Max Latifi

Period 2

2-20-10

Ap Art Extra Credit

We went to the San Diego Museum of Art. The place was great, I have never been there

and I would surely go back again. Along with the museum, there were many types of museums,

park, and place to eat so you could spend the whole days with your friends and make a great time

out of it. We went to many different art exhibits and each one was unique. The art piece that I

decided to use was the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine with Saints and Angels. This is a 16th

century Spain triptych. The artist is the Master of Frankfurt (Hendrik Van Wueluwe). This piece

is 27.5 inches by 18.75 inches and was created in the Netherlands. He also paints using Antwerp

mannerism.

“The master of Frankfurt” is the name assigned by scholars to an artist responsible for a

group of painting stylistically similar to two altarpieces made for the German city of Frankfurt

am Main. This was one of the Netherlandish altarpieces sent to the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th

century. This piece is oil on panel and was made around the time of 1500-1510. There are many

names that are associated with this piece like the Holy Family with Saints and Angels and the

Altarpiece of the Holy Family. In this piece there are 3 panels. In the panel on the left you have

an angel with beautiful colored wings that help draw attention to it. It seems like it has influence

form the Fra Angelico’s annunciation. The use the style except in this one the angel is standing

in an upright position and is playing a banjo. He is portrayed very realistically and he has the

perfect skin tone and luxurious hair. His outfit has a very nice use of drapery that hits the floor
with great folds. The panel on the right has yet another angel but this time this angel is a female,

she has the same unique wings that are influenced from Fra Angelico. Her outfit has more

feminine colors and she seems to be very shy. She is playing the harp and she is looking down at

the harp. She also has the same type of drapery that hangs and you are able to see that her leg is

bended to help give support to the harp. In both left and right panels there are very nice forest

type backgrounds that are given a lot of detail. The middle panel is the biggest and has many

people. It has virgin and child along with St. Joseph. They also have Saint Catherine and Saint

Elizabeth there as well. The two saints are in very elegant clothing and is each doing something.

The saint on the left is wearing a yellow dress and is given a profile view. She has some nice

patterns on her dress and she is holding a ring in her hand. It appears that the Saint on the left is

St. Catherine and she has her wedding ring in her hand. She is wearing an interesting headpiece.

The other saint is sitting down and she has a very nice headpiece. Saint Elizabeth’s dress has a

nice design and she is wearing a pendant. She is also reading a book which shows that she is

religious and that she is literate. The drapery they have elegantly flows on the dress and is very

realistic. Also the Virgin and child are also located in this piece. There seems to be Virgo inters

Virgines which is known where virgin and child are depicted with Early Christian martyrs. The

virgin is wearing a red dress and she is holding the child and is giving him a kiss. This is more of

a sensitive scene with these two and it really shows the bond between them. The other person

associated with them is St. Joseph. St. Joseph acts as the head of the holy family and acted a

father figure when Christ was growing up. He is depicted with a beard and is shown a bit old. He

has some early stages of baldness and is holding a book that appears to be a bible.

The types of things that help prove that this work was done in the early 1500’s was that

he dated some of his art pieces which would indicate that he made paintings during this time.
The 16th century art that was produced was influenced form Italian Renaissance. One of the first

Netherlandish painters was Jan van Eyck. The Netherlandish painters combine the medieval

artistic heritage in northern Europe and correspond it to Renaissance ideals, so it is characterized

as late gothic and early Renaissance. By using Antwerp Mannerism it shows that it related to

Italian influence and also influence from their masters. Some of the Artist from this period paint

alike with all the angels having different colors wings and the styles relate to previous era of art.

The reason I chose this piece because I personally like triptychs and I enjoy narratives like this. I

had a choice for many different pieces of art and sculpture but I enjoy painting more. The

museum staff was actually quite nice we were given info about certain art piece and they even

give tours. They weren’t as calm because of the whole teenager thing and all they think is that

we would harm of art, but besides that I really enjoyed myself. I would definitely recommend

this place to any art lover because you have so many options of what to do and to see.