Masaccios The Tribute Money

The citizens of Siena were not alone in their high regards of St. Mary. Duccio includes his signature of praise in the base of the Virgin’s throne: “Holy Mother of God, be the cause of peace to Siena, and of life to Duccio because he has painted you thus.” Duccio used his talent as a type of praise, painting as a form of worship. He hoped for the favor of his patron saint in return for the labor expended in creation of the Maestà.

Gorgeously. Striking. Grace. The golden painting is taking up by the two most iconic symbols of Christianity: Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. Christ gently placing a golden grown on the inclined head of the Virgin Mary, who is sitting on the right side of Jesus; her hands crossed over her chest symbolist of humble, reverent and loyalty. This position was purposely set by Fabriano. In Christianity art, position is significant in dividing between good manners and malefactors. For instance, in The Last Judgment by Giotto di Bondone in 1305, heaven was placed on right of Christ, and hell was on the left. This ideology was clearly stated in the bible “...before him shall be gathered all nations:

Created in 1489 this masterpiece is made out of pure marble. This sculpture is located in the Vatican City. At first glance this sculpture looks like child dead in a mother's arms, which is correct but there is more too it. The sculpture represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Its shows his mother Mary holding him and he lays there dead. A very little detail that usually goes unnoticed is that Mary is not touching her son directly, but a cloth is between the two. This signifies the Higher Renaissance belief in Neoplatonic, that the beauty on earth signifies God's beauty. This masterpiece is not only amazing by the meaning but the glorious detail that Michelangelo was able to go into with practically a hammer and chisel.

Paolo de Matteis’s esteemed work The Adoration of the Shepherds is a large painting, depicting a classic Christian Nativity scene, that is displayed in the Dallas Museum of Art. In the piece, a dozen or so individuals surround the newborn Christ and his parents, gazing at him in admiration and paying him homage while animals look serenely on and angels assemble around the heads of the Holy Family. The artist employs several classic artistic elements in his painting, such as line, light, color, and shape, to draw the viewer’s focus directly to his intended point of emphasis, the infant Jesus.

* Masaccio –Tribute Money/ Expulsion in the [and Masolono, Filippino Lippi] Brancacci Chapel; Trinity with Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors

In this painting, he is being accused by the woman to the soldier. Caravaggio portrays the story of the Denial of St. Peter, as told in all four Gospels (Matthew, John, Luke, Mark) of the Bible. When Jesus was arrested, he prophesied that Peter, his disciple would denounce his name

“From prostitute to sibyl to mystic to celibate nun to passive helpmeet to feminist icon to the matriarch of divinity’s secret dynasty.” (James Carroll “Who is Mary Magdalene”) What we know for sure is that Mary Magdalene was a former sinner that became a leading figure in Jesus’ followers. She stayed by Jesus’ side, to the end, she visited him at his tomb, and was the first person that Jesus “appeared after his resurrection and the first to preach the “Good News” of that miracle.” During the time period of this painting Mary Magdalene, a sinner and prostitute, illustrated “the very essence of spiritual conversion.” (Ebert-Schifferer 63) It’s no stretch to say that the painting is meant to show the moment at which Mary changes her ways, and becomes “married to the word of god”. The conversion of Mary was a new concept to Rome, The book “Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work” claims that this painting is the first to depict it.

Within each artist’s painting, is a major scene within the Betrayal of Christ known as, The Pact of Judas. This biblical story, is about one of Jesus’s twelve disciples, Judas, who agrees to give up Jesus for thirty silver coins. The chief priests, agree to pay Judas and decide that the night before his crucifixion Judas would kiss Jesus so authorities could recognize him out of the large crowd (King James, Matthew: 26). Once Judas realized, that Jesus was sentenced to die due to his actions, he was remorseful and tried to return the coins to the priests and eventually hung himself, due to his guilt (King James, Matthew: 26). Giotto and Duccio each painted their own representations, of Judas receiving the thirty

Giovanni Bellini, (born c. 1430, Venice [Italy]—died 1516, Venice), Italian painter who, in his work, reflects the increasing interest of the Venetian artistic milieu in the stylistic innovations and concerns of the Renaissance (metmuseum). Bellini was one of the most influential Venetian artists. He lived and worked in Venice all his life; his career spanned 65 years. Little is known about Bellini’s family. Bellini’s father, Jacopo, a painter was a pupil of the Gentile da Fabriano, in any case, Jacopo introduced the principles of the Florentine Renaissance to Venice before either of his sons (Britannica). Jacopo strove to ensure that his sons would become distinguished painters as well and, it is said, often pitted them each other.

Time: A great example of time and a frozen moment of time within a work of art is Masaccio’s “Tribute Money”. In this painting, created for the Brancacci Chapel, we see everything have a frozen moment, where there’s Peter motionless at the lake, the apostles (including Peter) and Jesus in the middle of the painting motionless in movement, and finally Peter is shown again to the right motionless. So this painting shows a frozen scene, but in the further concept of time, we see that this painting shows three scenes at three different moments of time. The story is that in the middle scene a tax collector comes for taxes from Jesus and his apostles so we see Jesus asking Peter to go the the lake where a fish will come to him with money within it’s

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

The piece of art is a statue that portrays Jesus’ body laying on his mother Mary’s laps at the time after the crucifixion having been removed from the cross (Lewis & Lewis, 2008) which is evidenced by the marks of small nails and the indication of the wound located in Jesus’ side. It revolves around the major theme of Northern origin which during that time was present in France but not in Italy. According to (St. Peters Basilica, 2009) Michelangelo offered a unique interpretation of the pieta to the models since it is a significant piece of work that balances the ideals of a new beginning incorporated in typical beauty and a touch of naturalism which is illustrated by the relationship exhibited by the figures. This is made possible by his skill to prove to both the viewers and himself of the supernatural beauty.

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

Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was the full name of the famous artist we all call by just his first name Michelangelo. Michelangelo was born on March 6th, 1475 in Caprese, Italy and lived with his parents and four siblings. Michelangelo's mother became sick when he was an infant and he was raised by a wet nurse. In Michelangelo's teen years he would leave school early and go to the church to watch the painted while they worked; his family started to see him as a disgrace as they didn’t see art as a profession he should join(Michelangelo). As he became older he worked more and more with stone over any other type of art and made

Masaccio was not named among the painters ‘who have been illustrious in our age’ in Fazio’s De viris illustribus. Nor was Masaccio included among ‘the best masters who have existed for a good while back’ in the list of artists by whom the Florentine merchant Giovanni Rucellai owned works in c. 1470. This omission, however, presumably reflected the difficulty of acquiring panel paintings by Masaccio, which inevitably have always been rare, rather than an opinion that Masaccio was not one of ‘the best masters’ (Ahl 158).