1608-09 Marble, over life-size Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto Mochi first achieved fame with his Angel of Annunciation of 1603-05 for the Orvieto Cathedral, a work whose vigour and directness reflect the artist's earnestness in reformulating a conventional theme. Three years lie between the Angel of Annunciation and the Virgin Annunciate which completed the composition. Here Mochi evoked reminiscences of Rome, in particular the suavity of Mariani and the more active type of Classical statuary, but added his own flair for dramatic gestures by showing the Virgin starting from her chair. Mochi's work has sometimes been explained as a response to Caravaggio, yet it is better understood as part of a general concern with conveying emotions through external expressions, something manifests in the work of Carracci and Reni, as well as that of Caravaggio. Interestingly enough, the forcefulness of Mochi's Virgin Annunciate was not to the liking of the Bishop of Orvieto, who opposed its placement in the cathedral for three years. See also the Angel of Annunciation. Author: MOCHI, Francesco Title: Virgin Annunciate , 1601-1650 , Italian Form: sculpture , religious
Painting ID:: 62406
Piero della Francesca Italian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1422-1492 Italian painter and theorist. His work is the embodiment of rational, calm, monumental painting in the Italian Early Renaissance, an age in which art and science were indissolubly linked through the writings of Leon Battista Alberti. Born two generations before Leonardo da Vinci, Piero was similarly interested in the scientific application of the recently discovered rules of perspective to narrative or devotional painting, especially in fresco, of which he was an imaginative master; and although he was less universally creative than Leonardo and worked in an earlier idiom, he was equally keen to experiment with painting technique. Piero was as adept at resolving problems in Euclid, whose modern rediscovery is largely due to him, as he was at creating serene, memorable figures, whose gestures are as telling and spare as those in the frescoes of Giotto or Masaccio. His tactile, gravely convincing figures are also indebted to the sculpture of Donatello, an equally attentive observer of Classical antiquity. In his best works, such as the frescoes in the Bacci Chapel in S Francesco, Arezzo, there is an ideal balance between his serene, classical compositions and the figures that inhabit them, the whole depicted in a distinctive and economical language. In his autograph works Piero was a perfectionist, creating precise, logical and light-filled images (although analysis of their perspective schemes shows that these were always subordinated to narrative effect). However, he often delegated important passages of works (e.g. the Arezzo frescoes) to an ordinary, even incompetent, assistant. Virgin Annunciate 1445(1445) and 1462(1462)
Medium oil and tempera on panel
Dimensions Height: 54 cm (21.3 in). Width: 21 cm (8.3 in).
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