Hello, DU darlings! Your Friday Afternoon Challenge returns with "The Art of the Altarpiece, II"

[CTyankee]

Yes, you knew there would be another wonderful stroll through the world’s greatest church art, didn’t you? Here’s your newest grouping!

Cheating, of course, is a no-no here...

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[Kingofalldems]

1. First looks to be in an Orthodox church

Last is fascinating, dying to know what it depicts.

[CTyankee]

2. It DOES look a bit Orthodox, doesn't it? But it isn't...

however, I agree, it's a bit odd, but it is from Western Europe...

[jberryhill]

3. It would seem to be a manger scene

Shepherds arriving to adore the Christ child. The ones up on the hill look disappointed they couldn't take the afternoon off, though.

[CTyankee]

6. do you have a guess on the work and the artist?

[jberryhill]

8. It's probably that Dutch guy

But the horn that guy has makes me think it might not be.

[CTyankee]

11. not eggzackly Dutch...

[pinboy3niner]

38. jberryhill knows all the pre-eminent Dutch Masters

[pinboy3niner]

10. The last looks like the work of an artist we've seen in the Challenge before

They style is familiar, but the artist's name escapes me. I feel like I should know that one.

[CTyankee]

16. I don't think so, but maybe you are right...geez...my memory really sucks lately...

[kentuck]

4. A couple of the blue ones look like Botticelli...

and one looks like the landscape of El Greco?

[CTyankee]

9. No, no El Greco or Botticelli here.

But there ARE 7 artists involved in these 6 works...hmm...

[pinboy3niner]

5. #1: Albrecht Dürer - The Landauer Altarpiece, All Saints Day nt

[CTyankee]

7. that was fast, pinboy! How in the world did you get it?

[pinboy3niner]

13. It wasn't too tough to find--it had to be a notable work

And I only just now noticed that it has Dürer's name at the bottom, or it would have been faster.

[CTyankee]

15. ah, the fine print...I was looking for his typical AD but found it nowhere...my eyes are

pretty bad, too...

[pinboy3niner]

24. Just for you...

The detail...

[lapislzi]

12. #2 Giotto?

Am I rusty! Ashamed! Giotto...all the blue in the chapel. Damn, I'm so old I was around when he painted it, but I can't remember the name of the chapel.

[CTyankee]

14. No, not Giotto...

[pinboy3niner]

17. #4: Paolo Veronese - Petrobelli Altarpiece

Fragments of 'butchered' Renaissance masterpiece reunited for first time

Four fragments of a large Renaissance painting that was "butchered" for the art market over 200 years ago have been reunited for the first time.

By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
6:00AM GMT 07 Feb 2009

Only three pieces from Paolo Veronese's 16th century masterpiece the Petrobelli Altarpiece were thought to have survived.

The 18ft-high canvas was cut up in 1788 to be "sold just like meat in a butcher's shop", as one contemporary art dealer put it.

But in a 'Eureka!' moment Xavier Salomon, curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London, identified the fourth part after visiting the Blanton Museum of Art in Texas.

When he starting work on a project to bring the three pieces together, he wondered if the small Veronese he had seen there, called 'Head of an Angel', was the missing piece of the jigsaw. Tests later proved it was the central piece - the head being that of St Michael. The original showed him standing in triumph over Satan.

Now the four parts have been reunited for an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery....

...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/4538663/Fragments-of-butchered-Renaissance-masterpiece-reunited-for-first-time.html

[CTyankee]

18. what led you to Veronese?

[pinboy3niner]

19. Nothing special, really

Just doing broad searches on altarpieces.

[progressoid]

20. The first one is Terry Gilliam from Monty Python

[CTyankee]

21. Now we know where Terry got his stuff from!

LOVE Monty Python! They WERE well educated guys...

[pinboy3niner]

22. #5: Jacopo Pontormo - the Deposition (Altarpiece in the Capponi Chapel of S. Felicita, Florence)

The first reaction against the leading exponents of High Renaissance painting - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto - occurred in Florence between 1515 and 1524, when the painters Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540) and Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556) broke away from the naturalism and harmony of the High Renaissance idiom. Treated sympathetically by some 20th-century art historians, including Max Dvorak in his book Uber Greco und der Manierismus (1921), these early 16th century nonconformist painters came to be known as Mannerists. Recent scholarly opinion, however, has applied the term Mannerism to describe a very different style of cinquecento painting, which first appeared in Rome about 1520. This Rome-born Mannerism, which in due course spread throughout Europe, was not a revolutionary new development, but rather a transformation of Renaissance art allied to a change in the mentality of the times. On the surface, it was characterized by a certain artificiality, a deliberate and pronounced cultivation of stylishness, and a sophisticated delight in the bizarre. The Council of Trent (1545-63) launched its campaign of Catholic Counter-Reformation art just as Mannerism was taking hold in Italy. Vatican authorities cracked down on Mannerist-style Christian art that was unintelligible to most churchgoers, such as (one suspects) Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/mannerist-painting.htm

[CTyankee]

23. Was it the palette that gave it away? Wondering...

[pinboy3niner]

35. Lots of blue and pink, huh?

I found it only because I took a few moments to study the image and to note the central detail. In my searches for the painting, I stumbled across an image of just the central detail--which I would have missed if I hadn't looked closely at it in advance.

