Northern Europe, 1400 to 1500

Altarpiece – a work of art, especially a painting on wood, set above and behind an altar.

Triptych – a picture or relief carving on three panels, typically hinged together side by side and used as an altarpiece.

Diptych – a painting, especially an altarpiece, on two hinged wooden panels which may be closed like a book.

Polyptych – a painting, typically an altarpiece, consisting of more than three leaves or panels joined by hinges or folds.

Iconography – the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these.

Illuminated Manuscript – The word manuscript is derived from the Latin words manus (hand) and scriptus, from scribere (to write). Illuminated, from the Latin illuminare (to light up), denotes the glow created by the radiant colors of the illustrations, as well as by real gold and silver. Illuminations took the form of decorated letters, borders, and independent figurative scenes, also called miniatures.

Book of Hours – a book containing the prayers or offices to be said at the canonical hours of the day, particularly popular in the Middle Ages.

Etching – the act or process of making designs or pictures on a metal plate, glass, etc., by the corrosive action of an acid instead of by a burin

Woodcut – a print of a type made from a design cut in a block of wood, formerly widely used for illustrations in books.

Engraving – the process or art of cutting or carving a design on a hard surface, especially so as to make a print.

Oil Paint – a paste made with ground pigment and a drying oil such as linseed oil, used chiefly by artists.

Secular – One manifestation of secularism is asserting the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, or, in a state declared to be neutral on matters of belief, from the imposition by government of religion or religious practices upon its people.

Patron – a person who gives financial or other support to a person, organization, cause, or activity.

Artist Guilds – any of various medieval associations, as of merchants or artisans, organized to maintain standards and to protect the interests of its members, and that sometimes constituted a local governing body.

Relief – a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix that has had ink applied to its surface, but not to any recessed areas, is brought into contact with paper.

Intaglio – an engraving or incised figure in stone or other hard material depressed below the surface so that an impression from the design yields an image in relief.

Monastery – a building or buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows.

Retable – a frame or shelf enclosing decorated panels or revered objects above and behind an altar.

Mausoleum – a building, especially a large and stately one, housing a tomb or tombs.

Edition – In printmaking, an edition is a number of prints struck from one plate, usually at the same time. … Most modern artists produce only limited editions, normally signed by the artist in pencil, and numbered as say 67/100 to show the unique number of that impression and the total edition size.

Beginning of the 15th century there were two competing popes living in Rome and Avignon during the Great Schism (1378–1417). France and England still fought each other in the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). In addition to long lasting war, there was tremendous social turmoil.

In the 12th century, Feudalism was dying as governments moved towards a more centralized system. Out of conflict and turmoil emerged a new economic system – the early stage of European capitalism.

Because of the requirements of trade a new credit and exchange systems created an economic network of European cities. They traded money and commodities. This created international trading companies such as Jacques Coeur in Bourges and the Medici in Florence.

In 1460 the Flemish established the first international commercial stock exchange in Antwerp.

Art thrived in Northern Europe during this time under royal, ducal (dukes or nobility), church, and private patronage.

Jean Hey (called Master of Moulins) (Netherlandish, active fourth quarter 15th century), ca 1490. Oak on Panel

Typical characteristics of the Northern Renaissance style
The artist has used the new medium of oil paint to depict the textures of objects. Notice the red velvet of the figure’s dress, the shiny gold of her pendant, the pearlescent rosary beads held in her hands, and the lightly sparkling gold on the shawl over her head). Northern Renaissance artists were especially interested in depicting light on reflective surfaces. In this portrait, all the gold glistens and reflects the light – even the tiny row of beads that frame her face.

We also see that the artist seems to have painted her exactly the way she looks, with her lips pursed, and a small bump on the end of her nose. The artist did not idealize her features at all, which is another typical feature of Northern Renaissance art. Whereas the Italians had learned to idealize by studying the sculpture of classical antiquity, Northern Europeans were relatively less influenced by ancient Greek and Roman culture, in part because of their geographical distance.

Also typical for much of Northern Renaissance portraiture is the inclusion of a very elaborate landscape that seems to go on as far as the eye can see. These landscapes often contain numerous details, such as a castle, trees, a lake, hills, a town in the distance, light reflecting in the water – and the illusion of space created by atmospheric perspective. There are so many things to look at here, and the artist seems to be giving equal importance to all parts of the painting.

Also, this artist is using symbolism – something that is very typical of the Northern Renaissance.

