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AP®︎/College Art History
Course: AP®︎/College Art History > Unit 5
Lesson 1: Medieval art in Europe- Introduction to the middle ages
- Christianity, an introduction for the study of art history
- Architecture and liturgy
- The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
- A New Pictorial Language: The Image in Early Medieval Art
- Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome
- Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome
- Santa Sabina
- Jacob wrestling the angel, Vienna Genesis
- Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, Vienna Genesis
- A beginner's guide to Byzantine Art
- San Vitale, Ravenna
- Justinian Mosaic, San Vitale
- Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- Theotokos mosaic, apse, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- Hagia Sophia as a mosque
- Fibulae
- Deësis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George
- The Lindisfarne Gospels
- The Lindisfarne Gospels
- The Bayeux Tapestry
- The Bayeux Tapestry - Seven Ages of Britain - BBC One
- Church and Reliquary of Sainte‐Foy, France
- Chartres Cathedral
- Bible moralisée (moralized bibles)
- Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
- The Golden Haggadah
- Röttgen Pietà
- Röttgen Pietà
- Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1)
- Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 2)
- Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 3)
- Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 4)
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Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1)
The Arena Chapel, commissioned by the Scrovegni Family, features Giotto's frescoes covering its walls. Organized in three registers, the chapel tells a continuous story of Christ's life. Enrico Scrovegni built the chapel to atone for the sin of usury. Giotto's naturalism and illusionism create earthly settings for the religious scenes. Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- At, Dr. Zucker mentions "...the three Mary's..." 2:59
I am Jewish and completely unfamiliar with there being more than one Mary. Can someone explain what this notion of the THREE Mary's is all about?(12 votes)- There was the Virgin Mary, Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and Mary Magdalene.(29 votes)
- "...light and shadow. It is this ?? example..." Sounds like "bravure". What is Dr. Zucker saying? 4:35(6 votes)
- Why do all of them have that cricle around there head? What is it called?(3 votes)
- the circles are haloes - all saints and the family of Jesus have them in Christian art up to around the 16 century.(2 votes)
- A fresco is a mural painting, usually on lime plaster. The paints are water based, and the painting becomes an integral part of the wall as the plaster sets.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresco(6 votes)
- How long did this take? This is an absurd amount of work. They say Giotto was commisioned to paint this, was it just him, or did he work with a team? did he have apprentices help him? I just can't imagine one person doing all this.(2 votes)
- He had a workshop with apprentices, many of whom went on to form their own workshops.(4 votes)
- It is all very interesting but why dont art historians talk about the nonsense of the theology in many of these religious pictures? For example the impossibility of a virgin birth, a bodily resurrection etc. It is all very well to respect the religious purpose of these pictures but what about our more enlightened understanding of today?(0 votes)
- The point is to understand what beliefs motivated the creation of the art -- what the ideas behind it were, regardless if those ideas stand up to modern scrutiny or not.
For modern ideas, Khan Academy has a large section devoted to science.(19 votes)
- To what circle of Hell do usurers go to (according to Dante) ?(3 votes)
- It is all very interesting but why dont art historians talk about the nonsense of the theology in many of these religious pictures? For example the impossibility of a virgin birth, a bodily resurrection etc. It is all very well to respect the religious purpose of these pictures but what about our more enlightened understanding of today?(1 vote)
- Those people weren't idiots. What they believed was based off of logic and their understanding. Theology is extremely complication and often coincides with philosophy and the perceived supernatural. To understand today's world you need to understand the thought and worldview of the following time and era leading up to today. It is much to complicated to talk about why people who know virgins can't have babies do, without explaining the philosophy, theology, history, cultural context, etc. This course is about art history not the bases of Christainty.(3 votes)
- It might be perhaps interesting to point out (in relation to usury) the practices of Islamic banks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking
I haven't heard there being a Christian banking policy. I guess the Vatican Bank doesn't count looking at what it does and how it does it.(1 vote) - Was Giotto the 1st artist to use lapis lazuli to make a striking shade of blue?(1 vote)
- No, for example, Duccio's Maesta, which was painted earlier, also uses lapiz lazuli. According to Pigments Throughout the Ages,
"First used in 6th century Afghanistan, the pigment found its most extensive use in 14th and 15th century illuminated manuscripts and Italian panel paintings, often reserved for the cloaks of Christ and the Virgin."
