The Fall of Icarus

by 16th century ArtFlemish ArtMythologyNorthern RenaissanceRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, attributed, 1526/1530–1569
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, circa 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5×112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_de_Oude_-_De_val_van_Icarus.jpg

The ancient Greek Myth of Icarus has endured not only in visual but in literary arts as well! The Fall of Icarus attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder(According to the museum: “It is doubtful the execution is by Bruegel the Elder, but the composition can be said with certainty to be his”) is a fine example of how the Visual and the Literary Arts complement each other! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus

The myth of Icarus’s Fall is magnificently told by Ovid in Book VIII: 183-235 of his Metamorphoses… When Daedalus had put the last touches to what he had begun, the artificer balanced his own body between the two wings and hovered in the moving air. He instructed the boy as well, saying ‘Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way, in case the moisture weighs down your wings, if you fly too low, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes. And I order you not to aim towards Bootes, the Herdsman, or Helice, the Great Bear, or towards the drawn sword of Orion: take the course I show you!’ At the same time as he laid down the rules of flight, he fitted the newly created wings on the boy’s shoulders. While he worked and issued his warnings the aging man’s cheeks were wet with tears: the father’s hands trembled… but the boy did not listen… he began to delight in his daring flight, and abandoning his guide, drawn by desire for the heavens, soared higher… and disaster stroke! https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph8.php#anchor_Toc64106497

The iconic painting of the Fall of Icarus in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is an amazing World Landscape, a type of composition depicting an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. At first glance, it is not easy to notice the spot where Icarus fell. All the artist painted is a pair of legs kicking in the sea next to the big ship on the right side of the composition. The depicted plowman carries on with his task while the shepherd seems unaware of the event, gazing into the air, away from the ship. Could the artist present the Flemish proverb… And the farmer continued to plough… pointing out the ignorance of people of fellow men’s suffering? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_landscape and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, attributed, 1526/1530–1569
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (detail of Icarus), circa 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5×112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Pieter_bruegel_il_vecchio%2C_caduta_di_icaro%2C_1558_circa_07.JPG
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, attributed, 1526/1530–1569
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (detail of the boat), circa 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5×112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_bruegel_il_vecchio,_caduta_di_icaro,_1558_circa_06_nave.JPG

The Fall of Icarus attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder inspired the acclaimed poet of the Imagist movement, William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) to write… According to Brueghel / when Icarus fell / it was spring     /     a farmer was ploughing / his field / the whole pageantry     /     of the year was / awake tingling / near     /     the edge of the sea / concerned / with itself     /     sweating in the sun / that melted / the wings’ wax     /     unsignificantly / off the coast / there was     /     a splash quite unnoticed / this was / Icarus drowning…  https://poets.org/poem/landscape-fall-icarus

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, attributed, 1526/1530–1569
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (detail of the city), circa 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5×112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium  https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/painting-of-the-week-pieter-bruegel-the-elder-landscape-with-the-fall-of-icarus/

It inspired, the British-American poet, Wystan Hugh Auden, as well, who writes …In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may / Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, / But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone / As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green / Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen / Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, / Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html

Amazing!

For a Student Activity on The Fall of Icarus, a painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the poem Lines on Brueghel’s “Icarus” by Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (1924-2007) inspired by the painting, please… Check HERE!

An interesting Video, prepared by Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and presented by Christine Ayoub on The proverbs in Pieter Bruegel’s “Fall of Icarus” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duf0knJ7CXI

Christine Ayoub, a guide at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, presents another interesting Video, reading an extract from Ovid’s Metamorphoses featuring the tale of the Fall of Icarus.  https://artsandculture.google.com/story/ewUxXpmuNdcLJg

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, attributed, 1526/1530–1569
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (detail of the sun), circa 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5×112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium  https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/painting-of-the-week-pieter-bruegel-the-elder-landscape-with-the-fall-of-icarus/

Simon Bening’s August

by 16th century ArtArtFlemish ArtManuscriptsNorthern RenaissancePowerpointsRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, August (f. 25v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/10/

Like liquid gold the wheat field lies, / A marvel of yellow and russet and green, / That ripples and runs, that floats and flies, / With the subtle shadows, the change, the sheen… writes American poet Hannibal Hamlin Garland, and Simon Bening’s August scene comes to my mind… a scene of wheat fields like liquid gold and green countryside full of subtle shadows, change, and sheen… https://sites.google.com/site/rainydaypoems/poems-for-kids/poems-teachers-ask-for/color-in-the-wheat-by-hamlin-garland

