art history midterm two
Europe in 16TH Century (Hight Renaissance)- Age of social, intellectual, & religious ferment that transformed European culture. Spirit of discovery; travel; exploration, Self-confident humanism, stability & order, admiration of classical forms, explosion of information aided by book printing, Artists more mobile; styles less regional, Rome grows in importance especially under Julius II (Pope 1503-1513), 100,000 people (only London & Paris larger) 1494 Expulsion of Medici from Florence.
Continual armed conflict triggered by the expansionist ambitions of warring rulers.
Humanism in 14th & 15th centuries had its medieval roots & was often uncritical acceptance of the authority of Classical texts, in 16th cent slowly developed into a critical exploration of new ideas, the natural world, & distant lands.
Began 2 acknowledge the Earth’s curvature & the degrees of distance, giving Europeans a more accurate understanding of their place within the world.
printing press led 2 larger book productions, spreading information through the translation & publication of ancient & contemporary texts, broadening the horizons of educated Europeans, & encouraging the development of literacy.
Travelling getting more common artists & their work became mobile, & a more international community.
Early 16th century, England, France, & Portugal were nationstates under strong monarchs. German-speaking central Europe was divided into dozens of principalities, counties, free cities, & small territories. But even states as powerful as Saxony & Bavaria acknowledged the supremacy of the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire in theory the greatest power in Europe.
Charles V, elected emperor in 1519, also inherited Spain, the Netherlands, & vast territories in the Americas. Italy, which was divided into numerous small states, was a diplomatic & military battlefield where 4 much of the century the Italian city-states, Habsburg Spain, France, & the papacy fought each other in shifting alliances.
Popes behaved like secular princes, using diplomacy & military force 2 regain control over central Italy & in some cases 2 establish family members as hereditary rulers.
Popes’ demands 4 m1y 2 finance the rebuilding of St. Peter’s & their art projects & luxurious lifestyles, aggravated the religious dissent that had long been developing.
Early in the century, religious reformers within the established Church challenged its beliefs & practices, especially Julius II’s sale of indulgences promising forgiveness of sins & assurance of salvation in exchange 4 a financial contribution 2 the Church. bc they protested, these northern European reformers came 2 be called Protestants; their demand 4 reform gave rise 2 a movement called the Reformation.
Sack of Rome– political maneuvering of Pope Clement VII led 2 a direct clash with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1527, Charles’s troops attacked Rome, beginning a 6 month orgy of killing, looting, & burning. It shook the sense of stability & humanistic confidence that until then had characterized the Renaissance, & it sent many artists fleeing from the ruined city.
Charles became the leader of the Catholic forces & he was the sole Catholic ally Clement had @ the time.
In 1530, Clement VI crowned Charles emperor in Bologna. 16th century patrons valued artists highly & rewarded them well, not only with generous commissions but sometimes even with high social status.
Giorgio Vasari- began 2 report on the lives of artists, documenting their physical appearance & assessing their individual reputations. In 1550, wrote the 1st survey of Italian art history Lives of the Most Excellent Architects, Painters, & Sculptors. It was organized as a series of critical biographies, but @ its core was a work of critical judgment. He was florentine artist, art historian & biographer of the renaissance.
During this period, the 15th century humanists ‘notion of painting, sculpture, & architecture not as manual arts but as liberal (intellectual) arts, requiring education in the Classics & mathematics as well as in the techniques of the craft, became a topic of intense interest.
Few artists of either sex had access 2 the humanist education required by the often esoteric subject matter used in paintings (usually devised by some1 other than the artists, women were also denied the studio practice necessary 2 study & draw from nude models.
High Renaissance- Italian art between 1485 2 the 1520, Rome became the most important center(bc of Pope Julius II 1503-13), Oil becomes the most dominant medium of painting, unified design, poetic, beautiful, ended with 1517 beg of protestant reformation, sack of rome & death of leonardo, giorgi1, raphael & Bramante. Emphasis on poetry & imagination vs the rationality & intellect in early renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Moves 2 Florence @ 12 , Apprentices 2 Verrocchio , Court artist in Milan 2 Ludovico Sforza (Duke of Milan) 1482(@ the age of 30) -1500 ,Considers himself primarily a painter, A scientific mind (aim was 2 discover not recover)
Leonardo: The Last Supper, Tempera & oil on plaster Sta Maria delle Grazie, Milian 1465-98.
