The Scourging of Christ, Giulio Cesare Procaccini Essay

At the crest of the Church of the Gesù in Rome, an aureate burst attracts an equivalent infinity of attention to the infinity of light that it emits. Borne of Italian baroque painter Giovanni Battista “Baciccio” Gaulli, this aureate burst is the center of the illusionistic ceiling fresco Triumph of the Name of Jesus. It is initially unclear what is being beheld, but it demands attention nonetheless. By simultaneously depicting and inciting the spectacle of this aureate burst, Gaulli arouses a discussion of the nature of visual representation and the fundamental role of a viewer. Gaulli asserts his position as an artist and emphasizes the viewer’s duty to an image—and to an artist—by demanding the viewer to include themselves among the enamored

This essay will analyze, The Calling of St Matthews, an oil on canvas painting made between the years of 1599-1600 by the artist, Caravaggio. Descriptive details of this painting will follow, which will allow an in-depth look into the elements and principles of design that are evident in this Caravaggio’s work. The Calling of St Matthew illustrates a religious scene where Jesus initially encounters Saint Matthew.

Janson, H W, Penelope J. E. Davies, and H W. Janson. Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

“Hieronymus Bosch was one of the most fascinating and puzzling artists in history- a unique artistic personality who nonetheless typifies the Renaissance era in the emergence of distinctive personal styles”, in the words of Fred S. Kleiner (257). The painting I chose do my term paper on is titled, The Arrest of Christ. Painted in the year 1515, by the artist Hieronymous Bosch, in oil and tempera on a panel. It currently hangs in the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. The Arrest of Christ painting depicts Christ’s peace transcending his circumstances and the balance between good and evil. In the first part of this paper I will give a formal analysis of the painting

Caravaggio’s, however, was darker and more dramatic. Caravaggio started an intense style called tenebrism. Tenebrism is a more prominent form of chiaroscuro, where there are vehement contrasts between light and dark. Fred Kleiner best describes Caravaggio’s style, “In his art, Caravaggio injected naturalism into both religion and the classics, reducing them to human dramas played out in the harsh and dingy settings of his time and place” (Kleiner, 681). Caravaggio painted during the Italian Baroque in the 1600’s. Italian Baroque artists like Caravaggio embraced theatricality and extravagant ornamentation, while Renaissance artists focused more on precise classical models. Now Caravaggio wasn’t exactly an upstanding member of society, most of what the art world knows about him is through his police reports. Caravaggio’s Entombment was created in 1603 and, like Giotto’s Lamentation, depicts the death of Jesus. While they both depict the same religious scene and use styles that are new for their time, Caravaggio’s painting has some drastic differences from Giotto’s. Caravaggio’s painting is oil painted on canvas, which gives Caravaggio the opportunity to be more detailed in his painting than Giotto can with fresco. Caravaggio creates these intense dramatic scenes of diagonals and intense movement. Unlike Giotto, Caravaggio uses linear perspective to direct his viewer’s attention to the body of Jesus. Caravaggio does this by using a diagonal cascade of mourners descending towards Jesus’ body. Inclusively, Caravaggio started a darker, more dramatic movement that gave naturalism a new realistic element.

The Deposition from the Cross (Entombment of Christ) by Jacopo Pontormo was completed in 1528 and originally resided in the Florence Charterhouse as the main altarpiece. With it’s distinct iconography, the work was intended to show the public the raw suffering of Christ after his sacrifice and how those around him felt at the time of his death. It holds an uplifting and even hopeful tone with it’s “sour” color palette, a stable for the Mannerist movement.

Most forms of Catholic Baroque art are assertive and, as intended, assault ones senses. The evolution of religious art from the uniform composition characteristic of the Italian Renaissance through the evolving Mannerism in to the bold and striking Baroque was striking to say the least. The stylistic changes from Da Vinci's The Last Supper to Tintoretto's version in the 1590's bear a perfect example of this transition. The point of view in Da Vinci's was central and allowed for a

The painting The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist, 1592 (oil on canvas) was created by Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625). It is currently held at the Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, as a gift from Mrs. Forbes Hawkes and Bridgeman Images. This painting is among the unique pious narrative paintings by Anguissola. “The Holy Family” is the last dated painting by the artist. It was executed when she had just returned to Italy after spending 14 years working for King Philip II at the Spanish court. By this time, she had already married to a Genoese ship captain. Her various visits to court and her personal contacts with great painter at that time largely inspired herself. Through these contacts, she successfully stayed in touch with current developments in art. By closely observing this masterpiece, I argue that the artist perfectly sustain the beauty of counter-reformation arts in her work by use of light and shadow, delicate brushwork and accurate proportions of each subjects.

Doney, Malcolm, and Meryl Doney. The Oxford Children's A to Z of Art. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.

The great thing about art, is that there are multiple portrayals of one idea but, the artist’s own personal style allows one to feel something that another may not. Early Renaissance painters, Giotto di Bondone and Duccio di Buoninsegna established their own unique style to depict a biblical scene known as, The Betrayal of Christ. Through a close analysis of each artist’s representation of, The Betrayal of Christ, one is able to compare and contrast the artists own understanding of the scene through their attention to detail, character, and space throughout the painting. When examining these two works, one will have a stronger emotional response towards Giotto’s interpretation rather Duccio’s, due to his methods of handling organization, figures, and space.

Jump up ^ Fred Kleiner (8 January 2009). Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Cengage Learning. pp. 179–. ISBN 0-495-57360-4.

More than simple geometric composition style and use of linear perspective, The Last Supper reflects Da Vinci’s skills in conveying emotions through gestures

The Temptations of Christ, is a gorgeous painting that hangs in the Sistine Chapel today. Its artist, Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter who had many famous works. Botticelli was born to a tanner in the city of Florence around the year 1444. He lived in relative comfort and at the age of fourteen he expressed a passion for painting to his father who helped him gain an apprenticeship with Fra Filippo Lippi. Lippi taught Botticelli many important aspects of art, as outline in one article; “[Lippi was] known especially for his coloring and draftsmanship, he was to exert a lifelong influence on Botticelli’s work. Lippi conveyed enormous human interest in his religious paintings, a characteristic Botticelli emulated” (Rollyson 1). This apprenticeship greatly helped Botticelli learn how to paint and also helped him gain the patronage of

I see this very much in Zurbaran’s paintings of Saint Francis, where the use of chiaroscuro gives it a dramatic effect but not an idealized or unrealistic feel. However, in keeping with the focus of this essay which is the influence new scientific knowledge had in the arts we