Italian painter and member of the Fontainebleau School of artists working for kings Francis I and Henry II of France. A native of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, Niccolò dell’ Abbate received his training from Modenese sculptor Antonio Begarelli. In his early career, he was influenced by Emilian artists Dosso Dossi and Il Garofalo, both active at the Ferrarese court of the d’Este dukes. Abbate mainly adopted the porcelain-like quality of the figures and deep pigmentation used by these masters. During these years, Abbate created mainly frieze-like compositions depicting secular and mythological subjects. Examples include the decorations in the Palazzo dei Beccherie (1537; with Alberto Fontana), which are now only extant in fragments, the frescoes in the Rocca at Scandiano (early 1540s; removed, now in the Galleria Estense) depicting a courtly musical concert, and those in the Rocca dei Meli Lupi at Soragna (c. 1540–1543) showing scenes from the myth of Hercules.
Abbate’s Martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul (1547) for the Church of San Pietro in Modena established his reputation as a master of note. In 1548, he moved to Bologna, and there his style changed due to his exposure to the works of Correggio and Parmigianino. Most of the paintings he executed during his stay in Bologna were landscapes and courtly scenes. His most notable commissions of this period in his career are the decoration of the Palazzo Poggi (c. 1550) with scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid and the frescoed images from Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso in the ducal palace at Sassuolo. In 1552, Abbate moved to France, working at the Palace of Fontainebleau under the direction of Francesco Primaticcio. In France, he continued rendering landscapes, for example, the Rape of Proserpina (c. 1570), now at the Louvre in Paris. This work includes elongated figures in varied complex poses. The violence of the event is enhanced by the agitated draperies and the figures’ overstated gestures. The heavy, stormy clouds further enhance the emotive content of the scene. Many of the landscapes Abbate rendered during this time were burned in 1643, for their pagan content, by Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV. These images are important to the history of landscape painting and were to later influence the works in that genre executed by Baroque masters Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin.
Founded in Rome in 1593, the Accademia di San Luca was an association of artists dedicated to St. Luke, believed to have painted the true portrait of the Virgin Mary. It replaced the medieval Guild of Painters, Miniaturists, and Embroiderers, which by now had become antiquated. Its establishment was inspired by the Accademia del Disegno, founded in Florence in 1563, under the protection of Cosimo I de’ Medici. In turn, the Accademia di San Luca inspired the establishment of the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648. The purpose of the Accademia was to provide artists with instruction and regulate standards. The educational curriculum it offered included classes in perspective, foreshortening, anatomy, and drawing from both the nude and plaster casts taken from ancient statuary. It also became a place for artists to gather and discuss art theory. It was here that Pietro da Cortona and Andrea Sacchi debated on the proper depiction of history scenes in the 1630s.
The magi were three kings who followed the star of Bethlehem, which led them to the newborn Christ, for whom they brought the gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold. In the Church calendar, this event, the Feast of the Epiphany, is celebrated each year on 6 January. Images of the adoration of the magi have a long history that dates back to the Early Christian era, when these men were depicted in Roman catacombs as Mithraic astrologers. In the medieval period, they came to represent the three known continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, hence their depiction as ethnic figures from each of these areas. For artists of the Renaissance, the depiction of the adoration of the magi presented an opportunity to demonstrate their skill in rendering crowded scenes in a coherent manner. Gentile da Fabriano’s rendition (1423; Florence, Uffizi) is a courtly scene of the International Style. Benozzo Gozzoli (c. 1549; Florence, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) and Sandro Botticelli’s (early 1470s; Florence, Uffizi) works make sociopolitical statements relating to the Medici, while Leonardo da Vinci’s rendition (1481; Florence, Uffizi) captures the frenzy of the magi as they try to get close to the newborn Christ Child.
Written by Virgil, a Latin epic poem that tells the story of Aeneas, the hero who established the Latin race. When the Greeks burned Troy to the ground, Aeneas sailed for Italy. Juno sent a storm that veered him to Carthage, where, thanks to Venus’s intervention, he was welcomed by Dido, the Phoenician princess. Dido and Aeneas fell in love and lived together until Aeneas was reminded by the gods of his mission. Aeneas departed, and Dido committed suicide. The hero stopped in Sicily and then Cumea. In this last locale, he was granted access to the underworld, where he met Dido, his father Anchises, and other individuals from his past. Seeing the future of Rome and its heroes, and gaining a new understanding of his mission, Aeneas continued his voyage and landed at the mouth of the Tiber River. Upon his arrival, he was welcomed by King Latinus, who promised the hand of Lavinia, his daughter, to the story’s hero. Since she was already betrothed to Rutilian prince Turnus, war ensued. With the assistance of neighboring tribes, Aeneas defeated Turnus, married Lavinia, and established Lavinium, which he named after his bride.
The Aeneid was among the sources used by patrons and artists to render historical and mythical scenes. One of those scenes is Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius Fleeing Troy, depicted by Federico Barocci in a painting (1598; Rome, Galleria Borghese), as well as Agostino Carracci in an engraving based on Barocci’s rendering (1595; New York Metropolitan Museum) and Gian Lorenzo Bernini in sculpture (1618–1619; Rome, Galleria Borghese).
Netherlandish painter who specialized in genre scenes. Aertsen was a pupil of Allart Claesz who became a member of the Antwerp guild in 1535. In 1563, he left Antwerp and is listed in documents as a citizen of Amsterdam, where he remained until his death in 1575. His best-known work is the Butcher Shop (1551; Uppsala, University Collection), which shows the flight into Egypt in the distant landscape, seen behind the meats displayed in the foreground. The still life, in Renaissance art usually an incidental element, is here given the greatest prominence, while the religious scene is relegated to a secondary placement. Two fish on a platter in the foreground that form a cross, however, have been read as references to Christ’s future sacrifice and thus tie the still life to the background scene. The animal carcass suspended in the distance, as if hanging from a cross, overseen by two male and two female figures, has also been viewed as reference to the Crucifixion.
An event that took place the night before Christ was arrested by Roman soldiers and submitted to the Crucifixion. Christ went to the garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John. His disciples fell asleep, and he, tormented by his future death, began to pray. An angel appeared to him to give him strength, and by the time the night was over, Christ had accepted his fate. The scene was rendered by Andrea Mantegna (mid-1450s; London; National Gallery), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1460; London; National Gallery), and Albrecht Altdorfer (1515; Monastery of Sankt-Florian near Linz) at daybreak, this last with brilliant lighting effects that render the sky orange-red. El Greco (1605–1610; Budapest, Szepmuveseti Muzeum) and Jan Gossart (1510; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) preferred to depict the moment as a nocturnal scene.
