Wednesday, February 10, 1999

Announcements:

• none

• Mannerism (1520's-1600)
• a mannered style
• not natural
• exaggerated

• traditional:
• Christ at center
• surrounded by saints
• non-traditional:
• a young Christ
• like a solar/pagan deity
• ambiguous pose: sitting/standing
• saints look terrified
• Mary is turned away--withdrawn
• harsh, bright, iridescent colors
• figures twist and writhe
• composition:
• turbulent, troubled
• not orderly
• no clear division between damned and saved
• as there usually is in such Judgment Day images
• Rome had been sacked about 10 years previously
• this piece reflects the turbulence of the times
• reflects Michelangelo's personal crisis
• St. Bartholomew's skin has Michelangelo's face
• Michelangelo appears among the saved, but he doubts his worthiness

Deposition, Jacopo Pontormo, c.1526-28

• bright colors
• crowded composition
• not natural
• deliberately turning his back on linear perspective
• a spiral pulls the eye toward the center
• twisted, contorted
• conveys emotion
• it is difficult to determine which of the hands at center belong to which figure
• spiritual anguish during the descent from the cross

The Madonna with the Long Neck, Parmigianino, c. 1535

• breaking rules of perspective and proportion to create an ideal of beauty
• Madonna's form is compared by the artist to the classical vase that is located next to her in the image
• child is also elongated
• Hand
• long, narrow tapering fingers
• COMPARE:  "Small Cowper Madonna", Raphael, c.1505
• stable
• composition is centered

• breaking from the past through developing an eye for detail
• artistic center: Flanders
• banking and weaving are the source of money to commission artwork
• work was also commissioned by aristocracy

The Mérode Altarpiece (open), Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle), triptych, c. 1425-30

• oil
• shift from aristocracy to middle class patrons
• at left are the donors
• the Annunciation
• no sense of proportion of figures to the space
• interested in detail, rather than perspective
• symbolism
• Joseph making mousetraps
• a snare to capture the Devil--Christ as the bait
• vase with lilies
• purity of Mary
• candle
• light of God
• light out--has been passed to Mary
• water pitcher
• Mary as living waters of scripture
Wedding Portrait (Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride), Jan van Eyck, 1434
• wealthy middle/merchant class, not aristocrats
• symbols transform domestic interior into a holy place
• symbolism
• his shoes are removed
• holy ground
• hat/veil
• cover one's head in church
• carving of St. Margaret and the Dragon
• in preparation for future childbearing
• dog
• faith, fidelity
• green: love
• white: purity
 
Ghent Altarpiece, Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed after 1432.
• fall of Adam and Eve to redemption of all humans
• Annunciation scene
• at bottom: two saints and patrons