ARTH 4413 Test 2

“Arnolfini Portrait”

Jan van Eyck

1434

Giovanni do Arrigio Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami

• wealthy merchant from Lucca

• Special Knight of Phillip the Good
  

Erwin Panofsky: article on iconology (1934)

Double portrait? Wedding? Commemoration?

Precise detail

• oil paint in the Netherlands
  

Use of numerous techniques

• fingerprints

• Brush handle to scratch details into the paint
  

Interior in perspective

Reception room

• expensive, but not overly ornate

• Wood floor and plater walls
  

Bed draped in heavy red fabric

Oriental carpet

Brass chandelier

Van Eyck was a precursor of augmented reality

• use of a “perspective machine”

• Four horizontal sections

• Circular zone with multiple vanishing points

• Each with a centric point evenly spaced on a longitudinal line

• “Fishbone” patterns
  

Central axis

Joined hands

• something symbolic is taking place
  

Man on the left, woman on right

• standard of portraiture

• He is near the window, she is interior

• His role in the outside world, she is caretaker of the home
  

Wealth and social status

• but restrained (cultural convention)
  

Clothes

• pictured in their “best dress”

• Expensive, but modest: not flashy
  

Tabard: loose fitting cape, sleeveless, trimmed with brown fur

Black jacket with silver cuffs

Multiple interpretations of hand position

Green wool overdress

• long sleeves trimmed in fur

• Trained folded in the foreground
  

Fashionable hairstyle of a married woman

• high forehead: indicator of beauty

• Thin eyebrows

• “Horns”

• Read hairnets

• White folded and frilled linen veil
  

Not pregnant

• typical pose

• Style of the day

• Status and wealth
  

View through the window

• brick building

• Warmer weather
  

Oranges

• innocence of Adam and Eve

• Cast shadows
  

Cherries

• return to paradise
  

Center of the painting between the two figures

• “Most important location”

• Signature

• Rosary beads

• Johannesburg de Eyck fuit hid “Jan van Eyck has been here” (not part of the realism of the painting)

• Convex mirror

• Directional lighting
  

Miniature scenes from the Passion of Christ

• rondel with miniature paintings as if under a piece of concave glass

• Mastery of detail in even the smallest scenes
  

St. Margaret

• patron saint of childbirth

• Iconography: dragon
  

Whisk broom

• symbol of domestic cleanliness and care
  

Elaborate brass chandelier

Candle burning vs “gutted” candle

Symbolic of God’s presence

Patterns: protective overshoes

• Klemperer
  

“Pentimento”

• changes made to the underdrawings of the painting

• Small dog

• Hands
  

Impression of soft fluffy dog

Impasto - surface built up of layers

Contrast of textures

• used of lead white paint

• Catchlight in eyes

• Wet nose

“Dresden Triptych: Madonna and Child”

aka: Madonna and Child Enthroned Flanked by Archangel Michael and Donor and St. Catherine

Jan van Eyck

Dated 1437

• only signed triptych

• two coats of arms

Middle panel (of madonna and child)

• romanesque and Gothic architecture

• rounded arches

• columns are monoliths

• oriental carpet

• geometrically designed floor

Left Panel

• Archangel Michael

• Donor’s panel

Right Panel

• St. Catherine

• landscape in background

• medieval bottle glass windows

“Dresden Triptych: Madonna and Child with Saints”

Jan van Eyck

Dated 1437

Exterior panels

• annuniciation

• grisalle

• appearance of sculpture

“The Ghent Altarpiece”

Back/Verso panels

Hubrecht and Jan van Eyck (1432)

oil on wood

also known as “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”

• unified setting

• wings closed

• back or verso of the altarpiece

Donors: Jodocus Vijd and Isabel Borluut

“Upper room” is a depiction of the Annunciation

• typical iconography

• gabriel and mary “speak”

• center landscape and niche

• contemporary to the period room

• view of the city of Ghent

In the arches above the Annunciation

• prophets

• Zacharias and Micah

• text on floating ribbons (Medieval belief predicting the coming of Chirst)

Donors and Statues of Patron Saints panels

• St. John the Baptist was the patron saint of the church

• St. John the Evangelist

• first instance of painted sculpture on the exterior of an altarpiece (copied extensively; became a tradition)

• grisaille; simulated stone

• trefoiled Gothic tracery

• Joos Vijd, patron and financier; wealth from brokering wool (Ghent was the center of wool trade in Europe in the Middle Ages)

