AP Art History, Chapter 20

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AP Art History, Chapter 20

• Northern Europe
• 1400 - 1500

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Europe in 1477
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Historical Context 1400 CE

• Great Schism - popes in France and Rome
• Dying feudalism produces social turmoil
• Hundred Years War France and England
• Economic rise of Flanders, Netherlands
• Printmaking becoming widespread
• Popular literature
• Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
• Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccion
• Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Travels of Sir John de Mandeville

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Dukes of Burgundy

• Controlled Flanders
• Cloth-making
• Banking
• Allied to England
• Rival of France
• Sumptuous courts
• Patrons of the arts
• Endowed Carthusian order

Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy 1396 -
1467Patron of Van Eyck
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy 1332 -
1404Patron of Sluter
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Chartreuse de Champol

• Carthusian monastery
• Monks solitary and silent
• Philip the Bold intended as the ducal mausoleum
• Masses said in perpetuity
• Destroyed during French Revolution - dangerous
  symbol of church state
• Well of Moses
• Hexagonal sculptural fountain
• Non-functioning
• Fons Vitae - fountain of everlasting life
• Mourning angels
• Compare these to Gothic jamb statues

FIG 20-2 Claus SluterWell of Moses, Chartreuse
de Champol, Dijon, France 1395 - 1406
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Well of Moses

• Expressions of Prophecy
• Daniel, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zaqchariah,
  Moses
• Jeremiah had copper scpectacle - primacy of
  reading
• David attired as a Gothic king
• Moses horned prophets (mistranslation of rays
  of light)
• Fountain originally base of cross
• Figures of angels mourned crucifixion
• Figures of Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. John
  originally surrounded cross

FIG 20-2 Detail of DavidWell of Moses
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Melchior Broederlam

• Retable of Champmol
• Commissioned by Philip the Bold
• Scene of Annunciation and Visitation
• Recalls Byzantine models
• Gold background, flat haloes
• Role of altarpieces
• Situated behind altar during Mass
• Mass a celebration of Christs crucifixion
• Altarpiece scenes didactic
• Reinforced doctrine
• Stimulated adoration
• Multi-image format narrative

FIG 20-3Melchior BroederlamRetable de
ChampmolDijon, France 1399
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Right Panel, Retable de Champmol
Presentation in the temple Early example of oil
painting Sets the stage for Passion scene on
nearby sculptures in church Three dimensional
treatment
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Robert Campin

• FIG 20-4 Robert Campin Merode Altarpiece 1425
• Master of Flemalle
• Private piece commissioned for household prayer -
  movement of personal piety growing

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Robert Campin

• Oil on wood, 1425 - 1428
• Iconography of Merode Altarpiece
• Virgin Mary
• Laver, lily purity
• Christ Child
• Flies in small window
• Candle of Gods divinity goes out incarnation
• Donors
• Ingelbreight family
• Means Angel bringer
• Probably chose subject of altarpiece

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Robert Campin

• Iconography of Merode Altarpiece
• Joseph
• Not usually present in scenes of Annunciation
• Pictured as living with Mary
• Making mousetrap
• Symbol of Augustinian idea of baiting the trap
  to catch the Devil
• Carpenter
• Donors wifes maiden name Scrynmaker

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Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

• Iconography of Merode Altarpiece

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Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

• FIG 20-5
• Ghent Altarpiece closed
• Polyptych of 20 panel
• In church of St. Bavo, Ghent
• Donors - Jodocus Vyt and wife
• Burgomeister of Ghent (partly due to generosity
  in donation)
• Grisaille sculptures lower -
• St. John Baptist
• St, John Evangelist
• Prophets Zachariah and Micah
• Greco-Roman sibyls

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Jan Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece

• FIG 20-6
• Figures of open altarpiece tell story of
  salvation
• Adam and Eves sin requires sacrifice
• Central panel Adoration of the Lamb
• Scrupulous depiction of texture a hallmark of
  Flemish painting

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Jan Van Eyck Annunciation

• In National Gallery, Washington
• Thought to be inner wing of triptych
• Depicts Annunciation
• Gabriel inscription AVE GRA PLENA
• Hail, full of grace
• Mary Inscription ECCE ANCILLA DNI
• Behold the handmaid of the Lord
• Words upside down so God sees
• First work in setting of Gothic cathdral
• Seven gifts of Holy Spirit on seven rays of light
• In Middle Ages, Mary believed to have studied in
  temple
• Decoration of Temple derived from old Testament

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Jan Van Eyck Arnolfinis Wedding

• Inscription above mirror
• Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434
• Artist possibly in mirror
• Arnolfini
• Agent of Medici in Bruges
• Prosperous banker - home shows signs of wealth
• Secular wealth relgious marriage symbols
• Cast aside clogs - holy ground
• Finial on bedpost - St, Margaret
• Dog - symbol of fidelity (Fido)
• Shes not pregnant - its the style
• Provenance

