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Don’t forget to click on the images to see their beauty! Enguerrand Quarton (or Charonton) (c. 1410 – c. 1466) was a French painter and manuscript illuminator. Although there are very few surviving works attributable to him, his are the first masterpieces of a distinctively French style. Quarton was born in northern France, but moved to Provence in 1444, working in Aix-en- Provence in 1446 and then in Avignon, until his death there in about 1466.  Although he lived during the years of the Renaissance when great artistic advancements occurred, he is considered by many to be a medieval (Gothic) artist.  I believe that when you see his paintings, you can see that his art does reflect the changes in the portrayal of figures and their emotions which mark the proto-Renaissance style. Although Quarton’s career flourished from 1444 to 1466 in Provence, there are only six of his paintings that are documented, three of which have survived.   Surprisingly, Rene of Anjou, the ruler of most of Provence,did not appear to commission Quarton for any work, although Rene was a keen patron of the arts.  However, many of Quarton’s clients were important figures in Rene’s court, such as the Chancellor of Provence who commissioned his illumination of the Missal of Jean des Martins. His most famous work is the Coronation of the Virgin, a common subject, but treated by Quarton in an unusual way in that the Father and the Son of the Holy Trinity are identical.  Around the Trinity are red and blue angels,  While Rome and Jerusalem are depicted on the right and left, respectively.  Purgatory and Hell are shown beneath the two cities, with the Crucifixion in the center. The sculptural style of figures, folds, and rocks are typical of the art of Provence at that time. The Virgin of Mercy, painted in 1452, also known as the Cadard Altarpiece after the donor, has a plain gold background, which was outdated by the time of its creation.  For comparison, the best-known version of this theme was painted by Piero della Francesca a few years earlier. In Quarton’s version, the Virgin,Saint John the Baptist (left) and Saint John the Evangelist (right) tower over the donor and his wife, who are to the right and left of the Virgin and are themselves bigger than the faithful sheltered under the Virgin’s robe.  It has been suggested that these sheltered figures were painted by someone else, since their rendering is weaker than the rest of the painting. The Louvre museum now follows most art historians in assigning to Quarton the famous Avignon Pietà (1457?), which demonstrates a similar style. Quarton is notable because his paintings are full of imagination, with original representations of the Virgin and saints.  His art is fine and graceful within rich compositions, and it is clear that he created monumental paintings with the precision and attention to detail of book illumination. 0 0

Click on the illustrations to see the beauty of the art! Andrea Pisano was a pioneer of prototypical Renaissance relief sculpture of the fourteenth century. His chief works can be found in Florence, the most important of which were his three bronze doors for the baptistery of the Cathedral of Florence, completed in 1336. As seen from his work, he was greatly influenced by the artist Giotto. He was born in the province of Pisa and as with many fourteenth century artists, not much is known of his life.  Pisano first learned to be a goldsmith, but then became of pupil of Mino di Giovanni and worked with him on sculptures for churches in Pisa and elsewhere, before developing his mature style in Florence. The Baptistery of Florence has three world famous bronze doors, and the earliest one on the south side of the Baptistery contains Pisano’s work, completed in 1336.  These are a number of small quatrefoil panels with relief sculpture.  A quatrefoil is an ornamental design of four lobes, resembling a flower or four-leaf clover. Relief sculpture consists of shapes carved on a surface and standing out from the surrounding background. The figures in Pisano’s relief sculptures for the Baptistery door are gilded and set against a smooth bronze surface.  The lower eight are single figures of the Virtues and the rest scenes from the life of John the Baptist. These reliefs are beautiful Christian art, and the iconography shows the influence of Giotto’s frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Croce.  Pisano’s style is simple and restrained; his figures are carved with great skill and expertise. In 1340, Pisano succeeded Giotto as Master of the Works of the Florence Cathedral and was in charge of the continuing construction of the Campanile (bell tower), following Giotto’s design scrupulously.  He added two stories and executed a series of sculptural reliefs, working with pupils from his own studio: Four Great Prophets, the Seven Virtues, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Works of Mercy and the Seven Planets. These are based on classical ideals but demonstrate the naturalism of Giotto. The Duomo contains the chief of Pisano’s other Florentine works in marble.Of all the figures carved for the Duomo and attributed to Pisano, the most important is that of Santa Reparata, the patron saint to whom the basilica had been dedicated at an early date. Her gentle, almost shy attitude, and the manner in which we was rendered are indicative of a proto-Renaissance style.   In 1347, Pisano was named the chief architect of the Duomo of Orvieto, a 14th century cathedral in Orvieto in Umbria.  Construction had begun in 1290 and continued for almost three centuries.  Pisano died a year later in 1348, and was succeeded by his son, Nino. Pisano’s most most distinguished pupil was a painter, sculptor and architect know as Orcagna.     0 0

