The Enlightened Philistine

Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860

The most renowned figure in American Art in this period, Church’s enigmatic work utilizes his trademark luminism and meticulous detail to depict the essence of God in the American wilderness and perhaps the uncertain times ahead for his country.  A member of the Hudson River School and the only student of Thomas Cole, Church combined Cole’s epic vision with an interest in meticulous detail to create this vast panorama as poetic expression.  Here, Chruch does not depict a specific place but rather vast undeveloped American wilderness.  It was common of church and others of this time to believe the vast wonders of nature contained the essence of God.  Additional symbolism can be suggested as the sky bears a resemblance to the American flag.  Painted on the eve of the Civil War, it may represent the uncertain times facing the country and the ongoing debated of slave vs. free states and expansionists vs. preservationists.  Hudson River school artists often included Northern values in their paintings, however this one may speak to the impending misfortune of the imminent civil war.

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836

An early example of American Romantic Landscape apinting, Cole presents his “improved” landscape presenting America’s “history” aka – nature.  Cole is considered the founder of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters – a school that established a quintessential American style.  Cole helped raise the status of landscape paintings, his style falling between the imaginative of Friedrich & Turner and the earthiness of Constable.  Painted for an exhibition at the academy of design in New York, Cole shows a panoramic view from the top of Mt. Holyoke out onto a bend in the Connecticut river,  Believing that too much detail could ruin a painting, Cole painted his exaggerated landscape from a series of sketches.  This vast landscape is America’s antiquities – not the ruins of ancient Rome.  The storm is dissipating, giving way to a pastoral valley and encroaching civilization.  This could perhaps reflect the idea of manifest destiny gripping Americans.  The old and new growth show the cycle of death and regeneration.  Cole paints himself into the work at his easel, a dot of red drawing the eye as he looks back at the viewer, inviting the viewer into the work itself.

Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi painting Sofonisba Anguissola, Late 1550s

Sofonisba’s clever self-portrait shows her assertion of her artistic genius in the face of partriarchal society.  One of the few female Renaissance artists, this work is a portrait of herself being painted by her teacher Bernardino Campi.  She was born to a noble family who took a keen interest in educating their daughters.  Conscious of her patriarchial society, Sofonisba is consciously collapsing the subject-object position.  A peculiar conflation of the subject and obeject that befell women artists, Sofonisba asserts herself as the artist (subject) but also a model for the male aritst (object) subverting a common situation, Sofonisba asserts her superiority by showing Campi relying on a mahlstick.  Additionally she renders Campi more realistically than he does her.  To further the point, Campi has painted her with a little more revealing neckline than she typically shows in her other self portraits.  Psychologically engaging, Sofonisba’s skill did not go unnoticed as she achieved international renown and was lauded by Vasari.  Because she could not study anatomy, Sofonisba used subjects that were available to her, but has advanced beyond simple self-portraits creating this complex work which creates a rapport with the viewer.

Andrea Palladio, Villa Barbaro, Maser, 1550’s

Palladio’s High Renaissance villa outside Venice highlights his versatility in developing a classically inspried villa that caters to his clients needs.  Located in the Veneto, perhaps a reaction against the Venetian Empire’s conflict with the pope (the Barbaro’s were allies of the papacy), Palladio’s rigorously symmetrical villa presents a new development in residential architecture.  Palladio has used a temple front when building a house.  Daniele Barbaro was a Vitruvius scholar and humanist and as such they applied Vitruvian teachings to residential architecture, by approaching Roman/Classical temple architecture, Palladio is breaking new ground.  A small working farm, the central living area was balanced with extending wings.  A natural spring irrigated the farm, running through the house into the kitchen and even supplying a semicircular nymphaeum.  Consulting other ancient texts, Palladio sought to recreat a triclinium described by Pliny the Younger.  The entire villa was frescoed by Veronese.  Palladio’s new architectural style, his versatility in appropriating classical elements for residential structures would influence residential architecture throughout the western world.

