Name: Michelle Ann M.

Espinosa
School: Davao Central College, Inc.
GE Course: Art Appreciation

1. In El Grecos Christ Driving the Traders from the temple, how is this religious
scene depicted different than the Renaissance?

Based on a popular theme in Biblical art - the Cleansing of the Temple - Christ
driving the Traders from the Temple is one of El Greco's best-known religious
paintings and a major work of Catholic Counter-Reformation art from the end of the
16th century. Christ driving the Traders from the Temple depicts the story of the
Cleansing or Purification of the Temple, which occurs in all four Gospels: Matthew
21:1217; Mark 11:1519; Luke 19:4548; and John 2:1316.
Known for his uniquely Mannerist style, El Greco used jarring lines, confused
space, and illogical lighting in this composition, contributing to the atmosphere of
anger and disruption. Stylistically, Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches
influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such
as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and early Michelangelo. Where High Renaissance
art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such
qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally
elegant.
The painting is dominated by the central figure of Christ. On the left, we see the
merchants; on the right, the Apostles. In the background, there are two stone bas-
reliefs which alluding to the twin themes of punishment and redemption: the relief on
the left shows the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise (signalling the
expulsion of the merchants); the one on the right illustrates the Sacrifice of
Abraham's son Isaac (foretelling the sacrifice of Christ himself on the cross). But
Christ remains the key figure, inflicting punishment on the traders with his right hand,
while signalling reassurance to the apostles with his left. n the lower-right corner, El
Greco portrayed the four artists he regarded as the giants of the Renaissance: Titian,
Michelangelo, Giulio Clovio (a miniaturist and manuscript illuminator), and Raphael.

2. In your own words, how did Mannerism generally differ from Italian Renaissance
art?

Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to,

the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,
and early Michelangelo. Where Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance,
and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in
compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant.

3. List the Baroque artists

Some of the famous artist during the Baroque art movement are
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Diego Velzquez
Peter Paul Rubens
Johannes Vermeer
Artemisia Gentileschi

4. Why was there not an overwhelming number of landscape paintings during the
Baroque period?

There was not an overwhelming number of landscape paintings during the

Baroque Period because the movement focuses on Absolutism, the Counter
Reformation which was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to
the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent, and Catholic
Revival. Most of the paintings were conceptions of monarchy, iconography, handling
of paint, and compositions as well as the depiction of space and movement.

5. Describe the work of Peter Paul Rubens in general.

Rubens's style combined a knowledge of Renaissance art with lush brushwork and a
lively realism. He produced some of the most well known pieces of his time, and was
a proponent of the Baroque style, and he was well known as a trusted court painter,
with ties to several diplomatic figures of the time. There is no artist of any era with a
feel for the physicality and sensuality of paint, who hasn't been affected by Rubens in
one way or another.

His nudes of various biblical and mythological women are especially well-
known. Painted in the Baroque tradition of depicting women as soft-bodied, passive,
and highly sexualized beings, his nudes emphasize the concepts of fertility, desire,
physical beauty, temptation, and virtue. Skillfully rendered, these paintings of nude
women were undoubtedly created to appeal to his largely male audience of
patrons.Additionally, Rubens was quite fond of painting full-figured women, giving
rise to terms like 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' (sometimes 'Rubensesque'). And
while the male gaze features heavily in Rubens's paintings of females generally, he
brings multi-layered allegory and symbolism to his portraits.

Rubens's depiction of males is equally stylized, replete with meaning, and quite
the opposite of his female subjects. His male nudes represent highly athletic and
large mythical or biblical men. Unlike his female nudes, most of his male nudes are
depicted partially nude, with sashes, armour, or shadows shielding them from being
completely unclothed. These men are twisting, reaching, bending, and grasping: all
of which portrays his male subjects engaged in a great deal of physical, sometimes
aggressive, action. The concepts Rubens artistically represents illustrate the male as
powerful, capable, forceful and compelling.
6. Describe Rubens Glory of St. Ignatius of Loyola. How is it depicted? What is
happening in the painting?
The real walls of the church continue in painted illusion until vast open space is
seen in the centre of the painting, with the saint situated in glory with the Blessed
Trinity.

The three stages of the spiritual life as described by St. John of the Cross and St.
Teresa of vila, are dramatised in the painting.