Remember to click on the art, to see it in its glory! Thank heavens I found an early Renaissance artist with a name beginning with O! Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo (c. 1308 – August 25, 1368) was known as Orcagna, his nickname apparently local slang for ‘Arcangel’ ( Arcangelo).   A painter, sculptor, and architect, he was the leading Florentine artist of the third quarter of the 14th century. Orcagna was the son of a goldsmith and the most recognized of a family of painters, which included three younger brothers: Nardo, Matteo, and Jacopo.  He studied at the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali (1343–44) and is thought to have worked in the studio of the proto-Renaissance sculptor Andrea Pisano, who carved reliefs for one of the bronze doors of the Baptistery in Florence.  Orcagna  was admitted to the guild of painters in 1344 and to the guild of stonemasons in 1352. One of the few paintings attributable to Orcagna is the altarpiece of The Redeemer with the Madonna and Saints (1354-57) in the beautiful church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. This is the most powerful Florentine painting of its period, with dazzling colors and the lavish use of gold.  Despite the fact that the naturalism of Giotti was having a major impact at the time, the altarpiece, with massive remote and immobile figures, shows a strong Byzantine influence.   Nevertheless, the figures are painted with a forcefulness and individuality. Orcagna also painted a fresco trilogy (Triumph of Death, Last Judgment, and Hell) in Santa Croce in Florence, only fragments of which remain. This fresco inspired Franz Liszt’s masterwork  Totentanz. His work as a sculptor and architect is known only through one work, the tabernacle in Or San Michele, where he was the supervising architect.  This is a highly elaborate ornamental structure housing a painting of the Virgin; it is supported by four octagonal piers and heavily encrusted with colored inlay. On the front and side are a number of hexagonal reliefs from the life of the Virgin, some of which are signed and dated 1359.  A relief, in sculpture, is any work in which the figures project from a supporting background and is a form of art that sprang up in Tuscany after the Black Plague.  There are marked differences in the figures of the tabernacle, believed due to work by Orcagna’s brother Matteo. Orcagna was employed as architect of the cathedral in Florence twice (1357 and 1364–67), and of the cathedral at Orvieto (1359–60), where he supervised the mosaic decoration of the façade with his brother Matteo . In September 1367 he received the commission for an altarpiece of St. Matthew, with four scenes from the Saint’s life. While working on this commission,  Orcagna fell mortally ill, and this work was finished by his brother Jacopo, who worked in his style and continued it until his death circa 1395.   0 0

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by.  I apologize that the pictures for Massacio didn’t get uploaded into the post until this afternoon. I’m not sure what happened, but they are there now in all their glory. I have had a wonderful time visiting you all and seeing all the creative things you have done with the A-Z challenge. Some of my favorites so far: Sylvia Writes From Sarah with Joy Scriblet Diary of an Aspiring Writer Scribbling in the Storage Room Jemima Pett Chris Musgrave – Writer in Training Rosie Amber Reflections and Nightmares A Woman’s Wisdom As you can see, variety is the spice of my life. So thank you to all my new blogger friends! 0 0

I’ve only been able to swim in our pool off and on for the last two weeks (the air temp has varied from the low 50s to 80+), but spring has inexorably come to Chapel Hill. I wanted to share this picture of our Japanese weeping cherry tree, which takes my breath away each year, without fail. The blossoms last maybe a week, depending on the temperature, and then comes the hard work of fishing the petals out of the pool. But it’s definitely worth it!   0 0

