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Fifteenth-Century Art in Northern Europe

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Fifteenth-Century Art in Northern Europe 17 fifteenth-Century Art in Northern Europe ave you ever used oil paints? What is the difference between oil H paints and other paints such as watercolors? This innovation in art was part of the change in northern Europe. The Middle Ages lasted longer here than in Italy. Eventually, commerce and industry began to catch up, bringing wealth, city growth, and a new middle class. In time, a pursuit of worldly pleasures matched the old quest for spiritual rewards in the next world. Religious subjects continued to be popular, but artists often included symbols to show spiritual ideals and feelings. Read to Find Out As you read this chapter, learn why change occurred more slowly in northern Europe than in Italy. Read to discover the origins of oil painting and the work of artists Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes. Focus Activity Identify the details in the painting in Figure 17.1. Is there a religious theme? Note that the grapes reflect the religious sym- bolism of the times. Write down the details of clothing, drapery folds, and setting for the figures in the painting. Look at the background and the foreground. What do you think the figure in the background might symbolize? Using the Time Line The Time Line introduces you to some of the artworks and developments of Renaissance painting in northern Europe. What do you notice about the precision of details? c. 1435 1434 Rogier van der Weyden c. 1425–28 Jan van Eyck paints one emphasizes the emotional c. late 1300s Robert Campin is one of his best-known works, impact of his subject Philip of Burgundy gains of the first artists to The Arnolfini Wedding matter in Descent from control of Flanders use oil paint (Detail) (Detail) the Cross 1350 1400 1337–1453 c. 1440–1460 Hundred Years’ War between England and France Gutenberg perfects printing press 378 7 11 ■ FIGURE 17.1 Gerard David. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. c. 1510. Oil on panel. 44.3 ϫ 44.9 cm (17 ⁄16 ϫ 17 ⁄16Љ). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Andrew W. Mellon Collection. c. 1476 Hugo van der Goes 1479 c. 1505–1510 paints his most Brussels becomes the Gerard David paints ambitious work, center of European The Rest on the Flight The Portinari Altarpiece tapestry industry into Egypt Refer to the Time Line on page H11 in your Art Handbook for more 1450 1500 about this period. c. 1455–1485 Wars of the Roses in England 379 LESSON ONE Renaissance Painting in Northern Europe Vocabulary hroughout the fifteenth century, most artists in northern Europe ■ tempera ■ gesso ■ oil paints T (Figure 17.2) remained true to the traditions of the Late Medieval period. This was especially true in architecture. The progress of painting Artists to Meet in the North during this time was more complicated, however. ■ Jan van Eyck ■ Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle) Continuation of the International Style The change from a medieval art style to a more modern art style began Discover later and progressed more slowly in northern Europe than it did in Italy. After completing this chapter, you will be able to: While Italian artists were busy studying the classical art of ancient Greece ■ Explain the effects of the and Rome, Northern artists further developed the International style. For introduction of oil paints. this reason, their paintings continued to show a great concern for accurate ■ Discuss the precision and color that and precise details. mark the works of Jan van Eyck. Artists spent countless hours painting a delicate design on a garment, the leaves on a tree, or the wrinkles Renaissance Northern Europe on a face. At the same time, symbolism, which was so 6°W4°W02°W ° 2°E4°E important in Gothic art, grew even more important. Many of the details included in a picture had special North 6°E8°E meanings. For example, a single burning candle meant Sea ENGLAND the presence of God, and a dog was a symbol of loyalty. w London Lo ies s ntr Calais der Cou Flan 50°N el Chann Agincourt lish Crécy New Developments in Eng S ein e R iv Painting Techniques er Champagne Paris Up to this time, European artists were accustomed to Orléans oire R HOLY N L iver using tempera, a paint made of dry pigments, or colors, dy un ROMAN W rg which are mixed with a binding material. A binder is a E u EMPIRE B S liquid that holds together the grains of pigment in paint. 