1. Perspective and Nature: Quattrocento Italy II

2. Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna, ca. 1310
Jan van Eyck, Virgin, from the Ghent Altarpiece,
shortly after 1432
Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna, ca. 1310

3. Giorgio Vasari
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (first edition 1550; expanded edition 1568)

5. Simone Martini, Annunciation, 1333

6. There are some who make excessive use of gold, because they think it lends a certain majesty to painting. I would not praise them at all. Even if I wanted to paint Virgil’s Dido with her quiver of gold, her hair tied up in gold, her gown fastened with golden clasp, driving her chariot with golden reins, and everything else resplendent with gold I would try to represent with colors rather than with gold this wealth of rays of gold that almost blinds the eyes of the spectator from all angles. Besides the fact that there is greater admiration and praise for the artist in the use of colors, it is also true that, when done in gold on a flat panel, many surfaces that should have been presented as light and gleaming, appear dark to the viewer, while others that should be darker, probably look brighter.
Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1435)

7. Leon Battista Alberti

9. Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin, from the altar of St Savinus, Siena Cathedral, 1342

10. Albrecht Dürer, woodcut from the Course in the Art of Measurements (1525)

12. LINEAR
PERSPECTIVE
VANISHING POINT
ORTHOGONAL LINES
HORIZON

13. Baldassare Peruzzi, Perspective drawing with monuments of Rome, ca

14. Masaccio, Holy Trinity, fresco, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, ca

17. I was once what you are and what I am you will also be.

21. Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano, tempera on wood, ca. 1438-1440
(dimensions: 6’ x 10’ 5’’)

22. Paolo Uccello, Perspective study of a chalice, pen on paper, ca

23. 1438-1443 (dimensions: 7’ 2⅝’’ x 7’ 5⅜’’)
Fra Angelico, Virgin and Child with Saints (San Marco Altarpiece), tempera on wood,
(dimensions: 7’ 2⅝’’ x 7’ 5⅜’’)

24. Mark
Dominic
Francis
John the Evangelist
Peter the Martyr
Lawrence
Cosmas
Damian

28. Rogier van der Weyden,
Entombment, oil on wood, ca. 1450

29. Ghent Altarpiece (details)

30. Egg tempera
dries quickly
does not lend itself to broad application
applied thinly and evenly in tightly placed, regular, parallel strokes
opaque: colors applied next to, rather than on top of one another
colors remain true to the mineral pigments
Oil paint
takes hours, even days to dry
allows for blending of colors and the creation of new tones
allows for gradual transitions
translucence: what is beneath shows through
consistency of the medium is adjustable
greater variety in the size of brushes and the ways in which colors is applied
unlike tempera’s smooth appearance, oil can give texture

31. Antonello da Messina, Annunciate Virgin,
oil on wood, ca. 1476
(dimensions: 17¾’’ x 13⅝’’)