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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 3
Lesson 4: Northern Italy: Venice, Ferrara, and the Marches- Venetian art, an introduction
- Oil paint in Venice
- Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
- Palazzo Ducale
- Ca' d'Oro
- Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius): inventor of the modern book
- Saving Venice
- Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II
- Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria
- Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis
- Giovanni Bellini, Brera Pietà
- Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece
- Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece
- Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece
- Giovanni Bellini and Titian, The Feast of the Gods
- Andrea Mantegna, San Zeno Altarpiece
- Mantegna, Saint Sebastian
- Mantegna, Dormition of the Virgin
- Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi
- Mantegna, Dead Christ
- Pisanello, Leonello d’Este
- Sala dei Mesi at Palazzo Schifanoia
- Vittore Carpaccio, Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Rialto Bridge
- Persian carpets, a peacock, and a cucumber, understanding Crivelli's Annunciation
- Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius
- Do you speak Renaissance? Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child
- Cosmè Tura, Roverella Altarpiece
- Guido Mazzoni, Lamentation in Ferrara
- Guido Mazzoni and Renaissance Emotions
- Guido Mazzoni, Head of a Man
- Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
- Renaissance Venice in the 1400s
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Mantegna, Dormition of the Virgin
Andrea Mantegna, Dormition (or Death) of the Virgin, c. 1462, tempera on panel, 54 × 42 cm, 21.26 × 16.54 in (Museo del Prado, Madrid)Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why did Mantegna paint a scene of an Italian city in the background when we know Mary lived nowhere near that region?(8 votes)
- I believe it is a way to make the viewer feel closer to the event depicted.(17 votes)
- The figure who leans over Mary seems to be holding something on a chain, but it doesn't look like it is responding to gravity. In fact, it looks like it is pulling towards Mary. Any explaination?(4 votes)
- It looks like a censer which holds burning incense. The symbolism is that the smoke of the incense rises as our prayers rise to heaven, a fragrance to God. It appears to be in mid-swing, again capturing that moment in time.(17 votes)
- Aboutwhy is the ?palm fram? a symbol of death or triumph over death? Who's holding it? 2:40(2 votes)
- a palm frond which is the foilage from a palm tree
remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and the palms that were laid to make his path
I think in this picture an angel is holding the palm frond-does this help?(5 votes)
- Where in Italy does the scene outside the window represent? Does it look anything like that today?(2 votes)
- Hi Benjamin,
At aroundshe mentions that the setting is Mantua ( 0:50http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantua), a city in Northern Italy which used to be very important in the Renaissance.(5 votes)
- Does the other third of the painting exist elsewhere? Do we know why it was cut up?(3 votes)
- According to El Prado Museum website: "The upper third is missing, but a part of it, Christ Receiving the Virgin, is at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Ferrara."
No reason was given as to why it was cut up.(2 votes)
- How long after the death of Jesus did Mary die? Also, do we know the location of her gravesite?(1 vote)
- She does not have a grave spot, she was assumed into heaven, body and soul. She went into heaven just like Jesus did, but only God assumed her, she did not do it herself. :)(2 votes)
- At, what does she mean by "linear perspective"? 1:41(1 vote)
- I must be seeing this wrong. There is an arm swinging the incense, but it doesn't appear to be attached to a body. It's a right arm, but seems to be floating in space to the left of the man leaning over Mary. That man has a left arm, and his left hand holds a bowl, but right arm seems to be bending a rules of anatomy. Does anyone else see that? If I'm wrong (which I suspect), can someone explain the position of that arm to me?(1 vote)
- I have also heard of curvilinear perspective and nonlinear perspective. What are the differences between these and linear perspective?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(piano playing) Dr. We're in the Prado, in Madrid and
we're looking at a small Andrea Mantegna. It's the Dormition of the Virgin. The painting that we're seeing is only
the bottom two-thirds of the original. Dr. Harris: Right so it would've
had a top that showed the
vaulting of the architecture, the bottom half of which
we see in this panel. It would have also shown Christ
receiving the Virgin's body. Dr. Zucker: That actually sort of raises
the question, what does Dormition mean? This was the moment when the Virgin
was readying herself to die and
invites the Apostles to be with her. Dr. Harris: This is an Apocryphal story. Dr. Zucker: Right, not
in the Bible itself. I think, actually Mantegna has played fast
and loose even with the Apocryphal version because we've got this set
in a classical environment, yet out the window, or past the porch ... Dr. Harris: It's Mantua. Dr. Zucker: Yeah we see this
incredibly accurate rendering
of an actual place in Italy. Dr. Harris: Apparently this is
very, very early maybe the first truly topographical
landscape of a part of Italy. Dr Zucker: I have to tell you that one of
the aspects of this painting that I love is the precision with which
Mantegna renders the folds and
the textures of the drapery, especially in the two front figures
in that green and that blue, but then also the figure in the
red that's leaning away from us. Dr. Harris: That's true. Dr. Zucker: ... makes the cloth
cling to the body that exposes it. Dr. Harris: This clearly
looking classical sculpture. Dr. Zucker: ... this is, this
is classical sculpture right,
being brought to life again. Dr. Harris: I'm looking also down
at the floor where we see the tiles forming the orthogonal's of the
linear perspective, not sure exactly
where the vanishing point would be, but the lovely feet and their
sense of weight and the shadows. We have a sense of light coming from
the right illuminating the columns and casting shadows that move out
from the figures toward the left. There's a real sense of light
and weight and space here
that's incredibly convincing. Dr. Zucker: It's true, look
at the way the floor brightens
in that little negative space between the feet of the
figure standing behind Mary. While mentioning Mary, she seems so minor
in comparison to the rest of the image. She's so pale and so frail,
but so small in comparison to
the much more vigorous figures around her and also the
scale of the architecture. Dr. Harris: We do have a
sense of them surrounding her and this moment that's about
to happen of her death and
the figures grieving for her. Dr. Zucker: We see the
figures on the left, standing, holding Palm frond the symbol
of death, but I'm actually ... Dr. Harris: Not only a symbol of
death but of the triumph over death. Dr. Zucker: Yes, right and of course
Christ would have received her in to heaven had the
painting not been cut in two. I love on the right the way in
which the figures were singing and the way in which the candles
are not heard perfectly vertically, but are responding to the movements
of the body just ever so slightly. To me, this sense of movement
and rhythm and change, even in this very stable environment. Dr. Harris: And that figure who
leans over her bed who almost is
our counterpart in the painting. (piano playing)