Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) rediscovered and made linear perspective popular. Although the principle of the linear perspective was found first by Fillipo Brunelleschi, Alberti disclosed and explained it in the book On Painting. Precisely Alberi explained mathematically what proportions of the objects’ size had to be used in linear perspective. Alberti was born in Genoa in the noble family, studied in Padua and Bologna, lived in Florence and Rome. Aside of working on linear perspective, Alberti contributed to the development of cryptography and was a famous architect. He constructed Rucellai Palace, Tempio Malatestiano, Piazza Pio II, etc. Alberti’s architectural projects were funded mainly by the Vatican.
2. A phrase in Latin “memento mori” literally means to remember about the future death. The phrase memento mori has become an important principle of Christian ethics, literature, and art. Life is short, and a person should be aware of his or her necessary physical end to be worthy for heaven. Funeral traditions, architecture, and art are the examples of memento mori principle. In fine art and painting, Rogier Van der Weyden’s Braque Triptych, Michael Wolgemut’s Dance of Death, Vanitas by Philippe de Champaigne’s, Young Man with a Skull by Frans Hals are the best known examples of memento mori.
3. The canonical models of the Renaissance painting are sfumato, unione, cangiante, and chiaroscuro. Sfumato is a specific technique, which blurs the edges of the painting, mixes its colors with dark and white tones to get mild and smooth effect. The technique was invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Unione uses intensity instead of smoothing the colors and allows brighter spots, more vibrant edges, and more perceptible contours.
Raphael developed the echnique of unione. Cangiante replaces one color by another. Cangiante technique allows to use any color to depict an object, no matter what it is in reality. Fra Angelico was famous for using cangiante. Chiaroscuro technique plays with lights and shadows of exceptional intensity. The source of light is only one, the shadows are sharp and dark. Caravaggio contributed to the development of chiaroscuro greatly.
4. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) was a famous artist, born in Germany and worked in England and Switzerland. He contributed greatly to propaganda of the Reformation ideas by is religious works and satire printed. He participated in More’s humanist circle and soon became one of the most well-known portrait masters in Europe. Precisely because of Holbein’s realistic portraits, the main ideologists of English Reformation and humanism became known today. Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1523), The Dance of Death series (1523-26), Portrait of Sir Thomas More (1527), Darmstadt Madonna (1528), Portrait of Henry VIII (1536) are the best his works. Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569) was a significant Renaissance artist, born and worked in Netherlands.
He was famous mainly for the new style of genre painting, as he depicted his native landscapes and peasant scenes on them. Ordinary peasants disclosed the native folk culture, village lifestyle, wisdom, social and religious norms of that time. Among his most well-known works are The Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Vices (1558), Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), The Peasant Wedding (1566-69), and The Blind Leading the Blind (1568).
5. Humanism is a concept, which proclaims a human as the highest goal and value. In Graham 3 humanism, an individual has the right for freedom and personal development. A human well- eing and happiness appears to be the main criteria of society, law, and power. Renaissance humanism contrasted with medieval theology, as it proclaimed secular ideals, rationalism, empirical cognition, and individual progress instead of the divine omnipotence. Humanistic art was not centered on the church and religious themes. Saints and angels were frequently replaced by the members of the family on the paintings. The divine creatures and Jesus Christ were depicted as human beings. Beauty of human body, emotional background, mental abilities, passions, and desires of the men became the most important subjects of humanistic rt.
6. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was a painter of the Italian Baroque and a daughter of famous Orazio Gentileschi. She became the first female artist, who was a member of Academy of the Arts of Drawing. She studied art with her father’s college Agostino Tassi, who raped her in 1612 with Cosimo Quorlis. During the trial, lasted for seven month, Artemisia was examined for her virginity loss and tortured using thumbscrews. Raping and the trial tortures influenced her art greatly, as the main theme of her painting was an oppressed women, who strived to revenge the oppressors. The paintings were Artemisia’s catharsis and attempt to express her pain. Her main works are Judith Slaying Holofernes, Self-Portrait as a Lute Player, Mary Magdalene, Annunciation.
7. In the XVIth century, the new direction, Catholic Counter-Reformation art, appeared as a response on Martin Luther’s revolt. It was a strict Baroque art with purely religious theme to show the difference between Catholic and Reformation theology. The artists used large-scale painting in oil, dramatic color decisions, chiaroscuro, loose and passionate brushstrokes, sharp erspective effects, meaningful and emotional composition to catch the viewers’ attention. The subject matter of Counter-Reformation art contained religious ecstasies, conversions, the death and the time passing, outward emotions, intense religious experience. The main artists Graham 4 contributed to Counter-Reformation were Caravaggio, El Greco, Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt.