Simon Bening is a master manuscript illuminator. Hailed by Portuguese art critic and artist, Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe, Simon Bening was one of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s. He served powerful aristocrats and worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infante of Portugal. He is famous for creating some of the finest illuminated Books of Hours in the history of art. His specialty was painting, in the Flemish tradition, poetic landscape vistas… just like the August scene in the famous Golf Book! https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103JTN

The Month of August full-page miniature (f. 25v) is dedicated to distinct aspects of peasant occupations in the month of August. It is divided into three parts, the lower right one, leading the composition. Prominently posed, a pair of field hands are taking a break, their tools of labor lying on the ground, happily munching on some kind of food… waiting for more! A young woman is approaching them with a basket of more food balancing on top of her head, and a heavy, large carafe of a beverage held by her right hand. Behind a low fence made of wicker canes woven around stakes driven into the ground, a second peasant is still working hard in the field… bent, scythe in hand, cutting wheat.

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, August (Details, f. 25v), c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_24098_fs001r

The left part of the composition is my favorite! Separated by a canal or river with swimming swans and a small bridge, Bening painted a country path along a hedged country estate of lush greenery. This is what the artist was famous for… images of unique landscapes in delicate brushwork and an extravaganza of green tints and shades. Never to forget that this is a composition dedicated to harvesting, Bening painted a path with a horse-drawn cart loaded with sheaves of straw going along it. https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/500e65cc826a5

The third, back part of Bening’s August page, is fully dedicated to Bening’s August theme… harvest, and the lush countryside. A fortress-like, gated area, equally plush and verdant, with an impressive church to the right, dominates the scene. In front of it, was another field of yellow, willowy wheat, and a peasant hard in harvesting. In the very distant, blue cloudless skies… the majesty of nature at its best…

For a PowerPoint on the  Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity on Simon Bening’s July page, please… Check HERE!

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, August (f. 25v and 26r),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/10/

Simon Bening’s July

by 16th century ArtArtFlemish ArtManuscriptsNorthern RenaissancePowerpointsRenaissanceStudent Activities
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, July (f. 24v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/10/

Simon Bening’s July page presents, in painting, the ancient sport of falconry clearly, with elegance and poise… Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), with his poem Falconry, wonders, and questions…  A prince survives by unseen acts. / At night the chief advisor knocked / at Frederick’s workroom in the tower / and found him formulating facts / for treatises on wingèd power / while his penman turned out text.     /     It was in this aerie room / he’d walked all night with her on arm, / turbulent and barely fledged. / Whatever plans then sprang to mind, / whatever fondness deeply chimed / in recollection he would trash / and tend the frightened and impassioned / thing he wished to understand. / Every night he made a time / for nothing but the young unhandled / animal. It was her staring / inborn mind he’d worked to learn,     /     so he was lofted with her grace / when she, the bird that nobles praise, / thrown gleaming from his hand (her wingbeats raised / into the heartfelt morning air) / and diving like an angel struck the hern… https://allpoetry.com/Falconry

The Book of Golf pages dedicated to the summer month of July present interesting events in the life of the Flemish Renaissance aristocracy and farming class.  The main full-page miniature painting (f. 24v) is dedicated to a popular aristocratic sport, that of hunting with falcons. The miniature, on the other hand, of folio 25recto given to July, is dedicated to farm work, particularly the transportation of hay with a cart. Interestingly, the background painting of folio 24verso is also reserved for farm work. It shows haymakers mowing a lush, green field. http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_24098

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, July (Details, f. 24v and f. 25r), c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_24098_fs001r
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, July (Details, f. 24v), c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_24098_fs001r

