Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ, 1450s, tempera on wood, 167 x 116 cm (National Gallery, London). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
This art history video discussion examines Pierre Le Gros the Younger's "Stanislas Kostka on His Deathbed", 1703, upstairs at Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.
Pietro Cavallini, The Last Judgment, c.1293, fresco, Santa Cecilia, Rome This fresco was discovered in 1900 and represents one of the few works by Cavallini to survive. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin, c. 1342, tempera on panel, 6 feet, 1 inch x 5 feet, 11 inches, for the altar of St. Savinus, Siena Cathedral (now in Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena) Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Michelangelo, Pietà, marble, 1498-1500 (Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. The Pietà was a popular subject among northern european artists. It means Pity or Compassion, and represents Mary sorrowfully contemplating the dead body of her son which she holds on her lap. This sculpture was commissioned by a French Cardinal living in Rome. Look closely and see how Michelangelo made marble seem like flesh, and look at those complicated folds of drapery. It is important here to remember how sculpture is made. It was a messy, rather loud process (which is one of the reasons that Leonardo claimed that painting was superior to sculpture!). Just like painters often mixed their own paint, Michelangelo forged many of his own tools, and often participated in the quarrying of his marble -- a dangerous job. When we look at the extraordinary representation of the human body here we remember that Michelangelo, like Leonardo before him, had dissected cadavers to understand how the body worked. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Carbon prints and gum bichromate prints are both examples of pigment processes. Rather than the metal salts typically used in the formation of photographic images, pigments and bichromated colloids are used in making these prints. A bichromated colloid is a viscous substance such as gelatin or albumen that is made light-sensitive by the addition of a bichromate. Bichromated colloids harden when exposed to light and become insoluble in water; this is the principle behind many of the non-silver-based photographic processes. Pigment processes were developed in the 1850s and offer superior permanence and control of the appearance of the final print. The resulting prints are characterized by broad tones and soft detail, sometimes resembling paintings or drawings. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.
Phidias (?), "Plaque of the Ergastines," 445 - 438 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (Attica), 0.96 x 2.07 m, fragment from the frieze on the east side of the Parthenon (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Platinum prints are characterized by their delicate surface and subtle tonal gradations. They are made by sensitizing paper with iron salts and exposing the paper in contact with a negative until a faint image has formed. The paper is then chemically developed in a process that replaces the iron salts with platinum and intensifies the image. Platinum prints were popular with art photographers around the turn of the twentieth century, but when World War I caused the price of platinum to rise, palladium (a related metallic element) was introduced as a more affordable substitute. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.
An online interactive resource for children to explore and learn from visual art through quizzes and games. You can test your memory with lace, create a colourful fruit poster, paint a Paul Henry skyline, or try your knowledge with a quiz.
This fun interactive encourages looking and responding to visual art and enables the child to look at and talk about works of visual art through strengthening their vocabulary.
Horses of San Marco (ancient Greek or Roman, likely Imperial Rome), 4th century B.C.E. to 4th century C.E., copper alloy, 235 x 250 cm each (Basilica of San Marco, Venice), an ARCHES video Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.
This video lecture looks at the painting techniques of Jackson Pollock: "One: Number 31, 1950". Abstract Expressionist New York. The Museum of Modern Art, October 3, 2--April 11, 2011. Filmed by Plowshares Media Images courtesy of Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Music by Chris Parrello Chris Parrello, Ian Young, Kevin Thomas, Ziv Ravitz.
Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer), Classical Period, Roman marble copy after a Greek bronze original from c. 450-440 B.C.E. (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Dionysian Cult Cycle (?), Villa of Mysteries, before 79 C.E., fresco, Pompeii, Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Pontormo, Entombment (or Deposition from the Cross), oil on panel, 1525-28 (Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicita, Florence) Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker, Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris, Steven Zucker, and Smarthistory.
This art history video discussion looks at Pontormo's "Entombment (or Deposition from the Cross)", oil on panel, 1525-28 (Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicita, Florence).
Serial Storytelling examines the ways the passing and unfolding of time structures narratives in a range of media. From Rembrandt’s lifetime of self-portraits to The Wire, Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers to contemporary journalism and reportage, we will focus on the relationships between popular culture and art, the problems of evaluation and audience, and the ways these works function within their social context.
Portrait Bust of a Flavian Woman (Fonseca Bust), from Rome, c. 100 C.E., marble, 63 cm (Capitoline Museums), part 1 of 2. Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris For more art history, visit smarthistory.org. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
A conversation between Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker in front of Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers, c. 1355 B.C.E., Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Egypt, yew wood, lapis lazuli, silver, gold, faience, 22.5 cm high (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum, Berlin). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Portraits of the Four Tetrarchs, from Constantinople, c. 305, porphyry, 4' 3" high (St. Marks, Venice). Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Video by Art21. The interdisciplinary collective Postcommodity creates site-specific installations and interventions that critically examine our modern-day institutions and systems through the history and perspectives of Indigenous people. Influenced by growing up in the southwestern United States, the artists Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist revisit their 2015 public installation, "Repellent Fence," produced with previous Postcommodity artist, Raven Chacon. A two-mile-long line of enormous balloons across the Arizona-Sonora border, "Repellent Fence" symbolically sutured together cultures and lands that had been unified long before borders were drawn. Shown installing ambitious architectural interventions at the Art Institute of Chicago and LAXART in Los Angeles, Martínez and Twist consider how American cities have been supported by and will continue to be transformed by the migration of Indigenous peoples from Mexico and Central and South America. To examine our cultural institutions and their demographic future, the pair thinks of the coming decades, when the U.S. Census Bureau predicts a non-White majority. “Our job is to allow a new public memory to be born,” says Martínez. “Here’s our lens; take a look at the world through it, and tell us what you think.” Other featured projects include "Do You Remember When?" (2009), produced in collaboration with previous Postcommodity artist Raven Chacon (2009–2018), co-founder Steven Yazzie (2007–2010), and co-founder Nathan Young (2007–2015). Learn more about the artists at: https://art21.org/artist/postcommodity/