ARENA CHAPEL IN PADUA, ITALY

SUBJECT. Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel Frescoes

MEDIUM. Fresco painting

ARTISTS. Giotto (1267-1337)

MEANING. The Scrovegni Chapel fresco paintings are Giotto's greatest masterpiece
of religious art and mark a decisive turning point in Pre-Renaissance painting of the
14th century. In simple terms, he abandoned the rules and conventions of the flat
hieratic style of Byzantine art, in favour of a greater naturalism in both his figures and
stories. As a result, Giotto (1266-1337) is not only viewed as the most important painter
of Proto-Renaissance art (c.1300-1400), but also the greatest single influence on
painters of the Early Renaissance (c.1400-90), such as Masaccio (1401-1428), Piero
della Francesca (1420-92) and Fra Angelico (c.1400-55). The fresco cycle in the
Scrovegni Chapel was greatly admired even by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1260-1319),
the leading artist of the more traditionalist Sienese School of Painting, and ranks
alongside the Sistine Chapel frescoes, as one of the most influential works of Christian
art of the Renaissance era.
 CHURCH OF FRANCESCO, AREZZO

SUBJECT. Legend of the True Cross

MEDIUM. Frescoes

ARTISTS. Bicci di Lorenzo and Piero della Francesca

MEANING. The story chosen for the fresco cycle was the Legend of the True cross, a
tale of how the relics from Jesus’ cross arrived in Europe. The source for Piero’s work
was the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine which gave him more than enough
material to fill the large wall space that had been allocated to the frescoes.

According to the Legend, Jesus’ cross was made from the wood of an apple tree
planted in the Garden of Eden on the death of Adam. This is the first scene in the story,
and is the top image on the southern wall of the chapel.

Piero didn’t stick rigidly to the chronology of the story, but allowed his love of maths
and symmetry to shape the order of the scenes he painted. In particular, he balances
two great battle scenes on the two side walls of the chapel. These represent two big
battles when Christianity defeated Pagans, firstly Maxentius fleeing from Constantine
and secondly Chosroes of Persia being defeated by Heraclius.
 STANCE

SUBJECT. Portrait Of A Young Man

MEDIUM. Fresco painting

ARTISTS. Raffaello Sanzio

MEANING. As a portrait painting of the High Renaissance, Raphael's emphasis on

erect poise, gesture, texture, decorous ornament, and softened form all represented
cultivated Mannerist expression with the attributes of the noble class in a style which
spread through southern Italy after Raphael's death. Here, the textural details of a
flesh colored wall, sable fur, and wavy dark hair not only strike a Neo-Classical,
sensitive balance between real humanity and nature, they extend gestures seen in
previous female hand placement to stress man's role as a well-travelled humanist.
Raphael humanized male gender so that the sleeve ribbon and hazy edges around
hair and landscape reflected the interchangeability of each gender. A left palm
placed near the heart emphasized self-identity and a passionate stance. A striking
contrast between pure white and sable intensified the doctrinal harmony between
Heaven and Earth.
 STANCE DE RAFFAELLO

SUBJECT. Raffaello Sanzio

MEDIUM. Fresco painting

ARTISTS. Raphael (1483-1520)

MEANING. The School of Athens fresco was an immediate success, with none of the
reservations which greeted the completion of Michelangelo's Genesis Fresco on the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel. Its pictorial concept, formal beauty and thematic unity were universally
appreciated, by the Papal authorities and other artists, as well as patrons and art collectors.
It ranks alongside Leonardo's Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and Michelangelo's Vatican
frescoes, as the embodiment of Renaissance ideals of the early cinquecento.

