ARTH 200 Assignments: Spring, 2010

A painting ought to change as you look at it, and as you think, talk, and write about it. The story it tells will never be more than part of the stories you and others tell about it. The stories --or interpretations, as they are sometimes called--come in different genres, such as the formalist, the iconographic, the connoisseurial, the genetic, the conservatorial, the contextual, and various mixtures of these and other genres.

Harry Berger, Jr.. Fictions of the Pose, p. 107.

Thursday, January 21: As a way of introducing our discussion I want to consider Velazquez's Las Meninas.

Tuesday, January 26: watch video entitled Behind the Mask which explores the social context of "art" in the Dogon tradition, an African tribal culture. Review questions associated with video.

Thursday, January 28: discussion of the Dogon video. In preparation for the discussion respond in your journal to the questions accompanying the video.

Tuesday, February 2: take one of the questions accompanying the video and write a short 2-3 page paper responding to it. Bring this paper to class to workshop.

A major monument of Early Medieval Art is the Book of Kells. This manuscript is the text of the Christian Gospels. It was made in a monastery in the British Isles, perhaps in southern Scotland or Ireland. One of the most famous pages in the manuscript is the so-called Chi Rho page. Chi Rho are the Greek letters that are the monogram of Christ. The page presents the beginning of the 18th verse of the first chapter of the Book of Matthew. This work presents us a useful focus to the function of art in the context of a monastery. We will use it to the explore the act of "making" art and its use and meaning in the life of the monastery. Review the webpages I have developed to explore the context of Hiberno Saxon Art and the Book of Kells in particular.

I have asked you to consider the Chi Rho page from the Book of Kells in relationship to the following series of questions that we will be regularly asking over the course of the semester:

1) What is the role or function of the "work of art" in the social context?

2) What is the position of the artist in the social context?

3) What is the conception or nature of making "art" in the social context?

4) How do your answers to the first three questions help you to gain an understanding of the particular culture's conception of reality?

Thursday, February 4: First Paper Due: Turn in your revision of your short paper (2-3 pages) on Dogon art. The sculptural decorations of the facades of Romanesque and Gothic churches presented a way for expressing the authority of the church in medieval society. The west facade of Chartres cathedral contains the so-called Royal Portals, a mid twelfth century sculptural program. Review the webpage introducing the Royal Portals that I have prepared for my Medieval Art course. Made by teams of anonymous craftsmen, the Royal Portals becomes a good way of understanding the position of the artist in the social and political order of medieval society.

Tuesday, February 9: In the later Middle Ages artistic production was dominated by the development of guilds. The artist was understood to be a craftsman trained in a trade like any other industry. Review the page entitled Medieval Guilds and Craft Production. At the end of webpage you will find excerpts from Cennino Cennini's Craftsman's Handbook. Read this carefully and try to articulate the values or nature of the craftsman as articulated by Cennini. Compare this to your preconceptions about the role of the artist. (Life of St. Denis)

Thursday, February 11: Artist's contracts give a sense of the priorities of the artists and patrons. Review the examples that I have included on the page entitled Samples of Artists' Contracts . In your journal write down a list of what you understand to be the priorities.

Images for class

Thursday, February 18:

January page from the Trés riches heures. Painted by the Limbourg Brothers who were court painters for John Duke of Berry.

In the later Middle Ages and Early Renaissance with the development of the courts of Europe, the role of court artist presented a professional and social alternative for the artist. Review webpage entitled Court Artist. Jan Van Eyck was the court painter for Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy. Review the webpage dedicated to Van Eyck as Court Artist.

Tuesday, March 2: We will continue our discussion of the court artist. I want to focus principally on Jan Van Eyck as court artist. I also want to bring into the mix a comparison to a painting by a contemporary of Jan Van Eyck. Rogier van der Weyden was the town painter of Brussels. In considering this comparison, think back to the excerpts of Cenino Cennini's Craftman's Handbook found at the end of the page entitled Medieval Guilds and Craft Production.

Jan van Eyck, The Rolin Madonna, c. 1435.	Rogier van der Weyden, St. Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1435. Review webpage I have created for this painting.
Robert Campin /Master of Flémalle, Merode Altarpiece, c. 1425-28.

Thursday, March 4: A major moment in the history of the Italian Renaissance was the competition for the commission to do the doors for the Baptistry of Florence. There remain two of the competition panels, one by Ghiberti who got the commission and the other by Brunelleschi. Review the webpage I have dedicated to the Baptistry Competition. I have included on this webpage two contemporary literary accounts of the competition, one written by Ghiberti himself and the other part of a biography of Brunelleschi. Careful reading of these accounts provides us interesting insights into two artists' attitudes towards art and the role of the artist in society. On the basis of your study of this material, I want you to play the role of a judge in the competition and choose who you would award the commission to. What is important is not getting the right answer, but how you justify your decision which should be based on both the visual evidence of the panels themselves and what you have been able to glean about the attitudes of the respective artists.

Tuesday, March 9: we will continue our discussion of the Baptistry Competition. Time permitting, I want to go on to a discussion of a remarkable group of figures made for the niches of a Florentine building, Orsanmichele. I have included on the webpage the following quotation written by Richard Turner in his book on Florentine Art:

Between 1410 and 1425 a wholly new public sculpture arose in Florence, whose premisses are a compelling physical and pyschological presences, figures intended to be "in dialogue" with the people in the streets below. These sculptures seem to possess a larger than life heroism, breaking out from the niche-constricted passivity of sculpture on Gothic cathedral facades, from which they evolved. This radically new sculpture pre-dates any comparable innovations in architecture and painting, and unequivocally constitutes the point of departure for a new art in Florence.

Turner among other projects is referring to the figures from Orsanmichele. Judge Turner's statement in relationship to the works especially by Donatello ( St Mark and St. George). Review the following pages A.C. Crombie excerpts and Renaissance Conceptions of Man. Pay special attention to the comparison between the jamb figures of Chartres Cathedral and the St. George by Donatello. Also read carefully the excerpts from Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man.

Thursday, March 11: Fifteenth century Florentine artists were concerned with transforming the social status of the artist. Read the following webpages: Anthony Blunt, "The Social Position of the Artist" .

Tuesday, March 16: Draft of Second Paper should be brought to class to workshop.

Thursday, March 18: Second Paper is due. We will turn to a consideration of the work of Michelangelo. Look at the images of the David and the Creation of Adam included on the webpage Renaissance conceptions of Man. Read the excerpts of Vasari's biography of Michelangelo. Read also Selected Poems of Michelangelo.