Portrait of a Lady about 1465, Alesso Baldovinetti

Typical characteristics of the Italian Renaissance style 
The artist does not focus so much on many small details. Instead, he generalizes in his depiction. The clothes, even the face, are not painted with as much attention to small details. The painting is not as clear and crisp as the Northern Renaissance portrait. Baldovinetti concentrates on depicting the sitter’s face, which is shown in profile. Because he does not provide as much detail to other areas of the painting (to her clothes, the background, etc.), they don’t seem as important, and as a result, we refocus our attention on the particular individual portrayed.

A word about portraits in general: only people who were very rich could afford to have their portrait painted, and it was something that you did only once in your life. The portrait had to be formal, and it was very much about your social status. For this reason, you did not show yourself in your pajamas in the morning!

The portrait above was typical for the Early Italian Renaissance, in that it cuts off at the bust and does not include the hands. In the High Renaissance (as we will see with the Mona Lisa), Leonardo begins a new formula for portraiture, which includes a frontal face, 3/4 shoulders, and the sitter’s hands.

During this time we also have the invention of two new media:

• Oil-based pigment as the leading medium for painting
• Printmaking as a major art form, which followed the invention of movable type.

Jan van Eyck was initially credited with the invention of oil painting, but other evidence shows that oil paints had been known for some time.

The painting process includes applying a white ground onto a wooden panel.  Artists would then draw or sketch out what they intended to paint.  An underpainting was then painted on top of the sketch.  The underpainting was a loose painting to figure out placement and color.  Thin layers of paint were then applied one after another on top of the underpainting.

Artists were able to create richer colors, incredible detail and the illusion of glowing light. They were also able to work on the painting much longer because oil paint took much longer to dry. Oil paint takes days, weeks, sometimes months to dry compared to 10-20 minutes for a section of fresco.

Tempera and fresco paintings that came before appear more washed out…the colors are less intense than oil paintings.

Tempera and Oil Painting

The generic words “paint” and “pigment” encompass a wide range of substances artists have used over the years.  Fresco aside, during the 14th century, egg tempera was the material of choice for most painters, both in Italy and Northern Europe.  Tempera consists of egg combined with a wet paste of ground pigment.  Images painted with tempera have a velvety sheen.  Artists usually applied tempera in thin layers, because thick layers will crack and flake. Scholars have discovered that artists used oil paints as far back as the 8th century, but not until the early 15th century did oil painting become widespread.

Flemish artists  like Melchior Broederlam was one of the first to use mostly oils (often mixing them with tempera). Italian painters quickly followed suit.

Better drying components in the early 15th century enhanced the setting capabilities of oils.

Artists laid the oils down in transparent layers, or glazes, over opaque or semi opaque underlayers.

• Oil painters can build up deep tones through repeated glazing or thin layers of paint.
• Tempera, on the other hand, dries quickly due to water evaporation.
• Oils dry more uniformly and slowly, providing the artist time to rework areas.
• Leonardo preferred oil paint because its gradual drying process and consistency permitted him to blend the pigments, thereby creating the impressive sfumato (smoky effect) that contributed to his fame.

Both tempera and oils can be applied to different surfaces.

• Wooden panels served as the foundation for most paintings.
• Italians painted on poplar.
• Northern European artists used oak, lime, beech, chestnut, cherry, pine, and silver fir.
• Availability of these timbers determined the choice of wood.

Canvas became increasingly popular in the late 16th century.

• Did not think the canvas paintings would last, but their was so much humidity, the wood panels would warp
• Before canvas was stretched on wooden frames, it could simply be rolled up and carried around.

For the most part, the Italian Renaissance painters were using tempera while the Renaissance painters in the north were using oil. Tempera is typically not as saturated (less intense color) as oil paint.

Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck, and Rogier van der Weyden were the leading figures of the first generation of “Northern Renaissance” painters.

Now we need to move up to Northern Europe in the early 1400s (the same time that Masaccio and Donatello and Brunelleschi are in Florence). So far, we have been exclusively in Florence, Italy. But up in northern Europe, in an area called Flanders (which is primarily Belgium today, but also a part of what is today Holland) there was also a Renaissance.Here is a map of Europe in the fifteenth century. The area in Northern Europe that is dark red is Flanders, which was controlled by the Dukes of Burgundy (in France) during this time period, and we call the art and culture of this area Flemish.

Like Florence, Flanders encompassed an area with rich industrial and banking cities that allowed a large middle class population to flourish. It was this rising middle class that often commissioned the new, realistic images of the Northern Renaissance.

The first thing to notice is how far we are from Italy. This may not seem a great distance to us today, but imagine crossing the Alps on a mule to get from Italy to Flanders. It wasn’t easy! As a result, the Renaissance in Florence in the 1400s developed separately from the Renaissance in Flanders in Northern Europe. There were some business contacts, some back and forth travel, and some artistic exchange, but not a great deal.