• Elizabeth Borluut, Vijd’s wife

• St. Bevo Cathedral

St. John the Evangelist

• apocalyptic vision of the adoration of the lamb

• scene represented in the interior

• Chalice with snakes

• legend that he was given a cup of poisoned wine that he drank without harm

“The Ghent Altarpiece”

Wings Open panel

Hubrecht and Jan van Eyck (1432; first early netherlandish painting to be securely dated)

oil on wood

also known as “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”

Facial expression and character: Human vs. Supernatural

Crucial link between surviving and firmly attributed paintings by Jan van Eyck and an unknown early body of his work

trinity in central line divides the overall image

• dove added later in the 15th century

Interior, Higher Center panel

• depiction of God the Father

• triple molding with inscriptions:

• “Here is God, most powerful because of his divine majesty and high over all because of his sweet goodness and most generous in giving because of his measureless bounty”

• “King of kings and lord of lords”

• “Youth without old age on his brow, joy without fear at his side”

• “Sabaut” on the sash, here used as a title (ie King of Kings)

• crown at his foot

Mary’s panel

• left of God the Father

• depicted in a new form in the interior

• not acting as in intercessor

• not with the Chirst Child or Enthroned in the center of the altarpiece

John the Baptist panel

• right of God the father

• usually depicted at a moment in his life (baptism of christ in the desert)

• identified by fur shirt

• no lamb

• still points but center figure is God the Father, not God the Son (Jesus); theological statement

Singing Angels panel

• court of Burgundy

• relationship between music and the visual arts

• extravagant brocades and jewels in detailed texture

• crafts and trade (tile floor imported from Valencia; “IECVC” Jesus)

Side Wings: Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel

• identified with “engraved” painted names (Tromple-l’oeil: “fool the eye”)

• Cain and Abel in grisaille

• Eve holds an “Adam’s Apple” (a type of citrus fruit)

• first unidealized nudes in painting in this period (panels replaced in 1781 with modestly covered copies)

Interior, Lower Center panel

• rare subject matter

• high horizon line

• symbols of Christ’s passion

• central axis

• Fons vitae: Fountain of life

• Reference to the Final Judgement

• fields of paradise with 46 apostles and clergy, 32 confessors, and 46 female saints, who carry palm fronds and have white lilies in the foreground

Female Saints and their iconographic attributes

• St. Agnes with a lamb

• St. Barbara and a tower

• St. Ursula with an arrow

• St. Dorothy with flowers

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

• lamb of God

• symbol of Jesus

• passion (death of Christ)

• crucifix

• crowns of thorns

• nails

• Roman’s soldier’s spear

• pillar

• rope with knots

• Ecce Angus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi (“Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world” - Gospel of John 1:29)

• recreation of the mass

• angels dressed as acolytes

• censers (incense); purification, prayers rising like smoke

• fountain

• octagonal basin (water of life flows from a channel out of the bottom of the picture; over the altar in the chapel where Mass is being held)

• “Engraved” into stone; Revelation 22:1 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb”

• fountain was not part of the original design (we know this because of digital infrared reflectogram; at the request of the donor or theological addition?)

Lower interior panels and their depicted events (from left to right)

• Just Judges (lusti ludices)

• The Soldiers of Christ (Cristi Milites)

• Old Testament: Patriarchs and Prophets

• New Testament, figures followed by the Hierarchy of the church: Popes, Deacons, and Bishops

• Holy Hermits (hermite)

• Holy Pilgrims (peregrinis sancti)

Righteous Judges/Just Judges

• missing panel (stolen in 1934; copy from a photograph)

• philip the good on a white horse

• herbert van eyck with a fur hat

• jan van eyck with a chaperon

The Holy Pilgrims

• St. Christopher (possibly the donor’s brother also named Christopher)

• Saint James; santiago de campostela; scallop shell on his hat (worn by pilgrims making the walk)

“Rolin Madonna” (Virgin of Autun)

Jan van Eyck

oil on panel

Madonna with Chancellor Nicholas Rolin

• duchy of Burgundy

• painting was located in the Rolin Family chapel in Autun

• previously only depicted at the side of Phillip the good

Pres Deux: “Pray to God”

• furniture for private devotional prayer

• located in home or church

Romanesque arches

Historiated Capitals

• Old Testament: Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, God Receiving Abel’s Offering, Murder of Cain, Noah and the Ark, and Noah covered by one of his sons

Inscription in Mary’s cloak: excerpts from the Office of Matins

• exaltata sum Libano

Donor’s open book: Domine

Tight lipped, expressionless

• visual pun: hand as a five fingered hill

• Enclosed Garden motif (hortus conclusus)

Bridge with seven arches

• connects with the child’s hand

Reflectogram shows a purse attached to Rolin’s belt. The purse does not appear in the final painting.