Michelangelo Buonarotti, Laurentian Library, S. Lorenzo, Florence, 1524-1534, staircase, 1559

Built in Michelangelo’s Mannerist architectural style, the Laurentian Library made the Medici library public, an attempt to establish themselves as intellectuals.  Attached to the Florentine Church of San Lorenzo, the Medici Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to build this library.  The library is most notable for its tall constricted vestibule, which contains a massive staircase heading to the main, narrow reading room.  The horizontal reading room contrasts strongly with the verticality of the vestibule.  While one might consider the reading room rational in comparison to the vestibule, it lacks a focus and thus appears to continue on and on.  The vestibule is a great example of Mannerist Architecture, using pietra serena typical of Florence, Michelangelo uses classical elements but confounds them, creating blind windows and multifaceted corners.  He is using an exterior architectural vocabulary on the interior.  The staircase spills into the viewers space adding to the claustrophobia, leading the viewer’s eye to the reading room entrance.  All together the vestibule creates an other worldly space, surprising the viewer and preparing them to enter the library, cognizant that they have left the bustling street behind them for the literary realm.

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican, Rome, 1508-1512

Commissioned by Pope Julius II, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling established a powerful new style in the High Renaissance and produced some of the most visually striking biblical scenes of any era.  Part of Julius' array of artistic commissions, he pried the prickly artist away from sculpting the Pope's (his own) tomb to repaint the ceiling which supposedly had cracked.  The original plan had been comparatively modest, but Michelangelo demanded he have free reign.  We see this through the generous inclusion of ignudi - strewn about the architectural framework which was not intended to fool the eye.  Additionally, prophets and sibyls replaced the 12 apostles who were included in the original plan.  Ancestors of Christ were placed in the architectural lunettes.  The main narrative program was the story of genesis, starting with the creation over the altar and ending with the drunkenness of Noah. The powerful scene of the creation of Adam contrasts with the more detailed scenes completed earlier, a product of the realization that they were too detailed to be seen properly from below.  The monumental undertaking shows the origin of Michelangelo's drift toward Mannerism with bright colors and exaggerated forms.

- The program flows from divine to flawed humans, i.e. creation -> drunk Noah (aka parishioners are underneath the human scenes, priests under the divine)

-Synthesis of pagan and religious (typical Julius II)

-"Painted architecture" "painted sculpture"

-Not trying to trick eye, a la trompe l'oeil  of Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi

Raphael, School of Athens, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican, Rome, 1510-1511

Raphael's painting shows the culmination of High Renaissance formal and spatial harmony, its rational design reflecting the encyclopedic summation of Western thought created by the figures depicted.  Decorating Julius II's papal library, the program reflected the pope's humanist interests, each wall a different subject: music, poetry, theology and philosophy.  Depicting philosophy here, Raphael includes the most influential figures in Western philosophy - specifically Plato and Aristotle in the center.  They walk towards the viewer and towards the wall of theology, the Disputa- two pagans walking towards Christ.  Raphael paints an architectural frame, easing the transition from real space to illusionistic space and placing the figures in a idealized architectural setting, perhaps alluding to what the New St. Peters Basilica was to look like.  The clear, rational, perspectival space and modeled naturalistic figures suggest an arrival at truth through reason.  A part of Julius' remaking of Rome, Raphael's most important commission celebrations the great pagan intellectuals reflecting his humanist pursuits but suggesting their potentiality towards Christianity.

Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long Neck, 1534-1540

Parmigianino's unfinished painting of the Madonna is representative of the post-High Renaissance style calledMannerism, a reaction against the rationalism of the High Renaissance. Commissioned by Helena Baiardo, the work features a drastically uneven composition - the sensual Madonna pushed up against the picture plane, flanked by a crowd of angels on one side and a great recession of space on the other.  An unsettling take on a well-known subject, the bloated Christ child recalls thepietain his pose, foreshadowing his eventual death.  The erotic aloof virgin queen rests her foot on a pillow to be kissed creating an idolatrous relationship with the viewer.  An opposing view could perhaps be taken that earthly devotion to the Virgin is a stepping stone to eternal life.  The Madonna is idealized in a manner described by Firenzuolo, comparing a woman to a vase.  A long neck, small breasts, thin fingers, high arch - all characteristics seen in Parmigianino's Madonna.  The eroticism of the work caught the wrath of the Council of Trent and the subsequent counter-reformation, which decreed that religious imagery must be straightforward and conservative.

