body consisting of layers of fixed pigment to the spatial Every being in the universe enjoys a illusion created by the portrayal on a two/dimensional unique quality, which it shares with no other being.
surface--must be perceived as a living whole. NICHOLAS OF CUSA
The greater the number of layers used to build up a
painting, the more the painting loses in color repro/
duction. Van Eyck's illusionism is incapable of being III
i 1contest!1 reproduced photomechanically. Responding to the View from Paradise which embarrassment of this situation by resorting to enlar edge an! ·. ment is the latest triumph of the "imaginary museum." o matter what process is used, The the eye,J Intimate portraits are blown up to life size in massive Madonna of Chancellor Rolin is not photo,, new bri illustrated books; landscapes and interiors are dismem/ worldq genie. In print, it seems to differ little from bered and monumentally swollen to the limits of what the their g1 any of the other great paintings of the detail.s screen process will bear--,as if sheer quantity could com/ period. The impression on seeing the orig,, 1 pensate for the lack of quality. But this does not bring us a way of inal in the Louvre is thus all the more overwhelming. Fae/ 1 An1 single millimeter closer to the open secret of a density that .ing the incomparable vividness of the "true appearance," lution / surpasses the capacity of human sight. you have to rub your eyes. The reverse of the Magritte title fiftee1: n'est pas un tableau springs to mind-because this .focus9 painting is a cosmos.I Europ1 In a space of less than 65 X 62.3 cm, the artist has cap,, As a\ tured the fullness of an entire world. The scene is the cool, Pano airy hall of a Romanesque,-looking palace, set on a hill other!! .. overlooking a town, countryside, and a river. The princi,, she s.k! palfigures: the work's patron, Nicolas Rolin, chancellor vivid J to>Philip the Good, is kneeling with his hands clasped techd a book of hours before the Virgin, who is presenting assu111 son to him. Above her head, with its parted hair, differ ing ill the Virgin's imposing crown, decorated with jewels . !b and held by an angel whose rainbow,,colored VlSl are studded with peacock,,feather eyes. The many,, Eyckj angel is perhaps gazing at the artist's repentance" at a techn level in the painting-the purse, later deleted, third: the g tions of underpainted layers in the and i painting; these can be revealed bum using· X,ray processes or infrared bokc photography. in lit
ish fi " I2 / ,, I3 /
which at first hung from the belt of the powerful and to the very end-dying sword in hand, in triumph unscrupulous upstart Rolin. over fortune.3 j According to Chastellain, Chancellor Rolin was a I J! man who tried There is no guardian angel to mediate between this embodiment of absolute earthly power and the incarna....
to govern everything entirely by himself, to have tion of divine wisdom. The viewer of the painting clearly everything passing through his own hands and at sees things that escape the person being portrayed; the his own discretion, whether it concerned war, Chancellor does not perceive what surrounds him. He is peace, or financial matters. The Duke counted on as large as the Virgin, and the chamber is too small in thei him in every respect, depending on him entirely as relation to him to be a real hall. His refined hands are suit., ne his principal advisor, and there was no office and no ably clasped, and he is posing with Stoic seriousness in a I w sinecure, either in the city or the co·untry, through,, heavy gold brocade coat trimmed with mink, which gives the out his whole realm, not one gift or loan, that was his figure a massive quality. In his features, with his dej not effected by him and executed by him and deeply furrowed brow and directionless, quite unreveren., W2 I dependent on him as the one person who had tial gaze, one suspects a touch of impatience over the charge of every matter. The confidence with which length of the sitting required of him for the portrait. lul the whole world honored him brought him profits Clearly he was a man of action, not of contemplation. A fij so inestimably great that none could name the fig., minor pentimento at the back of his neck reveals a late f ure, guess at it, or so much as believe it, so astound,, correction of a certain thickheadedness. History records a Ej 11 ing was its size ... This man was very wise in man obsessed with power, indomitable, filled with greed; worldly matters, but his path did not seem to yet the painting shows a human being in all his contradic, I encompass both maxims of wise conduct. For the tory and enigmati uniqueness. No other painter could ·O s more he devoted himself to things that pass away have made him more Rolin,,like. Van Eyck's contempo,, and are fallible, the further he departed from that