Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498-1499, marble, 68.5
Pietà (noun) A representation of a sorrowful Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus, usually found in sculpture. The most famous example was sculpted by Michelangelo in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres. The Pietà was an unusual … Continue reading
Leon Battista Albert, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1448-1470, Photo by Georges Jansoone via Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License.
Façade (noun) From the French word for “face,” a façade is the front of a building that faces the street where people enter. Leon Battista Alberti’s early Renaissance design for the façade of Santa Maria Novella used many colors of … Continue reading
Federico Barocci, The Nativity, 1597, oil on canvas, 52.75
Working near the end of the Mannerist era, Federico Barocci was given to unusual compositions and colors, as is seen in his Nativity with the steep, diagonal recession into space where Joseph opens the door to let the shepherds into … Continue reading
Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, c. 1535-1540, oil on wood, 85” x 52”, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s not that the Italian artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, a.k.a. Parmigianino, was horribly confused and thought that the baby Jesus suffered from a rare disease that made him the size of a four-year-old child when he was only an … Continue reading
© 2012 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Linear Perspective (noun) A technique for creating an illusion of three-dimensional space in two-dimensional artwork that was invented by Filippo Brunelleschi during the early Italian Renaissance. In a work of art that uses this system to create space, all straight … Continue reading
© 2012 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
We can learn a great deal by looking at the same subject in art as it is represented over time. The similarities and differences speak volumes as to the true intentions of the artist and his or her cultural reality. … Continue reading
Joachim Patinir, St. Jerome in the Desert, c. 1515, oil on panel, 30.7” x 53.9”, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Joachim Patinir created this image just as landscape painting was coming into its own as a separate and distinct subject in art for the first time since the ancient Roman era. This painting by Patinir and others like it really … Continue reading
Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist (the Doni Tondo), c. 1506, tempera on panel, 47 1/2
“Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.” Michelangelo Buonarroti
Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311, tempera on wood, 214 x 412 cm, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Maestà (noun) Italian for “majesty,” a maestà is an image type that depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned with angels surrounding them. Perhaps the best known maestà is by Duccio, who painted the subject for the Siena Cathedral. Duccio’s rendition of … Continue reading
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, c. 1485, tempera on panel, 5'9
Believe it or not, there are different kinds of Venuses. Figures from ancient mythology often have different aspects or characteristics that artists emphasize in art. The Roman goddess Venus, who is also known as Aphrodite in Greek Mythology, represents different … Continue reading
Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Creation of Adam, 1508-1512, detail of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Vatican, Rome, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
This is on the short list of the most famous images in the world. It is a fresco painting, which means that it actually is part of the ceiling itself in the Sistine Chapel. These are only two of more … Continue reading
Giotto, The Nativity, 1305-1306, fresco, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, Italy, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Fresco (noun) Italian word for “fresh,” fresco is a technique of painting in which an artist mixes ground pigments with water and paints them onto wet plaster. Giotto’s beautifully expressive fresco paintings are actually part of the wall of the … Continue reading