In fact Raphael's painterly skills were soon in such demand that he was obliged to leave
more and more work to his assistants, such as Giovanni Francesco Penni (1496-1536), Giulio
Romano (1499-1546) and Perino del Vaga (Piero Buonaccorsi) (1501-47). Responsible for
numerous altarpieces, such as The Sistine Madonna (1513-14, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden) and The Transfiguration (1518-20, Pinacoteca Apostolica, Vatican), as well as other
examples of religious art, he also produced several famous Renaissance portraits of
ecclesiastical and secular subjects - such as Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (1514-15,
Louvre) and Pope Leo X with Cardinals (1518, Galleria Palatina, Pitti Palace, Florence).
Arguably the finest painter of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael remains one of the best artists
of all time.
 CEILING OF SISTINE CHAPEL

SUBJECT. Genesis Fresco

MEDIUM. Fresco painting

ARTISTS. Michelangelo (1475-1564)

MEANING. Michelangelo used an illusionistic architectural framework for his fresco

design, which consists of a number of different features. (1) The shallow barrel vault
ceiling is divided into a series of nine alternating large and small panels. These fields
contain the main narrative of the ceiling: nine scenes from the Book of Genesis. (2)
Each smaller panel is surrounded by four nude youths or male angels -
called Ignudi - each pair of which supports a bronze roundel or medallion illustrating
a scene from Old Testament books of history, principally Kings and Maccabees. (3)
Below these main panels are the the figures of twelve men and women who foretold
the birth of Jesus: 7 Old Testament Prophets and 5 Classical Sibyls. (4) Below these
prophets, is a series of crescent-shaped lunettes, containing the Ancestors of Christ.
(5) In a series of triangular spandrels, another eight sets of figures are shown, some of
which have not been matched with specific Biblical characters. (6) The design is
completed by four corner pendentives, each depicting a dramatic Biblical story.
 ANNOUNCIATION OF MARY

SUBJECT. Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary

MEDIUM. Oil on panel

ARTIST. Leonardo Da Vinci

MEANING.The Annunciation (from Latin annuntiatio), also referred to as the Annunciation to

the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the
Catholic celebration of the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin
Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, marking His
Incarnation. Gabriel told Mary to name her son Yeshua, meaning "YHWH is salvation".

STARRY NIGHT

SUBJECT. The Starry Night

MEDIUM. Oil on Canvas

ARTIST. Vincent van Gogh

MEANING. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his
asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an idealized
village.

LA PIETA

SUBJECT. The Pietà (Italian: [pjeˈta]; English: "The Pity"; 1498–1499)

MEDIUM. Marble (type)

ARTIST. Michelangelo

MEANING. The Madonna is represented as being very young for the mother of an
approximately 33-year-old son, which is not uncommon in depictions of her at the time of the
Passion of Christ. Various explanations have been suggested for this. One is that her youth
symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself said to his biographer and fellow
sculptor Ascanio Condivi.

Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste?
How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious
desire that might change her body?

Another explanation suggests that Michelangelo's treatment of the subject was influenced
by his passion for Dante's Divina Commedia: so well-acquainted was he with the work that
when he went to Bologna he paid for hospitality by reciting verses from it. In Paradiso
(cantica 33 of the poem), Saint Bernard, in a prayer for the Virgin Mary, says "Vergine madre,
figlia del tuo figlio" (Virgin mother, daughter of your son). This is said because, since Christ is
one of the three figures of Trinity, Mary would be his daughter, but it is also she who
bore him.
 BIRTH OF JESUS

SUBJECT. Adoration of the Shepherds

MEDIUM. Oil on Canvas

ARTIST. Matthias Stomer

MEANING. In Christian theology the nativity marks the birth of Jesus in fulfillment of the divine
will of God, to save the world from sin. The artistic depiction of the nativity has been an
important subject for Christian artists since the 4th century. Artistic depictions of the nativity
scene since the 13th century have emphasized the humility of Jesus and promoted a more
tender image of him, as a major turning point from the early "Lord and Master" image,
mirroring changes in the common approaches taken by Christian pastoral ministry.
 MOTHER’S REVENGE

SUBJECT. MOTHER’S REVENGE

MEDIUM. Terra Cotta Clay Sculpture

ARTIST. Jose Rizal

MEANING. Mother’s Revenge, is an allegorical representation of what was happening in the

Philippines during that period. Shown is a mother dog trying to rescue her helpless pup from
the bite of the crocodile. The mother dog represents “mother Philippines” and the patriots
who are doing their best to save the defenseless countrymen - the pup - from the cruelty of
the Spaniards as represented by the crocodile.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/index.htm