Week 1: Chapter 14, Italy (1200 to 1400)

Question 0

Who designed The Lamentation? What is it? How old?

Answer 0

Giotto (Italian), 1305

a fresco in the Arena Chapel, Jesus laying, held/surrounded by saints/religious figures, chiaroscuro in cliff and tree in background, 10 angels in the sky above them (foreshortening)

-use of overlap, figures receding into space (body parts hidden from sight), divine figures increasingly humanized

Question 1

Who designed the Arena Chapel? What is it? How old?

Answer 1

Giotto (Italian), 1306

private family patronage, family chapel next to their palace (saving the Scrovengi family sins of usury with money/patronage to church)

• surrounded/enclosed by images (many narrative scenes), naturalism
• Giotto’s modernism: foreshortening, chiaroscuro

Question 2

Who designed the Pulpit of Pisa? What is it? How old?

Answer 2

Pisano (Italian), 1260

an old fashioned, Byzantine style marble sculpture with Roman inspired features (lions supporting some columns)

• carved relief panels
• Corinthian columns (Roman)
• rounded arches (Roman)
• similar to older, Byzantine style (crowded space, important figures largest)
• modern changes (Roman style faces/beards/long noses/high foreheads/idealized, Roman goddess Juno = model for Mary)

Question 3

Who created the Maestà? What is it? How old?

Answer 3

Duccio (Italian), 1311

virgin and child enthroned with saints, principal panel of the Maestà altarpiece (Sienna, Italy), tempera and gold leaf on wood

Question 4

Who were painters and calligraphers working from Akhlaq-I Nasiri Nasirean Ethics c. 1590-1595?

Answer 4

Nasir as-Din Tusi (Persian), 1590-95

Question 5

buon fresco

Answer 5

mural painting technique applying pigments thinned in water to fresh plaster (permanent)

Question 6

fresco secco

Answer 6

dry fresco, not as durable

Question 7

chiaroscuro

Answer 7

use of contrasts (dark/light) to produce modeling

Question 8

International style

Answer 8

combination of French Gothic with modern naturalism

-rich colors, lavish costume, intricate ornamentation, elegant shapes, delicate lines

Question 9

stigmata

Answer 9

• Christ’s wounds
• sign of God’s blessing
• sign of spiritual devotion

Question 10

Byzantine style

Answer 10

divine space/figures, flat, usually gold, suppress physical dimensionality but emphasize spiritual qualities

Question 11

miniature

Answer 11

book page size, hand-held