Classical Antiquity?
The fact that we are far from Italy tells us something about the character of the Northern Renaissance. Remember that in Italy we said that the Renaissance was a rebirth of the art and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome? Well, in Northern Europe we’re pretty far from the important centers of Ancient Greek and Roman culture, and so the Renaissance in the North is not a rebirth of Ancient Greek and Roman culture the way it was in Florence.

Oil Paint
Here’s another important difference: the artists of the North invented oil paint! They use oil paint fifty years or more before they use it in Italy (where they use tempera until then). Think about what oil paint can do that fresco and tempera can not do! Keep this in mind as you look at the first Northern Renaissance painting we’re going to discuss, the Merode Altarpiece. The Renaissance in Northern Europe is very different from the Renaissance in Italy, as we will soon see.

In the 15th century, Flanders was not an independent state but a region under the control of the Duke of Burgundy. He was the ruler of the fertile east-central region of France famous for its wine.

Flanders major source of wealth was a city known as Bruges. Bruges was a city that made Burgundy a rival of France. Bruges obtained its wealth from wool trade and later banking. Duke of Burgundy made the city his capital and moved his court there from Dijon in the early 15th century.

Because of this wealth, Philip the Bold and his successors were probably the most powerful rulers in Northern Europe during the first 75 years of the 15th century.

At the height of Burgundian power, the reigning duke’s lands stretched from the Rhône River to the North Sea.

The dukes of Burgundy were major patrons of the arts and understood how art could support their political goals as well as decorate their castles and homes.

Philip the Bold, known for Chartreuse de Champmol, near Dijon. (city in France). A chartreuse (“charter house” in English) is a Carthusian monastery.

The Carthusian order was founded by Saint Bruno in 1084 at Chartreuse, in southeastern France. The Carthusian monks devoted their lives to solitary living and prayer. Carthusians generated no money. (other monastic orders earned income from farming and other work)

Philip gave a tremendous amount of money to help fund Champmol. Philip intended the Dijon chartreuse to become a ducal (duke) mausoleum (tomb). This would serve as a way of securing salvation for dukes (the monks prayed continuously for the souls of the duke’s family). It was also a symbol of power.

CLAUS SLUTER, Virgin and Child, saints, and donors, portal of the chapel of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, 1385–1393.

In 1389, Philip the Bold placed the Haarlem (Netherlands) sculptor Claus Sluter in charge of creating sculptural works for the Chartreuse de Champmol.

CLAUS SLUTER, Well of Moses, Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, 1395–1406. Limestone with traces of paint, Moses 6’ high.

Sluter designed a large fountain located in a well which served as a water source for the monastery. This is debatable though as water would have produced sound, and the monks were opposed to anything that distracted them. Sluter unfortunately died before completing the entire fountain.

Moses and five other prophets (David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zachariah) surround the base. They once supported a 25-foot-tall group of Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene.

The Well of Moses is a modern name. The Carthusians called it a fons vitae, a fountain of ever-lasting life. Interesting since the monks prayed continuously for the souls of the dukes and their families.

The blood of Christ symbolically flowed down over the grieving angels and Old Testament prophets, spilling into the well below.

• Washes over the prophets who predicted Christ
• Redeeming anyone who would drink water from the well.

May have been inspired by plays at the time that depicted the life of Christ

Figures are realistically rendered, and the prophets have almost portrait like features and distinct individual personalities and costumes.

David is shown as a king

Moses has a waist-length beard and horns…

• St. Jerome translated the Hebrew term that probably means “ray of light” as “horn” when writing the Latin Vulgate Bible.
• Satan was considered the most beautiful angel, depicted as a ray of light.
• Where we get our modern interpretation of him with horns.

Sculpted in extreme detail.

• Heavy clothing with folds seem naturalistic.
• Different textures, from coarse clothing to smooth skin and wavy hair.
• Originally it was painted, which made it look even more realistic

MELCHIOR BROEDERLAM, Retable de Champmol. from the chapel of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, installed 1399. Oil on wood, each wing 5’ 5 3/4” X 4’ 1 1/4”. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon.

MELCHIOR BROEDERLAM

Philip the Bold also commissioned an altarpiece for the chapel of Chartreuse. This was a collaborative project between two Flemish artists and consisted of a large sculptured shrine with a pair of exterior panels painted by Melchior Broederlam.

Altarpieces were a major form of art that served as backdrops for Mass. The Mass is a celebration of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, Christ commanded his apostles to eat his body and drink his blood in memory of him. This act serves as the focus of the Mass. The ritual of the Mass involves prayer, contemplation of the Word of God, and the reenactment of the Eucharistic.