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Jan Van Eyck Man in Red Turban

• Secular portraits common in 15th c. Flanders
• Patrons commissioined likenesses for dynastic
  houses
• Prospective spouses
• Comemmoration of ancestors
• Frame - integral part of the painting
• Inscriptions As I can and Jan Van Eyck made
  me
• First Western painted portrait in 1,000 years
  looking directly at viewer
• Illusion that eyes look at viewer form any angle

FIG 20-7 Jan Van EyckMan in Red TurbanOil on
wood 1433
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Jan Van Eyck Madonna of Chancellor Rolin
FIG 20-7 Jan Van EyckMadonna of Chancellor
RolinLouvre, Paris, Oil on wood 1433
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Rogier Van der Weyden Deposition

• Assistant in Robert Campins workshop
• Christian themes
• Deposition commissioned by archers guild
• Crossbow in tracery at corners
• Presentation of actors on a shallow stage
• Famous for ability to render sorrow

FIG 20-8 Rogier Van Der WeydenDeposition,
Louvain, Belgium Oil on wood 1433
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Rogier Van der Weyden St. Luke Drawing the Virgin

• St. Luke
• Author of the third gospel
• Tells the story of Christ from Marys point of
  view
• Reputed to be first Christian artist
• Patron saint of painting
• Perhaps a portrait of Rogier Van Der Weyden

FIG 20-8 Rogier Van Der WeydenSt. Luke Drawing
the Virgin Boston, USA, Oil on wood 1435
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Rogier Van der Weyden Portrait of a Lady

• Individual character of sitter
• Fragile physique
• Tightly locked thin fingers
• Style contrasts with Italian approach
• Three-quarters view rather than frontal
• Personality revealed, rather than stiff aspect

FIG 20-8 Rogier Van Der WeydenPortrait of a
Lady, ca. 1460 Washington DC, Oil on wood
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Rogier Van der Weyden
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Later Flemish Panel PaintersPetrus Christus

• Mystery subject
• Secular? - a couple visiting a goldsmiths shop
  to select a wedding ring
• Brides betrothal girdle on table
• Religious? - a couple receiving a saints
  blessing before marriage
• Eucharistic wafers on lower shelf
• Halo originally encircled goldsmiths head
• Goldsmiths guild commissioned painting?
• St. Eligius patron saint of goldsmiths
• Chapel of St. Eligius reconsecrated same sate as
  painting.
• Christus depicted an economic transaction
  focusing on goldsmiths profession to hang in the
  guild chapel

FIG 20-11 Petrus ChristusA Goldsmith in his
ShopOil on wood, 1449
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Dirk Bouts Last Supper

• Familiar subject
• Last Supper
• Unfamiliar treatment
• Four servants
• Perhaps members of confraternity
• Christs pose
• Reminiscent of Mass
• Uses single vanishing point to create perspective
• Small side room has its own perspective

FIG 20-12 Dirk BoutsLast Supper, Louvain,
BelgiumOil on wood, 1464 - 1468
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Hans Memling Virgin with SaintsSaint John
Altarpiece
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Hugo van der GoesPortinari Altarpiece
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Hugo Van Der GoesPortinari Altarpiece

• Painted for Tommaso Portinari, agent of Medici
• Portinaris family on wings
• Patron saints
• Possibly reminscent of mystery plays
• Dramatic, mystical quality
• Penetrating realism
• Shepherds
• Influenced Italian painters after its arrival in
  Florence

Detail of Shepherds Portinari Altarpiece
Detail of saints Portinari Altarpiece
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Jean Fouquet

• French painter
• Worked for Charles VII
• Melun Diptych
• Painted for Etienne Chevalier
• Donor stands with patron saint
• St. Stephen holds stone
• Patron kneeling
• Three-quarter view
• Kings mistress was model for Virgin

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Veit Stoss

• Holy Roman Empire
• Krakow, Poland
• Carved, painted altarpiece
• Huge figures
• Full of Gothic figural and ornamental design
• Restless, swirling swaths of drapery
• Merging of painting, sculpture and architecture

FIG 20-18 Veit StossDeath and Assumption of the
VirginKrakow, Poland 1477
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Woodcuts Nuremberg Chronicle

• Relief print
• Carved on a wood surface
• Difficult to create thin, fluid, closely spaced
  lines
• Nuremberg Chronicle
• Over 650 woodcuts of specific towns
• Depicted generically

FIG 20-21 Nuremberg Chronicle1493
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Woodcuts Martin Schongauer

• Intaglio technique
• Allows for a wide variety of linear effects
• Image incised directly on metal plate
• St. Anthony Tormented by Demons
• Forms delineated by cross-hatching
• Northern European technique
• Describes surfaces of forms rather than
  underlying structure

FIG 20-22 Martin SchongauerSaint Anthony
Tormentedca. 1480 - 1490