The ARTS During 1300-1400

The ARTS During 1300-1400

Period: Jan 1, 1300 to Jan 1, 1400

Lamentation of the Death of Christ by Giotto di Bondone

Jan 1, 1305

Fresco Painting, ca. 1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padova, Italy. The painting depicts the body of Christ, Christ's supporters, and the Angels in heaven after he had been crucified. Giotto's fresco is actually one scene of thirty-seven scenes painted for the Scrovegni Chapel (also called Arena Chapel) that emphasize the Virgin Mary. The Scrovegni Chapel frescoes are considered the magnum opus of Giotto's storied career.

Maestà by Duccio di Buonin

Jan 1, 1311

Altarpiece Paintings, ca. 1311, Siena, Tuscany, Italy. The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets. The reverse has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of forty-three small scenes; several panels are now dispersed or lost.

The Ars Nova by Philippe de Vitry

Jan 1, 1322

LISTEN | The Ars Nova itself was initially a treatise that brought new innovations to the notation of musical rhythms. It grew into an art movement that would spread throughout France and the various Belgian countries in the 14th century.

Adam And Eve by Lorenzo Maitani

Jan 1, 1330

Marble Cathedral Façade, ca. 1330, Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy. This original sin marble relief is on the Orvieto Cathedral. The design of the cathedral's façade is considered to be Maitani's most important work. Two of the panels attributed to Maitani, "Scenes from Genesis" and "The Last Judgment," are delicate bas-reliefs unified by an ascending vine that suggests a French Gothic influence.

Last Judgement by Jean Pucelle

Jan 1, 1330

Parisian Gothic-era Manuscript Illumination, ca. 1330, British Library, London. Here, an imposing but graceful figure of Christ is seated on a pierced stone bench, enclosed within an octofoil instead of the more traditional mandorla. He raises his right hand in blessing, and in his left hand he holds a disc divided into the three continents of the earth. The pose, gesture and drapery patterns are all reminiscent of treatments of Christ in Majesty.

Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus by Simone Martini

Jan 1, 1333

Italian Gothic Painting, ca. 1333, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. It is a wooden triptych painted in tempera and gold, with a central panel having double size. Considered Martini's masterwork and one of the most outstanding works of Gothic painting, the work was originally painted for a side altar in the Siena Cathedral.

Creation Of Adam by Andrea Pisano

Jan 1, 1337

Marble Sculpture, ca. 1337, Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy. This is an example of a religious sculpture which demonstrates the technique of marble. Religious sculptures depict Biblical scenes and figures. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith. During the renaissance religious sculptures shifted towards a classic model and were more often placed inside as public monuments took over the outside realm.

The Angelic Announcement to the Shepherds by Taddeo Gaddi

Jan 1, 1338

Fresco Painting, ca. 1338, Baroncelli Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence. A series of frescoes—including the work we see here. Gaddi was intensely interested in the effect of light on his compositions. This nocturnal scene is illuminated by a supernatural soft glow surrounding the angel like a beacon—the light gradually awakening the sleeping shepherds and their flock. He had an obession with light and viewing solar eclipses. In 1339, he became blinded by looking too intensely at a solar eclipse.

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Jan 1, 1339

Frescoe Paintings, ca. 1339, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy. The series consists of six different scenes: Allegory of Good Government, Allegory of Bad Government, Effects of Bad Government in the City, Effects of Good Government in the City and Effects of Good Government in the Country. Today we see these frescos as depicting the Effects of Good Government and Bad Government, but in the age in which they were painted they were thought to represent war and peace, and were named accordingly.

Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas by Francesco Traini

Jan 1, 1340

Altarpiece Painting, ca. 1340, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. The subject of this altarpiece is usually described as the Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas. In it the saint is depicted with open books in his hands and on his lap, receiving inspiration from above via Christ, Paul, Moses, and the Evangelists, and from below via Aristotle and Plato, while Avarroës lies at his feet.

The Crucifixion by Pietro Lorenzetti

Jan 1, 1344

Portable Altarpiece Painting, ca. 1344, Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, Assisi Perugia, Italy. The dramatic intensity, enhanced by a rich orchestration of colors and gold ornament, infused new life into the Biblical story. Especially notable is the swooning Virgin, supported by her companions, and the energetic figure about to break the legs of one of the thieves who was crucified with Christ.