Painted @ the request of Duke Ludovico Sforza, painted in the dining hall, the coffered ceiling & the 4 pair of tapestries seen 2 extend the refectory into another room, Jesus & his disciples R seated @ a long table parallel the picture plane, stagelike spacerecedes from the table 2 3 windows on the back wall, where the vanishing point of the 1-point linear perspective lies behind Jesus’s head. A stable, pyramidal Jesus @ the center is flanked by his 12 disciples, grouped in 4 interlocking sets of 3. captures the individual reactions of the apostles 2 Jesus’s announcement that 1 of them will betray him. symbolic evocation of Jesus’s coming sacrifice 4 the salvation of humankind. Judas (traitor) clutching his m1y bags, Young John (the evangelist) & elderly Peter. careful geometry, the convergence of its perspective lines, the stability of its pyramidal forms, andJesus’s calm demeanor @ the mathematical center of all the commotion, work together 2 reinforce the sense of gravity,balance, & order. The clarity & stability of this painting epitomize High Renaissance style.
Leonardo: Mona Lisa, c. 1503-06, Oil on wood panel
departure from tradition, the young woman is portrayed without jewelry, solid pyramidal form of her half length figure another departure from traditional portraiture, which was limited 2 the upper torso is silhouetted against distant hazy mountains, giving the painting a sense of mystery reminiscent of The Virgin of the Rocks. The expressive complexity of the mile & the sense of psychological presence it gives the human face especially in the context of the mask like detachment that was more characteristic of Renaissance portraiture. set during Leo’s favourite time which is twilight.
Sfumato – smoky haze, Subtle gradations of colour (fine shading) which eliminates lines or borders.
Chiaroscuro: Modeling in light & dark; contours implied.Chiaroscuro implies stronger contrasts of light & shadow than modeling resulting in more solid forms (Volume).
Oil Painting – Pigments mixed with oils. Use originates in Flanders & migrates South. Slow drying medium but produces a wide variety of effects (rich colours, blended t1s, luminosity, texture) & allows 4 experimentation.
Gioconda pose : (contrapposto in ¾ portrait [head & hands frontal but body slightly sideways] = movement/naturalism
Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), Born in Urbino, Studies with Perugino in Florence, artist of synthesis, art noted 4 its idealism, grace, beauty, clarity of vision.
Raphael: School of Athens, Vatican, c 1501-11, fresco
In Rome, 4 Pope Julius II, decorating the rooms in the papal apartment, painted the 4 branches of knowledge (Religion, Philosophy, Poetry & Law), school of athens is philosophy, sumarizes the ideals of the Renaissance papacy in a grand conception of harmoniously arrranged forms in rational space, Center stage R the greek philosophers Plato & Aristotle (placed on the right & lft of the vanishing point), silhouetted against the sky & framed under the 3 barrel vaults. Surrounding Plato & Aristotle R mathematicians, naturalists, astronomers, geographers, & other philosophers debating & demonstrating their theories with & 2 onlookers & each other. Background shows the new design of St. Peter’s, The sweeping arcs of the composition R activated by the variety & energy of their poses & gestures, creating a dynamic unity that is a prime characteristic of High Renaissance art.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Grows up in Florence, joins the household of Lorenzo de Medici at 14, works in Rome for Julius II, neoplatonist, a solitary man; described as il divino and terrabilita., a poet, painter, architect, but primarily, a sculptor.
Came in contact with neoplantonist at the medici household and the family’s distinguished sculpture collection,
Neo-Platonism: philosophical movement inaugurated by Plotinus (AD 204/5 – 270), which reinterpreted the ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It argued that the world which we experience is only a copy of an ideal reality which lies beyond the material world.