Inside echoes the outside

Central figures

• watchmen

• keeping vigil

• church as a military camp and the camp’s successive watches

• self portrait of Jan van Eyck?

Vineyards and Urban city

• allusion to the vineyards owned by Rolin

Filled with churches

• “Crown” the Christ Child

Peacocks: symbol of immortality

White lilies and Red roses

Location of the painting in a chapel to the left of the center possibly dictated the placement of the figures

“Portrait of a Man”

Jan van Eyck

oil on panel; after 1434-41

perhaps a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini

Dark green fur-lined coat

Red chaperon

Folded piece of paper in his right hand

• ineligible

• identification with the man?

• related to finance and trade?

Placed further from the picture place

“Portrait of a Man in a Blue Chaperon”

Jan van Eyck

oil on panel

Holds a ring in his right hand

Left hand resting on the edge of the frame

“Portrait of a Man” “Turn Otheos”

Jan van Eyck

panel painting

October 10, 1432

Inscribed LEAL SOVVENIR

• “loyal remembrance”

• French

TUM OTHEOS

• “then God”

• “tymotheos”

• Greek letters in Latin

Ledge with inscription

Realistic stone

• “crack” between the words

• Trompe l’oeil

Signed by Van Eyck

• Latin: Actu[m] an[n]o d[omi]ni 1432 10 die octobris a ioh[anne] de Eyck (’done on 10 October 1432 by Jan van Eyck‘)

Illegible text on scroll

• possibly a legal deed

Painting currently not in good condition

“Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy”

Jan van Eyck

oil on oak panel

Counselor and chamberlain to Phillip the good, Duke of Burgundy

• Van Eyck as the court painter

Governor of Lille

Member of the Golden Fleece in 1431

• Golden chain

Holds a staff

• signal of his function within the court

Details of the fur

• trim of the coat is reddish brown

• long dark-hair fur of the hat

Details of the face

• scar

• creases around the eyes: age but also serious nature; maturity

• wart

• reddened cheeks

Gold brocade ceremonial robes

• embroidered motifs

• oak leaves/ferns

Collar of the order of the Golden Fleece

Foreshortened hand

• gold ring

Restoration in 2020

• removal of coats of varnish

“Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy” “Portrait of Phillip III (the Good) Duke of Burgundy”

Rogier van der Weyden

Order of the Golden Fleece

Knighthood

Founded in Bruges by Phillip the Good to celebrated his marriage to Isabella of Portugal

“Portrait of a Man with a ‘Red Turban’”

possible self portrait

Jan van Eyck

oil on panel

Angle of gaze typical of an artists looking into a mirror for a self-portrait

Smooth finish

• no impasto

Original frame

Jan van Eyck

• first early Netherlandish artist to sign his paintings

• In 1425, appointed painter and barley du chamber to Phillip, Duke of Burgundy

C. 1433

Signed and inscribed on the frame

• painted inscription as if engraved

“ALS ICH CAN” : “I do as I can” or “As I/Eyck can”

• play of pronunciation

ME FECIT

• “Jan van Eyck made me on 21 October 1433”

• interpunctuation: dots to separate words

Only early Netherlandish artist to adopt a personal motto

1st portrait where sitter looks out at viewer

Chaperon: elaborate

Catch lights

Realistic image of an older man

• beard stubble, scar

“Portrait of Margaretha van Eyck”

Jan van Eyck

panel painting

Inscription

• CO(N)IU(N)X M(EU)S IOH(ANN)ES ME (COM)PLEVIT A(N)NO . 1439˚ . 15˚ . IUNII'

• Translates to “My husband Jan van Eyck completed me on June 17, 1439”

• ‘[A]ETAS MEA TRIGINTA TRIU[M] AN[N]ORUM . AΛL 

• “My age being 33. As I can”

Wife of the artist

Reverse of the panel is painted as imitation red porphyry marble

Painted backs typically used for diptychs and triptychs

Emphasized the value and preciousness of the painting

Van Eyck may have used this motif of the reverse as statement of the beauty of his wife

Margaretha has the same hairstyle and cloth veil as the woman in the “Arnolfini Portrait”

Hair from paintbrush found during restoration

“Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati”

Jan van Eyck

painted panel

Papal delegate

• Treaty of Arras (1435)

• To the end of the 100 Years’ War

Non tonsured

• specific hairstyle of clergy

Unusual vestment

• Albergati belonged to the Carthusian order (white habits)

