Analyzing Giotto's The Lamentation

Imagine seeing the crucifiction of Christ. Seeing that happen would change everyone’s view of the world. Christ’s crucifiction affected many people, including His mother, Mary. Juan de Juanes, the artist, painted this scene realistically. This painting was made with oil paints on panel with long flowing strokes, which seemed to make it come to life. Juan de Juanes depicts many aspects in this painting such as historical significance, colors, and subject matter.

Giotto di Bondonne created “Lamentation” circa 1305. This piece depicts Jesus Christ removed from the cross as Mary the Virgin embraces Him. There are two figures in the foreground with their backs facing the audience. Dawning a new style of artwork creating a sense of depth. John the Baptist is seen flailing his arms backwards. Body gestures were stiff and stern in comparison to previous works. Bondonne is an early artist in “the revival of the visual arts” by painting a scene to suggest a story (Richards). For example, angels are captured flying in the distance watching the people care for the deceased Jesus Christ. They grieve in unison with the crowd down below. Bondonne successfully creates a feeling of three dimensions by including a cluster of people on the far left tucked away in the corner. The mass of people gathered around to offer praise for His ultimate sacrifice.

The vanishing point of this piece is not arbitrary and it becomes evident that Masaccio’s placement of the vanishing point suggests his intention for the viewer to see the greatness of the divine in comparison to the tiny specs of man’s existence. Because the vanishing point is placed beneath the cross, the spectator’s vision is directed toward the center of the masonry altar, which indicates that man must raise his head in order to pay respect to God, further signifying Gods importance in comparison to man. The Trinity appears very out of reach from the perspectives viewpoint. Masaccio’s manipulation of perspective places the viewer furthest from the divine Trinity and closest to the skeleton, which suggests that man’s mortality is not to be seen as equal to God’s divinity. This demonstrates the hierarchical relationship in which man is constantly looks up to Christ for salvation and piety in order to somehow overcome death and fear of it.

On September 19, 2015 I visited the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, where I observed The Raising of Lazarus by Joachim Wtewael in the European Old Masters gallery. The piece recreates the biblical narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection and demonstrates the exorbitant style of Mannerism popular during the 16th century. Wtewael establishes the significance of the Christ with his application of form through the use of unrealistic contortions of the people, the lines following the exaggerated limbs of the congregation, and the abundant use of the color red on almost every article of clothing.

Upon walking into Gallery 250 of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, one will find on the wall a particularly eye-catching piece of art. The piece, set high on the corner of the wall encompassed by pictures depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, is Giulio Cesare Procaccini's The Scourging of Christ. In this piece, Procaccini's masterful use of light and shadows in a technique called chiaroscuro dramatically portray the torturing of Christ, and it is this very application of chiaroscuro that immediately caught my eye. Through his masterful rendition of value, Procaccini successfully evoked within me a crushing sensation of agony. While I did not initially realize that the piece was one of Christ, research enabled me to witness how

When looking over the fresco The Miracle of the Crib at Greccio at the Church of St. Francis, I think I understand the empathy conveyed in the piece. Throughout the fresco, we can see how the piece shows references that the public could easily understand, to give themselves a feeling of being there in the scene. In the scene, one thing that can be seen first is that while the piece depicts a nativity scene, it’s not the center piece with the scene being displayed on the bottom right corner, with the rest being a depiction of the cathedral which the piece is located from. Another feature is that in the center of the piece which are friars, appear to be singing some form of religious song due to the expressions being similar to those singing

In this paper, I will describe, compare, and contrast two paintings of the same name, The Annunciation by Gerard David and Joos van Cleve. Beginning with Joos van Cleve’s work, we see the virgin Mary kneeling down before an opened book. An illuminated dove with its wings spread is suspended above Mary. An angel is standing beside her, making a gesture. Both figures are inside an ornately decorated, well lit bedroom.

In general, both Giotto’s Lamentation and Caravaggio’s Entombment are idealistic paintings for their times. They both show the artistical achievements for their era by their use of detail and new techniques that are available for them to use within their perspective paintings. These

Aside from linear perspective, Calabrese incorporates other geometrical forms throughout the composition. One is the circle at the foreground of the painting, which Calabrese offers the audience to complete. More outstanding is the triangle that occupies the majority of the space. John’s body, parallel to his staff, begs the viewer to trace the triangle from his eyes, across the woman and the lamb in the foreground, up the staff, and through to his hand. This triangle is significant in its symbolism of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. The message here is clear; through Jesus, the lamb, one will be saved. It is also interesting that Calabrese places John between the lamb and his hand. It coincides with the paintings’ function as an altar piece in that John serves as an intercessor to the Divine. Through him, one has access to Jesus, and therefore God. The geometrical lines and shapes add to the painting’s dynamism and contribute to the optimistic promise the painting conveys.