Further notes:

-Exquisitely contrived beauty

-A simile found in medieval hymns to the virgin that likened her neck to an ivory tower

-engorged nipples = nourish the faithful

-perspectival diminution

Donato Bramante, Plan for New St. Peters, 1506

The centerpiece of Pope Julius II's transformation of the Church to rival Ancient Rome, New St. Peters was initially designed by the consummate High Renaissance Architect, Bramante.  Replacing Constantine's venerated 4th century basilica, Bramante's new structure was built to rival the Pantheon.  Bramante's plan would go unrealized outside of the area around the dome of present day St. Peters.  Still built over the tomb of St. Peter, Bramante maintained a central plan of a martyrium, yet grew it to epic proportions, marrying antiquity and Christianity.  Centrally planned and crowned by a dome, it was the perfect expression of God, with man being the measure of all things.  The proportions of which were influenced by Vitruvious and the dome included in that it was the cosmological symbol of heaven.  While an ideal plan, it was no particularly practical for Christian practice.  The most ambitious of Julius II's early plans, he saw his new St. Peter's as the new Pantheon, establishing himself as a present day Constantine.  The overall schematics show the unity and harmony inherent in High Renaissance architecture.  St. Peter's would only finally be realized in the Baroque period but the underlying reasons and means by which its construction began helped to usher in the Protestant Reformation.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503

One of the most enigmatic works in the history of art, and so popular for non-artistic reasons, Da Vinci's portrait nonetheless transformed the genre of Renaissance portraiture from icon of status to a representation of a person fully engaged with the viewer.  Though Leonardo held on to this portrait for his entire life, the Mona Lisa is purportedly a the wife of Francesco del Giaconda.  Leonardo enigmatically chose to show her absent of the wealth typical of a noblewoman of her stature.  Instead, through the softening of forms through his sfumato technique, and setting her on a balcony, Leonardo subordinated his details into a unified image of a human being.  New in Italy, Leonardo integrated the viewer and atmosphere as never before, focusing so closely on the sitter in a half length work, implying full length.  Through the Mona Lisa's cool direct gaze and infamous smile, Da Vinci imbues her with sprezzatura, and creating a new relationship between viewer and sitter.  Da Vinci's softening sfumato allows him to achieve sculptural volume and his control of color highlights his virtuoso techniqure.  The overall portrait format would prove to be a watershed moment in Italian Renaissance Portraiture, proving that the Mona Lisa's fame was not only born through its unusual history.

Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece, Late 1470s

Bellini, one of the first Renaissance Painters in Venice is noted as such because of this work - which features proportional figures shown in illusionistic space - not just inhabiting the space in front of the architecture.  Bellini's scene is a sacra conversazione, a very popular altarpiece subject, this one depicts an enthroned Madonna flanked by St. Sebastian and St Job in addition to churchmen.  Bellini was likely influence by Antonello da Messina's sacra conversazionedone in 1475.  Bellini's work shows the increased interest in illusionism at this time - working in oil paint to achieve such effects - this was likely due to his proximity to Northern Europe and the innovations of Jan Van Eyck.  Bellini's most impressive ability is his capturing the refraction of light in a realistic manner.  Additionally, the scene is rendered in a dramatic perspectival view up into the vaulted apse, with the figures realistically proportioned in relation to the space.  Bellini used the altarpiece frame to coordinate with the architecture, furthering the realism.  The raised hand of the Madonna beckons the viewer to enter the niche which the figures inhabit.  Bellini has decorated his apse with gold mosaic, possibly a reference to St. Marks  

