REPRESENTATION OF THE BODY

2. Roman- Rococo

Roman Empire27 BC-427AD

Ancient Roman artists often borrowed from, and copied Greek precedents (much of the Greek sculptures known today are in the form of Roman marble copies)

trade in art was brisk throughout the empire, and much of the Greek artistic heritage found its way into Roman art through books and teaching

Many Roman artists came from Greek colonies and provinces

By the 2nd century BC, "most of the sculptors working in Rome" were Greek, often enslaved in conquests and sculptors continued to be mostly Greeks, often slaves, whose names are very rarely recorded.

Vast numbers of Greek statues were imported to Rome, whether as booty or the result of extortion or commerce, and temples were often decorated with re-used Greek works

Three Graces from Pompeii

Ancient Roman50 AD

The majority of Roman frescoes were found in Campania, in the region around the Bay of Naples.

It is here that Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 A.D., burying much of the countryside, the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and nearby private residences.

As so often happens in archaeology, a disaster served to freeze a moment in the past, allowing excavators to delve into the life of this region’s ancient inhabitants.

Fresco: technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster.

Dionysiac Mystery Frieze

Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy

60-50BCThis chamber was probably used

to celebrate, in private, the rites of the Greek god Dionysos (Roman Bacchus).

Dionysos was the focus of an unofficial mystery religion popular in Italy at this time among women.

Note the human interaction between the figures. The figures are like life and are in a variety of poses.

Nothing comparable to this room existed in Hellenisitc Greece.

Despite the use of Dionysos, satyrs and other figures from Greek mythology, this is a Roman design.

Portrait of Husband and Wife

House VIIPompeii, Italy

70-79 AD

The man holds a scroll and the woman a stylus and a wax writing tablet, standard attributes in Roman marriage portraits.

Such portraits were Roman equivalents of modern wedding photographs of the bride and groom posing in rented formal garments never worn by them before or afterwards.

Sensitive studies of the man and woman’s individual faces.

Realistic portrait type placed on a conventional figure type.

Imperial Portrait

SculpturePropaganda for victorious and

powerful Roman Emperor

Individualized features (we can tell who is who)

But made more beautiful with

idealized proportions,

youth, and fitness

Copies of Greek

OriginalsSame

characteristics of Classical style

making marble versions of Greek

bronzes

Considered “Roman copies of Greek Originals” instead of Roman

art

Portraits of Private Citizens

realistic detail and individualized

features

Shows age and “imperfections”

“Warts and all”

The Three Types of Ancient Roman Sculpture

1 2 3

Marble statue of a wounded AmazonDate: 1st–2nd century A.D.Culture: Roman

Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos Copy of work attributed to PolykleitosDate: ca. A.D. 69–96

Copies of Greek Originals

Ancient Roman Sculpture – Realism

Ancient Roman Sculpture – Glorifying Emperors

Augustus of Prima Porta Date 1st century Trajan-Statue in Xanten, Gesamtbild

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Roman166-180

Italy The overall theme is one of power and divine grandeur — the emperor is over life-size and is holding out his hand in a gesture much like that in the Augustus' portraits

This type of statue was an important imperial portrait--a way of signifying heroism and authority.

Fall of the Roman Empire

Thomas Cole. Destruction. 1836

Medieval Period410-1400■ Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire with the

Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE, when Emperor Theodosius I made it the Empire's sole authorized religion

■ The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa.

■ Medieval life was consumed by superstition, unsanitary conditions and an extreme form of Christianity.

■ Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church

Christianity ■ The rise and power of the Christian church

consumed all of Medieval Western life. ■ Daily life was under the eye of the God and the

teachings of the Church■ What do the teachings of the Church tell us about

the views of the body? ■ 1 Corinthians 6:19

– Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own

■ Proverbs 31:30– Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a

woman who fears the Lord is to be praised

Medieval and the Body

Medical knowledge in the Middle Ages must have appeared to have stood still.

In Britain, as an example, most things linked to the Romans was destroyed – villas were covered up as the Ancient Britons believed that they contained ghosts and evil spirits

medicine became steeped in superstition and the Roman Catholic Church effectively dominated what direction the medical world took.

Any views different from the established Roman Catholic Church view could veer towards heresy with the punishments that entailed.

Therefore, when the Roman Catholic Church stated that illnesses were punishments from God and that those who were ill were so because they were sinners, few argued otherwise.

As a result, very little was known about the body and how it functioned. Little was known about diseases and many medical schools were closed.

In many parts of the medieval Europe, operations and dissection were illegal.

