Art Appreciation: Lost Stars of the Renaissance - Art History

The National Gallery ran a small exhibition last year on the works of Francesco Pesellino (1422 – 1457), so this painter will feature in this workshop with a detailed examination of one work only. This can be seen to bridge the leap from International Gothic – the artistic style popular in the early fifteenth century, to the start of the High Renaissance. We will also focus on one particular work from Antonella da Messina, (1430 – 1479) - St Jerome in his Study, which is available to see in the National Gallery. This close study will reveal the travel of ideas and styles at a time when travel was dangerous and difficult. Another single work is by Benozzo Gozzoli, a huge fresco in the Medici private chapel. This can be deconstructed to tell us a great deal about the most powerful family in Florence. Last will be Domenicio Ghirlandaio (1449 – 1494) - looking at his frescoes on the Life of St Francis and The Virgin Mary, and especially focusssing on his altarpiece of “The Adoration of the Shepherds” of 1485. He is extremely busy, running the largest and most popular workshop in Florence. He is best known for his fresco work, and we will look at his most famous ones. By taking time to look at one work in depth, the influences on these painters such as the work being done on perspective, the new ideas about oil painting, especially the work being done in Flanders, the theories about the way Roman art/sculpture should influence the current style of art, will become apparent.