to 6o 0q b y r r H O O H cr. O 71  Copyright © 2000 byT he Metropolitan Museum of Art Authors: osiljka Raditsa, Rebecca kenberg, Rika nham, Deborah Krohn, Kent Lydecker, and Teresa Russo elected Resources: Emily Roth and Naomi Niles Editor: Alexandra Bonfante-Wren Production Manager: Masha Turchinsky Designer: Lisa S. Park Design Heartfelt gratitude and thanks go to the following Curators and Research Fellows without whose generous efforts this publication would not have been possible: Maryan Aisworth, Senior Resarch Fellow of Sherman Fairchild Paintings Conservation; Carmen Bambach, Associate Curator of Drawings and Prints; Suz-me Boorsch A ssociate Curator of Drawings and Prints; Andrea Bayer, Assistant Curator of European Paintings: Keith Christiansen, JayneWrightsmi Curator of European Paintings; James David Draper, Henry R.7Kavs: Curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts; Laurence Kanter, Curator in Charge of Robert Lehman Collection; Donald I LaRocca, Associate Curator ofi Ams and Armor; Laurence Libin, Frederick R. Rose Curator of Musical Instruments; Pia Palladino, Reseah A.ssociate of Robert Lehman Collection; Stuart Pyhrr, Curator in Charge of Armsand Armor; Claire Vincent, Associate Curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. We are grateful to Joan Crimmins, Kaye Haye, Cay Horn, Karen Jernigan, and Laurie Piette for their invaluable assistance with the lesson plans. We vish to thank all the teachers whvo ansvered our survey and especially the teachers who participated in the focus group: Charles Birragato, John DeBold, Douglas DePice, Baird Faithful, Carol Fuys. Karen Jnigan, Laurie Piette, Karen Rosner, and Susan Ross. Special thanks to William Campos, Paul Caro, Roxanne Collins, lbelin Mojica, Evan Levy,Vince Ng, Rodolfo Robles, Nicholas Ruocco, Alice hwarz, Edith Wat, and Randolph Williams, who helped each in their own way to bring this resource together. Image on box. Th eSy f Eth, ca. 1460-70 Marco del BIonoGiaiberti, Florentine, 1402-1489. Apollonio di Giovanni di Tonso, Florentine, 1415/ 17-1465. Tempera and goldon wood; 17 1/ 2 x 55 3/ 8 in. Rogers Fund1918(18.117.2) Thea of Renaissance Europe : resource for educators / [edited by Rebecca rkenberg, Bsiljka R adits Rika Burnham]. p. cm Includes biblorahil references. ISBN 0-87099-953-2 1. Art, Renaissance-Study and teaching (Elementary) --United States. 2. Art, Remissaic--Study and teach- ing (ondaiy)--Unit States. 3. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) I. Arkenberg, Rebecca. IL Ritsa, siljka IIL. uram, Rika. N6370 .A76 2000 709'02'40712--dc2l 00-037992 2  inte you to enter the world of the Renaissa in B ope, a time of great discovery and achievement in art, scieno .usitc, and literature. The richness and diversity of Renaissance is represented in many different departments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art: in Arms and Amor, European Paintings, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Musical Instruments, Prints and Drawings, and the Robert Lehman Collection. The aselected for these teacheriateris includes paintings, ceramics, armor, musical instruments, and sculpture that embody the Renaiss'ane interest i classical learning, fame and human achievement, and beautiful objects. Through the art of the Renaissance your students will discover the great cities of Florence, Bruges, L on, and Toledo, and meet the powerful personalities of Michelangelo, Lorenzo de'Medici, Desiderius Erasmus, and Eleanora d s tudyingthe human body, gsture,and narrative, students will work Renaissance artists did when they created paintings and drawings. studying pers tie, students will explore the Renaissance interest in science and iathematics. T hrough language arts activities based on Renaissn poetic forms, students wil write about their response to art. The actixties and lesson plis are design for a variety of classroom needs, and we encourage you to adapt these materials to your own curriculum, to approach them in an interdisciplinary fashion, and to let students choose topics for independent study from the extensions and connections. If possible, a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art wil be the highlight of your students' enconter with the Renaissance. This teacher resource is supported by a generous grant from Mr. and Mrs. FrederickP Rose, who share our comitment to teachers. It has been tested through focus groups, surveys, input from New York teachers, and consultations with educators throughout the country. T he Museum's internet site at wwmetmuseum.org will supplement the slides, texts, posters, CD-RO M,and activities of this resource. Philippe de Montebello Director and Chief Executive officer Kent Lydecker Associate Director for Education 3   he Art of the Renaissance presents selected works of art from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of . This teacher packet is a visuat id to the works of airt and a resource for curriculum development. Rather than providing a urriculum, it will give you the tools to create teaching units based on your own understanding of the Renaissance. In this way,'you can met the interests and needs of your specificstudents, and you can adjust your plans to the time available-whether it is hour, a wek,or an entire semester. T IME LIN E PP.7-8 We suggest you begin by lookin att timeline. inwhich thirty works of art appawhrono- logi cally This visual reference allows you to see quickly the range of subject matter and the development of aestheticeideas within the time frame of the Renaissance. INTRODUCTION P. 9 This is a general introduction to the art of the Renaissance aid the world in whih it was produced. SLIDE ENTRIES P. 17 Each slide entry presents a wy of looking at theindiidua work of art and information about it. At the end of each entry, a list of THEMATIC CONNECTIONS opens waNnues for inquiryand discussion. RENAISSANCE SOURCE MATERIAL P 7) his selection of original texts fro gthe fifteenth and sixteenth centuries includes letters and contracts between patrons and artists, family letters, descriptions of events, and philosophical wit'n s. These sources provide a cultural context for the works of art. PLANNING YOUR LESSON P. 95 This section is designed with the teacher in mind. Reading through this section will assist you in planning your lessons. 1. QUESTIONING STRATEGIES F TEACHERS T his exercise provides you with a method of lookingat a Renaissance workof art before you introduce it to your students in your individual curriculum.The questions will help you explore the work as a primary resource. 2. AN INTERACTIVE POAC TO THE USE OF SLIDES This section provides two actiities to introduce slids in your classroom. Tee wrk of art haivebeen1 seete for thej junor hig and hig sehool teachers xho hve 'imte time. With theseslides, teachers ca resent te atoft te Ren''ss'nce toenac a socia studies, humniie, hstory, ora er clas. 5  LESSON PLANS AND CHECKLISTS P. IOI The Lesson Plans otie specific classroom activities that encourage an in-depth exploration of the works of art. They can stand alone or be used to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum on the Renaissano. Three of the lesson plans ha been designed especially for kindergarten through third grade. However, all the lesson plans have been d lto adapt- able for all age levels. The checklists provide visual inventories on the following themes: H UMAN FIGURE PERSPECT IVE COMPOSITION PORTRAIT T HE STORY I ART DAILY Los GLOSSARY P. 209 SELECTED RESOURCES P.2I3 Bibliographic references are abbreviated throughout this resource. Full listings arefound this section. VIDEOGRAPH Y CD-ROMS WEBSITES MUSEUMS 6  THE ART OF RENAISSANCE EUROPE ca. 1475-1500 Battleoff tNaktd kn ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO SOURCE MATERIAL, P. 94 '449 Birth Tray, lunhlnf f l" SCHEGGIA SLIDE 5 ca. 1320tr GIOTTO DI BONDONE SLIDE I ca. 1431 Aptairy Jar t . 'GIUNTA DI TuGIo SLIDE 3 1419-67 Philip the Good of 1347-51I Plague Burgundy inherits the northern (Black Death) Provinces, including Holland, sweeps Europe Fanders, and Luxembour g 10 137 1350 1400 13001337Hundred Years' ~War begins between England and France bet. 1425-30 TIE Crudfixkn and TE as J mt JAN VAN EYCK SLIDE 2 ca. 1460-70'y J11Sryof Fstln MARCO DEL BuoNo GIAMBERTI AND APOLLONIO DI GIOVANNI DI ToMAso SLIDE 7 I485-90 Study f a Bear V "U LEONARDO DA VINCI SLIDE II 1482 Arniatkn HANS MEMLING SLIDE 10 1453 Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks, end of Byzantine Empire 1250 I435-36 On Faiting Leon Battista Alberti 1434 Accession to power of Cosimo de' Medici in Florence ca. 1440 IPitnit if Mm aand Wnitn at a Casanit FRA FIuIpPo LImP SLIDE 4 it I 1450 1455 Gutenberg Bible produced, start of printing revolution 1469 Accession of Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence 1 1487 Ohmknmithe Sandro Botticelli Pico della Mirandola 1477 French army defeats 1488 Flemish Charles the Bold of Burgundy at cities revolt Nancy; northern pr ovinces pass to against Maximilian, Hapsburg emperor Maximilian 1492 Columbus reaches America 1497 Vasco da Gama reaches India 1498 1tSpaw, Leonardo da Vinci 1500 1469 Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile unites Spain I490-95 Adam TULLIO LOMBARDO SLIDE 12 1449 PETRUS CHRISTUS SLIDE 6 ca. 1465-67 I Birth f t1 Mion FRA CARNEVALE SLIDE 8 ca. 1478-83 Re1i liliral Arts Stiddo FROM THE DUCAL PALACE AT GUBBIO GIULIANO DA MAJANO AND WORKSHOP SLIDE 9  THE ART OF RENAISSANCE EUROPE 1504 Ackimairi Eve ALBRECHT DURER SLDE 13 ca. 1530s TIE Hdy Fanily with the hIfant Saint khi ANDREA DEL SARTO SLIDE 19 ca. I580-85 Amir if GAW Oiffid, Thl atiof cuinhialnl 1543 ENGLISH ParadeHdint SLIDE 27 FIiup~o NEGROLI SLIDE 23 ca. 1505-7 A Htuiirg Sar PIERO DI CosniMo SLIDE I5 ca. 1528 T1 Alu~m t (f Pais LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER SLIDE 18 1511 Desid 1504 David, Michelangelo 1508-12 Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo [ hePraie f Flt denius Erasmus 1519 Charles V of 1516 Utqia, Spain elected Hol y Thomas Mor e Roman Emperor 1528 W BAk Baldassare Castiglioc 1527 Charles V of Spain sacks Rome 1540 BRONZ1NO SLIDE 21 1534 Henry VIII issues Act of I5S Supremacy rejecting Tr pa lco t lCo 1532 Paitagud, 1543 De Rem Francois runok Rabelais Nicolaus Cop 1565 11eHr~ PIETER BRUEGELTHE ELDER SLIDE 25 1581 DmlbleMigai HANS RUCKERS THE ELDER SLIDE 28 45-63 Council of rnt, start of tunter Reformation til s sitiil iemicus 1550 Giorgio Vasari, Sai1tas f Italy 1558-1603 Queen Elizabeth I reigns in England 1568-I 648The Netherlands revolt against Spain 1513 1550 The Piiniu 1517 Martin Luther Niccolo Machiavelli posts Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg, beginning of Reformation 1556 Philip II reigns in Spain; territories include lands in Americas, Italy, France, and the Netherlands as well as the Iberian Peninsula I S8IThe Netherlands declare independence from Spain 1579 Union of Utrecht affirms the unification of the northern Netherlands 1596 Birth of Descartes FElsie Quawe Edmund Spenser 1595 1iund MTIil$ William Shakesp ear e 1600 s ,. ca. 1530-40 Broth bowl and uiwr BALDASSARE MANARA SLIDE 20 1540 fhtnM *ne VENETIAN SLIDE 22 I545-50 Tt Mruaie dt1~ lams au i Hshs TINTORETTO SLIDE 24 I504-5 Mrkim aand Uil RAPHAEL SLIDE 14 ca. 1508 Studies fit1th UIyn Sibyl MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI SLIDE 16 1523 IFhism f Rottatkim HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER SLDE 17 1579 CelstialIGlob with Uxkdiwdt AUSTRIAN SLDE 26 ca.I597 Mew if Tdktb EL GRECO SLIDE 29  he French woid ra isao or rebirth, was first used in the nineteenth century, to describe the period in test Europea history that spans the yeas roug 'from 1400 to 1650, depending on the country and the type of cultural achievement-paintig, sculpture, architecture, literature, science, or music.With the adntae of historical perspective ye see that a number of sources andevents that shaped this period started before or ended after these dates. In manyways the Renaissance builds on its medieval heritage and flows imperceptibly into the next major unfolding of European history-the Enligtemnent. From the thirteenth century, European society evolved from a primarily agrarian toan urb ,system. Fueled y the international trade in raw and manufactured goods, the independent city- states became vital commercial centers. Commerce created a more fluid social structure, one that rewarded personal ability and encouraged political effectiveness. The established hereditary nobility still existed, but gradually it cane to wield less influence as the new middle class of tradesmen, artisans, and bankers forne an incrsingly important social group with great economic power As in our own times, historical events and technologica inventions helpe shaped this fifteenth- and sixtenth-cnturv world. Precise tools of measurement like the manetic compass facilitated the navigation of the globe, h.ih in turn brought about economic and political expansion, as well intellectual and technological exchanges-even a radical change in diet. Gunpowder, originally invented in China, led to the development of firearms and cannons, which initiated a new era in warfare. Mass printing was made possible y the development of moxable type, which also had been used previously by the Chinese. This changed the face of Europe, contributing to the standardization of languae, allowing more pe access to more texts. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Greek scholars migrated to Italy, bringing Greek 'andLatin man- scripts, which they deposited in libraries like the Laurentian Medici Library in Florence. The great philologists of the time studied and edited these texts and prepared then for printing, with far-reaching consequences; for example, Desiderius Erasmus's (1466-1536) translation of the New Testament into Latin was a driving force in the Protestant Refornation. The Florentines of the fifteenth and sixteenth onturies characterized their times as a period of reawakening to the ideals and achievements of classical Rome, which they felt had been ignored for a thousand years, since the fall of the Roman Empire. In 1492, Marsilio Ficino (1433- 1499), a Florentine philosopher, wGrote: This century like a goldenage, has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct. . ' LESSON PLAN: ERASMU:S OF ROTTERDAM, P. 179 SOURCE MATERIAL E 80 SLIDE 17 SOUR-E MATERIAF P 79 In 1550, Giorgio Vasari (1511-174), the Florentine panter, biog her, and art historian claimed in his book Lve lmodletPainters,S rs and Adts that Visual atws reborn SIDE 1 with the painter Giotto. Giotto, o also was inspired y Roan ideals,initiated a more human artistic vision that reached its high point with Michelangelo. 9  Humanism, the underlying philosophy of this period, often is summarized in a quotation from the Greek philosopher Protagoras (ca. 485-410 Bc.): "Man is the measure of all things." "Humanism" refers not only to the revival and publication of classical Greek and Latin texts but to new works of art modeled on classical Greek and Roman sculpture, painting, architec- ture, literature, and music. The Renaissance humanist authors imitated the style of great Roman writers like Cicero, just as the artists studied and emulated ancient sculptors and architects. While medieval scholars had interpreted classical texts to clarify Christian theology, (for example, Thomas Aquinas's reading of Aristotle), the authors and artists of the Renaissance took classical works as philosophical models of reason, intelligence, and taste to be applied in the material world. In 1486, the young humanist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola wrote Oraticn c tte Digiity cf Man, in which he proposes a revolutionary view of the universe, that individuals can be trusted to act on the principles of logic. He states that God has given human beings the power to use reason to overcome original sin and rise above it-in short, to think for them- selves: "Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own freewill ... shalt ordain SOURCE MATERIAL, P. 81 the limits of thy nature.' SLIDE 12 It is this perspective combined with the self-conscious awareness of being part of something new and superior that gives a confident and cohesive character to the Renaissance. LOOKING AT THE ART OF THE RENAISSANCE When we look at and study a Renaissance work of art we take pleasure in it, and we are uplifted by the expression of profound emotions, the subjects both human and divine, the spirit of discovery, and the love of antiquity. The Renaissance, like the Middle Ages, was a deeply religious period, although the educated lay population became progressively more concerned with understanding the natural world and the human beings who inhabited it. In art, this was manifested in a new interest in naturalism, which the Italians found in their ancient Roman past and the northern artists found in the observation of nature.The intersection of these two approaches is one of the factors that defines the look of Renaissance painting and sculpture. SL 16 SLIDE 16 Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), a Florentine painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and poet who also was skilled in warfare, defined himself as l'uomuniursale (the universal man)-what today we call a Renaissance individual. Alberti wrote definitive treatises on painting, sculpture, architecture, and the family. His seminal book On Painting was extremely influential in its own time, and today it is considered a primary source for understanding the visual art of the Renaissance. We will refer to it throughout this teacher resource. 10  NARRATIVE CHECKLIST P. 151 LESSON PLANS:THE STORY IN ART, PAR I, P. 105, AND PART II, R 153 SLIDES 4, 17, 21; PORTRAIT CHECKLIST, P. 175 LESSON PLAN: PORTRAIT, P. 177 SLIDES 4, 18, 25 F llowing are three major categories, each defined by the approach to subject matter in Renaissance works of art. NARRATIVE Alberti believed that istcria, the story or narrative, was the most important approach for the painter. The subject of the Renaissance story could be religious or secular. For example, altar- pieces might depict the lives of Mary or Christ, or mythological stories might decorate house- hold objects and furniture. Alberti urged visual artists to become friends with poets and orators, because their " ... knowledge of many things ... could be useful in composing the istcria." He goes on to write, "the istcria which merits both praise and admiration will be so agreeably and pleasantly attractie that it will capture the eye of whateer learned or unlearned person is looking at it and will mow his soul." PORTRAITURE The human face, both realistic and ideal, was another important subject for the painter and sculptor. Portraits could sere commemorative functions, such as celebrating a marriage, a birth, or recording a face from a death mask. LANDSCAPE Landscapes often were used as background, in portraits and narrative paintings or relief sculpture. While landscape was rarely the main subject of a work of art, it was an important component of northern European painting. SLIDE 29 HUMAN FIGURE CHECKLIST, P. 115 SLIDE 13; LESSON PLAN: CONTRAPPOSTO PosE, P. 123 T he characteristic treatments of the human figure, perspectie, composition, and the materials in Renaissance paintings are discussed below. THE HUMAN FIGURE With the rediscowry of classical figurative sculpture, including the nude of the pre-Christian world, artists began to look at the human figure as an object of aesthetic beauty in its own right. Realistic representation became important once more. Alberti writes: "[A] painting in which there are [human figures] in many dissimilar poses is always especially pleasing." Renaissance artists sought to coney the illusion of mowment and thus adopted the classical aragntopce This pose gires the illusion of arrested motion by creating a slight twist in the body. SLIDE 19 Alberti continues: "to get the right proportions in painting living creatures, first visualize their bony insides, for bones, being rigid, establish fixed measurements. Then attach tendons and muscles in their places and finally clothe the bones and muscles with flesh and skin in order to show clearly where the muscles are... ." He discusses the importance of the use of light and shadow to render the volume of body parts, as vell as to describe gestures and facial expressions. Since antiquity, artists referred to the human figure as a measure of proportion. The Roman engineer Vitruvius equated the symmetry and proportion of the figure with the plan of the temple. Alberti used Vitruvian principles when he designed the fagade of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence. Albrecht Dtrer also followed Vitruvian ideas and measured people of all ages with calipers. He made schematic figure drawings, formulating systems of proportion and measure- ment in the attempt to discover the ideal human figure. Leonardo da Vinci worked with physicians to dissect cadavers, drawing bones and muscles from his observations, then checking LESSON PLAN: FORM TO MEASURE, P. 117 11  his findings by measuring. Many artists compiled books and made prints that facilitated the dissemination of newly discowred anatomical information. For example, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, Antonio Pollaiuolo's engraving Battlecf tt Nal1d Mn became a template for many of the poses depicted in4 Renaissance paintings. P. 93 The human figure needs a viable space in which to exist, mow, and convey a story. Through perspectie, artists created the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface (picture plane) such as a piece of paper, canvas, wood panel, wall, clay, or stone slab. PERSPECTIVE Renaissance paintings invite the viewer to look into habitable spaces where religious and mytho- logical eents occur and where life is chronicled through the observation of detail. Artists in both northern and southern Europe shared a belief in the pover of observation and in the verity of what is seen by the eye. Albrecht Durer agreed with the Greek philosopher Aristotle that "sight is the noblest faculty of man." Leonardo da Vinci stated that observation is the common mother of "all Sciences and the Arts." He believed that "the eye is the least easily deceived of all the senses" Artists devised pictorial systems like perspective to imitate what they observed. It has been said that in the north the room is fixed and the viewer's eye is invited to wander about the room or space, while in the south, it is the artist's viewpoint that is fixed, and it guides the viewer to the important eent. Linear one-point perspective is based on a mathematical system with a fixed viewpoint; Alberti was one of the artists who developed its underlying geometry. He describes the picture plane as an open window: "I first draw a rectangle of right angles, where I am to paint, which I treat just like an open window through which I might look." This system guides the viewer's eye through the picture plane to the focal point or vanishing point. SLIDE 8 Atmospheric, or aerial, perspective is based on the optical effect caused by light being absorbed and reflected by the atmosphere: a mist of dust and moisture. Since mist is denser at Earth's surface, it scatters light and causes distant tones to be lighter. Blue light easily penetrates the mist, making the sky appear blue and giving distant objects a bluish cast. Leonardo da Vinci closely observed nature and natural phenomena, incorporating atmospheric perspective into his paintings. He also documented his observations in writing: "I say that the blueness we see in the atmosphere is not intrinsic color, but is caused by warm vapor evaporated in minute and insensible atoms on vhich the solar rays fall.. . ." Northern painters wee known for their mastery of atmospheric perspective. Sometimes artists combined systems of perspective, so we find both linear and atmospheric perspective used in the same work of art. PERSPECTIVE CHECKLIST, P. 127 LESSON PLAN: LINEAR ONE-POINT PERSPECTIVE, P. 135 SLIDES 2, 25 12  COMPOSITION CHECKLIST, P. 139 LESSON PL AN: DRAW THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE, P. 147 COMPOSITION Cornposition is the arrangement of the elements of a work of art. Or, as Alberti writes: "Composition is that rule by which the parts of things fit together.. . '.Looking 'backto antiquity, artists developed systems of composition based on harmonious proportions, or the relationships of parts. Classical composition applied meaura l standards of symmetry, balance, and harmony; the rtae for exanle, vas adopted from Euclid, the ancient Grk mt e mtician. This geometrical nd miatemmtic construct was endowed wit harmo- nious proportions that ha divne implications. It was employed throughout the Renaissance in architecture, painting, and sculpture. In addition, the composition of a Renaissan painting is inextricably linked with perspective, the placement of the human figure and objects, and is further unified by the use of color aInd the distribution of light and shadow. MATERIAL S From their earliest training, artists were taught to think of form and material as being parts of a single whole. The great frescoes, panel or canvas paintings, and sculptures are as much about material and technique as they are about form or subject. some cases, artists continued in the traditions of the past centuries, while others discovered new materials and in es in the world around them. Paintings were eecuted in egg tempera, oil, or fresco. For'all three types of paint, the colors or pigments were extract from minerals, vegetables, and manufactured sal ts,i ab s,fioxesoets, metal oxides, copperacetate, and other materials, 'hch were ground to a paste. T he pigents for eggtempera were mied with egg yolk, SLIDE 5; LESSON PLAN: a binder, anodoccasionally the white of the egg was added. T his mixture then was diluted with T EMPERA, P. 185 water. Tempera dries quickly and is most suitable for covering small, clearly defined areas. It provides colors that are pure and bright. The same pigments,mixed with oil as the binder, were SLIDE 19 used for oil paint, which differs from tempera paint in significant ways. Oil paint is a more malleable substance than tempera: its propensity to blend makes it a good medium for creating the illusion of light and shade. It also covers larger areas more easily and lends itself'to vaiation of texture. Fresco is usually a wall painting The paint is applied on fresh plaster, hence the use of the Italian word fe SLIDES 13, 16; LESSON PLAN: PI NTMAKING,PH191 Sculptors continued to ork i traditional s o, but with subtle changes as new proache to materials were discovered. The softness of red chalk, a new drawingm mdium, allow -for more spontaneityo f eXpression. Printmaking thiques alow nmy i of an original artwork to be made;this challenged the uniqueness of an image. The most popular methods of print- m ag were woodcuts and engravings. The art of embossing metal was revid and used to create extraordinary dimensional decora- SnUDE 23 tios on suits of a.mor. New techniques in the art of firing made it possible to create costly objects of majolica, tin-glazed earthenware ornamented with subtly painted narrtives. These SLIDE 20 are only a few of the new merial and techniques that were discovered and dexlope 'in the Renaissance. 13  THE WORLD OF THE ARTIST AND THE PATRON T HE ART IST Artists came from various strata of society. Raphael and Holbein were sons of painters, while Andrea del Sarto was the son of a tailor. Giotto was the son of a farmer,but Albrecht D.rer's and Piero di Cosim o's fathers were goldsmiths. Michelangelo came from the prosperous middle class. Filippo Negroli was part of a l afamily of annorers, each with a specialty van Eyck and his brother worked together, s did Antonio Pollaiuolo and his brother. An rtist's training began between the ages of seven an dfifteen, when a child was apprenticed to a master artist for at least five years. Andrea del Sarto was apprenticed to Piero diCosimBio. The apprentices maintained the workshop, performing menial tasks such as s weping the floors, while they learned practical skills like grinding the pigments that would be used in the paint, preparing the plaster coating for wood panels, gilding, and punching decorative patterns on gilded halos and backgrounds. Apprentices also practiced drawing with the miaster, and even- tually assisted the master by completing the less dem'ndi parts of a work, like the drapery. When the fledgling painter completed an apprenticeship he, or, rarely, she, was considered a professional, eligible to join the painters' guild. Merchants, doctors, and bankers also belonged to guilds, precursors of the modern trade unions, which were organized either by trade or by the raw aterials the artisans used. Guilds established and maintained standards of perfor- mance, and they might even be called on to settle disputes between artists and patrons. In Florence, the painters, because they ground and mixed their own pigments, belon to the Mi e! Sp"i, along with doctors, pharmacists, and spice dealers. ot.sniths joined the silk wvers' Artela Sa, as did the spinners who spun gold and silver into threads to be used in the waeing of costly cloth. Sculptors joined the stoneworkers' and woodworkers'guild the Arte ' rri d r e kLgan In northernEurope, painters joined the irngemkers' guild, while goldsmiths belonged to the oldsniths' guild. T he guilds had religious affiliations, each one being under the protection of a patron saint, and often they conmissioned works of art to decorate their halls and chapels. It is thought that the Goldsmiths' Guild in uges may have commissioned Petrus Christus to paint Saint Bigus, a devotional painting, for the guild's chape. Saint Eligius (d.660), who ws both a bishop and a metalworker, was the patron saint of the goldsmiths. The patron saint of painters was Saint Luke, who was believed to have painted the Virgin's portrait from life. The newly certified artist usually joined the workshop of an established mater andb bame one of his assistants. Depending on the type of workshop, the assistant might spend time studying anatomy by drawing male models, both clothed and unclothed. The workshops could be specialized or ixersifid. For example, the workshops of Marco del Buono and Apollonio di Giovanni an 'cega speci'lize ini painting domestic ftmiture like inarri'ge cests an irthi trays. Ainothcr workshiop night pracice 01l one ar form suc s painting, sculpturc, or 'amor inking. Other workshops prate aj varityofat forms. The workshop of the Po'aiolo brothers produce not only prinits, scutpture, 'nd patintings but also titurgical objects, brocade vestments,' an domesicodsith wrk.Youn artists who had cmlte theirtrainingatravele xwidety to broaden their kowledge before sett'n up their own shops. SLIDES 14, 17 SLIDES 19, 1, 13 SLIDES 15, 16 SIDE 23 SLIDE 2, .93 SuDES 19, 15 SOURCE MATERIA, pp. 85-88 SLIDE 6 SuDE 5, 7 SLIDE 2 14  A number of wmen worked as artists. Nuns illuminated, or decorated, manuscripts, and they painted their religious visions on the walls of their convent or church. Daughters of established artists, like the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (c.1597-after 1651), often trained in their fathers' wrkshops. Philip II invited Sofonisba Anguissola (1532/ 1535-1625), whose four sisters also painted, to be an artist in his court at Madrid. PATRONS The patrons were the individuals and oiganizations who commissioned the works of art we see today. Traditionally, patrons and collectors were aristocrats. Philip II of Spain, one of the great collectors, invited native and foreign artists to his court in Madrid. The dukes of Burgundy SOURCE MATERIAL, P. 89 patronized Jan van Eyck and other artists in Bruges. The Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissance, through the popes and other prelates, as well as the convents, monasteries, and confraternities (assemblies of lay persons dedicated to strict religious observances). Pope Julius II invited Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and SLIDE 16 the artist's Studies fcr te iban Syl was done in preparation for the project. Raphael, who also painted frescoes in the Vatican, was commissioned by the convent of Sant'Antonio da Padova SLIDE 14 at Perugia to paint the altarpiece Mada and Cld FntrmuJ with Saints SLIDE 15 SLIDE 25 MERODEALTARPIBCE OF THE A'NUCIATION ROBERT C IIN, FLiNISH, cx. 1377-1444: OIL ON WOOD; 56.70 INTHE COLLECTIONOFTHE CLOISTERS The new middle class, wishing to emulate the aristocracy, quickly learned they could elevate their status and beautify their homes by acquiring and sponsoring art. They often competed with the Church and the aristocracy for the services of the better known artists. The Florentine wool merchant Francesco Pugliese commissioned Piero di Cosimo to do a series of secular paintings, one of which may be AHuntingSme. Nicholas Jongelinck, a businessman from Antwerp, commissioned Pieter Bruegel the Elder to paint a series of the Labors of the Months to decorate a room in his suburban home. T1rHarsters is one of these. Church renovations and decorations were sup- ported by lay patrons, who sometimes also decorated their private chapels in the churches with devotional paintings and sculptures. Many times the patrons would specify that their portraits be painted within religious scenes, to directly connect them with the religious event. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century artists, especially in southern Europe, enjoyed a new status. No longer thought of as mere craftsmen who produced predictable though high-quality products, they came to be recognized as individuals, and at times even geniuses. Two celebrated examples are Leonardo da Vinci in the south and Albrecht Direr in the north. As has been noted, the Renaissance was an age of striking personalities, great achievement, and startling contrasts. Within one hundred years Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Raphael (1483-1520), in southern Europe, and Albrecht Dtrer (1471- 1528) and Hans Holbein (1497-1543) in the north produced their great works. Columbus encountered the NewWorld (1492), Copernicus articulated his heliocentric theory of the solar system (1543), and Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses in Wittenberg (1517) that led to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the greatest collections of Renaissance art in the world. We invite you to embark on a journey into the Renaissance through selected works of art from its collections. We hope this resource will inspire you to visit the Museum with your students and that you will take pleasure in the presence of the works of art themselves. 15   GIOTTO DI BONDONE SLIDE 1 Rr velewsen hs star in t Fast, and l meantovzrsip hm (Matthew 2:2) he golden sky or heavenly sphere with angels and star connects the two biblical narratives illustrated in this small panel, the Adoration of the Magi, also known as the Epiphany, and the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The triangular shape of the mountain both forms the backdrop and points heavenward; the gold illuminates the spiritual truth of the event. T he central focus of the painting is the Christ Child, held for all to see by the kneeling magus, who has laid his crown on the ground in a gesture of humility. Joseph, on the left, leans toward the child and holds the magus's gift. The two other magi look toward Christ, as does Mary, as she rests in the stable. The body of one of the magi is turned slightly toward the viewer, perhaps inviting us to participate in the moment, evn though the gestures and the positions of these five figures appear to encircle the child. Giotto's vision is filled with humanity. Behind Joseph, two shepherds with bagpipe and dog, also wonder at the news the angel tells them: "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good news of a great joy" (Luke 2:10). The logical and ordered composition is arranged like a stepped stage, on which the scene of the adoration of the magi in the foreground overlaps the annunciation to the shepherds in the middle ground. The angels are part of the heavenly sphere in the background; two of them gesture toward a higher presence, not visible in this panel. Giotto's human vision deeply affected later artists. According to GiorgioVasari, he "brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing directly from life, which had been neglected." Giotto's famous fresco cycles, such as those in the Arena Chapel in Padua, serxed as textbooks for other artists, and he influenced many of the great artists of the Italian Renaissance, including Michelangelo. This panel is one of a series of sewn that depicts the life of Christ. Giotto may have painted them for a Ikla on a large altarpiece . Giotto, the son of a poor peasant, was discoxered by the painter Cimabue, who became his master. Apparently Giotto loved to play jokes, and one day in Cimabue's workshop he painted a fly "on the nose of one of [the master's] figures. [It was] so lifelike that when Cimabue returned he tried several times to brush it off with his hand before he realized his mistake" (Vasari,lius, pp. 57-81). 17  THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Society; altarpiece; New Testament narrative; overlapping shapes; symbols; gold; tempera paint COMPARE: SLIDE 10 (narrative; southern versus northern European composition; tempera versus oil paint); SLIDES 14, 19 (Christ child) SOURCE MATERIAL: Michelangelo's Discourse, p. 82 LESSON PLANS: Overlapping Shapes, p. 129; Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153 SLIDE I THEaIPHANY, CA. 1320 GIOTTO DI BONDONE Florentine, 1266/ 76-d. 1337 Tempera on wood, gold ground; 173/4 x17 1/4 in. John Stewrt Kennedy Fund, 1911 (11.126.1) 18  JAN VAN EYCK SLIDE 2 T hese two panels, TteCrudfixicn and Tr Last Judgmt, haw been said to resemble two small theatrical worlds. The pictorial space is packed profusely with details and dramatic display of physiognomies, costumes, actions, emotions, and landscape. The observation of detail is perfect, yet the dimensionality of the scene seems monumental in its presentation. In this work, we see that Jan van Eyck was a great and masterful painter, skillfully utilizing his knowledge of sophisticated oil techniques and beautiful, rich pigments to create a Christian vision. To understand these paintings one must study them closely. At first glance, they will reveal only the broadest ideas of their subjects, each compositionally structured according to its content. TIrCrudiixicn shows Christ on the central axis of the composition. The scene is taken from the narrative moment in which "one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water" (John 15:35) .The spear creates a visual diagonal, with strong emotional content, pointing to Christ. On either side are two other crucifixions, clearly differentiated from Christ, the thieves hanging blindfolded and twisted. Below are soldiers, onlookers, and bystanders. In the foreground, a group expressing great grief at the events is set apart from the activity by an empty patch of ground. T his biblical narrative incorporates costumes contemporary to van Eyck's time. It is believed that the man dressed in the height of style in a coat with ermine trimv ho is standing below the thief on Christ's left may be the aristocrat vho commissioned the painting. TIrlast Judgmt shows us both heaven and hell. In the lower half is the vision of hell on the day of the Last Judgment. Fantastic monsters and nightmarish ceatures are portrayed in chaotic abandon. The perforated space above, a visual purgatory, gives way to the orderliness and harmony of the heavenly sphere. Neither vision can fully prepare us for the other. They are disparate, and van Eyck brings them within the moment of choice: the horrors of hell or the vision of paradise. He lays out before us the cosmology of Christianity and allows us to experience, more clearly perhaps than any other painter, how the use of form can create story and composition. Van Eyck's remarkable skill is visible in the rendering of atmospheric and light effects. In TIe Cruifixion, warm and luminous tones separate near space from the blue of the distant space in which we see a city. With inifmite patience and tiny brushstrokes, he recorded the smallest of observable details and tonal gradations. In both paintings, rich, pure, bold colors abound, and we see his ability to modulate color and form under the effects of light. Notice the jewel-like surfaces and interlocking color harmonies, and how the colors move the eye from figure to figure in Tlr Cruifixim. Pictorial space in that painting is created by the decreasing size of the figures and the suggestion of atmospheric perspectie. In the hell scene of Tr Liast Judgnnt, interlocking shape and line create dense activity and movement, while a powerful vertical thrust culminates in the figure of Christ. Everywhere there is exactness of detail, fullness of form. His understanding of the nature and essence of objects persuades us that this is not a vision but an actuality. Take note of the poignant expressions on the faces, the clear dramatic gesturing of arms and legs. The story is told by means of the artist's understanding of human emotions. 19  SLIDE 2, 2A THE CIUCIMIXION AND THE Lsr JJDGMENT, I425-30 JAN VAN EYCK a' Netherlandish, active by 1422-d.1441 Tempera and oil on canvas, transferred from wood; each panel 22 1/4 x73/4in. Fletcher Fund, 1933 (33.92ab) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Jan van Eyck, at one time court painter to the Burgundian duke Philip the Good, is considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of painting. The specific shape of the two companion panels may indicate that they originally were meant to be the side wings of a movable tripty ch, whose central panel has been lost. However, this particular combination of themes was used for private devotion, especially in court circles, which suggests that the two panels could have formed a diptych. Although transferred from wood to canvas, the panels retain their original frames, which contain lengthy biblical quotations from the books of Isaiah, Revlation, and Deuteronomy. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Home; society; devotional; altarpiece; New Testament narrative; judgment (heaxen and hell); human figure; costume; oil paint COMPARE: SLIDES 8, 14 (altarpiece, composition, oil versus tempera paint); SLIDES 8, I5, 24 (human figures and narrative) SoURcE MATERIAL: Artist/ Patron: Philip the Good on Jan van Eyck, p. 89 LESSON PLANS: Atmospheric Perspective, p. 131; Gesture, p. 125; Story in Art, Part II, p. 153 20  APOTHECARY JAR SLIDE 3 his egg-shaped apothecary jar (crdudo) has a short neck and two double-strap loop handles; it is made of a tin-glazed earthenware called majolica. Majolica jars were ideally suited for storing herbs and other medicinal components found in Renaissance apothe- caries, or pharmacies, because they kept substances dry and prevent- ed evaporation. Often, the jars were sealed with a piece of fabric stretched owr the mouth and tied tightly with string around the lip. This jar is painted in a thickly applied deep blue pigment (man- ganese), the only color that fifteenth-century kilns were able to con- trol. The pattern of stylized oak leaves or fern fronds is reminiscent of the decorative patterns used on pottery from Moorish Spain, and these overall patterns are found on many jars from this period. The middle of each side is decorated with a stylized crane facing right with a roundel on its body. There is a crutch painted on either handle of this jar, which is visible in the detail, p. 22. The crutch is a symbol of the oldest and best-known monastic hospital in Florence, Santa Maria Nuova. Late-medieval and Renaissance hospitals were powerful institutions that played important roles in the civic and religious life of the city or town in which they were located, serving also as asylums for the indigent and the sick, and for orphaned or illegitimate children. Like Santa Maria Nuova, they frequently owned large tracts of land that provided grain and other food products for both their own needs and to sell. An archival document rexeals that Giunta di Tugio, the maker of this and other apothecary wares, delixered many majolica containers to the hospital's pharmacy in 1431, of which this jar is believed to be one. An apothecary, or pharmacist, belonged to the Md d eziali, the same guild as the painters, because both professions used similar types of raw materials (See p. 14). The diffusion of printed books made possible the wide availability of pharmacopoeias (handbooks) telling how to iden- tify and combine herbs, minerals, and spices, causing pharmacies to grow in number and size. The world of an apothecary shop recalls Romeo's famous lines vhen he hears of Juliet's death: O mischief! thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men. I do remember an apothecary. Later the apothecary enters the scene, and Romeo says: Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor; Hold, there is forty ducats; let me have A dram of poison. (Shakespeare, Rmoand Juli, act 5, scene 1) 21  SLIDE 3 APTIxCA1Y JAR (OncIuoTo), CA. 1431 GIUNTA DI TUGIo Florentine, d. ca. 1466 Majolica; h. 12 3/ 8 in. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.1061) THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Society, apothecary, and hospital; functional object; majolica COMPARE: SLIDE 20 (overall pattern versus narrative painting on functional object) LESSON PLAN: Daily Life, p. 197; Poetic Forms, p. 159 22  FRA FILIPPo LiPPi SLIDE 4 Who are these people?The viewer is invited to look into and through a room in a Florentine palazza There are stone moldings around the windows and the ceiling is coffered. T he light falls on the profiles of a man and a woman, and the man's casts a shadow on the back wall. The faces are outlined and the details of their clothes are finely drawn. T he tempera colors are clear and opaque. T he features and the status of the woman are recognizable; the man's placement almost makes his portrait look like an afterthought. The woman displays her wealth and social class through her fashionable clothing and jewelry. In an equally fashionable gesture, she holds the excess fabric of her outer, fur-lined garment, a sana, with organ pleats beginning at the midriff. Her high forehead, which has been modishly plucked-a sign of elegance and female beauty-is further set off by an elaborate headdress in the shape of a saddle, called, in fact, a sdla alla frag or "French-style saddle." Its embroidered cap is edged with pearls and completed with a train, which also is embroidered and decorated with pearls. Pearls, a symbol of purity and wealth, were the crowning glory of a wealthy woman's costume. The word leal[th], meaning "fidelity," is embroidered with pearls on the sleeve of the NAna. The woman wears a pearl necklace, two brooches (one on her shoulder and the other on the headdress), and many rings on her fingers, symbolic of her acceptance into her husband's extended family. The man wears a bright red hat, a arta alla apitanso, and he also wears a ring on his little finger. With his hands he may be indicating the coat of arms of his family, the Scolari. The two people are placed in front of the far window that leads our eyes into a landscape.The architecture surrounding the windows defines the space, which is constructed in linear one-point perspective. To see how linear perspective works in this painting, let your eye find the ledge on the lower left side of the painting. Follow the line of the ledge to the corner of the room. Imagine the line going through the wall and joining the world outside. Now, look at the ceiling and follow the line made by the left edge of the ceiling and wall. If both lines-the line of the lower ledge and the line of the ceiling-vere extended, they would meet behind the wman's cheek. This juncture is called the vanishing point. Although scholars do not agree on why this double profile portrait was commissioned, town records indicate that Lorenzo di Ranieri Scolari (1407-1478) married Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti in 1436. The painting may have been made to record the sitters' marriage or the birth of their first child. It has also been suggested that the awkward placement of the man may be intended to recall the biblical low song from the Song of Solomon (2:9): "My beloxed ... Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice." ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Fra Filippo Lippi was educated and took his monastic vows in the monastery of the Carmine in Florence ("Fra" is the title given a monk). Vasari says that as a child "instead of studying [Filippo] spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others, so even- tually the prior decided to give him every chance and opportunity of learning to paint." As a 23  SLIDE 4, 4A PORTRAIT OF MAN AND WMAN AT A CASEMENT, CA. 1440 FRA FILIPPo LmPi Florentine, ca 1406-d. 1469 Tempera on vwod; 25 1/ 4 x 16 1/ 2 in. Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889 (89.15.19) young boy he may have been alloved to work with Masaccio, who was painting the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of the Carmine at that time. (Scheggia, the painter of the birth tray, [SLIDE 5] was Masaccio's younger brother.) Vasari continues, "Fillippo liked to have cheerful people as his friends and himself lixed a very merry life. . .. [H e] was a first-rate draughtsman, as can be seen, .. ." and he taught art (Vasari, Ines, pp. 435-43 8). Among Filippo Lippi's pupils were his son Filippino Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, and Fra Carnevale (SLIDE 8). THEMATIC CONNECTIONS T HOUGHTS: Family, marriage; society; urban aristocracy; fashionable costume; profile portraits; linear perspective COMPARE: SLIDE 6 (marriage); SLIDES 6, 17, 21 (portrait); SLIDES 6, 7, 8 (COStume! fashion); SLIDE JO (southern versus northern European perspective; tempera xersus oil paint); SLIDE 9 and details (personal symbols and emblemS) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist! Patron: Letter from Fra Filippo Lippi, p. 88; Family: Letter from Alessandra Strozzi, p. 92; Family: Discourse by Giovanni della Casa, p. 90 LESSON PLANS: Linear One-point Perspective, p. 135; Tempera, p. 185; The Renaissance Portrait, p. 177; Daily Life, p. 197; Poetic Forms, p. 159; Inside and Outside, p. 109 24  SCHEGGIA SLIDE 5 A birth tray, or cxodapawt is made of wood, often painted on both sides, and usually round in shape. It was given as a gift to an expectant mother, and was used to carry sweets to her. he trays were considered auspicious for the infant, and after the birth they vere preserved for posterity and displayed in the home. T his dmoda prta too large to hae been used as a tray, is thought to haw been commissioned by Piero de' Medici to honor the birth of his son Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492). The subject of the front panel is the Triumph of Fame-most appropriate for the man whose name, Lorenzo the Magnificent, became synonymous with the Renaissance. A celebrated ruler as well as a poet and patron of the arts, he was an example of the enlightened "Renaissance Man." In this painting, Fame holds a sword in one hand and a cupid in the other, perhaps as symbols of war, valor, and love. She is the focal point, placed in the center, high above the knights on horseback who converge from all directions extending their hands in allegiance or exhortation to her. She stands on a perforated globe from which trumpets emerge it is easy to imagine that they play a fanfare. Directly below her, a prisoner dressed in saffron clothes is bound to the pedestal that supports the globe, while behind her appears the world in miniature: earth, cities, and sea The composition of this circular painting is symmetrical. The top and bottom halves are distinct. The two trees placed on either edge of the diameter draw attention to the horizontal axis, while Fame and the prisoner define the central vertical axis. The landscape is described in unearthly pale and dark colors that run deep into the background. Red adorns the mantles of the knights' gray armor and the horses'saddles. Painted with tempera, the colors are vivid, crisp, and opaque. What is a triumph and why is fame described as "in triumph"?The classical triumph was an ancient Roman tradition that honored the return of a victorious general with a parade of his soldiers, prisoners, and spoils through the city streets. The great Florentine poets Giovanni Boccaccio and Petrarch created allegorical triumphs using themes such as Love, Chastity, Fame, Fortune, and Death. Both poets describe Fame in triumph as a winged goddess, the former in his Anraatsi'me and the latter in his Trimfi. The ancient triumphs also inspired the street pageants and other popular processions that celebrated both religious and civic events in Florence. The Medici family lineage is documented on both sides of the tray: the marriage of Lorenzo's father and mother, Piero de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, united the two most powerful families of Florence. The ostrich feathers, symbolic of steadfastness, that decorate the front rim of the frame are one of Piero's heraldic devices. On the reverse side, a banderole, or long narrow streamer, with the word Sppr (Forever) written on it, unites three ostrich feathers to the Medici's diamond ring The two families' coats of arms are displayed at the top. 25  SLIDE 5 BIRTH TRAY: 1IETRI1UNm OF FAME (FRONT) LPRESA OFIHE INDICI FAM[LY AND ARNE OFIHE lIDICI AND TORNABUONI - FAMIHIs (BACK), 1449 GIOVANNI DI SER GIOVANNI, CALLED SCHEGGIA Florentine, 1407--1486 Tempera, silver, and gold on wood; diam. (painted surface) 24 3/ 8 in. Purchase in memory of Sir John Pope- Hennessy: Rogers Fund, The Annenberg Foundation, Drue Heinz Foundation, Annette de la Renta, Mr. and Mrs. Frank -. E. Richardson, and the Vincent Astor Foundation Gifts, Wrightsman and Gwyne Andrews Funds, special funds, and Gift of the children of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Logan and other gifts and bequests, by exchange, 1995 (1995.7) BACK OF BIRTH TRAY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Alberti (See p. 10) describes a Renaissance man and the pursuit of Fame: ... assiduous in the science and skill of dealing with arms and horses and musical instruments, as well as in the pursuit of letters and the fine arts, he [is] devoted to the knowledge of the most strange and difficult things. Finally, [he] embrace[s] with zeal and forethought everything which pertain[s] to fame. Ross and McLaughlin, eds., Raissa nceer, p. 480 One of the reasons that Scheggia, the painter of this tray, is not vell known is that it is only within the last tventy-fiw years that art historians have begun to identify and recognize the wrk of artists who specialized in painting objects for domestic use, like this birth tray or the cassme(chest) panel (SLIDE 7). Scheggia's brother was the famous Florentine painter Masaccio. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; family and home, birth; society; pageantry; allegory; fame and prestige; tempera paint COMPARE: SLIDES 9, 23 (fame and prestige); SLIDE 20 (object to celebrate birth as a dynastic event); SLIDES 7, 8, 25 (daily life); SLIDES I, 2, 14 (composition) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist: Albrecht Diirer's Journal, p. 83 LESSON PLAN: The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153; Tempera, p. 185; Personal Armor, p. 111; Allegory, p. 171 26  PETRUS CHRISTUS SLIDE 6 The eye is drawn to this painting by its impelling characters, its color, and its intricacy. Three people appear before us in a very small room. A central figure clothed in the boldest of reds sits behind a counter, holding a balance. To his right an elegantly attired man and woman stand closely together. Carefully arranged objects sit on shelves to their left, and others rest on the counter before them.T he people's faces are lit by warm, strong light, and their gazes and gestures direct our eyes to look into this intricate world. It is not long before we see on the counter a small oval frame with the image of two very small people standing in a street of row houses. At first this appears to be a painting within a painting, but when we see a red reflection from the man's bold red shirt along the edge, we realize it is a mirror. The artist, Petrus Christus, has given us, the viewers, a space of our own. We find we are on the same street as these two people, looking with them into this interior that has been identified as a fifteenth-century goldsmith's shop in Bruges, the artist's city of origin, in what is today Belgium. In this shop are the raw materials of the goldsmith's trade-a branch of coral, crystal, porphyry, and open sacks of seed pearls and precious stones. There are also the finished products: brooches, rings, a belt buckle, a crystal container for the church, a cup made from a coconut, and on the top shelf, a double wedding cup and other pewter vessels that city officials might award to distinguished guests on official occasions. This inventory of objects tells us not only of the time and the trade, but suggests an intermingling of the sacred and the secular. Let's return to the three people and the space they occupy in the painting. As we said before, this is a small space, narrow and shallow. We see how closely the wall and shelves press in on the people-there is barely room for them to stand, let alone move about. This closeness intensifies our encounter with these people and the visual experience of their world. We see everything in great detail, from their elaborate headgear to the wman's richly textured brocade dress and the expressive faces. On the shelf a box lined in red holds thirteen rings; we see another ring on the goldsmith's counter, placed between his fingers. The woman's gaze and her pointing hand direct our focus there, as do the many circular shapes (scales, gold coins) of objects sharing the counter space. It is these details that suggest to us that this betrothed couple is here choosing rings for a wedding ceremony. This is confirmed by the long maroon-red ribbon also on the counter, a betrothal girdle now cast aside. Although we do not know the identities of the man and woman, it has been suggested that the man in the brilliant red jacket is Saint Eligius, the patron saint of goldsmiths. We Nenture into the mingling worlds of the secular and the sacred through his image, seeing his eyes gaze into an unknown source of illumination, perhaps divine light, and the small, inexplicable space in which these people find themselves is less actual than visionary. T he painting guides us from this world to another world: where we stand, as defined by the mirror on the counter, reminds us of the separation but coexistence of the sacred and secular worlds. 27  THEMATIC CONNECTIONS SLIDE 6, 6A, 6B SAINT EIGIUS, I449 THOUGHTS: Individual, family, society; larger world; devotional; guild; PETRUS CHRISTUS oil paint Netherlandish, 011 aintact. by 1444-d.1472/ 73 COMPARE SLIDES 4, 7 (marriage, portrait, oil versus tempera paint, Oil on panel; 39 x 33 7/ 16 in. perspectixe); SLIDE 9 (trompe roeil technique); SLIDE 19 (devotional); Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.110) SLIDES 7, 8, 25 (daily life) LESSON PLANS: Daily Life, p. 197; Gesture, p. 125; Portrait, p. 177; Poetic Forms, p. 159. See Questioning Strategies, p. 95 28  MARCO DEL BuONO APOLLONIO DI GIOVANNI SLIDE 7 he subject of this narratie panel is the Book of Esther (2:17-19) from the Old Testament: "King Ahasuerus [of Persia] loved Esther [a Jew] more than al the women, and she found grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen... . Then the king gaw a great banquet to all his princes and servants." Through this marriage Esther would be able to saw the Jews. The composition is simple; it is divided into exterior and interior scenes. The story is revealed in three sequential episodes, reading from left to right, like a comic strip. In the foreground, the Persian .