• fur trimmed red robe

Mathematical enlargement of the drawing to the painting

• drawing is 48% life size

• painting is 41% larger than the drawing

Features line up exactly when drawing is enlarged

“Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati”

Jan van Eyck

Silverpoint preparatory drawing

Only known drawing by Van Eyck

Elderly man in ¾ view

Variety of silverpoint for subtle differentiation

• pure silverpoint

• silverpoint with high copper concentration

• silverpoint with gold

Fine hatching marks for shadowed side of the face

A concave mirror as an optical lens

Projects images onto a flat surface facing in the correct direction, but upside down

Image can be sketched in proportion

Removed from projection spot, right side up and finished

“St. Jerome in His Study”

Workshop of Van Eyck

oil on linen attached to oak panel

Completed a year after his death

Letter on the table

St. Jerome is a portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati

4th century translator of the bible

• hermit

Hourglass

• passage of time and human mortality

Glass bottle with light

• Mary’s Virginity

Pomegrante

• symbol of the resurrection

“Portrait of Jan Leeuw”

Jan van Eyck

oil on panel

Bruges goldsmith

• Leeuw translates to lion

• Born on the feast day of St. Ursula (oct. 21,1441)

Wearing a Black chaperon and black fur lined jacket

Head is oversized in relation

Holds a ring with a red jewel

• symbol of his profession

• might indicate a recent marriage engagement or a gift for his fiance

Original frame

• painted to look like bronze

• lumination on the frame is cohesive with light on the portrait (the entire painting and frame is basking in the same light)

“Spoken address on the frame”

“Virgin and Child in a Domestic Interior”

Petrus Christus (first Netherlandish painter to pick up one point perspective)

First use of Italian one point perspective

• complex, different planes

• receding corridor led the eye to the right

• open vistas of city shift to the left

Able to see perspective of roof and floor

• opening up the space vertically

Domestic vs Religious interior

Simplification of form

Building in landscape

• Bruges

• painting city where he lives

Van Eyck influence

• chandelier

• orange on window

• window on left

• bed on right

• female saint carved on bedpost

triangular shape of Mary and Christ (italian influence)

The sacred realized in everyday life

Symbolism

• orange on the windowsill

• enclosed garden (reflecting Mary’s virginity)

• Mary seated near the floor (not enthroned)

“Knife Cut” fabric depiction

• sharp not flowing

Typical Netherlandish interior

Fireplace with a rectangular hood

Joseph holds a staff

• illusion to old age and the story of the flowering staff

“Madonna of the Dry Tree”

Petrus Christus

oil on wood

Different genre

• unique iconography

• devotional? temporary decoration?

Encircled by branches of a tree like a crown of thorns or halo

• envisioning his death as a baby

Gold Gothic Script “a” in the tree branches

• “ave maria”

• 15 “a”s to symbolize the rosary?

• metallic looking

• painted in different positions

Christ is not naked

Holding Christ’s foot

• northern italian influence

Christ holds a globe with a cross

• symbolizes his rule over the world

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

• tree is dried and dead because of the original sin

Confraternity of the Dry Tree

• societies formed for charitable and social activities

• Petrus and his wife were members from 1458-63

Book of Ezekiel

• “I the Lord have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish”

• Message of redemption

• Mary as the new Eve

“Portrait of a Young Woman”

Petrus Christus

oil on panel

First to place the subject in an actual space

• created depth

• there is a forward and a back

First painter to depict a sideways glance on a face seen in full

Rendering of contours and texture of skin through light and shade

Importance of patrons

• ex: Medici: Florence, Italy

• owned by a Medici

Details of metal/jewel pieces and embroidery

• necklace is made of black onyx, pearls and gold

• gold pin in dress reveals a sheer veil

Taking after Van Eyck

Painting style influences Italian Renaissance

“Portrait of a Carthusian Monk”

Petrus Christus

Dark neutral background

Light directly on the face

• light is coming from the right rather than the left

• effect of three dimensionality

• makes eye contact

Hard facial features

Simulated parapet

• Memento mori (remember you must die)

• Trompe l’oeil (a fly); counters the veristic depiction in the portrait

• the sitter is a painted image but fooled a fly (flies are a symbol of death and decay)

• date of painting added painting and last minute

• painted edge is Van Eyck’s influence

One of Christus’ earliest signed and dated works

Halo was added later and was removed during restoration

“A Goldsmith (St. Eligius in his Shop”

Petrus Christus

oil on panel

Referred to as the first major secular painting in Netherlandish art

Genre picture

Two figures in the background

• it is unknown if they represent real people

St. Eligius: patron saint of goldsmiths

• ca. 580

• maker of reliquaries

• dressed as a common craftsman

• workbench angled upward so viewer can see

• it not originally have a halo (one was added and then removed)

Signed and dated by the artist

• heart and clock like motif next to signature

Illusionistic and complex space

High horizon

Up-titled space

Lifesize scale

Shelves in the back “show off his craft”

• religious and secular pieces

Specific event and people?

