AP Art History - Northern Renaissance

• Annunciation Triptych, or Merode Altarpiece

• Robert Campin Workshop

• 1427-1532

• oil on wood

• Triptych

• Intricate details possible with oil paint

• High ground line – figures too large for their space

• Left: wealthy donors watch the scene

  • Added when commissioned

  • Wife added when donor married

• Center: the Annunciation

  • Contemporary, not bibilical, room

• Symbolism

  • Towels & water

  • Flowers

  • Mary

  • Holy Spirit

• Right: Joseph, a carpenter, builds mousetraps

• Arnolfini Portrait

• Jan van eyck

• 1434

• oil on wood

• A contemporary Flemish bedroom; meticulous detail

• Assumed to be Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife

• May have been done as a testament to deceased wife, or Representing a betrothal, or Husband is conferring legal and business privileges to wife, or A gift to his family in Italy (showing his wealth)

• Symbolism:

  • Customary to light a candle on a wedding night

  • Shoes are removed, indicating holy ground

  • Two witnesses seen in the mirror

  • Woman appears (but is probably not) pregnant

  • Statue of St. Margaret

  • Dog at woman’s feet

  • Positioning of couple

  • Wealth is displayed

• Adam and Eve

• Albrecht durer

• 1504

• engraving

• Influenced by classical sculpture

• Italian massing of forms

• Idealized humans, before the Fall

• Classic Greek contrapposto combined with Northern attention to detail

• Symbolism of animals

• Artist’s signature prominently featured

• Isenheim Altarpiece

• Matthias Grunewald

• 1512-1516

• oil on wood

• Placed in a hospital dedicated to treated ergotism (St. Anthony’s fire) which causes convulsions, gangrene

• Theme of healing and faith – Crucifixion scene flanked by St. Sebastian and St. Anthony)

• 1st scene (closed position) – Christ depicted as dead, decomposing.

• Christ’s wounds mirror the agony of ergotism

• Symbolism in scene and structure

• 2nd (open) view

• Marian symbolism

• Christ’s rags are replaced by robes as he ascends to heaven in glory

• Message to patients

• Allegory of Law and Grace

• Lucas Cranach the elder

• 1530

• woodcut and letterpress

• Woodcut method used to facilitate mass production

• Shows benefits of Protestantism vs. flaws of Catholicism

• Text is in German, not Latin

• Left: Moses and Ten Commandments – the Old Law is not sufficient to save a person

• Right: Figure bathed in Christ’s blood – faith alone is needed for salvation

• Hunters in the Snow

• Pieter Bruegel the elder

• 1565

• oil on wood

• Alpine landscape

• Diagonals draw viewer into painting

• Figures are types, not specific individuals

• One of a series of six paintings

• Commissioned by a wealthy family – painting gives them a view of peasant life

• Tradition and change – peasants typically seen as buffoons or fools; Bruegel humanizes them