- king Ahasuerus arrives in Florence on a gray horse. Gold leaf deco- rates his fashionable attire and distinctie puff-shaped hat. He appears a second time, at his marriage to Esther, in the left-hand section of the loggia Esther wears a blue cap and a fashionable dress, also decorated with gold leaf. Ahasuerus appears a third time standing in front of the banquet table where Esther is seated. Mordecai, a key figure in this story and Esther's cousin, is on the outside of the loggia looking in. T he story has been set in fifteenth-century Florence. The building on the left with its rusticated ground floor resembles the Palazzo Medici, while the church is reminiscent of fifteenth-century images of Santissima Annunziata, a church in the same neighborhood. The loggias, or private porticos, were built as extensions of family pala, providing space for the family business, as well as a sheltered place for entertaining and enjoying fresh air. Painted in tempera, the colors are bright and clear, and the walls of the loggia are covered with gold leaf. Originally this panel decorated the front of a cascne(a chest, often a vedding chest), an essential piece of furniture. It was used as a repository for the family's most precious possessions; often it held the bride's trousseau, made up of linens and other textiles. The panels on a cassme were designed to gie pleasure and, indirectly, to educate. The subjects are usually biblical, classical, mythological, or historical, and many feature female protagonists. It is easy to visualize small children sitting on the floor looking at the painted tales; the settings and costumes vere familiar, so they easily could imagine themselves in the scene, while the adults retold the stories that illustrated family and civic values. 29  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION This panel was painted in the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni and Marco del Buono, which specialized in painting domestic objects. The accounts of this wrkshop indicate that in the mid-fifteenth century almost eery important family of Florence commissioned a cassmefrom them. The patron of this cassne probably requested the use of gold leaf on the panel to add to the monetary value of the cassme and consequently to the family's prestige. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Family, marriage; society; biblical narrative; architecture COMPARE: SLIDE 8 (narrative and composition); SLIDES 4, 6 (marriage); SLIDES 5, 8, 25 (daily life) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist/ Patron: Contract, p. 87 LESSON PLANS: The Story in Art, Part I, p. 105, and Part II, p. 153; Gesture, p. 125; Daily Life, p. 197; Poetic Forms, p. 159 SLIDE 7 THE SIORY OF HIH CA. I460-70 MARCO DEL BUONO GIAMBERTI florentine, 1402-1489 APOLLONIO DI GIOVANNI DI TOMASO, Florentine, 1415/ 17-1465 Tempera and gold on wood; 17 12x553/ 8 in. Rogers Fund 1918 (18.117.2) 30  FRA CARNEVALE SLIDE 8 This painting tells the story of the birth of the Virgin, which is found in the Apocrypha. Fra Carnevale integrated the event, a popular subject in fifteenth-century Italian painting, into rituals of aristocratic daily life. He agreed with Alberti, who wrote that the intention of narrative painting was "to edify and to delight the eye... The first thing that gives pleasure in a narrative is a plentiful variety." Elegant ladies meet and greet each other in front of a palazza as men return from a hunt. The clothes are the latest fifteenth-century fashion. The placement of the figures and the colors of their outfits create a rhythmical pattern that draws the viewer's eye into the pictorial space . For example, the three women in rq the left foreground are placed on a diagonal axis that directs the viewer's eye into the palazzo where the exterior wall has been removed. This directional thrust is enhanced by the use of the color blue. Two of the women are dressed in blue and varying shades of red; one holds a child's hand. Follow the diagonal axis into the palazzo, where two more women, one dressed in blue, wash the infant Mary, while two other women sit and wait to swaddle her. The diagonal thrust continues into the back room where Anne, Mary's mother, is resting in bed, surrounded by attendants who carry trays of food; one woman sits on the edge of the bed looking out at the scene. The color blue in the men's mantles and the sky lead the viewer's eye into the distance, where farmers plow the fields and boats sail the ocean. The tempera colors are brilliant, sharp, and opaque. The architecture, an ideal Italian Renaissance palazzo, provides the structure that unifies the varied activities. Flanked by columns and pilasters, the arches define the rooms and portico and separate the men's and women's realms. The fagade of the building is decorated with architectural details inspired by classical reliefs, such as the garlands and putti (winged heads) on the entablature and the medallions with eagles in the spandrels. On the second story are panels illustrating figures from classical mythology. The reliefs are rendered in a technique called gisaille, which uses shades of gray to render the effect of relief. This technique was adopted from northern painting. Fra Carnevale has employed linear one-point perspecti ve to construct the space; he plotted and incised the lines into the gesso before he started to paint this panel. The architectural elements are used to plot the converging lines, which meet at the vanishing point ; the figures and objects diminish in size as they mow closer to the vanishing point and farther from the viewer. To find the vanishing point, let your eye follow and extend the lines made by the meeting of the floor and the walls of the palazzo. Now, follow the imaginary lines made by joining the top edge of the capitals, the tw cornices on the entablatur e, and the line of birds in the sky. All these lines converge at the vanishing point, on the outer left edge, a little above the horizon line. (P. 12) This painting is a good example of southern Renaissance painting. It uses linear one-point perspective; it reflects interest in classical architecture, figurative sculpture, and literary texts; and it sets a religious narrative in a contemporary (fifteenth-century) secular setting. As Alberti said, "The story that you can praise and admire will ... be the one that holds anyone who sees it, educated or uneducated, with pleasure and emotion...." 31  SLIDE 8, 8A 1IE BIRT oFTlHE VIIN, CA. I465-67 FRA CARNEVALE (BAR-OLOMEO DI GIOVANNI CORRADINI) Machigian, act. by 1445-d. 1484 -r - Oil and tempera on wood; 57 x 37 7/ 8 in. Rogers and Gwynne Andrews Fund, 1935 (35.121) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Fra Carnevale, a monk, is generally thought to be the painter of this painting. He was born in Urbino, and in the 1440s he trained in Florence in Fra Filippo Lippi's workshop. By 1449, he had returned to Urbino, where he was involved in painting as well as in architectural projects, possibly including the building of the great Ducal Palace. In 1467, the hospital church of Santa Maria della Bella in Urbino commissioned Fra Carnevale to paint an altarpiece , of wich this panel is the left wing The subject of the right wing panel, located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is the Presentation of theVirgin. The central panel is missing. T HEMATIC CONNECTIONS T HOUGHTS: Society; larger world; religious narratiw and seCular setting; daily life; costume; classical reference; linear one-point perspective; tempera COMPARE: SLIDES 2, 7 (narratiw); SLIDES 4, 5, 6, 25 (daily life, costume; oil versus tempera paint); SLIDES 4, 6, 25 (perspectixe); SLUDES 2, I5 (gesture and the human figure) LESSON PLANS: Linear One-Point Perspectixe, p. 135; Tempera, p. 185; Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part I, p. 105, Part II, p. 153; Daily Life, p. 197; Poetic Forms, p. 159 32  THE LIBERAL ARTS SIUDIOLO FROM THE DUCAL PALACE AT GuBBIo SLIDE 9 The Gubbio studido ("small study') consists of a series of wooden intarsia panels installed in such a way as to replicate their original location in the Ducal Palace in Gubbio, a small hill town in Umbria The patron of the Gubbio studcido was Federico da Montefeltro (1422- 1482), duke of Urbino. The studidowas probably created by Giuliano da Maiano (1432-1490), who also was responsible for important intarsia works in the Cathedral of Florence. Like many artists in fifteenth-century Florence, Giuliano worked along with several other artists, often family members, in a workshop where each artist may have had a slightly different expertise. This division of labor allowed several commissions to be carried out at the same time. The studidoat the Metropolitan, one of the most important works of Renaissance art in North America, should be approached from several points of view including its materials and technique, social and historical context, and imagery. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE The art of wood intarsia was practiced long before the fifteenth century in Italy, but it was at this time that the art form reached its height. Craftsmen shaped the mosaic of approximately five-millimeter-thick (less than one-quarter-inch) sections of wood with a variety of saws, planes, adzes, chisels, and knives. Many kinds of wood were used in fifteenth-century Florentine intarsia, including walnut, pear, cherry, maple, and oak. The artisans looked for natural variations in color and texture to achieve the desired effects, since no paint or pigment was used. SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT Duke Federico was truly a "Renaissance individual"in the sense in which we use the term today. He was a brilliant military leader and an intellectual who successfully combined the values of the actie and contemplative life. As a ndmctiere, or mercenary general, he fought for all of the major powers on the Italian peninsula: Milan, Florence, Naples, Venice, and the Papal States. As a patron of the arts, he commissioned many works of art and architecture, which are lasting monuments to his vision, as is this, his private studido As one room within the larger palace, the Gubbio studidowas decorated with a series of images that reflected its specific function as well as the identity of its patron. The room is trapezoidal, which allowed it to fit into its original location; in the Museum, the original light source has been simulated. The walls are entirely covered with intarsia panels depicting a series of illusion- istic cupboards and shelves filled with various objects. A Latin inscription in gold lettering on a blue background celebrates the virtues of knowledge. A series of trompe loeil, or illusionistic, benches lines the lover zone of the walls. A richly coffered ceiling completes the room. 33  SLIDE 9, 9 A THE TJBERALARPS S"UIOLO FROM TIE DUCALPAcEAT GiBBIO, CA. 1478-83 GIULIANO DA MAIANO AND WORKSHOP Hlorentine, 1432-1490 Intarsia of wlnut, bog oak, pear, maple, spindlewzod, and other fruit woods Measurements: h. 17 ft. 5 in.; 1. 16 ft. 10 in.; w. 12 ft. 6 in. Rogers Fund, 1939 (39.153) 34  IMAGERY The many objects depicted on the shelves allude to the virtues and honors of Duke Federico. Taken as a whole, they illustrate the sewn liberal arts, the backbone of late-medieval and Renaissance education, which were divided into two parts, the trivium(rhetoric, grammar, and dialectic) and the cpdrivium(astronomy, geometry, music, and arithmetic). The arts of music, for example, are represented by the many different musical instruments, including an organ, fiddle, and sewral types of lutes. The arts of mathematics and geometry are represented by measuring instruments, such as the compass, the square, and the hourglass. Astronomy is represented by the armillary sphere, and rhetoric, grammar, and dialectic by the many books, a number of which are open to display pages with writing. A series of paintings of women repre- senting these liberal arts, now in other museums, once decorated the upper zone of the stdcidq reinforcing the message of the intarsia panels. In addition to these objects, we find a number of pieces of armor, suggesting the military prowess of Duke Federico. Personal devices, including coats of arms, underscore his ownership of the room. One of the duke's emblems was the ermine, a small mammal that stood for innocence and puri- ty, and it was also the symbol of the chivalric Order of the Ermine. It is depicted here on a piece of mud with the words no ma, meaning "never," alluding to the belief that the animal preferred death to soiling its white coat. Another personal emblem of the duke was the ostrich holding an arrowhead in its beak. The assertion written in German, "I can swallow a big iron" alludes to the duke's resistance to adversity. The duke also included a garter, representing his membership in the prestigious English Order of the Garter. Other images in the room, such as the parrot in a cage, were included as status symbols, since the parrot was an exotic bird that came from distant lands. PERSPECTIVE Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Gubbio studcldo is the use of linear perspectie, along with light and shadow, to create convincing representations of the many objects depicted and, in general, the illusion of three-dimensional space on a tw-dimensional surface-the definition of perspective. Duke Federico maintained close ties with the intellectual world of Florence, which was the center of humanistic studies, and he would hae been keen on replicating the latest techniques of perspectie design. One of his best friends was Leon Battista Alberti, who is credited, as we haw already read (See p. 12), with one of the first formulations of linear perspective. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: "Renaissance individual"; family and home; society; larger world; light and shade, wood intarsia COMPARE: SLIDES 5, 23 (fame and prestige); SLIDE 6 (trompe l'oeil ); SLIDE 17 (the "Renaissance man") SOURCE MATERIALS: Humanist: Marsilio Ficino, p. 79; Family: Discourse by Giovanni della Casa, p. 90 LESSON PLANS: Allegory, p. 171; Linear One-Point Perspective, p. 135 35  DETAIL: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS DETAIL: BIRD IN CAGE DETAIL: ARMOR FOR THE TEACHER: More images of the studidlo are found in the special CD-ROM that is included in the packet. 36  HANS MEMLING SLIDE 10 Were it not for the wings on the backs of three figures in this painting, we might for a moment think this was a regal domestic scene inside a richly appointed home. group of people cluster together. A window on the upper left lets in soft light from above, sumptuous textures adorn fabrics, floor, and objects everywhere. The colors are a feast for the eye. Great attention has been paid to every- thing, from the smallest of details to the organization of the room itself. Further visual investigation reveals, in addition to wings, the presence of other preternatural elements, most notably a hovering bird in a radiant circle, the scepter in the hand of the figure on the left, and a bare toe protruding from the hem of the richly brocaded robe on the winged figure we can call an angel. Light from a source we cannot see falls on the hands and faces of the figures. It is the wings and encircled dove, along with the presence of other religious symbols in the guise of simple household objects, that tell us we are witnessing a sacred scene. This is the moment of the Annunciation, in which the angel Gabriel, identified here by his wings, scepter, and extraordinary robe, appears to Mary to tell her she is with child. This is one of the funda- mental events of Christianity, described in the New Testament (Luke 1:26-38), and it is the prelude to the redemption of humankind through Christ. Notice the serene atmosphere that Hans Memling has created for the moment of this story, as Mary quietly accepts the news with grace and gentle happiness. Tvo small angels attend to her with consideration and respect. T his annunciation takes place in the room of a well-appointed home not unlike, perhaps, that of the pious person who might originally have purchased this painting for private devotional use. Window, furniture, floor tiles, and bed are all described in very specific detail. Memling's use of color is lush and harmonious. The four figures are connected by the use of blues and lavenders, and Mary's blue cloak and the flow of the angels' robes tie the figures to the frontal plane. The angel Gabriel wears a rich brocade of red and gold. Notice how these colors are repeated, the same as that of the bed, uniting foreground and badc- ground in a single stroke of color that alludes perhaps to the blood of the Passion. Mary's hand points to the open book, as if to suggest that this is the fulfillment of the prophesies. Other symbols in the painting would have been understood by viewers of the period, such as the lilies that are Mary's symbol, and the brass candlestick and the half-filled glass bottle that represent the Virgin in her glory. Just as Memling used these simple objects as symbols of something much greater, so he suggested heaxenly meaning in his use of light, especially the presence of dual light sources. In this way, we can understand the presence of the natural light of this world coming in through the window, and the light of God radiating onto the figures. The space described in this painting suggests depth and volume, but it does not follow the mathematical perspective system favored by Renaissance artists in southern Europe. The relationship of objects to the space in which they reside is designated close and far by overlapping and by the use of lights and darks, rather than by a unified perspectival relationship to a vanishing point. Here, the eye mows in and around each object, similar to the way the eye mows as it looks into a room. Each "thing" then is discovered and considered in 37  SLIDE 10 ANNUNcIATIoN, 1482 HANs MEMLING Netherlandish, active by 1465-d. 1494 Oil on wod; 32 x 21 5/ 8 in. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.113) turn, and each has a position in the room as we experience it. It has been said that in southern Europe, the eye sees the room from a fixed point; in the North, the room is fixed and the eye moves freely about the space. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Hans Memling may haxe begun to paint in Germany, where he w~as born, but it is very likely that he studied with Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels. By the 1470s, Memling is listed in the town records of Bruges as its leading painter and one of its veealthiest citizens. He w'as very much in demand as a portrait painter especially in the Italian community of Bruges. T he Metropolitan Museum owns the portraits of Tommaso Portinari, the manager of the Br~uges branch of the Medici banking empire, and his wife Maria Maddalena Baroncelli (MMA 14.40.626 and MMA 14.40.627). Memling also was known for his devotional paintings. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Family and home; devotional; New Testament narrative; symbols; perspective; color; light and shade; oil paint COMPARE: SLIDES I, 8 (religious narrative); SLIDES 4, 8 (northern and southern European perspective; oil versus tempera paint); SLIDES 14, 19 (devotional) LESSON PLAN: Overlapping Shapes, p. 129; T he Story in Art, Part II, p. 153 38  LEONARDO DA VINCI SLIDE 11 Leonardo daVinci's curiosity led him to study and sketch such diverse subjects as human and animal anatomy, the way rocks are coated by running water; and the motion of planets and stars. He drew designs for forts, theater sets, equestrian statues, flying machines, and war devices. Of course, he is known as the painter of such great works as the Iast Supgr in Milan and the MnaLisa. He filled hundreds of notebooks with interpretations of his direct experiences. Leonardo believed in the importance of observation; he writes, for example, "the eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the central sense can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature. . . ." He continues, ".. . O painter!. .. you cannot be a good one if you are not the universal master of representing by your art every kind of form produced by nature...." This is a drawing of Ursus arctus, a brown bear then common in the Alps north of Milan. The bear's distinguishing trait is the ruff of hair that grows through the matted fur around its neck and shoulders during the summer months. This drawing allows the viewer to experience the bear's movements as well as see the shape of the body and the texture of the fur. Scholars believe that Leonardo probably observed a bear in captivity and that he may have studied the fur and skin of a dissected bear. Leonardo folloved the bear's moements. He sketched the bear's hind legs several times, slightly varying their placement each time. T he front right leg is lifted, while the left, the weight-bearing leg, rests firmly on the ground. A single line describes the contour of the back, and repeated lines describe the head and belly of the bear. Leonardo focused on the anatomical structure of a particular paw, distinguishing the muscles and claws. He notes that he "... will discourse of the hands of each animal to show in what way they vary; as in the bear which has the ligatures of the toes joined above the instep." This is a silverpoint drawing. For silverpoint, the paper first must be coated with an opaque pigment; in this case a mixture of pulverized bone and glue gives the paper its light-buff color. Leonardo used the tip of a thin silver stylus or wire to make the drawing; the point deposits a layer of silver that eventually tarnishes. The fine gray line resembles the line made with a hard graphite pencil, but silverpoint lines cannot be erased. The only way to shade a silverpoint or metalpoint drawing is to build up the tones by hatching. Leonardo used short repeated curved strokes to describe the texture of the ruff and long diagonal lines to create the volume of the bear's broad body. The bear is drawn over a sketch of a pregnant woman. Scholars believe that Leonardo may have drawn the female figure on the untreated paper; then, because paper was scarce and expensive, he coated its surface and reused it. Leonardo's genius was recognized and appreciated in his lifetime. Observers described him as handsome, gracious, and gentlemanly, with interests and activities so wide-ranging that it was difficult for him to finish a project. He was born in Vinci, a small town near Florence. His 39  , r W r r i r " e= a k father was a notary, equivalent to a present-day lawyer. His parents never married, and he grew up in his father's house with his paternal grandparents. In Florence, the painter and sculptor AndreaVerrocchio became his teacher, and Leonardo later worked in Milan, Florence, and Rome. In 1516, he moved to France. He lied and died in Cloux, in a chiteau given to him by the king, Francis I. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Observation; science and art; animal anatomy COMPARE SLIDES 13, 16, and Battlecf tftNaldh Mn, p. 93 (drawing and printmaking techniques) LESSON PLANS: Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; Tempera, p. 185; Printmaking, p. 191 SLIDE II SY OFA BEAR WuIKNG, CA. I485-90 LEONARDO DA VINCI Florentine, 1452-1519 Sliwerpoint on light buff prepared paper; 41/16x5 1/41n. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.369) 40  TULLIo LOMBARDO SLIDE 12 riginally, this life-size sculpture of Adam stood in a niche on the resplendent tomb that Tullio Lombardo made for the DW Andrea Vendramin. This funerary monument, resembling a Roman triumphal arch, is in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. The sculpture was intended to be seen from the front and sides. Adam contemplates the apple in his left hand, the cause of his downfall, as his right hand rests delicately on a broken branch, and the serpent appears at the bottom of the tree trunk decorated with ivy. The smooth white marble and subtle modeling of the muscles recall the serenity of Greek classical sculpture. His posture is a version of the classical antrappoo pose found in most Renaissance figures. The slight twist raises his right hip slightly higher than the left, and his left shoulder higher than the right. This nude Adam resembles a beautiful pagan god, rather than the "naked"Adam whose fig leaf he wears, as described in Genesis 3:7: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." Why Adam for a Christian funeral monument?With Adam and Eve's estrangement from God, mortality-death and sin-are introduced to humanity: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). While this statue represents the Christian tradition, it also encapsulates the Renaissance classical belief in man's capacity to make whatever he desired of himself. As the Florentine philosopher Pico della Mirandola stated in 1486 in his Oratim n ttDiglity cf Man (Oratiocbkninis dgiitate): "Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor function peculiar to thyself have we given thee, Adam.... Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature" (Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall Jr., RiassanePh1ipy, pp. 224-25). The Lombardo family, Pietro and his sons Antonio and Tullio, vere sculptors of Lombard origin who settled in Venice, where they designed, built, and carved many monuments reflecting their admiration of classical architecture, ornament, and sculpture. 41  SLIDE 12 ADAM I490-95 TULLIO LOMBARDO Venetian, ca. 1455-d. 1532 Marble; h. 75 in. Fletcher Fund, 1936 (36.163) THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; society; aristocratic patron; classical figuratixe sculpture; marble; Old Testament, Genesis, Adam and Eve COMPARE: SLIDE 13 (narrative); SLIDES 13, 16, and Battlec ftiNakid n, p. 93 (human figure) SOURCE MATERIAL: Humanist: Pico della Mirandola, p. 81 LESSON PLANS: A Form to Measure, p. 117; Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; The Contrapposto Pose, p. 123; Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153 42  ALBRECHT D URER SLIDE 13 A lbrecht Darer signed his full name and authorship in Latin, ALBERTUS DURER NORICUS FACIEBAT 1504, in a high and prominent place, overlooking the scene he ed of Adam and Ew in the Garden of Eden. The subject of this highly celebrated engraving fills the frame. Adam and Eve, vearing only leaws, stand before the dark and dense forest that is Direr's vision of the Garden of Eden. Direr was an acute observer and transcriber of the natural world, - and he rendered objects and people with the closest possible atten- tion to their form and character. What is difficult for modern eyes to discern, hoveer, is the symbolic aspect of this bravura display of the details of the natural world.T his is the moment before the Fall. The serpent gives Eve the apple, Adam stands ready to receive it. He holds the branch of an ash tree, the symbol of theTree of Life. A fig tree stands between Adam and Eve, providing the leaves that cowr her, but, curiously, also bears apples, suggesting that it is also the Tree of Knowledge with its forbidden fruit. Among the animals v"e discover in the foliage, four are especially significant: the cat, ox, rabbit, and elk, who collectively represent the four tempera- ments of man that are unleashed by the events in the story of Adam and Eve. Other details invite bemused speculation: Does Adam step on the outstretched tail of a mouse? Has the cat fallen asleep between mouse, rabbit, and bird above? Does the ram refer to the story of Abraham and Isaac, or does it sit behind the tree as a symbol of the future Christ? Is the still- ness of the scene, like the calm before the storm, suggestixe of imminent tragedy?Does the goat on the high crag in the background peer into an abyss? So finely rendered are the textures and so fully rounded are the dimensions that vwe almost forget that there is no color in this work of art. Its story is evocatie and imaginative and rendered with technical brilliancy, while the figures have been rendered in accordance with principles of human proportion that Direr strove to articulate and write about. From his writings on human proportions in AestlficFxcursus, we have his thoughts: I hold that the more nearly and accurately a man is made to resemble man, so much better will the work be. If the best parts, chosen from many well-formed men, are fitly united in one figure, it will be worthy of praise. The Creator fashioned men once and for all as they mt be, and I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men. DUrer trawled from Germany to Italy in 1494, ten years before this engraving was made, and he returned a second time shortly after its publication. It is generally understood that in his travels Direr sought knowledge of anatomical proportions as embodied in classical works of art. As we see in this beautiful engraving and in his writing, his achievement was to bring together the ideas of religious faith, classical aesthetics, and impeccable artistry. 43  SLIDE 13 ADAMAND E, 1504 ALBRECHT DORER German, 1471-1528 Engraving; 9 3/ 4 x 5/ 8 in. Bequest of Ida Kammerer, in memory of her husband, Frederic Kammerer, M.D., 1933 (33.79.9) THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Home; society; human figure; print; narrative, Genesis-Old Testament COMPARE: SLIDE 12 (Adam); SLIDES 16, 19, 24, and Battlecf tftNaled Mn, p. 93 (human figure and contrapposto pose); SLIDE I I (animals) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist: Diirer's Journal, p. 83; Artist/ Patron: Diirer on Lady Margaret of Austria, p. 89 LESSON PLANS: The Contrapposto Pose, p. 123; Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153; Printmaking, p. 191 44  RAPHAEL SLIDE 14 According to Giorgio Vasari, "this [altarpiece ] is certainly a marvelous and devout work of art."T he Madonna (Mary), the Christ Child, and the infant John the Baptist occupy e middle of the panel and are flanked by four saints. The scene is set against a distant landscape. Mary sits on the throne with Christ on her lap; she looks down at Saint John. He in turn looks up at Christ, who responds with the hand sign for benediction. The three figures fit into an equilateral triangle, the apex of which is Mary's halo. God the Father sends his blessing from the center of the lunette , repeating the Child's gesture. His head is the apex of a second triangle that frames the entire composition in the main panel. The triangle is a stable shape as well as being the Christian symbol for the Trinity. The composition of the altarpiece is symmetrical, with God the Father and Mary along the vertical axis, and the angels, Christ, John, and the other saints distributed on either side. The saints' gestures provide a sense of movement as they are virtually mirror images of each other, and their gazes cross the holy scene from upper left to lover right. For example, Saint Peter, on the lower left, looks out toward the viewer. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, standing behind and aboe him, looks at the Christ child. On the lower right, Saint Paul, like Saint Catherine, looks toward the group in the middle of the panel, as Saint Cecilia, above and behind him, looks out toward the viewer. This well-balanced and harmonious plan deries from classical geometric propositions on proportions. In Christian thought, the manifestation of a logical system stands for divine intention. Thus, the geometric configurations illuminate the spiritual significance of this devotional image that was designed to inspire prayer and meditation. T he sixteenth-century churchgoing public was familiar with the lives of the saints, whose stories they often heard at Mass. Artists depicted the saints with specific objects, called "attributes," that allude to their stories and thereby alloved the faithful to identify them. Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles, is shown holding his attribute, the keys to heaven. Jesus named him Peter, which means "rock," to signify that he would be the foundation upon which the Church would be built. Saint Paul holds an open Bible, referring to his writing of the Epistles. Saint Catherine of Alexandria holds a palm leaf, a symbol of martyrdom, and her right hand rests upon a wheel. According to Christian legend, she was a noblewoman of great learning. When she refused to worship idols, the emperor had her tortured on a spiked wheel, then beheaded. Saint Cecilia also holds a palm leaf and a book. She was a Roman Christian of the second or third century who was beheaded when she refused to worship the Roman gods. She is the patron saint of music and musicians. Sometimes specific colors also have symbolic meaning. For example, Mary traditionally years a mantle of blue, a symbol of the sky and heaen. In this painting the azurite blue pigment has turned black with time. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Raphael began his studies with his father, a provincial painter in the court of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino. Raphael assimilated what he could use from many artists and still retained his originality and deep interest in classical form. In Rome, Raphael became one of the principal artists to work for Pope Julius II. 45  SLIDE 14 -1DONNA AND CHD INHROMNID - ITH SAIN'IS, 1504-5 - RAPHAEL (RAFFAELLO SANZIO OR SANTI) Marchigian, 1483-1520 Tempera and oil on wod; main panel 66 7/ 8 x 67 7/ 8 in. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916 (16. 30a,b) Vasari wites that the convent of Sant'Antonio da Padova at Perugia commissioned the young Raphael to paint this altarpiece and asked him to clothe the Christ Child. H e also states that Raphael worked on this altarpiece in two stages, painting the female figures before he left for Florence in 1504, and the male figures when he returned the following year. In Florence, he was influenced by many painters, including Michelangelo and Leonardo. T hus, the bodies of the male saints are rendered with greater volume, and the facial features show more individual expression than those of the female saints. Vasari also describes the three scenes of the putlla. The Metropolitan Museum owns one of the panels, TteAgny in tlt Gardn. It is interesting to imagine a lixely narrative painted on small panels below the monumental image we have just looked at (Vasari, Ines pp. 710-740). At present, Vasari's account is considered hypothetical, but since no other defmnitive information exists, we have included it in this packet. T HEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTs: Home (conment); society; devotional; altarpiece; composition; symbols COMPARE: SLIDE 2 (altarpieCe, COmposition, oil versus tempera); SLIDES I, 19 (Christ Child); SLIDEs I, 2, 5 (composition); SLIDE I (a predella panel) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist: Michelangelo, p. 82 LESSON PLAN: Classical Composition, p. 141; The Contrapposto Pose, p. 123; A Form to Measure, p. 117 46  PIERO DI COSIMO SLIDE 15 At first glance, this unusual painting seems chaotic, full of action and violence. Satyrs (half-man, half-goat) and centaurs (half-man, half-horse) intermingle with men wearing incloths and fur capes that recall the lionskin wrn by Hercules. A fire blazes in the forest while people and wild animals flee, only to be ambushed by hunters (see SLIDE 15 A). Areddish-yellow glow illuminates the distant landscape. The painting is divided vertically by two trees that lead the viewer's eye into the landscape in two directions. The trunks of the two trees frame a figure holding or strangling a wild boar. A small monkeylike creature hangs on to the right tree trunk. On the right side, Piero placed trees on a diagonal axis, creating the perspective line that leads the viewer's eye deep into the rocky, barren landscape. He reinforced this axis by aligning the figures: a man crouched on a fast-moving horse, two centaurs in the distance, and a perfectly foreshortened dead figure that lies on the ground with a large stick by its side. Further moxement is created by the two satyrs who come out of the lower right edge of the painting and head in the opposite direction, toward the painting's center. On the left side, men and satyrs work together to subdue the wild animals who are fighting among themselves.T he faces of Piero's figures are expressive, and their bodies are active and flexible. Vasari describes the young Piero as "by nature a most lofty spirit, and he was very strange, and different in fancy from other youths" Like Leonardo daVinci, Piero believed in observing and investigating all kinds of natural phenomena. Vasari says he shows "a certain subtlety in the ines- tigation of some of the deepest and most subtle secrets of Nature ..." This panel is part of a series: the Metropolitan Museum owns a second panel, Tirdturn fran tteHunt, and the third, TrFcrest Fire is at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In this series Piero explored contemporary and classical notions about the beginning of civilization-the evolution of humanity from a primitie, feral state to one of relatiw civilization. In this panel, the blazing fire may allude to a popular idea, originally expressed by the Roman architect Vitruvius (first century Bc.) and widely quoted in the Renaissance, that the discovery of fire led to the inven- tion of human speech, social units, and dwIellings, and thus, ultimately, to civilization: In the olden days men were born like wild beasts in woods and caves and grows, and kept alive by eating raw food. Somewhere, meanwhile, the close- grown trees, tossed by storms and winds, and rubbing their branches together caught fire. Terrified by the flames, those who were near the spot fled. When the storm subsided, they drew near, and since they noticed how pleasant to their bodies was the warmth of the fire... sounds were breathed forth ... T hen, giving names to things more frequently used, they began to speak because of this fortuitous evnt ... Vitruvius, DeAnbitatra Ilri DenmII, Erwin Panofsky, "The Early History of Man," TieWarburgJuirnal, vol. 1, (1937), p. 12. 47  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION According to Vasari, the Florentine wool merchant Francesco Pugliese commissioned Piero to paint a series of panels that formed a cyle of "diverse stories of small figures"T his may be one of the panels. Piero, the son of a Florentine goldsmith, was apprenticed as a young boy to the painter Cosimo Rosselli, and that is why he is known as Piero di Cosimo. Vasari says that Piero's behavior became eccentric after his teacher's death: He cared nothing for his own comfort, and reduced himself to eating [only] boiled eggs, which, in order to save firing, he cooked when he was boiling his glue, and not six or eight at a time, but in [the] fifties; and keeping them in a basket he would eat them one by one. He would never have his rooms swept, he would only eat when hunger came to him, and he would not let his garden be worked. He could not bear the crying of children, the coughing of men, the sound of bells, and the chanting of friars (Vasari, Lis pp. 650-58). THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; society; secular narratixe; spirit of inquiry and observation; classical texts COMPARE: SLIDES 18, 25, 29 (landscape and perspectixe); SLIDES 2, 18, 24, 25, and Battlecf tftNallnIhn, p. 93 (human figure); SLIDES II, 13 (animals); SLIDES 13, 25 (tree) SOURCE MATERIAL: Humanist: Pico della Mirandola, p. 81 LESSON PLANS: Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153; Poetic Forms, p. 159; A Writing Activity, p. 157 SLIDE 15, ISA A HUNTING SCINI I505-7 PIERO DI COSIMO (PIERO DI LORENZO) florentine, 1462-152 1 Tempera and oil on wood; 27 3/4x663/4 Gift of Robert Gordon 1875 (75.7.2) 48  MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI SLIDE 16 T he drawings on this page are studies for the figure of the Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel frescoes.T he sibyls vere the ancient Greek priestesses of Apollo whose prophecies vere believed by early Christians to hae been inspired by God and to have predicted the coming of Jesus and the Apocalypse. This page of drawings allows the viewer to follow Michelangelo's artistic process and appreciate his masterful hand. In these anatomical drawings of a figure in motion, Michelangelo identified and highlighted specific shoulder muscles by using two functional notations, a round circle and a straight line. Compare the more finished study of the Sibyl with the drawing immediately below her raised left arm. In the latter, line describes the structure and dimension of the left shoulder, the fore- shortened arm and hand, and the torso. In the more complete study, r 4 light and shadow carefully model the volume of the muscles, creating a feeling of taut skin. In some areas, Michelangelo rendered the shadows with a repetition of close parallel lines called hatching : the closer the chalk lines, the darker the shadow. In other places, he achieved the deep rich orange hue we see by wetting the paper so that the soft chalk soaked into it. He used red chalk, a new medium at the time, because it is soft and it permits the responsive, rapid drawing so necessary for quickly setting down thoughts and impressions. (Natural chalks are found in the earth; red chalk is a variety of red ochre.) This page illustrates bent toes, a turned foot, foreshortened hands and fingers, and the Sibyl's profile. In addition, the more finished Sibyl looks back over her left shoulder while her arms and hands which in the fresco hold a heavy book-reach forward. This slight twist is an example of ntrappoaq a pose often used in the Renaissance. Like most artists at this time, Michelangelo probably drew from nude male models, usually young assistants in the master artist's workshop. Michelangelo's career epitomizes the Renaissance idea of the inspired artist-genius. Although he was an architect, sculptor, painter, poet, and engineer as well, he thought of himself first as a sculptor and believed that the sculptor shared in something like divine power to "make man." He was a man of dramatic contradictions. Impulsive and antagonistic toward his rivals, he was deeply sympathetic and concerned about those close to him. He often opposed the demands of his patrons. He was born into a prominent Florentine family and as an adolescent was befriended by Lorenzo de'Medici, a relationship that gaw him the opportunity to copy that family's classical sculptures and to study classical literature from their library. He spent much of his career in Rome working for a succession of popes, including Julius II, for whom he frescoed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was unveiled in 1512. 49  SLIDE 16 STUDIES FORTHE LIBYAN SIBYL, CA. 1508 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI Florentine, 1475-1564 Red chalk; 11 3/ 8 x 8 3/ 8 in. Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1924 (24.197.2) -I THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; artist-genuis; drawing; anatomy; red chalk COMPARE: SLIDES 12, 13, 19 (human figure); SLIDE 13, and Battlecf Naed N-, p. 93 (observation versus measurement of human figure); SLIDE I I (drawing) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist: Michelangelo, p. 82 LESSON PLAN: Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121, The Contrapposto Pose, p. 123; Gesture, p. 125 50  HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER SLIDE 17 great portrait painter can introduce the viewer to the subject as though we were in the same room, allowed to examine unabashedly the facial characteristics and sometimes the y soul of the person. Hans Holbein was such a painter, renowned for his portraits and his extraordinary insight into the character of those he painted. The intimacy and immediacy in this painting belie the very small size of the original: the resolute strength, penetrating gaze, and fame of the sitter make this image appear larger than life. The subject is the great humanist Erasmus, whose appearance is known to us today through this and other portraits painted by H olbein. With meticulous skill and precise brushwork, Holbein recorded specific details of character, such as Erasmus's steady, benevolent gaze; the delicate wrinkles around his deep-set eyes, the sharp nose, and the soft folds of flesh around the determined mouth; his high cheekbones; a readiness to smile; the wispy gray strands of hair that curl around his hat; the slightly hollow cheeks and pronounced stubble of his beard. Note the simple, sober costume and the aus- tere background against which the figure sits, and the skill with which Holbein painted the fur, whose texture is silky to the eye. Erasmus's hands are clasped, as he faces a light source we cannot see, which illuminates him in a three-quarter view. The dark hat and high collar of his robe frame his face. Holbein achieved the subtle tonal gradations on Erasmus's face by using newly developed oil techniques. The warm flesh tones and orange-red fur cuffs are particularly effective against the cool tones of the rich blue background. The small white rectangle in the upper-left corner is a later addition, with an inscription now illegible, perhaps the name of one of the owners. It has been said that the subject of this painting, Desiderius Erasmus, was the greatest humanist of the Renaissance. Widely trawled and profoundly learned, he was first and foremost a theologian who served as an intermediary betveen the Greek scholars of antiquity and the humanists of the Renaissance. His translation of the New Testament into Latin and his accompanying edition of the original Greek influenced the Protestant Reformation. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION By 1515, Hans Holbein the Younger, the most talented scion of a family of painters, moved from Germany to Basel, Switzerland. When the Reformation reached Basel in the last years of the 1520s, great violence erupted. Provided with a letter of recommendation from his friend and patron Erasmus, Holbein went to England, where he became a favorite painter of the court of Henry VIII. 51  THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual, portrait, humanist; society; larger world; Protestant Reformation COMPARE: SUDEs 4, 6, 21 (portrait); SUDE 9 (Renaissance individual) SOURCE MATERIAL: Humanist: Letter from Erasmus to Sir T homas More, p. 80 LESSON PLANS: Erasmus of Rotterdam, p. 179; Portrait, p. 177 52 SLIDE 17 BIASMUS OF RlrnERDAM 1523 HANs HOLBEINTHE YOUNGER German, 1497/ 98-1543 Oil on wod; 7 3/ 8 x 5 3/4 in. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.138)  LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER SLIDE 18 One does not need to look closely to see that this painting depicts a dream or a mytho- logical story. Three wmen without clothes stand coyly in the lover right corner. Just inches away are two fully clothed and armored men. The older one gestures and talks with the wimen, the younger man gazes, unblinking, as if entranced, bewitched, or dreaming. A horse pokes its head around a tree and appears to look us in the eye, almost with a wink. Cupid appears in a puff of gray cloud above with a drawn bow and arrow. Dense, lush foliage creates a kind of stage set, separating the characters and their tale in the foreground from the harbor and mountains in the distant background and revealing their story to us in the foreground. This painting represents one of the great myths, the story of the judgment of Paris, in which Paris must decide who among the goddesses Venus, Juno, and Minerva is the most beautiful. T he artist, Lucas Cranach, frequently depicted mythological and other classical subjects. Here he follows a German version of the tale, choosing a witty and titillating tone to do so. The men are depicted not in the costumes of antiquity, but in the costumes of German knights and northern medieval mythology. The women wear golden chains and elegant hair ornaments and little else. In this version, the sleeping Paris sees the three goddesses in a dream, transported to him by Mercury. Imaginatively and easily, Cranach tells us visually which of the three is the winner. Not only is she pointing to Cupid with his bow and arrow in the upper-left corner, but she is distinguished from the others by her red and gray plumed hat, matching the color and feathers on Paris's costume. It is Venus, the goddess of love, and it is she who will receive the prize, which in this version of the story is the glass orb held by Mercury. The distant scene of water, harbor, mountains, castles, and boats displays Cranach's skill as a landscapist; in his early years as a painter he studied the northern landscape in search of old forests and romantic vistas.T he landscape fades to silvery blue in the background, following the color gradations of atmospheric perspective. To this he added a romanticized Gothic city and castled rocks, achieving a panoramic view that makes the scene complete. Cranach was a great engraver and designer of wodcuts as vell as a painter, and his versatility in these different media is evident in Tr xJu t cf Paris The surface is smooth, and no visible brushvwork disrupts the brilliant illusion of this dream. Note the cool, classical idealizing of the female nudes, showing their sensual outlines from a variety of viewpoints. In contrast is the highly detailed rendering of armor on the tw men. T he foliage behind is beautifully delineated, each leaf appearing to be illuminated with light so as to suggest the heightened reality of a dream- like state. 53  SLIDE 18 TIE ,JUDGNEWT OF PARIS, CA. 1528 LUCAS CRANACHTHE ELDER German, 1472-1553 Tempera and oil on wod; 40 1/ 8 x 28 in. Rogers Fund, 1928 (28.221) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Lucas Cranach could be considered a Renaissance man of the north; he lived in Vienna and was a member of humanist intellectual circles there. In 1504, the Elector of Saxony, Frederick III, called him to Wittenberg, where he became court painter and a close friend of Martin Luther. In his latter years, he established a large workshop that produced many portraits and Protestant paintings. Eventually he became involved in the events of the Reformation and accompanied the last Saxon elector into exile in 1550. T HEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: H ome; larger world; classical narrative; nude; costume; atmospheric or aerial perspective; oil paint COMPARE: SLIDE I3, I6 (nude and human figure); SLIDE 25 (aerial or atmospheric perspective); SLIDE 29 (landscape) LESSON PLANS: Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; Gesture, p. 125; Aerial or Atmospheric Perspectiv, p. 131; Poetic Forms, p. 159 54  ANDREA DEL SARTO SLIDE 19 n this painting, the Christ Child is the central figure. Behind him, Joseph looks directly at the viewer, while Mary and the young John the Baptist look pensively at Christ, who seems oblivious to their concern and the importance of the moment. He is portrayed as a gleeful child who grabs the globe as if it was a toy, his gesture encircled by the mirroring poses of Saint John and Mary. The line of their arms unites the three and creates a circle, as well as the sculptural space the figures inhabit. The four figures are set against an olive green background. The use of oil paint alloved Andrea to model the volume of the figures subtly with light and shade. His figures appear lifelike; he has done what Leon Battista Alberti suggests: "clothe[d] the bones and muscles [of the human figure] with flesh and skin." Light falls on Saint John's right shoulder but illuminates only a small patch on the top of Joseph's head; Mary and Christ are in full light, and a dark shadow describes the space behind Christ's legs. The shadow and the swath of vibrant red and blue cloth intensify the feeling of an inner circle. As humble spectators we-the viever and Joseph-observe the scene from the outside. The generous quantity of red and blue silk fabric casually draped on the table attracts the viewer's eye, as do the violet of Mary's dress and her yellow sleeve. The blue fabric wraps around Mary, and a tiny strip emerges on her left cuff, perhaps to remind the viewer of her traditional blue mantle, a symbol of her heavenly status. The red cloth, a symbol of the Passion, links John and Christ. In the lower left corner of the painting, a small wooden cross, also a symbol of the Passion, contrasts with the bronze cross on top of the globe, a symbol of the established Church and its dominion. The composition, the emphatic use of light, and the choice of symbolic colors and objects reveal the mystical themes and spiritual function of this devotional painting. Sarto in Italian means "tailor"-Andrea was the son of a tailor. He was born in and lived most of his life in Florence. At the age of seven he went to work in a goldsmith shop, where Vasari says he gained an appreciation for precise detail. He studied painting with Piero di Cosimo, and Giorgio Vasari, the great Florentine biographer and painter, became his student. Vasari wrote of Andrea, "In [his] single person, nature and art demonstrated all that painting can achieve by means of draughtsmanship, colouring, and invention. His figures, however, for all their simplicity and purity, are well conceived, free from errors, and absolutely perfect in every respect" (Vasari, Lies, p. 823). After Michaelangelo and Raphael left Florence, Andrea was considered the city's leading painter. 55  SLIDE 19 TiE HOLY FAMLY TwrH THE INMNT SINT JOHN, CA. 1530s ANDREA DEL SARTO Florentine, 1486-1530 Oil on wod; 53 1/ 2 x 39 518 in. Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1922 (22.75) THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Family and home; devotional; narrative, human figure; light and shade; color; oil paint COMPARE: SLIDE 16 (human figure); SLIDE JO (devotional, use of color, Space); SLIDES I, 8, 14 (Christ Child, narrative, composition, tempera versus oil paint, and color) LESSON PLANS: Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153 56  BROTH BOWL AND COVER SLIDE 20 This bowl (silla) and its cover (tagiae) vere part of a matching set presented to a mother as a gift upon the birth of a child, perhaps to serve a celebratory and healthful broth. Although no complete sets have survived intact, a drawing in a mid-sixteenth-century treatise on the arts of the potter implies that these sets originally comprised five pieces. In addi- tion to the bowl and its cover there would haw been a drinking cup, a saltcellar, and a lid to enclose all the parts. The two pieces are made of tin-glazed earthenware called majolica. Many types of majolicaware were produced in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for both practical and ceremonial purposes. Sixteenth-century advances in glazing and firing techniques made possible the painting of complicated narratives in brilliant and subtle colors. T his set with its beautifully painted narratives was costly and would haw been considered a luxury item. The bowl rests on a high stem. On opposite sides of the bowl are two medallions that contain unidentified coats of arms, probably belonging to the mother and father. As on Lorenzo de' Medici's birth tray, the coats of arms celebrate birth as a dynastic event. Two auspicious inscriptions address the mother and child; the one on the rim of the bowl reads: "God with his hands created you so fair that now to mortal eyes you appear more precious than any Oriental gem." The other, on the inside of the cover, reads: "Virtue, beauty, and braxery united in a single person-it is as if an enormous sea flowed into a little brook." T he three episodes that decorate this set are from classical Roman literature. T hey illustrate three important virtues: filial devotion (pidtas), lovers' loyalty (fics), and courage (wrtu). The inside of the bowl depicts Aeneas rescuing his father, Anchises, from Troy as it burns, a scene from Virgil's Anidd On the outside of the cover of the bowl, we find a . scene from Ovid's MImanrus: in a rocky landscape with a sarcoph- agus (stone coffin) and tree to the left, and a village and mountains in the distance, two lovers play out their fate. Pyramus lies dead on the ground, bleeding, while his beloved T hisbe stands over him, about to 4 fall on her lover's sword and complete their tragic double suicide. (Ovid's tale also inspired the death scene in Shakespeare's RInoand Julid and the play-within-a-play in his Mcknir Nigt's Drmm) On the inside of the cover, Hercules slays the Nemean lion. The inscrip- tion "He who wanted to conquer Paradise, he who slew Cacus, he who was possessed by the fury" is found on the outside of the cover, along with the passage that refers to the story of Aeneas and Anchises: "He who made his way through fire like a salamander, with Julius [Ascanius] and Anchises." Although the use of classical imagery and language was widespread by the middle of the six- teenth century, no assumptions could be made about people's ability to recognize specific episodes from the stories. When they were combined in a somewhat random way, as we see here, it was necessary to provide inscriptions to identify them. 57  OUTSIDE COVER: PXRAMs AND TIIs3E SLIDE 20 BknH B~OWL (SCODnIII) AND COVER (TACIER2E), CA. 1530-40 BALDASSARE MANARA, D. 1547 Faenza, Majolica; h. 4 1/ 8 in.; cover diam. 7 3/ 4 in. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975. 104.3a, b) INSIDE~~~ ~~~ OCOE:H1IJE AXlIINIEOBWLAEASR3UTGHS MIIS LssNPAS h tryi rPr ,p 15 n .13 Poti F rp15 INIEO58 E:1IdUF AsH ~ENLO NSD FBW:ANA EC I ATEAm~  BRONZINO SLIDE 21 What do we know about this man?He stands in an architecturally complex space and looks down at the vievier. His posture, left hand on hip, displays his broad shoulder and fashionable clothes. His right hand marks his place in a well-thumbed book. His face and hands look chiseled, as does the purple stonelike table. The shapes are clearly defined by the strong contrast of light and shade. The muted color of the walls of this elegant, austere piazzn provides a foil for the rich blackness of the young man's costume. The xertical architectural lines that define the corner echo his erect posture. The appearance of this unidentified young man might recall the absolute aristocratic rule of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici that followed upon the failure of the Florentine republic. He is well dressed, cultivated, self-possessed, and aloof: it is thought that he was a writer or poet, a friend of Bronzino's and part of his literary circle-a gentleman who spent his time inventing and writing whimsical poems. The soft, rounded, even squashed features of the grotesques carved on the table and chair are in contrast with the sharp, hard lines of the young man's face. Bronzino has created a visual conceit for this gentleman of witty conceits. T he young man is vearing a fashionable and costly costume, called alant .T he outer garment is slashed, so the inner one, in a subtly different tone of black, is exposed. This style was adopted from the worn and ravaged look of Swiss mercenary soldiers' garments. Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), who wrote the Pakcf tCaurtier (Il Co-tan 1528), the first book on etiquette in Europe, commented on clothes: "I am ... always pleased when clothes tend to be sober ... the most agreeable color is black" Castiglione lied in Urbino, first at the court of Duke Guido- baldo, the son of Federico of Montefelto (SLIDE 9) and then at the court of his successor, Duke Francesco Maria Della Rovere. Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was Bronzino's chief patron. Bronzino painted many portraits of the duke's family and became known for his ideal aristocratic portraits, but he also decorated the chambers of the duke's wife, Eleanora of Toledo, with a series of frescoes. 