Art has played an important role in making the theological, visual. These altarpieces had a teaching role, especially for the illiterate. They also reinforced Church doctrines for viewers and stimulated devotion. Most altarpieces depict scenes directly related to Christ’s sacrifice.

The Champmol altarpiece, or retable (frame around paintings) features sculpted Passion scenes on the interior.

Polyptychs (hinged multi-paneled paintings) or carved relief panels.

• Diptychs and Triptychs were bi-fold and tri-fold panels
• Polyptychs were multi part folding panels

On these altarpieces one could close the side wings over the central panel(s). Artists decorated both the outside and inside of the altarpieces.

Not completely sure when they were opened or closed, but its thought they were closed on regular days and were opened on Sundays and feast days.

These altars became less and less used.

The painted wings depict the Annunciation and Visitation on the left panel and the Presentation in the Temple and Flight into Egypt on the right panel.  The paintings include both landscape and interior scenes.  The style of the buildings vary from Romanesque to Gothic.  Combination of different architectural styles in the left panel may be symbolic.  The rotunda (round building, usually with a dome) refers to the Old Testament, whereas the Gothic porch relates to the New Testament.  In the right panel, a statue of a pagan god falls from the top of a column as the Holy Family approaches.  Attempt to paint the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.  Gold halo’s look Byzantine.  The Champmol altarpiece foreshadowed another significant development in 15th-century art—the use of oil paints.

Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece, oil on oak panel, 1425-28 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

One of the earliest masters of oil painting was the artist known as the “Master of Flémalle,” (French community near Belgium) who scholars think was a man named Robert Campin.

His most famous work is the Mérode Altarpiece which is an Annunciation theme

Smaller than the Champmol retable, the Mérode Altarpiece was a private commission for household prayer.

Private commissions outnumbered religious ones 2 to 1. Various reform movements advocated personal devotion such as the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. Private devotionals and prayer grew in popularity. They were a combination of religious and secular ideas. Artists often presented biblical scenes as taking place in a Flemish house. Religion was such a part of Flemish life that separating the sacred from the secular became virtually impossible.

In the painting above, the archangel Gabriel approaches Mary, who is reading. We see a clean middle-class Flemish home as the site of the event. The objects represented are not merely decorative. but also function as religious symbols.

The book, extinguished candle, and lilies on the table, the copper basin in the corner niche, the towels, fire screen, and bench all symbolize, in different ways, the Virgin’s purity and her divine mission.

In the right panel

• Joseph has made a mousetrap, symbolic of the tradition that Christ is bait set in the trap of the world to catch the Devil.

Campin painted everything you would find in a carpenter’s shop.

The ax, saw, and rod in the foreground not only are tools of the carpenter’s trade but also are mentioned in Isaiah 10:15.

In the left panel

• The closed garden is symbolic of Mary’s purity
• The flowers depicted all relate to Mary’s virtues, especially humility.

The altarpiece’s donor, Peter Inghelbrecht, a wealthy merchant, and his wife kneel in the garden and witness the event through an open door.

Donor portraits – portraits of the individual(s) who commissioned (or “donated”) the work – became very popular in the 15th century.  In this instance, in addition to asking to be represented in their altarpiece, the Inghelbrechts probably specified the subject. Inghelbrecht means “angel bringer,” a reference to the Annunciation theme of the central panel.  The wife’s name, Scrynmakers, means “cabinet or shrine-makers,” referring to the workshop scene in the right panel.

The Merode Altarpiece is one of the great masterpieces of Northern Renaissance art. The use of objects from the material world to symbolize spiritual ideas, the effort to make the divine accessible to us and part of our world, and the attention to clarity and detail—at the expense of creating a coherent space – are all basic characteristics of the Northern Renaissance style. The first thing you’ll notice about the Merode Altarpiece (located in New York City in the Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) is that it is not one painting, but three connected paintings, in this case measuring four feet across by two feet high. This is called a triptych (the prefix “tri” means three, as in tricycle). Artists today still use this popular format for a painting. The three panels are connected by hinges (like on a door) so that tripychs usually could open and close. This was important because altarpieces, like this one, were usually closed or covered until the Mass was performed in front of them.

Donors (left panel)
In the panel on the far left, we see the patrons or donors who commissioned this painting. In Flanders, a new middle class of bankers and merchants were commissioning works of art, and wanted images that brought the divine into their own world.

Annunciation (center panel)
In the center we see the Annunciation, a common subject in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance and after. Here the Angel Gabriel announces (hence the title “Annunciation“) to Mary that she is about to conceive the Christ child. The Holy Spirit, which impregnates Mary, appears coming through one of the windows on the right in form of a small image of Christ carrying the cross on his back.

