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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 3)
The Lamentation scene in Giotto's Arena Chapel portrays powerful emotions as Mary holds her dead son, Jesus. The painting emphasizes Christ's humanity and naturalism, with angels and human figures expressing grief in various ways. Giotto's composition creates an illusion of space and connects Christ's death, mourning, and resurrection through the landscape. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris, Steven Zucker, and Smarthistory.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can someone explain to me the parallel between Jonah swallowed by the whale and Jesus crucifixion?(5 votes)
- Both died (or, in the case of Jonah, was expected to drown) and each was entombed (one in a fish, the other in a tomb) a fate from which each miraculously emerged after three days according to scripture.(20 votes)
- If the blues were derived from the expensive lapis lazuli, what stone / plant did artists use to get the greens of the figure whose back is turned to us and the figure on the far right?(5 votes)
- copper was one substance used to give a green color to paint.(5 votes)
- Why does christian iconography always so sad? Nobody is ever smiling or laughing (a sin, according to the name of the Rose) in all of these paintings. And it seems that this is a tradition throughout the whole europeen art history (medieval Renaissance, Baroqur, etc..). And it is certainly not because there is no place for Positive emotions in the chridtian mysteries. It is like the focus as always been more on the death of Christ than on the joy and hope of his/our resurrection. Why?(3 votes)
- In the early renaissance emotions were expressed through the poses of the figures - their arms, etc. Donatello and Da Vinci were two of the first to focus on realistic facial expressions. Look at the faces of Raphael's Mary and Child. You'll find a perfect representation of joy.(7 votes)
- At abouthow do we know we're not reading into what the tree symbolizes? If it even symbolizes anything. Before I heard the comment I was thinking Giotto added it there to take up space and because it looks cool or right. I kept straing at it and it now looks too big for being on a far off mountain. If It's almost Easter wouldn't it be Spring, but still, the leaves wouldn't necessarily be sprouting yet... At 1:24, In the next scene you'd think the trees (if that's what they are in the background) would be full of leaves. 4:18(2 votes)
- That is a good question for which I don't believe there is a definitive answer. Symbolism in art is very important. Then as now. It conveys meaning in a non verbal way. When Dr. Zucker mentions the tree he is interpreting what he believes the tree is meant to symbolize by the artist. Sometimes artists leave notes or journals talking about the creation of their artworks and so we can sometimes be more certain. I do not know if Giotto would have done that. If he did then he may have indicated why he painted the tree.(4 votes)
- You can either say "giant fish" or "whale", but they are not the same thing.(3 votes)
- "Giant fish" is what you're supposed to say because in the Bible it says "giant fish"; nowhere does it say "whale". Which makes total sense as where would an Israeli ever see a whale? Fish, though, they had plenty of.(2 votes)
- I've seen a lot of signs evidencing that Giotto mastered at least some aspects of perspective (e.g., figures in the front are bigger, the three seems to be smaller due to distance, the diagonal created)...So, question is how much can we attribute to the Renascence in terms of the dramatic change in respect to linear perspective?(3 votes)
- Pretty much everything to do with linear perspective was developed in the Renaissance.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/beginners-renaissance-florence/v/linear-perspective-brunelleschi-s-experiement(2 votes)
- Why is Mary Magdalene typically depicted with red hair ()? Also, why is she traditionally associated with the sinful woman that anointed Jesus's feet in Luke 7? Biblically, Magdalene's only described as someone who was once possessed by seven devils--the sinful woman is unnamed. 2:04(2 votes)
- From the author:Legends and traditions surrounding many aspects of the Bible have developed over the years for many reasons. Sometimes the original motivation for an extra-Biblical story is lost yet we have become accustomed to it and have come to expect it. The late Medieval text, The Golden Legend is an example of people wanting to fill in details that are left out of the Bible itself and may provide at least part of the answer you seek about Mary Magdalene.(2 votes)
- Why is that guy being eaten by a fish? Is that Noah? I do not know what the video is saying because my volume is not working.(1 vote)
- It is Jonah who is being eaten by the fish(1 vote)
