Renaissance in Northern Europe

- left: donors, middle class kneeling before holy scene; wife added later, perhaps because of donor's marriage

- center: Annunciation taking place in everyday Flemish interior

- right: joseph in carpentry workshop; moustrape represents capturing of the devil

- humanization of traditional themes: no halos, domestic interiors, view into Flemish cityscape

- symbolism: tower, lilies, and water stand for Mary's purity; water is baptism symbol; flowers have three buds, symbolizing the Trinity; unopened bud is unborn Jesus; Mary seated on floor: humility; Mary blocks fireplace (entrance to hell); candlestick: Mary holds Christ in womb; figure w/ cross comes in and through the window: the divine birth

- meticulous handling of paint; intricate details

- steeply rising ground line; figures too large for architecture they sit in

The Annunciation Triptych

- theories: wedding portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and wife; memorial to a dead wife; betrothal; conferring legal and business privileges on his wife during an absence

- symbols of weddings: custom of burning candle on first night; shoes cast off indicates they stand on holy ground; prayerful promising pose of groom; dog = fidelity

- two witnesses in convex mirror; maybe artist himself; inscription: "Jan van Eyck was here 1434"

- wife pulls up green dress to symbolize childbirth; not pregnant

- statue of Saint Margaret, patron of childbirth, on bedpost

- man is near window: role as someone who makes way into outside world; woman farther in room: role as homemaker

- meticulous handling of paint; intricate details

Arnolfini Portrait

- influenced by classical sculpture; Adam looks like The Apollo Belvedere; Eve like Medici Venus

- ideal image of humans before the Fall of Man

- contrapposto of figures from Italian Renaissance

- four humans in animals: cat (choleric/angry), rabbit (sanguine/energetic), elk (melancholic/sad), ox (phlegmatic/lethargic); kept in balance before Fall of Man

- mouse represents Satan

- Parrot symbol of cleverness

- Adam tries to dissuade Eve; graphs mountain ash, which snakes hate

- Northern European devotion to detailed paintings

Adam and Eve

- placed in monatery hospital where people were treated for "Saint Anthony's Fire," ergotism--disease caused by eating fungus that grows on rye flour; causes convulsions and gangrene

- St. Anthony's Fire explains presence of St. Anthony on first and third views

- first view: Crucifixion: dark background; dead, decomposing flesh; arms almost torn from sockets; lashed and whipped body; agony of body unflinchingly shown; symbolizes agony of ergotism; swooning Mary dressed like nuns who worked in the hospital; when panels open to reveal next scene, Christ amputated as patients suffering ergotism would be; same in predella: Christ's legs seem amputated below kneecaps

- second view: Marian symbols: enclosed garden, closed gate, rosebush, rosary; Christ rises from dead on right--rags changed to glorious robes, showing wounds, which don't harm him now; message to patients: earthly diseases will vanish in next world

- third view: symbols of ergotism: oozing boils, withered arm, distended stomach (not illustrated)

- believed to have healing powers when looked upon

- no landscape or perspective

Isenheim Altarpiece

- done in consultation w/ Martin Luther

- left: Last Judgement; Moses holds Ten Commandments, represents Old Law, Catholicism; Law of Moses not enough to live a good life; skeleton chases person into hell

- right: figure bathed in Christ's blood; faith in Christ alone is needed for salvation

Allegory of Law and Grace

- one of series of paintings representing the months: this is November/December

- alpine landscape, winter scene

- strong diagonals lead eye deeper into painting

- figures peasant types, not individuals

- high horizon line

- many details; nothing static

- hunters had little success in winter hunt; dogs skinny and hang their heads

- atmospheric perspective

Hunters in the Snow