Secretary to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Clement VIII’s nephew. In 1621, Giovanni Battista Agucchi also became secretary to Pope Gregory XV, like Agucchi, a native of Bologna. In c. 1607–1615, Agucchi wrote a treatise on painting, perhaps jointly with Domenichino. In it, he expresses that art that idealizes nature, like that of Raphael and Annibale Carracci, is meant for a sophisticated, erudite audience, while the naturalist mode, which dwells on the imperfect, represented by Caravaggio, caters to the common, uninformed viewer. For him, Caravaggio and the Mannerists, whose art he qualified as barbaric, had deserted the idea of beauty that artists must formulate in their minds to render a more perfect scene than nature. Agucchi’s work proved to be greatly influential in Giovan Pietro Bellori’s theoretical writings on art. Bellori’s adulation of Annibale Carracci as the one who restored art to its former Renaissance glory and his Neoplatonic concept that artists must improve upon an imperfect nature by rendering it not as it is, but as it ought to be are concepts he borrowed from Agucchi.
One of the members of the Carracci School, Albani achieved great fame during his lifetime and well into the 18th century, especially in France, where his idyllic landscapes were well admired. He began his training in Bologna with Flemish master Denys Calvaert but later moved to the Carracci Academy to study under Ludovico Carracci. In 1601, he moved to Rome, where he lived with Guido Reni and acted as assistant to Ludovico’s brother, Annibale Carracci. Albani returned to Bologna in 1617, and there he ran a successful workshop until his death. One of his most successful compositions is the Triumph of Diana (c. 1618; Rome, Galleria Borghese), part of a series of four pictures commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a work with dainty figures in elegant poses set against a lush landscape. These types of images by Albani were influential in the development of French Rococo painting.
After Filippo Brunelleschi’s death in 1446, Alberti became the leading architect of the Renaissance. He was born into a noble family that had been exiled from Florence in 1402, and was educated in the universities of Padua and Bologna, where he studied law. He is known to have traveled extensively, visiting different cities in Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. In 1432, Alberti became an apostolic abbreviator at the Vatican, which gave him the opportunity to study the ancient ruins of Rome. In 1446, his friend Tommaso Parentucelli ascended the papal throne as Nicholas V and appointed the architect advisor on papal restoration projects.
Alberti was not only an architect, but also a writer. He contributed treatises on architecture, painting, sculpture, poems, comedies, the family, and even horses. His De re aedificatoria provides the earliest proper account of the classical architectural orders of the Renaissance era. His treatise on painting disseminated the one-point linear perspective technique, thought to have been developed by Brunelleschi. Alberti was, in fact, such an admirer of Brunelleschi that he dedicated this treatise to him. He also built upon the architectural principles of order, balance, and symmetry established by his predecessor to create some of the most influential buildings of the Renaissance.
In the jubilee year of 1450, Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, was in Rome to participate in the celebrations, and there he met Alberti. In Rimini, architect Matteo de’ Pasti was working on the Tempio Malatestiano, a shrine meant to commemorate Malatesta’s deeds and serve as his funerary chapel. Alberti criticized Pasti’s design, so Malatesta invited him to provide plans for a new exterior. These he provided, and Pasti was forced to carry out the work based on Alberti’s design. The project was halted in 1461, when Malatesta fell out with the pope, resulting in his public excommunication.
In Florence, Alberti provided the façade for the Church of Santa Maria Novella in c. 1456–1470. Financed by Giovanni Rucellai, Alberti here applied the same geometric and mathematical principles that Brunelleschi had used. His design became the prototype for the façade of Il Gesù (1568–1584) in Rome, the first Baroque church built. Rucellai also commissioned from Alberti the Palazzo Rucellai (beg. c. 1453), for use as his family residence. Based on Michelozzo’s design for the Palazzo Medici, the building uses the Colosseum principle, with orders that change at each level and become lighter and more feminine as the building ascends—the first domestic structure of the Renaissance to employ this feature. In 1460, Alberti began work on the Church of San Sebastiano, Mantua, for Duke Ludovico Gonzaga, a building altered in the early 20th century to serve as war memorial. Alberti conceived the original structure as a Greek cross plan, the first of its kind from the Renaissance, with an upper and lower church. In 1470, he also began work on the Church of Sant’Andrea, Mantua, also for the Gonzaga duke, as repository for the relic of the holy blood of Christ brought by St. Longinus to the city.
The theoretical treatises Alberti wrote, coupled with his humanistic approach to building, raised the field of architecture to a scientific level. With this, Alberti paved the way for such 16th-century masters as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who expended great effort to elevate the status of art from manual labor to liberal art and that of the artist from craftsman to divinely inspired creator.
Originating in Arezzo, the Albizzi moved to Florence in the 12th century, where they came to play a major role in the city’s government. After the Ciompi Revolt of 1378, they were exiled from Florence, only to return in 1382, to head an oligarchic regime. Under the Albizzi, Florence began extending its dominion into the rest of Tuscany. Arezzo was acquired in 1384, Montepulciano in 1390, Pisa in 1406, Cortona in 1411, and Livorno in 1421. In 1433, the Albizzi were instrumental in effecting Cosimo de’ Medici’s exile. Cosimo, however, returned the following year to Florence and successfully removed the Albizzi from power.
Italian jurist and writer from Milan who taught in Bologna, Ferrara, Avignon, and Pavia, where he died. Alciato’s most successful text was Liber Emblemata, the first book of emblems to be published in the 16th century. The first edition appeared in Augsburg in 1531, and it was reprinted between 1532–1790, in at least 130 editions in various languages. Alciato’s inspiration was Hieroglyphica of Horus Apollo, a manuscript dating to the 5th century, discovered by a monk on the Greek island of Andros in 1419. At the time of discovery, Hieroglyphica was erroneously believed to be a Greek translation of an Egyptian text that explained the meaning of hieroglyphs. The text sparked great interest in the subject, particularly among the literati of Florence. Alciato’s Emblemata, like Hieroglyphica, sought to explain a pictographic language. It provided a series of emblems accompanied by short poems that elucidated their allegorical meaning. The book was widely used by artists as a source for allegorical representation.
Nephew of Pope Clement VIII. Aldobrandini was educated in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Rome and elevated to the cardinalate in 1593. Under his uncle’s regime, Cardinal Aldobrandini became papal secretary of state. In 1598, he was instrumental in recovering the city of Ferrara for the papacy, a deed he celebrated by building the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, as a refuge from his daily obligations at court. In 1602, Carlo Maderno built the Water Theater behind the villa, adding an inscription to its hemicycle that hailed the cardinal as the restorer of peace to Christendom and the one to have recovered Ferrara for the Papal States. The cardinal was also the patron of Annibale Carracci, who, along with assistants, painted for his private chapel a series of lunette landscapes, the most famous of which is the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1604).
Alexander VI received the cardinalate from his uncle, Pope Calixtus III, in 1456, and the vice chancellorship to the Holy See the following year. He was a licentious prelate who fathered several children and won the papal election by offering bribes to the cardinals at the conclave of 1492, as well as promises of enrichment. Alexander’s papacy was punctuated by scandal and blatant nepotism. His daughter, Lucretia Borgia, was wife of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, a marriage arranged by the pope to further the family’s social position. His son Cesare carried out a ruthless military campaign to recover territories that had belonged to the Papal States in the medieval era, and he committed or caused various assassinations, including perhaps his own brother’s, marring the reputation of the Borgia papacy. In 1497, Alexander excommunicated the overzealous monk Girolamo Savonarola, who had sternly criticized his abuses from the pulpit. Alexander was the patron of painter Pinturicchio, who created a series of frescoes for him in the Borgia Apartments at the Vatican (1492–1494). These frescoes include the legend of Isis and Osiris to denote the Borgia family’s supposed descent from these Egyptian divinities.