8. The source of Neoclassical art was Antiquity and precisely classical Roman art, especially the themes of Roman patriotic ideals, courage, bravery, and honor. In contrast, Romanticism was inspired by the Middle Ages, Baroque, and Eastern art. The main values of Neoclassicism were the strict order, solemnity of theme, rational composition. Romantic art was emotional, based on imagination, personal intuition, and spontaneous insights. The style of Neoclassicism included uncolored painting, stressed lines, brushstrokes with no trace. Romanticist artists used rich color spectrum, intemperate technique, heavily visible brushstrokes. Foreground was most important for Neoclassicism, while Romanticism used diagonal composition, frequently crowded.
9. Composition in the Mannerist art is usually zigzag or spiral. Unlike the High Renaissance rder, the Mannerist artists used off-centered depiction of the figures. Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck is not grounded or centered, but directed by the spiral motion. The Mannerist artists strived to highlight the grace, elegance, and emotional background of the object by such a composition.
10. The first purpose of Versailles’ building was celebrating The Pleasures of the Enchanted Island, organized by King Louis XIV. The second campaign honored the Treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle signing and the end of the War of Devolution. The third was the honor of the end of he Dutch War and the Treaty of Nijmegen signing. The fourth campaign signed the defeat in the War of the League of Ausburg. 11. Inverted perspective is a method of painting, in which the more distant objects from the viewer are displayed larger. Thus, the lines converge not on the horizon, but within the viewer. 12. Orientalism is a style in art appeared in the XIXth century, in which Western artists depict the Graham 5 aspects of the Eastern, Asian, and African cultures, understood as static and development deprived.
13. Anamorphic is a specific characteristic of lenses, used in cinematography as a new way of hooting a video, which transforms a wide format of imagery to a standard frame of 35 mm. 14. Romanticism is an ideological and stylistic direction in Western art of the XIXth century, in which the main subject matter includes a person, his or her emotions, passions and desires, based on nature. 15. Rococo is a specific style of art, especially in the interior design. It appears in France in the first half of the XVIIIth century as a further development of the Baroque style. In fact, at that time, French art was defined by the rise of Classicism.
Thus, Rococo appears as a ontemptuous response to classic art, since it unified the whole mannered and pretentious sings of the XVIIIth century. The main characteristic features of Rococo are refinement, heavy use of decorations in interior compositions, graceful ornamental rhythm, the great attention to the mythology and personal comfort. In general, Rococo can be characterized simply as a curved, whimsical line than resembles the silhouette of the sink as its true symbol. Rococo originated during the period of the crisis of absolutism and as a reflection of the inherent hedonistic tastes of the nobility.
After the death of King Louis XIV and the great depression in French society, Rococo appears as inclination to escape from reality to the illusory, idyllic world of the theater play. Obviously, Rococo is a product of the purely secular culture of the French aristocracy and the court. Contrast to the Baroque style, Rococo highlights the royal intimacy, friendship, and is aimed to decorate private meetings and individual apartments more, than official ceremonies. Art and design of Rococo strive not to impress by its greatness, but to enjoy, take pleasure, and amuse the viewers.
The center for the formation of the new Rococo culture is not a grand palace interior, but a salon. Instead of the huge Baroque state rooms, small and elegant Rococo interiors appear. In fact, Rococo style Graham 6 does not invent any important structural elements in architecture, but uses traditional forms in their whole richness and variety. Rococo architecture aims to be light, friendly, playful, thus, the architects do not take care about the purpose of the forms and avoid strict symmetry. Rococo buildings are usually decorated by frescos, graceful carving, and stucco.
Unless the style appears in France, the highest architectural development of it takes place in Bavaria. In painting, Rococo artists depict the scenes from the private life, erotic plots, and frivolous contents from life. At that time, portraits were also at a top of the artists’ attention, especially in Great Britain. Besides, the most common form of the painting has become a decorative panel, mostly oval, round, or oddly-curved in shape. In the coloristic approaches, the Rococo artists continued Rubens, Veronese, and the Venetian painters, although they do not prefer heir rich, bright colors, but pale undertones.
Deep red becomes pink in Rococo paintings, such shades as lemon-yellow, pale blue, purple, and pink appear. Rococo paintings are graceful in colors, heavily decorated, and enjoying for their sense. Among the greatest Rococo artists are Antoine Watteau, Jean Francois de Troy, Francois Boucher, Francis Hayman, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, and Jean-Honore Fragonard. As well as Rococo pays the main attention on the interior design, it influences the craft arts greatly, including furniture inlay and jewelry