A nobleman on horseback is the main character in folio 24v of Bening’s Book of Golf. He is depicted with all the characteristics of a Flemish aristocrat. He wears a blue tunic with a square neckline, a high-necked, buttoned shirt underneath, and a noticeable gold chain around his neck. A feathered grey hat stylishly adorns his auburn features. A glove covers his right hand, and a falcon, possibly a peregrine falcon, is perched on the (metal glove) on his left hand. Finally, the aristocrat in Bening’s July page wears full-length hose and ankle boots. He is portrayed mounted on an equally imposing dark-grey stallion practicing falconry, the favourite pastime of the aristocracy.  All signs of nobility are present… elegant, and expensive attire, a beautiful horse, and the sport of falconry… here are the status symbols of high social, moral, and financial standing. If this is not enough… the pictured aristocrat is accompanied by two servants carrying falcon’s perches (tall staffs covered in soft fabric for birds to rest upon and for beating bushes and trees to make prey take flight) and also a hooded peregrine falcon and goshawk. https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/5034926fa3d32

I live my life in widening circles / that reach out across the world. / I may not complete this last one / but I give myself to it.     /     I circle around God, around the primordial tower. / I’ve been circling for thousands of years / and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, / a storm, or a great song? Wonders Rainer Maria Rilke once more… https://onbeing.org/poetry/widening-circles/

For a PowerPoint on the  Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity on Simon Bening’s July page, please… Check HERE!

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, July (f. 24v and 25r),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/10/

Summer by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

by 16th century ArtArtMannerismPowerpoints
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Summer, 1563, oil on panel, 670×508 mm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_Summer_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat / men and flocks are sweltering, / pines are scorched. / We hear the cuckoo’s voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard. / Soft breezes stir the air….but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearful of violent storm and what may lie ahead.     /     His limbs are now awakened from their repose by fear of lightning’s flash and thunder’s roar, as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.     /     Alas, his worst fears were justified, as the heavens roar and great hailstones beat down upon the proudly standing corn. This is Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s (1678 – 1741) Sonnet of L’Estate (Summer). The great composer wrote it as a descriptive accompaniment, experts believe, for the music of his “Four Seasons.” Today the first day of Summer, I took the time to listen, read and look at Summer by Giuseppe Arcimboldo! It was a magical time! https://www.charlottesymphony.org/blog/vivaldis-four-seasons-poems/

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a very popular artist among royalty and wealthy patrons of 16th-century Europe. He became the official artist and Master of Festivals for three successive German Emperors. He was also in charge of creating costumes, stage settings, chariots, creative waterworks, and other diversions for courtly events and ceremonies. Last but not least, he directed the acquisitions for the royal cabinet of curiosities, which included art, antiques, curios, oddities of nature, and exotic animals and birds. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/edu/object/summer 

Four hundred years later, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, is considered the great master of Renaissance allegorical painting. He is celebrated for using flowers, fruits, and vegetables, associated with the Seasons of the year, to create paintings of whimsical “composite heads,” and thus, he acquired international fame and fortune! For Emperor Maximilian II, for example, he painted in 1563, his signature Portraits of the 4 Seasons, exhibited today in Vienna, Paris, and Madrid. The 1563 set of four “composite” Portraits of the Seasons became so popular, that the artist replicated them multiple times over the course of his life. The originals, gifted to Maximilian II, were the plainest and most unadorned of all sets he later created.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Summer (detail), 1563, oil on panel, 670×508 mm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
https://dyscover24x7.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/1seaso21.jpg

Archiboldo’s 1563 Portrait of Summer is the perfect example to celebrate the beginning of the Summer season. Interestingly, it is on “Summer” that Arcimboldo chooses to sign his name for the series, carefully woven into her gown. Hidden in the dress’s collar is “Giuseppe Arcimboldi • F,” where the F stands for “Fecit” meaning “he has done it,” and in the sleeve of the gown is the date of completion “1563.” The date in the original Portraits of the 4 Seasons is very important to help scholars date the artist’s subsequent copies, and discern changes in the composition. http://omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/arcimboldo-s-gift–the-fantast/fourseasons/summer

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Summer (detail of signature), 1563, oil on panel, 670×508 mm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_Summer_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Summer, 1563, oil on panel, 670×508 mm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_Summer_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg The Four Seasons – Spring, 1563, oil on canvas, 76×63.5 cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_La_Primavera_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