59  I THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual, portrait; urban aristocratic society; fashion; grotesque; oil paint COMPARE SLIDES 4, 17 (attitudes and poses of portraits); SLIDES 22, 23 (grotesque and classical ornament); SLIDES 9, 22, 23, 27, 28 (urban, aristocratic life) SOURCE MATERIAL: Humanist: Marsilio Ficino, p. 79; Family: Giovanni della Casa, p. 90 LESSON PLANS: Portrait, p. 177; Poetic Forms, p. 159; Gesture, p. 125 60 SLIDE 21 PORAT OF A YOUNG MN, 1540 AGNOLO DI COSIMO DI MARIANO, ALSO KNOWN AS BRONZINO Florentine, 1503-1572 Oil on wood; 37 5/ 8 x 29 1/ 2 in. Bequest of Mrs. H. 0. Haxemeyer, H.0O. Haeeyer Collection, 1929 (29.100.16)  PENTAGONAL SPINET SLIDE 22 till playable after 450 years, this spinet embodies the spirit of Italian humanism in its sophistication and elegance. The graceful pentagonal shape of the case conforms to the ayout of the strings stretched over the sound board, and the exterior is richly decorated with panels of inlaid wood, mother-of- pearl, and tracery. Layers of pierced parchment re-create a Gothic rose in the sound hole. Emblematic carvings bracket the keyboard, and over the keys is a line of poetry that translates as "I'm rich in gold and rich in tone; if you lack virtue, leave me alone." This poem contains a pun on the word "virtue" (cU huno); the musician should have personal goodness as well as musical skill. Spinets were popular among amateur musicians, especially women. In the Renaissance, the word "amateur" did not mean that the player lacked professional competence, rather it implied that he or she was studying and performing for the love of music, not for pay. In Tlr Pak cf te Ccurtir, Baldassare Castiglione explains: So the courtier should turn to music as if it were merely a pastime of his and he is yielding to persuasion, and not in the presence of common people or a large crowd. And although he may know and understand what he is doing, in this also I wish him to dissimulate the care and effort that are necessary for any competent performance, and he should let it seem as if he himself thinks nothing of his accomplishment which, because of its excellence, he makes others think very highly of. The musician who commissioned this instrument was Eleanora della Rowre (daughter of Isabella d'Este), who grew up in a cultivated court where both religious and secular music would hae been heard and played. Eleanora became duchess of Urbino (SLIDE 9) vhen she married Francesco Maria della Rovere and set up her own court. Her commission of this instrument and the price paid are recorded inside the case, but the name of the maker is not known. Like the Flemish virginal, the spinet is a kind of harpsichord. The strings are plucked by a quill protruding sideways from a jack that rises when a key is depressed. As the jack descends, the quill pivots to prevent a second pluck, and a cloth damper silences the string. (See diagram in Lesson Plan: Compare and Contrast Tvo Keyboard Instruments, p. 205.) The sound is light, bright, and crisp. Spinets and virginals are not capable of dynamic changes; the force of the player's fingers on the keys does not affect the loudness or softness of the sound. The elaborate design, executed in a subtle and personal style, is both playful and urbane. It seems to have been meant for the delight of the musician performing on the instrument rather than as an ostentatious display for an audience. The grotesque figures carved in the keyboard bracket can be seen only on close inspection, and the witty inscription above the keys is obviously intended for the musician's eyes only. 61  THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; women; family; home; society; pastime; music COMPARE: SLIDE 28 LESSON PLAN: Compare and Contrast Two Musical Instruments, p. 205 SLIDE 22 PINAGONAL SPINEr, 1540 Unknown maker, Venetian Wood, various other materials; 57 1/ 4 in. x 19 in. Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1953 (53.6) 62  FILIPPO NEGROLI SLIDE 23 Medusa's face, framed with flowing hair and wings, decorates the front of this helmet like a protective talisman, a reminder of the hero Perseus's gift to the Greek goddess Athena. Medusa's penetrating upward gaze looks out at the viewer, perhaps not to turn to stone those who see her, as in the myth, but to beckon us to examine closely this exquisitely embossed helmet. The two snakes that coil above her head lead our eye to the siren or mermaid whose graceful body forms the top, or "comb," of the helmet. A small cartouche bearing faint traces of gold-damascened decoration hangs from the snakes' tails that cross below Medusa's chin (SLIDE 23A). The siren's head, flowing hair, and outstretched arms reach over the front of the helmet, her hands grasping Medusa's hair. She wears a skintight lr- ica (Roman cuirass). Layered acanthus leaves form her tail, which graceful- ly splits in two at the back, creating a sinuous arc over a grotesque leafy mask (not visible in the slides) that decorates the nape of the helmet. Each side of the tail ends in a thick bundle of acanthus leaves, from which issues a wide leafy tendril that spirals twice around each side of the helmet and ends there in a flover. Out of the flower's center emerges a winged putto or eros, who grabs onto the tendril with one hand and the siren's hair with the other. The design seems to grow organically from the siren at its center. This hrgmt, or open-face helmet, was made fmom a single sheet of steel, which was hammered, stretched, and shaped to form the deep bowl. It was then placed face down on a soft surface, such as warm pitch or a block of lead, and the design was carefully hammered, creating an embossed relief of varying heights. It took great skill to achieve the very high relief of the crowning element-the siren with her beautifully modeled torso. The line of the design is crisp and often undercut along the edges to emphasize the plasticity of the forms; these finishing touches were delicately chiseled on the outside. The deep rich brown color of the helmet recalls ancient bronze helmets, and the design of the ornament is similar to that found on classical Roman metalwork, including parade helmets. This type of decoration, called grotesque, is derived from Roman wall paintings that were excavated at this time, especially Nero's Golden House. (Because these excavations vere under- ground, they were called "grottoes," and the ornamentation found there "grotesques.") These wall decorations featured motifs characterized by imaginative, organic connections between disparate elements, including human figures, animals, insects, and birds, as vell as mythological and fantastic beasts and architectural and plant elements. These designs satisfied both the Renaissance regard for the classical and the period's pleasure in fanciful ornament. Filippo Negroli, the maker of this helmet, created his own interpretation of this design, signing his name on the brow plate, a separate piece that snapped into place on the inside front of the bowl. The Negrolis of Milan were the leading practitioners of embossed armor making and interpreters of classical ornament. Filippo was generally considered the most talented member of the family: chroniclers praised his work as "miraculous" and "deserving of immortal praise." His patrons included the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. 63  DETAIL: 1DUSA AND SREN SLIDE 23, 23 A PARADE H1ErVE, 1543 FILIPPO NEGROLI Milanese, ca. 1510-d. 1579 Steel, embossed and damascened with gold; w 7 5/ 16 in., h. 9 1/ 2 in.; weight 4lb. 2 oz. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.1720) DETAIL, BROW PIECE: ARTIST SIGNATURE DETAIL, BACK OF NECK: G UESQUE MASK Parade armor was wrn on ceremonial occasions, and it tends to be ornate and delicate. It differs from battle armor, which is smooth and rounded to deflect the violent blows of lance and swrd. Because of the time-consuming and precise craftsmanship, parade armor was expensive, and so it enhanced the patron's prestige and fame. This helmet is small, so it is thought to have been made for a very special young man. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; family; society; classical ornament (grotesque) and classical text (Perseus and Medusa, and Odysseus's encounter with the sirens) COMPARE SLIDE 21 (grotesque as ornament); SLIDES 5, 9 (fame and prestige); SLIDES 3, 22, 28 (classical versus Moorish design and pattern) SOURCE MATERIAL: Artist: Albrecht Dtirer's Journal, p. 83 LESSON PLANS: Personal Armor, p. 111; Poetic Forms, p. 159 64  TINTORETTO SLIDE 24 Jesus said, nuke tniiple sit dn. Nw, thre was nuh g'ass in t1 pla ; otlni sat don, in nunbr abut fie thosand Jesus tn tak t lomw, and vm r Id gun tlnnks, b dstrihtkd thmto tksl vwere satd; so also the fish as nudi as thy wantd (John 6:10-11) In this large, dramatic canvas, Tintoretto shows the moment of the miracle. Our eye is drawn up to Christ, standing in the center, surrounded by the anonymous crowd. With his left hand he takes a loaf of bread from the young man's platter, and with the right he gives a loaf to Saint Andrew, one of the apostles. Andrew's gesture leads the viewer's eye to the elegant ladies and gentlemen seated on the grass, as if waiting for a performance or a picnic to begin. This painting was designed to hang aboxe eye level. Thus, no one looks out at us, though many seem to be facing our way, as if vwe, too, vere part of the crowd. The grass in the foreground is in shadow, and the rich colors of the silk mantles and head- dresses embroidered with pearls guide the viewer's gaze around and into the background where light falls on the multitude. Tintoretto evokes the anonymity of the crowd in the back with quick, repeated, undifferentiated brush- strokes. The figures in the front sit in small groups mirroring each other; for example, the woman in front of Christ and to his right, playing with a child and dog, faces the viewer, while we see the back of another woman on his left. Such reversals construct dynamic counterpoints that create a mood of expectancy, further emphasized - by the standing figures placed parallel to the sides of the canvas. Tintoretto's colors vibrate because he juxtaposed contrasting hues, such as Christ's blue mantle and his red robe. The artist made no attempt to hide either his brushstrokes or the grain of the canvas. In this painting, Tintoretto created a mood, rather than an illusionistic rendering of an actual place. The combination of the well-balanced, harmonious composition, the dramatic activity created by the gestures and attitudes of the figures, and the painterly strokes makes the miracle truer than life, perhaps reproducing the mystical awe of the Gospel's narrative. 65  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Tintoretto's expressive way of painting was not accepted by many of his contemporaries. In fact, Vasari was appalled by his technique, which he called "crude." He disliked Tintoretto's "lack of fimish" and "careless execution and eccentric taste." He wrote that if Tintoretto "had not abandoned the beaten track but rather followed the beautiful style of his predecessors, he would hae become one of the greatest painters seen in Venice" (Vasari as quoted in Gombrich, Stry cf Art, p. 286). Tintoretto spent his entire life in Venice where he painted large narrative cycles for Venetian religious confraternities . He always worked with assistants and apprentices. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Society; New Testament narrative; devotional; oil paint and canvas; large size, horizontal composition COMPARE: SLIDES I, 8 (composition, size, narrative); SLIDE 25 (use of oil paint); SLIDES 13, I5, 19, and Battlecf ttNalnW NI, p. 93 (human figure); SLIDES I5, 25, 29 (landscape) LESSON PLANS: Gesture, p. 125; The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153; Contrapposto Pose, p. 123; A Writing Activity, p. 157 SLIDE 24 TIE MRACIE OF THE LDAVES AND SHES, 1545-50 TINTORETTO (ACOPO ROBusTI) Venetian, 1518-1594 Oil on canvas;61 x160 1/2 in. Francis L. Leland Fund, 1913 (13.75) 66  PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER SLIDE 25 om the smallest detail on the distant horizon to the imagined day in the life of the F arvesters that unfolds before us, TlrHarmsetrs is a great scene painting-its rich and full anecdotal world tells us about everyday life and activity in sixteenth-century northern Europe. The foreground is filled with simply dressed harvesters who rest, eat, drink, and cut bread, while others continue to work in the fields behind. The harvester who catches our eye first sleeps under the tall tree in the cut fields, undisturbed by the nearby group of workers or by those trudging off down the path in the fields. Houses appear in clusters in the distance, beckoning us to look more closely, and in the far reaches of the painting is a harbor with boats. Warm yellow tones bring the festive scene to center stage, while cooler tones create the atmospheric perspectie that makes the harbor appear to be at a great distance. Our ability to see easily what the haresters are doing and to identify with their activities instantly brings this painting close to us. Time is transcended by the universality of experience. This is an inventive work of art, carefully constructed and composed. Perhaps with some humorous intent, Pieter Bruegel uses the sleeping man to first catch our eye and then to lead us into and through the world of the painting. Note the shape of the man and in particular the shape made by his legs. This triangle is repeated throughout: in the stacks of wheat, the opening into the fields, the rooftops, some of the hats. Pathways direct and invite us to wander into the distance in our imagination.The warm and earthy colors assure us that this is a world where nature has provided well for its inhabitants. The white shirts of the harvesters guide our eyes to still other parts of the painting, and we make many discoveries: a pair of birds flying low owr the field, workers carrying sheaves of wheat, people moving along the roads everywhere. The viewer has the simultaneous sensation of being an onlooker and a traveler into the deep space. This investigation into a bountiful landscape is visually connected through the presence in the frontal picture plane of the large tree that runs from earth to sky, where it spreads its branches and connects near and far space. TteHarmsrs is from a series of paintings describing what have been called the Labors of the Months (in accord with the calendar cycles of Books of Hours), in which the ovrriding themes are the powerful rhythms and cycles of nature. Extant works from this series include TitPaurn cf tft Herd, T-reHunters in ttrSny (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), and Haymirdng(Roudnice Lobkowicz collection, Nelahozees, Czech Republic). With a date of 1565, TteHarmkrs is chronologically one of the last paintings to be examined here in the context of the Renaissance. Note the great shifts in artistic sensibilities and interests from the earliest paintings of the northern Renaissance to this one. Pieter Bruegel tells a story from everyday life, one that ve still recognize. The realities of the harest are interpreted without moralizing and without symbols; the landscape is large by the standards of the northern Renaissance paintings that preceded it. Bruegel is inentive not only in his use of secular subject matter but in visual style. Highly detailed investigations of fabrics, faces, and light give way to broadly defined solid forms that conwy mowment and activity, but not the insistent physicality of the early sixteenth century. Bruegel describes with exuberance and humor a world that is 67  complex but not overburdened, physical but not psychological, playful but not trivial. Convention gixes way to invention, and the sensibility, rooted in the observation of the everyday, is close to our own experience in the tventieth century. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION In the fall of 1998, TrHarw4trs was cleaned, making it possible for the viewer to appreciate Bruegel's subtle use of texture and variation of tone in color. Scholars believe that Nicholas Jongelinck, a wealthy Antwerp businessman and a government official under Philip II, the Spanish ruler of the Netherlands, commissioned Bruegel to paint this work and the other Labors of the Months; they are listed in a 1566 inventory of the Jongelinck art collection. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; family and home; society (This painting can be used by the social studies teacher as an illustration of rural, agrarian life. The castle, the church, and the towns are discreetly visible in the background); larger world; daily life; aerial or atmospheric perspective; oil paint COMPARE: SLIDES I5, 18, 29 (landscape); SLIDES 8, I5 (human figure); SLIDE 8 (linear one-point perspective to atmospheric perspective; oil ersus tempera paint); SLIDES 6, 7, 8 (daily life); SLIDES 13, I5 (tree) LESSON PLANS: Aerial or Atmospheric Perspective, p. 131; Daily Life, p. 197; AWriting Activity, p. 157; Fbetic Forms, p. 159 68 SLIDE 25, 25 A, 25 B TsE HAR5Sf 1565 PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER Netherlandish, actiweby 1551-d. 1569 Oil on wood; 46 1/ 2 x 63 1/ 4 in. Rogers Fund, 1919 (19.164)  CELESTIAL GLOBE WITH CLOCKWORK SLIDE 26 T see this shining, reflective, and luminous globe is to be reminded that vwe are part of a celestial universe and a larger cosmic order. The siler globe, with its exquisitely rendered constellations, rests on a silver and brass Pegasus, the winged - horse of classical mythology. Renaissance interest in observation and empirical understanding led to a more extensive charting of the earth, seas, skies, and stars than ever before. Time was understood to be a continuum, and clocks to be time-measuring machines whose use affected eeryone. No longer were day-to-day activities deter- mined solely by natural events. Exents could be scheduled independent of the position of the sun, and human activities could be freed from nature's basic rhythms. T his Celestial Gdbe with Clakvrk described in an early seventeenth-century inventory of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), reflects the Renaissance interest in classical mythology while expressing the advent of the modern age as it places the universe before the viewer for study and contemplation. The clockwork movement rotates the celestial sphere and dries a small image of the sun along a track that is approximately the apparent celestial path of the sun among the stars. The hour is indicated in a dial mounted at the top of the globe's axis, and the calendar rotates to the day of the year in the horizon ring. Clocks and timepieces of all kinds, collected by many princes of northern Europe, vere a luxury that only a few could afford. Clocks were expensive to purchase and difficult to maintain, so they were prized by their owners. No one knows exactly when or where clocks vere invented, but they vere found in European towns and cities by the thirteenth century. They were true Renaissance artifacts, representing a collaboration between artists, artisans, and scientists. Time is governed by the apparent rotations of the heavenly bodies, and astronomer-scientists observed and determined time by the stars. The mechanical clock-a simple apparatus that keeps a steady rate for relatively short intervals created the possibility of accuracy in keeping time. Artists could then create clocks that not only measure the passage of time but are also extraordinary visual and symbolic objects, objects in which aesthetics and mechanics were combined to bring the larger order of the universe into daily life. 69  SLIDE 26 OISriAL GOBEMITH COCKVORK 1579 Austrian Case: silver, partly gilded, and brass; movement: brass and steel; 10 3/ 4 x 8 x 7 1/ 2 in. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.636) THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Past, present, and future; home; luxury object COMPARE: SLIDE 25 (mechanical time ersus nature's rhythm); SLIDE 23 (classical images from the myth of Perseus, Medusa, and Pegasus); SLIDES 9, 13, and Battlecf ttrNaledMTn, p. 93 (measurement) LESSON PLANS: Time, p. 201; Poetic Forms, p. 159 70  ARMOR OF GEORGE CLIFFORD, THIRD EARL OF CUMBERLAND SLIDE 27 his magnificent suit of steel and gold was made for an English knight, Sir George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland, who lived from 1558 to 1605. His life and career were closely allied with service to his monarch, Elizabeth I. Suits of armor originally were designed to protect knights during battle. The rounded, oxer- lapping steel plates offered protection by blocking and deflecting blows from swords and lances. For flexibility, many small, moveable plates vere riveted together. By the sixteenth century, hovevr, gunpowder had been invented, and steel plates thick enough to deflect bullets would have made a com- plete suit of armor too heavy to vear. Suits like Clifford's were worn for jousts, tournaments, and parades. Because of the lavish gold dec- oration and the excellent condition of the suit, it is doubtful that Clifford ever wore it for anything other than ceremonial duties. It combines the cut of a fashionable doublet with the decorative effect of rich brocaded fabric, executed in techniques and with materials often identified with jewelry. Its visual impact is heightened by the associations of metal and armor with strength and power. This suit was made in the royal armory established at Greenwich in 1515 or 1516 by King Henry VIII, father of Elizabeth I. The elegant and shapely silhouette of the suit of armor was the result of careful measuring, cutting, and shaping of flat steel plates hammered to three- dimensional forms that would overlap to suggest the contours of an Elizabethan doublet with its pointed peascod belly and flaring tassets. Extra protection was provided to the neck, elbows, and shoulders, and the helmet visor could be pushed up or left down, in which case the knight looked through two narrow slits cut into the metal. The gauntlets or gloves extended over the wrists while allowing each finger to move separately. Alternating bands of decoration-gilded emblems against a dark background and dark linear designs against a gilt background-accentuate the height and stance of the knight. The bands taper and widen to emphasize the body's contour, and the designs retain their continuity on the leg, arm, and finger areas where several plates telescope together to allow for movement. 71  SLIDE 27 ARNDR OF GFDRGE CIFORD,TIRD EARL OF CUNBERIAND English, Greenwich, ca 1580-85 Steel, blued, etched, and gilded; height 69 in. Munsey Fund, 1932 (32.130.6) The rich decoration was the result of three different processes: *ETCHING Designs vere painted onto the metal with an acid-proof substance. Acids applied to these areas vwould eat away at the exposed metal, leaving high and low areas defining the design; *GILDING T he low areas of the design were filled with a paste made of gold powder and mercury When this paste was heated, the mercury burned away, melting the gold into the etched design; BLRUING Finally, the metal plates were heated slowly At a certain temperature, the surface of the metal would darken and take on an iridescent quality. 72  George Clifford would have needed assistance from his squire to dress in his armor, which as assembled here would have weighed 60 pounds. A variety of hooks, hinges, straps, and laces allowed the fourteen separate pieces to be attached to each other, to the clothes worn under the armor, and around the body. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, you will see a number of additional pieces displayed around the suit of armor. They could be attached as reinforcement to the basic suit, or swapped for one of the other pieces; for example, depending upon the occasion, Clifford could choose between the two helmets. There are extra vamplates, or hand guards used during jousting, as well as armor for Clifford's horse.The complete set, with all its companion pieces, is known as a garniture. In the early days of armor, heraldic devices and emblems were applied to identify the knight on the battlefield, and this tradition persisted, with designs becoming even more decorative and symbolic. T he emblems on George Clifford's armor have political significance. T he five-petaled roses are an emblem of the royal Tudor family, and the fleur-de-lys shape appears on the English coat of arms as a reminder of England's claim owr certain French territories. The letter E entwined with knots and rings appears down the front of the cuirass and on other parts of the armor. It is Elizabeth's initial, and it indicates homage from the knight to his queen. After studying mathematics and geography at Cambridge and Oxford, Clifford sailed the ocean as a "gentleman pirate," robbing Spanish ships of their New World gold and transporting it back to England for the Queen. His most notable feat was the capture of El Morro fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1598, which he then held for five months. Clifford participated in jousts and tilts at the court of Elizabeth, and in 1590, he was named the Queen's Champion, a post that involved presiding over the tournaments held every Queen's Day (November 17). A contemporary described George Clifford in terms that an armorer would have understood when he said of the knight, "He was as merciful as valiant, the best metal bends best." TUDOR ROSE FLEUR-DE-LYS DOUBLE E THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Renaissance individual; nobility; the world at large COMPARE: SLIDES 23, 23 A (costume); SLIDES 5, 9 (fame and prestige) LESSON PLANS: Personal Armor, p. 111; Daily Life, p. 197 73   HANS RUCKERS THE ELDER SLIDE 28 imilar to the spinet in its musical aspects, the double virginal differs markedly in its visual mpact. The spinet is elegant and sophisticated, intricately inlaid, with a subtle and witty scription, while the virginal is bulky, boldly painted, and forthright in its message. T his double virginal was made in Antwerp in 1581 by Hans Ruckers the Elder, the head of a renowned family of Flemish harpsichord builders. Instrument makers were members of Saint Luke's Guild, which included painters and other artists as well. Its boxy shape is typical of Flemish virginals. When not in use, the front panel swings up to conceal the keyboards, and the lid closes to - protect the strings. The inner surfaces, revealed when the instrument is opened, are simply decorated, and the Latin inscription hangs from the instrument like a banner. The lid painting shows people in ~ a landscape and architectural scene. The noble courtiers, both men and women, wear Spanish-style clothing and lounge in graceful poses as they arrive on a boat, sit and listen to music, eat, dance, or play a croquet-like game. In two gold-painted medallions, profile portraits of Philip II of Spain and his wife, Anne of Austria, face each other over the larger keyboard. The images of Spanish royalty on this virginal are not surprising, since in 1581 Flanders was ruled by the Spanish. The royal family may haw commissioned this instrument to send to friends in the New World, as it was found in Cuzco, Peru, in a hacienda chapel early in this century. Virginals often were associated with women musicians. Queen Elizabeth I of England and her cousin and rival Mary Stuart both played the virginal, and even the name "virginal" suggests young women. Keyboard instruments such as spinets, harpsichords, and virginals were ideal for playing the polyphonic, or "many-voiced" music of the Renaissance, because more than one key or melody could be played at the same time. The quill mechanism activated by the keys rises to pluck the strings that are stretched parallel to each other like the strings of a harp. This double virginal incorporates two keyboard instruments, the "child," or smaller, higher-pitched instrument on the left, and the larger and lower-pitched "mother" on the right. The smaller keyboard could be removed from the case and placed on top of the larger keyboard, so that the player could use both at once. 75  The Latin inscription written in large letters along the front of the instrument, 1kka dvkelahrym leanm , means "Sweet music is a balm for toil" It reflects a northern humanist aesthetic based on a strong work ethic, although it is echoed by Baldassare Castiglione in the Bak cf t1 Cortir: No rest from toil and no medicine for ailing spirits can be found more deco- rous or praiseworthy in time of leisure than this [music]. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Individual; wmen; family; home; nobility, guilds; society; the world at large; music COMPARE SLIDE 22 LESSON PLAN: Compare and Contrast Two Musical Instruments, p. 205 SLIDE 28 DOUBEVIINA, 1581 HANS RUCKERSTHE ELDER Flemish, ca. 1545-d. 1598 Wood, various other materials; w 74 3/4 in. Gift of R H. Homan, 1929 (29.90) 76  EL GRECO SLIDE 29 L andscape as the sole or even primary subject of a painting was unusual in the sixteenth century-even more unusual is this painting, in which the dramatic sky is as important as the earth.T he human figures appear as mere specks scattered throughout the painting, some walking on the road near the ancient Roman bridge, others washing strips of cloth in the river. El Greco manipulated the terrain: he intensified the steepness of the hill and contrasted the lush green, almost tropical vegetation in the fore- ground with the barren landscape in the background. The dark sky vibrates with the intensity of lightning and illuminates the landscape and architecture with an unnatural blue light. The town of Toledo rises, ghostlike, on top of the hill. As he did with the landscape, El Greco reconfigured the layout of the town, moving the cathedral and the Alcszar-the royal palace- to heighten the drama. This is a uniquely personal painting, a visionary moment full of turmoil and hope, expressed through the richness and flexibility of oil paint and the movement and quality of the artist's brushstrokes. In this painting, El Greco describes the character of the city and a glimpse into its daily life. Toledo was the seat of the Spanish Counter-Reformation and a center of higher learning, and by depicting the washing of cloth he informs the viever about the city's successful textile production. At the time El Greco painted this unforgettable view there was a campaign in this ancient city to restore its past fame and glory; most probably this is the painter's tribute to his adopted city. El Greco was born in 1541 on the island of Crete, where he studied the tradition of Byzantine painting. By 1568, he was studying in Italy, where he was impressed profoundly by theVenetian painters, especially Titian and Tintoretto. Eight years later he moved to Spain, hoping to gain the support of Philip II. This was Spain's Golden Age of artistic patronage and production. Philip II, the period's greatest patron, eventually transferred the court-and hence the artistic nucleus of Spain-from Toledo to Madrid. Though he employed native artists, he also imported art and artists from other countries, mostly Italy and Flanders. El Greco settled in Toledo, but Philip II never invited him to become a court painter. Even though Spain was not in the mainstream of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European artistic achievement, El Greco thought of himself as a Renaissance man and painter. He read Vasari's LiNes and wrote notes in the margin, where he compared himself favorably to Michelangelo and other Italian painters of the Renaissance. His copy of the book is in the library of Toledo. 