AP AH College Board Presentation

Medsker-Mehalic

Content Area #3

Reformation, Baroque, New Spain (colonization of the Aztecs)

Chapters 23 and 24

• “But his faith is a faith that to him is real, and it is a faith, in my judgement, that sustained him through the hard times in his life.” -Rembrandt

Chapter 23

The Age of the Reformation�16th-century art in Northern Europe and Spain

• Spain was the dominant power in Europe by the end of the 16th century
• Reformation- establishment of Protestantism. Led to Counter-Reformation
• Introduction Summary
• Video Link #1
• Video Link #2
• Video Link #3
• Video Link #4

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Albrecht Durer, The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), 1504 C.E.

• Incorporated Italian Renaissance developments
• Idealized figures- contrapposto poses
• Well-honed observational skills
• Animals are symbolic- represent humanity’s temperaments. “Four humors”
• Lutheran beliefs
• Immersed himself in the religious debates of his day
• Idealization + naturalism
• Durer recasts familiar story with nuances of meaning and artistic innovation
• Distinctly German forest
• Full of contradictions and symbolism
• Summary Link
• Video Link
• Durer Introduction/Biography

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Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece (closed), from the Hospital of Saint Anthony, 1512- 1516 C.E.

• Reflects Catholic beliefs
• Created for a monastic hospital
• Saints associated with diseases and miraculous cures- Saint Anthony and Saint Sebastian
• Isenheim hospital (Antonine monks) devoted to the care of sick and dying peasants
• Contrast of horror and hope
• Oil on wood
• 9’ 9” x 10’ 9”
• Summary Link

Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece (open), from the Hospital of Saint Anthony, 1512- 1516 C.E.

• Second position emphasizes the promise of resurrection (the Annunciation, Virgin and Child, and the Resurrection)
• Oil on wood
• Smithsonian Magazine article
• Video Link

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Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece (open), from the Hospital of Saint Anthony, 1512- 1516 C.E.

• Image of the 5 temptations
• Themes of pain, illness, death plus hope, comfort and salvation
• Mastery of medieval monstrosity echoes and evokes Hieronymus Bosch
• Displays human suffering and disease while providing hope for heaven
• Figures sculpted by Nicolas of Hagenau

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Lucas Cranach the Elder, Allegory of Law and Grace, 1530 C.E.

• Differences between Catholicism and Protestantism
• Woodcut and letterpress
• Protestants viewed woodcut prints as useful
• Martin Luther (reformation- 1517) insisted that salvation was in God’s hands and all the believer had to do was to open up and have faith
• Luther believed that some religious art was acceptable provided it taught the right lessons
• The Old and New Testament, or allegory of the law and the gospel, a tree at the center
• Summary Link

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565 C.E.

• Interrelationship of human beings and nature
• Human activities remain dominant
• 1 of 6 illustrating seasonal changes- commissioned by Antwerp wealthy merchant Niclaes Jongelinck
• Oil on wood
• Greatest member of a large and important southern Netherlandish family of artists active for four generations in the 16^th and 17^th century
• Bruegal translated moralizing subjects into vernacular language
• Many of his paintings focus on the lives of Flemish commoners, gave him nickname “peasant Bruegel”
• Focus on the atmosphere and transformation of the landscape
• Video Link
• Bruegel Article

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Chapter 24

Baroque Art�Popes, Peasants, Monarchs, and Merchants�

• Summary Link
• Derived from the Portuguese word “barroco” which refers to a “rough or imperfect pearl”
• Exaggerated emotion and clear details represented theatrically
• Dynamic, diagonal lines, dark palette
• Often created in monumental size
• Main theme was the triumph of faith
• Summary Link #2

Giacomo della Porta, façade of Il Gesu, 1574- 1584 C.E.

• Jesuit church- major participant in the Counter- Reformation
• Chronologically and stylistically- late Renaissance
• Enormous influence on later Baroque church architecture

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• Nave takes over the main volume of space- great hall with side chapels
• Almost theatrical setting for large promenades and processions
• Video Link

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Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Triumph in the Name of Jesus, Il Gesu Ceiling, 1679-1685 C.E.