A comparison between Arcimboldo’s Portraits of Spring and Summer is helpful and revealing. Spring is presented as a youthful, flowery, “fresh” girl, while Summer, is a young woman, mature and fertile. The Portrait of Spring is composed entirely of flowers and bright green leaves. The Portrait of Summer is a lush arrangement of heavy, ripe fruit and vegetables, bountiful, unblemished, but matured. Arcimboldo uses a large peach for the cheeks, quince, garlic, young white onions, yellow beets, and white eggplant. The mouth and lips are formed of cherries and the open peapod within imitates a row of teeth. The nose is a young wild cucumber, and the chin is a pear, the eye shines as a glassy sour cherry between two small pears… What an arrangement! My favorite part is what Lady-Summer wears… a hat made of fruit and vegetables bedded in greenery, from which emerge oat spikes resembling a hat feather, a magnificent, sur mesure, woven straw jacket, and a single artichoke presented as a special, luxurious piece of jewelry! What an opulent vision the Portrait of Summer is!   https://www.teachercurator.com/art/spring-by-giuseppe-arcimboldo/ and https://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/arcimbol/3allegor/1seaso2.html and http://omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/arcimboldo-s-gift–the-fantast/fourseasons/summer

For a PowerPoint of the Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, please… Check HERE!

I would like to draw your attention to a modern take of Arcimboldo’s The 4 Seasons paintings… a set of four and a half meters high fiberglass sculptures of the Four Seasons by American artist and filmmaker Philip Haas, created in 2012. Interesting… to say the least! https://crystalbridges.org/blog/the-four-seasons-philip-haas-interprets-giuseppe-arcimboldo/

Philip Haas, b. 1954
The Four Seasons – Summer, 2012, fiberglass, H. 4.572 m, first seen in the garden of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK
https://laughingsquid.com/giant-head-sculptures-representing-four-seasons/

Simon Bening’s June

by 16th century ArtArtFlemish ArtManuscriptsNorthern RenaissancePowerpointsRenaissance
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, June (f. 23v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Simon Bening’s June presentation is part of an amazing, illuminated manuscript of the 16th century. It presents the quintessential games of chivalry… and I think of Gauvain Micaille, the gallant Frenchman squire from Beauce, a gentleman of tried courage, who had advanced himself by his own merit, without any assistance from others… Is there among you any gentleman who for the love of his lady is willing to try with me some feat of arms? He questions… If there should be any such, here I am, quite ready to sally forth completely armed and mounted, to tilt three courses with the lance, to give three blows with the battle-ax, and three strokes with the dagger. Now look, you English, if there be none among you in love… he continues, and he jousts for the honour of France showing his courage and bravery… an extraordinary man, a wonderful story, and a brilliant manuscript illumination by Simon Bening! https://uts.nipissingu.ca/muhlberger/FROISSART/GAUVAIN.HTM

Unhorse Your Foe! people cried… and off “they” went to “battle.” “They” were armored knights striding armored horses who tested their skills in mock combats, called “tournaments.” These games were a way for them to practice for battle in between wars, and display their talents in front of a broad audience… writes Rachel Smith, of the MET in New York. The June page of the Book of Golf (f. 23v) displays a perfect tournament day in a Flemish city. https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/metkids/2019/knights-tournaments-medieval-europe and https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/161

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, June (Details, f. 23v and f. 24r), c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_24098_fs001r

Simon Bening, combining cool, greys and blues, and warm tones of ochre and red, organized a “busy” three-parts composition. The background presents a Flemish city with impressive buildings and the tournament audience, in great numbers, enthusiastically looking at the event through windows, standing behind parapets, seated on tall parapets,  or sitting in the “royal box.” They seem to be finely dressed and adorned with elaborate headdresses, talking to each other, full of excitement… maybe contemplating, even debating whom they are going to favor!

The Knights, fully armored and crowned with striking plumes are depicted riding their equally remarkably armored horses. They “fight” for victory. Their goal is to show gallantry and honour… their hope is to attract the attention of “their” Lady and get a token of her favor… a veil, a ribbon, maybe a wreath!