On the foreground edges of the painting, giants, representing ignorance, are

seen fighting a losing battle with angels, who throw the former into Hell. This
represents the purgative stage of the spiritual life, in which faults and sins are
avoided.

Angels bringing the fire of illumination to the faithful, and helping them climb
upward, represent the illuminative way, in which the faithful grow closer to God by
accepting light concerning their state of soul, and turn more and more to Him and
their practice of virtue. Deep despair is illuminated by inspirational insights into the
ways of God among men.

The last stage of the spiritual life is the unitive, in which the soul becomes one
with God. It is represented in the painting by St. Ignatius united with the Blessed
Trinity in the centre of the ceiling, where is situated the vanishing point of the
perspective lines.

By the skilful use of linear perspective, light, and shade, he made the great
barrel-vault of the nave of the church into an idealised aula from which is seen the
reception of St. Ignatius into the opened heavens.

7. What does Rubens Glory of St. Ignatius of Loyola say about Rubens religious
views and that of Baroque art in general? Explain.

Rubens religious views and Baroque art style was both encouraged by
the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation. The art at that time should
communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement.
Counter-Reformation promoted religion and glorified monarchy the artistic element of
the revival of spiritual life in the Catholic Church

8. What is symbolic about the subject and content of Rembrandts the anatomy
Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp? Explain

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp was from an event that can be
dated to 31 January 1632: the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was
official City Anatomist. This was a painting of public dissection of criminals once a
year.
9. In your opinion, why is Rembrandts night watch considered not just Rembrandts
masterpiece, but also a symbol of the height of the Dutch Golden age in the 17 th
century?

Rembrandts Night Watch' is the epitome of the Dutch Golden Age because th
painting tells the viewers about life, wealth and expectations of citizens who lived in the
Dutch Republic during the seventeenth century. It depicts independence and freedom.

10. Explain what is unique about Jan Vermeers work.

Vermeer may have first executed his paintings tonally like most painters of his
time, using either monochrome shades of grey ("grisaille") or a limited palette of
browns and greys ("dead coloring"), over which he would apply more saturated
colors (reds, yellows and blues) in the form of transparent glazes. No drawings have
been positively attributed to Vermeer, and his paintings offer few clues to preparatory
methods.

Vermeer also specialized in domestic interior scenes of ordinary bourgeois life,

particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.
Vermeers painting focused on everyday life scenes from neighborhoods in the city of
Delft. His subject matter depicted ordinary people and narratives of domesticity in the
17th century.

11. How does Jan Vermeers Girl with a Pearl Earring compare to the Vincis Mona
Lisa?
Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" depicts a European girl wearing an exotic dress,
an oriental turban, and an improbably large pearl earring. It was his greatest
masterpiece, while Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of Lisa
Gherardini which has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most
written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.
Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is called the Mona Lisa of the North.

12. Vermeers The Milkmaid is symbolic of a change in the focus in painting in the
Baroque era. Explain how this piece is a stylistic change in art?
This painting has "perhaps, the most brilliant color scheme of his oeuvre", according
to the Essential Vermeer website. Already in the 18th century, English painter and
critic Joshua Reynolds praised the work for its striking quality. One of the distinctions
of Vermeer's palette, compared with his contemporaries, was his preference for the
expensive natural ultramarine (made from crushed lapis lazuli) where other painters
typically used the much cheaper azurite. Along with the ultramarine, lead-tin-yellow is
also a dominant color in an exceptionally luminous work (with a much less somber
and conventional rendering of light than any of Vermeer's previous extant
works). Depicting white walls was a challenge for artists in Vermeer's time, with his
contemporaries using various forms of gray pigment. Here the white walls reflect the
daylight with different intensities, displaying the effects of uneven textures on the
plastered surfaces. The artist here used white lead, umber and charcoal black.
Although the formula was widely known among Vermeer's contemporary genre
painters, "perhaps no artist more than Vermeer was able to use it so effectively",
according to the Essential Vermeer website. In contrast to Baroque style in which it
featured "exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a
kind of artistic sensationalism". Baroque art did not really depict the life style of the
people at that time; however, "closely tied to the Counter-Reformation, this style
melodramatically reaffirmed the emotional depths of the Catholic faith and glorified
both church and monarchy" of their power and influence.

