Lecture 6: Art of Description
Northern Art 15th-17th C
Key Works
Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, 1434
Albrecht Durer, Knight, Death, and the Devil, 1513
Rembrandt van Rijn, Aristotle Contemplating the
Bust of Homer, 1653
Jan Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 1665
Lecture 6: Art of Description
Northern Art 15th-17th C
Key Terms
linseed oil
engraving/etching
genre scene
camera obscura
Jan Van Eyck, Man in a Red
Turban, 1433,
National Gallery London
Self portrait of Jan Van Eyck the
court painter and valet de chamber
to Duke Phillip the Good of
Burgundy.
Van Eyck was one of the first to
use linseed oil as a paint
medium. With the oil medium, it
was possible to blend colors and
achieve a more translucent effect,
imitating the play of light.
Jan Van Eyck, Giovanni
Arnolfini and His Bride 1434,
oil on wood,
National Gallery, London.
Secular image that memorializes a
marriage. Painting serves as
proof of the marriage as the
presence of two witnesses are
reflected in the mirror. Also,
above the mirror – Jan van Eck
signs, Johannes Eyck fuit hic –
was here. Therefore, the painting
itself becomes both pictorial and
written proof, documenting the
marriage.
Christian iconography abounds as
many of the ordinary objects have
sacred significance.
Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, creation of Eve at left,
Garden at center, and hell at right, 1505-10 oil on wood
Three outer panels – work is a triptych format.
The work is full of symbolic complexity and surreal images that depict the creation of the world.
Albrecht Durer, Self
Portrait, 1500
Durer was one of the first
artists outside of Italy to
become an international
art celebrity. He was
friends with many of the
leading humanists of his
day including Erasmus.
Penetrating self portrait.
Paints himself like Christ.
Durer, The Fall of Man,
1504, engraving
Two idealized figures of
Adam and Eve standing poses
reminiscent of classical
statues yet blended with his
northern well honed
observational skills in his
rendering of the background
foliage and animals.
Engraving: lines are cut into
a polished surface of a
copper plate with a burin or
engraving tool
Durer, The Fall of Man, 1504
Masaccio, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden,
1425 – Brancascci Chapel, Florence, Italy.
Albrecht Durer, Knight,
Death and the Devil, 1513,
Engraving
Knight is a soldier of Christ.
Armed with his faith, the
warrior repels the threat of
death who appears as the
cadaver with snakes and the
devil, the horned creature who
follows him. Iconography
would have been obvious to
viewers at the time. Equestrian
statues were a renaissance
favorite.
Peter Brueghel, Hunters in the Snow, 1565, oil on panel.
We see a valley full of ponds, a winding river, steeply roofed houses and steepled churches, many people skating, many trees and hills, and
some of the sharpest mountain crags ever. Nature is closely rendered yet human activity takes center stage.
Good example of a genre scene – a scene of everyday life
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait in
a Cap, 1630, etching
Etching: process where a metal plate
is covered with a protective coating of
acid resistant material. The artist
than draws through the ground with
a pointed tool exposing metal. The
plate is then immersed in an acid
bath which makes grooves where the
metal was exposed.
The young Rembrandt mugs into a
mirror, using his own face as a cheap
model to practice the expression of
various emotions. Rembrandt was
interested in emotion and expression,
and studied ways to express
psychological states.
Rembrandt,
Nicholas Ruts 1631
Kind of portrait that made
Rembrandt’s living. Ruts
was a wealthy fur trader.
An impression of
immediacy and alertness.
Use of subtle light is key.
Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632
Members of the surgeons guild commissioned this work. Dr Tulp, a noted physician, is in the act of dissecting. Corpse is diagonal,
foreshortened. Each of the students it specifically painted – great nuance in expression and facial detail.
Rembrandt Aristotle
Contemplating the Bust
of Homer, 1653
Metropolitan Museum
of Art
We see Aristotle in a
unique costume, fingering
the gold chain given to
him by Alexander the
Great, his most famous
pupil. One hand on the
chain, the other on the
bust of Homer
contemplating the world
of the mind vs world of
man and possessions.
Autobiographical
undertones. By the time
Rembrandt did this work,
Rembrandt’s fortunes had
declined.
Jan Vermeer, The Letter, 1666
Genre picture - scene of
everyday life. A maid has
handed a well dressed woman a
love letter. This is reinforced by
various symbols. The woman
plays the lute – the traditional
symbol of the music of love,
also the seascape behind n the
back wall served as a symbol of
love requited referring to a 1534
publication, Love Emblems.
Vermeer, Milkmaid,
c 1665
Vermeer is concerned with
the play of light on objects
and the rendering of optical
illusions
He used a camera obscura
– an ancestor to the modern
camera based on passing
light through a tiny pin hole
or lens to project an image
on a screen or the wall of a
room. The use of the
camera obscura helped him
to rework the composition
and place his figures and
furniture in stable
relationships – creating the
classical serenity of his
works.
Vermeer replicated the unfocused appearance of the motifs that he would have seen through the camera obscura by applying his famous
pointillés or “circles of confusion” (small dots of paint employed to yield the effect of broken contours and dissolved forms in light).
Pointillés are used to impart an extraordinary tactile reality to such objects as the chunks of bread. The chunks are encrusted with so many
pointillés that these dots of paint seem to exist independently of the forms they describe.
Vermeer, The Lacemaker,
1665-1670
Stylish woman makes lace which
was popular among Dutch
women. This is not for profit but
as an indication that northern
women were as accomplished at
the production of luxury goods as
their French and Flemish
counterparts. Stylish woman
absorbed in her task. Rich colors
and fabrics reinforce the intimacy.