Michelangelo: David, 1501-04. Marble, Height 17’
Florentin commision for a statue of biblical hero David, to be placed at the high atop a buttress of the cathedral, so admired the city council placed at the principal city square, next to the Palazzo della Signoria(the seat of the florence goverment), stood as a reminder of Florence’s republican status, which was briefly reinstated after the expulsion of the powerful Medici oligarchy in 1494. muscular nudity, embodies the antique ideal of the athletic male nude, the emotional power of its expression and its concentrated gaze are entirely new. knits his brow and stares into space, seeminglypreparing himself psychologically for the danger ahead,a mere youth confronting a gigantic experienced warrior, stands for the supremacy of right over might a perfect emblem for the Florentines, who had recently fought the forces of Milan, Siena, and Pisa and still faced political and military pressure.
Non finito: Deliberately non-finished sculpture; sense of time (being born).
Michelangelo: Creation of Adam, 1511-12, Fresco on ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 9’2” x 18’8”
Julius II wanted a trompe l’oeil stucco coffered ceiling, He also wanted 12 apostles placed within the spandrels.
Pope Julius II – head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513
established a new and remarkably powerful style in Renaissance painting,
Between the pilasters are figures of prophets and sibyls (female seers from the Classical world) who were believed to have foretold Jesus’s birth. Seated on the fictive cornice are heroic figures of nude young men called ignudi (singular, ignudo), holding sashes attached to large gold medallions. Rising behind the ignudi, shallow bands of fictive stone span the center of the ceiling and divide it into nine compartments containing successive scenes from Genesis recounting the Creation, the Fall, and the Flood beginning over the altar and ending near the chapel entrance. God’s earliest acts of creation are therefore closest to the altar, the Creation of Eve at the center of the ceiling, followed by the imperfect actions of humanity: Temptation, Fall, Expulsion from Paradise, and God’s eventual destruction of all people except Noah and his family by the Flood. The eight triangular spandrels over the windows, as wellas the lunettes crowning them, contain paintings of the ancestors of Jesus.
CREATION OF ADAM: captures the moment when God charges the languorous Adam in a pose adapted from the Roman river god type with the spark of life. As if to echo the biblical text,Adam’s heroic body, outstretched arm, and profile almost mirror those of God, in whose image he has been created.Emerging under God’s other arm and looking across him in the direction of her future mate is the robust and energetic figure of Eve before her creation. Noted for its emphasis on oil painting as medium, focus on colour, and rise of subjects of the landscape and reclining nude.
Disegno-Colorito Controversy: Controversy that begins in the Renaissance and continues to the 19th century over which was the most important element of art: Disegno (drawing, composition, the intellectual/Florence) or Colorito (colour, emotion, sensuality/Venice)?
Giorgione (1478-1510),Venetian painter known for his poetic painting, introduces subject of reclining nude and the landscape,
Giorgione: The Tempest, c. 1506? (1509-10?). Oil on canvas. 32” x 28
a woman is seated on the ground, nude except for the end of a long white cloth thrown over her shoulders. Her nudity seems maternal,her sensuality generative rather than erotic, as she nurses the baby protectively and lovingly embraced at her side.Across the dark, rocky edge of her elevated perch stands a mysterious man, variously interpreted as a German mercenary soldier and as an urban dandy wandering in the country. His shadowed head turns in the direction of the woman, but he only appears to have paused for a moment before turning back toward the viewer or resuming his journey along the path. attention seems focused as much on the landscape and the unruly elements of nature as on the figures posed within it. Some interpreters have seen references to the Classical elements of water, earth, air, and fire in the lake, the verdant ground, the billowing clouds, and the lightning bolt.
Titian (1488-1576), Venetian painter, student of Giorgione, sought after portrait painter, known for his fine ground pigments and his use of colour
Titian (or Giorgione): The Pastoral Concert, c. 1510, oil on canvas, 41” x 54”
idyllic landscape, here bathed in golden, hazy, late-after-noon sunlight, seems to be one of the main subjects of the painting. 2 men an aristocratic musician in rich red silks and a barefoot, singing peasant in homespun cloth turn toward each other, unaware of the two naked women in front of them. 1 woman plays a pipe and the other pours water into a well; the white drapery sliding to the ground enhances rather than hides their nudity. they are the musicians’ muses. Behind the figures, the sunlight illuminates another shepherd and his animals near lush woodland. evokes a golden age of love and innocence recalled in ancient Roman and Italian Renaissance pastoral poetry. the painting is now interpreted as an allegory on the invention of poetry. Both artists were renowned for painting sensuous female nudes whose bodies seem to glow with an incandescent light, inspired by flesh and blood as much as any source from poetry or art.
