SURVEY OF ART: RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT
Virginia C. Raguin        2001 spring       Office  Fenwick 421


LECTURES ASSIGNMENTS and Sample Response   VISUAL COMPARISON from Sample Exam PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENTS SASKIA SLIDE IMAGES

LECTURES
Text: Marilyn Stokstad, Art History Volume Two

Jan. 16  Introduction: Overview of elements of the course.

Jan. 18  Early Renaissance in the North: Chapter 17 (see Merode Altarpiece in the Cloisters with Holy Cross Students)

Jan. 23  Early Renaissance in the Florence Chapter 17

Jan. 25  Renaissance in Florence continued  architecture and perspective studies

Jan. 30  1ST WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER : Printmaking and Leonardo   pp. 674-693

Feb. 1  Michelangelo and Raphael pp. 694-704

Feb. 6. Venetian Painting and Mannerism pp. 706-720

Feb. 8 Renaissance Art of France and Germany: Francis I and Dürer pp. 721-735

Feb. 13 2ND WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER  Baroque painting in Italy  Chapter 19

Feb. 15 Baroque architecture and Bernini, pp. 751-761

Feb. 20 Spanish and Flemish Velázquez, Zurbarán, and Rubens, pp. 776-784

Feb. 22  Review

Feb. 27 EXAM  Essay prepared outside of class.  In class slide comparisons

March 1  College Art Association Meeting No formal class.

March 3-11 SPRING BREAK.

March 13  Dutch Baroque Vermeer, Rembrandt pp. 784-800

March 15 Cantor Gallery Exhibition “Kingdom” ParkeHarrison and Diduk

March 20 18-century art of Fragonard and others pp. 809-814

March 22 3RD WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER American Art

March 27 Neoclassical and Romantic Art Chapter 26

March 29 Neoclassical and Romantic Art Chapter 26

April 3 Neoclassical and Romantic Art Chapter 26

April 5  Class cancelled in order to attend Required Gothic Revival Lecture  7 PM

April 10 4TH WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER Realism to Impressionism  Chapter 27  Eakins

EASTER RECESS April 12-16

April 17  Impressionism  Monet, Manet, Cassatt

April 19 Modernism Chapter 28  Rodin,  Van Gogh,  Cézanne,  Seurat

April 24 Modernism Chapter 28  German Expressionism, Picasso, Pollock

Tuesday April 26  Review of principle issues

ALSO: PIZZA AND PAPERS: 5:30-7:00  PRESENTATION OF DESIGNATED STUDENT PAPERS FROM ART HISTORY COURSES.  KIMBALL CARDS CAN BE CANCELED AND PIZZA DINNER SERVED.  ALL ARE WELCOME

FINAL EXAM   Monday Exam Week  Essays prepared outside of class.  In class slide comparisons
The FOUR PAPERS scheduled for the Worcester Art Museum will be short 3-page responses to selected paintings. It is possible that some of these papers will be done as team assignments, with two students working together.
 The TWO EXAMS will reflect the issues covered in the lectures.  The slides for the exams will be placed on a light board on Fenwick 4th floor for you to review as you study the chapters.

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SURVEY OF ART - RENAISSANCE TO MODERN
PAPER ASSIGNMENTS    SPRING 2001        Virginia C. Raguin        Fenwick 421

FIRST ASSIGNMENT  Due Jan. 30, 2001
Select ONE painting from the four below.  In 2-3 pages (WELL WRITTEN PAGES!) Identify the artist and the context.  Note that many of these paintings are parts of larger works (1/3 of the paper).  Relying on the label on the wall and your text (plus lectures) identify what you think is being conveyed.  What is the purpose of the painting, and what are the structures used by the artist to communicate that meaning?  Feel free to look up issues in The Catholic Encylopedia, The Dictionary of Art, etc.  (Reading Room Dinand)
School of Provence, The Christ of St. Gregory (1938.80) single panel
Pesellino, A Miracle of St. Silvester (1916.12) a predella panel (see illustration  17/47 in Stokstad – predella panels below large image of Adoration of Magi)
Master of the Fogg Pietà, Saint Francis  (1923.19) – side panels of altarpiece
Quentin Massys The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1937.4) – single scene but part of a cycle of eight individual panels representing the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin
 

