Monday, February 22, 1999

Announcements:

• exams will be returned to us on Monday, March 1
• examples of excellent (or "A") exams will be available on reserve in the Art History library for us to consult

    Isenheim Altarpiece, Grünewald, c.1510-15 (continued from 2/15)

• considered by some to be the greatest Northern Renaissance work
• approximately 10 feet by 11 feet in size
• polyptych (multiple panels)
• closed:
• Sts. Sebastian and Anthony
• Christ
• full physical manifestation of the horror
• expressionist exaggeration/elongation
• especially of the hands
• mourners (hands clasped) convey emotion
• direction of arms and lines of drapery on Mary Magdalen lead the viewer's eyes to the cross and Christ
• open:
• four scenes
• Annunciation
• Nativity
• Mary with the Christ child
• Resurrection
• iridescent color
• transformational scenes

• used/experimented with watercolors, printmaking
• parallels da Vinci
• major shift in Northern Renaissance early and high periods
• very conscious, systematic attempt to understand developments in Italian art
• detail in nature (sanctity)
• linear perspective
• anatomical accuracy
• fascination with classical techniques and theories
• hoped these Italian innovations would help (economically) German artists
• moved from art as art, rather than art as craft

• print-making
• the artist finally makes money--not a commissioned work, sold by the artist
• single image of fifteen Apocalyptic woodcuts
• the end of the world
• range of lines
• coarse to extremely fine
• tonality give impression of color
• four figures
• death
• famine
• war
• pestilence
• souls being trampled, entering hell
• reflects hope for justice/unification of German principalities

• Dürer developed interest in Martin Luther
• engraving: "burin"
• use of cross-hatching
• texture
• idealization--world before Original Sin
• animals (cat and mouse) living in harmony
• accuracy, perspective: not exaggerated like Grünewald
• goat/snake images represent Satan

• Reformation created problems
• Martin Luther did not emphasize importance of religious images in art
• Dürer found a way around it
• felt religious art could be a distraction
• such art suggested wealth of Catholic Church
• Dürer created it for the Protestant city of Nuremberg
• St. Peter (symbol of the Catholic Church) looks old and aged
• simplified
• quintessentially Protestant painting

• Socio-Political conditions
• Counter Reformation (response to Reformation)
• generated by the Vatican
• to encourage the spread of Catholicism
• rise of new forms of government (modern nation-states)
• centralized
• complex bureaucracy
• in possession of standing armies
• absolute monarchs (Louis XIV)
• new political stability
• growth of bourgeoisie
• expansion of knowledge and investigation
• extension of Renaissance thinking
• study of natural world
• unifying idea: human beings are a part of nature, part of an infinite universe; humans are being given credit for ability to think/understand