R. Klimov
The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the beginning of the 15th century.
Dutch (actually Flemish) masters back in the 14th century. enjoyed great fame in Western Europe, and many of them played an important role in the development of the art of other countries (especially France). However, almost all of them do not go out of the mainstream of medieval art. Moreover, the approach of a new pore in painting is least noticeable. Artists (for example, Melchior Bruderlam, c. 1360-after 1409) at best multiply in their works the number of details observed in nature, but their mechanical stringing in no way contributes to the realism of the whole.
The sculpture reflected the glimpses of the new consciousness much brighter. At the end of the 14th century Klaus Sluter (d. c. 1406) made the first attempts to break the traditional canons. The statues of Duke Philip the Bold and his wife on the portal of the tomb of the Burgundian dukes in the Dijon monastery of Chanmol (1391-1397) are distinguished by unconditional portrait persuasiveness. Their placement on the sides of the portal, in front of the statue of the Mother of God, located in the center, testifies to the sculptor's desire to unite all the figures and create from them a kind of scene of anticipation. In the courtyard of the same monastery, Sluter, together with his nephew and student Claus de Werve (c. 1380-1439), created the composition "Golgotha" (1395-1406), the pedestal decorated with statues that has come down to us (the so-called Well of the Prophets) is distinguished by the power of forms and dramatic intention. The statue of Moses, which is part of this work, can be classified as one of the most significant achievements of European sculpture of its time. Of the works of Sluter and de Verve, we should also note the figures of mourners for the tomb of Philip the Bold (1384-1411; Dijon. Museum, and Paris, Cluny Museum), which are characterized by a sharp, increased expressiveness in conveying emotions.
And yet neither Klaus Sluger nor Klaus de Werwe can be considered the founders of the Netherlandish Renaissance. Some exaggeration of expression, excessive literalness of portrait solutions and a very weak individualization of the image make us see in them rather the predecessors than the initiators of a new art. In any case, the development of Renaissance tendencies in the Netherlands proceeded in other ways. These paths were outlined in a Dutch miniature from the early 15th century.
Dutch miniaturists back in the 13th-14th centuries. enjoyed the widest popularity; many of them traveled outside the country and had a very strong influence on the masters, for example, in France. And just in the field of miniature, a monument of turning point was created - the so-called Turin-Milan Book of Hours.
It is known that Jean, Duke of Berry was its customer, and that work on it began shortly after 1400. But not yet being completed, this Book of Hours changed its owner, and work on it dragged on until the second half of the 15th century. In 1904, during the fire of the Turin National Library, most of it burned down.
In terms of artistic perfection and its significance for the art of the Netherlands, among the miniatures of the Book of Hours, a group of sheets created, apparently, in the 1920s, stands out. 15th c. Hubert and Jan van Eykov were called their author, or conditionally called the Chief Master of the Book of Hours.
These miniatures are unexpectedly real. The master depicts green hills with walking girls, a seashore with white lambs of the waves, distant cities and a cavalcade of smart horsemen. Clouds float in flocks across the sky; castles are reflected in the quiet waters of the river, a service is going on under the bright vaults of the church, a newborn is busy in the room. The artist aims to convey the infinite, living, all-penetrating beauty of the Earth. But at the same time, he does not try to subordinate the image of the world to a strict worldview concept, as his Italian contemporaries did. It is not limited to recreating a plot-specific scene. People in his compositions do not receive a dominant role and do not break away from the landscape environment, always presented with keen observation. In a baptism, for example, the characters are depicted in the foreground, and yet the viewer perceives the scene in its landscape unity: a river valley with a castle, trees, and small figures of Christ and John. Rare for their time, fidelity to nature marked all color shades, and by their airiness, these miniatures can be considered an exceptional phenomenon.
For the miniatures of the Turin-Milan Book of Hours (and, more broadly, for painting of the 20s of the 15th century), it is very characteristic that the artist pays attention not so much to the harmonious and reasonable organization of the world, but to its natural spatial extent. In essence, the features of the artistic worldview are manifested here, which are quite specific, having no analogies in contemporary European art.
For an Italian painter of the early 15th century, the gigantic figure of a man, as it were, cast its shadow on everything, subjugated everything to itself. In turn, the space was interpreted with emphasized rationalism: it had clearly defined boundaries, all three dimensions were clearly expressed in it, and it served as an ideal environment for human figures. The Dutchman is not inclined to see people as the center of the universe. Man for him is only a part of the universe, perhaps the most valuable, but does not exist outside the whole. The landscape in his works never turns into a background, and space is devoid of calculated order.
These principles testified to the formation of a new type of worldview. And it is no coincidence that their development went beyond the narrow limits of the miniature, led to the renewal of the entire Netherlandish painting and the flowering of a special variant of Renaissance art.
First paintings, which, like the miniatures of the Turin Book of Hours, can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments, were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck.
Both of them - Hubert (died in 1426) and Jan (c. 1390-1441) - played a decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Jan was, apparently, a very educated person, studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, carried out some diplomatic missions of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good, in the service of which, by the way, he traveled to Portugal. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the pictorial works of the brothers, made in the 20s, and among them such as “Myrrh-bearing women at the tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beiningen), “Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), "St. Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).
In the painting Madonna in the Church by Jan van Eyck, specific natural observations take up an extremely large amount of space. Previous European art did not know such vitally natural images of the real world. The artist painstakingly draws sculptural details, does not forget to light candles near the statue of the Madonna in the altar barrier, marks a crack in the wall, and outside the window shows the faint outline of a flying butt. The interior is filled with light golden light. The light glides along the church vaults, lays like sunbeams on the floor slabs, freely pours into the doors that are open to meet it.
However, in this vitally convincing interior, the master places the figure of Mary, her head reaching the windows of the second tier. II, however, such a large-scale combination of figure and architecture does not give the impression of implausibility, because not quite the same relationships and connections dominate in van Eyck's painting as in life. The light penetrating it is real, but it also gives the picture the features of sublime enlightenment and gives the colors an unusual intensity of sound. It is no coincidence that Mary’s blue cloak and her red dress sweep through the entire church - these two colors flash in Mary’s crown, intertwine in the robes of angels seen in the depths of the church, light up under the arches and on the crucifix crowning the altar barrier, to then crumble into small sparkles in the farthest stained-glass window of the cathedral.
