Belting
Provide three characteristics of a medieval image (acc. Belting)
1) Presence of the sacred
2) Non-naturalistic
3) Public devotional function
Define naturalism (you knew this was coming).
Some version of: "art in which the formal elements (composition, color, lighting, space, etc) coincide with the elements of the optical experience." (bad paraphrase of David Summers).
Name two strategies by which artists in the late medieval period begin to assert themselves in their works.
1) Initials and/or monograms
2) Likeness with figures inside a work
3) Self-portraiture
4) Statements contextualizing the work's creation (i.e. "Van Eyck made this.")
5) Works expressing the artistic 'state of mind' (Melancholia by Dürer).
Define the medium (woodcut or engraving/etching)
Woodcut! Note the thick lines, overall more schematic appearance, and lack of engraving techniques such as cross-hatching.
Belting sets up an important historical/art historical binary in his last chapter. Restate this binary.
Some version of: “The new presence of the work succeeds the former presence of the sacred in the work." (Belting 459)
Provide three characteristics of an early modern art object (acc. Belting)
1) Presence of the artist (not sacred)
2) Increasing naturalism
3) Art as index of the artist
Name three naturalistic features of the following image:
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/lucca-madonna/YQF1hx5g-8VglQ?hl=en
1) Linear perspective
2) Use of light/shading
3) Modeling of skintone with oil medium
We've come across a Greek term that refers to devotional images in the medieval period. Define 'acheiropoieton '
A Greek term referring to a medieval icon not believed to have been created by human hands. I.e. a work of art created by divine intervention.
Define the medium (woodcut, engraving/etching)
Engraving! Note the fine, painterly lines and use of cross-hatching.
Joseph Koerner's introductory chapter examines one of Dürer's early self-portraits. What are two potential interpretations of the Erlangen image?
1) Birth of new epoch of artistic self-consciousness; artwork becomes index of maker
2) A study in the tradition of 'medieval model books', artist as one object among many.
According to Belting, how is the image below an example of the 'modern' work of art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Gospel_%28Cranach%29#/media/File:GOTHA-cranach-veljo.jpg
1) Includes explanatory text
2) More didactic than devotional
3) Requires viewer to "read" the image
Suggest three potential impacts of heightened naturalism in a devotional image and how.
1) Heightened emotional response
2) Blurring of sacred and profane
3) Make visible the invisible
Medieval conceptions of authorship, authenticity, and reproduction are very different from our own. Name one reading or object that complicates our understanding of the 'authenticity' of a medieval image and how.
1) Areford - scale, likeness, contact with a divine object, and reproduction of holy power enhance the efficacy of a copy and original
2) Powell - a copy existing in a network of other copies sustains its authority as 'authentic'
3) Israel van Meckenem (and many other prints)
Woodcuts, engravings, and etchings fall into one of two categories: intaglio and relief. Which technique falls into which category?
Woodcut - relief
Engraving/etching - intaglio
Turel's argument challenges another author we've read. Restate her thesis and its relationship to Belting's.
Turel considers 'au vif' as a descriptor of images in the period 1350-1550 that indicates 'aliveness' rather than 'from life', meaning that it describes the qualities of the product as being alive rather than the technique of its creation.
Dovetails with Belting in her focus on the 'real presence' of something in art. But she considers secular images while Belting limits himself to sacred ones. Differs in what characterizes the 'modern' image--Belting sees it as the presence of the artist in the art while Turel sees it as a concern for naturalistic rendering of the world.
Name one way in which Koerner might be thought of as responding to Belting.
1) Agree on the epochal nature of the shift
2) Koerner slightly earlier in terms of when this occurs (1490s rather than 1520s)
3) Agree on what defines a modern work of art as opposed to a medieval one
Do a formal analysis of the following image, paying attention to the way that naturalism manifests/functions (or not).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Weyden_Deposition.jpg
1) Heightened emotional impacts due to detailed facial expressions and lifelike nature
2) Naturalistically rendered, contemporary dress blurs the distinction between sacred and profane
3) Non-naturalistic background and 'staging' of figures
Name some ways in which the Jan van Eyck's Vera Icon establishes its authenticity/legitimacy.
1) Presence of the artist (Als Ich Kann)
2) Context of its creation (Jan Eyck made me 1433)
3) Possible self-portrait of van Eyck
4) Replicates formal qualities of acheiropoeton
Conduct a formal analysis of the following print and suggest how it mimics another artistic medium.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/366982
Areford considers printed objects and their relationships with their real-world referents. Restate his thesis in your own words.
Approximately: "This essay explores the referential relationship of early printmaking to other images and objects ... These examples allow us to see early prints as sacred reproductions that assert their special status through authenticating details, inscriptions, and scale."
Name one thing (another reading, object, etc) that challenges the binary that Belting proposes.
1) Turel thesis pushes 'rise of naturalism' to 14th century.
2) Koerner pushes back dating to 1490s
3) Use of naturalism in devotional images much earlier
4) Powell notes that the artist (Rogier van der Weyden) is already making self-conscious statements through his art (Deposition).
Do a formal analysis of the following image, paying attention to the way that naturalism manifests/functions (or not).
https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/Civilization/id/840/
1) Naturalistic foreground juxtaposed with more idealized, supernatural Christ-figure.
2) Non-naturalistically rendered background draws attention to the foreground
3) Stylized drapery and stigmata rendered non-naturalistically to render a holy event scene than a depict a historical event.
Name some ways in which the Byzantine icon (this is an example) derives its devotional authenticity/legitimacy.
1) Recognizability with other 'copies'
2) Recognizability with an archetype/prototype
3) Presumed status as acheiropoeiton
4) Materiality/technique
Conduct a formal analysis of the following print and suggest how it mimics another artistic medium.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336222
Dürer's use of shading in this copperplate engraving enables the depiction of fine muscles and a contraposto pose that mimics stiff classical sculpture (in this case the Apollo Belvedere), heavy use of shading in the background brings the figures to foreground/heightens their 'sculptural' nature.
Powell considers the nature of authorship and reproducibility of devotional objects in the late medieval period. Restate her argument in a few words.
Some variation of: "A mutually sustaining web of relations rather than an association with a single authoritative model established [the validity of medieval devotional works].”