Primordial Chaos by Zhu Derun

Jan 1, 1349

Handscroll, Ink on Paper, ca. 1349, Shanghai Museum, People's Square, Shanghai. This handscroll shows the great undifferentiated matter out of which the cosmos was formed. The drawing of the swirling vines seems also to have loosened itself from representation and entered the realm of the abstract and diagrammatic. The rendering of the bank, rock, pine, and grasses as similarly driven more by brush momentum than by attention to forms is seen here.

Or Qua, Compagni by Maestro Piero

Jan 1, 1349

LISTEN | Piero's madrigals are for two voices, and the two cacce are for three; what distinguishes his work from that of his contemporaries is his frequent use of canon, especially in the ritornello passages in his madrigals. Piero's works clearly show the evolution of the three-voice canonic caccia form from the madrigal, in which the canonic portion of the madrigal became a two-voice canon, over a tenor, characteristic of the caccia.

Con Brashi Assa by Giovanni da Cascia

Jan 1, 1350

LISTEN | Musically, Giovanni's madrigals are of importance in the development of the style of the 14th-century madrigal. He tends to use extended melismas on the first and penultimate syllables of a poetic line, and sometimes introduces hockets at these points. The middles of the lines are generally syllabic. Many of his works are very similar in style to the anonymous works preserved in the Rossi Codex.

Tosto che l'alba by Gherardello da Firenze

Jan 1, 1351

LISTEN | Although Gherardello was renowned during his time for his sacred music, little of it has survived. His secular music has survived in greater abundance. The style of his mass movements is similar to that of the madrigal, although more restrained emotionally: they are for two voices, which sing together most of the time, with occasional passages where they sing in alternation.

Birth of the Virgin by Giovanni Da Milano

Jan 1, 1365

Fresco Painting, ca. 1365, Rinuccini Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence. This painting is an example of a religious painting which demonstrates the technique of fresco. Religious paintings were categorized as historical paintings and therefore the most prestigious genre by the French Académie de peinture et de sculpture. Religious paintings depict incredibly detailed biblical scenes and generally large in size.

The Rongxi Studio by Ni Zan

Jan 1, 1372

Hanging Scroll, Ink on Paper, ca. 1372, National Palace Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan. The painting was done before the inscription was later added at the request of the owner of the scroll. The brushwork is especially bland and refined, with tonal variations in the trees most carefully built up. An upright brush with point-centered energy has been employed more often than a slanted brush, and broken hemp-fiber strokes are more frequent than washes in the modeling of the rocks.

O Sommo Specchio by Niccolò da Perugia

Jan 1, 1375

LISTEN | A total of 41 compositions of Niccolò have survived with reliable attribution, the majority of them in the Squarcialupi Codex. All are secular, all are vocal, and they include 16 madrigals, 21 ballate, and 4 cacce. The madrigals are all for two voices, except for one which uses three, and all are in a relatively conservative style, uninfluenced by contemporary French practice.

Memorial to Philip the Bold by Claus Sluter

Jan 1, 1389

Portal Scultpture, ca. 1389, Charterhouse of Champmol, Dijon. Depicted life-size, kneeling, and turned toward the Virgin in prayer, are, on the left jamb, Philip the Bold, the powerful Duke of Burgundy, and opposite him his wife, Margaret of Flanders, escorted by their patrons, St John and St Catherine. The facial features of the couple, the monastery's founders, are recognizable portraits.

Dijon Altarpiece (Annunciation and Visitation and Presentation of Jesus and the Flight into Egypt) by Melchior Broederlam

Jan 1, 1399

Altarpiece Painting, ca. 1399, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon, France. At the request of Philip the Bold, Broederlam painted both the outer panels and inner polychrome decoration of at least two altarpieces sculpted by Jacques de Baerze, that were intended for the chartreuse de Champmol. They represent four biblical scenes: on the left, The Annunciation and The Visitation; on the right, The Presentation of Christ and The Flight into Egypt.