In Dutch art of the 20s. 15th c. the greatest accuracy in the transfer of nature and objects of human use is combined with an increased sense of beauty, and above all, the color, colorful sonority of a real thing. The luminosity of color, its deep inner agitation and a kind of solemn purity deprive the works of the 1920s. any everyday routine - even in cases where a person is depicted in a domestic environment.
If the activity of the real beginning in the works of the 1420s. is a common sign of their Renaissance nature, then the indispensable emphasis on the wonderful enlightenment of everything earthly testifies to the perfect originality of the Renaissance in the Netherlands. This quality of Netherlandish painting received a powerful synthetic expression in the central work of the northern Renaissance - in the famous Ghent altar of the van Eyck brothers.
The Ghent altar (Ghent, the church of St. Bavo) is a grandiose, many-part structure (3.435 X 4.435). When closed, it is a two-tiered composition, the lower tier of which is occupied by images of statues of two Johns - the Baptist and the Evangelist, on the sides of which there are kneeling customers - Jodocus Veid and Elizabeth Burlut; the upper tier is reserved for the scene of the Annunciation, which is crowned with the figures of the sibyls and prophets, completing the composition.
The lower tier, due to the depiction of real people and the naturalness and tangibility of the statues, is more than the upper tier connected with the environment in which the viewer is located. The color scheme of this tier seems dense, heavy. On the contrary, the "Annunciation" seems to be more distant, its coloring is bright, and the space is not closed. The artist pushes the heroes - the evangelizing angel and Mary giving thanks - to the edges of the stage. And the whole space of the room frees, fills with light. This light, to an even greater extent than in the "Madonna in the Church", has a dual nature - it brings the beginning of the sublime, but it also poeticizes the pure comfort of an ordinary household environment. And as if to prove the unity of these two aspects of life - universal, sublime and real, everyday - the central panels of the "Annunciation" are given a view of the distant perspective of the city and the image of a touching detail of household use - a washbasin with a towel hanging beside it. The artist diligently avoids the limitations of space. Light, even luminous, it continues outside the room, behind the windows, and where there is no window, there is a recess or niche, and where there is no niche, the light falls like a sunbeam, repeating thin window sashes on the wall.
In the first third of the 15th century, almost simultaneously with the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, a turning point occurred in the development of the art of the northern countries - the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Despite some national characteristics, the art of these countries is characterized in the 15th century by the presence of a number of features that stand out especially clearly when compared with Italy. This turning point occurs most clearly and consistently in painting, while sculpture retains its Gothic features for a long time, and architecture continues to develop within the framework of architecture until the first decades of the 16th century. gothic style. The leading role in the development of painting in the 15th century belongs to the Netherlands, which has a significant influence on France and Germany; in the first quarter of the 16th century, Germany came to the fore.
Common to the art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the north is the desire for a realistic depiction of man and the world around him. These tasks were solved, however, in different ways, in accordance with the different nature of culture.
The attention of the Dutch masters was attracted by the inexhaustible richness of the forms of nature revealed before the eyes of man and the diversity of the individual appearance of people. Characteristic and special prevails in the work of artists of the northern countries over the general and typical. They are alien to the search of the artists of the Italian Renaissance, aimed at revealing the laws of nature and visual perception. Until the 16th century, when the influence of Italy, both in general culture and in art, began to play an important role, neither the theory of perspective nor the doctrine of proportions attracted their attention. The Netherlandish painters, however, developed in a purely empirical way techniques that allow them to convey the impression of the depth of space with no less persuasiveness than the Italians. Observation reveals to them the manifold functions of light; they widely use various optical effects - refracted, reflected and diffused light, conveying both the impression of a stretching landscape and a room filled with air and light, as well as the subtlest differences in the material features of things (stone, metal, glass, fur, etc.). Reproducing the smallest details with the utmost care, they recreate the sparkling richness of colors with the same heightened vigilance. These new pictorial tasks could only be solved with the help of the new pictorial technique of oil painting, the “discovery” of which historical tradition ascribes to Jan van Eyck; from the middle of the 15th century, this new "Flemish manner" supplanted the old tempera technique in Italy as well.
Unlike Italy, in the northern countries there were no conditions for any significant development of monumental painting; a prominent place belongs in the 15th century in France and in the Netherlands to the book miniature, which had a strong tradition here. An essential feature of the art of the northern countries was the absence of prerequisites for that interest in antiquity, which is so great importance had in Italy. Antiquity will attract the attention of artists only in the 16th century, along with the development of humanistic studies. The main place in the production of art workshops belongs to altarpieces (carved and painted folds), the wings of which were covered with images on both sides. Religious scenes are transferred to a real life situation, the action often takes place among the landscape or in the interior. Receives significant development in the Netherlands as early as the 15th century, and in Germany at the beginning of the 16th century portrait painting.
During the 16th century, there was a gradual separation into independent genres household painting, landscape, still life, mythological and allegorical paintings appear. In the 15th century, a new species appears visual arts- engraving on wood and metal, reaching a rapid flowering at the end of the century and the first half of the 16th century; they occupy a particularly large place in the art of Germany, influencing the development of Dutch and French graphics.
We tell how the Dutch artists of the 15th century changed the idea of painting, why the usual religious subjects were inscribed in the modern context and how to determine what the author had in mind
Encyclopedias of symbols or iconographic reference books often give the impression that in the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, symbolism is arranged very simply: the lily represents purity, the palm branch represents martyrdom, and the skull represents the frailty of everything. However, in reality, everything is far from being so clear-cut. Among the Dutch masters of the 15th century, we can often only guess which objects carry a symbolic meaning and which do not, and disputes about what exactly they mean do not subside until now.