Allegory: In a work of art, a combination of objects, figures or images that illustrate a concept or idea by analogy. Often it exists as a second narrative, a figurative rather than literal narrative.
The Pastoral:An idealized shepherd’s life in art & literature, evokes a golden age of love and innocence
Titian: “Venus” of Urbino, c. 1538, oil on canvas
delivered to Guidobaldo della Rovere, duke of Urbino, a beautiful Venetian courtesan with deliberately provocative gestures, stretching languidly on her couch in a spacious palace, her glowing flesh and golden hair set off by white sheets and pillows, more about marriage than mythology or seductiveness. The multiple matrimonial references in this work include the pair of cassoni, servants are removing or storing the woman’s clothing in the background, the bridal symbolism of the myrtle and roses she holds in her hand, and even the spaniel snoozing at her feet a traditional symbol of fidelity and domesticity, especially when sleeping so peacefully. Probably the duke’s marriage, a bride bride welcoming her husband to their marriage bed.
Reclining Nude: established during the Renaissance, emphasize the beauty and honesty of the nude human form. Occasionally suggests the sensuality of the nude.
Palladio (1508-80) Chief architect of the Venetian republic, wrote “Four Books of Architecture” in 1570, a classicist
Palladio: Villa Rotonda, Vicenza. C. 1560s
started his most famous and influential villa just outside Vicenza, Although villas were working farms, Palladio designed this one in part as a retreat literally a party house. To maximize vistas of the countryside, he placed a porch elevated at the top of a wide staircase on each face of the building. The main living quarters are on this second level, and the lower level is reserved for the kitchen, storage, and other utility rooms. Upon its completion in 1569, the building was dubbed theVILLA ROTONDA because it had been inspired by another round building, the Roman Pantheon.
Palladio: Plan of the Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, Italy. Begun 1560s
geometric clarity of Palladio’s conception: a circle inscribed in a small square inside a larger square, with symmetrical rectangular compartments and identical rectangular projections from each of its faces. The use of a central dome on a domestic build-ing was a daring innovation that effectively secularized the dome and initiated what was to become a long tradition of domed country houses.
Protestant Reformation: Begins 1517 with 95 theses of Martin Luther. “Protested” against the power and abuses of the church such as the selling of indulgences.Focus on the word of God (Bibles were being produced in great numbers by printing presses and in native languages) and salvation through faith alone. Against the hierarchy of the church. Prominent in the northern countries (Germany, Holland, England)
Sack of Rome (1527)– end of Roman Renaissance
16th century art in Northern Europe and Spain: Renaissance flows north around 1500,Variety of styles but humanism as central interest, Protestant Reformation begins (1517) with two reformers from Northern Europe,Erasmus of Rotterdam (Holland), Martin Luther (German),With the loss of patronage of religious art many artists turned to portraiture and other secular subjects.
Netherlands- Split between Protestants North and Catholic South; know for the Genre pictures and portraits.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (“Peasant Bruegel)(1525-1569), Flemish painter from Antwerp, Probably Protestant, Known for Genre Pictures (Scenes of everyday life)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Return of the Hunters, 1565. Oil on wood panel
representing December and January, captures the bleak atmosphereof early winter nightfall with a freshness that recalls themuch earlier paintings of his compatriots the Limbourgs, Hunters are returning home at dusk withmeager results: a fox slung over the largest man’s shoulder. But the landscape, rather than the figures, seems to be the principal subject.On the left, a receding row of trees,consistently diminishing in scale, draws our attentioninto the space of the painting along the same orthogonal descent as the hillside of houses. elevated viewpoint, like one of the birds thatperch in the trees or glide across the snow-covered fantasy of an alpine background.
England- With Henry VIII England splits with the Catholic Church (1534).
Hans Holbein (1497-1543) German born but court painter to England’s King Henry VIII.