• Video Link
• High Baroque period
• Illusionistic vault fresco
• Influenced by Bernini
• Parents died from the plague of 1654
• Received commission from new General of the Jesuit order- Gian Paolo Oliva when 22

Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, Rome, 1597-1601 C.E.

• Oil on wood- over 10 feet wide
• Outspoken disdain for the classical masters
• “anti-Christ of painting”
• Huge influence on later artists
• Injected naturalism into religion- played as dramas
• Unidealized figures
• Low horizon line
• Sharply lit figures- painted directly from posed models
• Departed from traditional religious scenes
• One of two paintings honoring Saint Matthew
• Bland street scene
• Christ summons Levi (Conversion of Levi to Matthew)
• Created for the Contarelli Chapel in Rome (remains there today)
• Video Link
• Caravaggio Link

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Peter Paul Rubens, Henry IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de’Medici, from the Marie de’Medici Cycle, 1621- 1625 C.E.

• Oil on canvas
• Marie de’Medici, daughter of the Grandduke of Tuscany, gazes out from painted portrait in the center of the canvas (bride-to-be)
• Gods of marriage and love (Hymen and Amor) hover in midair as they present this portrait to Henry IV, King of France
• 6^th canvas in a series of 24 paintings on the life of Marie de’Medici commissioned by the queen herself to adorn one of the two galleries in the Luxembourg Palace (her new home in Paris)
• When Henry was assassinated in 1610, Marie acted as regent for their young son, Louis XIII, for 7 years
• Summary Link
• Video Link
• Rubens and the Politics of Art Paper

Rembrandt can Rijn, Self-Portrait with Saskia, 1636 C.E.

• Video Link
• Essay Link #1
• Intaglio Process Video
• Etching- 40” x 37”
• Produced more self-portraits than any artist before him (around 75)
• Preferred to show himself in a variety of imagined roles
• Regarded as a marriage portrait- married for 13 years until Saskia’s death at the age of 30- only etching that Rembrandt ever made of Saskia and himself together
• First time that Rembrandt presented himself as an artist at work
• Regarded as the greatest etcher in the history of art and the first to popularize this technique as a major form of artistic expression (created nearly 300 etchings)
• Summary Link

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Francesco Borromini, Façade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, Italy �1638-1646 C.E.

• Saint Charles and the Four Fountains
• Emphasizes building’s sculptural qualities
• Undulating motion
• Concave and convex elements
• 2 facades
• Stone and stucco
• Designed as part of a small monastery for a community of Spanish monks
• Commissioned in 1634 by Cardinal Francesco Barberini
• New York Times Article

Francesco Borromini, �San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Plan, 1638-1646 C.E.

• Provocative variation of centrally-planned
• Built to fit in a cramped and difficult site
• Church is on the corner with the cloister next to it and both face onto the Via Pia
• Irregular floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross defined by convex curves
• Interior flow from entrance to altar

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Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Interior, 1638-1646 C.E.

• Complex interior
• Three principal parts identified vertically as the lower order at ground level, the transition zone of the pendentives, and the oval coffered dome with oval lantern
• Video Link

Carlo Maderno, Cornaro Chapel, Church of Santa Maria dell Vittoria, Rome, Italy,� 1647-1652 C.E.

• Stucco and gilt bronze
• Cardinal Cornaro commissioned in 1647
• Stucco, stained glass, fresco, marble
• Originally begun in 1605 as a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul
• After the catholic victory at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, the church was rededicated to Virgin, Mary
• The masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel is the Ecstasy of St. Teresa
• Part of the Counter-Reformation movement
• Bernini was deeply religious and interested in theater
• Bernini was a sculptor and architect

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Bernini, Cornaro Chapel Interior, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, 1645-1652 C.E.