1. How Bible stories moved to the Flemish cities
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altarpiece (closed). 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / Wikimedia Commons
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altar. Fragment. 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
On the huge Ghent altar With fully open doors, it is 3.75 m high and 5.2 m wide. Hubert and Jan van Eyck, the scene of the Annunciation is painted on the outside. Outside the window of the hall where the archangel Gabriel proclaims the good news to the Virgin Mary, several streets with half-timbered houses can be seen Fachwerk(German Fachwerk - frame construction, half-timbered construction) is a building technique that was popular in Northern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Half-timbered houses were erected with the help of a frame of vertical, horizontal and diagonal beams of strong wood. The space between them was filled with adobe mixture, brick or wood, and then most often whitewashed on top., tiled roofs and sharp spiers of temples. This is Nazareth, depicted in the guise of a Flemish town. In one of the houses in the window of the third floor, a shirt hanging on a rope is visible. Its width is only 2 mm: a parishioner of the Ghent Cathedral would never have seen it. Such amazing attention to detail, whether it is a reflection on the emerald that adorns the crown of God the Father, or a wart on the forehead of the customer of the altar, is one of the main signs of Flemish painting of the 15th century.
In the 1420s and 30s, a real visual revolution took place in the Netherlands, which had a huge impact on all European art. The Flemish artists of the innovatory generation—Robert Campin (circa 1375-1444), Jan van Eyck (circa 1390-1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464)—achieved an unparalleled mastery of rendering real visual experience in its almost tactile authenticity. Religious images, painted for temples or for the homes of wealthy customers, create the feeling that the viewer, as if through a window, looks into Jerusalem, where Christ is judged and crucified. The same sense of presence is created by their portraits with almost photographic realism, far from any idealization.
They learned how to depict three-dimensional objects on a plane with unprecedented persuasiveness (and in such a way that you want to touch them) and textures (silks, furs, gold, wood, faience, marble, pile of precious carpets). This effect of reality was enhanced by lighting effects: dense, barely noticeable shadows, reflections (in mirrors, armor, stones, pupils), light refraction in glass, blue haze on the horizon ...
Abandoning golden or geometric backgrounds that dominated medieval art for a long time, Flemish artists began increasingly to transfer the action of sacred plots to realistically written - and, most importantly, recognizable to the viewer - spaces. The room in which the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary or where she nursed the baby Jesus could resemble a burgher or aristocratic house. Nazareth, Bethlehem or Jerusalem, where the most important gospel events unfolded, often acquired the features of a specific Bruges, Ghent or Liege.
2. What are hidden symbols
However, we must not forget that the amazing realism of the old Flemish painting was permeated with traditional, still medieval symbols. Many of the everyday objects and landscape details that we see in the panels of Campin or Jan van Eyck helped convey a theological message to the viewer. The German-American art historian Erwin Panofsky called this technique "hidden symbolism" in the 1930s.
Robert Campin. Holy Barbara. 1438 Museo Nacional del Prado
Robert Campin. Holy Barbara. Fragment. 1438 Museo Nacional del Prado
For example, in classical medieval art, saints were often depicted with theirs. So, Barbara of Iliopolskaya usually held in her hands a small, like a toy tower (as a reminder of the tower, where, according to legend, her pagan father imprisoned her). This is a clear symbol - the viewer of that time hardly meant that the saint during her lifetime or in heaven really walked with a model of her torture chamber. Opposite, on one of the panels of Kampin, Barbara sits in a richly furnished Flemish room, and a tower under construction is visible outside the window. Thus, in Campin, the familiar attribute is realistically built into the landscape.
Robert Campin. Madonna and Child in front of a fireplace. Around 1440 The National Gallery, London On another panel, Campin, depicting the Madonna and Child, instead of a golden halo, placed behind her head a fireplace screen made of golden straw. The everyday item replaces the golden disc or crown of rays radiating from the head of the Mother of God. The viewer sees a realistic interior, but understands that the round screen depicted behind the Virgin Mary is reminiscent of her holiness.
Virgin Mary surrounded by martyrs. 15th century Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique / Wikimedia Commons But one should not think that the Flemish masters completely abandoned explicit symbolism: they simply began to use it less often and inventively. Here is an anonymous master from Bruges, in the last quarter of the 15th century, depicted the Virgin Mary, surrounded by virgin martyrs. Almost all of them hold their traditional attributes in their hands. Lucia - a dish with eyes, Agatha - tongs with a torn chest, Agnes - a lamb, etc.. However, Varvara has her attribute, the tower, embroidered on a long mantle in a more modern spirit (as coats of arms of their owners were really embroidered on clothes in the real world).
The very term "hidden symbols" is a bit misleading. In fact, they were not hidden or disguised at all. On the contrary, the goal was for the viewer to recognize them and through them to read the message that the artist and / or his client sought to convey to him - no one played iconographic hide-and-seek.
3. And how to recognize them
Workshop of Robert Campin. Triptych Merode. Around 1427-1432 The Merode triptych is one of those images on which historians of Netherlandish painting have been practicing their methods for generations. We do not know who exactly wrote it and then rewrote it: Kampen himself or one of his students (including the most famous of them, Rogier van der Weyden). More importantly, we do not fully understand the meaning of many details, and researchers continue to argue about which items from the New Testament Flemish interior carry a religious message, and which are transferred there from real life and are just decoration. The better the symbolism is hidden in everyday things, the harder it is to understand if it is there at all.
The Annunciation is written on the central panel of the triptych. On the right wing, Joseph, Mary's husband, is working in his workshop. On the left, the customer of the image, kneeling down, directed his gaze through the threshold into the room where the sacrament unfolds, and behind him his wife piously sorts out the rosary.
Judging by the coat of arms depicted on the stained-glass window behind the Mother of God, this customer was Peter Engelbrecht, a wealthy textile merchant from Mechelen. The figure of a woman behind him was added later - this is probably his second wife Helwig Bille It is possible that the triptych was ordered during the time of Peter's first wife - they did not manage to conceive a child. Most likely, the image was not intended for the church, but for the bedroom, living room or home chapel of the owners..