[pinboy3niner]

25. #6: Hugo van der Goes - The Adoration of the Shepherds (Detail from the Portinari Altarpiece)

The detail is from the center panel of the triptych.

Portinari Altarpiece



The Portinari Altarpiece or Portinari Triptych (c. 1475) is an oil on wood triptych painting by the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes representing the Adoration of the shepherds. It measures 253 x 304 cm, and is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy.

History

The work was commissioned for the church of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence by the Italian banker Tommaso Portinari, a descendent of the hospital's founder. Portinari lived for more than forty years in Bruges as a representative for the Medici family's bank. Portinari himself is depicted on the left panel with his two sons Antonio and Pigello; his wife Maria di Francesco Baroncelli is shown on the right panel with their daughter Margarita. All, except Pigello, are accompanied by their patron saints: Saint Thomas (with the spear), Saint Anthony (with the bell), Mary Magdalen (with the pot of ointment) and Saint Margaret (with the book and the dragon).

Description

In the central panel, three shepherds fall to their knees before the child Jesus. Van der Goes painted these rustic characters very realistically. Kneeling angels surround the Virgin and the Child, who is not in a crib but lies on the ground surrounded by an aureole of golden rays. This unusual representation of the adoration of Jesus is probably based on one of the visions of Saint Bridget of Sweden.

In the background, van der Goes painted scenes related to the main subject: on the left panel, Joseph and Mary on the road to Bethlehem; on the central panel (to the right), the shepherds visited by the angel; on the right panel, the Three Magi on the road to Bethlehem.

...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portinari_Altarpiece

[CTyankee]

26. Excellent. Did something give this away for you?

[Benton D Struckcheon]

27. I have to say I searched using just Adoration of the Magi,

and there are some seriously oddball takes on this subject out there. Surprising.

[CTyankee]

28. But this is the Adoration of the Shepherds...

So???

[Benton D Struckcheon]

30. Um,

Or, never mind...

[pinboy3niner]

29. The theme was obvious--Adoration of the Shepherds

But I wasn't sure that it was just a detail, and had no idea the work is a triptych. It reminded me of Domenico Ghirlandaio, but it wasn't among his works. So I searched on altarpieces and shepherds with no luck, then banged my forehead and searched specifically on "Adoration of the Shepherds."

[CTyankee]

31. Of course. I love this because it is so humanly presented. And it DOES look like Ghirlandaio...

who I love and revere always!

I'm glad I made you work for this! More appreciation for art!

Isn't it wonderful?

[pinboy3niner]

36. You're a merciless taskmaster!

But I'm actually learning about art and art history through your Challenges, and having a lot of fun, travel and adventure along the way. Thanks for that!

Even if I do end up a little frazzled by the end of each challenge...

[CTyankee]

32. well, well, #2 and #3 have not been guessed. No cheating now, but try to figure these out

using a few hints in the artwork! There are two images but 3 artists. Why is that?

[pinboy3niner]

33. #2: Fra Filippo Lippi - Adoration of the Christ Child

Last edited Fri Sep 27, 2013, 09:28 PM - Edit history (1)

...

However, the focal point of this amazing space was a masterpiece executed by the most accomplished Florentine painter of the day, Fra Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Christ Child, completed between 1459-60. This painting is sometimes referred to as The Madonna in the Forest. This painting is seen as an illustration of the debate between Orthodox and Western Churches which took place at the Council of Florence in 1439, in which Cosimo de' Medici took part, hosting the travelling Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos.


It was the jewel at the centre of the amazing private chapel - something that can not be fully appreciated with the rather lacklustre copy in its place today and the view tourists are forced to traverse the room in. Knowing the original was one of the most unique and accomplished works of the early Renaissance, and now resides many miles away in Berlin, tells a poignant tale about the ebb and flow of great fortunes and how art seems to be intrinsically linked to this.




