1: Religious and 'Religious', with Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli
The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1476Tempera on panel, w134 cm x h111 cm (52.8" x 43.7")
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
First subset of history paintings = religious history paintings, which depict an excerpt (or composite) from a religious story.
This is also known as almost the entirety of the Renaissance. It's actually become a running joke online (...in certain circles) that the great works of the Renaissance were mostly Bible fanart. Nuance, context, additional meanings blah blah blah, but that's accurate.
Take the above, a well-known work by the Renaissance artist Botticelli. The subject is the presentation of gifts to the infant Christ from the three magi/wise kings1. There's Mary and Joseph in a little hovel-thing, the newborn Jesus on Mary's lap, the magi and the clearly visible gifts.
What we also have is the entire scene redone to take place in Botticelli's contemporary Florence, from the landscape to the clothes to the individual faces. This painting was commissioned by a Florentine banker (probably depicted here, though looks like we can't be sure sure) and the powerful Medici banking family (at the time led by Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto ruler of Florence) takes center stage. Literally: the Medici forbears who made the family great are depicted as the magi at the center of the picture. Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano are also shown, although which ones they are seems a little uncertain, and the artist is believed to have also included himself in a prominent self-portrait to the right.
My best guesses outlined below, Medici in red and Botticelli in blue:
(Cosimo the Great, the one who really made the Medici family, is the one holding the foot of Christ. Cosimo's son/Lorenzo's father Piero is in the big red cape, and Cosimo's other son Giovanni is kneeling next to Piero. I would personally peg Lorenzo's brother Giuliano to be the fine-looking guy on the left, and Lorenzo to be looking down on the right. Largely because that guy on the right is for sure a Medici [the nose], and if I were an artist getting patronage from the Medici family [Botticelli was], then I'd want to position my already-bold self-portrait to be standing pretty near the guy in charge.)
Anyway. There's a fascinating tangle of allusions made in this piece and a pile of precedents and consequences surrounding it, and you can read all about it here. Point is, while this piece was a little risque in the fawning vast extent to which it mixed sacred events with politics and social business, that mixing is what all historical painting tends to, very much including the religious subset.
NOTES:
1. The contention over the actual realities of the historical Jesus' birth (and/or over the theologically appropriate version of his birth) continues today. The magi were likely not actually 'kings', may not have visited Jesus until he was around 2, the number of magi is disputed, Jesus may have been born fully indoors, etc. But in keeping with the overall theme today, it was more about choosing which stuff went with the overall picture the artist (and/or Church, and/or patron) had in mind, and then including/excluding stuff based on symbolism.
This is also known as almost the entirety of the Renaissance. It's actually become a running joke online (...in certain circles) that the great works of the Renaissance were mostly Bible fanart. Nuance, context, additional meanings blah blah blah, but that's accurate.
Take the above, a well-known work by the Renaissance artist Botticelli. The subject is the presentation of gifts to the infant Christ from the three magi/wise kings1. There's Mary and Joseph in a little hovel-thing, the newborn Jesus on Mary's lap, the magi and the clearly visible gifts.
What we also have is the entire scene redone to take place in Botticelli's contemporary Florence, from the landscape to the clothes to the individual faces. This painting was commissioned by a Florentine banker (probably depicted here, though looks like we can't be sure sure) and the powerful Medici banking family (at the time led by Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto ruler of Florence) takes center stage. Literally: the Medici forbears who made the family great are depicted as the magi at the center of the picture. Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano are also shown, although which ones they are seems a little uncertain, and the artist is believed to have also included himself in a prominent self-portrait to the right.
My best guesses outlined below, Medici in red and Botticelli in blue:
(Cosimo the Great, the one who really made the Medici family, is the one holding the foot of Christ. Cosimo's son/Lorenzo's father Piero is in the big red cape, and Cosimo's other son Giovanni is kneeling next to Piero. I would personally peg Lorenzo's brother Giuliano to be the fine-looking guy on the left, and Lorenzo to be looking down on the right. Largely because that guy on the right is for sure a Medici [the nose], and if I were an artist getting patronage from the Medici family [Botticelli was], then I'd want to position my already-bold self-portrait to be standing pretty near the guy in charge.)
Anyway. There's a fascinating tangle of allusions made in this piece and a pile of precedents and consequences surrounding it, and you can read all about it here. Point is, while this piece was a little risque in the fawning vast extent to which it mixed sacred events with politics and social business, that mixing is what all historical painting tends to, very much including the religious subset.
NOTES:
1. The contention over the actual realities of the historical Jesus' birth (and/or over the theologically appropriate version of his birth) continues today. The magi were likely not actually 'kings', may not have visited Jesus until he was around 2, the number of magi is disputed, Jesus may have been born fully indoors, etc. But in keeping with the overall theme today, it was more about choosing which stuff went with the overall picture the artist (and/or Church, and/or patron) had in mind, and then including/excluding stuff based on symbolism.