raries and successors might vie with the artist in repro., which is certain and worthy of consideration. He ducing costly materials-fabrics or furs that look as if the was forever reaping his harvest on this earth as if brush must have reconstructed them thread by thread and earthly life were eternal for him, and in this his hair by hair. But depicting human skin so that it gives a mind strayed from the path and his wisdom led him living, breathing effect was a different matter. In this, van into foolishness, since he could never keep himself Eyck was unrivaled. within measure and could not set for himself the Compared with the child's delicate skin and the limit in that next stage of existence that. his advanc,, . Madonna's girlish bloom, Rolin's complexion is coarse. ing years might have suggested to him. His nature was such that he would let no one rule in his place ' Georges Chastellain, Grande vol. 3, pp. 330-33I, cited after des Dues de Burgoyne, in Heinz Roosen,Runge, Die Rolin, so that he might pass into retirement peacefully, but ed. M. le baron Kervyn de Madonna des Jan van Eyck (Wies, strove to climb ever higher and multiply his wealth J.,cLJ,t:llll:ove (Brussels, r836--I866), baden,1972),p. r7-
/ 14 ., ., 15 .,
The painter has studied the various textures of the epider., The panorama between the columns of the open mis with the eye of a geologist exploring the history of the arcade, extending from the little Garden of Paradise in earth's crust. "To him, what is smooth and straight is front of the palace as fur as the firmament, occupies all of emptiness and desolation."4 The living quality derives 32 X 28 cm. All over the nearby town, on the shining
from small irregularities. Each special characteristic, no banks of the river, the rampart with its battlements, the
matter how ephemeral, is recorded. There is a vein arching bridge with its tower, on the stairways, squares,
1co:. bulging under Rolin's shaven temple, his cheek is marked streets, and roads, there are tiny people busily going by a small wart, there is one curl resisting his circular about; some are on foot, others are on horseback or row., :ig hairstyle. ing in small barques across the river's gleaming mirror. It the! The peak of Rolins glittering career was the Treaty of seems to be a Sunday; houses, gardens, fields, and vine., ne Arras. The cross on the bridge in the distance is a refer., yards have all been tidied and arranged, all the work of woj ence to a clause in this peace treaty, which was intended to man is done. Now one can wander along the riverbank thei bring Burgundy's torments to a close. The cross was alone or in company, admiring the boats, peeping det! walk, mill wa1 erected on the bridge of Montereau to symbolize atone., down through the battlements to the colorful 5 I ment for the killing of John the Feacless, who had him., ·. bustle below or gazing into the bluish distance, where far., lut self turned murderer. The date of the peace treaty is off towns are shimmering like mirages below a range of fifi recorded on the tile at the very front of the painting: snow,covered mountains. Or one can stroll with one's twenty.,one light and dark squares correspond to the day, / partner along the winding path between the vineyards up fo4 fa and the nine at the center is the month. The painting must tothe wood on the hill, or chat to a neighbor under the Al therefore date from after 21 September 1435.6 lime...tree in a suburban square and visit friends and rela, pJ dons on the opposite bank, who are looking out of win, oJ dows or standing in doorways ready to receive their sh 4 Max J. Friedlander, Die Alt,, is the breach through which the nieder!Jindische Malerei (Berlin, I924), English penetrated France.' " (Jean guests. The many churches beckon to silent prayer-it is viJ p. I36. Markale, lsabeau de Baviere [Munich, not the hour for sermons. On the bend of the river te; 5 John the Fearless (137r-r4r9), 1994], p. 350.) /behind the island's enchanted castle, there are children o as the father of Philip the Good, was • C£ Emil Kieser, "Zur di involved in the murder of his cousin Datierung und Deutung der Rolin, the shore skimming flat stones across the smooth surface Madonna des Jan van Eyck," in u Louis of Orleans in Paris in r407. pfthe crystal.,clear water, while high above, in the azure On ro September 419, on the Stiidel,:]ahrbuch (Munich, 1967), pp. firmament, a flock of birds7 is tracing its wedge...shaped bridge of Montereau and in the 73-95. Kieser's interpretations are V presence of the Dauphin (later today dismissed as "unconvincing ] King Charles VII), the latter's fol, conjectures" (Hermann Kamp, t lowers split open John's skull with Memoria und Selbstdarstellung [Sig, ...·. . 