4 ° r Typically, this binder was egg yolk, although gum and 5 N e v i G R casein were also used. ATLANTIC e a r n OCEAN on ô ne h Tempera paint was applied to a surface, often a R R iv er Avignon wooden panel, which had been prepared with a smooth coating of gesso, a mixture of glue and a white pigment Mediterranean such as plaster, chalk, or white clay. This painting Burgundian lands Sea French lands method, which produced a hard, brilliant surface, was English possessions Battle sites used for many medieval altarpieces. Development of Oil Paints MAP SKILLS In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Northern ■ FIGURE 17.2 During this time, the Hundred Years’ War artists’ concern for precision and detail was aided by between England and France was fought over conflicting the development in Flanders of a new oil-painting claims to the land areas shown on this map. Find a map of present-day France. Compare the area controlled by England technique. Oil paints consist of a mixture of dry pig- and France today to what they controlled in the 1400s. ments with oils, turpentine, and sometimes varnish. 380 With such a mixture, artists could produce either a transparent, smooth glaze, or a thick, richly textured surface. The change from tempera paint to oil was not a sudden one. At first, oil paints were used as transparent glazes placed over tem- pera underpaintings. The solid forms of fig- ures and objects in a painting were modeled with light and dark values of tempera. Oil glazes were then applied over them, adding a transparent, glossy, and permanent surface. Later, artists abandoned the use of an under- painting and applied the oil paint directly to the canvas, building up a thick, textured sur- face in the process. Advantages of Oil Paints One of the more important advantages of the oil-painting technique was that it slowed down the drying time. This gave artists the chance to work more slowly, so they had time to include more details in their pictures, time that Italian artists working in fresco, did not have. Also, the layers of transparent glazes added a new bril- liance to the colors, so that finished paintings looked as if they were lit from within. Robert Campin (c. 1378–1444) One of the first artists to use the new medium of oil paint was the Master of Flémalle, now identified by most scholars as the Flemish painter, Robert Campin. His most famous work, the Merode Altarpiece, consists of three panels showing, from left to right, the donors of the work kneeling in a garden, Mary receiving the news that she is to be the mother of Christ from the angel Gabriel (Figure 17.1, page 378), and Joseph working in his carpentry shop (Figure 17.3). Attention to detail and the use of familiar contemporary settings noted in this work are ■ typical of Campin’s religious pictures. Many FIGURE 17.3 This and other works are judged by experts to be the work of Robert Campin. Along with Jan van Eyck, of the objects shown are not only realistically he is credited with breaking away from the elegant rendered but possess symbolic meaning as International style. What features suggest that this artist well. For example, Joseph is seen constructing was concerned with making his painting look real? mousetraps. This symbolized the belief that Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle). Joseph in His Workshop, Right panel from The Christ was the bait with which Satan would Mérode Altarpiece. c. 1425–28. Oil on wood. 64.5 ϫ 27.3 cm (253⁄8 ϫ 103⁄4Љ). The be trapped. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Cloisters Collection, 1956. (56.70) Chapter 17 Fifteenth-Century Art in Northern Europe 381 The Flemish Influence: The Arnolfini Wedding ■ FIGURE 17.4 Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441) One of van Eyck’s best-known works is The artist usually given credit for developing a painting of two people standing side by this new painting technique was the Flemish side in a neat, comfortably furnished room master, Jan van Eyck (yahn van ike). The art of (Figure 17.4). Who are these people and what Jan van Eyck and his successors, Rogier van der are they doing? The man is Giovanni Arnolfini, Weyden and Hugo van der Goes, made Flanders and the woman at his side is his bride. the art center of northern Europe. Throughout Giovanni Arnolfini was a rich Italian mer- the fifteenth century, the art produced by chant who lived in Flanders. It is probable Flemish artists was a great influence on other that he became wealthy by selling silk bro- artists in Europe, from Germany to Spain. cade and other luxury goods; he may also Although Jan van Eyck was a product of have worked as a banker. When Giovanni the late Middle Ages, he went beyond the Arnolfini decided to marry Jeanne de Chenay older traditions of the exceedingly detailed in 1434, he looked for the best artist available International style to introduce a new painting to paint a picture of their wedding.
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