New Directions for What About Art?

Italian Miniaturist - Two Martyr Saints in an Initial S - 1340s - Manuscript, 152 x 127 mm - Victoria and Albert Museum, London (click photo for larger image)Henri Matisse - Notre Dame, une fin d’après-midi - 1902 - Oil on paper mounted on canvas - 28 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. - Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Buffalo, NY (click photo for larger image)Art history has works of art designated into traditions, eras, periods, movements, styles and such. Each designation has a definition. Renaissance art (which grew out of the revival of Greco-Roman antiquity), for example, represented a dramatic change from the medieval tradition. Modern Art (note those caps) specifically refers to art created from 1900-1945 that vehemently challenged academic standards. Modern Art is neatly divided up into five major movements—with numerous sub-movements. We have such categories because there has to be some way to organize all of what we call art—and some way to note the differences between developments in art. All disciplines have similar systems: history, literature, science, and such. But while categorization IS essential, it also can be misleading. With respect to art, many of the seeds of change are sown when and where least expected. Future posts will be dealing very much with this issue. Artists don’t operate in a vacuum. We are part of the broader world (like it or not) which also includes the history that’s preceded us. So…moving forward…What About Art? will be looking at art as a continuum—as it relates to the past, present…and future.

The two images featured here are just a teaser for you. We’ve already talked about Henri Matisse’s relationship with medieval art on this site and the works featured here is yet another example of art as part of an ongoing continuum.

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci: An Illumination

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci - Gradual 1 for San Michele a Murano (Folio 38v) - c. 1395 - Tempera and gold on parchment, 570 x 380 mm - The Morgan Library and Museum, New York (click photo for larger image)According to Vasari, in the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence there were twenty choir books written by a certain Don Jacopo and illustrated by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (1339-1399). He also points out that several other choir books by the same masters were in the library in the monastery of San Michele of the same order in Murano. Single illuminated pages representing a number of scenes from a large gradual by Don Silvestro have survived in various museums. Together with several other stylistically consistent historiated pages and with a considerable number of cut initials scattered in various museums, they formed the major portion of the illuminated decoration of two large graduals for San Michele a Murano. Fifty-one full pages and initials have been discovered so far that can now be firmly associated with the two San Michele a Murano graduals, Gradual 1 (The First Sunday of Advent to Passion Week) and Gradual 2 (Easter to the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost).

The scene within the initial P represents the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The Virgin Mary, here represented as a Madonna of Humility sitting on a vivaciously patterned cushion, gazes toward her spouse, who with deepest devotion kisses his son's little feet. The actual Annunciation to the Shepherds is not narrated within the initial but extends to the border decoration in the lower left margin, which consists of stylized flowers and leaves.

The leaf contains the introit (a psalm or antiphon sung or said while the priest approaches the altar for the Eucharist) to the Mass for Christmas Day.

Geoffrey of Anjou

Unknown Goldsmith, French - Tomb plaque of Geoffrey of Anjou - c. 1158 - Copper, champlevé, enamel, 63 x 33 cm (24.8 x 13 in) - Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France (click photo for larger image)Geoffrey of Anjou (1113-1151) was the forefather of the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings. He was the Count of Maine and Anjou and the father of the future King Henry II of England. This image on an unusually large enameled plaque, which functioned as a funerary effigy, shows him not as an individual, but in an emblematic and generalized way—representative of his class. Geoffrey has a sword in his right hand and holds a tall shield with his left. The shield is emblazoned with one of the earliest representation of a coat-of-arms, consisting of four gilded lions standing on their hind legs against a blue background.

David and Goliath

Romanesque Painter, Catalan - The Fight between David and Goliath - c. 1123 - Mural, 82 x 75 cm (32.8 x 30 in) Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (click photo for larger image)There is no question that this Romanesque “Fight Between David and Goliath” is riddled with naiveté and crudeness—as seen, for example, the exaggerated size of the hands. But the fresco represents a conscientious effort to depict the story with great accuracy, for these murals served not only to decorate the church but also to instruct the people in Biblical history. The artist clearly attempted to give the faces of David and Goliath certain individual features, introducing also such realistic details as the carrion bird beside the body, the lively drapery of the cloak and the Jewish cap on David's head. The fresco dates from a period when the fight between David and Goliath was thought of as an Old Testament manifestation of the struggle between Christ and Satan.

“Majestas Domini”

Romanesque Painter, Catalan - Majestas Domini with Evangelists and Saints (detail) - c. 1123 - Fresco - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (click photo for larger image)This mural was removed from the wall of the church of San Clemente at Tahull. Two artists were involved in the execution of the frescoes: the Master of San Clemente, who decorated the main apse, and the Master of the Day of Judgment, who painted part of the triumphal arch, the side apses, and probably also the walls and pillars in the nave, and whose work is also found in Santa Maria de Tahull, the sister church of San Clemente. In the middle apse of San Clemente the “Majestas Domini” (Christ in Majesty), a key theme of Romanesque art, found one of its most glorious expressions. The monumental figure of Christ is surrounded by the four symbols of the Evangelists. The omnipotent ruler is surrounded by a highly charged rainbow aureole, and is seated on a second rainbow. His right hand is raised in a gesture of dominion and blessing.