St. Joseph (right panel)
The panel on the far right depicts St. Joseph (Mary’s husband), who was a carpenter by trade. He is shown in his carpenter’s shop. Here is one of the amazing characteristics of Northern Renaissance art. Nearly every item that we see in the Merode Altarpiece – even though is looks like an ordinary object – is really a religious symbol. For example, the tools that Joseph is working with are a symbol of the Passion of Christ, the lilies symbolize Mary’s virginity, and the candle that has just been extinguished tells us that this is the moment when God takes human form, and his exclusively divine nature is gone. The material world is imbued with spiritual meaning, with the divine. This is one of the defining characteristics of Northern Renaissance art. But it is not only in their paintings that the people of Flanders used everyday objects to symbolize spiritual ideas; this was a part of their way of thinking.

Let’s look carefully at the central panel of the Merode Altarpiece.
First, notice that the figures have no halos! We can definitely see knees pressing though the drapery. But can we really get a sense of a whole naked body underneath? Do the bodies of Mary and the Angel make sense? Are they in realistic proportion? Does the drapery flow in a way that makes sense? And what about the space? We definitely have an illusion of space, but does the space make sense? How about the table? The shape of the room? There is NO linear perspective here, and NO real study of the human body. The artists of the Northern Renaissance could make their paintings look very real in terms of details – but overall, the space and the body don’t look entirely real. This is a very different kind of realism than we saw in the Italian Renaissance. In the Italian Renaissance, their realism was based on the use of science (anatomy) and math (linear perspective and geometry). The realism of the Northern Renaissance was NOT based on science and math, but it WAS based on a very close observation of the world.

JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432. Oil on wood, 11’ 6″ X 7’ 6″.

Jan Van Eyck was the first Netherlandish painter to achieve international fame. He was born in 1390 and in 1425 became the court painter of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. He eventually moved his studio to Bruges where he completed the Ghent Altarpiece in 1432

Ghent Altarpiece (Closed)

• One of the largest (nearly 12 feet tall) of the 15th century.
• Commissioned this polyptych (more than 3 leaves) as the centerpiece of the chapel Saint Bavo Cathedral.
• Two of the exterior panels depict the donors who commissioned the painting.  The husband and wife, painted in niches, kneel with their hands clasped in prayer.
• They look at stone sculptures of Ghent’s patron saints, Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist.
• An Annunciation scene appears on the upper register
• Flemish town is painted outside the window of the center panel.
• In the uppermost arched panels, van Eyck painted images of the Old Testament prophets Zachariah and Micah, along with sibyls (oracles), Greco-Roman mythological prophetesses whose writings the Christian Church interpreted as prophecies of Christ.

Jan (and Hubert?) Van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece or The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,
tempera and oil on panel, 11′ 5″ x 7′ 3″ (closed panels), Cathedral of Saint Bavo, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432

Ghent Altarpiece (Open-Inside)

Upper Panel

• Incredible painting of God the Father in the center
• He wears the pope’s triple tiara/crown, with a crown at his feet, and a red robe.
• To God’s right is the Virgin, represented, as in the Gothic age, as the Queen of Heaven, with a crown of 12 stars upon her head.
• Saint John the Baptist sits to God’s left.
• To either side is a choir of angels, with an angel playing an organ on the right.
• Adam and Eve appear in the far panels.
• The inscriptions in the arches above Mary and Saint John talk about the Virgin’s virtue and purity and Saint John’s greatness and as the forerunner of Christ
• The inscription above God’s head translates “This is God, all-powerful in his divine majesty; of all the best, by the gentleness of his goodness; the most liberal giver, because of his infinite generosity.”
• The step behind the crown at God’s feet bears the inscription “On his head, life without death. On his brow, youth without age. On his right, joy without sadness. On his left, security without fear.”

Lower Panel

Even more symbolism in the lower panel

• In the central panel, the community of saints comes from the four corners of the earth
• They proceed toward the altar of the Lamb and the octagonal fountain of life.
• The Revelation passage recounting the Adoration of the Lamb is the main reading on All Saints’ Day (November 1).
• The Lamb symbolizes the sacrificed Son of God
• The heart bleeds into a cup, while into the fountain spills the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).
• On the right, the 12 apostles and a group of martyrs in red robes come forward.
• On the left appear prophets.
• In the right background come the virgin martyrs
• In the left background the holy confessors approach.
• On the lower wings, hermits, pilgrims, knights, and judges approach from left and right.
• They symbolize the four cardinal virtues: Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice.

Van Eyck used oil paints for the entire altarpiece in amazing color.