• Utilized painting, architecture, and sculpture
• Marble and gilding
• Combination of spiritual and physical passion
• Differentiation of texture
• Theatrical
• High level of emotion and sexual symbolism
• Saint Teresa- nun whose father died
• Fire-tipped arrow of divine love
• Video Link
• Summary Link

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Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, 1645-1652

• Saint Teresa wrote accounts of visions she had with angels
• “Beside me, on the left, appeared an angel in bodily form….In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times…When he pulled it out I felt that he took [my entrails] with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God….The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one’s soul content with anything but God.” –Saint Teresa

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Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), 1656 C.E.

• Oil on canvas- 10’ x 9’
• Mastery of form and content
• Princess Margarita daughter of King Philip IV + Queen Mariana
• Identifiable people and paintings-Peter Paul Rubens paintings- immortal gods as the source of art
• Visual and narrative complexity
• Order of Santiago- red cross
• In 1651 Velazquez was appointed palace chamberlain- when he painted Las Meninas he had been with the royal household for 33 years
• Video Link
• Summary Article

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Johannes Vermeer,�Woman Holding a Balance, 1662 C.E.

• Oil on canvas
• Upper merchant class lady from Holland
• Background painting of the Last Judgment
• Empty balance
• Shows a scene of everyday life full of symbolism/meaning- questions relationship between wealth and spirituality
• Plays with soft light entering from window
• Vermeer website
• Video Link

Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, The Palace at Versailles, Versailles, France, Begun 1669 C.E.

• Masonry, stone, wood, iron, and gold leaf
• Team of Louise le Vau (architect to the aristocracy), Andre le Notre (landscape designer extraordinaire, and Charles le Brun (interior decorator and painter). Jules Hardouin Mansart designed later stages.
• Louis XIV commissioned as enormous and stylish palace
• Completed 21 years after it was begun in 1661
• Louis and 20,000 friends, family, courtiers, servants, and soldiers set up court at the palace
• Summary Link

The Palace at Versailles, 1669 C.E.

• Originally nothing on the site except a small hunting lodge- now a prime example of the over-the-top excesses of the French nobility that led to the French Revolution
• Enormous- 700 rooms, 2153 windows
• Referred to himself as the Sun King- Versailles meant to emphasize his importance
• Versailles Website
• Louis XIV Summary Link

Palace at Versailles Courtyard

• Basic structure is classical (symmetrical, repetitive, and based on simple elements that are directly borrowed from ancient Greek temples)
• Google Art Project Virtual Tour Link

Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Charles Le Brun, Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), Palace of Versailles, France, 1680

• Marble and bronze
• The most famous room is the Hall of Mirrors- runs along the entire length of the central building
• One wall contains a row of giant windows overlooking the gardens
• Other wall covered in 357 mirrors that catch the sun’s rays inside the palace

Andre le Notre, Palace at Versailles Gardens, France, 1680

• 2,000 acres of manicured lawns, fountains, and paths arranged in the formal garden style that Andre le Notre was known for
• Louis XIV felt that the gardens were just as important as the Chateau
• Commissioned Andre Le Notre in 1661 and it took 40 years to complete
• Summary Link

Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects, 1711 C.E.

• Oil on wood
• Female Dutch artist from a wealthy and prominent family of artists, architects, and scientists.
• By 18 she was producing her first still life paintings and starting to establish her long and successful career- known as one of the greatest flower painters of her time
• Tulips introduced from Turkey in the late 16^th century- the Dutch fell in love with them- buying craze
• Married another painter and had 10 children
• Produced more than 250 paintings- considered one of the most succesful artists of her day
• Dutch were protestants so they did not have a powerful monarchy or the Catholic church to commission artworks- produced directly for buyers (wealthy merchants)
• Video Link
• Summary LInk

Master of Calamarca (La Paz School), Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei, 17^th Century C.E.

• Oil on canvas
• Guns, angels, and fashion- depictions produced from the late-17^th century through the 19^th century in the viceroyalty of Peru
• Represented celestial, aristocratic, and military beings all at once
• Created after the first missionizing period, as Christian missionary orders persistently sought to terminate the practice of pre-Hispanic religions and enforce Catholicism
• Catholic Counter Reformation held a militaristic ideology that portrayed the Church as an army and angels as its soldiers
• During the first half of the 18^th century, gold and silver were prohibited in the clothing of nobility- military was exempt from this rule
• Summary Link
• Video Link

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Circle of the Gonzalez Family�Folding Screen with the Siege of Belgrade (front), 1697-1701 C.E.

*Oil on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl

• Tempera and resin on wood, shell inlay
• Biombos (folding screens)
• Enconchados (shell-inlay paintings)
• Originally included 6 additional panels
• Only known work to combine the two elite Mexican genres of biombos and enconchados
• Commissioned by the Viceroy of New Spain, most likely displayed in Mexico’s viceregal palace
• Great Turkish War scene based off of a Dutch print would have been a propagandistic backdrop of Habsburg power for reception of official international visitors
• Summary Link
• Video Link

Folding Screen with the Hunting Scene (reverse), 1697-1701 C.E.

• Circle of the Gonzalez Family
• Tempera and resin on wood, shell inlay
• Hunting scene based off of a European print source would have been in a more intimate room like the estrado

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Attributed to Juan Rodriguez, Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo, 1715 C.E.

• Oil on canvas
• In 18^th century Mexico a genre of painting appeared- Casta paintings, subject focuses on colonial issue of race, racial intermarriage, and their offspring (mestizo-mixed race)
• Painted in a series of 16
• First image is always a Spanish man and an elite indigenous woman, accompanied by their offspring
• Typically painted for an European market, reinforced Spanish America’s social hierarchy- with the Spanish man being the most important
• Summary Link
• List of Castas in the 18^th century

Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, �1750 C.E.

• Oil on canvas
• Posthumous portrait of the esteemed Mexican nun and writer
• Considered one of the first feminists of the Americas, lived as a nun of the Jeronymite order (St. Jerome)
• Rather than marry, chose to become a nun so she could pursue her intellectual interests
• Wrote poetry and plays- internationally famous
• Wrote, The Answer, defending her right as a woman to write and to be a scholar
• Church forced her to relinquish her literary pursuits and her library
• After giving up her intellectual pursuits, she cared for the sick- ended up falling sick herself and died
• Cabrera likely modeled this painting off of images of St. Jerome (seated at desk within study, surrounded by books, and writing instruments)
• Summary Link

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza, Viceroyalty of New Spain, 1541- 1542 C.E.

• Ink and color on paper
• First viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, commissioned a codex to record information about the Aztec empire
• The codex contained information about the lords of Tenochtitlan, the tribute paid to the Aztecs, and an account of life “from year to year”
• Indigenous artists, images annotated in Spanish by a priest that spoke Nahuas (Aztec ethnic group)
• Viceroy Mendoza intended to send the Codex to Spanish King, Emperor Charles V of Spain
• Codex never made it to Spain- French pirates took it and it ended up in France
• Andre Thevet (cosmographer to King Henry II of France) included his name on several pages including at the top of the frontispiece
• Summary Link

Miguel Gonzalez, The Virgin of Guadalupe, 1698 C.E., based on original Virgin of Guadalupe, Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 16^th Century C.E.

• Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother- of-pearl (enconchado= shell)
• Devotion to the Virgin Mary crossed the Atlantic with Spanish colonization of the Americas
• After the defeat of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521 and the establishment of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain- Virgin Mary became one of the most popular themes for artists
• Virgin placed atop an eagle perched on a cactus, Mexico City’s legendary coat of arms (rapid Creolization of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe and her increasing association with a local sense of identity)
• Surrounded by four roundels depicting her three apparitions to the Indian Juan Diego in 1531, and the moment when Juan Diego unveiled her image imprinted on his tunic
• Ornate frames around enconchado paintings inspired by Japanese lacquer work
• Video Link
• Summary Link
• Unframed Article Link