= a room in a 

church where priests 

prepare for services 

and keep their 

vestments (ceremonial 

robes)

=

a shallow recess in 

a wall to display a 

statue

conversazione=

sacred 

conversation (not 

a story)

Holy Trinity

 is much more 

than a demonstration of 

Brunelleschi’s perspective or of 

the painter’s ability to 

represent fully modeled figures 

bathed in light. In this painting, 

Masaccio also powerfully 

conveyed one of the central 

tenets of Christian faith. The 

ascending pyramid of figures 

leads viewers from the despair 

of death to the hope of 

resurrection and eternal life 

through Christ’s crucifixion.”

Gardner’s Art Through the 

Ages (Thirteenth Edition

)

Sacristy: A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. In Anglicanism, it is usually known as the vestry. 

Niche : in architecture, decorative recess set into a wall for the purpose of displaying a statue, vase, font, or other object. Niches were used extensively in both interior and exterior walls by the architects of ancient Rome.

Contrapposto : Contrapposto is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane.

Linear Perspective: Linear or point-projection perspective is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye.

Pediment:A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns.

Coffers:A coffer in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.

Pilaster:In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function.

Capital : The broad section of the top of a pillar. 

Barrel Vault:A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance.

Sacra Conversazione:In art, a sacra conversazione, meaning holy conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child amidst a group of saints in a relatively informal grouping, as opposed to the more rigid and hierarchical compositions of earlier periods. 

Chiaroscuro:Chiaroscuro, in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.

Foreshortening:Linear or point-projection perspective is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. 

Sfumato: Sfumato is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. 

Martyrium:A martyrium or martyrion, plural martyria, sometimes anglicized martyry, is a church or shrine built over the tomb of a Christian martyr. 

Terribilitá: Terribilità, the modern Italian spelling, is a quality ascribed to his art that provokes terror, awe, or a sense of the sublime in the viewer. 

interest in perfect shapes and proportions)

2. Desire to combine classical forms with Christian beliefs

3. Understanding of contrapposto (weight distribution)

4. Linear perspective and understanding of how to depict things 

mathematically

5. Understanding of light source, modeling, atmospheric 

perspective

6. Beginning of use of oil paint in Italy with Mantegna and Bellini

7. Interest in balance, calm, order; pyramidal compositions

8. Mostly Christian subjects; some mythological

9. Influence of Northern Italy in love of pattern, detail, and ¾ view

Still looking to ancient architecture, sculpture, mythology, 

philosophy

Fresco, oil, marble

Religious (Christian) subjects, portraits, mythology/history

Sfumato, pyramidal compositions, ¾ pose, naturalism in human 

body and more complex poses

Idea of artist as genius; perfect proportions; elegance and 

perfection 

Venice: emphasis on mood, light, color, nature

The Virgin of the Rocks

. ca. 1485 

2. Leonardo da Vinci. 

The Last Supper

. ca. 1495–98 

3. Leonardo da Vinci, 

Mona Lisa

, ca. 1503–05 

4. Donato Bramante. Tempietto, Rome. 1502–11

5. Michelangelo. 

Pietà

. ca. 1498 

6. Michelangelo. 

David

. 1501–04 

7. Michelangelo. C

eiling fresco 

of Sistine Chapel, 

Vatican, Rome 1508-12

8. 

Raphael. 

La Belle Jardiniere

. 1507

9. Raphael. 

School of Athens

, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican, 1508-11

10. Giorgione. 

The Tempest

. ca. 1505 

11. Titian. 

Man with a Blue Sleeve

. ca. 1520

12. Titian, 

Madonna with Members of the Pesaro family

. 1526. 

, The Sacrifice of Isaac

, 1401-03

Filippo Brunelleschi. 

Dome

 of Florence cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore). 1420–36 

Donatello. 

St. Mark

. ca. 1411–13 (for Or San Michele) 

Donatello. 

David

. ca. 1420s–60s

Lorenzo Ghiberti, 

The Story of Jacob and Esau

, Baptistery, Florence, c. 1435 

Masaccio.

The Holy Trinity

 with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors.

 ca. 1425

Masaccio. 

The 

Tribute

 Money

. ca. 1425 

Domenico Veneziano. 