Bolognese sculptor who trained with Giulio Cesare Conventi. In c. 1625, Algardi went to Rome, and there he worked with Domenichino. He also restored antiques and produced small-scale sculptures for collectors. When Innocent X was elected to the papacy in 1644 and Gian Lorenzo Bernini temporarily fell in disfavor, Algardi’s career began to flourish. Although rivals, Algardi’s St. Mary Magdalen (c. 1628; Rome, San Silvestro al Quirinale) was influenced by Bernini’s statue of St. Bibiana in the church of the same appellation. One of Algardi’s most notable works is the Tomb of Pope Leo XI (1634–1644; Rome, St. Peter’s), commissioned by Leo’s grand-nephew, Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini, which borrows from Bernini’s Tomb of Pope Urban VIII, at St. Peter’s (1628–1647). In both, an enthroned effigy is centered between two Virtues. Yet, while Bernini used colored marbles with varying vein patterns, Algardi preferred a pure white marble. Also, Algardi rejected the transient elements of Bernini’s work in favor of a sense of permanence. A relief in the front of the sarcophagus shows the conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism, a triumphant event Leo negotiated for the Church while cardinal legate in France. The large relief at St. Peter’s depicting the Meeting of Attila and Pope Leo the Great (1646–1653) is another of Algardi’s great achievements. The idealized, classicized vocabulary he normally used reached its greatest height in this work.
An Italian term used to indicate the use of an ancient vocabulary to create a painting, sculpture, or building. In the Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi was the first to reintroduce the Greco-Roman vocabulary to architecture. Not only are the repetitive arches and columns in his Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419–1424) based on ancient Roman examples, but so is his approach to architecture. The order, balance, and mathematical symmetry he applied to the structure are the principles also used by the ancient Romans. His designs inspired Masaccio’s architecture in the fresco of the Holy Trinity at Santa Maria Novella, Florence (1427). In sculpture, it was Nicola Pisano who first experimented with the all’antica vocabulary. Some of the reliefs in the pulpit he created for the Baptistery of Pisa (1255–1260) reflect his careful examination of ancient sarcophagi.
Italian term used to indicate a painting technique that entails applying oil paint directly on the raw canvas without the use of an underdrawing. The preferred method of Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals, and Jusepe de Ribera, it allows for speed of execution, as well as greater fluidity. Works created using this method often have many pentimenti, changes and corrections made by the artist as he or she works out the details of the scene.
Cosimo I de’ Medici commissioned this work from Bronzino to be given to King Francis I of France. As a work meant for an erudite audience, it features a complex iconographic program that is no longer completely understood. The scene is revealed by Father Time (Chronos) and his daughter Truth, who lift the drapery that once covered the figures. In the center are Venus, holding the apple of Hesperides she won from Paris for her beauty, and her son Cupid, fondling her breast and kissing her. At Cupid’s feet Venus’ doves mimic the behavior of mother and son. On the left, an old woman, identified variously as Envy, Despair, or Syphilis, tears out her hair, while on the right is Inconstancy, with her scaly tail, lion legs, honeycomb, and scorpion. In front of her, Folly (sometimes also identified as Jest or Pleasure) throws rose petals at Venus. The scene presents an erotic image with unusual color combinations of violets, pinks, and soft greens set against the figures’ pale ivory complexions. These elements, along with the circular composition with central void and the elongated figures in impossible poses, place the work among the top masterpieces of the Mannerist style.
A painted or sculpted panel that either stands on the altar of a church or hangs above it, its primary function being to serve as visual focus during meditation or prayer. Altarpieces created in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries often have multiple panels that can be opened and closed, as well as pinnacles that imitate the Gothic architectural vocabulary, and a predella. An example of this is Pietro Lorenzetti’s Virgin and Child with Saints, Annunciation, and Assumption, painted for the Pieve di Santa Maria in Arezzo (1320). The Northern examples of the same period can be quite complicated and open in a series of stages to reveal the interior scenes, as in, for example, Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (fin. 1515; Colmar, Musée d’Unterlinden). These polyptychs, as they are called, were usually painted in grisaille in the exterior and with brilliant colors in the interior to add a sense of awe when opened during feast days. In Spain, altarpieces are called retables (in Spanish, retablos) and have panels that remain opened and are often contained in heavy sculptural frames. By the 16th and 17th centuries in Italy, these complex formats were rejected in favor of representations on a single field. In the North, they continued for a longer period, with Peter Paul Rubens’s Elevation of the Cross for the Church of St. Walburga in Antwerp (1610–1611) providing an early 17th-century example.
Painter from the Danube School, active mainly in Regensburg, where he became a citizen in 1505. Little is known of Altdorfer’s activities up to that year. The number of properties he owned in Regensburg attest to the fact that he had a successful career. He also played an important role in civic affairs. He was a member of the council of Regensburg in 1519, 1526, and again in 1533, when Lutheranism was officially adopted in the city. In 1526, he was appointed official architect, his charge to build wine cellars and slaughterhouses, and in 1528, he was invited to serve as mayor, an offer he is known to have refused.
Altdorfer’s first signed painting is the Satyr Family (1507; Berlin, Staatliche Museen), a work that shows his keen interest in the depiction of the landscape. The nude female with her back turned to the viewer recalls the nudes rendered by Giorgione. Although no concrete evidence exists, it is possible that Altdorfer may have traveled to Italy in the early years of his career, where he would have seen Italian works of this kind. By 1515, Altdorfer’s style had become more heroic, with larger figures, a more vivid choice of colors, and greater contrasts of light and dark. His works in the Monastery of Sankt-Florian, near Linz, Austria, demonstrate this change in his style. Here, he painted a series depicting the Passion of Christ and the life of St. Sebastian. One of these works shows the Agony in the Garden, a scene with a reddish sky that forecasts the turbulent events that await Christ. The foreshortening of the Apostles in the foreground again betray Altdorfer’s knowledge of Venetian art, as these elements are also found in the work of Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna, although the intense, dramatic colors come from Matthias Grünewald.
Sharp foreshortenings are even more prevalent in the Beating of St. Sebastian, also part of the Sankt-Florian series. In this work, the architectural background recalls the architecture of Donato Bramante, which suggests that Altdorfer may have had engravings of the architect’s works, while the sculptural solidity of the figures again suggest his familiarity with Mantegna’s style. By 1520, Altdorfer had abandoned the use of intense color contrasts, and the movement of his figures also diminished. This is exemplified by his Finding of the Body of St. Florian of c. 1520 (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum).
The subject of Altdorfer’s Danube Landscape near Regensburg (c. 1522–1525; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) is simply the landscape. There are no figures or religious implications in the painting. Nature here is poeticized, as it is in one of his greatest masterpieces, Battle of Alexander (1529; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), commissioned by Duke William IV of Bavaria. In this work, the horror of war is emphasized by the cataclysmic sky and barren setting. In spite of the large number of figures engaged in battle, it is the engulfing landscape that lends the emotional content to the work. In 1537, Altdorfer painted Lot and His Daughters (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), a Northern version of the Venetian reclining nude type. The anatomical excellence of the Venetians is here lost, particularly in the awkwardness of the female form, which confirms that Altdorfer was at his best when he focused on the landscape.