• Willem van Bleuten/Vleuten: Bruges goldsmith (based on detailed underdrawing)

• bringing precious metal to be melted down for wedding rings

Elaborate and expensive gold brocade dress

Emphasizes the visit to the goldsmith

• no gold

• yellow pigment

Understanding of light and how it falls on fabric

Allusions to marriage and purity

• values of marriage

• perfect balance of the ring and weight

• wedding girdle (belt) in the foreground

Contrast with the outside world seen distorted in the mirror

• convex mirror

Convex mirror

• allegorical meaning

• one figure holds a falcon (a symbol of greed and pride)

• Mirror (a symbol); the mirror is cracked

• moral comparison between the imperfect world of the viewer and the world of virtue and balcne

• or just furthers/expands the space of the painting

• nod to Van Eyck

“The Nativity”

Petrus Christus

oil on panel

Mature work

Sculpted archway

Influence of Rogier van der Weyden and Dieric Bouts

Viewer looks through the archway

• viewer is not placed in the scene

Typical architecture of Late Gothic churches in the Netherlands

Nativity in a enclosed space

• dilapidated shelter: humble

• ox and ass

Mary (blue) and four small angels kneeling in adoration

• Jesus is naked and lying on the ground

• Revelation of the Nativity by St. Bridget which becomes the convention by the early 15th cent. (why Christ is on the ground)

• Mary’s cloak extends

• Not a manger

Joseph

• walking stick (flowering rod)

• removes hat and patterns (modest and worship of the birth of Christ)

• shoes that were taken off (seen in Van Eyck work); Netherlandish fashion

• red and green clothing (representations of Christmas and the life of Jesus)

Semicircle

Solemn adoration

• angels are not singing

• speaks to the sacrifice of the birth of Christ

Dressed in Eucharistic vestments (mass clothes)

• Deacon’s cope

Atmospheric perspective

Sculpted archway and marble doorsill

• divides the space separating the viewer from the sacred space

• “Light source” from the left that is not part of the Nativity

Six scenes of Adam and Eve from Genesis

• sin and disobedience

• separates the real world from the scene inside the archways

Warrior

• discord and revenge

Sculptures of Adam and Eve on the outside

• similar stance to the “Ghent Altarpiece”

Figures that are supporting the archways

• not part of typical iconography

• ancient prophecy or labors?

Rogier van der Weyden

“Virgin and Child”

oil on panel

Mixture of Campin and Van Eyck styles

Later painting

• half length

• close into the picture place

Inspired by Italian painting brought to Cambrai, France in 1440

• close to the belgium border

• inspired by the Byzantine iconography (long face, small mouth, thin eyes, closeness between the figures, Mary’s head titled down, Jesus’s head titled up)

Devotional painting

• image that had gone out of style

• based on precedent

Mary

• gold flowers in her veil (illusion to her being the new Eve)

• high forehead (15th cent. beauty standard)

“Portrait of a Lady” (Berlin)

Portrait of a young woman

Van der Weyden

Lady wearing a gauze headdress

• “hennin”

• similar to a nun’s headwear

• gold pins

Individualistic

Horizontal and vertical lines

• geometry

Details

• both eyes are the same size rather than one being farther away and smaller

• light on the side she faces

• hands sit on the edge of the picture plane

• shows off jewelry

• not bowing head and making eye contact

• delicate treatment of the various fabrics

• the figure is wearing more form fitting clothing

• not a pendant (she is on the right)

• most likely middle to upper middle class

“Portrait of a Lady” (Washington)

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

Independent portrait

• possible a pendant piece (on the left)

Hands place as if resting on the frame

Nobility

• idealized, aristocratic ideal of control (less naturalistic)

• other worldly feeling

• pose, downward gaze

• plucked/shaved eyebrows and hairline

• Burgundian court

• braided and pined hair

• belt with bright red fabric and gold buckles (gold filigree belt buckle) (wedding belt?)

