Piety, Passion, and Politics: 15th-Century Art in Northern Europe and Spain
	French Manuscript Illumination :: 15th-Century Flemish Art :: 15th-Century French Art :: 15th-Century German Art :: 15th-Century Spanish Art		Images courtesy of Saskia Ltd.
	15th-CENTURY FLEMISH ART The Burgundian Netherlands Burgundian expansion: In the 15th century, Flanders (more or less equivalent to modern Belgium, Holland, and parts of northern France) was part of the Duchy of Burgundy, a region in what is today east-central France. Some Flemish sculpture shows an intense observation of natural appearances. In painting, the new oil technique was used to enhance the naturalistic representation of figures and objects with meticulous detail. In both sculpture and painting, textures are skillfully and minutely differentiated. Figures are lifelike and usually shown wearing heavy draperies with voluminous folds. Religious events are often shown in contemporary 15th-century settings where everyday objects may also function as religious symbols. Portraiture emerges as an independent genre. Medieval ideas and conventions, however, persist in the treatment of space, scale, and figure proportions, and in the visionary quality of such paintings as the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. In the 14th century, the Duchy of Burgundy acquired through marriage counties in the Netherlands that included Bruges and other rich industrial, commercial, and banking cities, such as Ghent, Louvain, and Ypres. Bruges became the financial clearinghouse for all of northern Europe. After 1477, the southern Burgundian lands were absorbed by France, and the Netherlands, through marriage, became part of the Holy Roman Empire under Maximilian of Hapsburg. Subsidizing a monastery: Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, endowed the Chartreuse de Champmol near Dijon. A symbolic fountain of life: For the cloister of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Claus Sluter designed a large sculptural fountain located in a well. Six realistically carved and painted statues of prophets surround a base that once supported a Crucifixion group. The structure served as a symbolic fountain of life. 20-3: CLAUS SLUTER, Well of Moses, Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, 1395-1406. Limestone with traces of paint, figures approx. 6' high. Well of Moses Well of Moses Well of Moses Well of Moses Well of Moses Panels that preface the Passion: The exterior panels of an altarpiece painted by Melchior Broederlam show an unusual amalgamation of different styles, locales, and religious symbolism. 20-4: MELCHIOR BROEDERLAM, outer wings of the Retable de Champmol. Annunciation and Visitation (left) and Presentation and Flight into Egypt (right), from Chapel of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, installed 1399. Panels, each 5' 5 3/4" x 4' 1 1/4". Musée de la Ville, Dijon. Broederlam Annunciation and Presentation Annunciation Presentation Presentation Public Devotional Imagery: Altarpieces Piety and Politics: Philip the Bold used the Church and the religious crisis of the Great Schism to expand his authority. The politicization of the Church contributed to neglect of clerical functions, to immoral behavior, and to pursuit of material gain. However, devotional practices, pilgrimages, processions, and the worship of the Virgin Mary increased among the populace. This increased piety promoted the production of religious art, especially of altarpieces, in 15th-century Flanders. Paintings were commonly commissioned by guilds. Public altarpieces were often in the form of polyptychs, with hinged side panels that could be opened to reveal the main panel on Sundays and feast days, and closed at other times. Redemption and salvation: Two of the exterior panels of Jan van Eyck's triptych of the Ghent Altarpiece in the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Ghent depict the donors next to two panels of painted illusionistic stone sculptures of Ghent's patron saints, with an Annunciation scene above. When opened, in the upper register sit God the Father, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist, with, to either side, a choir of angels and an angel playing an organ. Adam and Eve appear in the far panels. In the central panel in the lower register, saints converge in a landscape on an altar of the Lamb and a fountain of life. The painting is colorful and very detailed. 20-5: JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432. Oil on wood, approx. 11' 6" x 7' 6". closed closed closed closed closed 20-06: JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (open), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432. Oil on wood, approx. 11' 6" x 15'. open open open open altarpiece Oil paints and glazes: The exactitude found in the work of van Eyck and others was facilitated by the use of oil paint that allowed painters to build up their pictures by superimposing translucent paint layers (glazes) on a layer of underpainting. Flemish painting is characterized by deep, intense tonalities; the illusion of glowing light; and hard enamel-like surfaces. The drama of Christ's death: Rogier van der Weyden's fluid and dynamic compositions stress human action and drama. His moving Deposition shows the figures and action compressed onto a shallow stage. The group of figures is unified by a series of lateral undulating movements and by their shared anguish.