In the second half of the 14th century, a school of artists developed in Padua, inspired by Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel. One of the leading figures of this school was Altichiero. Originally from Verona, in the 1370s, Altichiero worked in Padua for the Lupi, a family of condottieri who served the city’s rulers, the Carrara. Bonifazio Lupi commissioned Altichiero to decorate the family funerary chapel in the Church of San Antonio (il Santo), directly across from the tomb of St. Anthony. The scenes chosen were from the life of St. James, Bonifacio’s patron saint. The altar wall features a monumental Crucifixion, with the cross in the foreground and incidental scenes behind it. The image offers contrasts between the suffering Christ and the grieving figures at the foot of the cross and the busy, noisy, apathetic individuals in the middle and background who barely notice the event. The teaching offered by the image is that only those who believe in Christ will be saved, an appropriate theme for a funerary setting. The Crucifixion is a precedent for the fresco of the same subject by Tintoretto in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice (1564), which also depicts a noisy, active scene. The Lupi frescoes were such a success that in 1377, Raimondo Lupi asked Altichiero to fresco the Oratory of St. George next door to the Santo, used by his family as a funerary chapel, with scenes from the life of St. George. These images, like the ones in the Santo, show convincing perspective, figures that move realistically in the rendered space, and individualized facial features that suggest that some of the figures may actually be portraits of members of the Lupi family.
Tuscan sculptor and architect who assisted Jacopo Sansovino in Venice and Michelangelo and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in Rome. By 1555, Ammannati was in Florence, serving the Medici dukes. His most important architectural work is the Palazzo Pitti Courtyard (beg. 1560), a commission he received from Cosimo I de’ Medici, who purchased the palace in 1549, and one of the great masterpieces of the Mannerist movement. His Neptune Fountain (1563–1575), in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, is his most notable sculpture commission. In the early 1580s, Ammannati developed strong ties to the Jesuit Order. The influence of the Jesuits led to his public renunciation of the depiction of the nude form, which he now deemed sinful. In his declaration, he contended that an artist could just as well show his skill by rendering the clothed figure, and he made specific reference to the shameful nude god of the oceans featured in his Neptune Fountain.
In Latin, “Love conquers all.” This theme, based on Virgil’s Eclogues, became common in the early years of the 17th century, although Parmigianino had already provided his version in 1535: Cupid Carving His Bow, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. In 1601–1602, Caravaggio created his Amor Vincit Omnia (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) for his patron Vincenzo Giustiniani, a work that features a naughty adolescent Cupid who smiles unabashedly at the viewer. At his feet are musical and geometry instruments, as well as armors, to denote that love conquers all, even reason. In c. 1603, Giovanni Baglione rendered his Divine Love (Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’ Arte Antica) in response to Caravaggio’s painting, for Giustiniani’s brother, Benedetto. While Caravaggio’s depicts earthly love, Baglione’s presents its divine counterpart subduing Cupid and Satan.
Painted by Rembrandt soon after his arrival in Amsterdam (1631), the work is a group portrait showing members of the local Surgeons’ Guild witnessing a dissection being carried out by Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the guild’s praelector. Dr. Tulp demonstrates with his own fingers the mechanics of movement in the corpse’s left arm and hand. That he begins the dissection with one of the corpse’s extremities rather than the abdominal area parallels him to famed anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius, who in the first edition of his De humanis corporis of 1543, is depicted performing the same task. One of the attendees holds a sheet with anatomical notes, while at the corpse’s feet an anatomy textbook is propped. Viewers seemingly interrupt the lecture, causing three of the men depicted to turn in their direction. Rembrandt signed the painting on a feigned paper attached to the back wall—an ordinance issued by the guild to regulate conduct during dissections. At the time, dissections were only carried out on executed criminals as part of their sentence. The painting therefore shows not only the pursuit of scientific knowledge, but also the expiation of sin from the city of Amsterdam.
Florentine painter, best known for his frescos in the Guidalotti Chapel at Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1348–1355), which feature scenes of significance to the Dominicans, who used the room as their chapter house. Andrea’s Virgin and Child with Ten Saints, a panel at the National Gallery in London (c. 1460–1470), has also been associated with Santa Maria Novella, the seat of the Dominican Order in Florence, since the saints depicted, including Catherine, Thomas Aquinas, and Peter Martyr, were significant to these monks and had altars dedicated to them in their church. The artist is documented in 1377, working on frescos of the Life of St. Raynerius in the Campo Santo in Pisa.
First woman artist to attain international fame. As a woman, Anguissola was at a disadvantage since the painting of large altarpieces and frescoes was considered a male occupation and drawing from the nude was limited to male artists. Anguissola was able to circumvent these difficulties by specializing in portraiture. Her father, a Cremonese nobleman who could not afford to raise all of his seven children, sent her and one of her sisters to study painting in the studio of Cremonese Mannerist Bernardo Campi so they could earn their keep.
Anguissola is credited with introducing a new group portrait type, one where the figures are not simply posing but are engaged in some sort of activity. An example of this is the Portrait of the Artist’s Three Sisters and Their Governess (1555; Poznan, Narodowe Museum), where her siblings play a game of chess. In the work, the younger girl, who observes the game, laughs as she watches her sister make her final winning move, a detail that reveals Anguissola’s ability to capture the psychology of the sitters she knew so intimately. Her skill in rendering her sitters’ physical, as well as inner, individuality is also seen in her Portrait of the Artist’s Sisters and Brother (c. 1555; Wilshire, Methuen Collection), where the naïve expression of her loved ones is captured effectively.
In her Self-Portrait at the Spinet with a Chaperone (1561; Northampton, Earl Spencer Collection), Anguissola presents herself as a member of a cultured nobility, and in so doing, she places her career as artist in the realm of the liberal arts, not manual labor. Her drawing of a Boy Bitten by a Crayfish (c. 1555; Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) provided the prototype for Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard (1595–1596; London, National Gallery). In 1559, Anguissola was called to Spain to serve as court painter and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth of Valois. Most of the works she created during her stay there are either undocumented or were destroyed in a fire at court in the 17th century. Anguissola died at the age of 97, the second-oldest Italian artist on record.
Robert D’Anjou was the son of Charles II D’Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily, and Mary of Hungary. As a child, he and his brothers were exchanged for his father when captured by Alfonso III of Aragon in 1288, during a naval battle. Seven years of negotiation finally earned the children’s release, and in 1295, when Robert’s brother, Charles Martel, died, Robert became the heir to the throne of Sicily. He lost the territory when local barons rejected him in favor of Frederick III of Aragon. In 1309, Robert’s father died, and he was crowned king of Naples. Clement V approved his appointment and, in 1311, made him papal vicar of the Romagna to resist Emperor Henry VII’s invasion. In 1312, Robert was successful in impeding Henry’s occupation of Rome, and the following year, he became leader of the Guelf party in Florence against the emperor.
