Test your knowledge with this brief overview of art history events from the 15th and 16th centuries.
In what year:
Did Fra Filippo Lippi enter the Carmine Monastery in Florence?
1421
Lippi’s parents died when he was a young child and his aunt took care of him. In 1421 he was registered in the community of the Carmelite friars of the Carmine and entered the Carmine Monastery where he remained until 1432. In Lives of the Artists, Vasari says: "Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others.”
Was Masaccio admitted to the Florentine Guild?
1422
Masaccio, born Tommaso Cassai, moved to Florence with his family when he was in his teens. In this new hometown he was given his nickname, meaning "Clumsy Thomas," for the little care he gave to worldly matters and to his personal appearance.
Did Uccello go to Venice to work on mosaics in St. Mark’s?
1425
Born Paolo di Dono, Uccello, whose nickname came from his fondness for painting birds, made strides in the use of perspective in art. In Lives of the Artists, Vasari writes that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night grasping the concept of exact vanishing points. Where his contemporaries used perspective to narrate different stories in the same work, Uccello used perspective to create a feeling of depth.
Did Hans Memlinc become a freemason?
1465
Did Joos van Ghent enter the employment of Federigo da Montefeltro in Urbino?
1473
Van Ghent is one of a few 15th-century Flemish painters who worked in Italy. His painting “Communion of the Apostles” (1472-1474; National Gallery, Urbino) typifies his unique style in which Italian monumentalism mixes with Flemish realistic detail.
Was Gentile Bellini in Constantinople?
1479
After conquering Constantinople, Turkish Sultan Mehmed II (while setting his sights on Rome) displayed toward his subjects conduct unusual for his time. He allowed them a bit of autonomy, mixing old Byzantine customs with Ottoman ones, keeping the Byzantine church going, and gathering Italian artists and Greek scholars at his court. Thus he requested that Bellini paint his portrait.
Was Gerard David summoned to decorate the cell of the imprisoned Archduke Maximilian?
1488
Did Pinturicchio begin decorating the Borgia apartments in the Vatican?
1492
Born Bernardino di Betti, Pinturicchio was employed by Pope Alexander VI (Borgia) to decorate a suite of six recently-built rooms called the Appartamenti Borgia, now part of the Vatican library. Pinturicchio’s frescoes today remain in five of the rooms.
Did Andrea del Sarto go to Fountainebleau?
1518
Andrea was a leading painter of Florence who, under the influence of Leonardo, Fra Bartolommeo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, perfected the classical style of the High Renaissance. Extremely popular and also patronized by the French king, Francis I, Andrea traveled to Fontainebleau to execute several paintings, two of which survive today: “The Charity” (which hangs in Paris) and the “Portrait of a French Lady” (in Cleveland).
Did Titian visit the Imperial Court at Augsburg?
1548
Born Tiziano Vecellio, Titian is the greatest painter of the Venetian school. In 1548 the Emperor summoned Titian to Augsburg where he painted a formal equestrian portrait, “Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg,” currently in Prado, and a more informal one showing the Emperor seated in an armchair, currently in Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Did Sanchez Coello become Court Painter to Philip II of Spain?
1557
Spanish Renaissance portrait painter Alonso Sanchez Coello studied under Anthonis Mor, an outstanding Dutch artist much in demand by the courts of Europe. When Mor left Spain, Sanchez Coello replaced his former master as Court Painter.
Did Isaac Oliver die in Venice?
1596
Oliver, a French-born English painter, gained from his travel abroad and was in Venice, reproducing Renaissance paintings in miniature, at the time of his death.
Source:
Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