• The Middle Ages saw a decrease in prosperity, stability and population in the first centuries of the period—to about 800 AD

• massive setback of the Black Death around 1350, which is estimated to have killed at least a third of the overall population in Europe

• Claimed about 75 million lives.

• When facing death, medieval society in 1348 looked to the Church, just as they did to medics, for rituals of comfort.

• Healing was an alluring promise of many saints venerated during the plague epidemics.

• As a result, saints became part of the iconography of the plague.

Artist unknown, Adam and Eve

from the Escorial Beatus, 950

In the Middle Ages, there was very little interest in the human body, which was seen as only a temporary vessel for the soul.

The body was seen as sinful, the cause of temptation.

In the Old Testament, Adam and Eve eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, realize their nakedness, and cover themselves.

Due to the nudity in this important story, Christians associated nudity with sin and the fall of humankind.

Medieval images of naked bodies do not reflect close observation from real life or an understanding of the inner workings of bodies.

Characteristics • Vivid use of color

• Lack of perspective/ space

• Lack of accurate scale and proportion

• Most works created for the church

• Thus most works are religious (mostly saints and the Holy Family)

• Human bodies are thus subjected to Catholic ideologies

• Medieval paintings were also called illuminations since there were no portrait paintings during this time.

• The term illumination was inspired by the gleaming effect of a gold leaf, which was often applied to the pages of the manuscript together with ink and paint***

Medieval Unlike paganism, Christianity required no images of naked divinities, and new attitudes cast doubt and opprobrium on nude athletics, public bathing, and the very value of the human body.

The early Christian emphasis on chastity and celibacy further discounted depictions of nakedness.

In this climate, there was little motive to study the nude, and unclothed figures are thus rare in medieval art.

Chartres CathedralChartres, France

1145-1212• Medieval Gothic cathedral

Chartres Cathedral • Figures are matching the columns

• Transcend earthy existence ascendance of Christianity

• Focus less on the body but more on spirituality

• Spirituality has no form

• Valuing spirit over flesh, medieval artists had worked in an abstract, two-dimensional linear style that deemphasized corporeality.

• Ways of abstracting the human form is to create a symbol of the spirit- (no form)

• Abstracting the human form= creating a symbol of the spirit.

• The elongation of the figures on the Portail Royal (“Royal Portal”) enhances their otherworldliness and also integrates them with the columnar architecture.

The Head in the Middle Ages

The head was the chief symbolic part of the body for Western culture in the Middle Ages

Since antiquity it signified not only the intellect, the center of power, but was also regarded as the seat of the soul.

The face is not only central to identity, but is also the primary vehicle for human expression, emotion, and character.

Depiction of the head becomes a true test of the quality of the artist and a telling indicator of style. Head of King David

Date: ca. 1145Paris, France.

Christ Pantocrato

Cefalù Cathedral, Sicily

1131The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful".

depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing

Mosaic: a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, or glass

Basilica of San Vitale. Ravena, Italy. 527-548

The Renaissance 1400-1600

■ Began in Florence, Italy ■ Centered on an interest in the culture of the classical ancient world ■ This exploitation of creativity happened in Italy where Roman

architectural remains were a constant reminder of past glories■ Many believed the golden age could be restored■ The revival of all things classical was heightened by the rediscovery of

ancient texts in the 14th century■ Artists sought to not only emulate the classical works but improve them

using new techniques, including perspective and oil paint. ■ Humanism- system of thought attaching prime importance to human

rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems

Anatomy and the Nude

emulated the body-conscious quality of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, drawing inspiration from the prevalent depiction of nudity and the use of drapery as a means of articulating the body

Secular subjects and portraits + classical mythology became important

The status of the artist had also risen dramatically (notion of genius)

Farnese Hercules. 4th century BC. Ancient Greek

the study of human anatomy was enormously important for Renaissance artists.

They continued where the ancient Greeks and Romans had left off, with an interest in creating images of the human beings where bodies moved in natural ways—in correct proportion and feeling the pull of gravity

Sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome reveal that classical artists closely observed the human body.

Ancient Greek and Roman artists focused their attention on youthful bodies in the prime of life.

Human BodyAndreas Vesalius

1543The best way to learn human anatomy is not just to

look at the outside of the body, but to study anatomy through dissection.

Even though the Catholic Church prohibited dissection, artists and scientists performed dissection to better understand the body. 