A Critical Analysis of the Master of the Fogg Pietà’s St. Francis (WAM 1923.19)
 Designed as a side panel to an altarpiece, the painting St. Francis by the Master of the Fogg Pietà benefits by comparison to the St. Phillip painting of the same artist, juxtaposed by St. Francis at the Worcester Art Museum and thought to be a wing of the same polyptych.  The figure is clearly identified by the robes of monastic poverty and the stigmata that Francis exhibited during his life.  Additionally, he holds part of the Epistle from his Mass.  Yet it is by the attention to the character of the saint that the Master of the Fogg Pietà develops from the nascent knowledge of human form of the fourteenth century a credible and spiritual reality.  The hard outline of the body with its narrow eyes and disfigured feet and of the vestments with their stiff folds characterize the hand of this artist.  But he manipulates these resources and thereby implores the viewer to realize and to adopt this grand act of humility.  In personifying St. Francis’s spirituality, he analyzes the composition of his character, simplifies the artistic appearance, and appreciates the value of the painting’s setting. 
         Through the composition of the figure, the Master of the Fogg Pietà establishes in the character an austerity of purpose.  The robes of Francis are strangely cut open to reveal the slash of the sword at the Crucifixion, but by a streak of red paint over the wound, this oddity more than merely identifies the saint.  For the same hue of the water and blood of that wound seals the lips, but on the lips it becomes a reminder of the Eucharist.  Not by Francis's own power does he kiss the leper at his conversion but by the power of Christ living through him.  The artist, then, recapitulates the paradox of suffering as a means to the redeeming luminescence in the golden background.  Indeed, a white cord, symbolic of Francis’s rectitude, binds him to his choice of life and, carrying the eye upwards, it conveys the elevation of a humble man.  More subtly, the impression of the Trinitarian life is borne over the front of the body by the imaginary triangle connected by the wounds at the pierced feet and hand.
         To achieve his design of humility, the Master of the Fogg Pietà reduces all elaboration of color, save what conveys the piety and renunciation of his subject.  Contrasted with a gold background and red floor, the figure almost resembles a monochromatic study of neutral tones.  The artist announces the glory of the St. Philip by adorning him in jeweled robes of green, red, and blue, but the grays of St. Francis suggest that at least there are more depths to this kind of humanity to penetrate.  The physical evocations of Francis's imitation of Christ then proceeds not solely from the stigmata but from the body stripped of all that aspires to reflect the divine.  For the gravity of artistic expression links the difficulties of asceticism with the devotion to the divine and thus echoes the human aspect of Christ's sacrifice.  The effacement of man, however, culminates in the near confusion of the tones of the skin and the color of the robes.  By using a light source from the painting's bottom left, the artist illustrates not the expected alteration of tones from the figure's flesh to his clothing but rather a change of values over a single, gray solid.  Although the practice of not wearing shoes within the orders of Francis objectively explains the dirty feet, the artist manipulates the gradations of color in order to meld a symbol of spiritual dimension, the habit of the friar, with the flesh exposed in Francis's face, hands, feet, and side.
            The relationship between the content of the painting and its position on an altar confers a significance of intensely human interest, because it facilitates the human movement towards the divine.  While by reflecting candlelight the patterned gold background illuminates the painting amid the darkness of the medieval church, the artist subdues the predominating figure of St. Francis by the dullness of its colors, and the figure recedes behind the golden glory that the other saints of the altarpiece might be expected to share.  Moreover, the textured red floor, consistently drawn on the painting of St. Philip, represents a step which, in addition to the altar, mutually elevates the saints.  Yet the toes of Francis's right foot are slightly curled over this ledge, and his knee, bending forward, forms a large fold in the robes, as if he were about to step down from his exaltation and, in a moment of voluntary degradation, sacrifice any honor in order to point out the path to God.  Because St. Francis, as he reads Mass, deigns to approach the men and women of the church community, he mediates as a model of the imitation of Christ and entreats the viewer to internalize the wounds and way of Jesus Christ.
              Achieving an intimacy between St. Francis and God, the Master of the Fogg Pietà further makes it available to the viewer. The path of St. Francis embraces a passion for asceticism, piety, and above all humility that seeks to emulate Christ.  For all the artist's ignorance of the human anatomy, he clearly understands that he can transcend the limitations of the contemporary by interpreting the subject in a meaningful way.  Still, the artist in the tradition of the Florentine School exemplifies the incipient scientist of two-dimensionally rendering a solid mass, noticeably, for example, at St. Francis’s tonsure.  Because, however, a trite approach could not represent a preternatural life in God, the Master of the Fogg Pietà forms his St. Francis into the mystery of Christ’s invitation to inhabit the depths of the human soul. 