Also known as Robert the Wise, D’Anjou was a major patron of the arts, his learned nature recorded by both Boccaccio and Petrarch. It was Robert who called Simone Martini to Naples to paint the Altarpiece of St. Louis of Toulouse (1317; Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte); the king’s brother Louis had renounced the throne of Naples, had become a Franciscan, had died in 1297, and was canonized in 1317. Chronicles of the day place Giotto in the king’s court from 1328–1334, rendering paintings for the royal residence at Castel Nuovo (lost). The Tomb of Mary of Hungary (1325), for Robert’s mother, by Gagliardo Primario and Tino da Camaino at Santa Maria Donnaregina, Naples, and Robert’s own tomb (beg. c. 1343), by Pacio and Giovanni Bertini at Santa Chiara in the same city, were also the result of his patronage.
Mother of the Virgin Mary and wife of Joachim. St. Anne miraculously conceived her daughter at an advanced age. The story of Mary’s conception is one of the subjects depicted in Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua (1305) and Taddeo Gaddi’s Baroncelli Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence (1332–1338). In these frescoes, Anne meets her husband at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and conceives miraculously when the two embrace. The Birth of the Virgin is also a popular subject in art and usually shows Anne reclining on her bed and midwives attending to the newborn. Examples include Pietro Lorenzetti’s Birth of the Virgin (1342; Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo), Vittore Carpaccio’s version in the Carrara Gallery in Bergamo (c. 1504), and Simon Vouet’s scene (c. 1620) in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa, Rome. Anne often appears at the side of her daughter and the Christ Child. Examples include Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne (c. 1508–1513) in the Louvre in Paris; Jacopo da Pontormo’s of the same subject (c. 1529), executed for the Convent of St. Anne in Verzaia, just outside Florence (now Paris, Louvre); and Jusepe de Ribera’s Holy Family with Sts. Anne and Catherine of Alexandria (1648) at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The earliest example of an Annunciation as the main subject of an altarpiece is Simone Martini’s version of 1333, painted for the Cathedral of Siena and now in the Uffizi in Florence. The scene depicts the moment when the Virgin Mary is told by archangel Gabriel that she will conceive the Christ Child, who will provide humankind with salvation. As he utters the words, the Holy Spirit, denoted as rays of light emanating from a dove, enters the room and effects the conception. This is one of the most often depicted religious scenes in art. Fra Angelico painted several Annunciations during his stay at the San Marco Monastery in Florence (1438–1445) as solemn moments that invite introspection. Leonardo da Vinci brought the scene outdoors and included an ancient funerary urn as reminder of Christ’s future sacrifice (late 1470s; Florence, Uffizi). Andrea del Sarto placed the scene in front of a temple, with Gabriel on the right instead of the customary left (1512; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), while Tintoretto’s version (1583–1587; Venice, Scuola di San Rocco) shows Gabriel dramatically flying into the room and startling the Virgin. Lorenzo Lotto’s (c. 1527; Recanati, Pinacoteca Comunale) shows the Virgin recoiling as God the Father points emphatically in her direction, as if to denote that she is the one who has been chosen to bring his son into the world.
The scene stems from the Gospel of St. Luke. On the night of Christ’s birth, an angel appeared to a group of shepherds who were watching their flock in Bethlehem and told them that the Savior was born. This story gave artists the opportunity to depict a nocturnal scene. In the Baroncelli Chapel at Santa Croce, Florence (1332–1338), by Taddeo Gaddi, shepherds are awakened by an angel whose bright light illuminates the nocturnal landscape. Jacopo Bassano also used the angel as the source of light in his 1555–1560 Annunciation (Washington, D.C., National Gallery), an unusual rendition in that the shepherds are a family group with a woman milking a cow on the right. One of the men shields his eyes from the angel’s light. In 1416, the Limbourg brothers depicted the scene in Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (fol. 48r; Chantilly, Musée Condé), with a chorus of musical angels appearing to the shepherds to add a celebratory mood to the event.
Dominican monk, appointed archbishop of Florence by Pope Eugenius IV in 1446, canonized in 1523. St. Antonine was responsible for convincing Cosimo de’ Medici to expel the Sylvestrine monks from the San Marco Monastery, Florence, and turn it over to the Dominicans. St. Antonine was appointed the prior of San Marco, and aside from effecting religious reforms while occupying that position, he also acted as patron to Fra Angelico. Part III of his Summa Theologica includes advice to painters on the depiction of religious scenes. Elements that provoke sexual desire, vanity, or laughter, he writes, should be eliminated from these types of works, as should any apocryphal details, for instance, midwives in the Nativity. Instead, artists should follow the scriptures. These prescriptions influenced the development of art in Florence and reflect St. Antonine’s ascetic monasticism.
The Apocalypse stems from the Revelations of St. John, the last book in the Bible. It refers to cataclysmic events that will precede the Last Judgment based on the saint’s visions. The account includes the four horsemen who unleash their wrath on earthly vices, beasts who threaten humanity, the enthroned God flanked by crowned men in white garb witnessing the event, and a descending heavenly city. St. John’s account of the Apocalypse provided plenty of inspiration to artists. This included Albrecht Dürer, who created a woodcut print of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1498; the Limbourg brothers, who included the enthroned God the Father, flanked by the crowned men, in Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1416; Chantilly, Musée Condé); and Hans Memling, who painted the Vision of St. John on Patmos (1479; Bruges, Hospital of St. John) as one of the side panels to the Altarpiece of the Virgin and Angels. In this last work, St. John sits on a rock and experiences the strange visions that led him to write the Book of Revelations.
The Apocrypha is a collection of books from the Early Christian era that did not receive canonical acceptance, as they were not included in the original Hebrew Bible. Only recently has the Apocrypha been incorporated into the Catholic Bible. Yet, Protestants and Jews reject its validity. In the 4th century, St. Jerome included these books in the Vulgate (his Latin translation of the Bible), designating them as Apocrypha, as they derived from the Greek Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) and not the original Hebrew text. Originally, the books of the Apocrypha were dispersed throughout the Old Testament, but in 1534, Martin Luther moved them to an appendix at the end of the Old Testament in his German translation of the Bible. The Apocrypha became one of the sources for religious stories used by artists. Depictions of Judith and Holofernes, Susanna and the Elders, and Daniel in the Lion’s Den, for example, rely on this text. There also exist apocryphal books from the Early Christian era that elaborate on the stories found in the gospels, including the infancy of Christ and life of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Baptist. But these have not received canonical acceptance from any religious denomination.
Son of Jupiter and Letona; Diana’s twin brother. Apollo is the sun god and also the god of the arts, poetry, music, eloquence, and medicine. Apollo loved Daphne. One day, as he pursued her, the river god Peneius protected her by transforming her into a laurel tree—the scene depicted by Antonio del Pollaiuolo in 1470–1480 (London, National Gallery) and Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1622–1625 (Rome, Galleria Borghese). Distraught, Apollo declared the laurel his sacred tree. For this reason, he is normally crowned with a laurel wreath. Apollo also loved the Cumean Sibyl, but because she rejected him, he denied her youth. Michelangelo depicted the woman on the Sistine ceiling at the Vatican (1508–1512) as old and wrinkled. As the sun god, Apollo appears in Guido Reni’s Aurora (1613) in the Casino Rospigliosi, Rome, riding his chariot across the firmament. In Diego Velázquez’ Forge of Vulcan (1630; Madrid, Prado), he informs Vulcan of Venus’ infidelity, and in Raphael’s School of Athens (1510–1511; Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura) he is shown as a statue in a niche with lyre in hand in his role as the god of poetry and eloquence who inspires the learned men from antiquity.