• fur trimmed dark dress

• showing off gold jewelry

Head is enlarged while hands are smaller than normal

• small hands rest on the bottom edge: not in prayer

No heraldic identification

Smooth forehead

Transparent veil

• high quality

Full lips

Eyes painted the same size without respect to turn of the head

• no catch light

Introspective

No development of space

• illuminated colored background

Full illumination on the face

Geometry of the veil and clothing

• focus on the face

Painted individual stitching in the clothing

“The Annunciation”

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

Interior domestic space

Angel: gold brocade priestly cope

Mary seated on the ground (humility)

• gesture means she is accepting the news

• enclosed space

• reading a book of hours?

Gestures connect

• echo of each other

Typical Annunciation iconography mixed with a bridal chamber (like in the Arnolfini Portrait)

Glasses on broken with light shining through (illusion to Mary’s virginity)

Medallion of Christ

• replaces the convex mirror

• placed over Mary’s head (connection between Mary and Christ)

Craved brass chandelier

• one candle (Christ will bring light back to the world)

Draped bed to the left of the room

• note the folds in the cloth

Similar with Van Eyck’s Annunciation

• same acceptance gesture

• long oval head titled in acceptance

• pavement on the floor

Influenced by Campin’s Annuncition

• Mary setted lower than Gabriel

• similar furniture (just flipped)

• open window

• blue and white vase with lillies

• it is believed that Weyden added the wife to the Merode Altarpiece

“Deposition From the Cross”

Van der Weyden

aka Descent from the cross

• a dramatic emotional scene

Commission from the Great Crossbowmen’s

• crossbows in the tracery

• arm positions for Mary and Jesus

No hill, other crosses, crowd (which is seen in other renditions

Skull by Mary’s hand

In a shadow box like plane

Side Altarpiece

• could explain the weird shape

Netherlandish fashion

Study of opposites

• Mary’s fainting hand vs Jesus’s dead hand

• Left vs Right

• Feminine vs Masculine

• long fingers (International Gothic Style)

• curve of John the younger and Mary Magdalen

• the internal distraughtness of the other Mary and outward distraughtness of Mary Magdalen

Emotional reactions

• intense emotionality

• three dimensional tears

• using left side of headdress to wipe tears

Complimentary poses connect

Repetition of color

• red: Mary Magdalen, John the younger Joseph of Arimathea sleeves and stockings

Contemporary clothing

• connects with viewer with the action

Various versions of grief and mourning

“Miraflores Altarpiece” or Mary Altarpiece

Van Der Weyden

oil on oak panel

Three panels framed together not a triptych

• each panel comes from a different writing about the life of Christ

structures that separate the viewer from the painted space

Holy Family

• left panel

• Madonna of Humility

• Sleeping Joseph (with his flowering rod)

• “Relief sculpture” in the archivolts

• Cloth of honor

• angels above

• banderoll

• gothic church architecture (not a specific chruch)

• scenes begin in the archway on the left and end at the right

Pieta

Final Appearance

• “Noli me tangere” (don’t touch me)(you can see me but not touch me)

• apocryphal writings

• rarely portrayed image

• typical image is with Mary Magdalen

• archivolts: Post-Passion (assumption and coronation of Mary)

• in the background: Christ coming out of the stone tomb

• atmospheric perspective

Repetition of colors

“St. Luke Portraying the Virgin”

Van Der Weyden

oil on panel

Traditional legend of St. Luke painting the first image of Mary from life

• Byzantine icons follow the “St. Luke” precedent

• copy the original image without modification or variation

Genuflect

• lower one’s body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect

• show deference or servility

Like Eyck’s “Madonna of Chancellor Rolin”

• red and blue on opposite sides

• two figures separated in the space

• atmospheric perspective

• stain glass windows

• Mary is sitted in both

• both men are genuflecting

Guild of St. Luke, Brussels

• patron Saint of painters

• first icons of Mary

Considers Van Der Weyden’s application piece to the painters guild

St. Luke is drawing in silverpoint

• corresponds to the contemporary practice in portraiture

• painted image after initial detailed drawings

Similarities to Campin’s Annunciation

• same feelings as Merode Altarpiece but makes more sense

• throne/bench

Details on the throne Mary sits on are illusions to Adam and Eve

• part of the hidden iconography

  • hidden book of hours

  • ox (winged ox for St. Luke)

  • blank banderoll

Used his own face to paint St. Luke

Mary’s parents: Joachim and Anna

Parapet overlooking a broad river and valley

Less attention/interest in details than Van Eyck

• no peacocks

• no direct observation of nature

• plants

• sunset

Lighting has horoscope symbols

• illusion to the floor on Van Eyck’s Annunciation

“The Crucifixion” (Escorial)

Van Der Weyden

oil on panel

Monastery of El Escorial, Spain

• Carthusian monastery

Three figures

Red Cloth of Honor

“The Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning”

Van der Weyden

oil on panel

• Diptych

  • outer wings of a large altarpiece?