Emerging capitalism led to prosperity that fueled a market for art objects in Bruges, Antwerp, and, later, Amsterdam.  This prosperity contributed to a growing interest in secular art in addition to religious artworks. Both the Mérode Altarpiece and the Ghent Altarpiece include painted portraits of their donors. Renewed interest in portraiture.

JAN VAN EYCK, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434. Oil on wood, approx. 2’ 9″ X 1’ 10 1/2″. National Gallery, London.

The painting above by van Eyck is a secular portrait with religious overtones. Giovanni was a financial officer to the Medici family. The painting is of the Lucca (city in western Italy) banker (established himself in Bruges as an agent of the Medici family).

• Arnolfini and his bride, Giovanna Cenami, hand in hand, take the marriage vows.
• Behind the pair, the curtains of the marriage bed have been opened.
• Giovanna is not pregnant, but her clothing alludes to childbirth.
• Some scholars suggest that Arnolfini is giving legal rights to his wife to conduct business in his absence.
• The cast-aside clogs indicate that this event is taking place on holy ground. Husbands traditionally presented brides with shoes.
• The little dog symbolizes fidelity (the common canine name Fido originated from the Latin fido, “to trust”).
• The oranges on the chest below the window may refer to fertility or wealth.
• The bedpost’s finial (crowning ornament) is a tiny statue of Saint Margaret, patron saint of childbirth.  From the finial hangs a whisk broom, symbolic of domestic care.
• The single candle burning in the left rear holder of the chandelier and the mirror, in which the viewer sees the entire room reflected, symbolize God.  The lit candle in the chandelier was also part of Flemish marriage practices.

The convex mirror

• Giovanni and his wife’s backs are reflected in the mirror
• We also see two people who look into the room through the door.
• Arnolfini’s raised right hand may be a gesture of greeting to the two men.
• One of these is probably the artist, as the inscription above the mirror reads “Johannes de Eyck fuit hic” (Jan van Eyck was here).
• The picture’s purpose, then, seems to have been to record and sanctify this marriage.
• The small medallions set into the mirror frame show tiny scenes from the Passion of Christ and represent God’s promise of salvation.

The painting’s purpose seems to have been to record the marriage.

However, some scholars have taken issue with this traditional reading of the painting, suggesting instead that Arnolfini is conferring legal privileges on his wife to conduct business in his absence. In either case, the artist functions as a witness.

ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Deposition, center panel of a triptych from Notre-Dame hors-les-murs, Louvain, Belgium, ca. 1435. Oil on wood, 7’ 2 5/8″ X 8’ 7 1/8″. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Rogier van der Weyden

When Jan van Eyck received the commission for the Ghent Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1400–1464) was an assistant in the workshop of Robert Campin, but the younger painter’s fame eventually rivaled van Eyck’s.

Rogier soon became renowned for his dynamic compositions stressing human action and drama. He concentrated on Christian themes such as the Crucifixion and the Pietà (the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of her son), moving observers emotionally by relating the sufferings of Christ.

An early masterwork is his 1435 Deposition, the center panel of a triptych the Archers Guild of Louvain commissioned for the church of Notre-Dame in Louvain. Rogier acknowledged the patrons of this large painting by incorporating the crossbow (the guild’s symbol) into the tracery (pattern) in the corners.

Instead of creating a deep landscape setting, as van Eyck might have, Rogier compressed the figures and action onto a shallow stage, imitating the large sculptured shrines so popular in the 15th century, especially in the Holy Roman Empire.

• Expresses maximum action within a limited space.
• The similar poses of Christ and the Virgin Mary help to unify the composition.

Illustrates passionate sorrow like few painters before him.

• His depiction of the agony of loss is among the most authentic in religious art.
• The emotional impact on the viewer is immediate and unforgettable.

It was probably Rogier van der Weyden that Michelangelo had in mind when he said that “Flemish painting [will] please the devout better than any painting of Italy, which will never cause him to shed a tear, whereas that of Flanders will cause him to shed many.”

Later Flemish Panel Painters

The second generation of Flemish masters, active during the latter half of the 15th century, shared many of the concerns of their illustrious predecessors, especially the use of oil paints to create naturalistic representations, often, although not always, of traditional Christian subjects for installation in churches.

A Goldsmith in His Shop by Petrus Christus (ca. 1410–1472)

Petrus Christus settled in Bruges in 1444. The painting above portrays Saint Eligius (who was a master goldsmith before committing his life to God) sitting in his stall, showing a wealthy couple a selection of rings.

• The bride’s girdle (symbol of commitment) is on the table – symbol of chastity.
• The woman reaches for the ring as the gold-smith weighs it. 
• Crystal container for Eucharistic wafers (on the lower shelf to the right of Saint Eligius)
• Scales (a reference to the Last Judgment) may be symbols of religion.

