WINTER 2010
INCARNATION
The Incarnation Initial (The Book of Kells)
Virgin and child (The Book of Kells)
Carpet page (The Book of Kells)
Mark as the lion (The Book of Kells)
The resurrection (Piero della Francesca)
The history of the true cross (Piero della Francesca)
The flagellation of Christ (Piero della Francesca)
The baptism of Christ (Piero della Francesca)
Madonna della Misericordia (Piero della Francesca)
Madonna del Parto (Piero della Francesca)
WINTER 2010
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
The baptism of Christ. ca. 1440-50. National Gallery, London.
During his teens [ca. 1439], Francesca studied his craft in Florence while working under Dominico Venezian on a series of murals for the hospital Santo Maria Nuova. It was also during this early part of his career that he began exploring the relationship between mathematics and art. One treatise authored by him, On perspective for painting, is the first to deal with the mathematics of perspective [creating a three dimensional effect in two dimensional works].
The baptism of Christ, originally part of a triptych, displays Francesca's utilization of the golden mean in the composition of the work. The figure of Christ, John's hand and the dove form a vertical axis which divides the painting in half. The tree on the left then creates a vertical axis which divides the left half by the golden mean.
THE GOLDEN MEAN [PHI]
a is to a+b as b is to a
