Introduction to Art Historical Research: Western Painting

Introduction to Art Historical
Research: Western Painting
NTNU Graduate Institute of Art History
November 4th 2009
©2009 Dr Valentin Nussbaum, Associate Professor
Vittore Carpaccio, Vision of San Ottobon in the Church of Sant‘Antonio di Castello, c. 1512, Oil on
canvas, 121 x 174 cm, Accademia, Venice
1
Giovanni Bellini, St Vincent Ferrer Altarpiece, 1464-68,
Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice
Michelangelo Buonarotti,
David, 1501-1504, 410 cm,
Accademia, Florence
Titian, Death of St Peter Martyr, 1527-30, oil on
canvas, (destroyed by fire in 1867 formerly in the
Church San San Giovanni e Paolo,Venice)
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro
in Montorio, c.1510, Rome
Raphael Sanzio, La Fornarina, 1518,
85 x 60 cm, Museo Nazionale d’Arte
Antica, Rome
2
Giulio Romano, Room of the Giants, 1526-1534,
Palazzo Tè, Mantova
Arcimboldo, Spring, 1573, 76 x 63,5
cm, Louvre, Paris
Giambologna, The Rape of the
Sabine Women, 1581, 410 cm,
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504,
410 cm, Accademia, Florence
Giambologna, The Rape of the
Sabine Women, 1581, 410 cm,
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
3
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro in Montorio, c.1510,
Rome
Giulio Romano, Room of the Giants, 1526-1534, Palazzo
Tè, Mantova
Raphael Sanzio, La Fornarina, 1518, 85 x 60 cm,
Museo Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome
Arcimboldo, Spring, 1573, 76 x 63,5 cm, Louvre, Paris
4
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504, 410 cm,
Accademia, Florence
Michelangelo, Pietà, before 1501, St Peter, Rome
Michelangelo, Pietà, before 1501, St Peter, Rome
5
Pietà Röttgen, Middle Rhine Region , c.1300, Rheinisches
Landesmuseum, Bonn
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin St Ann
and the Child, 1498-1500, 142 x 104,5
cm, National Gallery, London
Pietà, beginning of 15c., Cathedral of Freiberg
Michelnagelo, Tondo Doni, 1504 / 1507, diam. 120 cm,
Uffizi, Florence
Raphael, Belvedere Madonna, 1505-6, 113 x
88 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienne
6
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin St Ann
and the Child, 1498-1500, 142 x 104,5
cm, National Gallery, London
Michelangelo, Tondo Doni, 1504 / 1507, diam. 120 cm,
Uffizzi, Florence
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin St Ann
and the Child, 1498-1500, 142 x 104,5
cm, National Gallery, London
7
Michelangelo, Tondo Doni, 1504 / 1507, diam. 120 cm,
Offices, Florence
Raphael, Belvedere Madonna, 1505-6, 113 x 88 cm, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienne
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504,
410 cm, Accademia, Florence
8
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504, 410 cm,
Accademia, Florence
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504, 410 cm,
Accademia, Florence
Roman copy after Polykleitos, Doryphorus,
original c. 440 B.C., Museo Archelogico Nazionale,
Neaples
Donatello, David, c.1440, 158 cm, Bargello, Florence
9
Michelangelo Buonarotti, David, 1501-1504, 410 cm, Accademia,
Florence (detail)
Donatello, Saint Georges, c.1417, 210 cm cm, Bargello, Florence
(detail)
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro in Montorio, vers 1510, Rome (wood
model, XIX c.)