 2ND WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER Due Feb. 13
Work in teams of two  - although you can talk to anyone else you want to. Select either portraits of men or of women.   Each of you select ONE painting in the pair. In 2-3 pages (WELL WRITTEN PAGES!) address the figure as a portrait.  Talk to each other and you may even submit a joint paper.  LIST THE NAME OF YOUR PARTNER ON YOUR PAPER.
Think about who these people are – at least to identify them as generic types.  What impresses you about the significance, character, and importance of these persons – enough to make anyone think that there should be a portrait of this person?  That is, what do you “read” from the image?  Why does anyone make or purchase – or display - a portrait?  Are some really portraits?  The crux of the paper, of course, is to define the artistic elements that construct how you think about these issues. Identify (somewhere - about ¼ of the paper) the artist and his artistic context.  Feel free to look up issues in The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Dictionary of Art, etc.  (Reading Room Dinand)

Portraits of Men
Andrea del Sarto Saint John the Baptist (1984.38)
Giovan Battista Moroni Portrait of a Man 1912.60
Portraits of Women
School of Fontainbleau Woman at her Toilette (1923.23)
El Greco, The Repentant Magdalen (1922.5)


Here is a list of the subjects selected (this may change) for the remaining Worcester Art Museum Assignments

3RD WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER Due  March 22

Adriaen van de Venne Winter Landscape with Skaters near a Castel (1951.30)
Baciccio, (Giocanni Batista Gaulli) Vision of Saint Igantius at La Sorta (1974.298)
Jean-Baptiste Pater, The Dance (1942.53)
Piero di Cosimo,  The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus (1937.76)
George Inness, The Alban Hills (1906.1)


4TH WORCESTER ART MUSEUM PAINTING PAPER Due April 10

Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughters (1917.181)
James Peale Still Life (1939.37)
John Singleton Copley John Bours (1908.7)
Anonymous Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary (1963.134)

EXAMPLES OF WORK OF PREVIOUS YEARS

Final Assignment:  Due Thursday May 6, 1999 at 12:00 noon
ART FOR PUBLIC SPACES: COPLEY SQUARE EXHIBIT

You will create an Exhibition for Copley Square.  You may use any building  (Public Library, Trinity Church, Old South Church) or the square itself.  You may also imagine that the commercial buildings on the north have been destroyed and are replaced by another building (of any type: bank, hospital, sports complex, department store, another church, college, etc.) that will be the setting of the exhibition.  You have access to any work of art (from the the Partheon in Athens to the Mona Lisa, to Berninis’s papal Baldacchino, to new stained glass windows, to modern installation art).  Your plan for the exhibit will be written as if you were setting out a proposal to a Board of Trustees or a Funding agency.  Separate your treatment of the issues listed. See both Copley Square and Saskia websites for visual material.

THEME:  State the important ideas represented by your exhibition.  How does it reflects the historic values expressed by the building of Copley Square.  1 page

SETTING: Explain the building site you have chosen and how it relates to the theme of your exhibition.  Explain how this building relates to the other buildings in Copley Square.  What is your target audience and how do you expect them to view the exhibition (for example, after reading in the library, after shopping, etc.?)  Think about how you are designing the exhibition to attract them.

WORKS TO BE EXHIBITED: 10-20 works. List them:  Artist or patron, title, materials, date, location.  This will allow the Grants Agency to understand the breadth of the exhibition.  If the works are from your text, note the illustration number.  You may want Xeroxes.  Talk to us.

FLOOR PLAN: Make a diagram that shows where you will place your works or art.  You need to think about how you expect your viewer to move within this space and how he or she will confront the work of art.  It is possible to scatter the works throughout a building or exterior.

INTERPRETATIVE MATERIAL

Format:  Hand this material in a suitable folder.  Selected projects will be exhibited in Fenwick Four Gallery Corridory

The project can be done singly or in groups.  If in Groups, the writers of different sections must be identified and Each student writes three labels.  We hope that you will consider this project early and we are eager to listen to your ideas and give suggestions.  You can be as modern or as traditional as you want.  We welcome all approaches.  The aim of any exhibition is communication.  Your Funding Agency (Profs. Powers and Raguin) will pay particular attention to how you are selecting and interpreting these objects in the light of your stated purposes.  Does your plan appear to reach its audience therefore merit our support?
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SURVEY OF ART: RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT

BOSTON EXCURSION: SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1999
Leave Holy Cross 11:45 Hogan Lot, return by 5:00  Cost $5.00

Virginia Raguin  Fenwick 407  and   Mary Ann Powers Fenwick 440

Exhibition, Boston College:  Saints and Sinners
The wall text of the exhibition states that during the 17th century images were seen as
effective teachers of ecclesiastical doctrine and history, both to inspire spiritual conversion and devotion and as vehicles of divine grace, to heal the body and mind. Images were considered “even more potent than words because they were believed to imprint material on the viewer’s memories in direct and indelible fashion.”