The Annunciation unfolds in the scenery of a rich Flemish house, possibly reminiscent of the dwelling of the Engelbrechts. The transfer of the sacred plot into a modern interior psychologically shortened the distance between believers and the saints they addressed, and at the same time sacralized their own way of life, since the room of the Virgin Mary is so similar to the one where they pray to her.
lilies
Lily. Fragment of the Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hans Memling. Annunciation. Around 1465–1470The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Medallion with the Annunciation scene. Netherlands, 1500-1510The Metropolitan Museum of Art
To distinguish objects that contained a symbolic message from those that were required only to create an “atmosphere”, one must find breaks in logic in the image (like a royal throne in a modest dwelling) or details that are repeated by different artists in one plot.
The simplest example is , which in the Merode triptych stands in a faience vase on a polygonal table. In late medieval art - not only among northern masters, but also among Italians - lilies appear on countless images of the Annunciation. This flower has long symbolized the purity and virginity of the Mother of God. cistercian Cistercians(lat. Ordo cisterciensis, O.Cist.), "white monks" - a Catholic monastic order founded at the end of the 11th century in France. the mystic Bernard of Claire in the 12th century likened Mary to "the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, the rose of mercy, and the radiant glory of heaven." If in a more traditional version the archangel himself often held the flower in his hands, at Kampen it stands on the table like an interior decoration.
Glass and rays
Holy Spirit. Fragment of the Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hans Memling. Annunciation. 1480–1489The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hans Memling. Annunciation. Fragment. 1480–1489The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jan van Eyck. Lucca Madonna. Fragment. Around 1437
To the left, above the head of the archangel, a tiny baby flies into the room in seven golden rays through the window. This is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, from which Mary immaculately gave birth to a son (it is important that there are exactly seven rays - as gifts of the Holy Spirit). The cross, which the baby holds in his hands, recalls the Passion that was prepared for the God-man, who came to atone for original sin.
How to imagine the incomprehensible miracle of the Immaculate Conception? How can a woman give birth and remain a virgin? According to Bernard of Clairvaux, just as sunlight passes through a glass window without breaking it, the Word of God entered the womb of the Virgin Mary, preserving her virginity.
Apparently, therefore, on the many Flemish images of Our Lady For example, in the Lucca Madonna by Jan van Eyck or in the Annunciation by Hans Memling. in her room you can see a transparent decanter, in which the light from the window plays.
Bench
Madonna. Fragment of the Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Walnut and oak bench. Netherlands, 15th centuryThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jan van Eyck. Lucca Madonna. Around 1437 Stadel Museum
There is a bench by the fireplace, but the Virgin Mary, immersed in pious reading, does not sit on it, but on the floor, or rather on a narrow footstool. This detail emphasizes her humility.
With a bench, everything is not so simple. On the one hand, it looks like real benches that stood in the Flemish houses of that time - one of them is now kept in the same Cloisters Museum as the triptych. Like the bench, next to which the Virgin Mary sat down, it is decorated with figures of dogs and lions. On the other hand, historians, in search of hidden symbolism, have long assumed that the bench from the Annunciation with its lions symbolizes the throne of the Mother of God and recalls the throne of King Solomon, described in the Old Testament: “There were six steps to the throne; the top at the back of the throne was round, and there were armrests on both sides near the seat, and two lions stood at the armrests; and twelve more lions stood there on six steps on either side.” 3 Kings 10:19-20..
Of course, the bench depicted in Merode's triptych has neither six steps nor twelve lions. However, we know that medieval theologians regularly likened the Virgin Mary to the wisest king Solomon, and in The Mirror of Human Salvation, one of the most popular typological "reference books" of the late Middle Ages, it is said that "the throne of the king Solomon is the Virgin Mary, in whom Jesus Christ dwelt, true wisdom ... The two lions depicted on this throne symbolize that Mary has kept in her heart ... two tablets with the ten commandments of the law. Therefore, in Jan van Eyck's Lucca Madonna, the Queen of Heaven sits on a high throne with four lions - on the armrests and on the back.
But after all, Campin depicted not a throne, but a bench. One of the historians drew attention to the fact that, in addition, it was made according to the most modern scheme for those times. The backrest is designed in such a way that it can be thrown to one side or the other, allowing the owner to warm his legs or his back by the fireplace without rearranging the bench itself. Such a functional thing seems to be too far from the majestic throne. So, in Merode's triptych, she was rather required in order to emphasize the comfortable prosperity that reigns in the New Testament-Flemish house of the Virgin Mary.
Washbasin and towel
Washbasin and towel. Fragment of the Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altar. Fragment. 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
A bronze vessel hanging on a chain in a niche, and a towel with blue stripes, too, most likely, were not just household utensils. A similar niche with a copper vessel, a small basin and a towel appears in the scene of the Annunciation on the van Eyck Ghent Altar - and the space where the archangel Gabriel proclaims the good news to Mary does not at all resemble the cozy burgher interior of Kampen, rather it resembles a hall in the heavenly halls.
The Virgin Mary in medieval theology was correlated with the Bride from the Song of Songs, and therefore transferred to her many epithets addressed by the author of this Old Testament poem to his beloved. In particular, the Mother of God was likened to a “closed garden” and a “well of living waters”, and therefore the Dutch masters often depicted her in a garden or next to a garden where water spouted from a fountain. So Erwin Panofsky at one time suggested that the vessel hanging in the room of the Virgin Mary is a domestic version of the fountain, the personification of her purity and virginity.
But there is also alternative version. Art critic Carla Gottlieb noticed that in some images of late medieval churches, the same vessel with a towel hung at the altar. With its help, the priest performed ablution, celebrated Mass and distributed the Holy Gifts to the believers. In the 13th century, Guillaume Durand, Bishop of Mende, in his colossal treatise on the liturgy, wrote that the altar symbolizes Christ, and the ablution vessel is his mercy, in which the priest washes his hands - each of the people can wash away the dirt of sin through baptism and repentance. This is probably why the niche with the vessel represents the room of the Mother of God as a sanctuary and builds a parallel between the incarnation of Christ and the sacrament of the Eucharist, during which bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ.