• Carthusian Monastery

  • Near Brussels

  • Monastery of El Escorial, Spain

  • White habit

    • (Christus’ painting of the monk)

• Reduced color scheme

• Red ”Cloth of Honor”

• Stone Walls

  • Water stains

Reduced color scheme

Assumed Florentine influence

Hands and creases in the folds of the cloth of honor

Grief

• Mary fainting

• tears

Reduced landscape

• shallow space

  • touches back on the Deposition

Dripping blood

• head

• side

• feet

Attention to human anatomy

Elongated forms from the waist down

Three Figures

• life sized

Tapestry of “Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald” on a painting by Rogier van der Weyden

Largest single panel by the artist

Late in career

“Last Judgement Altarpiece”

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

Beaune Altarpiece

Exterior

Annunciation panels on top

Donors

• Nicholas Rolin

  • painted with the influence of Van Eyck’s “Rolin Madonna”

• Guigonne de Salins (wife)

  • gestures toward her Book of Hours

Rolin is facing towards an elegant imitation statue of St. Sebastian

• plague saint

• intercessor against epidemics

His wife is looking towards another imitation statue, of St. Anthony, who is accompanied by a young pig

• saint with protective powers against the plague

• St. Anthony’s Fire; skin condition

Angels with Coat of Arms

Marble statues on the bottom

• St. Sebastian

• St. Anthony

In the Hotel-Diei in Beaune, France

• a hospital

Architecture of a Christian basilica

• wide nave

• chapel

• thirty beds

“Last Judgement Altarpiece”

Van der Weyden

In the Upper Tier

• Judgement and Salvation

  • gold background

  • celestial sphere/heaven vs. naturalism to define Earth

• “Speaks”

  • right side of Christ (our left): “Come, ye blessed of my Father, posses for you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”

  • written in white

• Left side (our right)

  • “Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels”

  • written in red

• Christ seated on a rainbow

  • christ enthroned

  • feet resting on a sphere

  • symbol of the universe

  • right hand blessing the saved, left hand cursing the damned

• Angels displaying instruments of the Passion (Crucifixion)

• Symbols of the Passion

  • the cross

  • the crown of thorns

  • the staff with the sponge of vinegar

  • the lance

  • the pillar against which he was flagellated

• Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist at the ends of the arch

Popular image in Gothic church entrances

Center vertical line

• only holy figure in location between the earthly and heavenly

Christ’s arm placement echoes the tilt of the scales

St. Michael

• Archangel: highest register of divine beings

• Immortal and the Embodiment of Divine Justice

• depicted as young and handsome

• scale for the weighing of souls

• wears a cope of red and gold brocade

• prominent

• white alb: liturgical clothing for priests during Mass

• plague saint

• protector of the dead

• leader of the blessed to Paradise

• “Let Saint Michael the standard bearer bring them into that holy light which thou of old didst promise Abraham”

  • Prayer from the Requiem Mass (Service for the Dead)

Representations of souls

• naked figures on the scales

“Virutus” and “Peccata”

• virtue and sin

Lower tier

• the elect (saved, rise to Heaven) and the Damned (cast into Hell)

• naked and on a smaller scale than the saints above them

Left Wing

• entrance into a Gothic church

  • golden light

  • welcomed by an angel

  • portal

Right wing

• descent into Hell

  • tossed in a haphazard manner

  • no demons

“Last Judgement”

Bourges Cathedral

• France

• C. 1240

Pilgrimage churches

Tympanum

• western portal

“Entombment”

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

Van der Weyden pilgrimage to Rome

• year before the Jubilee

• Italian influence

  • square shape

  • cave entrance

  • central semi-erect posture of Christ

Possible center of a polyptych

• commission by the Duke of Ferrara or Medici

“Virgin and Child with Philippe de Croy”

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

• Devotional diptych?