77  THEMATIC CONNECTIONS THOUGHTS: Society; earth and sky (nature); space; oil paint; daily life-cloth making COMPARE SLIDES 4, I5, 18, 25 (landscape) LESSON PLANS: Aerial or Atmospheric Perspective, p. 131; Poetic Forms, p. 159 SLIDE 29 VILEW OF TOIIDO, CA. I597 DOMENICO THEOTOCOPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO ("THE GREEK") Greek (Crete), 1541-1614 Oil on canas; 47 3/4 x 42 3/ 4 in. H. O. Haawmeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.6) 78  LETTER arsilio Ficino (1433-1499), a Florentine philosopher rites to his friend the astronomer Paul of Middleburg thatthsis a"golden ae" a time of awakening and rebirth, after a thousand years of sleep, following the fall of the Ron nEmpire. Both men were friends of Federico da Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino (SLIDE 9). oPaul of Middleburg, 1492 What the poets once sang of the four ages, lead, iron, silver and gold, our PIato in Th teplietransferr to the four talents of men, assigning to some talents a certain leaden quality implanted in them by nature, to others iron, to others siher and to still others gold. If then weare to call any age golden, it is beyond doubt that age which brings forth golden talents in different places. T hat such is true of our age he who wshes to consider the illustrious discoveries of this century will hardly doubt. For this century, like a golden age, has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct: rammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, the Wacient singing of songs to the Orphic lyre, and all this in Florence. Achieving what has been honored among the ancients, but amost forgotten since, the age has joine wsdom with eloquence, and prudencewith thenmilitaryart, and this most strikingly in Federi go[Federico], Duke of Urbino, as if proclaimed in the presence of Pallas herself, and it has made his son and his brothers the heirs of his virtue. In you also, my dear Paul, this century appears to have perfected astronomy, and in orenceit has recalled the platonic teaching from Idarkness into light. In Germany in our times have been invented the instruments for printing books, and those tables inx hchin a single hour (if I may spea mthus) the whole face of the heavens for anentire century is revealed, and one may mention also the orentine machine which shows the daily motions of the heavens. James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin, e., Teeaia .New York: Penguin Books, 1981, p. 79. 79  LETTER from Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), the Dutch umanist, to his friend Thoias More (1478-1535), the English humanist and author of Utga. Erasmuswrot the book Mria ermium(TPraise cfFdl), a satire that e dedicated to More. In a witty preface, Erasmns exp1ains the pun on the wrd for folly (mii) and the name More(SLDE 17). [Paris?] 9 June [1511] To his friend T homas More, greetings: In days gone by, on my jouney back from Italy into England, in order not to waste all the time that mustneeds b spent on horseback in dull and unlettered gossiping, I preferred at times either to turn ov i my mind som topic of our common studies or to gie myself over to the pleasing recollection of the friends, as learned they are beloved, whom I had left behind me in England. You were among the very first of thesetospringto mind, my de ore; indeed I used to enjoy the memory of you in absence even as I was wont to delight in your present company, that which I swear I newr in mv:life met anything sweeter. Therefore, since I thought that I must at all hazards do something, and that time seemed ill suited to serious meditation,I dctrmined to amuse myself withcthe Praise of Folly You wil ask what goddess put this into my mind. In the first place itwasyourfamily ieof More, which comesanearto theword mria [folly] you yourself are far from the reality-everyone agrees that you are far removed from it. Next I suspected that:you above allx ould approve this jeu d'esprittof rine, in that you yoself do tly eligtin jests ofthis kindt is, jess leamed (if I mistake not) and at no time inspid, aid altogether like to play in some sortthe Democritus [c. 460-370 B.C.; a Greek philosopher who derided or laughed at people's follies and vanities] in the life of society. Athoughyou indeed, owing to your incredibly sweet and easy-going character, are both able and gl tobe tgs to all men, vn as your singularly pene- trating intellect causes youto dissent widely from the opinions of the herd. you will not only gladly accept this little declamation as a memento of your conrade, but will also take it under your protection, inasmuch as it is dedicated to youand is now no longer mine but yours. Johan Huizinga, F s'ru 1 and t cg Pdoravti a xNew York: cH arer .ow, 1957,p.209. 80  ATION by Giovni Picodel Miradola(1463-1494),a oungnoblemnxan with a voracous appetite for knowledge. He studied at the universities of Pua and Paris and at the Platonic Academy in Horence. From his study of Arabic and Hebrew he 'as led to imestigte Asia religion and philosophy. The following excerpt comes from the first part of his Orati cnDigity cf Mn At last it seerns to me I have come to understand Xhy an is the most fortunate of creatures and consequently worthy of all dmirtio and what precisely is that rank which is his lot in the universal chain of Being-a rank to be envied not only by brutes but even by the stars and by minds beyond this world. It is a matter past faith and wondrous one.Why-should it not beFor it is on this veryaccount that man is rightly called and judged a great miracle and wonderful creature indeed. At last the best of the artisans ordained that the creature to xxhom He had been ableto gi\e nothing proper to himself should havejoint possession of whateve hadbeen peculiar to each of the different kinds of being. He therefore took man a creature of the world, addressed him thus: "Neither a fixed abode nor a form that isthine alone nor' ayfunction peculiar to thyseif have we gie thee, Adm to the end that accordingto thy longing according to thy jug nt thou ma est have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire. The nature of other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us.Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance withthine oxwifree will, in whose hn e have placed the, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature. We have set thee at the world's center that thou ayest from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made the neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. T hou shalt have the pow to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul's judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, wich are divine Ernst Cassirer, Paul Oskar isteller, and John HermRa ndall, Jr.,ds, TIh aisar Iig lcMmChicag: University of Chicago Press,1956, pp. 223-25. 81  CONVERSATION between Michelangelo B1orOti and the poet Vittoria Colona. The conversation,x whch took place in Rome, was recorded ythe Portuguese painter Francisco de H ollana ihis Rur Dias (547-49). And sriling, she said: I much wish to knowsince we are on the subject, what Flemish painting ray be andxwhoi it pleases, for it seems to me more devout than that in the Italian manner. Flemish painting, slowly answered the painter, will, generally speaking, Signora, please the devout better than any painting of Italy, which will never cause him to shed a tear, whereas that of Flanders will cause him to shed many; and that not through the vigor and goodness of the painting but owing to the goodness of the devout person. It will appeal to women, especially to the veryold a the very young, and also to monks and nuns and to certain noblemen who have no sense of true hamny. In Flanders they paint,with a view to deceiving sensual vision, such things as may cheer you and of whie you cannot speak ill, as for example saints and prophets. They paint stuffs andmasonry, the green grass of the fields, the shadow of the trees, and rivers and bridges, which they call landscapes, with umy figureso this side and many figures on that. And all of this, though it pleases some persons, is done without reason or art, without symetry or proportion, without skillful selection or boldness and, finally, with- out substance or vigor. Nevertheless there are countries where they paint worse than Flanders. And I onot speak so ill of emfish painting because it is all bad but because it attempts to o so my things well (each one of ich could suffice or greaness) that it does none well. obert ei and Henri Zerner, eds., Italian 1500-1600: Scrs and Danmts, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1989, p. 33. 82  JOURNAL ENTRY Albrecht Durer (147-11528) describes a procession in Antwerp. This procession may have been similar to a Triumph (SLIDE 5). Albrecht Drer ws a German painter, humanist, theorist whose use of the popular graphic media, won him fame. (SLIDE 13, Lesson Plan: Printmaking, p. 191) On the Sunday aft our dear Lady's Assumption I saw the great procession from the Church of Our Lady at twerp, whenthexwhole town of every craft and rank was assembled, each dressed in his best according to his rank. And all ranks and guilds had their signs, by whichthey might be kno In the inter valsgreat costly pole-candles were borne, and their longold Frankish trumpets of silver. There were also in the German fashion any pipers and drummers. All the instruments were loudly and noisily blown and beaten. I saw the procession pass along the street, the people being arranged in rows, each n' some distano from his neighbour, but the rows close one behind another. There were the goldsmiths, the painters, the masons, the broiderers, the sculptors, the joiners, the carpenters, the sailors, the fishermen, the butchers, the leatherers, the clothma'krs, the bakers, the tailors, the shomakers-inded workmen of all kinds, and many craftsmen and dealers o rk for their livelihood. Likewise the shopkeepers and merchants and their assistants of all kinds were there. After these came the shooters, with guns, bows, and cross- bows; and the horsemen and foot-soldiers also. Then follow a great crowd of the lord's magistrates. Then came a fine troop all red, nobly and splendidly clad. Before them, however, went all the religious orders and the members of some foundations very devoutly, all in their different robs. A very large company of widows also took part in this procession. They support theselvs with their own hands and observeaspecial rule.They were all dressed from head to foot white linen garments, made expressly for the occasion, very sorrowful to see. Among them I saw some very stately persons. Last of all came the capterof ur Lads Church, Ith all their clerg, scholars, and treasures. Twenty persons bore the image of theVirgin Mary with the lord Jesus, adorned in the costliest manner, to the honour of the Lord God. In this pro esin vry many delightful things were shown, most splendidly got up. Wagons were drawn along with masques upon ships and other structures. Among them was the company of the prophets in their order and scenes from the New Testament, such as the Annunciation, the T ol Kings [magi] riding on 'eat camels and other rare bests, ver well arranged;also how Our Lady fled to Eyt-very'dev'out-a n mayothert tings,x whc fors sortness o 4ri. At th end cae' ageat dragon, wmic St.& Magren her maisledby' a gide; she vaseseciallyb batifL Bhind her cmSt. Georg with hiss sqeavey 83  gool knijht in'amour. In this host also rode boys adimaidens mst finely ad spendily dresis in thecostume s of mu y 1ands, representing vaious sainits. Frombeginning to end the roession hte ore than two hous before it w s gove p st iur house. Ad so m thing:, wre thr that IoulIneve write themi book, soI let it well'alone. JamrnsBice Ross and Mr a e i caughlned., rc~aeuiaN R ,New ork: Pn in )oks, l981jp.228-3. 84  LETTER outlining a young painter's studies, written by the master pater Francesco Squarcione of Padua to the master pater uon. uzon's son will study with Suainone. October 30, 1467, Padua itknow and clear to hoeer may read this writing that master Guzon, painter, has agreed with master Franosco Squarcione, painter, that the latter is to teach the forner's son, Francesco, and namely the principle of a plane with lines drawn according to my method, and to put figures on the said plane, one here and one there, in various places on the said plane, and place objects, namely a chair, bench, or house, and get him to understand these things, and teach him to understand a ma's head in foreshortening by isometric rendering, that is, of a perfect square underneath in foreshortening, and teach him the systemiof a naked body, measured it front and behind, and to put eyes, nose, mouth and ears in a man's head at the right measured places, and teach i all these things item yitem as far as nIable and as far as the said Francesco will be able to lea, and as far as my knowledge andbasic principle will go and ways keep him with paper in his hand to provide him with a model, one after another, with various fgsres ilead white, and correct these models for him, and correct his mist' so far as I ca and he is capable, and this is agreed by both sides for four months from now, and he is to gi n 'e half a ducat eery month as my fee [detailed payment provisions, including food provided] and if he should damage any drawing of mine the said Guzon is required to pay me its full worth, etc. And I Francesco uarcione wotethis with y own hand. Creighton E. Gilbert, ed., Itai Art, 1400-LO: Soro an Dounm ts, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1992, p. 34. 85  ONTRACT for'ars' preutics.trhi ctis between theorenti e' art eri di Bic ad hs'apprentiheComino di Lrenzo. Irecord thatonllhe' bo day 1 eniiUi'Bcci, hird a isPiple the'artof faitig ~sirnodi Lrenzo,for a yearbeginnng on the s' le a''y a ending othe sae dy>in147x'wththese agreeent: ad roceures thtthesai CosirnonEt ce to the shopat'al.fibescc'dihours thaxIwihdaori t, anidoonhoidays:~e n eae to attiyhimsef to workingwithou i tm oft' ad if h takesany tirnoffheis ru+re to mak it up. Ai I Nri must giethe sa'iCoirno for his 'aaryin. the :aidvynr 1 forins, payingh.ever thre onths:' ndthiswc'agretdwith the saidCos' 100onthe aove dayit v house'andsolhawetmade th's reord'tthis desire t hthis agrcmet. CrihtnE. iltert, d tli t" , l400150.w a cc s, Evaston, I1.: orthweste UivrsityPress,1.992, .31. 86C  CONTRACT between the artist and the patron. Thsisi a contract between Domenico Gilandaio,the Florentine painter, and the patron Franosco di Giovanni esor for the ncommssion of an altarpiece titled T da-Maicftl Be it known and manifest to whoever sees or reads this document that, at the request of the reverend Messer raInce di Giovanni Tesori presently Prior of the Spedale del Innocenti at Florence, and of Domenico di Tomiasodi Curado Gindaio, painter, I, Fra Bernardo di Francesco of Florence, Jesuate other, have rawn up this document with iy own hand as agreement contract and comission for an altar panel togo in the church of the above said Spedale degli Innocenti with the agreements and stipuations stated below, namely: That this day23 October 14 the said Francesco comrits and entrusts to the said Domenico the painting of a panel which the said Fraesco has had made ind has provided; the which panel the said omeiois to make good, that is, pay for; and he is toecolour and pat the said panel all withhis4own hand in the nnIer shown in a drawing on paper with those figures and in that manner shown in it, in every particular according to what 1, Fra Bernardo, think best; not departing from the manner and conositio of the saiddrawing and Ile must colour the panel at his own expense with good colours and with powdered gold o such ornaments as derand it, with any other expense incurred on the same panel, and the blue must be ultramarine of the value of about four florins the ounce; and he must havemade anddelivered complete the said panel within thirty months from today; and he must receive as the price of the panel as here described (made at his, that is, the said DomeC's expense throughout) 115 large florins if it seems to me, the above said Fra B ar.o, that it is worth it; and I cano to whomever I think best for ai opinion on its value or wornkman- ship, and if it does not seem to me worth the state price, he shall receive as much less as I, Fra Bernardo, think right; and he must within the terms of the agreement paint the predella of the said panels I, Fra Bernardo, think good; aid he shall receive payment as follows-the said Messer Francesco starting fromi November 1485 and continuing after as is stated, every month three large florins.... And if Domenico has not delivered the panel within the abovesaid period of time, he will be liable to a penalty of fifteen large florins; and corre- spondigly if Messer Francesco oes not keep to the above said monthly payment he will be liable to a penalty of the whole amount, that is once the panel is finished he will have to pay complete in full the balance of the sum due. Michael Baadall Pantn and 'amoi FitnhCtr Itay Nexvork: Oxford Univensity Press, 1988 .6 87  LETTER from an artist asking his patron for money. This letter is from Fra Filippo Lippi to iovani di Cosimo e' Medici Giovanni was often out of Floreno, and Lippi tried to keep in touch with him y letter (SLID 4). Ihae done hat you told me on the painting, and applied myself scrupulously to each thing. The figure of Saint Michael is now so near finishing that, since his armour is to be of silver and gold and his other garments too, I have been to seeBartolom Martelli: he said he would speak with FrancescoC atansanti abouttheold d what you want,and that I should oexactlyW hat you wish. And he chided me, making out that I have wonged you. No iovnni, I am altogether your servant here, and shall be so indeed. I have had fourteen florins from you, and I wrote to you thatmy expenses woul come to thirty florins, and it comes to that much because the picture is richin its orna- ment. I beg you to arrange with Martelli to be your agent in this work, and if I need somethin g to speed the work along, I may oto himandit will be seen to. If you agree ... to give me sixty florins to include materials, gold, gilding and painting, with Brtolomeo acting I suggest, I will for part, so as to cause you less trouble, have the picture finished completely by 20 August, with Bartolomeo as mygarntonr. . . . And to keep you informed, I send a draw'g of how the triptych is made of wood, and with its height and breadth. Out of friendship to you I onot want to take more than the labour cost of 100 florins for this: I ask no more. I be you toreply, ease I a languishing here and ant to leave Florence when I afinishdA IfI hae presumed too much in vwiting to you, forgive me. I shall always do what you want in every respect, great and small. alete [B well]. 10 July 1457 Fra Filippo the paiter in orence. Michael Baxandall, Pintig andE xpr in Fiftt-Ctury Ital., NewYork: OxfordtUniversity Press, 1988, p. 4. 88  LETTER from a patron conceming the welfare of artist. In this letter, Philip the Good writes his accountants, regarding Jan van Eyk's pension (SLIDE 2). We have heard that )U do not readily wrify certain of our letters granting life pension to our well beloved equerry painter, Jan van Emc, whereby he cannot be paid sad pension; and for this reason, hex wilfind it necessary to leaveour sice, which would cause us great displeasure, for we would retain him for certain great works with hich we intend henceforth to occpy him and we would not fid his like more to our taste, one so excellent in his art and science. Wolfgang Stechow, ed, Ncth P sn 1440-1600: Sow cand ainnts, EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-H all, 1966, p. 4. JOURNAL ENTRIES Albrecht Durer (1471=1528) comments on Lady Margaret of Austria, a patron ad 1collector with a chageable nature. Margaret sent after me to Brussels and promised she would speak in my behalf to Kig Charles, and has shown herself quite exceptionally to me; and I sent her my engraved Pai. .. I have been to Lady Margaret's, and I let her see my Kaiser and would have pre- sented it to her, but she disliked it so much that I took it away ai. And on Friday Lady Margaret showed me all her beautiful things, among them I saw about 40 small pictures in oils, the like of which for cleanness and excellenceI have ne r seen. And there I saw other good works by JanU[Van Eyck] and Jacopo [de' 'arbari. I asked my1ayfor Jaopo's little book, but she had promised it to her painter; then I sw many other csy 11things and a fine library.4.4.4 In all my doings, sendins, sales, and other dealingsin the Netherlands, in all m' affairs with high and low, I haw suffered loss, andLdy Margret in particular gave me nothing for what I gave her and did for her. Roger Fry, ed., Dure's Rarrd cf Ja n ' to ie andtI Cow'nte NevYork: Dover, 1995, pp. 48, 91, 95. 89  DISCOURSE N MANNER S Giovanni della Casa, a pap nuncio, probably wrote this passage around 1555 for his young nephew, Annibale Ruollai, to instructl iin then maiers of the peietgentleman. To help you understand how to behave I must first teach you that your conduct should not be goxerned by your own fancy, but in considerationof the feelings of those whose company you keep. ... For thisreason it is a repulsive habit to touch certain tsof the body in public, assom people do... .Again, henyou have blown your nose, you should not open your handkerchief and inspect it, as though pearls or rubies had dropped out of your skull. Such behaior is nause- ating and is more likely to lose us the affection of those wo love us than to win s the favor of others.x. ..It is not polite to scratch yourself )when U aresate at table.You should also take care, as far as you can,not to spit at mealtimes, but ifuo st spit, then do so in a decentn ner. ... We should alsobe careful not to gobble our food so greedily as tocauseo rselves to get hiccups or commit some other unpleasantness.... It is also bad manners to clean your teeth with your napkin, and still worse to do it with your finger, for such conduct is unsightly It is wrong to rinse your mouth and spit out wine in public, and it is not a polite habit, when you rise from the table, to carry your toothpick either in your mouth, like a bird making its nest, or behind your ear. . . .It is also unmannerly to sprawl over the table or to fill both sides of yur mouth so full with food that your cheek are bloated. And you must do nothing to show that you hai found great relish in the food or the wine, for these are the customs of the taver andthe alehouse.... Idonot think it right to offerfood from one's owniplate to anyone else, unless the person who offers it is ofnmuch more exalted rank, in which case it would be a mark of honor for the other.If both are of the same rank, it is rather a presumption of superiority for one of them to offer his food to the other, and sometimes the tidbit might not be to his taste. .x.4.aNo one must take off his clothes, especially his lo r garments, in public, that is, in the presence of decent people, becauseth'sisnot the right place for undressing . . . . You should neither comb you hair nor wash ur handsinuthe presence of others, because except for washing the hands before going in to a such things are done in the bedroom and not in public.... Again, you must not appear in public with your nightcap on your head or fasten your hose when other people are present. ... iAnyone who mkes a asty noisewith hislips as a sign of Aston- ishmnt or disapproxl is obxiously iimitating something indet, and imitations are not too far from the truth. JamesoBruce Ross' ad Mry tin McLauhli,' eds., TRraleRenaisn brNexv York: Penguin Boks,1981 p. 340 90  LETTER from frierich Behaim, a fourten-year-ol German student, to his mother. 13 October, 1578 a love nd dvtion, dr other. Whenyoure well and hardy, it gives me great joy to hear it. I am also still in good health. Dear Mother, know that although the first quater isnot et oer, I have been unable to get by on the gulden you gavei e[for my personal use],, and Ihae spent an dditional half-glden. I loudstilike tomake oon a guldenper quarter in the future, but I need many things forw wc I must spend money. So I ask you to send me as much as you will, and u I willuse it [accordingly] for my needs. Also, my everyday trousers are full of holes and hardly worth patching; I can barely cover iy rear, although the stockings are still good.Winter is ahnost here, so I still need a [new] lined coat. All I have is the woven Arias,x ichis'also full of holes. would you have my buckram smock lined as you think best? have not worn it more than twice. Oertel'scooking declines dal. Seldom if ever do I enjoy a mea, for the food he is serving now is thoroughly unclean, especi alythei eat, h is spoiled. Also, my throat is sllen that I can barelyswlw I need some warm ead for it. Nothing more for now. I would like to have written you sooner, but I have not had the time because exams were heldlast weeak nd. I had to study. Greet all the household for me. Please wite me when Sigmund Oertel and Applonia Loffelholz are getting married. 13 October, 1578. Y[our] L[oing] S[on] Friedrich Bhai Steven Ozent,trans., TineBdniBoys: Gro Upin EayM r e 1990,.pp.105. 91  LETTER from Alessandra Mainghi Strozzi to her so on the sbjtof his sister's marriage. In the name of God. 24 August1447 Dearest son, in the last few days I have r c i your letter of the 16thof July, which I will sr in this one. And first I must tell you how by the grace of God we have arranged a mriae for our Caterina to the son of Parente di Piero Parenti. He is a young rnan.of good birth and abilities and an only son, rich and txenty-five years of a, and he h a silk mnfaturing business. And they ta sinl part in the goxer t, as a little while ago his father was [an office holder] in the College. And so I am giving him one thousand florins of dowy that is, five hundred florins that she is due in May 1448 from the Fund, and the other five hundred I have to gie him, made up of cash and trousseau, when she goes to her husband's house, which I believe will be in November, God willing. And this money will be partly yours and partly mine. If I hadn't taken this decision she wouldn't havebeenI marred this year, because he who narries is lookingfor cash and I couldn't find anyone who wasxwilling towait for the dowry until 1448, and part in 1450. oas I'm giving him this five hundred made up of cash and trousseau, the 1450 [money] willbe nine if she lives until then.We've takenthis decision for the best because she wassixteen and we didn't want to wait any longer toiarran a marriage. And we found that to place her in'a nobler family with greater political status would have needed fourten or fifteen hundred florins, which would have ruined both of us. And I'm not sure it Iould have made the girl any happier, because outside the regimethere's not a great choice, and thisisa big problem for us. Everything considered, I decided to settle the girl well and not to take such thingsinto account. I' sure she'll be as well /ped as any girl in Florence, because she'll have a mother andfather-in-law who are only happy making her happy. Oh and I haven't told you about Marco yet, [Caterina's] husband, he's always saying to her, "If you want anything ask me for it."When she as betrothed he ordered a gown of crimson velvet for her made of silk and a surcoat of the same fabric, which is the most beautiful cloth in Florence. He had it made in his workshop. And he had a garland of feathers and pearls n ade for when she goes to her husband's house. And he's haxng a rose-colored gown made, embroidered with pearls. He feels he can't do enough having things made, because she's beautiful and he wants her to look even more so. There isn't a girl in Florence to compare with her and she's beautiful in evry way, or so ny vpeoplethink. May God give then his grace and good hilth for a long time, as I wish. Cesare Guasti, e., I 'ee diuagtlm fNiretn d' sioX ai'gludi, Forence: Sanson, 1877. 92  93  ENGRAVING kFITE OF THEN Nmn N LAST QUARTER OFTHE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO Florentine, 1429-1498 Engraving: 15 518 x 23 1/ 4 in. Joseph Pulitzer Beuest, 1917 (17.50.99) The publication of this engraving e history becauseit compressed a whole courseof artistic anatomy into one picture. Because prints were fordable and easy to transport, this one bem a template fori m y of the poses depicted in paintingsof the tie.Antonio Pollaiuoloconoived of the bodyas apowxerful machine, aid liked to display its parts, its knotted muscles and taut sinews. According to Vasar, Pollaiuolo was the first artist to strip the skin off cadavers in order to investigate the musclesand bones. It is believed that he made waxmodels of the flayed cadavers and then bent them into various positions so that he could draw the body in motion. In this engraving, in fact, the ten figures engagd in violent actions look more flayed than naked. It has been suggested that reliefs on omn sarcophagi(stone coffins) may have inspired the arrangement of the background and the figures, wh reach, stride, strike, stoop, and fall. Some are riornesof others. They appear stiff and frozen, because Pollaiuolo illustrates all the muscle groups at maximum tension. Later artists understood and rendered the subtler orkings of the muscles, but, as Hyatt Mayr, a past curator of prints T he Metropolitan Museum of Art, swites, "Pollaiuolo was disovering n Twihthe eagerness of the navigators who were then exploring the shores of the expanding wrd. [H e] tried to diart nothing less than the totality of mn 's muscles, in the age whn the Italian cartographers were tryaingto map the daily discoveries of harbors andI 'rs" (Hyatt Mayor, Artists and M MA,'A1984, p. 50). Antonio Pllaiuolo and his brother Piero ran a large and successfuilworkshop in Florence, which mde prints, sculpture, paintings, and liturgical objects like embroidered vestments, as wll as domestic goldsmith work. T he word oin Itian eans "chicken" and,as their name indicates, their father ws a poulterer. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS T HOUGHTS: Indhidual; society; anatomy; human figure in motion; engraving; printing COMPAE SLIDES 8, I5, 24, 25 (gesture); SLIDES 12, 13, 16, 18 (human figure); SLIDE 13 (print) LESSON LANs: Drawing the Human Figure, p. 121; Contrapposto Pose, p. 123' Gesture, p. 1 94  QUESTIONING STRATEGIES FOR TEACHERS T he following questions provide a way of looking at a Renaissance work of art. Wesuggest that before you plan your lessons you ask yourself the following questions while you look at the work of art. You will find useful information in the introduction and slide entries. The first four questions invite you to look at a Renaissance painting. The fifth question requires you to synthesize what you have learned from answering the first four questions with your own knioo- edge of the Renaissance. The sixth question asks you once again to contemplate the work of art. While this method may be used for any of the artworks, e hae chosen to demonstrate the questioning strategies with the painting, SintBius by Petrus Christus, SLIDE 6. I. Hr TDO YOU SEE? This is an open-ended question that sem simple; it is the first st to looking. Each artist invites us to see the worl in a different twy The information that you gather from this obser- vation provides a basis for the following questions. 