Please click on Masaccio’s work to appreciate its beauty! Because I could not find an artist with an “N”, I am substituting Masaccio, another great “M.” Tommaso di Ser Giovanni Di Simone or Masaccio is considered the first great painter of the Quattrocento (1400s) of the Italian Renaissance because of his ability to recreate lifelike figures with movement and a true sense of three-dimensionality. He was born in 1401 in a small town outside of Florence.  It is unknown where he received his training, but Masaccio moved to Florence in 1420 became a member of the painters’ guild that year and began his career as a professional painter.  In Florence he was given the nickname, Maso, short for Tommaso, which means clumsy, messy or lazy Tom, apparently  because he had little care for worldly matters. Other than his paintings, there are few records of Masaccio and he died at age 26.  He nevertheless had a profound influence on other artists because he was the first to use linear perspective and a vanishing point in his painting.  His paintings have a naturalism with color and spatial context; he also employed chiaroscuro, the use of light and dark in contrast, to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects. It is believed that he was influenced by the perspective of Brunelleschi (see B), the sculpture of Donatello (see D), and the naturalism of Giotto (see G). The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, is one of the early works attributed to Masacchio, in collaboration with an older, well-known artist, Masolino da Panicale.  The division of work between the two artists in this painting is clear:  Masolino painted the graceful but rather flat figures of St. Anne and the angels, while Masaccio painted the Virgin and Child, who are solid and robust. Masaccio’s chief work was the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel, where he was commissioned to continue its decoration begun by Masolino.   The middle section of the frescos is Masaccio’s: Adam and Eve Driven Out of Paradise and Christ Ordering St. Peter to Pay the Tribute are the best known.  Masaccio’s scenes show the influence of Giotto.   His figures are large and solid, with face and gestures that express emotion.  Unlike Giotto, however, Masaccio uses linear perspective, directional light, and chiaroscuro, which render his frescoes are more convincingly lifelike.  For unknown reasons, this duo left the chapel unfinished, and it was completed by Filippino Lippi in the 1480s. The state register of property for 1427 shows that Masaccio “possesses nothing of his own ….that nearly all his clothing is in pawn at the Lion and the Cow loan-offices”.  Hence his nickname; he either knew or cared little for the financial side of a career as a painter. Masaccio returned in 1427 to work in the Chapel again, beginning the Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus.  It, too, was left unfinished but either restored or completed more than fifty years later, again by Lippi. At around the same time, Masaccio won a prestigious commission to produce a Holy Trinity for the church of Santa Maria Novella.   The fresco, seriously damaged over the years, is considered to be Masaccio’s masterwork and demonstrates perfect linear perspective. The Trinity is between the Virgin and St. John, with kneeling portraits of the two donors at the sides. Two other works produced by Masaccio, a Nativity and an Annunciation, have been lost.  He left Florence for Rome in 1428, where Masolino was frescoing a chapel with scenes from the life of St. Catherine, but it hasn’t been confirmed that Masaccio collaborated on that work. Masacchio died of unknown causes around 1429.  He was only moderately esteemed in his own time, but has been enthusiastically admired after his death, an enthusiasm that has endured for five centuries. 0 0

Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. (1290-1348) was an Italian painter, who, together with his older brother Pietro, helped introduce naturalism into the art of Siena.  You will see the Gothic influence in his artistry but also experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, foreshadowing the art of the Renaissance.  Ambrogio developed into a more realistic and inventive painter than Pietro, which I why I chose him over his brother. The dates for Lorenzetti’s birth and death are not precise because there is little extant documentation.  Furthermore, as with many of the artists working in the 14th century, the chronology of his work is debatable.  Some of the frescos he worked on with his brother are lost, and only six works can be clearly documented to Ambrogio, covering a period of merely 13 years. Lorenzetti may have trained in the workshop of Duccio, the principal painter in Siena, Florence’s major rival, at the beginning of the fourteenth century.  He may also have been influenced by Giotto (see G), who broke with the Byzantine style by drawing accurately from life. One of his earliest attributable works is the Madonna and Child painted in 1319.  The Gothic influence is clear in that the image of the Madonna faces the viewer, while the Child gazes up at her.  Like Duccio, Ambrogio broke down the sharp lines of Byzantine art and softened his figures. He did not use light and shading but instead employed pattern and color to move the Madonna into a third dimension (note the drape of her gown).  In a Madonna and Child painted by his brother Pietro thirteen years later, there is a similar use of pattern and color, but he turns the Madonna’s head to the side in an intimate depiction of an affectionate mother caressing her playful baby, resembling Duccio.   Ambrogio is best known for the fresco cycles of Good Government and Bad Government in the Palazzo Publico of Siena. The Allegory of Good Government portrays Justice as a woman, resembling the figure of Mary, Queen of Heaven, the patron saint of Siena. She gestures to the scales of balance, and Wisdom floats over her throne. On her left, a convicted criminal is beheaded; on the right, figures receive the rewards of justice.  At far left is Virtue, who is portrayed as a female rather than male, figure.  The largest figure is a judge, center right. The judge is surrounded by additional figures, including Peace, with elaborate blonde hair, which was not a natural hair color for Italian women from this region. The Allegory of Bad Government has not been written about as extensively as that of Good Government, partly due to its deteriorated condition.  In it, there are personifications of flaws and bad principles. In the middle there is Tyranny, with a demonic appearance and bigger than the rest of the figures. Under its feet, Justice is tied with a broken scale.  Ambrogio’s frescoes show a remarkable transition in thought and theme from earlier religious art. For the Annunciation, painted in 1344 for the City Council of Siena, Ambrogio painted the Virgin and Angel with gentle elegance and sweet expression Note the Roman arches and the development of his three dimensional perspective.   The Annunciation, Pietro Lorenzetti, 1342   Compare this to the Annunciation painted by his older brother in 1342, where the Gothic style persists, with static figures, a flatter perspective and Gothic arches. The peaceful and gently lyrical temperament of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, particularly in his later paintings, is in complete contrast to his brother’s dramatic style, which never truly emerged from the constraints of his Gothic training.  Ambrogio Lorenzetti died, along with his brother, from a plague, probably the Black Death, in 1348. 0 0

Don’t forget to click on the illustrations to enjoy their beauty! Giorgio Giulio Clovio or Klović (1498 – January 5, 1578) was born in Croatia and is considered the greatest illuminator of the Italian High Renaissance, and perhaps the last notable artist in the long tradition of the illuminated manuscript. So exactly what is an illuminated manuscript?  You probably immediately think of the Book of Hours, a Christian devotional book popular in the MIddle Ages and the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript.  It is a perfect example of decoration, where initials, borders and miniature illustrations are added to a text.  Technically, an illuminated manuscript  is one decorated with gold or silver, but the term is now commonly used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript in the Western tradition. The portrait of Clovio was painted by El Greco between 1570 and 1571.  In it, Clovio is an old man, pointing to his most favorite book, Officium Virginis or the Farnese Hours, which was decorated by himself.  Tradition has it that his dexterity in painting miniatures was so great that he could paint the whole of the Last Supper on a fingernail! Clovio was born in Grižane, a village in what is today Croatia.  Where he received his early training is not known, but he may possibly have studied first with the monks at Fiume of Novi Bazar, a town in Bosnia.  He moved to Rome when he was 18, where he lived in the household of Cardinal Marino Grimani and studied under Guilio Romano,  an Italian painter and architect and a pupil of Raphael.  One of Clovio’s his first pictures was a Madonna after an engraving by Albert Durer. Clovio lived an exciting life, travelling around Italy and eastern Europe, following his commissions . In 1523, Clovio went to Buda, to work at the court of Louis II, King of Bohemia and Hungary-Croatia, but returned to Rome when the king was killed in battle in 1526.  He resumed contact with Giulio Romano, and studied the work of Michelangelo.  Rome was sacked in 1527 and Clovio was captured and imprisoned, during which time he vowed to devote his life to religion if he escaped.  Which he did, and moved to Mantua where he entered a Benedictine  abbey and continued to develop his talent of painting miniatures. With some help from Cardinal Grimani, he was released from his vows, but apparently continued to follow a somewhat monastic lifestyle.  He spent several years in the service of Grimani, executing some of his most beautiful works.  He painted with the patronage of such powerful figures as Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Phillip II of Spain and Portugal, but then returned to Rome.  There, he spent nine years completing his masterpiece, the paintings that decorate the so-called Farnese Hours. The Farnese Hours, commissioned by Cardinal Allessandro Farnese, who would become Pope Paul III, was completed in 1546 and contains twenty-six lavishly-detailed full-page miniatures and a few dozen more pages illuminated with elaborate border decorations. Clovio himself recommended to Cardinal Farnese’s attention the young El Greco, a sincere admirer, who painted his portrait.  He died in Rome at the ripe old age of eighty; his tomb is in the  Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli, where Michelangelo’s Moses is also found. 0 0