Mousetrap
Right wing of Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fragment of the right wing of Merode's triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The right wing is the most unusual part of the triptych. It seems that everything is simple here: Joseph was a carpenter, and in front of us is his workshop. However, before Campin, Joseph was a rare guest on the images of the Annunciation, and no one depicted his craft in such detail at all. In general, at that time, Joseph was treated ambivalently: they were revered as the wife of the Mother of God, the devoted breadwinner of the Holy Family, and at the same time they were ridiculed as an old cuckold.. Here, in front of Joseph, among the tools, for some reason there is a mousetrap, and another one is exposed outside the window, like goods in a shop window.
The American medievalist Meyer Shapiro drew attention to the fact that Aurelius Augustine, who lived in the 4th-5th centuries, in one of the texts called the cross and the cross of Christ a mousetrap set by God for the devil. After all, thanks to the voluntary death of Jesus, humanity atoned for original sin and the power of the devil was crushed. Similarly, medieval theologians speculated that the marriage of Mary and Joseph helped to deceive the devil, who did not know if Jesus was really the Son of God who would crush his kingdom. Therefore, the mousetrap, made by the adoptive father of the God-man, can remind of the coming death of Christ and his victory over the forces of darkness.
Board with holes
Saint Joseph. Fragment of the right wing of Merode's triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fireplace screen. Fragment of the central wing of the Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The most mysterious object in the entire triptych is the rectangular board in which Joseph drills holes. What is this? Historians have different versions: a lid for a box of coals that was used to warm the feet, the top of a box for fishing bait (the same idea of \u200b\u200bthe devil's trap works here), a sieve is one of the parts of a wine press Since wine is transubstantiated into the blood of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the wine press served as one of the main metaphors for the Passion., a blank for a block with nails, which, in many late medieval images, the Romans hung at the feet of Christ during the procession to Golgotha to increase his suffering (another reminder of the Passion), etc.
However, most of all, this board resembles a screen that is installed in front of an extinct fireplace in the central panel of the triptych. The absence of fire in the hearth may also be symbolically significant. Jean Gerson, one of the most authoritative theologians of the turn of the 14th-15th centuries and an ardent propagandist of the cult of St. burning flame,” which Joseph was able to put out. Therefore, both the extinguished fireplace and the fireplace screen, which Mary's elderly husband is making, could personify the chaste nature of their marriage, their immunity from the fire of carnal passion.
Customers
Left wing of Merode triptych. Around 1427–1432The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jan van Eyck. Madonna of Chancellor Rolin. Around 1435Musée du Louvre / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Jan van Eyck. Madonna with Canon van der Pale. 1436
Figures of customers appear side by side with sacred characters in medieval art. On the pages of manuscripts and on altar panels, we can often see their owners or donors (who donated this or that image of the church), who are praying to Christ or the Virgin Mary. However, there they are most often separated from sacred persons (for example, on the sheets of hours of the Nativity or the Crucifixion are placed in a miniature frame, and the figure of the praying person is taken out to the fields) or depicted as tiny figures at the feet of huge saints.
The Flemish masters of the 15th century began to increasingly represent their clients in the same space where the sacred plot unfolds. And usually in growth with Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. For example, Jan van Eyck in "Madonna of Chancellor Rolin" and "Madonna with Canon van der Pale" depicted donors kneeling before the Virgin Mary, who is holding her divine son on her knees. The customer of the altar appeared as a witness to biblical events or as a visionary, calling them before his inner eye, immersed in prayerful meditation.
4. What do the symbols in a secular portrait mean and how to look for them
Jan van Eyck. Portrait of the Arnolfini couple. 1434 The Arnolfini portrait is a unique image. With the exception of tombstones and figures of donors praying before saints, one cannot find before him in the Dutch and European medieval art in general. family portraits(and even in full height), where the couple would be captured in their own home.
Despite all the debate about who is depicted here, the basic, although far from indisputable version is this: this is Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, a wealthy merchant from Lucca who lived in Bruges, and his wife Giovanna Cenami. And the solemn scene that van Eyck presented is their engagement or marriage itself. That's why the man takes the woman's hand - this gesture, iunctio Literally "connection", that is, that a man and a woman take each other's hands., depending on the situation, meant either a promise to marry in the future (fides pactionis), or the marriage vow itself - a voluntary union that the bride and groom enter into here and now (fides conjugii).
However, why are there oranges by the window, a broom hanging in the distance, and a single candle burning in the chandelier in the middle of the day? What is this? Fragments of the real interior of that time? Items specifically emphasizing the status of those depicted? Allegories related to their love and marriage? Or religious symbols?
shoes
Shoes. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons
Giovanna's shoes. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons
In the foreground, in front of Arnolfini, there are wooden clogs. Numerous interpretations of this strange detail, as often happens, range from the lofty religious to the businesslike practical.
Panofsky believed that the room where the marriage union takes place appears almost like a sacred space - therefore Arnolfini is depicted barefoot. After all, the Lord, who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, commanded him to take off his shoes before approaching: “And God said: do not come here; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Ref. 3:5.
According to another version, bare feet and removed shoes (Giovanna's red shoes are still visible in the back of the room) are full of erotic associations: the clogs hinted that the wedding night was waiting for the spouses, and emphasized the intimate nature of the scene.
Many historians object that such shoes were not worn at all in the house, only on the street. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the clogs are at the doorstep: in the portrait of a married couple, they remind of the role of the husband as the breadwinner of the family, an active person, turned to the outside world. That is why he is depicted closer to the window, and the wife is closer to the bed - after all, her destiny, as it was believed, was taking care of the house, giving birth to children and pious obedience.
On the wooden back behind Giovanna, there is a carved figure of a saint emerging from the body of a dragon. This is most likely Saint Margaret of Antioch, revered as the patroness of pregnant women and women in childbirth.
Broom
Broom. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons
Robert Campin. Annunciation. Around 1420–1440Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique
Jos van Cleve. Holy family. Around 1512–1513The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A broom hangs under the figurine of Saint Margaret. It seems that this is just a household detail or an indication of the wife's household duties. But perhaps it is also a symbol that reminded of the purity of the soul.