2. WHAT ROLE DOES THE HUMAN FIGURE PLAY IN THE ARTWORK? The huma 'figure plays a central role in Renaissance works of art. It reflects the Renaissano belief in the importance of the individual, along withthe periods renewed awareness of classical represnttions of th human figur. 3. H OW HAS THE ARIST CREATED THE ILLUSION OF SPACE ON A FLAT SURFACE OR THE PICTURE PLANE) The importance of perspectivei the Renaissance is attached to the desire of the painter to create a worldly space, elegant and habitable, and ordered by the intellect. 4. HOW ARE UNITY AND HARMONY ACHIEVED IN THE WORK OF ART? T his question1 asks the vewer to observe and analyze how the parts of a painting are arranged. The development of the subject matter is'an element in the design of the composition, along with line, shape, and color. 5. WHAT DO THE PARTICULAR DETAILS IN THE PAINTING TELL US? T his question suggests that you look at the painting as prinary source material that will raise new directions of inquiry. Use your knowledge of the R enaissance along with the information in this packet; identify particular detailsthat relate to your curriculum. ollowing is a detailed analysis of this question. 6. WHAT DOYOU SEE? We sugst you take ten minutes to look at the painting again. Remember what you first thought and at you think nowThese patitings speto us through a shared and continuous sense of our humanity. 95  AN ANALYSIS F QUESTION SAINT ELIG 1 LBY aPETRUS CRISUTUS, SLIDE 6 tis important to have the image ofS Saint Bius in front of you as you 'nswer the questions. When you reach Question 5, which asks you about the particular etails of the painting, use the following method to initiate exploration of daily life in northe nEurope during the fifteenth ntury The questions i istiae theme :relevant to social studies, humanities, and history units: the individual, family and home, society, and the larger world. BACKGROUND In the fifteenth century, Flanders was agriculturally productive anddensely populated. It was one of the principal commercial hubs of Europe. Petrus Christus lived in rus, which at the time was a thriving economic and cultural center. INDIVIDUAL This refers to the central Renaissance ideathat "mn is the measure of all things." Personal identity is conyed through portraits, personal emblems or coats of ar, and special 1mm5is- sions, such as the parade helmet, SLIDE 23, orthe S ofranthu cPalaoatG aSLIDE 9. Aesthetically, the importance of the inAiviua is reflected in the portrayal of the human body in motion, the depiction of emotion, and the dexelopment of perspective. Specifically in Saint BiVus: Clothes indicate social status. The couple belongs to the urban elite. The w om an headdress and dress reflect the highest fashion of the day She indatesthe yard of her dress-another sign of w thby holding it folded under her am. Her forehead is plucked, in keeping with the fashion of the day that considered a high forehead to be a sign of beuty. Saint ligus is portrayed as a goldsmith 'ho is part of the growing, prosperous iddle class. He wears the simpler clothing of an artisan. FAMILY AND OME The growth of notable and prestigiousf ais strongly ff d the cultural, civic, and religious life of the independent cities of northern and southern Europe. The new urban middle class built homes and decorated them with both secular and devotional art. Much of the art is con- nect with the life cycle-birth, marriage, and Specifically in Saint Bigus- The bridal belt, the ring, andthe pewter wedding cup onthe top shelf are allusions to arriage. The affection represented between the two figures in this painting ny refer to a'rriage. (See SOURCE MTATERIAL, p. 92.) At this early date marriages beten people of such obviously opulent meas were often aanged for dynastic, politial, or eonomic reasons. (See SLIDE 4.) T e ircula eonmex nmirror introducs a eomtplex intertwining of religiou s ad secula life in both family adsoeiety (se Societv, below). T he image of the falcn retleete in the mirror nmit refer to hunting,apopua courtlyspr and one that allowe enaed coupe [to meet in pulic before they wre mied 96  SOCIETY The independent city-states allowed, evenrequired, families to practice civic responsibility.They value their participation in the representativeforrs of government that replaced the earlier feudal hierarchies. Many enaissan workss Of art describe the setting s well as the activities of political, conoc, and communal daily life. Specifically inSai : The presence of the circular conxmirror has been interpreted in other ways; forexmle, the fact that the mirror is cracked may indicate that the irs world is not atperfet one. In Christian literature, the falcon is a symbol of pride and greed, and the nirror is a symbol of Sup_ iathe personification of pride (one of the seven deadly sins). In this interpretation, Petrus Christus's painting ray be contrasting sinful human behavior with the devout behavior of the couple inside the shop. ges was famous center for the production and consumption of luxury goods. While the extensive depiction of objects can be considered an inventory of a fifteenth-century goldsmith's shop, the more fabulous and exotic objects allude to the growth of cities and the rise of the middle class and their desire for show The new medium of oilpaint gave artists the freedom to render the material world in all its colors and radiance, creting a magical illusion. The inclusion of the figure of artisan in this painting can lad to a discussion of guilds and their plhce in societyand religion. For examle, this panel may have been commissioned by the Goldsmith's Guild of Bges for their chapel, and the figure may represent their patron saint, Eligis. THE LARGER WORLD A corollary of the increased consciousness of the individual as a forcein historyis the heightened awareness of others. The details in the works of art demonstrate the great extent of tradeI an travel during the Renaissance. Specifically in Sa Bis That Bges xvas an international center of trade and commerce is evidenced by the following details in the painting: The gold, coral, coconut, and silver on. the shelves of the goldsmith shop are imported from other parts of the world. T he Islamic influence in the pattern of the lady's dress fabric indicates that it vas probably woven in Venice, which had a history of contact with the East. Textile production wathe first trade in Europe to expand internationaly North of the Alps, the Flemish cities of iges and Ghent became onters of cloth niaig, while in the south, Venio i orence bilt their econoes on h r textile roduction. GoBCKTO QUESTION 6: At the end of this exploration, it is essential to go back' ad look at the panting' asawole an reconsider the first quetion:Wat lo yo see? T edetails'i thisp' pitin ca vlso beselecte to stiulatel lssons in Scence,Visua irs,' ad Lanuae Arsc curicla 97  Looking at works of art can be enjoyable and inspiin. To trulyexperien a i thisway, iust engage personally with it. An interactie approach engages the student! We suggest that you start your lesson with one of the following exercises, designe specially tostimat students' visual reactions. The following e xercise gi.ves students the opportunity to respond intuitively to a work of art. The students will discover thatthey do not need to have prior kno wed eof the history or content of the work. STEP I Show at least five slides, leaving each slide on the screen for one minute. During the time each slide is projected ask students to jot on a word that best describes the image they are looki at. STEP 2 rom the five slides, select a work that is relevant to your curricun to discuss at length. Project the work again and ask the students to share their one-word reactions to it. STEP 3: Choose the reactions that you feel wi Ilead the class into a uller exploration of the work. (As the discussion proceeds, try to include each student's first reaction into the conversation.) The students' initial reactions wl lead them to another level of under- standingof the work. STEP 4: Allow time so the students can look at the entire painting. At this point begi your lesson. This exercise draws students into the work of art by concentrating on parts or details of the work. STEP I: Choose a paiting from the packet that has at least two or three slides of details. It is iiportantthat th cotntin the painting of your choice be relevint to the curriculum you are teaching. STEP 2: Project the details first, one slide at a time. Ask the students to describe what they see. To spark their curiosity, ask them about clues that allude to objets or events that are not obvious or complete in the projectedpat. STEP 3: Allow time so the students can look at the entire painting. Begin your lesson. 98  GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School We have selected ten works of art withx thchyou can present the art of the Renaissance, if your time is short. SLIDE( ant Bijus by Petrus Christus SLIDE 10 Annunatin by H ans Mmlig SLDI3 eby Albrecht Direr SLIDE 18 TI t Pisby Lucas Cranach the Elder SLIDE25 T Hmiers bPieter reglthe Elder SLIDE4 ai M and n at a by Fra Filippo Lippi SLIDE 8thftiVirnby Fra Carnevale SLIDE 9 balAs s ofrom the Ducal Palace at Gubbio SLIDE 12 Mnby Tullio Lombardo SLIDE 16 u fr Li by Michelangelo See the following checklists-a checklist is avisu nventory o specific theme. HUMAN FIcURE P. 115 PERSPECTIVE P. 127 COMPOSTTION P. 139 ARRATIVE P.t1 POR TRAIT P. 175 AILY LIFE P. 195 MEDIUM T EMPERA PAINT SLIDES 4, OIL PA[NT SLIDES 6, 18, 25 ENGRAVING SLIDE 13, P. 93 RAWN G SLIDES WN, 16 SCULPTURE SLIDE 12 99   The chart on the follo ngpages is designed to facilitate selection of the lesson plans for indiv dualc lasroom needs. MAIN HEADINGS * Under Loer Elementary, we have grouped together three lesson plans that have been es- cially designed for kindergarten through third grade. * Each subject and theme is preceded by a checklist of images for easy reference. The check- fists are visualii i toriesof the slidsincludedi the packet. INDIVIDUAL LESSON PLANS * The LESSON PLANS are listed by n e i the column on the left. * CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS pro ide interdisciplinarV linkS. * A suggstedi GRADE LEVEL is identified, although teachers may adapt any of these lesson.plans to the needs of their ow students. - The PAGE NUMBERof the lesson plan is given. T he textile imag ajppearinga the top of acoh 1eson pln is a detail from an Itlin mid-fifteenth century sil piece, l:2 v. x 20 1/ 2 in. ( ade Manufactured:Veice, Italy) Fletcher Fond, 1946 (46.156.115) 01   cr en" ZN C 0 0 0 K ~0 -0 en 0 0 6 ~0 V 4 t ~ 4< i-~ to 0 99 0 e en Cl C 0>e en ZN (r4 en) C>-i 9n -t en 0 ~2~o en 5 0 en 4 -~ 0 ~ en-~ en en >-en a - 0 4 0 I en t a 2 C z 0 H 0 j 0 C4 0 4 W 6 0 4 t 6 0 7 0 0 4 7 0 0 H z 0 H 7 0 z U 0 0 F- rH' 0l r 4.. H z 0 0i H z 0. 6d H C za 0Q 0y. 2 C 7 ____ __ ___________ I __ [ ______________________ t __ _________________ L __ _____________________  CH ECKLIST p. 151 THE STaORY IN T, PARr II Language Arts Upper Elementay p. 153 Visual As Junior High High School AWRITING ACTIVITY Language Arts Elementary p. 157 isual Arts Junior High H igh School POETIC FORMS Visual Arts Junior High p. 159 Drama High School Social Studies/ Humanities Music ALLEGORY Language Ats Junior High p. 171 Visual Arts High Shoot PORTRAIT CHECKLIST p. 175 T HE RENAISSAN CE PORT RAT Visual Arts Junior High p. 177 Mathematics Hicy School Social Studies oHumanities ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM Visual Arts Junior High p. 179 Language Arts High School Social Studies/ Humanities T EMPER A Science Junior High p. 185 Visual Arts ig School PRINTMAKING Visual Arts Elementary p. 191 Language Arts Junior High High School DAILYmaLelIE CH ECK LIST D Au_ LIFE IN TI F EENASSANCE Humanities Social Studies Visul Arts Junior High High School Upper Eernentary Junior High High School p. 195 p. 197 p. 201 TIME Visual Arts Science La gage Arts Social Studies/ Humnities Visual Irs Music Social Studies/ Humanities Science COMPARE AND CONT RAST T wO KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS Junior High High chool p. 205 104  LESSON PLAN: LOWER ELEMENTARY THE STORY IN ART, PART I GRADE LEVEL Kindergarten through Third Grade T he greatest work of OBJECTIVE the painter is the istaria [narrative]... * Students will observe how shapes and colors create a narrative. " Students will analyze a narrative presented in three sequential episodes. From Leon Battista Alberti, * Students will make individual storybook collages. On Painting WORK OF ART SLIDE 7 TiESt'y cf Estr by Marco del Buono Giamberti and Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso MATERIALS * 6 x 12 in. rectangles of white or black construction paper, folded in three equal parts, then laid flat " small (approximately 3 x 4 in.) pieces of construction paper in different colors " yarn, hole punch, scissors, glue MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Study SLIDE 7 and read the entry. Before this lesson show a photo- graph from a newspaper to the class and discuss how it tells a story. Project the slide. Ask the students to look at the painting and describe what they see. Ask students to try to identify the characters that appear more than once. See if the students can figure out the story line. At this point you may want to read or tell the story of Esther. The key characters-King Ahasuerus, Esther, and Mordecai-can be identified by the shape and color of their hats and costumes. The story is illustrated in the following sequence: arrival, ceremony, and banquet. Explain that students will have an opportunity to create their own narrative vork of art. Review the elements of a story with students-it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, as well as main characters. Ask students to look again at the shapes and colors in the painting and how they work together to tell the story. ACTIVITY Ask for a student volunteer to model a pose (standing up straight, hands close to the sides, bent over, taking a long stride, etc.). Ask the class to notice the shape that the student's body makes and perhaps trace it with their finger in the air. Is it a straight shape, a curved shape, a triangle, or some other shape? Ask for another volunteer to try a different pose. 105  Distribute a scissors and three small pieces of construction paper (approximately 3 x 4 in.) to each student. Again, have a volunteer take a pose, but this time have students cut the pose from one of the pieces of construction paper. Repeat until everyone has three different shapes, each a different color. Ask the students to pretend that these three shapes are characters and have them make up a story. T hey will need to make at least three copies of each shape. T hey should practice arrang- ing them to suggest a beginning, middle, and end. T he teacher may wish to demonstrate this in front of the class. For example: SqgeSamwalks a1mgtestrat with TinaTriangeand all cf a sudds thylunpintordy-poy Rcgr, and cn ... Distribute 6 x 12 in. pieces of white or black construction paper, folded in thirds. Each panel of the paper represents an episode of the story, its beginning, middle, or end. Ask students to arrange their shapes to tell the story, then glue them down. They may wish to glue down other pieces of paper, dots from a paper punch, or yarn to create the background. When students are finished, ask them to display the narrative artwork they have made and shae their stories. 106  £01 t66VJ~O M >01V O £61' 0MYop O WS LI >1a) J0A '0!1 s:?)0SRl ?s L xjoh oq.no Apdop pop ?so:s L mIO uof s AAt unsuw-s pj SI 3DThNVi?13 : 1Th 1U N NILXg  108  LESSON PLAN: LOWER ELEMENTARY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE GRADE LEVEL Kindergarten through Third Grade first draw a rectangle of -ight angles, where I am to OBJECTIVES paint, which I treat just like * Students will become aware of the Renaissance pictorial innovation that makes a an open window through painting like a window into or through which the viewer can look. which I might look ... * Students will make an individual work based on the above idea From Leon Battista Alberti, OnPainting WORKS OF ART SLIDE 4 Rrtrait cf Man and Wnn at a Casant by Fra Filippo Lippi SLIDE 6 Saint Bigus by Petrus Christus SLIDES 8, 8A TtdBirthcf trrgn by Fra Carnevale MATERIALS " DRAWING: paper, marking pens " PAINTING: paper, paint, brushes " COLLAGE: paper, colored paper, scissors, glue sticks MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Look at the slides and mead the entry before the lesson. Select one of the slides. Following is a suggested sequence of questions for SLIDE 4. Ask students to describe what the outside of the school building and the grounds look like. Then have them describe the inside of the building. Ask them: How might they show both the outside and inside of a building in one painting or drawing? Project SLIDE 4. Ask students to look at the painting and describe what they see. Give students time to explore the relationship between the couple, then guide the discussion to the composition of the painting, asking the following questions: " What part of the painting is closest to the viewer? Ask students to describe the frame of the painting and notice the illusion of molding. " What part is farthest away? Ask students to describe the view beyond the window. " Where is the woman standing? " Where is the man standing? " Where is the viewer-inside or outside the palmaz?The viewer is looking into the space or room where the woman is standing, as well as beyond to the scene outside the window Ask students to imagine standing outside their house or a building of their choice. Ask them to imagine looking through a particular window at the space inside. (This could be the student's own room, a family area, or a special study corner.) 109  ACTIVITIES Provide drawing, painting, or collage materials so students can make their own "inside/ outside" artwork. For drawing or painting, ask them to measure and draw a window, leaving some space around the shape to represent the outside of the building. For collage, provide two different colors of construction paper in a rectangular or square format, one sheet larger than the other. Ask students to glue the smaller sheet to the larger sheet. Then proceed as above. Remind students that the window shape can be filled with objects and events that go on inside the room (for example: a bed, chair, or desk; a figure sitting down, walking, or OR dancing), and that the area around the window shape is the outside of the building. This can be illustrated, for example, by depicting the facing or fagade of the building (brick or wood) and farther to the sidewalk, a lamppost, a person walking a dog, or a car. EXTENSIONS LANGUAGE ARTs: Haw students write a diary or journal entry about what is going on inside the house based on the scene that they have depicted in their artwork. Is it a birthday party, or are the figures studying? Are they listening to music or watching TV? What is going on outside the house? Are guests arriving? Is it raining? Do they hear the sounds of cars or fire trucks or crickets chirping? Display the journal writings with the artworks. CONNECTION: Lesson Plan: The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153. 110  LESSON PLAN: LOWER ELEMENTARY PERSONAL ARMOR MAKE A HELMET OR BREASTPLATE AND DECORATE IT WITH PERSONAL SYMBOLS If [the courtier] happens to engage in arms in some public spectacle, such as jousting, tourneying or volleying, or other kind of physical recreation ... He will ensure ... that he him- self is suitably attired, with appropriate mottoes and ingenious devices to attract the eyes of the onlookers in his direction. From Baldassame Castiglione, T1EBcakf tiuCdic GRADE LEVEL Kindergarten through Third Grade OBJECTIVES e Students will discuss knights and armor. * Students will look at Renaissance parade armor. * Students will explore and discuss the use of symbols. * Students will design a personal symbol to decorate their own paper helmet or breast- and backplate. WORKS OF ART SLIDE 5 TirTriunphcf Fam by Scheggia SLIDE 23 ParadHdlm by Filippo Negroli SLIDE 27 ArmT cf Sr Gox Cliffrd MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Look at the slides and read the entries before the lesson. Project SLIDE 5. Present and discuss the role and training of a knight. Why did a person become a knight? Compare armor used for war and parade armor. Discuss the parts of the suit of armor: Was it difficult to recognize the person wearing a complete suit of armor? Project SLIDE 27. When Sir George Clifford wore this suit of armor in a parade, how did the onlookers recognize him? WHAT IS A SYMBOL 7 Explore the use of familiar symbols whose function is to impart information, such as stop signs, restroom symbols, or handicapped access. What animals are used as symbols? (Lions for courage, doves for peace, eagles for patriotism, dogs for protection and/ or loyalty.) Ask students to think of animals or characters that are used to adxertise certain products. For example, the image of a laughing cow stands for the French cheese La vad ci rit. What colors haw symbolic meaning? (White for purity, red for courage, blue for honor.) PHOTOCOPY THE THREE SYMBOLS: the Tudor rose, fleur-de-lys, and entwined Es. Give a copy to each student. Ask students to look for the symbols and try to describe the pattern. 111  EXPLORE THE DECORATION ON THE SUIT OF ARMOR AND THE HELMET Project SLIDE 27. The Tudor rose, fleur-de-lys, and double Es tied together refer to Queen Elizabeth I's family. Sir George Clifford had them engraved on his suit of armor to honor her. He was the "The Queen's Champion." STORYTELLING Project SLIDE 23. Point out the decoration: Medusa's face, the spiraling vines, the acanthus leaves, and the small winged putti. The image of Medusa on the Negroli hel- met refers to the myth of Perseus. The mermaid or siren refers to the section in the Odys where Circe the enchantress warns Odysseus of the sirens' power. Square in your ship's path are Sirens, crying Beauty to bewitch men coasting by; Woe to the innocent who hears the sound! You may want to read one or both stories to your students. We do not know vhy the nobleman who wore the parade helmet chose these symbols, but we can guess that he may have wanted to be associated with bravery and the heroic deeds of Perseus and Odysseus. ACTIVITY PART I: DESIGN YOUR OWN SYMBOL MATERIALS - paper and pencil Ask students to brainstorm and invent a personal symbol. How do they want people to recognize them? " From their given names? Would they use a letter of their first or last name? Ask if there is a visual equivalent for their first or last names, for example, Baker, Bush, or Bird. " From the place they live? Would they want to incorporate a flag or city logo? For example, an apple for NewYork City. " From the student's personal qualities? What are they admired for? Are they neat like a cat or faithful like a dog? Do they have a favorite sport or activity that might be used as a personal symbol? On a sheet of paper, hae students draw two or three symbols. Ask them to combine them or repeat them to form a pattern. They may wish to experiment with connecting the decorative elements, as the vines and the love knots do on the helmet and suit of armor. T hey will use this pattern to decorate their breastplate or helmet. TUDOR ROSE FLEUR-DE-LYS DOUBLE E 112  ACTIVITY, PART II: MAKE A BREASTPLATE AND BACKPLATE AND/OR HELMET MATERIALS for each child, tw 12 x 18 in. pieces of oak tag, or a plain brown grocery bag, or a large piece of poster board " pencils, paint, markers " stapler BREASTPLATE: A large paper grocery bag may function as a simple piece of armor, with holes cut in the top and sides for the student's head and arms. A large sheet of oak tag may be cut into the shape of a breastplate and backplate, and attached over the student's shoulders. Students will decorate the front and back of the bag or oak tag with their personal symbols, using paint or markers. HELMET: Distribute two large sheets of oak tag. Ask students to draw the outline of a helmet on one sheet, making sure that they start at one short end and finish at the other short end so that the bottom of the helmet runs along the long edge of their paper and will fit on their head (See illustration.) After they cut the first shape, they should use it as a template to cut the same shape from the second sheet of paper. Students will deco- rate each side of the helmet with their personal symbols in paint or markers. Then the two sides can be stapled together along the top edge, leaving the bottom edge open to be placed over the head. Depending on the ability of each class, you may ask the students to repeat the same pattern on both sides of the helmet or on the breastplate and backplate, so the patterns match and are symmetrical. EXTENSIONS LANGUAGE ARTS: Students may wish to write a short poem or paragraph about the designs and symbols they chose and why. SOCIAL STUDIES: Compare Renaissance arms and armor with parade uniforms or soldiers' battle gear from other eras. What symbols or decorations are used for these uniforms? Do particular ribbons or colors have symbolic meanings? RESOURCES Colum, Padraic. Tir Cldm's Hanr: TIrAdatum cf Odyais and trTalecf Try. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1918. D'Aulaire, Ingri, and Edgar Parin. Pakcf GrkMytlx New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1962. Fitzgerald, Robert, trans. TirOdysey cf Hntr. New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1963. 113   HUMAN FIGURE CHECKLIST The Renaissance artist's interest in the human figure reflects the period's belief in the impor- tance of the individual. In part, this was derived from a renewed awareness of classical Greek and Roman literary texts, figurative sculpture, and painting. Battleaf trNakdMai, SLIDE IS AHuntingSme Antonio Pollaiuolo, p. 93 Piero di Cosimo In seeking to convey the illusion of movement, Renaissance artists adopted the classical model of the antragntopose. Lesson Plan: Contrapposto Pose, p. 123. SLIDE 16 StudiSfr'tlr Libyan Syil, Michelangelo SLIDE 12 Adam SLIDE 13 AdamandE , Tullio Lombardo Albrecht DUrer 115  Artists tell stories by combining the ujiirajYio pose with other poses and! or gestures. SLIDE 18 TirJUC]gmt cfPais Lucas Cranach the Elder SLIDE 8 T1h~rf t1 rgn, Fra Carnevale SLIDE 19 Tfr Hdy Fanily with tfr Infant Saint Jdii, Andrea del Saito Facial expressions add to the story. PR SLIDE 18 TirJx]gmt cfPains (detail), Lucas Cranach the Elder SLIDE 2A TfrCrudfixicn SLIDE 19 TfrHdy lbnily with (detail), Jan van Eyck tfrmnfnt Saint JdTI (detail), Andrea del Sarto 116  LESSON PLAN: HUMAN FIGURE A FORM TO MEASURE GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School M an is the measure of all things. Protagoras (ca 480-410 B.C.) OBJECTIVES * Students will study a Renaissance sculpture. " Students will study the basic proportions of the human figure through observation and the use of thinking, drawing, and writing skills. " Students will haw the possibility to use the mathematical formula for the golden section in relation to proportions of the sculpture of Adamby Tullio Lombardo. WORKS OF ART SLIDE 12 PAGE 93 Adamby Tullio Lombardo Battlecf ttNald MN/n by Antonio Pollaiuolo MATERIALS " one photocopy of Adamby Tullio Lombardo for each student, or a printout of this image from the CD-ROM " pencils, rulers MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION: DEVISING SYSTEMS OF MEASUREMENTS FOR THE TEACHER: Since antiquity the human figure was used as a measure of propor- tion. The Roman engineer Vitruvius believed that the planning of temples depended on symmetry. He calculated an intricate table of proportions of the well-built man and related it to the well-designed fagade of a building. He said that proportion consisted "in taking a fixed module, in each case, both for the parts of a building and for the whole building." L Will Fontain Simone Mosca Measurement/ the human figure, Albrech DUrer 117  As a young man Albrecht D"rer traveled to Venie, where the itruvian proportions were being used and discussed. In Venice, Drer met the painter Jacopo de'Barbai. He wrote that de' aBari ..showed me the figursof mandwo , cwhih he had drawn accord- ingto canon of proportions.... I was still young and had not heard of such a thing beforeH owvr, I was very fond of art, so I set to workyonm own and read Vitruvius, who writes somewhat about the human figure. Thus, I took my start from these two men, and thence from day to day I have followe upi my search according tomy ow notions. Durer spent years studying itruvius.a He m ure people of all ages with calipers (a measuring instrument with two legs or jaws that can be adjusted to detennine distances between parts) and made schematic figure draw ings. Heattempted to discover id bealuty by bringing the parts of the body into perfect harmony with the whole, as aiarchitect dos when designing a building. The ancient Greek sculptor Polyclitus evis asystem of human proportion which was known to Renassan architects, sculptors, and painters: . . . that beauty does not consist in the elements but in harmonious proportion of the parts, the proportion of one finger to the other, of all the fingers to the rest of the hand, of the rest of the hand to the wrist, of these to the forear, of the forearnto the whole ari; . . . of all parts to all others. . . (As quoted by Erwin Panofsky, MmNiin isalrts, New York: Doubleday, 1955, p. 64.) AT EMATICAL FORMULA FOR THE GOLDEN SELCTION The golden cion, also alled t gen ean,refers to a harmonious proportional relationship. It is defined a line that is divide in such a way that the smaller part is to the larger as the barger is to the wole. The golden section is believed to e based on a mathematical formula present in nature and known as the Fibonacci sequence. Numeri , this sequence is 0 1 12 3 5 8 13 2134 55 89, and so on. Each new number of the sequence is generated by adding together the last two numbers: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, ec. Ancexample found in nature would be a flower with 13 petals inone row-its adjacent rows would have 8 or 21 petals. The mathematical formula for the golden section is derived by dividing one number in the Fibonacci sequence by the next highest number. For example, if you divide 55 by 89, the uotientis6 .6 If yu dii'de3A3by,55 the quotientis,6 118  ACTIVITIES PART I Explain that students will wrk in small groups to devise a measuring system for the proportions of the human figure, using a part of the human body as the unit of measurement; for example, a finger, a foot, or a forearm. Rulers may not be used. Each group should make diagrams and drawings to support their measuring system. Haw each group present their system of measurement to the class. PART II Distribute photocopies or printouts of Adam by Tullio Lombardo. Ask students to measure the head (from the top of the head to the chin) and use it as a unit of measurement to determine the length of the entire body. Ask students to record the location of each of these units down the length of the body. For example, two heads down is the breast, three the waist, etc. PART III Ask students to measure the photocopy of Adamfrom head to foot, using a ruler. Then ask students to multiply the number by .618. Use the product to measure up the dis- tance from Adam's foot.Where does the point intersect the body? (The answer is the nael, where life begins, or the center of life.) PART IV Two types of measuring systems have been discussed. Ask students to choose one of the systems to draw a human figure. 