Dark ages and renaissance paintings

Middle Ages According to legend, Saint Veronica wiped the face of Christ with her veil (or sudarium) as he carried the cross to Calvary, and the veil retained an imprint of Jesus' likeness. This holy relic was revered as a true likeness of Christ and became a popular devotional image that artists reproduced in various media.

Middle Ages The Hours of the Virgin, the core service in the book of hours, opens with a devotional image of Mary that draws together the many varied aspects for which she is celebrated. Seated on the ground with the Christ Child, she represents the Madonna of Humility. The large gold mandorla and the blue cherubim that surround her display her as Queen of Heaven. She is also depicted as the description of the enigmatic Woman of the Apocalypse: "Robed with the sun, beneath her feet the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

Middle Ages From the early Middle Ages on, clergy, monks, and nuns celebrated the Divine Office of prayers, hymns, psalms, and readings at eight different times throughout the day, using the texts in a breviary. This breviary was made at the monastery of Montecassino in southern Italy, the cradle of Benedictine monasticism and an important center for book production in the Middle Ages. The book's small size suggests that it was designed for a monk's private use rather than for community use.

Middle Ages Mary's mother, Anna, rests in her bed shortly after giving birth to the Virgin, while several female attendants care for her. At the lower right, one of the women prepares a bath for Mary. As an angel fills the tub, the attendant cradles the Virgin and tests the bath water with her fingertips. The Birth of the Virgin was an important feast in the Middle Ages, and this image precedes prayers for the mass on that day.

Middle Ages In the Middle Ages, King David was considered to be the author of the psalms, leading to the frequent inclusion of the Tree of Jesse in psalters. In this manuscript, the tree is one of a series of full-page miniatures preceding the text of the psalms. The genealogical diagram of Christ's lineage from David's father Jesse was inspired by Isaiah's prophecy: "There will come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a flower will rise up out of his root." The rod (virga in Latin) was interpreted as the Virgin Mary (virge Maria in Latin) and the flower as Jesus. In this image, as was traditional in representations of this theme, Jesse appears as the root, from which sprouts a tree supporting the Virgin and Child. Above Jesse, two prophets hold scrolls with verses that were understood to refer to the Virgin. Along with two prophets whose scrolls were never filled in, they point towards the Virgin and Child. At the top of the tree, the Virgin presents an orb, symbol of the Messiah's dominion, while Jesus raises his hand in blessing.

Middle Ages In this miniature of the Lamentation, Jesus' twisting body faces the viewer as his lifeless limbs extend in front of the frame on three sides. The tender assistance of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist draws attention to Jesus' wounds, stimulating the viewer's meditation on his sacrifice. His wounds are graphically rendered as open gashes dripping with blood. The saturated primary colors of the frame and draperies further set off Jesus' pale, emaciated body. Behind the figures, the pink cross picks up the faint, glowing hues of his suffering body. The full-page Lamentation appears within a sequence of images retelling the Passion story in this book of hours, the most popular type of private devotional manuscript of the later Middle Ages. The miniature of the Virgin and John mourning over the body of Jesus was particularly appropriate to a culture interested in devotional practices. Inspired by a burgeoning literature describing his torments, pious individuals increasingly focused their meditations on Jesus' suffering.

Middle Ages By the late Middle Ages, personal prayer books or "books of hours" were extremely common, especially among the upper classes in Paris, a city renowned for its production of hand-illuminated books. The Poncher Hours is an unusual example of the degree to which books of hours could be highly personalized for the patron it was commissioned for--in this case, Denise Poncher, a young woman from an elite family whose father served as treasurer of wars for the French crown and whose uncle was bishop of Paris. What personalizes this book, which may have been given on the occasion of her wedding, are the many allusions to marriage and motherhood in the selection of specific texts and images, as well as an illustration that includes the bride herself and also a coat of arms combining the Poncher arms with those of her husband, Jean Brosset.

Renaissance According to artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was "so delighted when he saw curious heads, whether bearded or hairy, that he would follow anyone who had thus attracted his attention for a whole day, acquiring such a clear idea of him that when he went home he would draw the head as well as if the man had been present." Leonardo depicted the man's hair with his characteristic sfumato. The hatching lines slant downward from left to right, running in the natural direction for the left-handed artist. He made this caricature as one of a large series of head studies created in pairs. Years after the artist's death, collectors cut the pairs into individual drawings. Many later artists admired and copied Leonardo's caricatures, both in drawings and prints.

Renaissance Working in Florence along with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo in the first years of the 16th century, Fra Bartolommeo looked to the most lyrical, harmonious works of these artists in developing his own intimate style. The young Baccio della Porta came under the spell of the ardent Dominican reformer Savonarola, joining his order as Fra (Friar) Bartolommeo in 1500 and forsaking his artistic career for several years. Returning to painting in 1504, he invested this work with a new spirituality.

Renaissance Seamless integration of form and meaning is a hallmark of the High Renaissance, a brief moment when a timeless, classical style balanced the perceptual and the conceptual attractions of art. Raphael reached this point of perfect counterpoise after assimilating lessons from Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the art of ancient Rome—all of which we see reflected in The Alba Madonna.

Renaissance This cartoon shows the Lake of Gennesaret, better known as Lake Tiberias or the Sea of Galilee. Peter, still known as Simon at the time, has been fishing all night, but has caught nothing. Jesus asks Peter if he can address a crowd from his boat. Afterwards Jesus tells Peter to throw out his nets, which he does. When he hauls them back in, he is stunned to find them full of fish. Peter immediately joins Jesus, soon after followed by his mates James and John.

Renaissance For centuries the painting kept company with the Portrait of Pope Julius II, first at the Santa Maria del Popolo, then in private collections, and for a time their location was unknown. Their ownership, or provenance, has been difficult to unravel because of the number of copies of both paintings, the unclear ownership chain, misinformation and delay of publication of vital information.

Renaissance Saint George and the Dragon, one of two versions of the theme by the artist, belonged to a series of miniature panels that Raphael painted in Florence for the celebrated court of Urbino. A Roman soldier of Christian faith, Saint George saved the daughter of a pagan king by subduing a dragon with his lance; the princess then led the dragon to the city, where the saint killed it with his sword, prompting the king and his subjects to convert to Christianity.

Renaissance The image is ostensibly a portrait of Venetian Cardinal Pietro Bembo, Raphael's long-time friend. Raphael did make a black chalk drawing of Bembo during Bembo's visit to Urbino in 1506. The picture hung in Bembo's home for years before it disappeared.

Renaissance Saint Anthony was born Fernando Martins in Lisbon, Portugal. He was born into a wealthy family and by the age of fifteen asked to be sent to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, the then capital of Portugal. During his time in the Abbey, he learned theology and Latin.