The original location of Lippi's master work, now occupied by a less inspiring copy. Image: WGA

...


http://www.3pipe.net/2010/12/filippo-lippi-adoration.html

Adoration of the Christ Child by Filippo Lippi, painted c. 1459 depicts a kneeling Madonna adoring The Christ Child who lies on the ground of a dark wooded landscape. God the Father and the Holy Spirit appear above descending toward The Child. A penitential Saint Bernard and a young Saint John the Baptist are also present. Adoration of the Christ Child was originally painted to hang above the altar in the chapel of the Medici Palace in Florence, Italy, where a studio copy (c. 1470) currently hangs. The original is now displayed in Berlin at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Gemäldegalerie.

http://www-hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/research/painting/lippi.html

Poster image:

[CTyankee]

39. Aren't you forgetting something?

[pinboy3niner]

40. Probably. There's a lot to the story--Hitler hiding the painting, the mutiny of the Monument Men...

The painting even went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a while before being returned to Berlin. Or is there something else I'm missing?

You're not making this easy...

[CTyankee]

41. TWO artists involved in this question. One was Lippi...the other?

[pinboy3niner]

42. Benozzo Gozzoli painted the frescoes surrounding it, but that's probably not what you're looking for

Are you looking for the name of the artist who did the Adoration copy that hangs in the Medici chapel in Florence? That I'm not sure about, though I looked for that detail at one point in researching the history.

I thought your mention of the "extra" artist involved in these last two works referred to Boito's involvement in #3. Wrong again, I see.

[CTyankee]

45. I was looking for Gozzoli, actually...if the copier of the Lippi was any good, that would be

different, but this fresco is a Gozzoli masterpiece.

[pinboy3niner]

46. Whew! That's a relief (pun intended :) )

I looked at a lot of info on the painting and nothing indicated any collaboration on its creation or after the fact.

My reply here is to kick one more time for those who may have missed these works or the Challenge answers.

Thanks again, CTyankee, for another wonderful Challenge.

[pinboy3niner]

43. The replica is by an unknown artist, attributed to the Workshop of Filippo Lippi

There are some differences from the original, the main one being the addition of the gold garland that serves as a frame.

http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/Scheda_Adorazione_del_Bambino,_di_Bottega_di_Filippo_Lippi&id_cronologia_contenuto=2

[broiles]

34. I never know any, but I love seeing them.

[pinboy3niner]

37. #3: Donatello - Altar of St. Anthony of Padua (finished by Camillo Boito)

Wiki (translated from Italian):

L ' Altar of St. Anthony is the main altar of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua in Padua . It was built by Donatello between 1446 and 1453 , with a rich set of sculptures in bronze, which includes seven statues in the round, five major findings and seventeen minor amounts. The work is not visible today, however, the original being lost its original architectural features. The current composition is the result of the hypothetical reconstruction of the 1895 of Camillo Boito.

History

The important commission to the Florentine sculptor was probably decided after seeing the result of the Crucified bronze ( 1 443 - 1447 ), now placed above the altar originally thought but perhaps for the choir.

Thanks to the generous donation of the Paduan citizen Francesco del Tile, dated 3 April 1446 , could be designed a complex never seen before, mostly in the expensive bronze with the technique of lost wax .

The progress of the work is well documented by the numerous archives. Work began in the second half of 1446, in May of the ' following year the individual pieces had already been merged. At least five aides participated in the company: Urbano da Cortona, Giovanni da Pisa, Antonio Chellini, Francesco Valente's and the painter Niccolò da Pizzolo .

The intention of the commissioners was that the work was finished in time for the feast of St. Anthony of Padua on 13 June 1450 , but in reality even after the departure of Padua by Donatello ( 1453 ) are recorded adjustments until 1477 . Just finished the altar had to offer a vision imposing, with the colorfulness and the dazzling effect of gilding and silvering. The decorative elements were set in rich variations, ranging from the small figures of the reliefs, the fullness plastic works in the round, the poses more composed in the most wildly excited.

With the restructuring of the presbytery in 1591 , the altar was dismantled and the various works divided into several points of the basilica. In the new Baroque altar were reused only a few statues by Donatello, especially at the crown. Only in 1895 was reassembled by Camillo Boito , who, however, created an imaginative and accommodation different from the original composition.

...


http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altare_di_Sant'Antonio_da_Padova

[treestar]

44. I have only the most rudimentary educmacation in this sort of thing

We did a unit on it in "humanities" in our high school. And some studying of Spanish painters along with studies of Spanish history.

But my guesses would be like - maybe Michaelangelo for the first one?

[CTyankee]

47. Actually, it is Albrecht Durer, a Northern Renaissance artist...

you'll notice it doesn't look very "Italian"...