Italian Art Supplement

Before the Renaissance there was the medieval period.

Gothic:
Cimabue
Simone Martini
Duccio
Gentile da Fabrian
Fra Angelico


Painting with oil on canvas did not become popular until the 15th and 16th centuries and was a hallmark of Renaissance art.
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Descent or Deposition from the Cross: the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion. Nicodemus removing the nails.

Annunciation: Gabriel is the angel.

Mantegna's Minerva expelling the Vices  the women in the sky are "the divine companions of the Virtues," as in the banner around the olive tree. The armless woman and tattered woman represent idleness and inertia. The black figure is hatred, malice.The three drunken figures on the right are ingratitude, ignorance, and greed. The attractive woman may be Diana, goddess of maidenhood, who is being captured by a centaur.

Linear perspective was first demonstrated by Brunelleschi about 1413. Mantegna's Crucifixion was after that.

Before oil painting, tempera technique mixed pigment with egg whites or egg yolks, then apply to plaster. So an altarpiece would start with a layer of gesso, which is a type of plaster.

Oil painting started in the Netherlands in 1400s.

Canvas came into use by late 1400s. Starting in Venice where they had canvas for sales.

Joseph of Arimathea provided the tomb, his own, and asked Pilate if he could remove Jesus body from the cross and bury it there. He was a rich man and a secret disciple of Jesus. Nicodemus helps him and brings the appropriate herbs.

Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of apostle James. Also Mary Salome.

Helen was the wife of Greek leader Menelaus. She goes of with Paris of Troy, either voluntarily or by abduction.

It was originally built as a palace by François I

The Renaissance king famed for the gorgeous castles in the Loire Valley actually razed a 12th-century fortress on the right bank to make way for the Louvre palace. Construction began in the mid-1500s, but only part of the building was completed. Every subsequent French king added onto the structure: if you pay attention, you can spot several different architectural styles.

The painting of The Wedding at Cana was commissioned on 6 June 1562 to decorate the new refectory of the Benedictine Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; the dining hall had been designed by the architect Andrea Palladio.

The Italian name for the painting, La Gioconda, means "jocund" ("happy" or "jovial") or, literally, "the jocund one", a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, "Giocondo".