Homework: January 15-21

Your midterm is due on Tuesday, January 17.

Remember to fill in the scantron and write the essays in the space provided.

I am not accepting this late, do not forget it at home!

Wednesday, January 18: Assignment #65

“We can best gauge the extent of this revolution if we compare one of Giotto's frescoes from Padua, with a similar theme in the thirteenth-century miniature. The subject is the mourning over the dead body of Christ, with the Virgin embracing her Son for the last time. In the miniature the artist was not interested in representing the scene as it might have happened. He varied the size of the figures so as to fit them well into the page, and if we try to imagine the space between the figures in the foreground and St John in the background - with Christ and the Virgin in between - we realize how everything is squeezed together, and how little the artist cared about space. It is the same indifference to the real place where the scene is happening which led Nicola Pisano to represent different episodes within one frame. Giotto's method is completely different. Painting, for him, is more than a substitute for the written word. We seem to witness the real event as if it were enacted on a stage. Compare the conventional gesture of the mourning St John in the miniature with the passionate movement of St John in Giotto's painting as he bends forward, his arms extended sideways. If we try here to imagine the distance between the cowering figures in the foreground and St John, we immediately feel that there is air and space between them, and that they can all move. These figures in the foreground show how entirely new Giotto's art was in every respect. We remember that early Christian art had reverted to the old Oriental idea that to tell a story clearly every figure had to be shown completely, almost as was done in Egyptian art. Giotto abandoned these ideas. He did not need such simple devices. He shows us so convincingly how each figure reflects the grief of the tragic scene that we sense the same grief in the cowering figures whose faces are hidden from us." ~ E.H. Grombrich, "The Story of Art":

Giotto di BONDONE
The Mourning of Christ
c. 1305
Fresco
Cappella dell'Arena, Padua

Read this passage above by E.H. Gombrich's critique of Giotto's work.  Based on the writing, describe some ways that Giotto was a special kind of painter.

Compare Giotto’s Lamentation to the Nerezi Lamentation (figure 12-27). Explain the similarities and differences between them.

Explain both the similarities and differences between Cimabue's and Giotto's Virgin and Child Enthroned. (19-6 and 19-7)

Thursday, January 19: Assignment # 66

14^th C. Italian Art

Complete the slide notes.

For each piece of art, fully identify with title, artist, date, and time period. Include at least 3 facts about each piece. Think about its use as propaganda, funerary art, public art, religious art, who commissioned it, why was it made, and what purpose did it serve?

Friday, January 20: Assignment # 67

15^th C. Italian Art

Complete the guided questions

The guided questions deal with pages 573 to 588.

This is an important chapter!