The History of Art in 50 Paintings (Illustrated) E-Book

Delphi Classics

• Herausgeber: Delphi Classics Ltd
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Delphi Masters of Art
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 163

Beschreibung

This stunning eBook is a concise illustrated guide, evaluating the masterpieces that have changed the course of art as we know it. Whether an art novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this eBook offers you an intriguing overview of the world’s most famous and iconic artworks. Illustrated with over 500 full colour images, it builds upon Delphi’s groundbreaking Masters of Art Series — the world’s first digital e-Art books. Through the analysis of 50 famous and innovative paintings, the eBook charts the shifting movements and styles of Western art, from the early beginnings of the Italian Renaissance to the daring wonders of the twentieth century. (Version 1)

* Includes reproductions of art’s most monumental paintings
* Concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information on each artist and artwork
* Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore the celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional print art books
* Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders
* Easily locate the paintings you wish to view with a linked contents table
* Chart the history of art in chronological order

Please note: due to existing copyrights, Picasso and Matisse are unable to appear in the eBook.

CONTENTS:

SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF JOACHIM by Giotto
THE EXPULSION FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN by Masaccio
THE ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT by Jan van Eyck
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST by Piero della Francesca
PRIMAVERA by Sandro Botticelli
THE LAST SUPPER by Leonardo da Vinci
SELF PORTRAIT, 1498 by Albrecht Dürer
PORTRAIT OF DOGE LEONARDO LOREDAN by Giovanni Bellini
MONA LISA by Leonardo da Vinci
THE LAST JUDGMENT by Michelangelo
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS by Raphael
SLEEPING VENUS by Giorgione
ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN by Titian
THE PEASANT WEDDING by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
THE LAST SUPPER by Tintoretto
CALLING OF SAINT MATTHEW by Caravaggio
JUDITH SLAYING HOLOFERNES by Artemisia Gentileschi
ET IN ARCADIA EGO by Nicolas Poussin
THE EMBARKATION OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA by Claude Lorrain
LAS MENINAS by Diego Velázquez
PEACE AND WAR by Sir Peter Paul Rubens
THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING by Johannes Vermeer
SELF PORTRAIT WITH PALETTE AND BRUSHES by Rembrandt van Rijn
THE ENTRANCE TO THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE by Canaletto
THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT by William Hogarth
THE SWING by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
THE BLUE BOY by Thomas Gainsborough
OATH OF THE HORATII by Jacques-Louis David
THE NUDE MAJA by Francisco de Goya
THE HAY WAIN by John Constable
WANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG by Caspar David Friedrich
LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE by Eugène Delacroix
THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE by J. M. W. Turner
OLYMPIA by Édouard Manet
IMPRESSION, SUNRISE by Claude Monet
PROSERPINE by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
THE DANCING CLASS by Edgar Degas
NOCTURNE IN BLACK AND GOLD: THE FALLING ROCKET by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
AT THE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
MADAME X by John Singer Sargent
STILL LIFE: VASE WITH TWELVE SUNFLOWERS by Vincent van Gogh
THE SCREAM by Edvard Munch
WHERE DO WE COME FROM? WHAT ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING? by Paul Gauguin
THE LARGE BATHERS by Paul Cézanne
THE KISS by Gustav Klimt
PORTRAIT OF WALLY by Egon Schiele
SMALL PLEASURES by Wassily Kandinsky
SEATED NUDE by Amedeo Modigliani
RED BALLOON by Paul Klee
TABLEAU I by Piet Mondrian

Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set

Leseprobe

The History of Art

in 50 Paintings

Contents

Foreword

Scenes from the Life of Joachim by Giotto

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Masaccio

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck

The Baptism of Christ by Piero Della Francesca

Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

Self Portrait, 1498 by Albrecht Dürer

Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

The School of Athens by Raphael

Sleeping Venus by Giorgione

Assumption of the Virgin by Titian

The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Last Supper by Tintoretto

Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio

Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

Et in Arcadia Ego by Nicolas Poussin

The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba by Claude Lorrain

Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez

Peace and War by Sir Peter Paul Rubens

The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

Self Portrait with Palette and Brushes by Rembrandt Van Rijn

The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice by Canaletto

The Marriage Settlement by William Hogarth

The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough

Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David

The Nude Maja by Francisco de Goya

The Hay Wain by John Constable

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

The Fighting Temeraire by J. M. W. Turner

Olympia by Édouard Manet

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet

Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Dancing Class by Edgar Degas

Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket by James Abbott Mcneill Whistler

At the Moulin de La Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Madame X by John Singer Sargent

Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? by Paul Gauguin

The Large Bathers by Paul Cézanne

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Wally by Egon Schiele

Small Pleasures by Wassily Kandinsky

Seated Nude by Amedeo Modigliani

Red Balloon by Paul Klee

Tableau I by Piet Mondrian

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2017

Version 1

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Masters of Art Series

The History of Art

in 50 Paintings

By Delphi Classics, 2017

COPYRIGHT

The History of Art in 50 Paintings

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 9781786565082

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

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Foreword

‘Art is long, life is short’, goes the old adage, and arranging a limited number of paintings to represent the numerous developments and styles of Western art is by all standards a Herculean task. However, it is the aim of this digital edition to present to the general reader a comprehensive account of fifty of the most celebrated and influential paintings of art history. From the earliest beginnings of the Italian Renaissance to the abstract modernism of the twentieth century, this is an intriguing journey exploring the many shifts and innovations of the art world. Each of the fifty paintings is introduced with a concise explanation of its author, its genesis and interesting contextual information connected to the artwork.  Following the painting’s introduction, a full-size reproduction plate will follow, along with several ‘detail’ plates and other illustrations associated with the painting and featured artist.

So, settle back and relax, as we summon before your eReader screen the History of Art in 50 Paintings…

Scenes from the Life of Joachim by Giotto

Around 1305 Giotto (1266-1337), a Florentine painter of the late Middle Ages, regarded by many as the father of European painting and the first of the great Italian masters, produced his most influential work, the painted decoration of the interior of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Enrico degli Scrovegni commissioned the chapel to serve as a family worship and burial space, even though his parish church was nearby; its construction caused some concern among the clerics at the Eremitani church next door. The chapel is externally a very plain building of pink brick, constructed next to an older palace that Scrovegni was restoring for himself. The palace, now gone, and the chapel were on the site of a Roman arena, for which reason it is commonly known as the Arena Chapel. It has been suggested that Enrico commissioned the chapel as penitence for his sin of usury, which at the time was considered unjust. Dante himself accused Enrico’s father of the occupation and condemned him in his Divine Comedy. 

The theme of the decoration is Salvation and there is an emphasis on the Virgin Mary, as the chapel is dedicated to the Annunciation and to the Virgin of Charity. As is common in similar projects in medieval Italy, the west wall is dominated by the Last Judgement. The cycle is divided into 37 scenes, arranged around the lateral walls in three tiers, starting in the upper register with the story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, and continuing with the story of Mary. The Life of Jesus occupies two registers. The Last Judgment fills the entire pictorial space of the counter-façade.

Much of the blue in the fresco has been worn away by time, because Scrovegni ordered that the expensive pigment ultramarine blue should be painted on top of the already dry fresco (secco fresco) to preserve its brilliance. For this reason it has disintegrated faster than the other colours that have been fastened within the plaster of the fresco. An example of this decay can clearly be seen on the robe of Christ as he sits on the donkey.

The six scenes concerning the story of Joachim and Anne, located in the top tier on the right wall, narrate how Joachim was expelled from the temple due to his childlessness, explaining how the angel appeared to Anne with news she would bear a child. The third image tells how Joachim made a sacrificial offering that was pleasing to God. Next, an angel appears to him in a dream, announcing the arrival of a daughter named Mary. The series concludes with an illustration of how Joachim returns to Jerusalem, meeting Anne at the Golden Gate, where Mary is conceived by the embrace of Anne and her ageing husband.

Of particular note in the cycle, the Annunciation to St. Anne reveals Giotto’s blossoming development in the depiction of space. The three-dimensional rendering of the room provides depth for the image, achieving a sense of reality in the depiction of the scene. The interior and furnishings of the room are delicately portrayed, while the folds in the maid’s dress also evince a realistic style of representation.

Giotto’s style draws on the solid and classical sculpture of Arnolfo di Cambio. Unlike the work of the contemporary leading artists Cimabue and Duccio, Giotto’s figures are neither stylised nor elongated and they do not follow the Byzantine models so dominant in art that time. They are solidly three-dimensional, featuring faces and gestures based on close observation, and they are clothed in real-life garments that hang naturally and have form and weight, not swirling formalised drapery. Giotto was also renowned for his pioneering steps in foreshortening and representing characters facing inwards, with their backs towards the observer, thus creating the illusion of space.