• patron is not an independent image

  • Chamberlain to Phillip the Goode

  • Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece

  • 25 years old at the time of this portrait

• patron’s coat of arms, motto and personal device (pulley) are painted on the reverse of both panels

• member of the hereditary nobility (vs. Nicholas Rolin: wealthy merchant class with bourgeois background)

“Portrait Diptych of Jean de Gros”

Rogier van der Weyden

oil on panel

• Early type of half-length figure of the Virgin

  • archaic gold background

• may have been by an assistant in the workshop

• radiating gold halo

• under drawing by van der Weyden (from the Lourve)

  • one of the few that can be ascribed to Netherlandish artist

“The Virgin and Child”

Dieric Bouts

oil and tempera on oak

Virgin and Christ Child at an open window

• 15th cent. Netherlandish home

• Christ’s humanity

Cloth of Honor

• Mary as Queen of Heaven

Private devotional painting

“Portrait of a Man” (Jan van Winckele)

Dieric Bouts

oil and tempera on panel

Only surviving individual portrait by Bouts

• possibly of Jan van Winckele

• friend of Bouts

• lawyer in Louvain

• obtained a post in the university administration (of Haarlem)

First known portrait with a view from a window

• open window with a church in the distance

Date carved and in relief on the wall behind the sitter

• only dated portrait attributed to Bouts

“Martyrdom of St. Erasmus”

Dieric Bouts

oil on panel

Contract with the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament of St. Pierre

Central panel: narrative

• St. Erasmus

• Semi-legendary Italian saint

  • miter/mitre: Bishop’s hat

• Gruesome image lacks emotion

• Emphasis on the symbolic vs. actual event

• Contemplative vs. naturalistic

Wings: standing figure of saints

• St. Jerome

  • 4th cent.

  • Cardinal’s robes, lion, and book

• St. Bernard

  • 11th cent.

  • Born in Burgundy

  • Vanquishing the devil

Continuous landscape

• countryside of Lauvin

Influenced by van der Weyden’s “Crucifixion”

“Last Supper Altarpiece”

Dieric Bouts

The Triptych of the Holy Sacrament

Artist’s most important work

Rare theme in Netherlandish art

Central axis

• blessing hand at the center of the painting

Highly formal

• frontal

Made of St. Peter’s Church in Leuvain

• west of Brussels, Belgium

• center of the city

Center panel:

• New testament

• Contemporary Leuven interior

• High horizon line

• no drama

• institution of the sacrament of eucharist

  • commemorate

• possible self-portrait of the artist? or the four donors of the confraternity?

• patrician house

  • gothic windows

• market square

  • Louvain’s town hall building

• included portraits of the confraternity

• patron

  • standing figure behind St. Peter

  • Acts as a Deacon to Christ as Priest

• Alternative identifications as contemporary artists

  • Rogier van der Weyden

  • Hans Memling

  • Jan van Eyck

• Apostles are not individualized

  • repetition of gestures

  • identifiable by iconographic clues

• Relief sculpture of Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments

  • tympanum over the doorway

  • “old covenant” replaced by the “new covent” through the death of Christ

• Enclosed garden

• Organization of space

• Center line

• Perspective

  • typically, on the hand of Christ but the vantage point is above the head of Christ

• Christ

  • fireplace doors closed creates a cross in the background

• Holds the host above the chalice

  • mouth slightly open

  • blessing motion as contemporary priest

  • exact center of the overall image

  • transubstantiation

• Chandelier

• Bouts and Memling? view through a servants’ hatch

• The idea of artistic self-consciousness

Side panels

• old testament

• foretell and explain the last supper and the establishment of the Eucharist from the old testament

• The meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek (top left panel)

  • genesis

  • gift of bread and wine from the Priest-King

  • after victory in war

  • note: two men in 15th cent. black gowns

  • Melchizedek is known as “King of Justice”; dressed as a Medieval priest with crowned miter

  • Abraham in medieval armor

  • Exterior of St. Peter’s church in background

• Gathering of the Manna (top right panel)

  • Exodus 16:2-36

  • Israelites in the desert for 40 years

  • Manna prefigures Jesus

  • Eucharist

• Elijah in the Desert (bottom right panel)

  • I Kings 19:1-18

  • escape from threat of Queen Jezebel

  • fed by an angel

  • background: beginning of journey of forty days and nights to mountain

  • continuous narrative

  • curve of landscape connects the episodes of the story

• The Feast of the Passover (bottom left panel)

  • placed in contemporary location

  • continuance of the meal (lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs)

  • medieval theologian belief that Passover prefigured the Eucharist

“Justice of Emperor Otto III; Wrongful Execution of the Count and Trial by Fire”

Dieric Bouts

Continuous narrative

• count/wife talk

Possible earliest group portrait

• as if the public audience of Philip the Bold

• brings contemporary lesson from historical event

• lack of expression or emotions

Instructive meaning

Judicial authorities

• judge fairly

Witnesses and clergy

Historic but placed in current 15th cent.

• otto: frankish king from 912-73

• holy roman empire

Contemporary clothing and persons

• Leuvain landscape

• Burgundian clothing

Right panel was only panel completed by Bouts

Portrayed as contemporary public audience of Charles the Bald