	20-7: ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Deposition, from Notre-Dame hors-les-murs, Louvain, Belgium, ca. 1435. Oil on wood, approx. 7' 3" x 8' 7". Museo del Prado, Madrid. Deposition Deposition Deposition Deposition Detail Saving lives and souls: Rogier van der Weyden uses a hierarchy of scale to distinguish the relative importance of the figures grouped to either side of Christ and the archangel Michael in his largely horizontal altarpiece of the Last Judgment. 20-8: ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Last Judgment Altarpiece (open), Hôtel-Dieu, Beaune, France, ca. 1444-1448. Panel, 7' 4 5/8" x 17' 11". Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Beaune. Altarpiece Altarpiece Altarpiece Altarpiece Altarpiece A Flemish Last Supper: Dirk Bout's Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament uses a single vanishing point for constructing an interior in which, moreover, the scale of the figures' scale is adjusted to correspond to the space they occupy. In this central panel, Bouts presents Christ in the role of a priest consecrating the Eucharistic wafer. 20-9: IRK BOUTS, Last Supper (central panel of the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament), Saint Peter's, Louvain, Belgium, 1464-1468. Oil on wood, approx. 6' x 5'. Last Supper Last Supper Last Supper Last Supper Last Supper From Flanders to Florence: The large triptych known as the Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes shows the Adoration of the Shepherds in the central panel. Additional meaning and significance is conveyed through symbols. Although the figures vary in scale, they are realistically portrayed and characterized according to their social level.
	20-10: HUGO VAN DER GOES, Portinari Altarpiece (open), from Sant'Egidio, Florence, Italy, ca. 1476. Tempera and oil on wood, 8' 3 1/2" x 10' (center panel), 8' 3 1/2" x 4' 7 1/2" (each wing). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. altarpiece left wing right wing center altarpiece Celebrating a mystic marriage: Hans Memling's balanced, technically refined, and opulently painted composition of the Virgin with Saints and Angels (the central panel of the Saint John Altarpiece) shows, typically, a slightly built, pretty, serene young Virgin holding a doll-like infant Christ. 20-11: HANS MEMLING, Altarpiece of the Virgin with Saints and Angels (or Saint John Altarpiece), Hospitaal Sint Jan, Bruges, Belgium, 1479. Oil on wood, approx. 5' 7 3/4" x 5' 7 3/4" (center panel), 5' 7 3/4" x 2' 7 1/8" (each wing). Altarpiece Center Center Center Center Private Devotional Imagery In the privacy of the home: Individuals demonstrated piety by commissioning artworks for private devotional use in the home. Personal devotion was advocated by popular reform movements and served to link religious and secular concerns. Religious scenes in paintings were often presented as if taking place in the familiar setting of a Flemish house. The symbolic and the secular: The Mérode Altarpiece was commissioned for private use. The central panel shows the Annunciation taking place in a well-kept, middle-class Flemish home. Familiar accessories, furniture, and utensils, however, also function as religious symbols. 20-12: MASTER OF FLÉMALLE (ROBERT CAMPIN), Mérode Altarpiece (open), The Annunciation (center panel), ca. 1425-1428. Oil on wood, center panel approx. 2' 1" x 2' 1". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (The Cloisters Collection, 1956). Altarpiece Left Wing Right Wing Detail Altarpiece For better, for worse: In Jan van Eyck's skillfully painted double portrait, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, the couple stand in a Flemish bedchamber in which almost every object also serves a symbolic function. The painting may have served as a record of their marriage.
	20-13: JAN VAN EYCK, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434. Oil on wood, approx. 2' 8" x 1' 11 1/2". National Gallery, London. portrait portrait portrait portrait portrait 20-14: JAN VAN EYCK, detail of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434. Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror Saint or goldsmith?: The Legend of Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus depicts a goldsmith showing a selection of rings to an elegantly dressed young couple. Possibly commissioned by the goldsmiths' guild in Bruges, the painting may show Saint Eligius, the patron saint of gold- and silversmiths, blacksmiths, and metalworkers. 20-15: PETRUS CHRISTUS, A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius, 1449. Oil on wood, approx. 3' 3" x 2' 10". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (the Robert Lehman Collection, 1975). Panel Panel Panel Panel Panel Portraiture Meeting the viewer's gaze: Jan van Eyck's Man in a Red Turban is a secular portrait. 20-16: JAN VAN EYCK, Man in a Red Turban, 1433. Oil on wood, approx. 10 1/4" x 7 1/2". National Gallery, London. Portrait Portrait Portrait Portrait Portrait Capturing class and character: Rogier van der Weyden's honest and direct portrait of an unknown young woman is a faithful likeness that also reveals her individual character. It is composed in large, simple planes and volumes. 20-17: ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Portrait of a Lady, ca. 1460. Oil on panel, 1' 1 3/8" x 10 1/16". National Gallery, Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection). portrait portrait portrait portrait portrait An Enigmatic Flemish Painter Love and marriage or sex and sin?: Hieronymus Bosch's so-called Garden of Earthly Delights is difficult to interpret. The triptych perhaps served as a warning to viewers of the fate awaiting decadent and immoral sinners.
	20-18: HIERONYMUS BOSCH, Garden of Earthly Delights. Creation of Eve (left wing), Garden of Earthly Delights (central panel), Hell (right wing), 1505-1510. Oil on wood, center panel 7' 2 5/8" x 6' 4 3/4". Museo del Prado, Madrid. left center right detail left center right triptych left center right left center triptych Triptych Closed
	French Manuscript Illumination :: 15th-Century Flemish Art :: 15th-Century French Art :: 15th-Century German Art :: 15th-Century Spanish Art