Council of the Gods

Title: Council of the Gods

Artist: Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647) and Domenico Corvi

Date: 1624-25 - Lanfranco

Finished: 1779-1782- Corvi

Medium: Fresco (paint on plaster)

Dimensions: approxametly30feet by 20 feet

Location: Sala della Loggia, Borghese Gallery, Rome, Italy

Source: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/lanfranc/council.html

http://www.flashcardmachine.com/baroque-midterm.html

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Lanfranco,_Giovanni_-The_Council_of_Gods_-_1624-25.jpg

Significance of the work:

This work was completed under the patron of Scipione Borghese, the same commissioner for Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. The painting depicts the gods gathered around Jupiter in the heavenly realm. Venus is seen as the nude to the left of Jupiter, and Apollo is next to her dressed for war. The water gods are portrayed at the bottom of the painting holding the typical trident. Hermes is flying in on the right to deliver a message to Jupiter. The room would have been used as a banquet hall with the pope seated beneath Jupiter. The surrounding telamones and Lunnettes represent the rivers of the earth.

Venus and Cupid

Title: Venus and Cupid

Artist: Jacopo Pontormo

Location: Academia in Florence, Italy

Date: 1532-1534

Size: 127x191 cm

Medium: Oil on Wood

Other Sources:

http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-gods/venus.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=eurQO9JVNA8C&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=jacopo+pontormo+venus&source=bl&ots=VhsA7PkWJQ&sig=gpCq8wdSEb46H04x0gmtv9Occno&hl=en&ei=Vi8US6YBksr-BvqT-DU&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=jacopo%20pontormo%20venus&f=false

Photo from: http://www.firenzemusei.it/00_english/accademia/vecu.html

Significance of the work:

Pontormo’s Cupid and Venus is the painted expression of one of Michelangelo’s sketches. His influence can easily be seen in the muscular bodies of both Venus and Cupid. As the goddess of physical beauty, Venus is portrayed in the nude. Venus was also the goddess of love and had several lovers including Vulcan, Mars, and Adonis. Cupid was the child of one such lover, Mars. Venus was the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, but she was said to have been born of the sea. Cupid and Venus remain as two of the most commonly recognizable gods and goddesses, and they are often depicted together.

Venus of Urbino

Title: Venus of Urbino

Artist: Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)

Location: Galleria Degli Uffizi

Date: 1538

Size: 65 x 47 in.

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Other information: http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/The-Venus-of-Urbino-1538.html

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/Titian/VenusOfUrbino.html

Photo from: http://medializzy.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/titian_venus_urbino.jpg

Significance of the work:

Titian’s provocative painting is a tribute to Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, but Venus of Urbino has none of the same subtly. She opening stares out at the audience, unashamed of her sensuality. The sleeping dog on the right side of the canvas is meant to represent fidelity. Venus of Urbino challenges her viewers to criticize her beauty, and many have. Mark Twain denounced the painting as, “the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses”. Despite it’s overtly erotic nature, or perhaps because of it, Titian’s painting is one of his most famous and most studied

Venus di Milo

Title: Venus di Milo

Artist: Unknown

Location: Louvre, Paris, France

Date: Late 2^nd Century BC

Size: 202 cm

Medium: Marble

Photo: Lisa Lyon

Significance of the work:

The Venus di Milo is one of the most recognizable sculptures in all of art history, and it has held an almost mystical hold on art lovers everywhere since its discovery in 1820. The statue was found on the island of Milo, and was identified as the goddess Venus, or Aphrodite as she was known to the Greeks. One of her arms was allegedly also found, together with a hand that appeared to be holding an apple. If the arm was in fact found, it has long been lost. Despite its lack of appendages, the Venus di Milo remains as a prominent work of art because, “In every stroke of the chisel art judges will discover evidence of the fine perception the Hellenic artist had for every expression, even the slightest, of a nobly-developed woman's form.”

Other Sources:

http://www.archive.org/stream/venusdimiloitsh00margoog/venusdimiloitsh00margoog_djvu.txt

http://www.louvre.fr/llv/activite/detail_parcours.jsp?CURRENT_LLV_PARCOURS%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226914&CURRENT_LLV_CHEMINEMENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673327544&CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673327544&bmLocale=en

La Pimavera (Spring)

Name: La Primavera (Spring)

Date: 1478-c.1485

Artist: Sandro Botticelli (born Alessandro Filipepi)

Location: Florence, Uffizi Gallery, inv. 1890 no. 8360

Approximate Dimensions: 203x314 cm

Medium: tempera paint on panel

Sources of info: http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/schede.php?id_scheda=78

Picture taken by: http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.msdlists.com/images/full%2520size/Botticelli%2520Allegoria%2520della%2520Primavera.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.msdlists.com/Botticelli%2520Allegoria%2520della%2520Primavera.html&usg=__rpni5kvD8INA7rsxOzchsXUZlzE=&h=483&w=718&sz=75&hl=it&start=11&um=1&tbnid=vh3d4fhGNIyuNM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dla%2Bprimavera%2Bbotticelli%26hl%3Dit%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS340US340%26um%3D1

Significance of the work:

The only documentation that La Primavera is a work of Botticelli comes from 16th century sources, but there is nothing dated previously attest to the attribution. Normally, the nine figures are respectively identified as follows: in the centre is Venus, the goddess of love. Flying above the goddess is Cupid, blindfolded, and about to fire his arrow in the direction of the Three Graces, who are dancing in a circle. On the left is Mercury, with his winged sandals, and on the right, Zephyrus is carrying off the nymph Chloris, alongside the goddess Flora.In the painting the leading figure is Venus herself, the goddess of Love (as also indicated by the presence of Cupid), and hence an allegory of the virtuous intellectual activities that elevate man from the senses (Zephyrus- Chloris- Flora) through reason (the Graces) to contemplation (Mercury). Scholars have declares that the grass beneath the figures is strewn with one hundred and ninety different flowers, of which one hundred and thirty have been identified.

The Birth of Venus

Name: The Birth of Venus

Date: c. 1482–1486

Location: The Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Approximate Dimensions: 172.5 x 278.5 cm (67 7/8 x 109 5/8 in.)

Artist: Sandro Botticelli

Commissioner, collector: Pierfrancesco or Lorenzo il Magnifico

Medium: tempura paint on canvas

Sources of info: a placard in the Uffizi,

http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/Scheda_Sandro_Botticelli,_Nascita_di_Venere_(1478-1485_circa)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/The_Birth_of_Venus

Picture taken by: http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://ariemma.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/botticelli_birth_venus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ariemma.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/meteriali-per-lincontro-del-trp-filosofico-aprire-i-corpi-attraverso-la-pittura/&usg=__7_JwtbxmPIpg8aYQiyLU95vtC3A=&h=955&w=1506&sz=275&hl=it&start=4&um=1&tbnid=4uFBxRSFlnMg0M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbirth%2Bof%2Bvenus%2Bbotticelli%26hl%3Dit%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS340US340%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

Significance of the work:

During the middle ages Christian symbols and clothed saints were the common subject matter of art, therefore when the Renaissance was born, it was shocking to suddenly paint pagan images.During the Renaissance Botticelli helped to develop a new technique for modeling in painting by which lighter parts seem to emerge from darker areas, producing the illusion of rounded sculptural relief on a flat surface. This subject has been traditionally recognized as the birth of Venus, even though modern criticism has drawn attention to the fact that the painting appears rather to illustrate the arrival of the goddess in Cyprus. It is points to the peoples returning interest in mythology. The Birth of Venus is the oldest large-scale painting on canvas to have been found in Tuscany.

Family Tree and Chart

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