The Scrovegni Chapel viewed from the entrance

Joachim among the Shepherds

Detail

Detail

Annunciation to St. Anne

Detail

Detail

Meeting at the Golden Gate

Detail

Statue of Giotto at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Masaccio

Masaccio (1401-1428) was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to the biographer Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation due to his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements, as well as for a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at the young age of twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death. Nevertheless, his brief career had a profound influence on the course of Western art. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point for the first time. He moved away from the Gothic style and elaborate ornamentation of artists like Gentile da Fabriano to a more naturalistic mode that employed perspective and chiaroscuro for greater realism.

In 1424 Masaccio was commissioned by the powerful and wealthy Felice Brancacci to execute a cycle of frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, along with fellow artist Masolino. The two artists worked simultaneously, beginning around 1425. The iconography of the fresco decoration is somewhat unusual; while the majority of the frescoes represent the life of St. Peter, two scenes, on either side of the threshold of the chapel space, depict the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve. As a whole the frescoes represent human sin and its redemption through the actions of Peter, the first Pope. The style of Masaccio’s scenes demonstrates the influence of Giotto especially. The figures are large and heavy, as emotions are expressed through faces and gestures; a strong impression of naturalism is conveyed throughout the paintings. Unlike Giotto, however, Masaccio uses linear and atmospheric perspective, directional light and chiaroscuro — the representation of form through light and colour without outlines. As a result, his frescoes are even more convincingly lifelike than those of his predecessor.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden presents a distressed Adam and Eve, chased from the garden by a threatening angel. Adam covers his entire face to express his shame, while Eve’s humiliation requires her to cover certain areas of her body. The fresco was a great influence on Michelangelo and his work in the Sistine Chapel. Art scholars have often noted that the shadows of the figures fall away from the chapel window, as if the figures are lit by the real sunlight — an additional stroke of verisimilitude indicating Masaccio’s innovative genius.

In September 1425 Masolino left the work and went to Hungary. It is not known if this was because of money quarrels with Felice or an artistic disagreement with Masaccio. It has also been supposed that Masolino planned this trip from the very beginning, and needed a close collaborator that could continue the work after his departure. But Masaccio left the frescoes unfinished in 1426 in order to respond to other commissions, probably coming from the same patron. However, it has also been suggested that the declining finances of Felice Brancacci were insufficient to pay for any further work, so the painter sought work elsewhere. Either way, the chapel was left unfinished, to be later completed by Filippino Lippi in the 1480’s.

Detail

Detail

Detail

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Self portrait — detail of St. Peter Raising the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned as First Bishop of Antioch, Brancacci Chapel, S. Maria del Carmine, Florence

The painting in situ

‘The Tribute Money’, another fresco by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel

‘Adam and Eve: Temptation and Banishment’ by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

Detail revealing Masaccio’s influence on the later artist

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck

Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges, who is now regarded as one of the most significant Northern Renaissance artists of the fifteenth century. Apart from the Ghent Altarpiece and the illuminated miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours, about twenty surviving paintings are confidently attributed to van Eyck, all dated between 1432 and 1439. The following painting, The Arnolfini Portrait,is celebrated for its complex iconography and innovative use of conventions that would inspire later generations of artists.

Van Eyck developed the technique of applying layer after layer of thin translucent glazes to create a painting with an intensity of both tone and colour. His compositions are remarkable for glowing colours and their acute realism. The artist took advantage of the longer drying time of oil paint, compared to tempera, to blend colours by painting wet-in-wet to achieve subtle variations in light and shade, heightening the illusion of three-dimensional forms. The medium of oil paint also permitted van Eyck to capture surface appearance and distinguish textures precisely. He also rendered the effects of both direct and diffuse light by showing the light from the window on the left reflected by various surfaces. Some art historians believe he used a magnifying glass in order to paint the minute details such as the individual highlights on each of the amber beads hanging beside the mirror.

The Arnolfini Portrait is a double portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini, a prosperous Italian banker, who had settled in Bruges, and his wife Giovanna Cenami, presented as standing side by side in the bridal chamber, facing towards the viewer. The husband proudly holds his wife’s hand, whilst the couple are surrounded in the restricted space by a range of symbols. The fruit to the left, placed on a low table, hints at original innocence before sin, representing the temptation of knowledge and the Fall of Man. Above the couple’s heads, the candle burns in broad daylight on one of the branches of an ornate copper chandelier, suggesting the strength of the nuptial flame. The small dog in the foreground is a typical symbol of fidelity and love. The marriage bed, with its brilliant red curtains, strongly connotes the physical side of the union.