Select any painting in the exhibition.  In two -three pages explain how you believe that the theme of the image is imprinted on the viewer’s memory in a “direct and indelible fashion.”Paper due Tuesday, March 23; Papers read in class

Your have many choices.  The exhibition is divided into thematic segments.  At the beginning, are juxtapositions: a small-scale meditative image of St. Sebastian healed by an angel, a large scale image of Christ entombed, and a small votive offering - invoking saintly intercession to alleviate the progress of the plague. Individual saints and sinners (sometimes individuals shown as both sinner and saint) follow.
Mary Madgalene
1) Washing Christ’s feet, 2) Meeting Christ just after his resurrection, 3) Listening to her sister Martha and contemplating the course of her life, 4) as penitent
Saint Peter
1) Sleeping during Christ’s agony in the garden before his crucifixion, 2) Condemning Ananias and Sapphira who had tried to cheat the Early Church, 3 Rescued by an angel from prison,
4) Meditating, as an old man.
Saints John the Baptist, Matthew, Sebastian, Francis Xavier, etc.
Representation of Sin: Christ and the Adulterous Woman, Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, Selling of Joseph into Egypt, and the Betrayal of Christ by Judas

COLOR IMAGES of most of the paintings in the exhibit are posted outside the Departmental Office, Visual Arts, Fenwick 431.  A copy of the catalogue is on reserve in Dinand Library.

COPLEY SQUARE:
You will also have about 75 minutes in Copley Square.  See Trinity Church, Boston Public Library, and Old South Church.  Consult Website with images of these buildings; this experience will be an essential element of your final paper in this course.
 (A final paper, you observe, has been substituted for the usual exam).

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 SURVEY OF ART: RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT

FOR EXAM COMPARISONS: List the "label" information (artist, title of work, date, and place) at the top right and left of your paper.  Then IN PARAGRAPH FORM address the content of the comparison. The comparison is designed as a thesis.  Make your points, probably two or three, clearly, but structure the discussion as a dialogue involving both works.  Issues may include artistic concepts of spatial illusion, composition, color, volume, etc. and contextual issues of subject matter, patron, political ideals, placement, and audience, etc.
SAMPLE STUDENT EXAM COMPARISON  10 minutes

Leonardo                                                                                  Caravaggio
St. Anne, Virgin, Christ Child, and John the Baptist         Deposition
c. 1500, Rome                                                                          1603, Rome

Leonardo's St. Anne with the Virgin and Child and Caravaggio's Entombment are similar in their main ideas and their general compositions, yet differ in color and emotional atmosphere.  In both Leonardo's and Carravagio's paintings, the main idea being presented is the close relationship between John the Baptist and John the Evangelist and Jesus. In Leonardo's, as Jesus sits on Mary's lap, he reaches for John the Baptist and blesses him with his two fingers, as John looks up adoringly at him.  They are connected and John knows, even as a baby, the Jesus is the Messiah.  In the Entombment, the relationship of John (the Evangelist) Jesus is also prevalent.  As they stand on the stone of unction, preparing to throw Jesus in to the burial pit, Mary the Virgin and Mary Magdalene are pushed to the background; John is in the foreground with his hands in Jesus' flesh, showing their connection.  The composition of these paintings is also similar.  Both are pyramidal forms, yet Leonardo's is set father back, whereas Carravagio's is in the foreground, encroaching upon the viewer's space as if he/she were in the pit.  In Caravaggio's, the colors and lines are clearer and sharper, whereas those in Leonardo's image are muted and shaded through the technique of sfumato.  The emotions also differ in both. In the Entombment, the facial expressions show anguish and sadness as people embrace Jesus and throw their hands up in the air.  The motion is hectic and almost chaotic. The emotion in Leonardo's image is serene and tranquil, depicting a contented St. Anne, Mary, and John the Baptist, as it depicts their close and loving relationships.  There is far more of a connection between Jesus and Mary in Leonardo's image.

ESSAYS
The best essays show a well thought-out idea, demonstrated by references to specific works of art.  When essays are less convincing, they appear to have been "cobbled together" from bits and pieces of information taken from secondary sources, not worked out with your own analysis of a work of art.  Background information, even descriptions of a painting are not helpful unless they are integrated into your own analysis.