Madonna

 and Child with Saints

. ca. 1445

Paolo Uccello, 

Battle of San Romano

, c. 1438

Fra Angelico. 

Annunciation

. ca. 1440–45 

Donatello, 

Mary Magdalen

, c. 1430-50

Domenico Ghirlandaio, 

An Old Man and  Young Boy

, c. 1480

Sandro Botticelli. 

Primavera

. ca. 1482  

Andrea Mantegna, 

St. 

Sebastian

. ca. 1450.

Andrea Mantegna, Camera Picta, c. 1465-74

Giovanni Bellini 

St

. Francis in the Desert

. ca. 1480 

Giovanni Bellini. 

Madonna

 and Saints

. 1505 

Pietro Perugino. 

The Delivery of the 

Keys

. 1482 

1. Michelangelo. St. Peter’s, Rome, seen from the west. 1546–64; 

2. Giulio Romano, interior courtyard façade of Palazzo del Te, Mantua, 

Italy 1525-35

3. Michelangelo and Bartolommeo Ammanati. Vestibule of the 

Laurentian Library, Florence. Begun 1523; stairway designed 1558–59

4. Rosso Fiorentino. 

The Descent from the Cross

. 1521

5. Jacopo da Pontormo. 

Pietà/ Or Descent from the Cross

. ca. 1526–28 

6. Michelangelo. 

The Last Judgment 

. 1534–41 

7. Parmigianino. 

The Madonna with the Long Neck 

. ca. 1535

8. Titian. 

Rape of Europa

. 1559–62 

9. Paolo Veronese. 

The Feast in the House of Levi 

. 1573 

10. Jacopo Tintoretto. 

The Last Supper 

. 1594

11. Bronzino, 

Portrait of a Young Man

, c. 1530

12. Giovanni Bologna. 

The Rape of the Sabine Woman

. Completed 1583 

13. Sofonisba Anguissola, 

Self-Portrait

, 1556

Drama

Energy and movement

Dynamic balance (diagonals, curves, 

countercurves, etc.)

High contrast (dark & light, etc.)

Emotion

Element of time

Viewer involvement

Naturalism of the Renaissance

• Counter-Reformation

• Art as a means to conversion

• Caravaggio introduces tenebrism and influences 

Baroque art for the rest of the century

• Velazquez carries on Titian’s technique of the 

loose brushstroke.

Baroque Art in Italy and Spain

1. Caravaggio. 

The Calling of St. Matthew

, 1599–1600

2. Caravaggio, 

The Conversion of St. Paul

, Cerasi Chapel, 

3. Artemisia Gentileschi. 

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

. 

ca. 1625

4. Artemisia Gentileschi. 

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura). 

ca. 

1638–39

5. Carlo Maderno. Façade of St. 

Peter’s

, Rome. 1607-12 

6. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Colonnade for St. Peter’s Basilica, designed 1657

7. Gianlorenzo Bernini. Baldacchino. 1624–33. At crossing. St. Peter’s, Rome

8. Francesco 

Borromini

. Façade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome ca. 1665

–67

9. Gianlorenzo Bernini. 

David

. 1623 

10. Gianlorenzo Bernini. 

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa,

 1645–52 

11. Francisco de Zurbarán. 

St. Serapion

. 1628

12. Juan Sánchez Cotán. 

Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber

. c 1602 

13. Diego Velázquez. 

Juan de Pareja

. 1650 

14. Diego Velázquez. 

The Maids of Honor

. 1656

• Patronage more and more from rising middle-

class merchants, bankers, and other private 

collectors

• New subject matter: portraits, views of home 

interiors, still-lifes, 

genre scenes 

(depiction of 

everyday life) and landscapes

• Non-religious art with moral messages: vanitas 

symbols and memento mori themes

The Raising of the Cross

. 1610–11

Anthony van Dyck. 

Portrait of Charles I Hunting

. ca. 1635

Jan Steen. 

The Feast of St. Nicholas

. ca. 1660–65 

Clara Peeters

, 

Still 

Life with Nuts, Candy and Flowers

, 1611

Willem Claesz. Heda. 

Still Life with Oysters, a Roemer, a Lemon, 

and a Silver 

Bowl

. 1634

Rachel Ruysch. 

Flower Still Life

. After 1700

Jacob van Ruisdael. 

