Works of Aristotle, previously accessible only to a minority of intellectuals and university scholars who read Latin, found a new public toward the end of the 14c, when Charles V ordered an important translation in 1370 from his adviser Nicole...
Machaut, the lover, has concealed himself in the distant park of Hesdin, for fear of having to confess he is author of lay which his lady asked him to read. He is bemoaning Love and Fortune, when a wondrously beautiful woman comes to comfort him....
. Done about 1350, the realism of this illumination, tempered with courtly elegance, in this as well as in other scenes, marks a decisive turning point in 14c art and taste. The artist was the most innovative illuminator since Purcelle, and the...
The Barbarous Irish
Native Irish despised by English as barbarous and priest-ridden. In this illustration from Derrick's ""Image of Irelande,"" the chieftain of the of the Mac Sweynes (sprung from 'Macke Swine . . . which mai...
The Triumph of Isabella--part of a series of large paintings by Denis van Alsloot commemorating a great procession through the streets of Brussels on 31 May 1615. A peaceful time for south--12 Years' Truce had been signed in 1609, Albert and...
An Italian anatomical figure made of ivory and dating from late 16th c. Organs are revealed by taking off the front of the torso; two other parts lying below it are the intestines and the wall of the womb.
Rembrandt's painting of Prof. Nicholas Tulp demonstrating dissection of left arm. Body is that of a hanged criminal. Tulp was a leading magistrate and member of the city council.
Japanese Painting, 13c.
Japan's principal contribution to the art of medieval world was horizontal narrative scroll. It was brought to perfection in well-known Burning of the Sanjo Palace, dating from first half of 13c, which tells the story of...
New realism, that is evident in Kuo Hsi's work (4a), came to characterize northern Sung painting, where it showed itself in paintings of animals, birds, and flowers, of which Ts'ui Po's Hare, 1061, is an especially fine surviving specimen, reducing...
Kuo His's landscapes, in contrast to Li Lung-mien's horsemen (which look back to Tang preoccupation with horses), belong essentially to a style and class of apinting perfected in 10th century, during troubled period known as Five Dynasties, 906-60....
Chinese Painting in the 11th century was very traditional, looking back for its models to the T'ang period, 618-906, when Chinese art had experienced a great flowering. Lung-mien's horsemen, here, for example, have an obvious ancestry in...
Profile in relief of Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, supported by two elephants, by Agostino di Duccio, after 1450. Trease draws attention to the contrast between this relief by di duccio, and the portrait of Federigo da MOntefeltro, Duke of...
Paolo Uccello's painted monument to Sir John Hawkwood (Johannes Acutus) in Florence Cathedral, completed 1435, long after his death. Originally a fresco, then transferred to canvas.
King's College Chapel, Cambridge. 15c.
Interior seen from antechapel, a perfect union of structural logic and imagination. Begun in 1446, and finished in 1515, thanks to the munificence of Henry VIII. The sculpture dating from 1512-13 is...
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Frontispiece, Book VI. In this book, Aristotle turns to intellectual as opposed to the moral virtues. Seated woman holding Sphinx personifies Practical Wisdom, w/ whose help man can pursue the Golden Mean and...
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.. Frontispiece, Bk II. This book concerned w/ moral virtues. Aristotle considers virtue to be a mean between two evils, excess and deficiency. Frontispiece shows an enthroned female personifying Virtue, who holds a...
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Frontispiece, Book I. This ms made for Andrea Matteo Acquaviva, Duke of Atri (1458-1529). This frontispiece to Book I shows in center a triumphal arch decorated w/ classical type reliefs and statues, and in...