Renaissance artists were anxious to gain specialized knowledge of the inner workings of the human body, which would allow them to paint and sculpt the body in many different positions

studies of anatomical dissections, was the means to recreate the 3-dimensional physical reality of the human form on two-dimensional surfaces

The Vitruvian ManLeonardo da Vinci

1487

The Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) made this drawing in about 1487, showing an idealized male figure inscribed within a circle and a square.

In accompanying notes, he proposed perfect ratios for parts of the body relative to each other and to the whole.

Together with his pioneering anatomical studies, the drawing reflects Leonardo’s belief that the symmetry of the human body was a microcosm of the symmetry of the universe

Representing Space

■ It seems reasonable to assume that Brunelleschi devised the method of perspective for architectural purposes

■ —he made a ground plan for the Church of Santo Spirito in Florence (1434-82) on the basis of which he produced a perspective drawing to show his clients how it would look after it was built.

Brunelleschi, elevation of Santo Spirito, 1434-83, Florence

MasaccioThe Holy Trinity, with the Virgin

and Saint John and donors 1425-27 Florence, Italy

Ten years later, the painter Masaccio applied the new method of mathematical perspective even more spectacularly in his fresco The Holy Trinity

where the barrel vaulted ceiling is incredible in its complex, mathematical use of perspective.

 Here lines overlay Masaccio's actual geometric framework to make clear the structure of the perspective itself.

DonatelloFeast of Herold

1427Siena Cathedral,

Italy• It is one of Donatello's earliest relief sculptures, and his first bronze relief.

• The sculpture is noted for Donatello's use of perspective.

• Astute observer of human life (humanism)

• Naturalistic Illusionism and Classical idealism

• The sculpture depicts the beheading of John the Baptist after Salome asks Herod Antipas for his head on a platter. The scene depicts an executioner presenting the severed head, and Herod reacting in shock

• Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise

DonatelloDavid1440

Florence, ItalyNude figures based on antique models appear in Italy as early as the mid-thirteenth century, and by the mid-fifteenth century, nudes had become symbols of antiquity and its reincarnation.

careful depiction of bones and muscles

Donatello adapted the idealized proportions of Greek athletic figures for his celebrated statue of David and thus presented a biblical hero in classical guise.

RaphaelRed chalk study for the Villa Farnesina Three Graces1518

Raphael. School of Athens. 1510-1512. Vatican, Italy.

School of Athens1510-1512

Glorification of classical, even pagan themes

Designed for one of the papal apartments in the Vatican

A tribute to the learning of the ancient world

At the heart of the composition are Plato and Aristotle, the two giants of Greek philosophy

Around them are scientists and mathematicians including Euclid, Pythagoras and Ptolemy

Raphael equates the great thinkers of the antiquity with major Renaissance artists

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael are all present among great thinkers.

Pietro. Perugino. Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter. 1481-83 Vatican,

Italy

Raphael. "The Wedding of the Virgin“1504

Sandro Botecelli. The Annunciation. 1489Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi. The Annunciation. 1333

Michelangelo BuonarrotiDoni Tondo

1506?The work was most likely created after the excavation of the Laocoön about 1506

The Doni Tondo features the Christian Holy family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph) along with John the Baptist in the foreground and contains five ambiguous nude male figures in the background.

Monumentality of figures

Humanism! Figures are larger than life. The body is again exaggerated to show the potential of human kind. To emphasis its perfectness and power.

MichelangeloDavid

1501-4Florence, Italy

In the next generation, Michelangelo made his own colossal statue of David, again conceived as an antique nude and elsewhere he devoted unique artistic energy to the male nude.

Prophet Zachary and Libyan Sybil

Michelangelo. Sistine Ceiling. Vatican, Rome. 1508-12

MichelangeloMoses

1513-1515Church of San Pietro, Rome

Michelangelo Pietà

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

1498-99

The Baroque Period1600-1700

■ Fueled by the Counter-Reformation the Baroque Period sought to encourage the Catholic faith and to more importantly to keep its members.

■ The main vehicle for this crisis was through art! ■ Characteristics of Baroque art:

– exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music

– Emphasis of the lives and martyrdom of saints (good Catholic role models)

– Demonstration of the power of God

Baroque & Counter Reformation 1600-1700

Throughout the middle ages the Catholic Church sunk deeper into a pit of scandal and corruption.

By the 1520s, Martin Luther's ideas crystallized opposition to the Church, and Christian Europe was torn apart.

In response, the Catholic Church set in motion the counter-reformation.

New churches were ordered, with space for thousands of worshippers, and acoustics designed, for the first time, for vernacular sermons.