119  In this drawing by Albrecht Dtirer, an arm and a leg of the figure are extended diagonally. If a circle is drawn around the outstretched arm and leg, the figure's nael becomes the center of the circle. CONNECTIONS " Lesson Plan: Classical Composition, p. 141. " Lesson Plan: Contrapposto Pose, p. 123. " Lesson Plan: Draw the Golden Rectangle, p. 147. The ancient Egyptians used a square grid to fix the proportions of the human figure, which they measured using the width of the palm of the hand as a unit. (See TteArt cf Andacit Fgpt: ARaurcefcr Ficatcrs, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.) RESOURCES Fibonacci numbers and the golden section: http/ / www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/ Personal/ R.Knott/ Fibonacci/ fib.html Heath, Sir Thomas L., trans. TirThrten Paks cf Eudid's Hmmts, Volume I, Introduction and Books I and II. New York: Dover, 1956, Proposition 4, p. 379. 120  LESSON PLAN: HUMAN FIGURE DRAWING THE HUMAN FIGURE 4 GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School t yourself to practice OBJECTIVES dayawng, only a little each * Students will look closely at Renaissance drawing and printmaking techniques. day so that you may not come to lose your taste for * Students will draw parts of the figure. They will render the parts using both drawing it, or get tired of it. and printmaking techniques. From Cennino Cennini, " Students will choose from a variety of individual or group extensions. Il Lirodi'Artca 1435 WORKS OF ART PAGE 93 Battledf ttNalalN/hn by Antonio Pollaiuolo SLIDE II StudyCf aBoar Wkngby Leonardo daVinci SLIDE 12 AdambyTullio Lombardo SLIDE 13 Adamand Be by Albrecht Dtirer SLIDE 16 udies fcr tlilyn Syl by Michelangelo SLIDE 21 Rtrait Cf aYungMan by Bronzino ACTIVITY I: USING LIGHT AND SHADE TO DEFINE A FORM MATERIALS " soft black charcoal " white cont6 crayon " kneaded erasers * drawing paper MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Before planning the lesson read the slide entries. Familiarize your- self with use of red chalk, silverpoint, and engraving techniques. Do not tell students that they are going to draw a figure or sculpture. The element of surprise is important in the exercise. Distribute materials. Ask students to apply charcoal to the entire sheet of paper so that it is covered with an even dark gray tone. Project SLIDE 12 upside down and unfocused so the image is blurred. (You may choose any slide in which the figure or face has sharp contrasts of light and dark) Ask students to notice the areas of white in the unfocused image, then to copy these areas by erasing the charcoal on the paper. Slowly focus the slide so the dark and light areas become clearer. Pause so students can either add charcoal to make their image darker or continue to erase the charcoal to make it lighter. When the slide is completely focused the students will see how they have created the form of the figure by looking for areas of light and shade. 121  Contrast the finished drawings with SLIDE 16, Sudio fcr tlrIbfan Syby Michelangelo and SLIDE II, Sudy cf a Per Wakng by Leonardo da Vinci. Ask students to notice the use of red chalk and silverpoint to render areas of light and shade. ACTIVITY II: RENDERING AND SHADING A comparison of how lines are used in drawing and in printmaking. MATERIALS " select and print out two of the following images from the CD-ROM: Battlecf tftNaled M1n by Pollaiuolo, SLIDES II, 13, and 16 - paper " drawing pencils (soft and hard leads), pen and India ink " soft charcoal, pastel " eraser MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION Discuss the techniques of drawing and printmaking. Ask students to look at SLIDE 13, the engraving of Adam and Ee and ask them to compare the two figures with those in the Battlecf tle Naed MIn. How has each artist rendered the volume of the limbs? Ask students to look for the types of lines used to create the illusion of volume and to copy different examples. Explain the terms hatching and cross-hatching H ave students compare the two engravings, Battlecf t Naled[Nn and Adam and E, with the drawings, Sudiesf tcriian Sy and Sudy cf aBear Wadking What differences do they see in the way the volume of the limbs and bodies are rendered? Ask students to study and explain the difference between a line made with soft chalk, with silverpoint, and a line made with a burin used in engraving. Ask students to copy parts of Michelangelo's drawing with soft pastel or soft charcoal and then to copy parts of Leonardo's drawing or one of the engravings using a pencil or pen and India ink. Which method do the students prefer? EXTENSIONS Ask students to look at Renaissance art books and find engravings they would like to copy. In the Renaissance, apprentices and artists always copied engravings. Ask students to choose one of the paintings in this resource, for example, SLIDE 18, Tie Judgmt cf Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ask them to copy the painting using one of the techniques they haw observed. Give them a choice of pencil, pen and ink, or silxer- point. (Lesson Plans: Gesture, p. 125, and Contrapposto Pose, p. 123) As part of a printmaking class, have students experiment with drawing and shading a form with hatching and cross-hatching. This can be accomplished by carving hatching lines into linoleum blocks, engraving or etching metal plates. (Lesson Plan: Printmaking, p. 191) Have students create a tempera painting or an oil painting of a shaded human form. (Lesson Plan: Tempera, p. 185) 122 HATCHING CROSS-HATCHING  LESSON PLAN: HUMAN FIGURE CONTRAPPOST O POSE r GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School dies themselves move in Jeveral ways, rising, OBJECTIVES dmcnding... and moving * Students will recognize and draw the contrapposto pose. f Students will create a work of art with a group of figures in this pose. From Leon Battista Alberti, OnPainting WORKS OF ART SLIDE 12 Adamby Tullio Lombardo SLIDE 13 Adamand Be by Albrecht Durer (engraving) SLIDE 16 d(S fr dilibyn SWfl by Michelangelo (drawing) MATERIALS " photocopy of Adamby Tulio Lombardo, one for each student MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION Project SLIDE 12, AdambyTullio Lombardo. If necessary, discuss with the students the differences betvveen a tw-dimensional photograph or slide of a sculpture and the actual three-dimensional sculptures they can see in the museum. Introduce the Italian word antragnAq which means "opposite" or "opposing." It refers to an ancient Greek pose that creates the illusion of possible movement. In such a pose, the parts of the body are arranged in balanced but opposing oblique axes. For example: the straight weight-bearing leg (right) is opposed to the bent, relaxed leg (left).T he hip of the weight-bearing leg (right) is raised, and the corresponding right shoulder is slightly lower. The vertical axis of the body should relax to a subtle S-curve. The left shoulder twists slightly forward to balance the projection of the right hip. Ask students to imitate Adam's pose. Can they stand in this pose? Are they balanced? Which foot is bearing most of their weight? Ask students to lift the foot that is not bearing their weight. What happens? Can they stand like that? Discuss what happens to their head, shoulders, and spine. Project SLIDE 13, Adamand Eeby Albrecht Durer, or give each student a photocopy of the engraving. Now, ask students to assume the pose of DUrer's Adam. What is different between the tvo poses and what is similar?Ask students once again to note and identify the location of the foot that is bearing most of the weight. Ask students to note the position of their shoulders and arms. Is the shoulder over the weight-bearing leg lower or higher than the other shoulder? 123  Ask students which version of Adam creates the illusion of r taking up more space?Which Adam gives the illusion of more movement or activity?The wider spread of the arms and legs creates the illusion of more space and movement in a drawing, painting, or sculpture. Each Adam is symmetrical and bal- anced. Eve also assumes a cntrappaopose. Is she balanced and symmetrical? Ask students to compare the poses of Durer's Adamand Ee and notice the space described by their bodies. Give each student a photocopy or printout of Tullio Lombardo's Adam Ask students to cut around the outside of the image, then to fold the image of Adamin half both verti- cally and horizontally. What do the students notice about where the lines of the folds occur in relation to the parts of the body? Although the statue is not a rigidly symmetrical composition, the body is divided clearly into symmetrical areas. Ask them to note and identify the location of the foot that is bearing most of the vveight. Have students draw action lines at the shoulders, hips, and knees. EXTENSIONS Ask students to look at other works of art and to identify examples of the contrapposto pose. (Suggested images are SLIDES 15, 21, and 24.) Ask students to draw at least three figures in the contrapposto pose. Each figure should relate to each of the others, creating the illusion of movement in space. (Refer to Lesson Plan: Gesture, p. 125.) Ask your students to go to the Ancient Greek Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and look, sketch, and compare the pose of one of the following sculptures: Diadhunnm , Marble Roman copy of Greek original of ca. 440-430 BC., Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.78.56) " WunddWrri-acrlling Marble Roman Copy of Greek Bronze original of 440-430 BC. by Kresilas, Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1925 (25.116) " loland Maslkd Dancr, Greek, 3rd c. RC., Bronze, Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971 (1972.118.95) This experience will allow your students to understand how the Renaissance artist adopted the contrapposto pose from the ancient Greeks. 124  LESSON PLAN: HUMAN FIGURE GESTURE GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School OBJECTIVES " Students will experience the way a painted gesture attracts the viewer. . Students will focus on how gestures express moods and emotions and evoke a narratie. * Students will create a charade, story, or poem inspired by human gestures, or make gesture drawings, or combine these activities. WORKS OF ART T he painting ought to have pleasant and graceful movements, suitable to what is happening there. The movements of youth are light ... of men ... are adorned with firmness ... of the old ... are fatigued ... From Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting PAGE 93 SLIDE I SLIDE 6 SLIDE 7 SLIDE I5 SLIDE 16 SLIDE 19 SLIDE 24 SLIDE 25 Battled tfrNaled Mn by Antonio Pollaiuolo TtrFpijFany by Giotto Saint Bigus by Petrus Christus TirS'y d Esthr by del Buono and Apollonio AHuntingSme by Piero di Cosimo tUdioS fcr t1'Lliydn S14 by Michelangelo Tir Hdy Fanily witht Infant Saint Jdn by Andrea del Sarto TirMradeCf tirIxeS aadITS byTintoretto TtrHarekrs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder FOR THE TEACHER Read the entries before you plan your lesson. MATERIALS " pencils, charcoal, paper ACTIVITY PART I: NAME THE GESTURE Select one of the paintings with many figures and project the slide. Ask each student to identify at least one gesture and select a word to describe the gesture. Ask students to notice if the gesture they chose connects with another gesture. If so, how?Ask students to identify the gestures that help the viewer see the action in the painting. PART II: FOCUS ON HOw GESTURE CREATES TENSION IN A PAINTING Project one slide, for example, SLIDE 19, TirHdyRFiflywitht-rIf ant Saint Jdnby Andrea del Sarto. Do not tell the students the title of the painting. What is the child doing?Thinking? What is in his hand? What is the woman doing? What would happen if the woman let go? What is the relationship of these people to each other? Is anyone looking out at us?W hat would a speech bubble from each figure's mouth say? Ask students to give the painting a title. 125  Discuss how the gestures and facial expressions have allowed the students as viewers to under- stand the emotion, mood, and meaning of the painting. Discuss how the gestures create tension in the painting. PART III: CHARADES Project either one or two slides, making sure the chosen images haw many figures. Divide the class into groups of fie. Each student in each group must select a gesture in the painting. Together they will dewlop a tvo-minute skit using the gestures. Allow the students about fifteen minutes to prepare. Have each group pantomime their skit. Additional suggestions: As skits are performed, the rest of the class can suggest dialogue for the gestures and compare the viewers' ersion with that of the actors. After the skits haw been performed, students can compare the way individuals and groups interpreted similar gestures. PART IV: WRITING ACTIVITY Ask students to pick two gestures from a painting and write a dialogue based on them, dexeloping the dialogue into a story or journal entry, or a skit. (See Extensions and Lesson Plan: The Story in Art, Part II, p. 153.) PART V: GESTURE DRAWING As a warm-up exercise, ask students to quickly and loosely draw lines that look like tight spirals or metal springs. Ask for volunteers to pose. Student must take action poses for one minute; for example, the model may pretend to shoot a basket, bend to pick up a flower, or stretch. Ask the students to sketch the pose with the spiral lines that capture the movement and diection of the pose. Have the students sketch at least five poses. Ask students to look closely at the engraving of Battlecf titNald Mn by Pollaiuolo. Have them identify and draw at least fiw different positions for each of the following: hands, feet, arms, and legs. EXTENSIONS Students may use the previous exercises along with their gesture drawings to create their own visual narratie as a drawing or painting. Students can identify a moment in one of the charades, and paint or draw it, using the appropriate gestures. 126  PERSPECTIVE CHECKLIST The Renaissance painters stroxe to create the illusion of a habitable space. By using perspective, they vere able to represent the three-dimensional world on a tw-dimensional surface-a canvas, a piece of paper, a wood panel, a wall, or a slab of clay or stone. Following are three methods by which this was achieved. OVERLAPPING SHAPES SLIDE 10 Annundatim, SLIDE I TirF#l ny, Giotto Hans Memling AERIAL OR ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE Aerial or atmospheric perspective creates a sense of depth in landscape paintings. It imitates the effect of atmosphere so objects look paler and sometimes bluer the farther they are from the viewer. SLIDE 2 TirCrudfixicn SLIDE 25 TfrHarwars (detail), (detail), Jan van Eyck Pieter Bruegel the Elder SLIDE 29 Viewvcf Tda (detail), El Greco 127  LINEAR PERSPECTIVE The ancient Greeks understood and employed linear perspective. Artists in fifteenth-century Florence revived and developed this mathematical ordering of space to depict what they observed in the physical world.The system enables artists to create a deep geometric space and direct the viewer's eye to a focal point. Alberti developed its underlying geometry. SLIDE 4 Prtrait cf lan and TirMrades cf Sint ZmdiuS, Win at a Castm , Sandro Botticelli, Florentine Fra Filippo Lippi John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1911 (11.98) SLIDE 8 Tl Birthcf trirmgn, Fra Carnevale LIGHT AND SHADOW Along with perspectixe, artists use light of a habitable space. and shadow to create volume and enhance the illusion SLIDE 10 AnmUndatim, SLIDE 6 Sint BiduS Hans Memling Petrus Christus 128  W it known and clear to Moever may read this writing the master Guzon, painter, has agreed ... to teach ... namely the principle of a plane... and to put figures on the said plane, one here and one there, in various places on the said plane, and place objects, namely a chair, bench, or house... From Contract betveen Master Painter and Apprentice, 1467. Source material, p. 85. LESSON PLAN: PERSPECTIVE OVERLAPPING SHAPES GRADE LEVEL Elementary and Junior High School OBJECTIVES * Students will observe how oxerlapped shapes create a sense of space as they establish a foreground, middle ground, and background. * Students will make a collage. T hey will determine the horizon line and define a fore- ground, middle ground, and background. WORKS SLIDE I SLIDE 10 OF ART TteFl ipny by Giotto AnannCatiG1 by Hans Memling MATERIALS COLLAGE * large sheets of colored construction paper; a variety of scraps of different colored construction paper and other types of paper, wallpapers, wrapping papers, magazines, and photocopies or printouts of the works of art in this packet " scissors, pencils, glue MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Read the slide entry before planning your lesson. Project SLIDE I. Ask students to look at and decipher the narrative. Which figures are larger?Which are smaller? Are the larger figures placed so they overlap the smaller figures?Where is the stable placed in relation to the figures of the three kings and Joseph?W here is Joseph in relation to the shepherds?Where is the mountain? Where are the angels? What is the relation of the horizon line to the sky, mountain, and earth? Keep asking this type of question until the students see that the larger figures are placed in the lover half of the panel, in fact, they are standing on the ground line. Because they are in the foreground, they appear to be closer to the viewer. The foreground figures overlap the figures in the middle ground, the shepherds, and Mary. The stable and the shepherds overlap the gold sky. The angels are in the sky at the top of the panel. They are in the background and appear to be the figures farthest from the viewer. 129  ACTIVITY Ask students to think of some activities or events in which they haw participated-sports events, concerts, dances, nature hikes, visits to the zoo, and so on. Or have students imagine an event in the Florence or Bruges of the Renaissance. Ask students to make up a story that inolves only two or three figures at the event or activity. Ask students to cut their figures from scraps of construction paper, photographs from news- papers and magazines, or the photocopies of the works of art. Distribute one large sheet of construction paper to students and ask them to experiment with the placement of their shapes. Ask students to determine the horizon line. Which shapes should go in back and which in front? (They should glue the background shapes down first, higher on the paper because they are farther away. The next closest shapes can be owerlapped and placed lover on the paper. Finally they should glue down the shapes that are in front, close to the bottom edge of the paper.) EXTENSIONS AND CONNECTIONS Lesson Plans: The Story in Art, Part I, p. 105, and Part II, p. 153; Gesture, p. 125; Aerial or Atmospheric Perspective, p. 131. 130  LESSON PLAN: PERSPECTIVE AERIAL OR ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE Tsaw above me the dark sky, land the sun as it fell on the mountain was far brighter here than in the plains below because a smaller extent of the atmosphere lay betvveen the summit of the mountain and the sun. Leonardo da Vinci As quoted by A Richard Turner in TlreMsrn cf Lnkaxg inRam Italy, Princeton, NJ, 1966. GRADE LEVEL Junior High and High School OBJECTIVES " Students will look at paintings and discuss how aerial perspective is depicted. * Students will observe and document the atmosphere of the sky during a particular time period and compare their findings with the paintings that use aerial perspectie. * Students will complete a writing activity. WORKS SLIDE 2 SLIDE 5 SLIDE 18 SLIDE 25 OF ART TI Crucifixin by Jan van Eyck T rTritunicf Fane by Scheggia TI Judgrnt cf Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder TrHarewrs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder MOTIVATION AND DISCUSSION FOR THE TEACHER: Read the entries for SLIDES 2 and 25 before planning your lesson. Aerial perspective creates a sense of depth by imitating the effect of the atmosphere: objects look paler and sometimes bluer the farther away they are from the viewer. Scientific analysis shows us that the presence of dust and large moisture particles in the atmosphere causes some scattering of the light that passes through them. The amount of scattering depends on the wavelength of the light. Blue light can pass through the mist caused by dust and moisture particles, and this is why the sky appears to be blue and faraway mountains light gray, blue, or purplish in color. Project SLIDE 25, TteHaruars. In a class discussion, ask students to describe what they see. (The background on the left side of the painting appears to be covered in a haze. The color is a mixture of yellow, white, and beige. The eye cannot decipher details, thus the atmosphere creates an illusion of distance or space.) Project SLIDE 2, TIeCrudfiiXin. Ask students to look at and describe aerial or atmos- pheric perspective. 131  OBSERVATION AND DOCUMENTATION CTIVITIES MATERIALS * Polari "' camera, 'olord pencils or CraypasT, paper VISUAL ACTIVITY I TIE: At least one week, about 20 minutes per day. Ask students to document the sky's appearance for one wEk. ach dayat asettime they should look at the sky from the same plice. Moings and evenings are preferable to the middle of the day because the sky is usu:allyclearerwhe the sun is notat its height. Pollution also will affect the color of the sky If cameas are available, students can tephotographs ofthe sky. T hey will see how the color and density of the sky change. Students can use colored pencils or CrapasTM to translate their photographs into drawins. VISUAL ACTIVITY II SMt least one day, four different timsduring the day, at least five or ten minutesea time. Ask students to go outside and select an object in the distance. Throughout the day have them record the object, either with a camera (preferably aPolaroid" camera) or with colored pencils or CrapasT. The students will notice how atmospheric conditions affect the object. Does it change color?Is its shape alxas distinct? WRITING ACTIVITY I Link perspective in art to ones placement i a scene.H ow does placement affect what one sees? Ask students to rite a story from the perspective of one of the figures inT H as (SLILE 25). Write from the perspective of someone in town, someone in the field, someone under a tree. Other slides thatyournightwant to try are SLIDEs 2,.6, 8, and I5. WRITING ACTIVITY 11 Ask students to imagine their favorite place. Thenakthemto imagine they are using a camera and describe the pictures they are takin at different distances. Ask themto write three paragraphs. - Ask students to imagine taking a photograph of the place from long distance. Ca they see thewhole placeWhat kinds of details can they see from far away? * Then ask them to move closer, to midrange. What kinds of details can they see? ow has the larger picture changed? - Finally, ask the students to imagine taking a close-up of the place. What part do they see? Ask them to describe the details. After either writing activity return to one of the paintings. For exarple, project SLIDE 2, Cru dximiby Jan van Eyck. Ask students to identify here van Eyk placed himself. Then ask them to 'iage that the perspetive is different. What details would they changeH owWhat details woud stay the same? Ask tem to explan thei isions by writing a p a describing the painting from this new perspectixe 132  qVAOImxon o srui uqo :uj7' '. 0 'r r tic: 7 At inIts .Vxrb a Lt New ork: Ar' s, 1995. Hwt &Frdrick.Ht, i a Ialivf = aK At 4thed. ew ork: tnt ws, 1994. Heler, .ry G7"'e Reniss'ane"1 . .ew ork: Abevie Press, 19)7. as& i, Mar..'- in 111 L'y .1400to 'lyF K tCt. Lndon: JohnlMuray; 1994. it frey, Petr. iti'igin .K=a '9 - kNee'H i: Yale i'itv Prss,195 JadieLia.W~cy a v9 t ew ork:Doubieday 996. J st ,.tram. k . Nex York: Abr s, 199. KernerlosephLe. Tr n x7- -P a> aiuemi I: R A. Chiago.- Jniverity ofChicago Prts, 1 996. Lvenson, Jay , ed Cliao. 492:0A, nt FcfaWashngton, D.C. : N'tio.a :oton: Little R-mm, 1992. aurray, id. igi '9 _' 1 tay, t h N -a nd ii.500-1600. &ework: T amesai tudon.,1985 - ra , etr, ndLidaMayAt N e orks:T'ims'adduson1985. OlsnRoettaJ.Itaia Ria~m .e Lnon: ar nd Hudson,1992. Pofsky, Erwi.'~ s din. n ' At. New ork: H' r aniow, 197 2. aotti, Jom., id 1ar v AB1ka Ain--a rItLiy. Ldon-.L. Kig,997. ers Joh. iN ew York.-VikingaPengin,199L1 214  p adol.W( i 'Ila rneeton: P nereton Snyder, Jams C ainig t rp e s ni13 5 0toL1575. Nework<: Abrams159. Torto,eter. L Ianr 1 <140016. Lnon: ei ebe n Nicolson, 1991. i aglii, ao. Wmin Iain. v nAr.MnhestertEg Mnhter UJivrsity Fre, 1997. To< , of, e 1< 4 9 Air 1- Ko : oem,1995. Welh EvelyAt and ay in tty, 137--150.ew hork: Oxord.University, ress, 1997. Wid, Johann:s. - .i .'ftm. rn ito its ixfor : 1'rendon, wes, _1974. gun iManfed. frgt '7a (: rsce,1997. 2SOURCE: ANI)DOCUM.ENTS Albrt, C)on'tti st't. 1n.PantingNwvn ae U' sity rcss, 1966. Casii one, admi.r. kf a>Q. nn:Pegn os, 1976. Cei, 7 e io Cr Yis H Yc tin'1Ito f 'Nwork: Dover1 . irer, Aibrecht. I r'srmd qto C 4.d. .oger Fry New York: Dover, 1.995. s rnsus of Rtte ra. Paie44- ' lydPnginrUR n _-rto -a Loyon: nuin o, 1993. Eucd .thSirThonas LJrans °tid's Vo* pume I Introduetion ndBoksIad I. New York: Dover,1956. Gilbert, Creighton E. It=' t, 1400170 : S :'an in r. sB Evaston, Il 1: 21  More, Tonns.Ut. 9au -n4nd p hrv '. - ev York: Cibb'dge iivesity Press, 1995. vid. - d Boongnton: Ini aUniveritv Press,1957. Pic) d1=1l -ii 01' ja ox n is r' mcn trDi %tvcf_.n :h gon, .0C: &Pln , Raelai's, Fracois. Gr 'Uad ' gui ew York: Kopt, 1994. Ross, Jaies ic, and Mr M in Me aughli, e:. unlaealw=ci New York: Penguin oks, 19 81. Spesr Ed&d :<, 1-01. ' newYork: Vikiig Pengui, 1979. St hox;o 'ing ru R~imwAt140---1600: Engewood Clifs: Prentice-Hal, 1966. Vase Giorgio. ' fd~aiaN t s ew York: Kopf, 1996. 3THE ARTFO FtSS:COSTUME IN LNAIiiSANCL ART itfri, Elizabeth. Dresin Itlian 'ai 46-V .o)don: J.NMurra;,1975. Booke ris. -o'n ink ~r,13hto 17i7 , 57 -t~tn . lB1i3 no. 4(Springl1986). or:a, i.n>' d16tdihe. rsin. D Iama i t t o h:T Aof.lbeeh Painting = p 2 - : m m4 m 217  L ona d a Vinci.L-m QA tn - ,f l1 , y "i Eh cat. 1984. rN its .At:inItlyv ' ~ i .88. 'cft& Ar: .'n. a ~ Nh1987. Nickel,. c mit "A ins' md Aior fromTithecemaent Colltio?"T ta ~ Ano.9 I ( i 1 91). an.Kith Ch'isti'nsen, "S 1'la 'Pantings in15th ttrTe : 1 ray:, Cassone Pnel,'and ortraYits. (-it -tincf A'P in 3 8, no. I (Summer : 1:r, Stuat WandJosc odoyH WI a , . i R .ig.a d Anx toincNM. ii cing . "Thc Libcral Ats -ii o fo foithecDuc'alac at -to.1i tn ii 1 ' At Xn, no. 4(Spring 1996). . - 1 9 . ' t 1 ' . . i~ 7. CHILDREN tS00OO§ C','r .rvr. P 'Cambridgc, E e aC' im 'nvesity ress, 1987. C'ascli, Giovan'. E y ''ci. 0a cr 'c Nxdn. Ncxv or:.- . dit os, 19)91. Eb /I'e x i Gnnae cw or k: P. erh k s19 87. r mt e Id Nw ork-P. -=-i k oks1992. Rockvcll, Anc. s D cmNeork:4Atcciu, 196 1P 00ectura, ion. ' aCtyew York: Ptoa, 9). 218  'IL )EO AR.PHY c wie al euator totpreicw thse s beforcintegradingthcm into ls l ans . O yo a ethejudge of whatn'atrals'arebestfor w cees. Sometimebiogyahiesofnli- N-uatstsicotasensitive jiformaion. Yournay'eect to:show allorparsof agven tape. Ciihatk . A: ' ow I a( -TV!/ ome ision.,1967) (eah rora approxiatly 5nh): T t c ir.in ca r,1386-1466 ( '4 ' Ln~i) (RMAt -V, 1986) F.:c r 4od, Belini] (Nationa Icllry of At ahing,(ton, D. ., 19) (27 m'nd) Ccto a. r '-aVs e( 'rt Videonmnications, 1986) (47 mWi) d t Tn r §T'eo a ' (av"'lblcfron'Wtm'c'Fi r)(3 2 i .) S f , ~3 vol(u starVideo,19h2)(Eahvol. 90mina) niigc a J.LPaul.Gtty etum, 1992) (14 mina) .tom A- ' (Portrait of a'Arist) (RM aVV,.,1983) (58 in. Masteriecs of Itala' t(V 1A- AVide ncl 990) : Vol. 2: A a43itt~~do5 ia Vol 3: K -ein Ful1Hu(5 8n.'n.) Vol4 :. a'ai. K ' a '. aicitaY (7 8m'a.) M~ff MuC Naional all1yof M. Whngton, D.0.1991) (3O m.) a an d- Pa 'oa r c= Vide ibray)989) (50 it.) o 2~1  for n (The Metropolitan Mseumof tiIJ. Paulstyrst.194 Program3, Fim1: 'crds I1(14n'a) Progrnm4, ilmi: eAiic ae a.N(1mia) Prognwim5, Film 2:-A. a eGand Cai' 1txvi a 9 ('*faeI I a bt o I Dth[comtars Cinese a: erperspective]l (46 in) mapaIl(R Art:/B- T, 1982) Qech pt is:58tin,): sxx (aval'ble throug i eis for the Hamanitiesad SAences) (30 ' 'mn toGlac '1.. 0-- g . aT>>r a t .tn. s v Q ' (ipon eisio, :.9 86) Sayx p i a 1 nr(Te Metropolitan Mseuof Art, 98) (28nm) Tiia (Portrit of aniAtis) (R Ars 1989) (571m 4.) iltiat'tu 'ad chs (1 Paul cety tusoum, 1994) (iti ii) Ty--_.T' r :'s . u anj. - p ( K:ish r t nfa. The Metropoita Mseam ofAr, 1986)Q(5 rp auseurnof 4,1993) Western radition ( in association wiit te1\ A, 1989) ( h i rogra 30i in) VIDEO SUPPLIERS A' He Video: S00-3 44-6336 A Is- enicc :..3-8-4692 Bit'en F ilms: 800-554-986'12 10 S. MichganA r. , 6th if., Chicao, IL 60604) Ena /Treccmi:212-986-3180 (12E.46thS.,NevYork NY 1017) Films for the Hunk ties: 800-h57-5126 (P.O. Bx 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543) Doiell bmyCneTee~r ulc Libray212-621-0642 (2O " 5 rd St.,N e Nork NY101 HonmeVision: 800-S26-3456 x 211 (5747 No. Ravenswood, Chicao, IL 60640) oh- ,Toll-1-