Hans Holbein the Younger: The French Ambassadors, 1533. Oil on wood
of Jean de Dinteville, French ambassador to England, and his friend Georges de Selve, bishop of Lavaur and ambassador to the Holy See. evoke the political accom-plishments of these two men. References in these objectsto the conflicts between European states and within theCatholic Church itself imply that these confident youngambassadors will apply their diplomatic skills to finding a resolution. Two shelves reflect the Quadrivium: 4 mathematical sciences: Geometry, arithmetic, astronomy & Music); with Trivium (grammar, logic & rhetoric), they make up the 7 liberal arts of classical study. Anamorphic Skull (in skewed perspective) also serves as a memento mori (reminder of the inevitability of death).
17th Century Europe: Religious Wars: 30 years War 1618-1648 in Holy Roman Empire; 80 years war 1568-1648 between Spain and Low Countries); political restructuring of Europe. Both wars end with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) which formally recognizes national sovereignty and religious freedom. Worldwide market:1st multinational corporation is Dutch East India Company; wealth evident in first banks and stock exchange. Growing secularization in political realm allows for advancement of new science. Lays groundwork for the Enlightenment. Counter Reformation (Catholic reform and Revival) dates from the Council of Trent (1545-63) to The Treaty of Westphalia (1648).
Normally referred to as the Baroque period: style known for its sense of the grand, the turbulent and the dynamic. Turbulence perhaps a reflection of the turmoil of the age. Art historian Henrich Wolfflin saw it as a style opposite to that of the Renaissance: painterly, open in form etc. (1915). perhaps attempt to reengage the public in art (“to instruct, to move, to delight”) and strengthen Catholic faith. often exhibits dramatic light and emotionalism. styles vary with geography (eg. Italian Baroque).
Italian Baroque: Italy is staunchly Catholic. In response to the Protestant Reformation, and as part of the strategy of the Counter Reformation (beginning with the Council of Trent 1545-63), the visual arts were used “to instruct, to move, to delight” the faithful.
Bernini: David. 1623. Marble. 5’7”
made for a nephew of Pope Paul V in 1623, introduced a new type of three-dimensional composition that intrudes forcefully into the viewer’s space. The young hero bends at the waist and twists far to one side, ready to launch the lethal rock at Goliath. more mature David, with his sinewy body, tightly clenched mouth, and straining muscles, is all tension, action, and determination. By creating a twisting figure caught in movement,incorporates the surrounding space within his composition, implying the presence ofan unseen adversary somewhere behind the viewer. Thus,the viewer becomes part of the action, rather than its dis-placed and dispassionate observer.
Bernini: St. Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy. 1645-52. Marble (bronze rays)
which represents an eroticized vision described by the Spanish mystic in which an angel pierced her body repeatedly with an arrow,transporting her to a state of indescribable pain, religious ecstasy, and a sense of oneness with God. St. Teresa and the angel, who seem to float upward, are cut from a heavy mass of solid marble supported on a seemingly drifting pedestal that was fastened by hidden metal bars to the chapel wall.the angel’s gauzy, clinging draperies seem silken in contrast with Teresa’s heavy woolen monastic robe. Bernini effectively used the configuration of the garment’s folds to convey the saint’s swooning, sensuous body beneath, even though only Teresa’s face, hands, and bare feet are actually visible.
Borromini: San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. 1638-67- Significant Baroque architect known for his work in Rome
stands on a narrow piece of land with one corner cut off to accommodate one of the fountains that give the church its name. executed more than two decades later, was as innovative as his planning of the interior. He turned thebuilding’s front into an undulating, sculpture-filled screen punctuated with large columns and deep concave and con-vex niches that create dramatic effects of light and shadow.He also gave his façade a strong vertical thrust in the center by placing over the tall doorway a statue-filled niche ,then a windowed niche covered with a canopy, forward-leaning cartouche held up by angels carved in such high relief that they appear to hover in front of the wall. The entire composition is crowned with a balustrade broken by the sharply pointed frame of the cartouche. As with the design of the building itself, Borromini’s façade was enthusiastically imitated in northern Italy and especially in northern and eastern Europe.
CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610) Noted for his frank realism and theatrical lighting (tenebrism)
Tenebrism: dramatic spotlight allows forms to emerge from a dark background. Note that chiaroscuro emphasizes volume and tenebrism emphasizes drama.
