Chapter 18 Study Guide

High Renaissance and Mannerism in Northern Europe and Spain

Northern Renaissance

• Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, 1505-1510
• Durer, Melencolia I, 1514
• Durer, Self-Portrait, 1500
• Cranach the Elder, Law and Gospel, c. 1530
• Holbein, The French Ambassadors, 1533
• Bruegel, Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559
• El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586

Short Answer

1. Identify one detail in Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece that acknowledges the patients at the hospital for the which the work was commissioned?
2. Who was the first non-Italian artist to achieve international fame? What artistic medium allowed for the widespread distribution of his work?
3. How does Durer show his support for Lutheranism (Protestantism) in his painting Four Apostles?
4. How did Catholic and Protestant attitudes towards religious art differ?
5. Define iconoclasm.
6. What optical illusion appears in Holbein’s The French Ambassadors?
7. What is a genre scene?

Essay Titles/Questions

Choose ONE of the questions below and answer it in an essay that is between 3 and 4 pages long. Use specific examples of works of art and/or architecture which we have looked at in class and that are relevant to your argument.

(Typed, 12 pt font, double spaced, Times New Roman/Arial, 1 inch margins)

1. The Evolution of the Donor Portrait: Track the evolution of religious works of art from the late Medieval through Renaissance periods in which portraits of the works patrons have been inserted (donor portraits). Choose 3-5 works that include donor portraits which we have examined in class and discuss how the portrayal of the patron[s] reflects the attitudes, preoccupations, beliefs, etc. of the culture in which each piece was made. Consider placement, size, and prominence of the patrons when discussing each work.

2. The Renaissance Nude: The nude human form, which had become exceedingly rare in the Middle Ages, made its return in Italy during the Renaissance. Using 3-5 examples from the course, discuss the development of the nude figure from its return to prominence in the Quattrocento through the Cinquecento. Analyze how the reemergence of the nude is reflective of the cultural environment and shifting attitudes in Italy during this time period. Consider the changes in form and association the nude figure underwent over the course of the time period. Keep historical context in mind.

3. Classicism in Renaissance Architecture: How did classicism (elements of classical Greece and Rome) influence the architecture of the Italian Renaissance (Early, High and/or Venetian), and to what extent did Renaissance architects deviate from their classical predecessors? Use 3-5 examples of Renaissance architecture to support your argument.

(40 points)

Due: Tuesday 27 October*

* If submitting electronically, essay must be received by midnight. Send to lauren.vaughan@rccd.edu

Chapter 17 Study Guide

Renaissance and Mannerism in Cinquecento Italy

High Renaissance

• Leonardo, Madonna of the Rocks, 1483
• Leonardo, Last Supper, 1495
• Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-1511
• Michelangelo, Pietà (Roman), 1498-1500
• Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504
• Michelangelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512
• Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1536-1541

Venetian Renaissance

• Giorgione, The Tempest, c. 1510
• Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1536-1538
• Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1594
• Veronese, Christ in the House of Levi, 1573

Mannerism

• Pontormo, Entombment of Christ, 1525-1528
• Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534-1540
• Giovanni (da Bologna), Abduction of the Sabine Women, 1579-1583

Short Answer

1. Define the following terms:
1. disegno
2. chiaroscuro
3. sfumato
4. impasto
2. What institution functioned as the greatest source of artistic patronage in Cinquecento Italy?
3. Why did Leonardo consider painting to be superior to sculpture?
4. Why was Michelangelo resistant to receiving the commission for the Sistine Chapel ceiling?
5. What is the major difference between Early and High Renaissance architecture?
6. What is the major difference between the painting style of Venice and that of central Italy?
7. What is poesia?
8. Identify one major obstacle that prevented many women from pursuing a career in art in the Renaissance.
9. Identify 2 features of Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library that classify it as Mannerist

Visual Analysis 2

Analyze the work of art you have been assigned (Image 1 if you are in the first group, Image 2 if you are in the second - do NOT compare and contrast them or write about both). Attempt to identify the artist, subject, culture, and approximate time period of the work using visual evidence and your own knowledge of history and art. Do not simply list off facts you have found through Google. Support any conclusions you come to with specific details from the work. Discuss anything you may find interesting in the piece such as potential symbols, connections with other works, or artistic virtuosity.

Write down your impressions (at least a paragraph) to be handed in on Thursday.

Image 1:

(full size image)

Image 2:

(full size image)

Visual Analysis 1

Analyze the work of art you have been assigned (Image 1 if you are in the first group, Image 2 if you are in the second - do NOT compare and contrast them or write about both). Attempt to identify the artist, subject, culture, and approximate time period of the work using visual evidence and your own knowledge of history and art. Do not simply list off facts you have found through Google. Support any conclusions you come to with specific details from the work. Discuss anything you may find interesting in the piece such as potential symbols, connections with other works, or artistic virtuosity.

Write down your impressions (at least a paragraph) to be handed in on Tuesday.

Image 1:

(full size image)

Image 2:

(full size image)

Chapter 16 Study Guide

The Renaissance in Quattrocento Italy

Early Italian Renaissance

• Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-1402
• Donatello, David, c. 1440-1460
• Masaccio, Holy Trinity (from Santa Maria Novella), c. 1424-1427
• Ghirlandaio, Birth of the Virgin, c. 1485-1490
• Uccello, Battle of San Romano, c. 1435 or c. 1455
• Botticelli, Primavera, c. 1482
• Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, 1481-1483
• Mantegna, Foreshortened Christ (Lamentation over the Dead Christ), c. 1500

Short Answer

1. Renaissance Florence saw itself as the inheritor of which ancient civilization?
2. Which biblical personage did Renaissance Florence associate itself with? Which mythological figure did it associate itself with?
3. Why is the Medici family important to the development of the Renaissance?
4. Explain what perspective is and name the two kinds of perspective discussed in class.
5. What is contrapposto? Give an example of a Quattrocento sculpture that exhibits the use of contrapposto.
6. Which classical tradition did Donatello revive in his portrait of ‘Gattamelata’?
7. How does Uccello demonstrate clear linear perspective in his seemingly chaotic Battle of San Romano?
8. In what way did Alberti differentiate the three stories of the Palazzo Rucellai that makes each story look progressively lighter? Which classical building served as his inspiration for this?
9. Who was Girolamo Savonarola? What were his beliefs regarding the Medici and humanism and what effect did his beliefs have on Florence in the 1490s?

Chapter 15 Study Guide

Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Northern Europe

Early Northern Renaissance

• Claus Sluter, Well of Moses, 1395-1406
• Melchior Broederlam, Retable de Champmol (Dijon Altarpiece), 1399
• Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece, c. 1425-1428
• Hubert and Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece (open and closed), 1432
• Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Double Portrait (Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife), 1434
• Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, c. 1435
• Limbourg Brothers, January (From Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry), 1413-1416

Short Answer

1. Why did Northern Renaissance artists tend to paint biblical subjects in contemporary settings?
2. What is a donor portrait?
3. Which new artistic medium allowed Northern painters to replicate surface details to such a minute degree?
4. How did artists guilds benefit both artists and patrons?
5. Why is Saint Luke the patron saint of painters?
6. What is a book of hours?
7. Which two forms of image printing became popular after the invention of the moveable-type printing press?