A mythological story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, often represented in art. Apollo ridicules Cupid for his archery skills, so Cupid retaliates by causing the god to fall in love with the wood nymph Daphne. Tired of Apollo’s advances, Daphne flees, but the god follows her. She screams for help, and the river god Peneius protects her by transforming her into a laurel tree. Frustrated and distraught, Apollo declares the laurel to be his sacred plant, to be woven into wreaths to crown heroes. One of the earliest representations of the subject in Renaissance art is Apollo and Daphne by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1470–1480; London, National Gallery), where the god takes hold of the nymph, whose arms have already taken on the form of branches. The image denotes the victory of chastity, so prized in the Renaissance, over sexual desire. In the early 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini provided one of the most dramatic representations of the mythical story (1622–1625; Rome, Galleria Borghese). In this sculpture, Daphne’s body is in the process of transformation. Bark partially encloses her lower body, her toes have begun to take root, and branches and leaves are slowly sprouting from her fingers.
The word apostles stems from the Greek apostellos and stands for “to send forth.” It refers to the 12 disciples of Christ who were charged with the mission to spread his word throughout the world. There are four biblical sources that give the names of the Apostles: Matthew 10: 1–5, Mark 3:16, Luke 6:14, and the Book of Acts 1:13. These men are Peter, his brother Andrew, James, James’ brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus (also called Judas the brother of James), Simon, and Judas Iscariot. After Judas betrayed Christ, he was replaced by Matthias (Acts 1:21), and later Paul also became part of the group. Of these men, Peter, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, and Simon were crucified. James was killed by a sword, Matthew by a halberd, and Thomas by a spear. James the son of Alphaeus and Matthias were stoned to death, Paul was beheaded, Judas Iscariot hung himself, and John is believed to have died of natural causes. The Crucifixion of St. Peter was rendered by Michelangelo in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican (1542–1550) and Caravaggio in the Cerasi Chapel at Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome (1600). St. James Led to His Execution by sword is one of the scenes Andrea Mantegna included in the Ovetari Chapel at the Church of the Eremitani, Padua, in 1454–1457.
The calling of the Apostles by Christ was also a common subject in art, as Domenico del Ghirlandaio’s Calling of Sts. Peter and Andrew in the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1482) and Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome (1599–1600) show. The Apostles were present at the Last Supper, as depicted by Andrea del Castagno (1447) in the refectory of Sant’ Apollonia in Florence, and at Pentecost when they began to speak in foreign tongues, as El Greco portrayed them in c. 1608–1610 (Madrid, Prado). The Apostles witnessed the Dormition and the Assumption of the Virgin, with Hugo van der Goes (c. 1481; Bruges, Groeningemuseum) and Titian (1516–1518; Venice, Santa Maria dei Frari) depicting each scene, respectively.
Peter, James, and John were present at the Agony in the Garden, as Mantegna (mid-1450s; London, National Gallery) and Giovanni Bellini (c. 1460, London, National Gallery) represented them. Thomas doubted Christ’s Resurrection, so Christ showed him his wounds from the Crucifixion, a scene Verrocchio presented in his sculpture of c. 1465–1483, for one of the niches of Orsanmichele, Florence. Finally, John is author of the Book of Revelations, the last book in the Bible, which provided much inspiration to artists, including Hans Memling, who painted the apocalyptic Vision of St. John on Patmos (1479; Bruges, Hospital of St. John) as one of the side panels to the Altarpiece of the Virgin and Angels.
Formed by the panels at either side of 13th-century wooden crucifixes, below the arms, usually filled with painted images of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. An example is the apron in Coppo di Marcovaldo’s Crucifixion in the Pinacoteca at San Gimigniano (second half of the 13th century). Sometimes the grieving Virgin Mary and St. John occupy this space, as in the Crucifixion by Berlinghiero Berlinghieri (early 13th century; Lucca, Pinacoteca). Later, Cimabue would cast the apron figures to the end of the arms of the cross and fill the space with decorative patterns to place focus on the suffering figure of Christ. Examples are his Crucifixion panels at San Domenico in Arezzo (c. 1280) and at Santa Croce, Florence (1287–1288).
A semicircular or polygonal projection in a church, usually covered by a half-dome. Although apses can be found at the end of the transept arms or in the chapels of a church, most commonly they protrude from the building’s east end and serve to house the main altar. As focus during the mass and other ceremonies, the apse walls are many times decorated with mosaics or frescoes meant to enhance the religious experience. An example of apse mosaic decoration is Jacopo Torriti’s Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1294) at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Examples of apse fresco decorations include those by Cimabue in the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi (after 1279) and Fra Filippo Lippi in the Cathedral of Spoleto (1466–1469), both depicting the life of the Virgin, as well as Melozzo da Forli’s Christ in Glory in the Church of Santi Apostoli, Rome (1481–1483; destroyed), where he introduced the di sotto in sù technique to the papal city.
The Arena Chapel is Giotto’s best preserved work. The artist received the commission from Enrico Scrovegni, a wealthy merchant whose father, Reginaldo Scrovegni, was the leading banker of Padua, qualified by Dante in the Inferno as an usurer. Enrico, troubled by the fact that usury is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, an activity in which he also engaged, built the Arena Chapel (beg. 1303) to expiate his sins and ensure his attainment of salvation. It is not clear how Giotto received the commission, although it is believed that it was through Scrovegni’s wife, Iacopina d’Este, who was related to the Stefaneschi for whom Giotto had worked in Rome. The chapel received its appellation from the ancient Roman ruins of the arena upon which it was built. While meant as a private family chapel, the Scrovegni occasionally allowed access to the public to view the frescoes. In 1304, Pope Benedict IX (1303–1304) in fact granted indulgences to pilgrims who visited the site. The fact that it was available for viewing ensured Giotto’s success locally and abroad.
The chapel is barrel-vaulted and features six narrow windows on the south side, allowing a great deal of wall space for Giotto’s frescoes. Thirty-eight scenes, taken from Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, are arranged on three bands, with the life of the Virgin and her parents, Joachim and Anne, featured on the upper tier. In the middle level are scenes depicting Christ’s life and mission, and on the lower tier are his Passion, death, and Resurrection. At the bottom of the walls are faux marble panels flanked by the seven Virtues and Deadly Sins, painted in grisaille. On the chapel’s triumphal arch is a depiction of the Annunciation, and on the entrance wall is a Last Judgment with Enrico at the foot of Christ’s empty cross presenting a model of the chapel to the Virgin of Charity, the Virgin Annunciate, and the angel Gabriel, the three figures to whom the chapel is dedicated. The chapel was consecrated on 15 March 1305, on the Feast of the Annunciation.