Learn more: http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/history/ultramarine.html(2 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Steven] We're in the Arena Chapel, a small private chapel that was connected to a palace that was owned
by the Scrovegni Family. - [Beth] And it was the Scrovegni Family who commissioned Giotto to decorate this chapel with frescoes. - [Steven] It's called the Arena Chapel because it's next to ancient Roman arena. - [Beth] When you're
inside it, as we are now, I have to say that it's
taller than I expected and that feeling of being enclosed by images that happens
when you're in a space entirely covered with fresco. - [Steven] There are
lots of narrative scenes, but even in between those scenes are trompe l'oeil faux marble panels and we get the sense that
there is inlaid stone, but in fact this is all painting. - [Beth] And that extends
even onto the ceiling, where we have a star-studded blue sky with images of Christ and Mary
and other saints and figures. - [Steven] The Arena Chapel is organized in a very strict way. Three registers begin at
the top and move downward. I think of it as a spiral, that is it tells a continuous story. It begins with Christ's grandparents. It goes into the birth
of Mary, her marriage, and then when we get down
to the second register we get to Christ's life or ministry and then the bottom
register is the Passion. These are the events at
the end of Christ's life and immediately after his death. - [Beth] Now all of this is thanks to, strangely it might seem to us today, a sin: the sin of usury that weighed heavily on the
conscious of Enrico Scrovegni, whose palace was next door
and who owned this land and built this chapel and hired Giotto. His father was a usurer. Enrico himself was a usurer. - [Steven] What this means
is he charged interest, just like when you borrow money from a bank you're charged interest, when you put money on a credit
card you're charged interest, and so in a very Catholic environment, being a banker made you a lot of money, but it also, in your belief system, would send you to hell. And Dante, the great late Medieval poet in his most famous
poem, The Divine Comedy, singles out Scrovegni's father for one of the more
treacherous parts of hell. - [Beth] So Enrico was really worried and for this reason he did, in Catholic belief system, a good work. He built this chapel. This was his way of atoning
for the sin of usury, hoping that this would help
his soul to go to heaven. And we see Enrico himself
here in this chapel on the wall over the entrance where Giotto painted the last judgment. We see Enrico kneeling,
handing the chapel over - [Steven] To the three Marys, the Virgin Mary in the middle. - [Beth] Notice where
Enrico has put himself is on the side of the blessed. In the last judgment we
see Christ at the very top and the damned are on Christ's left and the blessed are on Christ's right and that's where we find Enrico. - [Steven] And the impetus
for the entire cycle can be seen at the apex
of the triumphal arch on the opposite wall with God, who calls Gabriel to his side, telling him to go to the Virgin Mary and announce to her that she
will bear humanity's savior, that she will bear Christ. - [Beth] Interestingly,
when Giotto painted God, he inserted a panel painting. So that is not fresco. It's interesting that he chose to paint it in the style that was more conservative, less earthly than the style
that we see in the frescoes. But just to go back to that wall, we begin to see the illusionism that we see throughout the cycles. If we look to Mary and the angel, Giotto has created an architectural
space for each of them. These are not panel paintings with gold backgrounds that
suggest a divine space. These are earthly settings
for Mary and the angel. - [Steven] Two scenes
below the Annunciation are these wonderful empty
architectural spaces, these rooms that have oil lanterns that hang from their ceilings. And there is such a
delicate sense of space, of light and shadow. It is this example of naturalism and it shows Giotto's
interest in the world, the present, the physical
space that humanity occupies. (jazzy piano music)