Taj Mahal, Agra, India, 1632-47

A dynastic monument built for Mumtaz Mahal, favorite wife of Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal has become one of the best known buildings in Islamic Architecture and a symbol of India (which of course is primarily Hindu).  The entire complex is a symbolic appropriation of the land and public declaration of the wealth, power and lineage of the Mughal Dynasty.  Mumtz's tomb, a 4 portal-ed chartaqrecalls Humayun's tomb at Delhi.  Set in a charbagh, the form of the garden has paradisical connotations while the main garden pavilion represents the throne of God on earth.  The symbolism is furthered by the great pietra dura decoration (at it's apogee here), slender arabesques and extensive inscriptions of the Koran, which explains that this is the throne of God above the gardens of paradise on Judgement Day.  The complex belies many influences, the Ottoman, Persian and Timurid to complement the Persian reliance on masonry.  The groundplan is Timurid in nature illustrating their stylistic influence in India.  The use of white marble contrasts greatly with the surrounding red brick buildings, its symmetrical dome form creating a fantastic monument to the Mughal dynasty at its zenith.

Great Mosque of Isfahan, Isfahan Iran, 11-17th Centuries

Maqsud of Kashan, Carpet from the Funerary Mosque of Shaykh Safi al-Din, Ardabil, Iran, 1540

Commonly referred to as the Ardabil Carpet, this carpets purchase by the Victoria & Albert Museum helped establish Islamic carpets as an art historical topic of study.  The carpet is one of only three signed and dated carpets from the Safavid period in Iran.  The 25 million knot carpet utilized a woolen pile and silk warp and weft.  Created under the reign of Shah Tahmasp, the great patron of the arts, it was likely mean for the shrine of Safi-al Din, the Suffi Shahyk and founder of the Safavid dynasty.  One major indication of its suggested placement is the lack of figural imagery which a secular piece would have had.  It also has a couple inscribed in it, by the 14th century poet Hafiz, referring to a threshold, likely a shrine.  The design, from which a cartoon was made, is the vault of heaven reflected on a pool of lotus blossoms.  The sunburst light and lamps signify the presence of God.  Also believed to be part of a pair, Maqsud's famous textile helped establish Islamic carpets as a true artistic practice in the eyes of the West.

Sultan Muhammad, Court of Gayumars, detail of folio 20 verso of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, Tabriz, Iran 1525-35

Created for Shah Thamasp of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, this Shahnama was unique in that it featured the Tabriz/Turkamen style of Sultan Muhammad as well as the Heratii style of Behzad.  Though the style would eventually blend,  Tahmasp's manuscript shows the parallel styles side-by-side yet stylistically independent, a pivotal moment in Persian miniature painting.  This specific work, the first painting in the narrative exhibits the culmination and perfection of Sultan Muhammad's Turkmen inspired Tabriz style.  In his wild, colorful and organic style, Sultan Muammad depicts the Court of Gayumars, the first Persian king.  His courtiers wear various animal skins, for this is the moment when he taught man to wear clothes.  Sultan Muhammad includes hallucinogenic forms, hundreds of small faces, dot the landscape.  This miniature painting was highly regarded for it was the only miniature specifically referred to in Dost Muhammad;s history of Persian painting from 1546.  He called Sultan Muhammad the "zenith of the age."

-The courtiers are all distinguishable by gesture and face

-King fittingly at the apex of the composition

-Most brilliant painting in the manuscript

Kamal al-Din Behzad, The Caliph Harun al Rashid visits the Turkish Bath, from copy of 12th century Khamsa of Nizami, Herat, Afghanistan 1494

Working in the Timurid court of Husayun, this work represents Behzad's early artistic style, the remarkable work is a lively genre scene, a departure from the more staid subject matter that was typical in the Imperial court.  The well-known court painter worked in the artistic center of Herat and exhibited many Herati characteristics including his scene being refined, geometric and spatially organized.  Rather than Imperial imagery like that seen under Shah Ruhk, Behzad's illustration in a book of poetry shows the caliph in disguise going to a comman hammam to listen to gossip.  The lively vignette is a genre scene showing daily life - new for its time.  While superimposed imagery is still present, the subjects depart from traditional Timurid Imperial and iconic imagery.  Behzad is not looking for naturalism in representation but rather trying his best to achieve verisimilitude through motion and space, creating a temporal context for the image.  Typical of Behzad, he strikes a great balance between the activity of his subjects and the depiction of the architecture they inhabit.