The importance of Giotto’s work in the Arena Chapel lies in the fact that he rejected the then-popular Maniera Greca mode of painting in favor of a more naturalistic representation of figures and backgrounds. Instead of the gilded backdrops of the Maniera Greca, Giotto chose a striking ultramarine blue that serves to unify the scenes. He rejected the gold striations of the Greek manner in favor of draperies that fall in a believable mode. He gave volume to his figures and placed them within, not in front of, structures and landscapes. In response to the “love thy neighbor as thine own self” teachings of St. Francis and his followers, Giotto humanized the depictions by including scenes of Christ’s infancy, Joachim and Anne embracing, and angels crying after the death of Christ. Instead of symbolic images of Christ’s sacrifice and focus on his divine nature, Giotto created a narration of his story, and that of his parents and grandparents, that present him as a character who belongs to the human realm and with which the faithful can identify.
Poet and satirist from the region of Arezzo who spent his formative years in Perugia, where he wrote his earliest poems. In 1517, Aretino went to Rome, where he worked for Agostino Chigi, the wealthy banker and patron of Raphael, becoming part of the Chigi Pope Leo X’s circle. After Leo’s death, Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, the pope’s cousin, was Aretino’s main patron. For the cardinal he wrote scurrilous pieces on his competitors. When in 1522 Hadrian VI was elected to the throne instead of Cardinal Giulio, Aretino saw the wisdom to seek patrons outside of Rome. He moved to Mantua, where he worked for Federigo Gonzaga. Once Giulio attained the throne as Clement VII (1523), Aretino returned to Rome. But death threats prompted by the sonnets he had written to accompany Giulio Romano’s banned engravings of sexual positions (I modi) and his insults directed at influential bishop Giovanni Giberti forced him to leave.
After wandering through the north of Italy, Aretino finally settled in Venice in 1527, where he spent the rest of his life. There he became a close friend of Titian, who painted his portrait (1545; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), and Jacopo Sansovino, whom he defended when imprisoned for the collapse of the roof of the Library of St. Mark. Among Aretino’s plays are Il Marescalco (published in 1533) and La Talanta (1542), and among his comedies is La Cortigiana (1534), a parody on Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano. His Raggionamenti (1534) includes a Neoplatonic discussion in a brothel.
Italian poet best known for his chivalric epic titled Orlando furioso, which he first published in 1516, under the patronage of Duke Alfonso I d’Este. A native of Reggio-Emilia, Ludovico Ariosto was the son of Niccolò Ariosto, the city’s commander. At the age of 10, Ludovico and his family moved to Ferrara, where first he received legal training and later dedicated himself to literary studies. His father died in 1500, and it fell on him to provide for his family. In 1502, he became commander of Canossa, and the following year, he entered in the service of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, which led him to travel with his patron on diplomatic missions, including to Venice and Rome. In 1517, Ippolito was sent to Buda, Hungary, to serve as bishop, but Ariosto refused to follow him there, instead entering in the service of Duke Alfonso, the cardinal’s brother. In 1522, he accepted the post of governor of the Garfagnana in the Apennines. There he worked on his seven Satire, inspired by Horace’s Sermones. Ariosto also penned five comedies, two of which, La lena and I studenti (completed by his brother Gabriel and published posthumously), he worked on while fulfilling his post as governor. In 1525, he returned to Ferrara, where he married Alessandra Benucci, his longtime lover, spending the rest of his life writing and tending to his garden.
Contrary to Plato, who concentrated on abstract concepts, his pupil Aristotle advocated knowledge through empirical investigation. Aristotle was from Stageira on the coast of Thrace. His father, court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon, died when Aristotle was still a child. At 18, Aristotle was sent by his uncle and guardian to Athens to complete his education. There he studied under Plato for 20 years, after which he moved first to the court in Atarneus and later back to Macedonia, where he became the tutor of the young Alexander the Great. Returning to Athens once Alexander’s education was completed, he opened his own school of peripatetic philosophy. He left Athens when the pro-Macedonian government there was overthrown and went to Chalcis, where he died in 322 B.C.E.
During the Renaissance, Aristotle became the most widely read author from antiquity. He held his place as the fundamental authority in the major universities in Europe from the 12th to the end of the 17th century. In both Protestant and Catholic primary and secondary schools, Aristotelian philosophical and scientific principles provided the basis for the curriculum. Among Aristotle’s extant treatises are Physics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics, and Nichomachean Ethics. His interest in the observation of nature and its phenomena did much to advance realism in painting and sculpture in the 13th century when crusaders recovered his texts from Byzantium and brought them back to the West.
More than the double portrait of Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, Giovanna Cenani, the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait is believed to be an actual marriage document. Signed and dated “Johannes de eyck fuit hic, 1434” on the back wall of the bedroom in which the scene unfolds, the elegant calligraphy employed is that normally used by notaries of the era on legal documents. The artist and a companion are reflected in the convex mirror below the signature and serve as the witnesses to the marriage. The groom has removed his shoes to denote that the event takes place on hallowed ground, as marriage is one of the Church’s sacraments. The dog in the foreground is a symbol of fidelity, while the single lit candle in the chandelier denotes the presence of the Lord, his Passion depicted in the roundels adorning the mirror frame. On the bed post is a carving of St. Margaret, patron saint of childbirth, included to denote the hope of fertility, and a broom, symbol of cleanliness and domesticity. Finally, the oranges on the window sill symbolize the bride’s dowry, as they refer to the golden balls St. Nicholas threw through the window of the house of three sisters who could not marry for lack of dowries.
Italian architect and sculptor, born in Colle di Val D’Elsa, the pupil of Nicola Pisano, whom he assisted on the Siena pulpit. Arnolfo left Pisano’s studio sometime after 1268, and in 1277, he is recorded in the court of Charles D’Anjou. His earliest known commission is the Arca di San Domenico, St. Dominic’s tomb at San Domenico Maggiore in Bologna (1264–1267), the work originally given to Pisano, who, in turn, gave it to his pupils, as he was occupied with the Siena pulpit. Arnolfo contributed three of the caryatid figures that support the Arca, the Virgin and Child in the center front, and some of the narrative reliefs of St. Dominic’s life.
In 1293, Arnolfo received a solo commission from Cardinal Jean Cholet to build the baldachin (ceremonial canopy) for the main altar of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. He was also responsible for the design of two important tombs: the Monument of Cardinal Guillaume de Braye in San Domenico, Orvieto (c. 1282), and the tomb of Boniface VIII for Old St. Peter’s, of which only the portrait bust of the pope has survived (c. 1300; Vatican Grotto). As architect, Arnolfo made a number of important contributions. In Florence, he built the Church of La Santissima Trinità (1250s), the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce (beg. 1294), and the Palazzo Vecchio (1299–1310). He is also recorded in 1300 as working on the Cathedral of Florence. These contributions to the Florentine urban fabric gained him such fame that he was exempted from paying taxes.