Bleaching Grounds Near Haarlem

. ca. 1670 

Frans Hals. 

Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Civic Guard

. 

1616

Frans Hals. 

The Jolly Toper

. ca. 1628–30 

Judith Leyster. 

Self-Portrait

. ca. 1633

Judith Leyster. 

The Proposition

. 1631 

Rembrandt van Rijn, 

The Night Watch

,1642 

Rembrandt van Rijn. 

Self-Portrait

. 1658 

Rembrandt van Rijn. 

The Hundred Guilder Print

. ca. 1647 

Jan Vermeer. 

Woman Holding a Balance

. ca. 1664

Jan Vermeer, 

Girl with the Pearl Earring

, 1665

• Absolute power

• The Royal Academy is introduced

• “Ideal” and “Idyllic” landscapes

Joseph the Carpenter

. ca. 1642 

Nicolas Poussin, 

Et in 

Arcadia

 Ego

, 1637-38

Nicolas Poussin. 

Landscape with St. John on Patmos

. 1640

Claude Lorrain, 

A Pastoral Landscape

. ca. 1648 

Le Nain Brothers, 

Peasant

 Family in an Interior

, c. 1640

Hyacinthe Rigaud. 

Portrait of Louis XIV

. 1701 

Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Louis Le Vau, and Charles Le Brun, Galerie 

des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), 

Palace

 of Versailles. Begun 1678

Catholic Counter-Reformation - Counter-Reformation

• Movement in the Roman Catholic 

Church to offset the Protestant 

Reformation; 

• Papacy patronized art on a large 

scale, hoping to make Rome the 

most beautiful city “for the greater 

glory of God and the Church.”

Tenebrism - Tenebrism, from Italian tenebroso ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image.

Colossal Order

Genre Scene

Vanitas symbol

Memento Mori

Baroque Classicism

Grand Manner

Intellectual Style

Ideal Landscape

Idyllic Landscape

aristocratic tastes

conspicuous leisure

pastel colors

subjects of love, flirtation

fantasy

private, intimate scenes

lush landscapes

France

Nicolas Pineau. Room in the Hôtel de Varengeville, ca. 1735

Jean-Antoine Watteau. 

A 

Pilgrimage

 to Cythera

. 1717

Jean-Antoine Watteau. 

Gersaint’s Signboard

. 1721 

François Boucher. 

Portrait of Madame de Pompadour

. 1756 

Jean-Honoré 

Fragonard

. 

The 

Swing

. 1767 

Jean-Siméon Chardin. 

Soap Bubbles

. ca. 1733

Italy

Rosalba Carriera. 

Charles Sackville, 

ca. 1730

Canaletto

, 

Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice

, c. 1730

England

Thomas 

Gainsborough

, 

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews

, c. 1750 

William Hogarth. 

The 

Rake’s

 Progress

. ca. 1734

Poussinistes vs. Rubenistes

The Grand Tour

Moral Narratives

2 types of revolutions: 

Industrial Revolution (began in Britain c. 1760), 

Political revolutions (U.S. in 1776, France in 1789)

Time of transitions:

Rule by aristocracy to democracy

Agriculture to industry

Rural life to urban life

Linearity 

Tight brushwork 

Even lighting 

Sculptural forms 

Classical architecture, figures, dress, and themes

Serious, moralistic subjects

Strong hero figures

Austerity and reduction of form

Nationalism expressed through patriotism

The 

Oath

 of the Horatii

. 1784

Jacques-Louis David. 

The 

Death

 of Marat

. 1793 

Angelica Kauffmann, 

Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures

, 

ca. 1785

Benjamin West. 

The Death of General Wolfe

. 1770 (America)

Jean-Baptiste Greuze. 

The Village Bride

. 1761

Jean-Antoine Houdon. 

Voltaire Seated

. 1781 

Jacques-Louis David. 

The 

Oath

of the Horatii

. 1784

Jacques-Louis David. 

The 

Death

of Marat

. 1793 

Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. 

Self-Portrait with 

Daughter

. 1789 

Benjamin West. 