Caravaggio: The Calling of St. Matthew. Oil on Canvas. c. 1599-1600
Cannot see god’s light, cross right up jesus’s, pointing like the celing of venus, too busy with money,
Gentileschi: Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1616-20, oil on canvas
The subject is drawn from the biblical book of Judith, which recounts the story of the destructive invasion of Judah by the Assyrian general Holofernes, when the brave Jewish widow Judith risked her life to save her people. Using her charm to gain Holofernes’s trust,Judith enters his tent with her maidservant while he is drunk and beheads him with his own sword. Gentileschi emphasizes the grisly facts of this heroic act, as the women struggle to subdue Holofernes while blood spurts from the severing of his jugular. Dramatic spotlighting and a convergence of compositional diagonals rivet our attention on the most sensational aspects of the scene, which have been pushed toward us in the foreground.
Rubens: The Raising of the Cross, 1610. Oil on panel – flemish
extended the central action and the landscape through all three panels. At the center, Herculean figures strain to haul upright the wooden cross with Jesus already stretched upon it. At the left, the followers ofJesus join in mourning, and at the right, soldiers supervise the execution. The drama and intense emotion of Caravaggio is merged here with the virtuoso technique of Annibale Carracci, but transformed and reinerpreted according to Rubens’s own unique ideal of thematic and formal unity. The heroic nude figures, dramatic lighting effects, dynamic diagonal composition, and intense emotions show his debt to Italian art, but the rich colors and careful description of surface textures reflect his native Flemish tradition.
Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. NicolaesTulp, 1632. Oil on canvas
combined his scientific and humanistic interests. charged moment from a life story. Dr. Tulp, head of the surgeons’ guild from 1628 to1653, sits right of center, while a group of fellow physicians gathers around to observe the cadaver and learn from the famed anatomist.built his composition on a sharp diagonal that pierces space from right to left, uniting the cadaver on the table, the calculated arrangement of speaker and listeners, and the open book into a dramatic narrative event. Rembrandt makes effective use of Caravaggio’s tenebrist technique, as the figures emerge from a dark and undefined ambience, their attentive faces framed by brilliant white ruffs. Light streams down to spot light the ghostly flesh of the cadaver, drawing our attention to the extended arms of Dr. Tulp, who flexes his own left hand to demonstrate the action of the cadaver’s arm muscles that he lifts up with silver forceps. Andreas Vesalius’ book on anatomy with first accurate anatomical illustrations put into print
Camera Obscura: Light shining through a small hole in a box with a lens casts an upside-down image on the back of the box.
Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664. Oil on canvas.
studied equilibrium creates a monumental composition and a moment of supreme stillness. The woman contemplates the balance in her right hand, drawing our attention to the act of weighing and judging. Her hand and the scale are central, but directly behind her head is a painting of theLast Judgment, highlighting the figure of Christ the Judge in a gold oval above her head. The juxtaposition seems to turn Vermeer’s genre scene into a metaphor for eternal judgment, a sobering religious reference that may reflectthe artist’s own position as a Catholic living in a Protestant country.
Vanitas: objects such as jewelry, makeup, mirrors, etc., which symbolize the transience of earthly life.
Pieter Claesz: Still Life with Tazza, 1636, oil on panel
Still Life: A Painting focused on the subject of inanimate objects, usually on a table. Liked by rising merchant class.
seems to give life to inanimate objects. He organizes dishes in diagonal positions to give a strong sense of space here reinforced by the spiraling strip of lemon peel, foreshortened with the plate into the foreground and reaching toward the viewer’s own space and he renders the maximum contrast of textures within a subtle palette of yellows, browns, greens, and silvery whites. The tilted silver tazza contrasts with the half filled glass, which becomes a monumental presence and permits Claesz to display his skill with transparencies and reflections. Such paintings suggest the prosperity of Claesz’s patrons. The food might be simple, but a silver ornamental cup like this would have graced the tables of only the wealthy.
Velazquez: Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor). 1656. Oil on canvas. 10’5” x 9’
draws viewers directly into the scene. In one interpretation,the viewer stands in the very space occupied by King Philipand his queen, whose reflections can be seen in the large mirror on the back wall, perhaps a clever reference to Janvan Eyck’s Double Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife