Smarthistory: Art History Podcasts & Videos

An introduction to the style of the Proto-Renaissance by way of a comparison of Cimabue’s Santa Trinita Madonna, c. 1280, compared with Giotto’s Ognissanti Madonna, c. 1310—both in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

In this video, the panel by Cimabue is on the left and Giotto’s painting is on the right.

 

 Cimabue and Giotto Compared [10:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’ve been busy!

 

 Raphael, School of Athens, Papal Palace, Vatican [12:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A video about Leonardo’s masterpiece.

 

 Leonardo, Last Supper, Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan [12:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Max Newbold and Sez Zabelin, Second Life correspondents for smARThistory, discuss Michelangelo’s Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, recreated by Steve Taylor (aka Stan Frangible), on the Vassar College Second Life campus.

 

 Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1534-41, Sistine Chapel, Vatican [17:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Max Newbold and Sez Zabelin, Second Life correspondents for smARThistory, visited the Sistine Chapel there, and created this video about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel ceiling. They discuss Michelangelo, the commission from Pope Julius II, and the structure and meaning of the ceiling.

Thanks to Steve Taylor (aka Stan Frangible) and Vassar College.

Part 2 on Michelangelo’s Last Judgment on the altar wall coming soon…

 

 smARThistory at the Sistine Chapel in Second Life [22:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today Shana Lindsay and I made four 5-minute videos using Jing about four different photographers. The videos are also available at the smARThistory site.

Click here to watch a video about Diane Arbus’ Boy with a Toy Grenade (1962).

Click here to watch a video of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris (1932).

Click here to watch a video about William Eggleston’s Red ceiling, or Greenwood, Mississippi (1973).

Click here to watch a video about Sherri Levine’s (Untitled) After Edward Weston (1981).

Click here to watch a short video podcast about Millais’ painting Christ in the House of His Parents, 1850 (Tate Britain)

Click here to watch a short video podcast about Millais’ painting, Ophelia, 1852 (Tate Britain)

My online students got into a heated discussion about how Enrico Scrovegni, the patron of Giotto’s frescos in the Arena Chapel, asked Giotto to depict him handing the chapel to the angels and Virgin Mary in heaven — thus implying a kind of virtuousness about himself, that the students felt to be a kind of potentially false representation.

So, we made this vodcast about how images can be used to support specific political agendas, focusing on the famous painting by Goya, The Third of May, 1808.

Warning: There are some difficult images in this video that may not be appropriate for all ages.

Click here to see a larger version.

 

 Goya, Third of May, 1808 (1814) [17:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And today, Steven and David talked about tempera painting in the Renaissance, using voicethread again.