The “busiest” part is definitely the foreground of Bening’s composition. Attended by their servants are two knights on their mounts attempting to strike the other down with their swords. Their broken lances lie on the ground. A mounted herald on the left sounds a small trumpet, whilst two armed riders on the right wait their turn to fight. https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/161

The middle ground area of June’s composition is where Jousting takes place. Simon Benning depicts two knights on either side of a palisade, ready for the tournament “game” to commence! They wear a full-length armor made of thin, sliding steel plates, over a velvet garment, a helmet, finished with plumes, and carry their battling lance. According to the Wikipedia… Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two horsemen wielding lances with blunted tips, often as part of a tournament. The primary aim was to replicate a clash of heavy cavalry, with each participant trying hard to strike the opponent while riding towards him at high speed, breaking the lance on the opponent’s shield or jousting armor if possible, or unhorsing him. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The participants experience close to three and a quarter times their body weight in G-forces when the lances collide with their armor.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jousting#CITEREFColtman1919

For a PowerPoint on the  Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For information on the art of the armorer, and how arms and armor, are pivotal not only in conquest and defense but also in court pageantry and ceremonial events like tournaments… Check the Metropolitan Museum site… https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/arms-and-armor

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, June (f. 23v and 24r),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Simon Bening’s May

by 16th century ArtArtFlemish ArtManuscriptsNorthern RenaissancePowerpointsRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

The American children’s poet Annette Wynne introduces us to charming spring with… May / Has such a winsome way, / Loves to love and laugh and play, / To be pretty all the day, / Never loves to sulk and frown, / As April does; when rain comes down, / May is sorry, says: “Rain, please / Go away soon, flowers and trees / Love the merry shining sun, / Want to laugh now, every one, / For the happy time’s begun.” / All you people who love play, / Love to love the livelong day, / Do you not love May / With her winsome way? The artist of the Golf Book, one of the finest manuscript illuminators of the Northern Renaissance introduces us to the month of May with an amazing miniature… Let’s celebrate with Simon Bening’s May…a day of boating, merriment, and joy! https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/may-poems/

Folio 22v of the Golf Book, showing the Month of May, is one of the most glorious pages Simon Bening, the renowned Flemish artist from the Netherlands, ever created. It is a characteristic Renaissance Maying scene in its depiction of a spring landscape (Bening is known for his landscapes), with green leaves, and branches of greenery… and much more! At first glance, it presents two distinctive scenes related to May Day and a glorious river-side cityscape background scene of fortification walls, several well-constructed secular buildings, and what seems like two impressive Gothic churches. It also includes an anecdotal scene of a small gate leading to the river and a young going down the gate steps leading to the river with a container in each hand, perhaps to fill them with water… so typical Flemish! http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/2004/05/01/its-may-2/ and https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/159

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v, details),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

The main scene, in the foreground of the composition, depicts a May Day boating trip along the local canals. In this scene, two boatmen, one at each end of the boat, are rowing a nobleman and two well-dressed ladies along a river, just about to glide under an impressive arched bridge. Enjoying the trip are a man dressed in a large, loose French gown with a sable collar, playing, appropriately I would add,  an ambiguous-looking wind instrument that could be a flute, and two women, dressed in gold-toned garments, one of whom plays the lute, equally appropriate for a female, with a plectrum. The boat is filled with flowering branches reminding the viewer that this is a May Day excursion indeed. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/ and https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/159

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v, detail),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v, detail),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

The middle ground scene focuses on the activity taking place on the bridge connecting the city to the riversides. Horses are depicted crossing the bridge, and Bening directs the attention of the viewer to an aristocratic couple, well-dressed, crowned with large, white flowers and carrying branches. They seem to be returning “home” after a day of merriment in the countryside. Were they part of the elegant group of riding aristocrats depicted strolling through the wood in the bas-de-page scene of folio 23r? It would have been interesting to know what Simon Bening thought! https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

For a PowerPoint on the  Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For references to Student Activities on Simon Bening’s May Day page, please… Check HERE!

Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshop
Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v and 23r),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Spring by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

by 16th century ArtArtItalian Renaissance ArtMannerismPowerpointsRenaissance
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Spring, 1563, oil on canvas, 76×63.5 cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_La_Primavera_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Festive Spring has arrived, / The birds salute it with their happy song. / And the brooks, caressed by little Zephyrs, / Flow with a sweet murmur. / The sky is covered with a black mantle, / And thunder, and lightning, announce a storm. / When they are silent, the birds / Return to sing their lovely song     /     And in the meadow, rich with flowers, / To the sweet murmur of leaves and plants, / The goatherd sleeps, with his faithful dog at his side.     /     To the festive sound of pastoral bagpipes, / Dance nymphs and shepherds, / At Spring’s brilliant appearance. This is Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s (1678 – 1741) Sonnet A Primavera (Spring). The great composer wrote it as a descriptive accompaniment, experts believe, for the music of his “Four Seasons.” Today the first day of Spring, I took the time to listen and read Vivaldi’s music and sonnet, looking at Spring by Giuseppe Arcimboldo! It was a magical time! https://www.charlottesymphony.org/blog/vivaldis-four-seasons-poems/

