Flemish Art - CC Intro to the Study of Art · 16/03/2010 · Flemish Art: 1960s Photorealism ... decompressor are needed to see this picture. Emerged in the US in the late 1960s,

Flemish Art:

1960s Photorealism and Flemish Analytic

realism

Religious painting

Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece

oil paint

Rogier van der Weyden’s Deposition

cultural mediator

Secular painting/private portraiture

Van Eyck Arnolfini portrait

realistic symbolism and the

involvement of the spectator

Rogier’s “psychological” Portrait of a

Lady

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Emerged in the US in the late

1960s, Photorealism was a style

that reproduced a photograph in

paint

In Chuck Close’s monumental

heads

photographs are enlarged and

reproduced, through a meticulous

technique

with thousands of tiny airbrush

bursts, thumbprints, or looping

brushstrokes,

Chuck Close, Big Self-

Portrait, 1967-68.

Acrylic on canvas. 107 1/2

x 83 1/2" (273 x 212 cm).

double effect:

1) Watching them from a

distance, viewers are

impressed by the

monumentalization of the

photographic objectivity

2) at a closer view, they get lost

in the universe of infinite signs

and brushstrokes that together

form those images

Flemish 15th

century painting

and in particular Van

Eyck were very

influential on Chuck

Close and his

movement

This connection

introduces us to the

concept of Flemish

analytic realism

as opposed to the

synthetic realism of

early Italian

Renaissance

Jan van Eyck (ca. 1390-1441)

was the main author in the

Flanders of an artistic

revolution parallel to that of

Florence

Which corresponded

historically to the early stage

of European capitalism

(entrepreneurship,

individualism, materialism)

Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece

(closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral,

Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432,

oil on wood

This multi-image

format provided the

artist the opportunity to

construct complex

narratives through a

sequence of images

Jan van Eyck, Ghent

Altarpiece (closed

and opened), 1432,

oil on wood

This is a large-scale public

ALTARPIECE

Altarpiece: a panel or

composition of panels, painted

or sculpted, positioned above

or behind the altar, served as

backdrop for the Mass

The altar could be

shown shut (on

weekdays)

or open, which

happened on feast

days

Prophets of the Old Testament,

who pre-announced the arrival of

Christ

The Annunciation in a Flemish

interior with the view on a

Flemish town outside

The two donors (Vyd, the chief

magistrate, and his wife) praying

at illusionistic stone sculptures

of Ghent’s patron saints

Subject matter: exterior

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Subject matter: interior

Sinful humanity

(Amdam &

Eve)

Saved by the sacrifice

of Christ Lamb

God The Father,

Virgin and S. John

Diversity of styles for different

subjects:

between medieval vision and

Renaissance rationality

Medieval vision:

frontal,

symmetrical,

symbolic,

sparkling

The Bible tells us that it was only

after having eaten from the

Tree of Knowledge

Adam and Eve ‘knew they were

naked’

Stark naked indeed they look

despite the fig leaves they hold

in their hands

Not only did Van Eyck depict their

nudities but he also represented

their uneasy feeling about their

bodies!

later generations were shocked

by these nudes

And by Van Eyck’s cool

representation of details

He is considered the

inventor of oil painting

To prepare their paints,

during the Middle Ages,

artists used to bind the

colored pigment powder

with egg

This method was called

TEMPERA

Van Eyck started using

oil instead of egg

Oil paint

Oil vs. Tempera

2 main differences:

1) While tempera dries quickly

Oil paints permitted the artist to work

more slowly and accurately

2) with oil the painter could make glossy

colors which could be applied in

transparent layers or ‘glazes’

This would allow him to achieve smooth

transitions by letting the colors shade

off into each other

While the opaque tempera was perfect

for volumes and sharp dark/light

contrasts,

oil was more suitable for accurate

details and subtle passages of dark

and light (chiaroscuro)

Rogier van der Weyden,

Deposition, from Louvain

Belgium, ca. 1435, oil on wood

Dramatic effect:

No landscape: Rogier compressed the

figures and action onto a shallow stage

Crisp drawing and precise modeling of

forms, as a stratified relief carving

DINAMISM COMPRESSED

Patrons are

part of the

action

colors and perceived textures!

Active in Florence in the 1420s,

Rogier has an immense

responsibility in the history of art

as cultural mediator

He brought to Italy the technique of

oil paint and the Flemish detailed

realism,

And spread the Italian Renaissance

revolution in North Europe

Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and

His Bride, 1434, oil on wood

Van Eyck’s art reached its greatest

triumph in the painting of private

portraits

The most famous is the portrait of

the Italian merchant Giovanni

Arnolfini

Who had come to the Netherlands

on business, with his bride Jeanne de

Chenany

Portraiture was revived in Europe

in the 15th century:

From now until the advent of

photography it would constitute a

major means of support for artists

This private portrait is simultaneously

mundane and charged with the

spiritual

Every object conveys the holiness of

matrimony

Arnolfini and his bride are taking the

marriage vows

The cast aside clogs indicate that the

event takes place in an holy ground

Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and

His Bride, 1434, oil on wood

The dog symbolizes fidelity

Even something that seems to be a

furniture’s ornament is a tiny statue of

Saint Margaret, patron saint of

childbirth

The position of the two figures

suggests conventional gender roles:

the woman stands near the bed and

well into the room

The man stands near the window,

symbolic of the outside world

Every detail is painted meticulously:

Every different texture, light,

reflections, shadows

In this extremely precise visual

machine, nothing is random,

also the viewer has a specific role

Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and

His Bride, 1434, oil on wood

Van Eyck painted a convex

mirror

which show us the whole

scene, seen from the back:

two persons are facing the

Arnolfini couple

These generic persons are the

viewers of this painting who

are involved in the scene

as witnesses at the wedding

the act of looking at the

painting is turned into a

ritual:

the reciprocal responsibilities

of the wedding

Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a

Lady, ca. 1460, oil on panel, National

Gallery of Washington

Also Rogier painted private portraits,

with a different approach:

This is the portrait of an unidentified lady

Even if we don’t know who she was, from

this image we can deduce a big deal of

information about her

(Her dress and bearing imply noble rank)

Not only did the artist faithfully represent

his sitter’s likeness, he also revealed her

individual character:

Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, ca.

1460, oil on panel, National Gallery of

Washington

Lowered eyes, tightly locked fingers,

and fragile physique bespeak a

reserved and pious demeanor

Unlike van Eyck, Rogier placed little

emphasis on minute description of

surface detail:

Planes and volumes give an effect of

dignity and elegance (Italian

influence)

Rogier’s representation of the sitter’s

individual character

is a starting point for Leonardo da

Vinci’s developments of portraiture