10
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro in Montorio, c. 1510, Rome
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro in
Montorio, c. 1510, Rome
Leonardo da Vinci, Drawing of a centred plan church, c. 1487-90,
Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris
11
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of san Pietro in
Montorio, c.1510, Rome
Leonardo da Vinci, Drawing of a centred
plan church, c.1487-90, Bibliothèque de
l’Institut de France, Paris
Raphael, The Marriage of the Virgin,
1504, 170 x 117 cm, Pincoteca Brera,
Milan
Piero della Francesca, Ideal City, c.1470, 60 x 200 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Urbino
Donato Bramante, Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio,
c.1510, Rome
Sir Christopher Wren, St Paul’s Cathedral, 1696-1708, London
12
Raphael, La Fornarina, c. 1518, 85 x 60 cm, Museo
Nazionale, Rome
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1485, Uffizi, Florence
13
Giorgione , The Tempest, c.1507,
Accademia, Venice
Giorgione , Sleeping Venus, vers 1510, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Raphael Sanzio, The School of Athens, 1509-1510, 770 cm,Vatican, Rome
14
Raphael Sanzio, The Fire in the Borgo, c. 1514, (Stanza dell’Incendio), Vatican, Rome
Polydoros, Hagesandros, Athenodoros, Laocoon Group, c. 50 B. C., Musei Vaticani, Rome
15
Michelangelo Buonarotti, Sixtine Chapel (ceiling), 1508-1512, Vatican
Michelangelo Buonarotti, Sixtine Chapel (ignudi), 1508-1512, Vatican
16
Michelangelo Buonarotti, Sixtine Chapel (detail of the
Creation of Eva and Ignudi), 1508-1512, Vatican
After Marcantonio Raimondi and Giulio Romano, I Modi, 1524
Michelangelo Buonarotti, The Day, before 1526, New
Sacristiy, San Lorrenzo, Florence
Polydoros, Hagesandros, Athenodoros, Laocoon
Group, c. 50 B. C., Musei Vaticani, Rome
17
18
Giulio Romano, Room of the Giants, 1526-1534, Palazzo Tè, Mantova
Giulio Romano, Palazzo Tè, 1526-1534, Mantova
19
Giulio Romano, Palazzo Té, 1526-1534, Mantoue
Giulio Romano, Portrait of Morel Favorito, 1526-1534, Palazzo Té, Mantova
20
Federico Zuccari, Zuccari Palace, c.1593, Rome
Federico Zuccari, Zuccari Palace, c. 1593, Rome
21
Benvenuto Cellini, Cellar of François Ier, 1543,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienne
Giambologna, The Appenine Mountain, 1569-1581, Pratolino
(villa Medici) near Florence
22
Michelangelo, Tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici, c.
1525, New Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence
Michelangelo, The Night, c.1525, New Sacristy, San
Lorenzo, Florence
Michelangelo, The Day, c.1525, New Sacristy, San
Lorenzo, Florence
23
Michelangelo, The Sunset, c.1525, New Sacristy, San
Lorenzo, Florence
Michelangelo, The Dawn, c. 1525, New Sacristy, San
Lorenzo, Florence
Jacopo Pontormo, Descent of the Cross, 1526-28, Santa
Felicita, Florence
24
Fra Angelico, Descent of the Cross, 1432, Museo San Marco,
Florence
25
Jacopo Pontormo, The Visitation, 1528-29, San
Michele, Carmignano
Jacopo Pontormo, The Christ Judge with the Creation of Eve (Drawing fot the
choir of San Lorenzo church, Florence) and Group of dead people, 1546-56,
Uffizi, Florence
26
« Having then closed off the chapel with walls, hoardings and curtains, and given himself
over to complete solitude, he kept it for the space of eleven years so firmly locked up,
that no living soul except himself ever went in there, neither friends , nor anyone else.
( …) On the other wall is depicted the universal Resurrection of the dead, which is to be
on the last glorious day, with such variety and confusion that the event itself will perhaps
not be more real or, so to say, true to life that Pontormo has painted it (…) But I have
never been able to understand the doctrine of this scene (though I know that Jacopo had
a good mind himself and kept company with learned and well-educated people),
specifically what he meant to signify in that part of the painting where Christ on high his
bringing the dead back to life, while below His feet is God then Father, creating Adam
and Eve. (…) in any place at all did he pay heed to any order of composition, or
measurement, or time, or variety in the faces, or changes in the flesh colours, or, in brief,
to any rule, proportion or law of perspective; and instead, the work is full of nude figures
with an order, design, invention, composition, colouring, and painting done in his own
personal way, with so much melancholy and so little pleasure for the beholder, that I am
resolved, since even I do not understand it though I am painted myself, to let those who
see it judge for themselves. For I truly believe I would drive myself mad to become
embroiled with this painting, just as, it seems to me, in the eleven years he spent on it,
Jacopo sought to embroil himself and whoever looks at it with those extaordinary
figures »
Giorgio Vasari, The Lives, 1568
Rosso Fiorentino, Descent of the Cross, 1521, Pinacoteca
communala, Volterra
27
28
Rosso Fiorentino, Marriage of the Virgin, 1521,
Pinacoteca communala, Volterra
29
Raphaël, The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504, 170 x 117 cm, Pincoteca
Brera, Milan
Rosso Fiorentino, Marriage of the Virgin, 1521, Pinacoteca
communala, Volterra
Parmigianino, Self-portrait, 1523-24, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
30
« Then for Madonna Maria Bufolina ofCittà di Castell, Francesco was
commissioned to paint a panel picture intended to be placed in San Salvatore
del Lauro, in a chapel near to the door; an d in this he painted in the air the
figure of Our Lady who is reading and has the Christ Child between he knees,
while on the ground below he showed, kneeling on one knee, the figure of St
John, who turns his body and points to Christ, in an extraordinarily beautiful
attitude, and also here on earth the foreshortened figure of St Jerome in
Penitence, lying asleep.
