solomon. The Eucharist was the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper. The elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders are at the top of the columns. Angels are along the entablatu...
During the 15th century, Europe started to have different cultural traditions that impacted the type artwork of artwork that was produced. There are several elements that have evolved during this time. Two artworks will be compared so that we will be able to evaluate how various techniques that are used can be used to portray the meaning of the painting as well as how the audience views the scene as well. One of the paintings that we will compare is a Annunciation panel (from the Merode Triptych), which was painted by Robert Campin in 1426. This painting will be compared to Holy Trinity, which was created by Masaccio in 1425. By comparing these two paintings, we will get a sense of what themes and ideals were valued during this time period.
Both Jan van Eyck and Fra Angelico were revered artists for the advances in art that they created and displayed for the world to see. Their renditions of the Annunciation were both very different, however unique and perfect display of the typical styles used during the Renaissance. Jan van Eyck’s panel painting Annunciation held all the characteristics of the Northern Renaissance with its overwhelming symbolism and detail. Fra Angelico’s fresco Annunciation grasped the key elements used in the Italian Renaissance with usage of perspective as well as displaying the interest and knowledge of the classical arts.