Should be looked at as a painting that documents a worker and not just religious as it would have been installed in a guild. Although the couple’s presence suggests a marriage portrait, most scholars now believe that the goldsmiths’ guild in Bruges commissioned this painting.

Saint Eligius was the patron saint of gold and silversmiths, blacksmiths, and metalworkers, all of whom shared a chapel in a building adjacent to their meetinghouse. The reconsecration of this chapel took place in 1449, the same date as this painting.

Christus probably painted A Goldsmith in His Shop, which depicts an economic transaction and focuses on the goldsmith’s profession, specifically for the guild chapel.

The variety of objects depicted in the painting serves as advertisement for the goldsmiths guild.  Included are the profession’s raw materials—precious stones, beads, crystal, coral, and pearls – scattered among finished products – rings, buckles, and brooches.  The pewter vessels on the upper shelves are donation pitchers, which town leaders gave to distinguished guests.

All these meticulously painted objects attest to the centrality and importance of the goldsmiths to both the secular and sacred communities as well as enhance the naturalism of the painting.

The convex mirror in the foreground reflects another couple and a street with houses.

France

Flanders enjoyed prosperity and peace during the 15th century, but France was crippled by the Hundred Years war.  France was bad off economically and politically.  The anarchy of war and the weakness of the kings gave rise to a group of dukes, each with significant power.  The strongest and wealthiest of these was the duke of Burgundy, which controlled Flanders and where artists prospered.

Manuscript Painting

During the 15th century, French artists built on the achievements of Gothic painters and produced refined illuminated manuscripts.  Among the most significant developments in French manuscript painting was a new presentation of space.

LIMBOURG BROTHERS (POL, JEAN, HERMAN), January, from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413–1416. Ink on vellum, approx. 8 7/8″ X 5 3/8″. Musée Condé, Chantilly.

LIMBOURG BROTHERS

Three Limbourg brothers – Pol, Herman, and Jean – from the Netherlands.  The Limbourg brothers expanded the illusionistic capabilities of illumination.

Trained in the Netherlands, the brothers moved to Paris no later than 1402. Between 1405 and their death in 1416, probably from the plague, they worked for Jean, duke of Berry and brother of King Charles V of France and of Philip the Bold of Burgundy.

The duke was an avid art patron who collected mostly manuscripts, jewels, and rare artifacts. He owned more than 300 manuscripts.

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Sumptuous Hours of the Duke of Berry) was a book of hours used for reciting prayers. You can think of it like a devotional book. As prayer books, they replaced the traditional psalters (book of Psalms), which were the only religious books in private hands until the mid-13th century.

The centerpiece of a Book of Hours was the “Prayer of the Blessed Virgin,” which contained passages to be read privately at set times during the day. An illustrated calendar listing local religious feast days usually came before the prayer. Nobility had these books first, but eventually wealthy patrons were able to buy them. Religious practices eventually become decentralized (no longer led by kings and queens). This decentralization leads to the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century.

The calendar pictures of The Hours of the Duke of Berry are perhaps the most famous in the history of manuscript illumination.

• Represent the 12 months
• Each month illustrates a seasonal task
• Scenes alternate between the rich and the poor.

Above each picture is a lunette (semicircular frame) where the chariot of the sun as it makes its yearly cycle through the 12 months and zodiac signs.

Visually captures the power of the duke and his relationship to the peasants.

Page for January depicts a New Year’s reception at court. The duke appears as the host of a feast. His chamberlain (maid) stands next to him, telling the guests to come forward with the words “aproche, aproche.”

LIMBOURG BROTHERS (POL, JEAN, HERMAN), October, from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413–1416. Ink on vellum, 8 7/8″ X 5 3/8”. Musée Condé, Chantilly.

In contrast, the illustration for October focuses on peasants. It depicts a sower planting seeds, a person plowing on horse-back, and woman washing clothes (next to the boats), along with city dwellers. The Louvre is in the background (the French king’s residence at the time, now one of the world’s great art museums).

The Limbourg brothers died before completing this Book of Hours, and another court illustrator finished the manuscript 70 years later.

VEIT STOSS, The Death and Assumption of the Virgin (wings open), altar of the Virgin Mary, church of Saint Mary, Kraków, Poland, 1477–1489. Painted and gilded wood, central panel 23’ 9” high.

In 1477 Veit Stoss began work on an altarpiece for the church of Saint Mary in Kraków (Poland).

In the central shrine there are huge carved and painted figures, some nine feet high. They represent Death and Assumption of the Virgin.