In one late 15th-century Dutch engraving, a woman who personifies repentance holds a similar broom in her teeth. A broom (or a small brush) sometimes appears in the room of Our Lady - on the images of the Annunciation (as in Robert Campin) or the entire Holy Family (for example, in Jos van Cleve). There, this item, as some historians suggest, could represent not only housekeeping and care for the cleanliness of the house, but also chastity in marriage. In the case of Arnolfini, this was hardly appropriate.
Candle
Candle. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434 The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons The more unusual the detail, the more likely it is a symbol. Here, for some reason, a candle burns on a chandelier in the middle of the day (and the remaining five candlesticks are empty). According to Panofsky, it symbolizes the presence of Christ, whose gaze embraces the whole world. He emphasized that lit candles were used during the pronunciation of the oath, including the marital one. According to his other hypothesis, a single candle recalls the candles that were carried before the wedding procession, and then lit in the house of the newlyweds. In this case, the fire represents a sexual impulse rather than the Lord's blessing. Characteristically, in Merode's triptych, the fire does not burn in the fireplace near which the Virgin Mary sits - and some historians see this as a reminder that her marriage to Joseph was chaste..
oranges
oranges. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons
Jan van Eyck. "Lucca Madonna". Fragment. 1436Stadel Museum / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
There are oranges on the windowsill and on the table by the window. On the one hand, these exotic and expensive fruits - they had to be brought to the north of Europe from far away - in the late Middle Ages and early modern times could symbolize love passion and were sometimes mentioned in descriptions of marriage rituals. This explains why van Eyck placed them next to an engaged or newly married couple. However, van Eyck's orange also appears in a fundamentally different, obviously unloving context. In his Lucca Madonna, the Christ child holds a similar orange fruit in his hands, and two more lie by the window. Here - and therefore, perhaps, in the portrait of the Arnolfini couple - they are reminiscent of the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the innocence of man before the fall and its subsequent loss.
Mirror
Mirror. Fragment of the "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". 1434The National Gallery, London / Wikimedia Commons
Jan van Eyck. Madonna with Canon van der Pale. Fragment. 1436Groeningemuseum, Bruges / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altar. Fragment. 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altar. Fragment. 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Hubert and Jan van Eycky. Ghent altar. Fragment. 1432Sint-Baafskathedraal / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Skull in the mirror. Miniature from the Hours of Juana the Mad. 1486–1506The British Library / Add MS 18852
On the far wall, exactly in the center of the portrait, hangs a round mirror. The frame depicts ten scenes from the life of Christ - from the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane through the crucifixion to the resurrection. The mirror reflects the backs of the Arnolfinis and the two people who stand in the doorway, one in blue, the other in red. According to the most common version, these are witnesses who were present at the marriage, one of which is van Eyck himself (he also has at least one mirror self-portrait - in the shield of St. George, depicted in Madonna with Canon van der Pale ).
Reflection expands the space of the depicted, creates a kind of 3D effect, throws a bridge between the world in the frame and the world behind the frame, and thereby draws the viewer into the illusion.
A window is reflected on the Ghent altar in precious stones that adorn the clothes of God the Father, John the Baptist and one of the singing angels. The most interesting thing is that his painted light falls at the same angle as the real light fell from the windows of the chapel of the Veidt family, for which the altar was painted. So, depicting glare, van Eyck took into account the topography of the place where they were going to install his creation. Moreover, in the scene of the Annunciation, real frames cast painted shadows inside the depicted space - the illusory light is superimposed on the real one.
The mirror hanging in Arnolfini's room has given rise to many interpretations. Some historians saw in it a symbol of the purity of the Mother of God, because she, using a metaphor from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom of Solomon, was called "a pure mirror of God's action and the image of His goodness." Others interpreted the mirror as the personification of the whole world, redeemed by the death of Christ on the cross (a circle, that is, the universe, framed by scenes of the Passion), etc.
It is almost impossible to confirm these conjectures. However, we know for sure that in the late medieval culture the mirror (speculum) was one of the main metaphors for self-knowledge. The clergy tirelessly reminded the laity that admiring one's own reflection is the clearest manifestation of pride. Instead, they called for turning their gaze inward, to the mirror of their own conscience, tirelessly peering (mentally and actually contemplating religious images) into the Passion of Christ and thinking about their own inevitable end. That is why in many images of the 15th-16th centuries, a person, looking in a mirror, sees a skull instead of his own reflection - a reminder that his days are finite and that he needs to have time to repent while it is still possible. Groeningemuseum, Bruges / closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be
Above the mirror on the wall, like graffiti, gothic Sometimes they indicate that notaries used this style when drawing up documents. the Latin inscription "Johannes de eyck fuit hic" ("John de Eyck was here") is displayed, and below the date: 1434.
Apparently, this signature indicates that one of the two characters imprinted in the mirror is van Eyck himself, who was present as a witness at Arnolfini's wedding (according to another version, the graffiti indicates that it was he, the author portrait, captured this scene).
Van Eyck was the only Dutch master of the 15th century who systematically signed his own work. He usually left his name on the frame - and often stylized the inscription as if it were solemnly carved into stone. However, the Arnolfini portrait has not retained its original frame.
As was customary among medieval sculptors and artists, the author's signatures were often put into the mouth of the work itself. For example, on the portrait of his wife, van Eyck wrote “My husband ... completed me on June 17, 1439” from above. Of course, these words, as implied, did not come from Margarita herself, but from her painted copy.
5. How Architecture Becomes Commentary
To build an additional semantic level into the image or to provide the main scenes with a commentary, the Flemish masters of the 15th century often used architectural decoration. Presenting New Testament plots and characters, they, in the spirit of medieval typology, which saw in the Old Testament a foreshadowing of the New, and in the New - the realization of the prophecies of the Old, regularly included images of the Old Testament scenes - their prototypes or types - inside the New Testament scenes.
Betrayal of Judas. Miniature from the Bible of the Poor. Netherlands, circa 1405 The British Library However, unlike classical medieval iconography, the image space was usually not divided into geometric compartments (for example, in the center is the betrayal of Judas, and on the sides are its Old Testament prototypes), but sought to inscribe typological parallels into the space of the image so as not to violate its credibility.
