HISTORY OF ART 2B
Ten Kings of the (Chinese) Underworld
Three major belief systems that defined Chinese culture:
Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism
o Filial piety (respecting elders, authority, etc)
o Ancestor worship (when your parents died, you would have to
respect a strict calendar of mourning for three years)
The Scripture of the Ten Kings
o Apocryphal text, not part of the Buddhist textual canon
o Ten Kings of the underworld (“Underground prisons”)
Scripture of the Ten Kings scroll, 14 illustrations
Six Bodhisattvas:
o Enlightened beings mentioned in the text
o Exist in the world to help other people
o Neither male or female
o No iconographic attributes on the image to differentiate them
o Can only identify Dizang
Messengers:
o Taking messages to people who are about to die and invite
them to the underworld
Iconographies: Stirling Palace
The Renaissance Palace
o Consolidation of dynastic rule results in the rebuilding or
building of palaces as a manifesto of legitimation
o Site of magnificence, greatness and splendour
o Site of the court and the consumption of princely patronage
, o Significantly more than just decoration
o Site of administration, ceremonial and pleasure – it was not a
fortress – greatness was equated with the bringing of peace
and prosperity
o Canvas for a narrative of moral virtue, greatness of thought
and action, and depth of ancestry
James IV
o Great patron
o Man of considerable humanist endeavor and learning
o Friends with Desiderius Erasmus, who described him as “a
wonderful intellectual power, and astonishing knowledge of
everything, unconquerable magnanimity and the most
abundant generosity” the perfect prince
o Spoke 9 languages
o Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (1513), a key text for the
Renaissance prince
Scotland & France allied against England The Auld Alliance
o 1513: Henry VIII invades France
Stirling Castle: fortress, palace and nursery
Stirling Castle Palace built by James V – began 1538
Northern Elevation:
o Sculptures: appear muscular and European
o Conscious effort to reference antiquity
o Mimic roman practice
Virgil, Aeneid, 26-19 B.C.
o Aeneas retraces his ancestors’ steps and leads the Trojan race
back to its native homeland in Italy
Figure of Saturn:
o Key to the narrative of the return to a Golden Age
Vatican City
o On top: Octagonal Courtyard for the display of the People
Sculpture
, o Renovatio Rome:
Renewal of the grandeur of Rome
14th C – Papal powers fragmented with rival French and
Italian popes
refoundation of Rome as the center of papal power:
1417
pressing need to strengthen the sense of papal
authority in Rome
Late 15th C: cardinals built new all’antica palaces as settings for
display of antique sculpture collections
The French used their Italian ancestry to validate the invasion of
northern Italy
French foundation myth – Trojan ancestry
Giuseppe Zocchi, The Piazza della Signoria with Loggia dei Lanzi
(1376-82)
o The Medici bringing a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity
to Florence
The Arnolfini Marriage: Issues of Interpretation
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Marriage, 1434, National Gallery, London
This period of the early years of the dvp of oil paintings in the Low
Countries in the 14th century, help arise new techniques that allow
for more play on light, three-dimensional images, reflections, etc
Panofsky’s (1934/1953) interpretation of Flemish painting argues for
a symbolic and artificial construction of a seemingly realistic setting
Panofsky’s quote on Arnolfini’s Marriage on ppt
A Married Couple in Bed Receiving a Child from the Holy Trinity, 15th
century
Mérode Altarpiece, 1427, Robert Campin
, o Domestic setting used for a religious subject – The
Annunciation – merging secular and religious realities, idea of
God being present
o Allegory of purity and washing, to say that even though she
conceives a child, she remains virginal and pure; white cloths
The theory of disguised symbolism in Flemish/Netherlandish
painting begins with Panofsky’s analysis of The Arnolfini Marriage:
o the symbolic reconstruction rather than realistic recreation of
the physical world
Rogier van der Weyden, Annunciation, 1440:
o The Panofskian interpretation has been applied to many
similar depictions of the Annunciation
o The speed of marriage fits the passion, the Annunciation, and
the Immaculate Conception
o The Passion = Christ’s marriage to the Church
o The red bed has been treated as a symbol of marriage in this
context
o Passion seen in the element of the medallion, as it is seen in
the element of the mirror in the Arnolfini Marriage
Arnolfini Marriage:
o Panofsky sees the single candle burning on the chandelier as
a symbol of divine presence and blessing; candle burning in
broad daylight?
o The fruit on the window sill recalls the state of innocence
before the Fall of Man
o The dog was an accepted emblem of faithfulness in marriage
o Factual issues:
Is the painting a formal and realistic record of a
wedding?
Not in a church- clandestine marriages were forbidden
and had no legal validity
Ten Kings of the (Chinese) Underworld
Three major belief systems that defined Chinese culture:
Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism
o Filial piety (respecting elders, authority, etc)
o Ancestor worship (when your parents died, you would have to
respect a strict calendar of mourning for three years)
The Scripture of the Ten Kings
o Apocryphal text, not part of the Buddhist textual canon
o Ten Kings of the underworld (“Underground prisons”)
Scripture of the Ten Kings scroll, 14 illustrations
Six Bodhisattvas:
o Enlightened beings mentioned in the text
o Exist in the world to help other people
o Neither male or female
o No iconographic attributes on the image to differentiate them
o Can only identify Dizang
Messengers:
o Taking messages to people who are about to die and invite
them to the underworld
Iconographies: Stirling Palace
The Renaissance Palace
o Consolidation of dynastic rule results in the rebuilding or
building of palaces as a manifesto of legitimation
o Site of magnificence, greatness and splendour
o Site of the court and the consumption of princely patronage
, o Significantly more than just decoration
o Site of administration, ceremonial and pleasure – it was not a
fortress – greatness was equated with the bringing of peace
and prosperity
o Canvas for a narrative of moral virtue, greatness of thought
and action, and depth of ancestry
James IV
o Great patron
o Man of considerable humanist endeavor and learning
o Friends with Desiderius Erasmus, who described him as “a
wonderful intellectual power, and astonishing knowledge of
everything, unconquerable magnanimity and the most
abundant generosity” the perfect prince
o Spoke 9 languages
o Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (1513), a key text for the
Renaissance prince
Scotland & France allied against England The Auld Alliance
o 1513: Henry VIII invades France
Stirling Castle: fortress, palace and nursery
Stirling Castle Palace built by James V – began 1538
Northern Elevation:
o Sculptures: appear muscular and European
o Conscious effort to reference antiquity
o Mimic roman practice
Virgil, Aeneid, 26-19 B.C.
o Aeneas retraces his ancestors’ steps and leads the Trojan race
back to its native homeland in Italy
Figure of Saturn:
o Key to the narrative of the return to a Golden Age
Vatican City
o On top: Octagonal Courtyard for the display of the People
Sculpture
, o Renovatio Rome:
Renewal of the grandeur of Rome
14th C – Papal powers fragmented with rival French and
Italian popes
refoundation of Rome as the center of papal power:
1417
pressing need to strengthen the sense of papal
authority in Rome
Late 15th C: cardinals built new all’antica palaces as settings for
display of antique sculpture collections
The French used their Italian ancestry to validate the invasion of
northern Italy
French foundation myth – Trojan ancestry
Giuseppe Zocchi, The Piazza della Signoria with Loggia dei Lanzi
(1376-82)
o The Medici bringing a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity
to Florence
The Arnolfini Marriage: Issues of Interpretation
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Marriage, 1434, National Gallery, London
This period of the early years of the dvp of oil paintings in the Low
Countries in the 14th century, help arise new techniques that allow
for more play on light, three-dimensional images, reflections, etc
Panofsky’s (1934/1953) interpretation of Flemish painting argues for
a symbolic and artificial construction of a seemingly realistic setting
Panofsky’s quote on Arnolfini’s Marriage on ppt
A Married Couple in Bed Receiving a Child from the Holy Trinity, 15th
century
Mérode Altarpiece, 1427, Robert Campin
, o Domestic setting used for a religious subject – The
Annunciation – merging secular and religious realities, idea of
God being present
o Allegory of purity and washing, to say that even though she
conceives a child, she remains virginal and pure; white cloths
The theory of disguised symbolism in Flemish/Netherlandish
painting begins with Panofsky’s analysis of The Arnolfini Marriage:
o the symbolic reconstruction rather than realistic recreation of
the physical world
Rogier van der Weyden, Annunciation, 1440:
o The Panofskian interpretation has been applied to many
similar depictions of the Annunciation
o The speed of marriage fits the passion, the Annunciation, and
the Immaculate Conception
o The Passion = Christ’s marriage to the Church
o The red bed has been treated as a symbol of marriage in this
context
o Passion seen in the element of the medallion, as it is seen in
the element of the mirror in the Arnolfini Marriage
Arnolfini Marriage:
o Panofsky sees the single candle burning on the chandelier as
a symbol of divine presence and blessing; candle burning in
broad daylight?
o The fruit on the window sill recalls the state of innocence
before the Fall of Man
o The dog was an accepted emblem of faithfulness in marriage
o Factual issues:
Is the painting a formal and realistic record of a
wedding?
Not in a church- clandestine marriages were forbidden
and had no legal validity
