Wednesday, February 3, 1999

Announcements:

• the slide list (of images for which we are responsible for exam one) was handed out

• Venetian Painting
• Venetian Kingdom encompassed much of Northern Italy
• was water locked, waterways
• was rumored to have a certain luminosity due to the humidity
• more concerned with rich coloration than artists in central Italy (Florence, Rome)
• color was very important
• mathematics was less important in creating perspective
• especially when linked to religious significance
• e.g. Christ at center, vanishing point in "The Last Supper"
• they master perspective, but the emphasis is on color, rather than structure and design
• focus on light, seems poetic

• use of color, though not necessarily vivid color

•  sense of general space, rather than focused narrative
• unlike "Madonna of the Rocks" in this way
• conglomerate, rather than focused narrative
• less fascination with depiction of objects
• accurate, but not as illusionistic

• less fascination with anatomic accuracy; not an inventory
• distortion through mirror
• comment on vanity
• venus figure
• arm is broadened to meet aesthetic requirements
• Michelangelo and daVinci would not alter anatomy in this way

• one of the most important Venetian artists of the High Italian Renaissance
• influenced Baroque art
• skilled in oil painting
• oil painting came to Italy later than to the Northern Renaissance

• pastoral scene (typical of Venetian paintings) of mythical island of Arcadia
• subtle approaches to human body

• oil paint gives a jewel-like finish
• he used glazes
• red base, pigment, glaze

• Adam of the Sistine Chapel
• human body looks as though it has been constructed from a skeleton
• due to knowledge of anatomy
• musculature

• "the storm", dark clouds
• highly detailed vegetation
• Roman ruins
• suckling child
• onlooking shepherd
• urban landscape
• results in much conjecture
• Venetian artists are drawn to meadows as a result of their water-centered lives

• especially Donato Bramante (1444-1514) and Micheleangelo

• precursor to HIR (High Italian Renaissance)
• linked EIR to HIR
• is a centralized plan
• no long traditional nave
• does not look like Christian cross
• simplified facade
• unification
• spatial flow, symmetry
• philosophical dimension
• spiritual, theological harmony
• refers not to crucifixion, but to the perfection of God Himself

• Raphael's "Betrothal of the Virgin" shows a church with a centralized plan
• Bramante was the founder of Roman HIR architecture
• was originally a painter

• influenced by antiquity
• decorative elements
• sense of unification
• designed surrounding courtyard to be circular to enhance sense of unification
• was never built
• thought to be site of St. Peter's death
• exterior received emphasis
• meant to be viewed from outside
• recalls Greek temples, not Roman basilicas
• not to be entered, but walked around
• eye has dynamic experience with columns (stick out, recede)
• everything is round/cylindrical
• order, harmony, efficiency

• unification
• wholeness

• tenderness, human feeling
• sacramental experience being scaled to a human dimension**

• basilican plan
• Old St. Peter's was in disrepair
• Bramante commissioned by Pope Julius II