The Catholic Church used the weapon of reform to entice back its disillusioned congregations.

Baroque ArtCharacteristics Images are direct, obvious, and dramatic.

Tries to draw the viewer in to participate in the scene.

Depictions feel physically and psychologically real. Emotionally intense.

Extravagant settings and ornamentation.

Dramatic use of color.

Dramatic contrasts between light and dark, light and shadow called chiaroscuro

Baroque art has continuous overlapping of figures and elements.

Common themes: grandiose visions, ecstasies and conversions, martyrdom and death, intense light, intense psychological moments. Francisco de Zurbarán. Saint Francis in Meditation.

(1639)

Caravaggio.The Entombment of Christ

1603

The Nude in the Baroque In Baroque art the continuing fascination with classical antiquity pressed artists to renew their approach to the nude and the antique tradition.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as esteem for classical culture ran high, so too did the prestige of the nude.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Apollo and Daphne. 1622-1625

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa 1652A common theme for Baroque artists

was the miraculous moment where the divine met the earthly, the sacred intruded upon the profane.

St. Teresa was a mystic nun who recorded an experience in which an angel came down and pierced her innards with the flaming arrow of divine love. The pain was great yet sweet and brought her into ecstasy with God

St. Teresa’s habit wildly contorts- a metaphor for the intensity of God’s love felt within her

The human body is thus the receptor for the divine.

CaravaggioThe Conversion on the

Way to Damascus. 1601

Depicted is the moment where Saul (soon to be Paul) has a conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

Again we see the Baroque theme of the divine suddenly intruding into the earthly sphere.

The human body is thus the receptor for the divine.

Caravaggio was a master at using shadow and light to heighten the drama and meaning of his paintings.

Here God’s light has knocked Saul off his horse, and his arms are stretched out in a funnel shape to accept the light. Meanwhile the man and the horse, who symbolize the ordinary earthly world and are not privy to the full experience, are deep in shadow.

CaravaggioThe Crucifixion of Saint Peter, by Caravaggio,

1601In contrast to the idealized, noble, classical human forms favored by Renaissance artists, Caravaggio preferred to paint scenes and people as the eye would see them, natural flaws included.

His paintings were so realistic that patrons sometimes rejected them as too “vulgar.”

St. Peter is being crucified. He asked to be hung from his cross upside-down as not to imitate his Lord. The divine light shines on Peter while the faces of the Romans are obscured by shadows.

Peter seems to be much heavier than one would expect-three men are struggling to lift him, symbolizing the great weight of their crime.

Francisco Zurbarán

Saint Serapion 1628

RembrandtDescent from the

Cross 1634

In his Descent from the Cross, we once again see the Baroque signature of an emotional scene heightened by the dramatic use of light and shadow.

The light shines on Christ’s body, the faithful women who stood by him, and the shroud in which he will return to life.

Gian Lorenzo BerniniDavid1624

Biblical David, about to throw the stone that will bring down Goliath, which will allow David to behead him.

Compared to earlier works on the same theme (notably the David of Michelangelo), the sculpture broke new ground in its implied movement and its psychological intensity.

the sculpture is no longer self-contained

but interacts with the space around it

Not since the sculptures of the Hellenistic period, had sculptures been involved in their surroundings like those of Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini. 1624

Neo-Classical/ Rococo

1750-1850 Reaction to the opulence of the Baroque periods

Coincides with the 18th century’s Age of Enlightenment

Continues with the obsession of ancient Greek/Roman depiction of the human form.

Highly unrealistic

Lighthearted and playful

Rococo style in painting echoes the qualities evident in other manifestations of the style including serpentine lines, heavy use of ornament as well as themes revolving around playfulness, love, and nature Canova. Hebe. 1800-1805

Michel ClodionZephyrus and

Flora18th century

Celebrate love's enduring power with this masterpiece depicting Zephyrus, the West, bestowing his crown upon fair Flora, the goddess of springtime.

Figura serpentinata

Jean-Honoré FragonardThe Swing1767According to the memoirs of the dramatist Charles Collé, a courtier asked first Gabriel François Doyen to make this painting of him and his mistress.

Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard.

The man had requested a portrait of his mistress seated on a swing being pushed by a bishop, but Fragonard painted a layman.

This style of "frivolous" painting soon became the target of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, who demanded a more serious art which would show the nobility of man

Franz Anton Bustelli

Leda f. Commedia dell'artePorcelain 20 cm

ladies became graceful and petite, the ideal was a very slim waist line, the "wasp waist“

Highly unrealistic