I have made very few book recommendations in the last several years, and this particular book is not my genre.  However, I had the pleasure of critiquing it as it was being written, and now that it’s out and is offered as a Kindle Countdown until April 14, I would like to let everyone know about it. The name of the book is Ahvarra, and the author, Brian Lang, classifies this book as both fantasy and urban fantasy, with a little alternative history mixed in.  I know some of you like this genre, so here is a summary: The island of Lorenya is slowly being eaten by a black desert known as the Raught, and its inhabitants—both humans and a transforming race known as Ameleons—need a solution. Such a solution may exist in their own world, at the ruins of a battlefield that lies across the treacherous Raught, while another may exist by passing through Ahvarra, the Heart of the World, that connects Lorenya to a mid 21st century Earth.  While one Protector of the Heart travels across the barren landscape, encountering dangers and surprises, another travels through the Heart, expecting a small colony. What she finds is a world where technology and virtual reality exceed anything she’s ever known… and where a descendant of Lorenya can help her find a path to her world’s salvation.  But how did this world come to be built? What history is locked behind secrets that are hinted at in a journal written over centuries? The key to Lorenya’s survival is found in its history, and these Protectors must bring their shared knowledge together before the Ameleons transform into their aggressive nature and bring their realm to ruin.  Can history and technology combine to save one small world? I can recommend this book with enthusiasm. It’s creative and intriguing. Even though I am a murder/mystery novelist, this kept me reading, even when I had to wait several weeks for the next installment! 0 0

Left click on the images to enjoy the beauty! Hieronymus Bosch was born Jheronimus (the Latin form of the name Jerome), and he signed a number of his paintings as Jheronimus Bosch, Bosch being a derivative of the town where he was born and spent most of this life. Bosch is a revolutionary of the early Northern Renaissance; his importance is not only the uniqueness of his work, but also his influence on Pieter Breugel the Elder, a famous Flemish painter during the High Renaissance, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. From his work, Bosch appears to have been a pessimist and stern moralist. His paintings are sermons, and he chose symbols to represent the temptation of man by earthly evils.  Recent scholarship portrays Bosch as one of the first artists to represent abstract concepts in his paintings. There is little information on Bosch’s early life, other than the fact that he was the son and grandson of accomplished painters.  Even his date of birth has had to be estimated from his self portrait.  The few other personal facts: sometime between 1479 and 1481, Bosch married, and in 1488 he joined the highly respected Brotherhood of Our Lady, an arch-conservative religious group, which mentions him in its official records until the year of his death. Only 35 to 40 paintings are attributed to Bosch, but only seven are signed and none are dated. However, it is easy to trace the evolution of his style and mastery of painting. For example, his early work shows some awkwardness and his subjects are somewhat limited scope, such as Ecco Homo and Cutting the Stone.   But even in these early paintings, Bosch had begun to depict the vulnerability of men to lust, heresy, and obscenity. The triptych of the Temptation of St Anthony, painted in 1490, heralds the maturation of Bosch’s artistic abilities.  The brushstrokes are sharper, his figures are graceful, there is slight  movement, and his colors are more subtle.  Most exceptionally, there is an eruption of hellish fantasy, with grotesque demons and a bizarre, fantastic backgrounds to illustrate the temptation of the devil. The Garden of Earthly Delights painted sometime between 1490 and 1510, is Bosch at his best.  Painted in oil on oak, it shows the creation of woman, her temptation by the devil, and the fall. It contains unsettling images of sensuality; hordes of nudes, giant birds, and horses frolic in an otherworldly landscape. In no other work does Bosch achieve the complexity of imagery and meaning.   Books and theses have been devoted to the decoding and understanding of his imagery! In Bosch’s late works, he painted dense groups of half figures or just heads, pushing up against the plane of the picture.  In the Crowning with Thorns and the Carrying of the Cross, for example, you are so near to the image, you are almost participating. During this period, Bosch also painted his most peaceful and untroubled works, for example St. John the Evangelist in Patmos and St. John the Baptist in the Desert. The accounts of the Brotherhood of Our Lady record Bosch’s death in 1516, with a funeral mass in his memory on 9 August of that year. My favorite work? The Conjuror.  It was supposedly painted in 1505, but looks to be from his early period.  How many times have you yourself seen something like this? 0 0