In many images of that time, the Archangel Gabriel proclaims the good news to the Virgin Mary in the walls of the Gothic cathedral, which personifies the entire Church. In this case, the Old Testament episodes, in which they saw an indication of the coming birth and the agony of Christ, were placed on the capitals of the columns, stained glass or on the floor tiles, as if in a real temple.
The floor of the temple is covered with tiles depicting a series of Old Testament scenes. For example, David's victories over Goliath, and Samson's victories over a crowd of Philistines symbolized the triumph of Christ over death and the devil.
In the corner, under a stool on which lies a red pillow, we see the death of Absalom, the son of King David, who rebelled against his father. As it is told in the Second Book of Kings (18:9), Absalom was defeated by his father's army and, fleeing, hung on a tree: and hung between heaven and earth, and the mule that was under him ran away. Medieval theologians saw in the death of Absalom in the air a prototype of the impending suicide of Judas Iscariot, who hanged himself, and when he hung between heaven and earth, “his belly burst open and all his insides fell out” Acts. 1:18.
6. Symbol or emotion
Despite the fact that historians, armed with the concept of hidden symbolism, are accustomed to dismantling the work of the Flemish masters into elements, it is important to remember that the image - and especially the religious image, which was necessary for worship or solitary prayer - is not a puzzle or a rebus.
Many everyday objects clearly carried a symbolic message, but it does not at all follow that some theological or moralistic meaning is necessarily encoded in the smallest detail. Sometimes a bench is just a bench.
For Kampen and van Eyck, van der Weyden and Memling, the transfer of sacred plots to modern interiors or urban spaces, hyperrealism in the depiction of the material world and great attention to detail were necessary, first of all, in order to involve the viewer in the depicted action and evoke in him the maximum emotional response (compassion for Christ, hatred for his executioners, etc.).
The realism of Flemish painting of the 15th century was simultaneously imbued with a secular (an inquisitive interest in nature and the world of objects created by man, the desire to capture the individuality of those portrayed) and a religious spirit. The most popular spiritual instructions of the late Middle Ages, such as Pseudo-Bonaventura's Meditations on the Life of Christ (circa 1300) or Ludolf of Saxony's Life of Christ (14th century), called on the reader to imagine himself a witness to the Passion and the crucifixion in order to save his soul. and, moving with your mind's eye to the gospel events, imagine them in as much detail as possible, in the smallest details, count all the blows that the torturers inflicted on Christ, see every drop of blood ...
Describing the ridicule of Christ by the Romans and Jews, Ludolph of Saxony appeals to the reader:
“What would you do if you saw this? Wouldn't you rush to your Lord with the words: “Do not harm him, stand still, here I am, hit me instead of him? ..” Have compassion on our Lord, because he endures all these torments for you; shed abundant tears and wash away with them those spitting with which these scoundrels stained his face. Can anyone who hears or thinks of this… be able to keep from crying?”
"Joseph Will Perfect, Mary Enlighten and Jesus Save Thee": The Holy Family as Marriage Model in the Merode Triptych
The Art Bulletin. Vol. 68. No. 1. 1986.
Hall E. The Arnolfini Betrothal. Medieval Marriage and the Enigma of Van Eyck's Double Portrait. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1997.
Harbison C. Jan Van Eyeck. The Play of Realism London: Reaction Books, 2012.
Harbison C. Realism and Symbolism in Early Flemish Painting The Art Bulletin. Vol. 66. No. 4. 1984.
Lane B.G. Sacred Versus Profane in Early Netherlandish Painting Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. Vol. 18. No. 3. 1988.
Marrow J. Symbol and Meaning in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. Vol. 16. No. 2/3. 1986.
Nash S. Northern Renaissance Art (Oxford History of Art). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Panofsky E. Early Netherlandish Painting. Its Origin and Character. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1966.
Schapiro M. Muscipula Diaboli. The Symbolism of the Merode Altarpiece The Art Bulletin. Vol. 27. No. 3. 1945.
Genre motifs gradually penetrated into the religious subjects of Dutch painting, concrete details accumulated within the framework of the decorative and refined style of late Gothic art, and emotional accents intensified. The leading role in this process was played by the miniature, which was widely spread in the 13th-15th centuries at the courts of the French and Burgundian aristocracy, who gathered talented craftsmen from urban workshops around them. Among them, the Dutch were widely known (the Limburg brothers, the master of Marshal Boucicault). Books of hours (more precisely, books of hours - a kind of prayer books, where prayers dedicated to a certain hour are arranged by months) began to be decorated with scenes of work and entertainment at different times of the year and their corresponding landscapes. With loving thoroughness, the masters captured the beauty of the world around them, creating highly artistic works, colorful, full of grace (Turin-Milan Book of Hours 1400-1450). Miniatures depicting historical events and portraits appeared in historical chronicles. In the 15th century, portraiture spread. Throughout the 16th century, everyday painting, landscape, still life, paintings on mythological and allegorical subjects stand out as independent genres.
Since the 40s of the 15th century, elements of narrative intensified in Dutch painting, on the one hand, and dramatic action and mood, on the other. With the destruction of patriarchal ties that cement the life of medieval society, the feeling of harmony, orderliness and unity of the world and man disappears. A person realizes his independent vital significance, he begins to believe in his mind and will. His image in art is becoming more and more individually unique, in-depth, it reveals the innermost feelings and thoughts, their complexity. It becomes the centerpiece actor story scenes or in the hero of easel portraits, the owner of a subtle intellect, a kind of aristocrat of the spirit. At the same time, a person discovers his loneliness, the tragedy of his life, his fate. Anxiety and pessimism begin to appear in his appearance. This new conception of the world and of man, who does not believe in the strength of earthly happiness, is reflected in the tragic art of Rogier van der Weyden (c. psychological portraits, of which he was the greatest master.