However, the focal point of the painting is the mirror, which reflects two otherwise unseen figures as they cross the threshold of the room. They are the painter himself and a young man, doubtless arriving to act as witnesses to the marriage. The convex mirror allows a view of both the floor and the ceiling of the room, as well as the sky and the garden outside, both of which are otherwise scarcely visible through the side window. Therefore, the mirror acts as an alternative visual representation. The artist employs the mirror device in order to expand the limits of the space in an otherwise restricted composition. The technique would be used time and time again by later leading artists, most notably by Velázquez in Las Meninas, the famous group portrait of the Spanish Royal Family.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

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Portrait of a Man, believed by some to be Jan van Eyck, 1433, National Gallery, London

Jan van Eyck’s Berlin portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini, wearing a chaperon

The Baptism of Christ by Piero Della Francesca

The Early Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca (c. 1415-1492) was also known as a mathematician and geometer, though in recent times he is chiefly remembered for his art. His paintings were characterised by their serene humanism, as well as their use of geometric forms and perspective. The panel The Baptism of Christ (1448-50), housed in the National Gallery, London, was commissioned in c. 1440 by the Camaldolese Monastery of Sansepolcro in Tuscany, originally designed as part of a triptych. Its dating to Piero della Francesca’s early career is supported by the strong relationship with the “light painting” of his master, Domenico Veneziano.

The panel portrays Christ being baptised by his cousin John, his head surmounted by a dove representing the Holy Spirit. Christ, John’s hand, the bird and the bowl form an axis dividing the painting into two symmetrical parts. A second division is created by the tree on the left, which instead divides it according to the golden ratio. The three angels to the left of the image wear different clothes and, in a break from traditional iconography, are not supporting Christ’s garments, but instead hold each other’s hands. Some art historians believe this might be an allusion to the contemporary Council of Florence (1431–45), whose goal was the unification of the Western and Eastern Churches. The Camaldolese monk and theologian, St. Ambrose Traversari, who had been Prior General of the Camaladolese congregation, had been a strong supporter of the union. Such symbolism is also suggested by the presence, behind the neophyte on the right, of figures dressed in an oriental fashion.

Piero della Francesca was renowned in his times as an authority on perspective and geometry: his attention to the theme is shown by John’s arm and leg, which form two angles of the same size. Three treatises written by Piero are known to modern mathematicians: Abacus Treatise (Trattato d’Abaco), Short Book on the Five Regular Solids (Libellus de Quinque Corporibus Regularibus) and On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva Pingendi). The subjects covered in these writings include arithmetic, algebra, geometry and innovative work in both solid geometry and perspective. Much of Piero’s work was later absorbed into the writing of others, notably Luca Pacioli.

Detail

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Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510), an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterise less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a “golden age”. Botticelli’s posthumous reputation suffered until the late nineteenth century, though since then his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

Universally acknowledged as one of the crowning achievements of Renaissance art, Botticelli’s Primavera is an Allegory of Spring, depicting an orchestrated group of mythological figures in a garden. Various meanings for the composition and arrangement have been suggested over the centuries. Now held in the Uffizi Gallery, the painting originally bore no title and was only first called La Primavera by the art historian Giorgio Vasari, who saw it at Villa Castello, outside of Florence, in 1550. The painting decorated an anteroom attached to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco’s chambers. Though the history of the painting remains uncertain, it is believed to have been commissioned by one of the Medici family.

Primavera contains references to works by the Roman poets Ovid and Lucretius, and may also reference a poem by Poliziano. The composition is innovative in that it is one of the first surviving paintings from the post-classical period to depict classical gods in a life-size dominant format. Some of the figures are based on famous ancient sculptures, translated into Botticelli’s own unconventional formal language, with slender figures and bodies, at times slightly elongated.

Venus is prominent in the heart of the picture, set slightly back from the other figures. Hovering above, her son Cupid — blindfolded to denote how love is blind — aims one of his arrows of love at the Three Graces, who elegantly dance a roundel. Venus’ garden of love is guarded by Mercury on the left, who is lightly clad in a red cloak, covered with flames. The Messenger god, wearing his customary winged shoes, also wears a helmet and carries a sword, representing him as the guardian of the garden.