The Art of Venice
Byzantine Influence
Mosaics in churches
Love of color, light, and
texture
Renaissance Influence
Concern for reality
Among the first to place
importance on the landscape
to set the stage and the mood
Figures seem inactive:
sleeping, dreaming, waiting
The Concert
 Two travelers meet along the road:
one dressed richly playing a lute,
the other dressed simply and
barefoot
 Calm and gentle mood created by
blurred edges and light mist
Two nude women represent sound of
water churning in a nearby brook &
hum of the breeze through tree
 Expressive brushwork, not depictive
(painterly)
 create forms with patches of color,
not hard, precise edges
 Use of glazing over reddish ground to
create depth
 Figures wide awake, alert, and active.
 Combined Giorgione’s lighting and
color with sturdy figures
The Entombment
Emphasis on figure of the
dead Christ
Obscured the face of Christ to
arouse curiosity
Viewer inspired to use
imagination to complete the
scene
 Doge Andrea
Gritti
 Doge (ruler of
Venice) was
fierce and
alert, even at
80
 Right hand
modeled after
Michelangelo’s
Moses
Portrait of
Philip II
Mannerism
 A deliberate revolt by artists
against the goals of the
Renaissance.
 Cultural Influences brought
about tension and disorder
 The Protestant Reformation led by
Martin Luther
 The French invasion of Italy in 1524
& the French defeat of Rome in 1527
Mannerism = imbalance and
restlessness
Formal, cold appearance of
subjects
Exaggerated proportions,
subjectivity, elegance
Sensual, emotional and
intellectual appeal
Anti-Classical elements:
emotionalism, lack of balance
Renaissance composition:
central figure
Mannerist elements: cold
color, stark background,
nervous line, and
exaggerated proportions.
 The Madonna with the Long Neck
 Madonna larger than others even
though seated
 Christ child lifeless (flesh pale &
rubbery), unnatural proportions,
head seems separated
 Other figures look everywhere
 Crowded at front & left; spacious at
rear & right
Interior or
exterior
setting?
Disembodied
leg belongs to
whom?
Who is the
man in the
rear?
How far back
is he from
foreground?
Interpretation :
Lifelessness was an accident
Madonna symbolic of the
Church
Many questions raised, few
answers given
Son of a dyer
“The Little Dyer” combined
goals of Mannerism with
Venetian love of color
Style: quick, short
brushstrokes and a dramatic
use of light.
 Presentation of the Virgin
 Elongated figures with dramatic
gestures
 odd perspective
 strange uneven light
 Focus on Mary because of
gestures of other figures
 Domeniko Theotocopoulos
 Born on Crete; worked in Toledo,
Spain
 Monochromatic, spatially
compressed, strongly highlighted
forms
 Subjective and mystic composition
looks inward
 The Martyrdom of St. Maurice and
the Theban Legion
 Elongated figures
 Use of light and dark contrasts to
heighten the drama
 Fate of St. Maurice and his
soldiers as refused to worship
Roman gods
3 parts of story in one
At top: group of angels
prepare to receive the
heroes
Background: Maurice
and his officers watch
their men being
beheaded
Foreground: Maurice
explains situation to
his soldiers
The
Burial of
Count
Orgaz
The Art of Northern Europe
 Northern artists faithful to the
style of the Late Gothic period
 Those who favored adopting
Italian Renaissance ideas as
quickly as possible.
 Italian Renaissance eventually
triumphed later in the century
 Matthias Grünewald
 used Renaissance ideas only to
make Gothic dreams and visions
more vivid and powerful
 The Small Crucifixion
aim to create a visual sermon
Brutal details of Christ’s agony
and death
Cold, black sky
emphasizes
people with its
contrasting hues
and values
Attention on
Christ…color,
design, brushwork,
figure placement
combine to create
expression of pain
and sorrow.
 Albrecht Dürer
 The Leonardo of the Northern
Renaissance
 studied perspective and
proportions theory
 the first entrepreneur
used printing press to mass
produce his works.
 Knight, Death, and the Devil
 Engraving: horse and rider are
calm, solid
 Symbolism
Figures of death and devil are
reminiscent of Gothic era.
Knight rides along
road of faith
toward Jerusalem
(at top of work)
devil = Goatheaded figure
death = hideous
horseman
dog = loyalty
Hieronymus Bosch (Flemish
painter)
seen as stories and as
symbolic messages
Symbolism
devil portrayed as a fool or a
clown
 Death and the Miser
 salvation available if
ask forgiveness before
you die
 Angel points to
window = crucifix
there offers salvation,
even in death
 Devil tempts with bag
of money
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Triptych: 3-panels
Panel 1:
The
Garden of
Eden
Panel 2:
The World
Before the
Flood
Sexual
connotations;
machinery
Panel 3:
Hell
 Pieter Bruegel the Elder
 Influenced by Hieronymus Bosch
 The Parable of the Blind
 seen as a parable (contains a
symbolic message): if the blind lead
the blind, both fall into ditch
 concern for detail reminiscent of Jan
van Eyck: 5 diseases of the eye are
depicted
 Expressive faces: confusion to fear
ditch = hell
Blind man wearing cross = anyone
can be tricked, even pious
Beggars follow a road to eternal suffering;
blindness leads them to stumble past
Church
Hans Holbein
the Younger
Edward VI
irony:
portrayed as
healthy &
strong; died
at age 16 of
tuberculosis