The subject of religion has captured the attention of artists for centuries, working its way throughout the years, in and out of various of styles and movements. The artists of this era often found themselves reliant on this subject matter due to Churches being a steady Patron throughout the Renaissance all the way to the Baroque period. Whether it was because of the rich cultural impact to society or the enforcement of strong divine beliefs, depicting biblical narratives have struck an everlasting cord within this medium. Two particular ones, in fact: The Deposition from the Cross (Entombment of Christ) by Jacopo Pontormo and The Entombment of Christ by Michelangelo Caravaggio. Both of which provide an excellent example of how culture and artistic style combined can alter the message of the same iconic scene and still evoke different emotions.

An in-depth study reveals mankind’s literal presentation of Mary to God for appraisal and judgment, rather than a simple depiction of her journey upward. The painting illustrates man’s—not God’s—physical act of lifting Mary up, creating a truly dynamic canvas. To do all of this, El Greco uses strong geometric divisions and hidden lines to take control of the viewer’s eyes, and sly manipulations of gravity and forces to create an image truly in motion. In the end, El Greco uses the painting’s overwhelming size and orientation to alter perspective and succeeds in tying the viewer’s fate into the scene itself.

Chiaroscuro is a great technique that artists use to create the illusion of space by using light and dark. Chiaroscuro is a characteristic of Giotto’s Style. He used the same technique to create sculptural mass of figures and deeper space of throne. These paintings definitely have human drama that displays human gestures and emotions. The title of the painting I’m going to describe is Lamentation and it was painted by the artist name Adriaen Van Der Werf in the year 1670-1685. There are three grieving women grouped in the upper left side of Christ body and a man at his head side trying to support his head and neck, while he tries to wrap his body with white linen. There is another man kneeing at his feet and preventing them from falling, while

El Greco’s Lamentation of Christ is “a translation in paint of Michelangelo's late sculptured group of the Pietà in Florence Cathedral, at the time in Rome. The pattern and the feeling are the same. The figures of the Dead Christ, His Mother, Saint Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea make one compact group. Michelangelo achieved this by his new treatment of form; El Greco by paint, by employing broader, more continuous passages of color. The more vivid colors of Rome combine with the richer palette of Venice to convey the intensity of expression demanded by the subject. The horizontal composition of Venice, more suited to a narrative type of subject than to the single image, is given up and is only very rarely found appropriate in Spain. Michelangelo's Pietà group was not the only source on which El Greco drew: the arrangement of Christ's legs and his outspread arms, no less than the idea of viewing one of the two bearers of his body from the side and the other from behind, derive from Michelangelo's drawing for Vittoria Colonna, in which, as in El Greco's painting, the Virgin is placed behind and above Christ.” (Web Gallery of

Leonardo’s scientific studies resulted in the paintings of rocks, plants, light and atmosphere. We can see hills, fields and the sky in the tree windows behind Christ. This is in a classical style, shown by the coffered ceiling which was introduced by ancient Greek and Romans and re-introduced again by Alberti. The orthogonals run from the coffered ceiling, the table and windows and from the disciples and their gestures which all then centres on Christ. The use of foreshortening in this painting is to emphasize the drama of the scene and to keep the figures in harmonious groups. As we can see on the third figure on the right, St Philip tries to deny that he would be the betrayer and to show this, his arm is foreshortened. While St Matthew, the fourth figure on the right, has his arms outflung which was made by foreshortening. This gesture was to help portray his horror, as well as his mouth opened talking to the 3 men to the left of him. There are other gestures that helped depict the idea of betrayal, as we can see on the left side of the painting where St Peter whispers to St. John’s ear while pushing Judas forward. All these gestures lead the viewers’ attention to the centre, where Christ is positioned. Behind Jesus, we can see the window where the natural light comes in which frames Christ’s head, like a halo. Christ’s position in the centre allowed him to be in front of the three windows, which symbolizes the Trinity. As well as that, we can see that he

In this relief, we see it as Christ the child shares the viewer his joy of starting his new adventure as well as praising the purity of Virgin Mary. There are also three angels emerging from the cloud. In the Old Testament, angel’s functions refer to convey God’s will to mankind, which in this relief the angels reminds us of their role as “annunciators (ABRAHAM, 2: The three angels). They were the ones who carried messages from god and annunciated the birth of Christ. They are the witnesses of Christ the child coming to the human world as well as proof of Virgin Mary’s virtue of immaculate. In this relief, they are the guardian of the Virgin and child as well as admirers of Mary’s pure and virgin status. With their hands holding together in prayer, they show their blessings and caring to the mother and son as well as to the human world. In addition, unlike other Virgin Mary we see in churches’ altarpieces that are usually seated on throne, we also have Mary sitting humbly on the ground in this relief. According to Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, there is a popular theme of “Madonna of Humility” which its essential figure is that the Virgin is seated on the ground. The dictionary also states that artists set Virgin Mary on the ground to convey a medieval theology,