- Could jesus' placement ( on the left in the first and on the right in the second) be a metaphor for the sun rising in the east and setting in the west for life and death?(1 vote)
- about 45 seconds in way is the robe of Mary faded?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Steven] One of the most powerful scenes in the chapel is The Lamentation. Christ has been crucified,
he's been taken down off the cross and he's now being mourned by his mother, by his followers. - [Beth] And that word
that we use for this scene, lamentation, comes from the
word to lament, to grieve. - [Steven] This is one of the
saddest images I've ever seen. We have Mary holding her dead son and it reminds us of a
scene that's across the wall of the Nativity, where
there is this tenderness and this relationship between
Mary and her infant son. And now we see Mary again
holding her adult, now dead son. - [Beth] On her lap, the
way she does as a mother, when he's a child. Look at how she's raised her
right knee to prop him up. Look at how she bends forward. - [Steven] And twists her body. - [Beth] And puts her arms around him, one hand on his shoulder,
another on his chest. She leans forward as if to
plead with him to wake up, as if in disbelief that
this could have happened. - [Steven] The idea of
representing Christ as dead is a modern idea, putting emphasis on Christ as physical, as human. At Christ's feet we see Mary Magdalene with her typical read hair, who is attending to his feet and there's a real sense
of tenderness there. Giotto is so interested in naturalism that he's willing to show two figures where we only see the backs. We would never have seen
this in the Medieval period. - [Beth] And that's because
those figures provide no information to the narrative. All that they do is frame Christ and Mary. They draw our eye to those
most important figures. - [Steven] We look at Christ and Mary, as they're looking at Christ and Mary. - [Beth] They also help to
create an illusion of space. It's amazing to me how
close they are to us. Their bottoms almost
move out into our space. Giotto makes it clear that these figures are looking in, and
therefore there's space here for the human figures to occupy. - [Steven] But there are other than human figures here, as well. There are angels. But these angels are not detached figures. They mourn as we mourn. They rend their clothing,
they tear at themselves, they pull their hair. They are in agony. - [Beth] And they're foreshortened, so like the figures
with their backs to us, they assist in Giotto's
creating an illusion of space. And like the angels above them, the human figures display
their grief in different ways. Some are sad and resigned
and keep to themselves. Other figures throw their arms out. There's a real interest in individuality in the different ways that
people experience emotion. The feet of the figure on the far right, that sense of gravity
and weight of a figure really standing on the ground, just like the figures who are sitting. Not the Medieval floating figures
that we've come to expect. We're struck by the
simplicity of the composition. Giotto's placing all of this
emphasis on the figures. He simplified the background. But unlike a Medieval image
where we might expect to see the most important figure,
Christ, in the center, Giotto's moved him off to the left. The landscape is in
service of drawing our eye down toward Christ. That rocky hill that forms the landscape, that moves our eye down
to Mary and Christ. - [Steven] And at the top, there's a tree. And the tree might look dead, but of course, it might also be winter. And that tree might grow
leaves again in the spring, and it is an analogy to Christ and his eventual resurrection. That ground is used for several purposes. To root those figures,
but also to allow us to move out of the picture. As we move from The Lamentation, we move to the next image, which is the scene where
Christ says do not touch me, when Mary Magdalene recognizes him as he has been resurrected. And you'll notice that Giotto
has continued that mountain. Our eye then moves down, and so there is this visual relationship that is drawn between Christ's death, Christ's mourning, and Christ's resurrection by
the landscape that frames them. In the trompe l'oeil
depictions of inset stone, there is another painted scene
in the little quatrefoil. - [Beth] Throughout
the chapel we see this. An Old Testament scene paired
with the New Testament, specifically Old Testament
scenes that in some way prefigured the life of Christ. And here we see Jonah. - [Steven] Jonah is
swallowed by this giant fish, by this whale, prays for forgiveness, having betrayed God and is
delivered from this fish. It is a perfect Old Testament analogy to the New Testament story
of Christ's crucifixion and ultimate resurrection. It's a tour de force of emotion. It's such an expression of
this late Medieval period that is moving towards what we will eventually call the Renaissance. (jazzy piano music)