The Ascension refers to Christ’s ascent into Heaven 40 days after his Resurrection. The scene is commonly depicted in art, with Giotto providing an early example in the Arena Chapel, Padua (1305). Here, Christ stands on a cloud with arms extended and gradually disappearing into the heavens. At either side are angels who accompany him, while below are the witnesses to the event, including the Virgin Mary. In Pietro Perugino’s version (1496–1498; Lyon, Musée Municipal des Beaux-Arts), Christ ascends in a mandorla surrounded by seraphim and musical angels, while Tintoretto’s Ascension (1578–1581; Venice, Scuola di San Rocco) is a more believable rendition, with Christ balancing himself on substantial clouds, convincingly supported by foreshortened angels.
The moment when the Virgin Mary is carried up to Heaven after her Dormition. In art, the scene usually includes her tomb, with the Apostles witnessing in awe as she ascends. This is how Titian depicted the event in his rendition for the Church of Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice (1516–1518); Andrea del Sarto for the Church of San Antonio dei Servi in Cortona (1526–1529); and Peter Paul Rubens for the Cathedral of Antwerp (1626). Nicolas Poussin omitted the Apostles (c. 1626; Washington, D.C., National Gallery), instead including three putti who throw flowers into the Virgin’s tomb.
Correggio received the commission for the Assumption after attaining great success with his Vision of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos, the dome fresco in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma (1520–1524). Like the Vision of St. John, his Assumption is a tour de force of illusionism. It occupies the cathedral’s main octagonal dome and is made to look as if the architecture has been removed to reveal a vision of the Virgin ascending to Heaven. The foreshortening of the figures is so heavy that they do in fact seem to be rising, their undersides clearly visible. Figures and clouds are arranged in concentric circles, with the Virgin being raised up by putti as she extends her arms to welcome her reunion with her son, who greets her into Heaven. Correggio beautifully integrated the oculi (round openings) at the base of the dome into the composition, as the Apostles and other witnesses of the miraculous event seem to either sit or lean on them. The realism, energy, and drama of the scene greatly influenced future generations of artists, particularly Baroque masters who sought to replicate Correggio’s convincing illusionism, among them Giovanni Lanfranco, who based his Virgin in Glory fresco on the dome at Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome, on Correggio’s masterpiece.
Sometimes also referred to as aerial perspective, atmospheric perspective is a technique first used in fresco painting during the Roman era that allows for the three-dimensional representation of outdoor scenes. The technique entails blurring objects, figures, and other elements within the landscape that are in the distance, as they would look if the eye were to perceive them in a real outdoor setting. Its effectiveness also depends on the softening of colors used for the rendering of those distant elements. The technique was reintroduced in the 15th century by Massacio, who first used it in his frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence (c. 1425).
The true identity of this figure, which Donatello rendered in bronze, has been the subject of much scholarly debate. Its overall appearance, the anaxyrides (slashed breeches), wings, dancing pose, exposed genitals, and other attributes, points to the Phrygian eunuch Attis. In the mythic account, Cybele struck Attis with madness as punishment for adultery, and as a result, he mutilated his own genitals. The galli priests of Cybele engaged in the same self-mutilation during a frenzied orgiastic ritual that included a frantic beating of drums, clashing of cymbals, and blaring of horns. Ancient statues depicting Attis usually show him before his self-mutilation, wearing an anaxyrides that often reveals his soon-to-be-ablated sexual organs. Usually, the figure’s arms extend upward, as if engaged in the ritualistic dance in honor of Cybele—a reference to those frenzied orgies of the galli that involved the cutting of their own genitals. At times, Attis also wears a shepherd’s hat (as in the Altieri Attis from the Roman Imperial era in the Vatican Museum, Inv. 1656) and in some versions he is winged (as in the 1st century B.C.E. Attis at the Pergamon Museum). A bronze statuette from the 1st or 2nd century C.E. at the Louvre in Paris depicting the Phrygian deity features visual elements concordant to those in Donatello’s work, suggesting the proper identification of the figure as the mythic consort of Cybele.
Born in Tagaste to a pagan Roman official and Christian mother, Augustine was brought up a Christian. In 370, he went to Carthage to study rhetoric and law. He eventually abandoned law and Christianity all together, took a mistress with whom he lived for 15 years, and had a son with her in 372. During this time, he became keenly interested in philosophy, and after teaching at Tagaste and Carthage for the next decade, he moved first to Rome, where he opened a school of rhetoric, and then to Milan, where he heard the sermons of Bishop Ambrose. Influenced by the man’s preachings, Augustine returned to his Christian faith and was baptized in 387. After losing his mistress and son, he devoted himself to monasticism and preaching. In 395, he was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Valerius of Hippo, and the following year, he succeeded him as bishop. He died at Hippo during a siege.
Augustine was a prolific writer. He left about 200 treatises, 300 letters, and 400 sermons that have had a major impact on theology and philosophy. His thinking dominated Western Christian thought for centuries, which has earned him placement among the Doctors of the Church. St. Augustine is not only often included in paintings—for example, in Fra Filippo Lippi’s Barbadori Altarpiece (beg. 1437, Paris, Louvre) and El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgáz (1586; Toledo, Church of Santo Tomé)—but his writings also affected the iconography of decorative programs. Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, Rome (1508–1512), for instance, has been interpreted at times as a work that reflects the saint’s exegesis.
In mythology, Aurora is the dawn. She rises early in the morning and rides her chariot through the skies to announce the sunrise. She falls in love with Cephalus, which causes her to abandon her duties and bring disorder to the universe. Cupid resolves the situation by shooting one of his arrows into Cephalus so he can reciprocate Aurora’s love. Both Guido Reni (1613; Rome, Casino Rospigliosi) and Guercino (1621; Rome, Casino Ludovisi) depicted Aurora crossing the firmament. Reni’s shows her heading Apollo’s chariot, with the Hours surrounding him. Guercino placed her in her own chariot, with Day and Night at either side. Agostino Carracci is thought to have been the one to depict Cephalus and Aurora in the Farnese ceiling, Rome (c. 1597–1600), a subject also tackled by Nicolas Poussin in 1631–1633 (London; National Gallery) and Peter Paul Rubens sometime in the 1630s (lost).
City in Southern France situated on the left bank of the Rhone River. In 1309, Pope Clement V, who had been living in France since 1306, moved the papal seat from Rome to Avignon, initiating the Babylonian Captivity, which was to last until 1377. He did this to avoid the constant conflicts caused by the rivaling factions of Rome and intrusions from the Holy Roman Emperor. During this time, seven popes reigned in Avignon, all of French nationality. When Clement decided to move to Avignon, the city did not belong to the French crown, but rather to Charles II D’Anjou, king of Naples and count of Provence. In 1348, Queen Joanna I of Sicily, countess of Provence, sold the city to the papacy, an ownership that lasted until 1791, when Avignon was incorporated into the French territory. Under the popes, Avignon flourished. Its population increased to approximately 40,000 inhabitants, and the presence of the pontiffs ensured a building and economic boom. Cardinals built their palaces there, and in 1335, the Papal Palace was also constructed. This prosperity attracted such artists as Simone Martini and literary figures the likes of Petrarch, both of whom benefited immensely from papal patronage during their stay in the city.