But he was prevented from bringing this work to full completion by the sack of
Rome in 1527, which not only for a tme caused the banishment of the arts but
also the taking of the lives of many craftsmen; and Francesco himself came
very near to losing his own life, because when the sach of Rome began he was
so wrapped in his work that even after the soldiers had started to penetrate the
houses and there were already several Germans in his, despite all the uproar
he remained intent on what he was doing. But when they reached him and saw
him at his work, they were thunderstruck at the painting which they saw, and,
like the gentlemen they must have been, let him continue. And so while the
poor city of Rome was being devastated by the impious cruelties of those
barbarian troops, profane and sacred things alike, with no respect to God or
men, Francesco was provided for and greatly honoured by those Germans, and
protected from all harm. »
Parmigianino, Vision of St Jerome, 1527, National Gallery, Londres
31
Raphaël, Madonna of Foligno, 1511-12, Musei Vaticani, Rome
Parmigianino, Vision of St Jerome, 1527, National Gallery, Londres
Michelangelo, Bruges Madonna, Onze Lieve Vrouw Church ,
Bruges
Parmigianino, Vision of St Jerome, 1527, National Gallery, Londres
32
Leonardo da Vinci, St John the Baptist,
1513-16, 69 X 57 cm, Louvre, Paris
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin St Ann and the
Child, 1498-1500, 142 x 104,5 cm, National
Gallery, London
Parmigianino, Vision of St Jerome, 1527, National Gallery, Londres
« And would to God that he had always pursued his studies in painting, and not
indulged in fantasies of solidifying quicksilver to make himself richer than he
had been created by Nature and Heaven! For the n he would have een without
equal in painting, and truly unique. Whereas by seeking for what he could never
find, he wasted time, scorned his art, and did harm to his own life and fame (…)
Finally, still always obsessed by that alchemy of his, like all the others who have
once lost their wits over it, and changing from gentle and fastidious person into
an almost savage man quite different from what he was, with beard and long
straggling locks, he was assailed, in this sorry state of melancholy and
oddness, by a grave fever and dysentry which in a few days made him pass to
another life; and in this way he found an end to the travails of this world, which
was never known to him save as a place full of trials and tribulations (…)
Francesco took delight in playing lute, and his hand and mind were so well
accomodated to this, that he was no less excellent at it than he was in painting.
But it is certainly true that he had not worked capriciously and had put aside the
foolishness of the alchemists, he would truly have been one of the rarest and
most outstanding painters of our age (…) I certainly blame anyone who is
happy to work very little or not at all, and always wastes time on thinking up
schemes, seeing that the wish to use trickery and so attain a goal one cannot
achieve otherwise often causes one to lose what one knows in seeking what
cannot be known. »
Giorgio Vasari, The Lives…, 1568
33
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Self-portrait, 1588, Louvre, Paris
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), The Miracle of the Slave, 1548, Accademia, Venice
34
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Miracle of the Slave, 1548, Accademia, Venise
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Miracle of the Slave, 1548, Accademia, Venise
35
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Miracle of the Slave, 1548, Accademia, Venise
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Miracle of the Slave, 1548,
Accademia, Venise
Michel-Ange, the Sunset, vers 1525, New Sacristy, San
Lorenzo, Florence
36
Raphaël, Sacrifice at Lystra, c. 1515-16, Victoria an Albert
Museum, Londres
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Miracle of the Slave, 1548,
Accademia, Venise
Tintoretto (Jacopo
Robusti), Discovery of
the Body of St Mark,
1562-66, Pinacoteca
Brera, Milan
37
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Translation of the
Body of St Mark, 1562-66, Accademia, Venise
Tintoretto, Massacre of the Innocents, c.1579-81, Scuola di San Rocco, Venise
38
Tintoretto, Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1528-27, Scuola di San Rocco,
Venise
Raphael Sanzio, Fire in the Borgo, c.1514, Vatican, Rome
Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, 1498,
Santa Maria delle Grazie
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Washing of the feet, c.1547, Prado, Madrid
39
Hendrik Goltzius. Icarus, after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem 1588
40