1. OPERATION URGENT FURY II

2. Tuesday 4/5/16 Alhambra Palace
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, including Lamentation
Annuciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) – Robert Campin
The Arnolfini Portrait – Jan van Eyck
Adam and Eve – Albrecht Durer
Isenheim Altarpiece – Matthias Grunewald

3. ISLAMIC SPAIN

4. (#65-1) ALHAMBRA PALACE
Alhambra Palace, Granada, Spain. Nasrid Dynasty, , whitewashed adobe stucco, wood, tile, paint, and gilding
Palace of the Nasrid sultans of Southern Spain
Light, airy interiors; fortress-like exterior
Built on a hill overlooking the city of Granada
Contains palaces, gardens, water pools, fountains, and courtyards

5. (#65-2) ALHAMBRA PALACE: COURT OF THE LIONS
Thin columns support heavy roofs; a feeling of weightlessness
Intricately patterned and sculpted ceilings and walls
Central fountain supported by protective lions -> animal imagery permitted in secular monuments
Parts of the walls are chiseled through to create vibrant light patterns

6. (#65-3) ALHAMBRA PALACE: PLAN

7. ITALIAN GOTHIC PAINTING
Beginnings of movement from the frontal, linear, flatness of the Middle Ages
Fresco = wall painting using wet plaster
Tempera = a type of paint employing egg yolk as the binding medium; quick drying and flat finish
Maniera greca = Italian for “Greek manner”; a style of painting based on Byzantine models that was popular in Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries
Trecento = 1300’s or 14th century in Italian art
Precedes the Italian Renaissance

8. (#63-1) ARENA (SCROVEGNI) CHAPEL
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, c. 1303, brick, Padua, Italy
Arena Chapel built over an ancient Roman arena, hence the name
Also called the Scrovegni Chapel after the name of the patron, Enrico Scrovegni
Built to expiate the sin of usury through which Scrovegni’s father amassed a fortune

9. (#63-2) ARENA (SCROVEGNI) CHAPEL: INTERIOR
Interior of the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, , fresco, Padua, Italy
Interior is covered with fresco’s by Giotto

10. GIOTTO
Giotto di Bondone of Florence is considered the first Renaissance painter -> pioneer of a naturalistic approach to representation based on observation
Some scholars describe Giotto as the father of Western pictorial art
His true teacher was nature -> the world of visible things
Giotto’s revolution in painting
Displace the Byzantine style
Established painting as a major art form
Restored the naturalistic approach the ancients developed
Method of pictorial expression based on observation -> foundations of empirical science

11. Finest examples of Giotto’s art are his murals in the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni)
Chapel was built for the wealthy Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni -> for family’s private use and to expiate the sin of usury
Rectangular barrel vaulted hall w/six narrow windows and blank wall opposite -> Giotto presents one of the most impressive and complete Christian pictorial cycles ever rendered
38 framed pictures arranged on 3 levels -> images of the life of Christ
West wall -> the Last Judgment
Vaulted ceiling -> azure blue sky dotted w/stars and various medallions of Christ, Mary, and prophets -> the same blue is used in the backgrounds of the narrative panels on the walls
ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA

12. (#63-3) ARENA (SCROVEGNI) CHAPEL: LAMENTATION
Lamentation reveals the essentials of Giotto’s style
Boldly foreshortened angels darting about in hysterical grief
Congregation mourns over the dead body of the Savior -> Mary cradles her son’s body -> Mary Magdalene looks at the wounds in Christ’s feet -> Saint John the Evangelist throws back his arms dramatically
Figures are sculpturesque, simple, and weighty but show movement and emotion
(#63-3) ARENA (SCROVEGNI) CHAPEL: LAMENTATION

14. FORMAL DESIGN OF THE LAMENTATION FRESCO
The way the figures are grouped with the constructed space
Strong diagonal of the rocky ledge w/the single dead tree of the knowledge of good and evil -> concentrates the viewers attention to the group around the head of Christ
Seated mourner on left arrests and contains all movement beyond this group
Figures seen from back represent a innovation away from the frontal formal Italo-Byzantine style
Figures in the foreground aid the visual placement of intermediated figures further back in space
New devices for depicting spatial depth and body mass
Management of light and shade

15. RENAISSANCE IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Northern European art from the fifteenth century is dominated by monumental altarpieces
Flemish artists notes for
symbolically rich compositions
Emphasis on profusion of details
Oil paint -> luminous glow
Italian Renaissance influenced North
Invention of printing press -> money and propaganda
Italian Renaissance = pagan + Christian
Northern Renaissance = Christian

17. (#66) ANNUNCIATION TRIPTYCH (MERODE ALTARPIECE)
Robert Campin, The Annunciation Triptych (also called the Merode Altarpiece), , oil on wood
Left panel – donor portrait
Central panel – Annunciation taking place in a normal Flemish interior
Right panel – Joseph in his woodshop
Humanization
Details
Symbolism

19. (#68) ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT
Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, oil on wood
Many theories on the meaning -> most common is a wedding portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his bride
Symbols -> single candle, shoes, dog, oranges, whisk broom
Convex mirror
Wife pulls up dress to symbolize childbirth – she is not pregnant!
Man near the window and woman inside

21. (#74) ADAM AND EVE Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve, engraving
Influenced by classical sculpture -> Adam looks like the Apollo Belvedere; Eve like the Medici Venus
Ideal image of humans before the fall
Nudes
Contrapostto
The four humors -> cat/angry, rabbit/energetic, elk/sad, ox/lethargic -> all in balance before the fall
details

23. (#77-1) ISENHEIM ALTARPIECE: CLOSED
Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, , oil on panel
Placed in a monastery hospital -> people treated here for “Saint Anthony’s Fire”, or ergotism -> a disease caused by eating fungus on rye flower
Left panel – St. Anthony
Center – the Crucifixion, Mary dressed as a contemporary nun
amputation

25. (#77-2) ISENHEIM ALTARPIECE: OPEN
Marian symbols
Left - the Annunciation
Center – birth of Christ
Right – the resurrection
Patients suffer like Christ suffered -> but Christ will redeem their suffering