Garth

Fra Angelico

The Annunciation, 1432-33. Tempera on wood, 175 x 180cm. Cortona, Museo Diocesano.

Garth - The garden of a cloister. (Gardner) Note the predella at the bottom of the painting with an 'ongoing story' being told in pictures.

Madonna of Mercy

Madonna of Mercy, center panel Misericordia altarpiece. Piero della Francesca.

Piero della Francesca and others. Misericordia altarpiece. Commissioned 1445; still incomplete 1454. Panel, 8'8" x 10'6". Museo Civico, Sansepolcro.

Madonna of Mercy - A representation of the standing Virgin Mary protecting worshipers, usually kneeling, under her mantle. (In Italian, Madonna della Misericordia.) Hartt

Piero della Francesca is one of my favorite Renaissance painters and this particular Madonna is probably my favorite portrait of all. The model who posed for this painting also appears in many other Piero paintings, she has a captivating face in my opinion!

Pietra Serena

Interior of Pazzi Chapel- Filippo Brunelleschi, Santa Croce, Florence, begun 1440.

Literally, 'serene stone,' a type of gray stone used for its harmonious appearance when contrasted with stucco or other smooth finish in architecture. In the photo above, articulations and trim are done in pietra serena, which stands out against the white, stuccoed walls and crisply defines the modular relationships of plan and elevation. (Frederick Hartt)

ps - today's the last day of the fiber art sale in my Etsy shop... take a look!

Genius

Antonio Rossellino. Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal. 1460-66. White and colored marbles with traces of polychromy and gold, width of chapel wall 15' 9". Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, San Miniato, Florence.

(Plural genii) In Roman and Renaissance art, usually the guardian spirit of a person, place, or thing, though it may be purely decorative. Genii are represented in human form, frequently seminude and winged; note the genii on the base of the tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal above. (Frederick Hartt)

Luca Della Robbia

Madonna and Child between Two Angels. 1475-80. (diameter: 39 1/3 in.) Glazed terracotta. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Luca della Robbia - born in Florence 1400, died in Florence, 1482. Florentine sculptor, the most famous member of a family of artists. Nothing is known of his early career, and he was a mature artist by the time of his first documented work - a Cantoria (Singing Gallery, 1431-8) for Florence cathedral, now in the Cathedral Museum. In his own time Luca had the reputation of being one of the leaders of the modern (IE Renaissance) style, comparable to Donatello and Ghiberti in sculpture and Massaccio in painting, but his is now remembered mainly for his development of colored, glazed terracotta as a sculptural medium - in particular for his highly popular invention of the type of the half-length Madonna and Child in white on a blue ground. The family workshop seems to have kept the technical formula a secret and it became the basis of a flourishing business. Luca's business was carried on by his nephew, Andrea (1435-1525) and later by Andrea's 5 sons, of whom Giovanni was the most important. His successors tended to sentimentalize Luca's warm humanity, and in course of time the artists' studio became a potters' workshop-industry. (Ian Chilvers)

Di Sotto In Su

Andrea Mantegna. Ceiling fresco, diameter 8' 9". 1465-74. Camera Pieta, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.

Di Sotto In Su: Italian phrase that refers to the idea of looking up from below. A type of illusionism in painting, achieved by means of sharp foreshortening, in which the figures and architecture seem to be high above and receding from the spectator.

Orthogonals

Battle of San Romano, 1430's. Panel 6' x 10' 7". National Gallery, London. By Paolo Uccello.

Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, 1481 Fresco. 11' 5 1/2" x 18' 8 1/2 ". Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome- by Perugino

"d" points out the orthogonals.

Orthogonals: Lines running at right angles to the plane of the picture surface but, in a representation using one-point perspective, converging toward a common vanishing point in the distance. (Hart)

The lines on the ground in the middle ground of Perugino's fresco are a nice example of orthogonals.

Paolo Uccello loved the use of orthogonals, some say he 'overdid' his use of them in most of his paintings - The Battle of San Romano is a nice example - especially in the foreground.