Renaissance Paintings with Loads of Symbolism
September 7, 2015 3:31 PM Subscribe
I need some examples of paintings from the Renaissance with a lot (or some) symbolism. I already have Jan Van Eyck's, The Arnolfini Portrait, can you help me find a couple more?
Best answer: Maybe the Annunciation Triptych?
posted by the twistinside at 4:08 PM on September 7, 2015
posted by the twistinside at 4:08 PM on September 7, 2015
Best answer: Portraits of Elizabeth I tend to be loaded with symbolic details, like the Ditchley Portrait and the Peace Portrait.
Religious paintings will have symbolism everywhere. Paintings of the Annunciation, for example.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:30 PM on September 7, 2015
Religious paintings will have symbolism everywhere. Paintings of the Annunciation, for example.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:30 PM on September 7, 2015
Best answer: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera are, like most of Botticelli's work, playing with symbolism from Neoplatonism. Later in his life works like The Mystic Nativity show the influence of Savonorola's religious teachings.
Van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece, specifically the panel showing the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
Versos of paintings often have symbolism tied to the person whose portrait is on the front. Leonardo Da Vinci's Ginevra di Benci has a wreath of laurel, palm, and juniper, which is punning on her name and her virtues. Piero della Francesca's double portrait of the Duke and Dutchess of Urbino have images on the verso - they both have triumphal chariots, for example, and hers are drawn by unicorns. There are allegorical figures riding on the cart with them. But even the portraits themselves have things encoded in them - power and wealth and virtue.
posted by PussKillian at 4:33 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece, specifically the panel showing the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
Versos of paintings often have symbolism tied to the person whose portrait is on the front. Leonardo Da Vinci's Ginevra di Benci has a wreath of laurel, palm, and juniper, which is punning on her name and her virtues. Piero della Francesca's double portrait of the Duke and Dutchess of Urbino have images on the verso - they both have triumphal chariots, for example, and hers are drawn by unicorns. There are allegorical figures riding on the cart with them. But even the portraits themselves have things encoded in them - power and wealth and virtue.
posted by PussKillian at 4:33 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Gabrielle d'Estres and One of Her Sisters
The Unicorn Tapestries
Here's an article about the symbolism of food in painting.
posted by Pearl928 at 4:48 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Unicorn Tapestries
Here's an article about the symbolism of food in painting.
posted by Pearl928 at 4:48 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: There are loads. Off the top of my head: Titian's Sacred and Profane Love and Venus of Urbino, Petrus Christus' A Goldsmith in His Shop, Raphael's School of Athens, Botticelli's Calumny of Apelles (maybe more allegory than symbolism). Pretty much any religious painting or patron portrait will have some symbolism in there.
posted by bugperson at 4:52 PM on September 7, 2015
posted by bugperson at 4:52 PM on September 7, 2015
Seconding the Ghent altarpiece!
posted by antiquated at 4:54 PM on September 7, 2015
posted by antiquated at 4:54 PM on September 7, 2015
Best answer: Bosch's Garden of Delights. One detail example on the central panel in the lower right, for example, shows one man extracting a spray of lillies from another man's ass. "Ocu Lis" is a pun in French "pick the lillies" and Latin "eye/occulus" the whole painting is loaded with similar symbols. Bosch's whole body of work. Check out the "Where's Waldo" crucifixion on the left of the central panel.
Also, Breugel's "Fast and Famine" , same genre.
posted by effluvia at 8:22 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, Breugel's "Fast and Famine" , same genre.
posted by effluvia at 8:22 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Raphael Sanzio, Stanza della Signatura, School of Athens fresco.
posted by effluvia at 8:24 PM on September 7, 2015
posted by effluvia at 8:24 PM on September 7, 2015
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posted by nologo at 3:34 PM on September 7, 2015 [4 favorites]