A sense of mystery and anxiety, a sense of the beautiful, unprecedented and deeply tragic in the ordinary determine the work of the artist of a strongly pronounced individuality and exceptional talent Hugo van der Goes (1440–1482), the author of the powerful Portinari Altarpiece (1476–1476– 1478, Florence, Uffizi). Hus was the first to create a holistic image of a purely earthly existence in its material concreteness. Remaining interested in the knowledge of life's diversity, he focused on man, his spiritual energy and strength, introduced into his compositions purely folk types, a real landscape, involved in its emotional sounding to man. The tragedy of the worldview was conjugated in his courageous art with the affirmation of the value of earthly existence, marked by contradictions, but worthy of admiration.
In the last quarter of the 15th century, the artistic life of the northern provinces (in particular Holland) became more active. In the art of the artists working here, there is a stronger connection with folk beliefs and folklore than in the south of the Netherlands, a craving for the characteristic, base, ugly, for social satire, clothed in an allegorical, religious or gloomy fantastic form.
These features are sharply marked in the painting of the passionate exposer Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450 - 1516), imbued with deep pessimism, who discovered in the world around him a formidable kingdom of evil, scourging the vices of a weak-willed, powerless, mired in the sins of mankind. The anti-clerical moralizing tendencies of his work, the merciless attitude towards man are clearly expressed in the allegorical painting "Ship of Fools" (Paris, Louvre), which ridicules the monks. The expressiveness of Bosch's artistic images, his everyday vigilance, his penchant for the grotesque and sarcasm in the depiction of the human race determined the impressive power of his works, distinguished by the sophistication and perfection of pictorial performance. Bosch's art reflected the crisis moods that captured the Dutch society in the face of growing social conflicts at the end of the 15th century. At this time, the old Dutch cities (Bruges, Tent), bound by narrow local economic regulation, lost their former power, their culture was dying out.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. Netherlandish portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destiny. Series: From the history of world art. M. Art 1972 198 p. ill. Hardcover publishing, encyclopedic format.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N.M. Netherlandish portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destiny.
The Dutch Renaissance is perhaps even more striking than the Italian - at least in terms of painting. Van Eyck, Brueghel, Bosch, later Rembrandt... The names, of course, left a deep imprint in the hearts of people who saw their paintings, regardless of whether you feel admiration for them, as before "Hunters in the Snow", or rejection, as before "The Garden of Earthly Delights" The harsh, dark tones of the Dutch masters differ from the creations of Giotto, Raphael and Michelangelo filled with light and joy. One can only guess how the specificity of this school was formed, why it was there, to the north of the prosperous Flanders and Brabant, that a powerful center of culture arose. About this - let's keep quiet. Let's look at the specifics, at what we have. Our source is the paintings and altars of the famous creators of the Northern Renaissance, and this material requires a special approach. In principle, this should be done at the intersection of cultural studies, art criticism and history.
A similar attempt was made by Natalia Gershenzon-Chegodaeva (1907-1977), the daughter of the most famous literary critic in our country. In principle, she is a rather well-known person, in her circles, first of all, with an excellent biography of Pieter Brueghel (1983), the above work also belongs to her pen. To be honest, this is a clear attempt to go beyond classical art criticism - not just talk about artistic styles and aesthetics, but - to try to trace the evolution of human thought through them ...
What are the features of images of a person in an earlier time? There were few secular artists, the monks were far from always talented in the art of drawing. Therefore, often, images of people in miniatures and paintings are highly conventional. It was necessary to paint pictures and any other images as it should be, in everything obeying the rules of the century of emerging symbolism. By the way, that is why tombstones (also a kind of portraits) did not always reflect the true appearance of a person, rather they showed him the way he needed to be remembered.
The Dutch art of portraiture breaks through such canons. Who are we talking about? The author examines the works of such masters as Robert Compin, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes. They were real masters of their craft, living with their talent, performing work to order. Very often, the church was the customer - in the conditions of illiteracy of the population, painting is considered the most important art, the townspeople and peasants who were not trained in theological wisdom had to explain the simplest truths on their fingers, and the artistic image filled this role. This is how such masterpieces as the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck arose.
Rich townspeople were also customers - merchants, bankers, guilders, nobility. Portraits appeared, single and group. And then - a breakthrough for that time - an interesting feature of the masters was discovered, and one of the first to notice it was the famous agnostic philosopher Nicholas of Cusa. Not only did the artists, when creating their images, paint a person not conditionally, but as he is, they also managed to convey his inner appearance. The turn of the head, the look, the hairstyle, the clothes, the curve of the mouth, the gesture - all this is amazing and exactly showed the character of the person.
Of course, it was an innovation, no doubt about it. The aforementioned Nikola also wrote about this. The author connects the painters with the innovative ideas of the philosopher - respect for the human person, the cognizability of the surrounding world, the possibility of its philosophical knowledge.
But here a quite reasonable question arises - is it possible to compare the work of artists with the thought of an individual philosopher? In spite of everything, Nicholas of Cusa in any case remained in the bosom of medieval philosophy, in any case he relied on the fabrications of the same scholastics. What about master artists? We know practically nothing about their intellectual life, did they have such developed connections with each other, and with church leaders? This is a question. Without a doubt, they had succession to each other, but the origins of this skill remain a mystery. The author does not deal with philosophy in a specialized way, but rather fragmentarily tells about the connection between the traditions of Netherlandish painting and scholasticism. If Dutch art is original, and has no connection with the Italian humanities, where did the artistic traditions and their features come from? A vague reference to " national traditions"? Which? This is a question...
In general, the author perfectly, as it should be an art critic, tells about the specifics of the work of each artist, and quite convincingly interprets the aesthetic perception of the individual. But what concerns philosophical origins, the place of painting in the thought of the Middle Ages is very contour, the author did not find an answer to the question about the origins.
Bottom line: the book contains a very good selection of portraits and other works of the early Dutch Renaissance. It is quite interesting to read about how art historians work with such a fragile and ambiguous material as painting, how they note the smallest features and specific features of style, how they connect the aesthetics of a painting with time ... However, the context of the era is visible, so to speak, in a very, very long term. .
Personally, I was more interested in the question of the origins of this specific trend, ideological and artistic. Here the author failed to convincingly answer the question posed. The art critic defeated the historian, before us is, first of all, a work of art history, that is, rather, for great lovers of painting.
