The Portinari Altarpiece (1476-1479) by Hugo van der Goes, is an astonishing Netherlandish masterpiece (figure 1). Situated in the Galleria degli Uffizi amongst the Italian masters, it dominates the space in terms of size and virtuosity. In considering the complexities of its treatment and meaning, any analysis needs to integrate a number of points. Recent technical development has allowed new revelations but this needs to be assessed in the context of Hugo’s stylistic and physiological proclivity, the demands of the donors and the function of the altarpiece within a contemporary fifteenth century context.
Tommaso Portinari commissioned this altarpiece for the chapel of Sant’ Egidio, in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, Florence, of which his family was patrons. The dedication of artworks to chapel hospitals by wealthy donors was customary. Such commissions served the vainglory of the patrons and perhaps also enhanced prospects for a propitious incorporeal exchange; piety for transgression. Hospitals served the poor and moribund. The altarpiece’s primary function was to adjure the dying to seek ablation for their sin and find salvation for their souls. Hugo believed indubitably, like his spiritual leader Geert Grote, “that images that stick tenaciously to the mind imprint all the more forcefully the spiritual realities signified through them”. For Italians conversant with tempera, the oil medium with its rich, saturated palette and translucent, light reflecting glazes would have seemed preternatural.
Portinari, with sons Antonio and Pigello, along with Saints, Anthony Abbot and Thomas occupy the left wing (figure 2). At the medial edge of the wing is a gate providing an interface between the temporal and holy realms...
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...e Interpretation of Eucharistic Motifs in Medieval Epiphany Scenes.” The Art Bulletin 49, no.4 (1967): 311-316. dio: 10.2307/3048491
Walker, Robert W. “The Demon of the Portinari Altarpiece.” The Art Bulletin 42, no. 3 (1960): 218-219.
Williamson, Beth. “Altarpieces, Liturgy and Devotion.” Speculum 79, no.2 (2004): 341-406. dio: 10.1017/S0038713400087947
As a footnote
Robert M. Walker, “ The Demon of the Portinari Altarpiece,” The Art Bulletin 42, no.3 (1960): 218
Walker, The Demon of the Portinari,” 218-9
Ibid.
Personal trip to the Uffizi, March 2014.
On the back of the side panel: Virgin of the Annunciation and The Archangel Gabriel in monochrome.
Internal panels: The Portinari Tripthch– Adoration of the Shepherds with the Patrons and Guardian Saints.
c.1477-1478
Oil on wood
253 x 304 cm (central panel); 253 X 141 (side panels)
Inv. 1890 nos. 3191-3193
The Stavelot Triptych is stunning in its complexity and artistry. It was created by unknown artists, around mid-12th century, possibly for Abbot Wibald, in modern-day Mosan, Belgium. This artwork is currently on display in the Jerusalem exhibit at the MET. The Stavelot Triptych not only tells the story of the True Cross, but it shows the division of the Roman Empire, division of Christianity and the artistic differences between the East and the West. This formal analysis will express how the structure/shape, color, line, composition and techniques/ textures contribute to the meaning of the triptych.
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...
Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes epitomizes the style of artwork during the Italian Baroque era. By using a Catholic subject and key elements and techniques essential to baroque art such as chiaroscuro and foreshortening, she was able to create a piece that gushes drama and realism. Without the use of all of these elements the effect would be lost, but instead the piece is one that moves the viewer with its direct and gritty realism of the religious subject, evoking emotion in a way that leaves the viewer in awe.
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
The first painting to be in this exhibition will be Head of Saint John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini in 1468. This piece shows the recently cut off head of St. John, patron saint of cutters, done in the Venetian colorito style. St. John the Baptis...
Von Rohr Scaff, S. 2002. The Virgin Annunciate in Italian Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. College Literature. 29(3):109-123.
In his Earlier Rule, Francis encouraged the friars to preach through their actions rather than their words (Let all the brothers, however preach by their deeds). For Francis, gestures and symbols were as important as the words themselves. In the Franciscan sources, Francis depended as much on dramatic gestures and images as he did upon words he spoke (or didn’t speak) to preach his message. The meal at the Greccio provides an excellent example of how Francis used both of these elements, as well as words to make manifest “sermon”. This paper will examine this Greccio meal through the lens of two sources, the earlier Assisi Compilation and the later work, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul by Thomas of Celano. The Greccio meal will be compared and contrasted in these two sources, especially with regards to the significance of Francis unspoken actions within these writings. For Francis, actions did indeed speak louder than words.
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.
Marshall, L. (1994). Manipulating the sacred: Image and plague in Renaissance Italy. Renaissance Quarterly, 47(3), 485-532. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Even thought during 15th century, Northern Europe experienced numerous alterations in representation of pictorial space, this paper will only address two of the major changes. They include “MAN IN A RED TURBAN” which was developed by Jan van Eyck in 1433 and “DIPTYCH OF MAARTEN CAN NIEUWENHOVE” developed by Hans Memling in 1487. In these two arts, the sculptors used colored pigments, drying oils such as walnut, linseed, and poopy-seed oil. The tools included wood panel, canvas, wall, brushes, and spatulas (Pearson, 2005; Fuga, 2006).
Smith, R. “Eternal objects of desire. Art Review- Art and love in Renaissance Italy” in New York Times Art and Design, November 20, (2008)
The piece Madonna with Saints and scenes of the life of christ ,a portable altarpiece and tryptic painting series by artist Maso Di Banco one of the most gifted pupil and associate of Giotto(The Brooklyn Museum,European art).Illustrates the life of christ from the birth of christ from right the birth of christ,center the annunciation of christ,left the crucifixion and top center the resurrection of christ.This piece shows just how much christianity was valued.This art form was so significant to this period they pass the practice down.Through books like ll Libro dell'Arte c.1370-1440 with step by step instructions on this technique cennino cennini on panel painting(cothren And stokstad 544).These artist created shrines to christ as seen in the piece by Maso Di Banco.The three dimensional portable gold altarpiece with decorative relief...
The tendencies of Baroque translated differently in parts of Europe. In Italy, it reflected the return of intense piety through dense church ornamentations, complex architecture, and dynamic painting. Calabrese’s work exhibits the combined artistic stimuli of the 17th century and culminates in the acquired Caravagesque style that alters how paintings were composed from then on. Executed at the height of Calabrese’s most creative phase, St. John the Baptist Preaching is indicates the monumentality of change in urbanization as well as the return of Catholic permanence in the 1600’s. Aside from the Baroque power of the artwork, Calabrese’s St. John is a piece worth gravitating to and stands as reminder of the grandiose excesses of Baroque art.
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.
Weyer, J. (1563). De praestigiis daemonum [The Deception of Demons]. Basel, Switzerland: Per Joannem Oporinum.