A scion of a noble and artistic family, his father was an artist, and his uncle held the position of Archbishop of Milan, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593) was in all probability introduced to artists, scholars, and writers from a young age. Born and raised in Milan, the cradle of Renaissance naturalism, young Arcimboldo learned a mode of artistic expression based on the direct observation of nature. Well-trained as an artist Arcimboldo was commissioned to do exceptional work since the age of 21. For example, in 1549 he was commissioned to design stained glass windows for the Duomo, in 1551 he painted coats of arms for the future Emperor, Ferdinand I, in 1556, he created frescoes for the Cathedral of Monza; and, in 1558, he drew the cartoon for the Dormition of the Virgin tapestry, which remains on display in the Como Cathedral in Lombardi to this day. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/arcimboldo-giuseppe/life-and-legacy/#biography_header and file:///C:/Users/aspil/OneDrive/Blog/Renaissance%20Mannerism/Arcimboldo%20ScoopNGA.pdf

Arcimboldo’s friend, the Milanese art critic, and travelogue author, Paolo Morigia writes for him… This is a painter (Arcimboldo) with a rare talent […] having proved his worth both as an artist and as a bizarre painter, not only in his own country but also abroad, he has been given the highest praise, in that word of his fame has reached the Emperor’s court in Germany.” The “court” Morigia refers to, is the court of the Habsburg rulers in Vienna first, where Arcimboldo moved in 1563 at the age of thirty-six, and Prague later, where he served as court painter for twenty-five years. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/arcimboldo-giuseppe/life-and-legacy/#biography_header and file:///C:/Users/aspil/OneDrive/Blog/Renaissance%20Mannerism/Arcimboldo%20ScoopNGA.pdf

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527-1593
The Four Seasons – Spring (detail), 1563, oil on canvas, 76×63.5 cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figura-16-Giuseppe-Arcimboldo-La-Primavera-1563-Real-Academia-de-Bellas-Artes-de-San_fig16_318795156

While in Vienna, to celebrate the reign of Emperor Maximilian II, Arcimboldo created his “ signature Portraits of the 4 Seasons,” composed of imaginatively arranging elements of nature like plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables. For each “Portrait” (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter), created in 1563, Arcimboldo combined plants associated with a particular season to form a portrait of that time of year. The series proved extremely popular in the Habsburg court, and Arcimboldo reproduced it several times so the emperor could send versions to friends and important political figures. file:///C:/Users/aspil/OneDrive/Blog/Renaissance%20Mannerism/Arcimboldo%20ScoopNGA.pdf

Closely associated with Mother Earth, Arcimboldo’s “Spring”, the first in his Four Seasons series, takes the form of a youthful woman composed entirely of flowers and bright green leaves. Arcimboldo uses roses and daises, tulips and lily buds, green leaves like strawberry stems, and large leaves of a dandelion plant. In profile, and smiling, showing her lilies of the valley teeth, “Spring” seems fully aware of her beauty and the joy that looking upon her countenance will bring to a viewer. Her youth and beauty are a fitting opening to the series, and the beginnings of the cycle of life and the seasons. http://omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/arcimboldo-s-gift–the-fantast/fourseasons/spring

For a PowerPoint of the 4 Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, please… Check HERE!

A monumental installation in the grounds of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London of The Four Seasons, a set of four fifteen-foot fiberglass sculptures by American artist and film-maker Philip Haas in 2012
https://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/06/giuseppe-arcimboldo.html

I would like to draw your attention to a modern take of Arcimboldo’s The 4 Seasons paintings… a set of four and a half meters high fiberglass sculptures of the Four Seasons by American artist and film-maker Philip Haas, created in 2012. Interesting… to say the least! https://crystalbridges.org/blog/the-four-seasons-philip-haas-interprets-giuseppe-arcimboldo/

A monumental installation in the grounds of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London of The Four Seasons (photo of The Spring), a set of four fifteen-foot fiberglass sculptures by American artist and film-maker Philip Haas in 2012
https://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/06/giuseppe-arcimboldo.html