Friday, May 27, 2011

Challenge number 20

As we have started studying Renaissance art, this week´s challenge will discover you some of the most important works of art of this style. These are the questions: 


QUESTION 1
This is a famous painting of an artist who can be considered a true example of a Renaissance man. This painting has recently arrived in Spain as part of a collection of works of art of Polish museums. It will be exhibited in Madrid during the summer. What is the name of this painting? Why did it receive this name? Who painted it?


QUESTION 2


The school of Athens 

This painting is called The school of Athens. It´s a fresco painted by Rafael Sanzio in one of the rooms of the Vatican. Rafael represented some important wisemen of Antiquity in it and he used some important figures of the Renaissance as models. You will have to identify some of the people represented in this painting:

A. What important figure of Ancient Greece is this one? Who did Rafael use as model to paint him?


B. What important figure of Ancient Greece is this one? Who did Rafael use as model to paint him?


C.What important figure of Ancient Greece is this one? Who did Rafael use as model to paint him?


D. There is only a woman in this painting. What important woman of Antiquity was this one?


3 comments:

Beatriz Antequera said...

Hello! I'm going to try:
QUESTION 1: The name of this painting is "Lady with an Ermine" painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. It recieved this name because she is holding an Ermine as a symbol of purity by his white hair,representing some virtues as calm, alluding the woman or either because her name, Gallerani, which evoked Galle, meant Ermine in Greek.
QUESTION 2:
A. This important figure is Plato and the model Rafael used was Leonardo Da Vinci.
B. This important figure is Heraclitus and the model Rafael used was Michelangelo.
C. This important figure is Euclid or Archimedes and the model Rafael used was Bramante.
D. This woman was Hypatia, a philosopher and a Neoplatonic Greek teacher from Egypt.
Bye!

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello Bea,

All your answers are right!

Some curiosities: the Lady with an Ermine was one of the only for portraits Leonardo Da vinci painted in his life and this painting has had an intense life. Here you have two articles about it:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/primera/dama/Renacimiento/elpepicul/20110525elpepicul_1/Tes


http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/1001/peripecias/dama/armino/Leonardo/da/Vinci/elpepicul/20110530elpepicul_4/Tes

Hypatia is the main character of the film "Ágora", about religious intolerance in Antiquity. She was killed by radical Christians. Experts don´t agree about the model used by Rafael to paint Hypatia: some think Rafael used Margherita Luti, his mistress, and others think he used a man as model, Francesco I Maria della Rovere.

See you tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

What a truly joy of a read!!