What is the political purpose of a work of art?

The Bayeux Tapestry Romanesque Period 1050-1150 1066 Battle of Hastings Duke Williams II of Normandy The Bayeux Tapestry (actually an embroidery measuring over 230 feet long and 20 inches wide) describes the Norman invasion of England and the events that led up to it. It is believed that the Tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo, bishop of Bayeux and the half-brother of William the Conqueror. The Tapestry contains hundreds of images divided into scenes each describing a particular event. The scenes are joined into a linear sequence allowing the viewer to "read" the entire story starting with the first scene and progressing to the last. The Tapestry would probably have been displayed in a church for public view.

The Bayeux Tapestry Romanesque Period 1050-1150 1066 Battle of Hastings Duke Williams II of Normandy History is written by the victors and the Tapestry is above all a Norman document. In a time when the vast majority of the population was illiterate, the Tapestry's images were designed to tell the story of the conquest of England from the Norman perspective. It focuses on the story of William, making no mention of Hardrada of Norway nor of Harold's victory at Stamford Bridge.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's most revolutionary achievement - one of the most remarkable accomplishments of the Renaissance - is the fresco series that lines three walls of the room in the Palazzo Pubblico where Siena's chief magistrates, the Nine, held their meetings (Sala dei Nove). The size of the room is 2,96 x 7,70 x 14,40 m. Ambrogio's task was unprecedented, for he was apparently called upon to paint allegorical depictions of good and bad government and to represent the effects such regimes would have in the town and the country. The result is the first panoramic city/countryscape since antiquity, and the first expansive portrait that we have of an actual city and landscape. Today, the cycle is usually identified as Good and Bad Government. Ambrogio chose the best-illuminated walls for Good Government and its effects, leaving Bad Government in the shadows on a wall that has also suffered considerable damage. Ambrogio Lorenzetti View of the frescoes Sala dei Nove, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 1338-40

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's most revolutionary achievement - one of the most remarkable accomplishments of the Renaissance - is the fresco series that lines three walls of the room in the Palazzo Pubblico where Siena's chief magistrates, the Nine, held their meetings (Sala dei Nove). These frescoes offer an argument about what constitutes good government. The frescoes make a further argument about why good government matters…. Lorenzetti, two 14th-century Italian painters who were brothers. Pietro and Ambrogio, born in Siena, belonged to the Sienese school dominated by the stylized Byzantine tradition developed by Duccio di Buoninsegna and Simone Martini. They were the first Sienese to adopt the dramatic quality of the Tuscan sculptor Giovanni Pisano and the naturalistic approach of the Florentine painter Giotto. In their experiments with three-dimensional, spatial arrangements, the brothers, particularly Ambrogio, foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance. Pietro (circa 1280-1348) was the more traditional of the two brothers, showing harmony, refinement, and detail but also dramatic emotion. his work includes the altarpiece Madonna and Child with Saints (1320, Santa Maria Della Pieve, Arezzo), dramatic frescoes in the lower Church of San Francisco in Assisi, and the Calmer, later masterpiece the Birth of the Virgin (C. 1342, Opera del Duomo, Siena). Ambrogio (1290-1348), more realistic, inventive, and influential than Pietro, is best known for the fresco cycles Good Government and Bad Government (1338-39, Palazzo Publico, Siena), remarkable for their depiction of character and of the Sienese scene. He also painted Presentation in the Temple (1342, Uffizi, Florence) and Annunciation (1344, Pinacoteca, Siena).

Commune of Siena (with orb and specter) Faith, Hope and Charity are above his head… Virtues flank him…. Justice is to the Commune’s left—Wisdom floats above her, on either side Commutative Justice and Distributive Justice Concordia presides over the 24 members of the great Council of the Siena Republic Ambrogio Lorenzetti Allegory of the Good Government 1338-40 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti Detail: Allegory of the Good Government 1338-40 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena Justice is to the Commune’s left—Wisdom floats above her, on either side Commutative Justice and Distributive Justice Concordia presides over the 24 members of the great Council of the Siena Republic

Ambrogio Lorenzetti Detail: Allegory of the Good Government 1338-40 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena Peace—based on a Roman sarcophagus fragment

Commune of Siena (with orb and specter) Faith, Hope and Charity are above his head… Virtues flank him…. Detail: Allegory of the Good Government 1338-40 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

…note the panoramic composition…. Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government on the City Life 1338-40 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government on the City Life

No such comprehensive panorama of the natural world and its human inhabitants is know to us from the entire previous history of art… No single point of view (he is a medieval painter)—the artist instead wants to show the viewer as much as possible of the landscape Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government in the Countryside

Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government in the Countryside

Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government in the Countryside

Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government in the Countryside

Ambrogio Lorenzetti detail: Effects of Good Government in the Countryside

Paolo Uccello He was fascinated with perspective. Thee three scenes from the Battle of San Romano represent a new, more realistic way of depicting space—called linear perspective. Linear perspective uses a single vanishing point.

What is the purpose of these paintings? They once decorated three walls of a bed chamber in the Medici Palace—at one point this bedroom was occupied by Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The three panels, listed in the Medici Inventory of 1492 and now in the National Gallery, London, Musée du Louvre, Paris, and Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, commemorate the celebrated Battle of San Romano in which the Florentines, under the leadership of Niccolò da Tolentino, defeated the Sienese led by Bernardino della Ciarda. They were intended as decoration for the large hall on the ground floor of the Medici Palace, called Lorenzo's room. According to the reconstruction, the London and the Florence paintings were placed on the end wall, with the Paris one on the righ thand wall, at right angles to the Florence panel. The date of the panels is disputed. Paolo Uccello Niccolò da Tolentino Leads the Florentine Troops 1450s Tempera on wood, 182 x 320 cm National Gallery, London

Niccolò da Tolentino Leads the Florentine Troops 1450s Rigidity of the perspective—the scene seems unreal; the soldiers represented seem like toys… Detail Paolo Uccello Niccolò da Tolentino Leads the Florentine Troops 1450s

Horses and riders are positioned so that they appear in side view or in perspective foreshortening….they seem to plunge at the viewer or to recede into the canvas creating depth… Paolo Uccello Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse 1450s Tempera on wood, 182 x 220 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse 1450s Even the broken lances seems to fall perfectly into orthogonal lines… Detail Paolo Uccello Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse 1450s

Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse 1450s Detail Paolo Uccello Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse 1450s

A stylized but accurate depiction of the countryside….

Paolo Uccello Micheletto da Cotignola Engages in Battle 1450s Tempera on wood, 180 x 316 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

Detail Paolo Uccello Micheletto da Cotignola Engages in Battle