Fra Angelico Naturalism

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Christian iconography from the early to late medieval period
When analyzing Christian medieval art, there are both aspects of supernaturalism and naturalism present. These aspects are referred to as iconography. Iconography is using images, symbols, or material which corresponds to or depicting a topic. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines Iconography as: the traditional or conventional image or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject. (Merriam-Webster)
Artist would use iconography to express their view of Christianity. Throughout the early dark ages, artist would use a lot of supernaturalism in their work of art. This showed the mentality of the people during this time period between 500-1200AD. Their art work, …show more content…

This painting has its origins between the periods of 1420-1423AD. This painting shows the scene of Jesus crucifixion on Golgotha. Some of the iconography portrayed in this painting are things like the expressions of the people in this scene and colors of clothing worn. In this scene we can see the cloth around the waist of Christ is white colored, which means purity or righteousness. Some people in the painting are shown wearing black, which shows death or sorrow and is befitting of this crucifixion scene. The mantle on Mary is colored blue due to her being highly regarded as the “Mother of God” by the church. The Skull is symbolic to represent the place in which the crucifixion takes place. The place in which Jesus was crucified was Golgotha which means in Hebrew “a place of a skull”. The expressions of the people in this scene shows varied attitudes of what is taking place. These expressions range from Mary’s collapse in grief, the indifferent attitude of some of the soldiers, and the look of astonishment from those of with Mary. Halos were still used to represent the holiness of Jesus and the

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