The Death of General Wolfe

. 1770 (America)

Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, 1772 (America)

The Enlightenment

Pompeii discovery

The Grand Tour

Traditional hero figure

Royal Academy opens in England

Rousseau’s “natural poor”

French Revolution of 1789

Works to Know (Romanticism)

:

Spain:

Francisco Goya, 

The 

Family

 of Charles IV,

 1800

Francisco 

Goya

, 

The Third of May, 1808,

 1814

Francisco Goya, 

Saturn Devouring his Son

,  1819-1823

England:

John Henry Fuseli. 

Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent

. 1790

William Blake. 

Elohim Creating Adam,

 1795 

John Constable. 

The Haywain

 (Landscape: Noon)

, 1821

JMWTurner, 

Snowstorm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps,

 1812

JMW Turner, 

The 

Slave

 Ship

, 1840

Germany:

Caspar David Friedrich, 

Monk by the Sea

, c. 1810

Caspar David Friedrich. 

Abbey

 in an Oak Forest

, 1809–10

America:

Thomas Cole. 

The 

Oxbow

 , 1836

France: 

Jean-Auguste-Dominique

Ingres

. 

Portrait of Napoleon on His Imperial Throne

. 1806 

Antoine-Jean Gros, 

Napoleon

in the Pesthouse at Jaffa, 

1804

Géricault, 

The 

Raft

 of the Medusa

, 1818–19

Eugène 

Delacroix

, 

Scenes from the Massacre at Chios,

 1824

Eugène Delacroix,

Liberty

Leading the 

People

, 1830

Eugène Delacroix, 

Death of 

Sardanapalus

, 1827 

Burial at Ornans

. 1849–50

Gustave Courbet. 

The Stone Breakers

. 1849

Rosa Bonheur. 

Plowing in the Nivernais. 

1849

Édouard Manet. 

The 

Luncheon on the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe).

 1863

Edgar Degas. 

The Dance Class, 

1885

Thomas Eakins, 

Max Schmitt in a Single Scull

, 1871 (Realism in America

on-the-spot outdoor scenes

fleeting moments, impermanence

atmosphere, light, colored shadow

modern urban life, leisure activities

upper middle class/nouveau riche

times of day/year

look of ukiyo-e (Japanese prints



Escaping modernity



What do the Post-Impressionists share in common with the Impressionists? Where do 

they vary?



Symbolism: Emphasized world of dreams, moods, fears, and desires over the everyday, 

contemporary world; dissatisfaction with modernity



Art Nouveau (1890-1900): Mostly architecture and decorative arts; characterized by 

abstract organic forms; influenced by William Morris’s Arts and Crafts Movement

 removing the naturalistic description function from color

: deconstructing space; showing more than one viewpoint at the same time; 

influence of Cezanne

Synthetic Cubism:

 building up images; use of collage; “real” vs. illusion

dissatisfaction with industrial modern life; looking to 

German past with woodblock prints

looking for spirituality and “universal truths;” 

Abstract art vs. non-objective art, non-narrative art, non-representational art

sought to reject the past and bring Italy into the future; interest in new 

technology, speed, and movement

“supremacy of feeling;” pro-Russian revolution; wanted to create a new 

vocabulary and language of art removed from the elitist past

Looking for new inspiration: African Art, Cycladic Art, Folk Art, children’s art, stained glass

 Reaction against World War I; focus on absurdity, element of chance

(Enlightenment values of logic and reason only lead to war); challenged status quo in art, 

culture, etc.

: 1930’s; element of chance (like Dada); randomness related to dream states; 

juxtaposition of unrelated objects; exploration of the subconscious mind; dream images; 

stream of consciousness

Dutch movement; sought to create utopian environment through 

geometric abstraction; sought universal order that would make nationalism obsolete;

also called International Style and Neo-Plasticism

Representational; local (Midwest) imagery

Influenced by Surrealism

Art about emotion, myth, universal forces

Brought attention to the paint on the canvas (rather than hiding)

Brought NYC to the center of the art world

Influenced by Surrealism

Art about emotion, myth, universal forces

Brought attention to the paint on the canvas (rather than hiding)

Brought NYC to the center of the art world

Improvisation; unpredictable

Similar to Dada in love of ready-made, common objects

Sought a mass-produced look—accessible 

Interested in mass media and pop culture

Reduced to most basic parts

“What you see is what you see”—denial of meaning

Interactive

Out of the gallery—less elitist

Not collectable