Digital reproduction of original, front

Robert Campin (1425-28)

Robert Campin (1425-28) or the Master of Flemalle

Robert Campin (1425-28)

Northern Renaissance 15th Century

Campin, Mérode Altarpiece• Donors at left: grave, sedate,

middle class, witness a holy event

• In center: Annunciation scene• Domestication of religious

scenes, no haloes • Water and water basin as a

baptism symbol• Candle just snuffed out: divine

light puts out human light• Candles have a phallic

connotation; extinguished candle: consummation of marriage

• Lilies: Mary’s purity

• Three flowers indicate the Trinity, one bud: Christ as yet unborn

• Virgin on floor: her humility• Virgin blocks off entrance to

hell, symbolically the fireplace• At right: Joseph in his

workshop• Outside, a view of a Flemish

city, with a mousetrap for sale in the window; mousetrap as symbol of Christ ensnaring the devil

• Thin figures, sinuous curves of drapery

• Microscopic sense of surface detail

Hugo van der Goes, c. 1436-1482 (Flem.),

Northern Renaissance 15th Century

Van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece• Painted in Bruges, installed on altar of

a Florentine church attached to the city’s largest hospital

• Virgin represents alleviation of suffering

• Oddly different sizes of figures• Solemn grandeur• Shepherds in wonder, gazing in

curiosity• Wheat, serving as the bed for the

Christ Child, is a Eucharistic symbol• Painted for a church associated with a

maternity hospital in Florence• Mary as the great mother of childbirth

• Flowers are symbolic of suffering: scarlet lily, white and purple irises, Mary’s suffering in childbirth, Christ’s suffering on the Cross

• Many of the flowers were known for their healing properties, appropriate for hospital setting of work

• Background left wing: Mary’s pregnant state revealed as Joseph helps her

• Christ: tiny and frail newborn• Margaret: patron saint of

childbirth on right panel with female donors

• Left panel: male donors and saints

DepositionRogier van der Weydenc. 1435

Northern Renaissance 15th Century

Van der Weyden, Escorial Deposition• No deep landscape, figures on a shallow stage, silhouetted against a

gold ground• Dynamically curved composition• Strong emotional impact on the observer, particularly in the tear-

streaked face of swooning Mary• Dramatic stress• Zigzag rhythm and profiles• Parallel relationships in positioning of the figures: Mary and Christ,

the two figures holding them, and the two end figures• Brilliantly colored

Jean FouquetVirgin and Child Surrounded by Angels1450

Jean Fouquet, 1450

Charles VII of France

Jean Fouquet

Petrus ChristusPortrait of a Carthusian Monk,1446

Claus Sluter

Well of Moses

1395 - 1406

Sluter executed at the end of the fourteenth century a large fountain (called Well of Moses) in the Carthusian monastery (Chartreuse de Champmol). The monastery was intended to be the burying place of the Prince of Burgundy, Philip the Bold and his family. The monastery was destroyed during the French revolution, but the hexagonal base with the figures of the six prophets who had foreseen the death of Christ on the Cross (Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel and Isaiah) survived.

Mourners from the tomb of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier, 1443–1457 (total of 36)

Unfinished Calendar Page

January

The Très Riches Heures is the classic example of a medieval book of hours. This was a collection of the text for each liturgical hour of the day - hence the name - which often included other, supplementary, texts. Calendars, prayers, psalms and masses for certain holy days were commonly included.

Northern Renaissance 15th Century

Limbourg Brothers, October• From a Book of Hours• Top: paired signs of the

zodiac: Libra & Scorpio• Divide between peasant class

in foreground and ruling nobility in castle in background

• Peasants work at farm routines

• Very detailed observation of nature: from birds eating the seed to the shadows cast by the horse

• Sumptuous colors 1411-16

Torment of Saint AnthonyMartin Schongauer, 1480 - 90

Tour de force of engraving skill

Textural detail

Focus on spiritual goals throughout the travails of temptation

Albrecht DurerSt. Jerome1514

Domenico del Ghirlandaio1449-94 (It), central panel of the triptychaltarpiece, in the Church of Santa Trinita; Florence, Italy, 1485.

Saint-Maclou, Rouen1432 - 1521

1443-51

Italian Quattro Cento

Major Themes of the Era

• Scholars & artists become fascinated with classical antiquity – its art, literature and other forms of culture.

• A new interest in the natural world as artists search for ways to depict what and how we see – fields of science, medicine and engineering are of special interest to the pioneering thinkers of the time.

• Patronage of the church provided financial support for artwork, and artists portray humans and their environment in a realistic manner when visually interpreting biblical texts.

• Concerns of the era are humanist concerns – a worldview focused on human beings, their potential, achievement and subsequent civic responsibility.

Italian Quattrocento Painting

Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter

• 11’ 5 ½” x 18’ 8 ½”• Fresco in the Sistine Chapel 1481 - 1482• Patron – Pope Sixtus IV• Use of linear perspective (demonstrated by

Brunelleschi in 1420 and codified by Alberti in 1436 in his treatise “On Painting”.

Italian Quattrocento Painting

Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter• Figures lined up in a row• Emphasis on clarity, bright colors• Feeling of easy grace• Contemporaries in the painting• Shapely mantles• Weight placed on one foot, hip noticeable• Vast Renaissance plaza• Arch of Constantine, dome of Florence Cathedral in background• Catholic Church centered on Saint Peter: open space to highlight the

key• Middle Left: Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s• Middle Right: Stoning of Christ• Located in the Sistine Chapel, the place where Popes are elected

Composition

• Architecture ties authority of Constantine, Christ and St. Peter

• Peter, as first Pope, justifies supremacy of papacy

Self-portrait

Original setting

Sistine Chapel