13. Analyze Velazquezs Venus at her Mirror. What does this show about Velazquezs
focus and style?

The Venus at her Mirror, is a painting by Diego Velzquez, the leading artist of
the Spanish Golden Age. Completed between 1647 and 1651, and probably painted
during the artist's visit to Italy, the work depicts the goddess Venus in a sensual
pose, lying on a bed and looking into a mirror held by the Roman god of physical
love, her son Cupid.
Numerous works, from the ancient to the baroque, have been cited as sources of
inspiration for Velzquez. The nude Venuses of the Italian painters, such
as Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510) and Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538), were
the main precedents. In this work, Velzquez combined two established poses for
Venus: recumbent on a couch or a bed, and gazing at a mirror. She is often
described as looking at herself on the mirror, although this is physically impossible
since viewers can see her face reflected in their direction. This phenomenon is
known as the Venus effect. In a number of ways the painting represents a pictorial
departure, through its central use of a mirror, and because it shows the body of
Venus turned away from the observer of the painting.
Intertwining pink silk ribbons are draped over the mirror and curl over its frame. The
ribbon's function has been the subject of much debate by art historians; suggestions
include an allusion to the fetters used by Cupid to bind lovers, that it was used to
hang the mirror, and that it was used to blindfold Venus moments before. The critic
Julin Gallego found Cupid's facial expression to be so melancholy that he interprets
the ribbons as fetters binding the god to the image of Beauty, and gave the painting
the title "Amor conquered by Beauty".

14. What was Claude Lorrain trying to get across with his landscape works?

He painted a pastoral world of fields and valleys not distant from castles and towns.
If the ocean horizon is represented, it is from the setting of a busy port. Perhaps to
feed the public need for paintings with noble themes, his pictures include demigods,
heroes and saints, even though his abundant drawings and sketchbooks prove that
he was more interested in scenography.

15. Describe Domenichinos works. What is his main focus?

Domenichino's work, developed principally from Raphael's and the Carracci's
examples, mirrors the theoretical ideas of his friend Giovanni Battista Agucchi, with
whom the painter collaborated on a Treatise on Painting. The portrait of Agucchi in
York used to be attributed to Domenichino, but is now thought to be by Annibale
Carracci, another friend.
It represents what would become known as classic-idealist art, which aims to
surpass the imperfections of nature by developing an "Idea of Beauty" (idea del
bello) through the study and imitation of the best examples of ancient and
Renaissance art. Imitation in this sense is not copying but a creative process
inspired by rhetorical theory whereby revered models are not only emulated but
surpassed.

16. Pick one paintings of Caravaggios paintings and describe how its showcases the
naturalism that he is known for .

Basket of Fruit (1599)

is a still life painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da

Caravaggio (15711610), which hangs in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Ambrosian
Library), Milan.

It showcases naturalism because it shows a wicker basket perched on the edge of a

ledge. The basket contains a selection of summer fruit.

17. Why were female artist were restricted to painting portraits ,genre scenes, and
still life?

Unlike their male counterparts, women seeking professional careers in the fine arts
were restricted in their opportunities to receive an artistic education. Excluded from
receiving free training at the state-sponsored cole des Beaux-Arts until 1897,
women turned for instruction to the studios of established artists or to private
academies, which provided them with a reduced curriculum often at great expense.
While life drawing classes were an essential part of academic study, they were
denied to women in both public and private institutions through much of the century
as they were deemed inappropriate and even dangerous to the mores of proper
young ladies. Without access to nude models, female artists could not receive the
training necessary for the production of important works of art.

18. Name two female artists that were active during the Baroque era.

Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter
and printmaker who died in still unexplained circumstances at the early age of 27.
She was the most famous woman artist in early modern Bologna and established an
academy for other women artists.

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian pronunciation: [artemizja dentileski]; July 8, 1593

c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, today considered one of the most
accomplished painters in the generation following that of Caravaggio. In an era when
women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons, she
was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in
Florence.

She painted many pictures of strong and suffering women from myth and the Bible
victims, suicides, warriors. Her best-known work is Judith Slaying Holofernes (a well-
known medieval and baroque subject in art), which "shows the decapitation
of Holofernes, a scene of horrific struggle and blood-letting".That she was a woman
painting in the seventeenth century and that she was raped and participated in the
prosecution of the rapist long overshadowed her achievements as an artist. For
many years she was regarded as a curiosity. Today she is regarded as one of the
most progressive and expressive painters of her generation.