AP Art History Chapter 19 Study Guide

   Here is the answer key for the "Gardner's Art Through Ages" chapter 19 study guide. This will be a big, BIG help to review for the AP Art History exam. Pss, I got a 5 on the exam with the help of this study guide!

FROM GOTHIC TO RENAISSANCE

FOURTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN ART

TEXT PAGES  520-542

THE CITY STATES/ POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Name four Italian city states that were very successful commercially during the late Gothic period:

a. Venice                                                  b. Florence

c. Lucca                                                    d. Siena         

                                                                       

DISTRUPTION AND CHANGE/ LETTERS AND LEARNING

1. What was the Black Death and what effect did it have on art?

Bubonic plague, which killed between 25 and 50 percent of Europe’s population in about five years. It stimulated religious bequests and encouraged the commissioning of devotional images. The focus on sickness and death also led to a burgeoning in hospital construction.

2. What was Humanism and how did it affect art?

A mode of civil conduct, a theory of education and a scholarly discipline, mainly concerned with human values and interests as distinct from (but not opposed to) religion’s otherworldly values. Humanists were particularly interested in classical cultures, the artifacts of which abounded in Italy, and thus helped lead to the rise of the renewal of interest in classical art in the Renaissance.

THE MOVEMENT AWAY FROM MEDIEVALISM IN ART

1. Which style dominated Medieval Italian painting? Byzantine.

List three of its stylistic characteristics.

a. Frontal poses.

b. Lack of modeling.

c. Spatial and linear flatness.

2. Who was St. Francis?

Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order of monks. He believed he could get closer to God by rejecting worldly goods and he committed himself to a strict life of fasting, prayer, and meditation. The Franciscan worked to demonstrate the example of St. Francis and the order’s commitment to teaching and alleviating suffering.

      List three episodes of his life that are illustrated in Berlingieri’s altarpiece (FIG. 19-1).

a. St. Francis preaching to the birds.

b. St. Francis performing miracles.

c. St. Francis receiving the stigmata from a seraph.

3. Identify two trends shown in the works of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano that later become significant in the development of Renaissance art.

a.  A new interest in classical antiquity. The densely packed large-scale figures of the relief panels of Nicola’s Pisa Cathedral pulpit (19-3) are probably inspired by Roman sarcophagi in pose, bulk, and facial type.

b. Giovanni’s figures in the Sant’Andrea pulpit are loosely and dynamically arranged with animation, swiftly turning and rife with emotionalism and naturalism.

4. Although Cimabue was deeply influenced by the Italo-Byzantine style, he moved beyond it in the following ways:

a. The deeper space the Madonna and other figures reside in.

b. The gold embellishments taken from Byzantine art are used to add three-dimensionality to the drapery.

5.  What seems to have been the artistic traditions that influenced Giotto and contributed to the shaping of his style?

The Roman school of painting as represented by Cavallini, the work of Cimabue (presumed to be his teacher), French Gothic sculpture, and developments in contemporary Byzantine art.

6. List two characteristics of Giotto's style as seen by comparing his Madonna Enthroned (FIG. 19-7) with Cimabue's version of the same subject (FIG. 19-6).

a. Sculptural solidity and weight.

b. Figures that project into the light and give the illusion that they could throw shadows.

7. Giotto created a great fresco cycle in the Arena chapel in

Padua, Italy. It was consecrated in the year1305. The subjects of the framed scenes deal with:

The most poignant incidents from the lives of Mary and her parents (top level), the life and mission of Christ (middle level), and his Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection (bottom level).

8. List four characteristics of Giotto’s style as seen in the Lamentation scene (FIG. 19-9).

a. The framed scenes are connected with formal elements such as the rocky ledge.

b. The figures are sculpturesque (aided by the use of light and shade), simple, and weighty, but without precluding motion and emotion.

c. Figures are in defined groups each of which contribute to the rhythmic order of the composition that concentrates the viewer’s attention on the most important part of the picture.

d. Figures are seen from the back, emphasizing the foreground.

9. What is the difference between “true fresco” and “fresco secco”?

In true fresco (buon fresco), the paint in the form of permanent limeproof pigments is diluted in water and applied to freshly laid lime plaster. In fresco secco, the paint is applied to an already dry lime plaster wall.

10. The subject of Duccio’s Maesta Altarpiece  (FIGS. 19-10 and 19-11) was :

      The Virgin, as Queen of Heaven, and Child.

      List three stylistic elements he derived from the Byzantine tradition:

a. The composition’s formality and symmetry.

b. The figures and facial types of the principal angels and saints.

c. The scene does not represent a narrative or present illusionistic space by the use of modeled forms.

     

      List three ways in which he modified it:

a. He relaxed the strict formality of the figures by turning them to each other.

b. He individualized the faces of the four saints kneeling in the foreground.

c. He softened the drapery patterning of Byzantine art, depicting them as shimmering and glistening textiles.

11. How did Simone Martini help to form the so‑called International style?

He adapted the insubstantial but luxuriant patterns of the French Gothic manner to Sienese art, and in turn acquainted northern painters with the Sienese style.

      List four characteristics of that style.

a. Brilliant colors.

b. Lavish costumes.

c. Intricate ornamentation.

d. Themes involving splendid processions.

12. Panoramic views of the city of Siena and its surrounding countryside

were painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena as

part of a fresco known as Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country.

What revolutionary aspects are found in this fresco (FIGS. 19‑15 and 19-16)?

Peaceful City shows the growing knowledge of perspective in the architectural forms. Peaceful Country is a specific place and environment, rather than the generic earlier ancient depictions of landscape.

13. How were artists trained in Italy during the 14^th and 15^th centuries?

They were trained as in any other profession, in the apprentice system. They started from age 7 to 15, living with a master painter. Guilds supervised training, wanting to ensure professional reputations as well as to control the number of artists to limit competition. After leaving their apprenticeships, artists entered related guilds and affiliated themselves with workshops as assistants to master artists. Figure painting was reserved for the master artists.

16. What historical event seems to be the subject of The Triumph of Death (FIG. 19‑21)?

      The Black Death.