On the wings are scenes from the lives of Christ and Mary. This altarpiece is Gothic culture in its late phase. Artists used every thing they could to heighten emotion.

The disciples of Christ center around the Virgin, who sinks down in death. One of them supports her. Another, just above her, wrings his hands in grief.

As in most Gothic work, there is lots of movement and emotion

TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER, The Assumption of the Virgin, center panel of the Creglingen Altarpiece, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany, ca. 1495– 1499. Lindenwood, 6’ 1” wide.

The Virgin’s Assumption also appears in the center panel of the Creglingen Altarpiece.

• Created by Tilman Riemenschneider (ca. 1460–1531) of Würzburg for a church in Germany.

Incorporated intricate Gothic forms

• Did not paint the figures or the background like Stoss did
• The lines in the clothing create fluid motion throughout the entire piece
• The movement in the clothes looks like the movement in the arches
• Appears as though the figures are straining which heightens the spirituality of the figures

Woodcuts, Engravings and Etchings

Printmaking is the act of producing multiple works of art. The set of prints an artist creates from a single block is called an edition. 

During the 15th and 16th centuries artists were using relief and intaglio methods of printmaking.  Artists produce relief prints by carving into a surface, usually wood.

Buxheim Saint Christopher, 1423. Hand-colored woodcut, 11 3/8” X 8 1/8”.  John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester, Manchester.

The image above is an example of relief (woodblock) printmaking. The artist uses a different woodblock for every color. How many do you see?

Intaglio

The artist incises (cuts) an image on a metal plate, often copper.  The image can be created on the plate manually using a tool (a burin or stylus) or chemically.  In the latter process, an acid bath eats into the exposed parts of the plate where the artist has drawn through an acid-resistant coating.  When the artist inks the surface of the intaglio plate and wipes it clean, the ink is forced into the incisions.  Then the artist runs the plate and paper through a roller press, and the paper absorbs the remaining ink, creating the print.  Because the artist “draws” the image onto the plate, intaglio prints differ in character from relief prints.

Engravings, drypoints, and etchings generally present a wider variety of linear effects.  They also often reveal to a greater extent evidence of the artist’s touch, the result of the hand’s changing pressure and shifting directions.

The paper and inks artists use also affect the finished look of the printed image.  During the 15th and 16th centuries, European printmakers used papers produced from cotton and linen rags that papermakers mashed with water into a pulp.  The papermakers then applied a thin layer of this pulp to a wire screen and allowed it to dry to create the paper.  As contact with Asia increased, printmakers made greater use of what was called Japan paper (of mulberry fibers) and China paper.

Artists, then as now, could select from a wide variety of inks.  The type and proportion of the ink ingredients affect the consistency, color, and oiliness of inks, which various papers absorb differently.  Paper is lightweight, and the portability of prints has appealed to artists over the years.

The opportunity to produce multiple impressions from the same print surface also made printmaking attractive to 15th- and 16th-century artists.  In addition, prints can be sold at cheaper prices than paintings or sculptures.  Consequently, prints can reach a much wider audience than one-of-a-kind artworks can.  The number and quality of existing 15th- and 16th-century European prints attest to the importance of the new print medium.

Buxheim Saint Christopher, 1423. Hand-colored woodcut, 11 3/8” X 8 1/8”.  John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester, Manchester.

Engraving started in the 1430s and developed by 1450 and began to replace the woodcut process.  Martin Schongauer was the most skilled master of metal engraving.

Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons

• Saint is caught by demons, who claw and tear at his smooth skin. Notice the rough cloth, furry and feathery and the hairy and scaly.

The use of cross-hatching to describe forms, which Schongauer probably developed, became standard among German graphic artists.

In 1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented a new version of the printing press using
movable type. Printmaking had been known in China for centuries but never took off.  Earliest form was the woodcut.  Using a gouging instrument, artists remove sections of wood blocks, sawing along the grain. They ink the ridges that carry the designs, and the hollows remain dry of ink and do not print. Artists produced woodcuts well before the development of movable-type printing.

When a rise in literacy and the improved economy necessitated production of illustrated books on a grand scale, artists met the challenge of bringing the woodcut picture onto the same page as the letterpress.

MICHEL WOLGEMUT and shop, Tarvisium, page from the so-called Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Woodcut,1’ 2” X 9”. Printed by ANTON KOBERGER.

MICHEL WOLGEMUT

The Nuremberg Chronicles are a history of the world produced in Nuremberg (city in Southern Germany) and written by Anton Koberger. There are more than 650 illustrations. The book was illustrated by the workshop of Michel Wolgemut (1434–1519). 

This image represents Tarvisium (modern Tarvisio), a town in northeast Italy.