7 Philippe Lorentz, curator of tions, and even in the original it is an ax. ''.A century later, a monk t maringen, 1993], p. 158). The den, Dutch Old Masters at the Louvre, not possible to determine whether would accompany King Francis I drochronological study of the panel describes the birds as being wild they are wild geese or cranes. The t on a visit to the crypt at ChampmoL carried out in r983, however, con, geese (Micheline Comblen,Sonkes latter migrate each fill across Bur, The monarch would pause for a firms Kieser's conjeeture based on a and Philippe Lorentz, Corpus des gundy toward Spain, flying in a moment before a skull with a gaping reading of the tile: the painting was Flamands, Musee du Louvre, wedge,shaped formation day and cleft--the skull of John the Fearless. made after the Peace of Arras. C£ r995], p. r5). The tiny night. When the leading crane, And the monk would say; 'Sire, this note 6 on p. ro8 below. are barely visible in reproduc, exhausted from its strenuous posi,
,, I6., ,, I7 .,
In the farthest distance, faintly, in the glowing yellow its own praises in the midst of its people: "In the beloved
part of the sky near the capital on the first arcade, floats city likewise he gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem the disk of the moon, almost full, with zones of shadow was my dominion." and light. This matins prayer belongs to the eighth hour of the The miracle of the painting draws its life from the night, and is sung at two o'clock in the morning. Eight I arms are also seen on the star on the marble tiles of the i depiction of what is invisible--the shimmering air filled CO: with light, which seems to interfere with the air the viewer hall, in eight rows of eight columns, sometimes visible wj is breathing. The atmosphere in the painting transforms and sometimes concealed by the figures. The Pythagore,, ed 1 itself as lighting conditions in the museum change, and it ans regarded the square of eight as being related to the th has consequently been interpreted at various times as celestial wisdom that arranged the whole universe so pur., n showing a morning scene, a midday scene, or an evening posefully. The Wheel of Fortune has eight spokes; eight tld one.8 The book of hours on the prayer stool draped in human beings were saved in Noah's Ark; the Sermon on d/ blue velvet does not provide any hints regarding the time the Mount contains eight beatitudes; eight is the number Vi of day, since under the magnifying glass the text proves to of rebirth through baptism, resurrection, and eternal I ro be merely trompe.,l'oeil lettering. However, on the hem of life--and on the eighth day, a new era begins. lt the Madonna's gown there are words embroidered in gold The sun,,drenched day is at the same time an "over., fi thread among the pearls and jewels; sometimes visible on bright night," which is why the moon is also seen in the fi the maddwred silk, sometimes concealed within the sky. Its visibility is owed to a supernatural conjunction. E deep folds of the material, they are taken from the Office ,...... !he.Arcadian light in which all things, no matter how j of the Virgin. This matins prayer praises the Virgin Mary .• dis.rant and tiny they may appear, maintain their special ] using verses taken from the twenty,fourth chapter of the form comes from a sun that never sets: the orientation of C book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach),9 in which Wisdom sings the cathedral sh ws that the source of the light lies on this
tion, is replaced by the hindmost, fiihrung in die Geschichte der christlichen the wedge formation collapses amid Symbale (Darmstadt, 1984; 1991 loud screeching, before being re,, ed.), p. 88. nes, and preserve little islands of mathernatics--also belongs to this established in accordance with the 8 C£ Comblen,Sonkes and faithin Israel ... Though Ecclesi, metaphorical series. "The fact that saying in St. Matthew, "But rnany Lorentz, Corpus des Primitifs, p. 40. .asdcus was not accepted into the Christ rose from the dead on the that arefirst shall belast; and thelast 9 "Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom ·. H:ebrew canon, it is frequently cited eighth day, namely the eighth day shall be first." The significance of of Jesus the Son of Sirach" is one of in• the rabbinical writings; in the after the Sabbath, forms the basis for the crane in Christian iconology as the apocryphal or deuterocanonical ,}l'evi'festament, the Epistle of St. most interpretations of the number a symbol of intelligence and vigi, books of scripture. The author,. er . borrows many expressions eight." (Heinz Meyer, Zahlenalle, lance seems to me to suggest that in Joshua ben Sira, is "the last canoni, it,.and it is, next to the Psalms, gorese im Mittelalter [Munich, 1975], the Rolin Madonna, the flock of cal representative of Jewish wisdom Old Testament book most fi:e- p. 139.) Augustine also describes the birds--like those in the Ghent altar, in Palestine. He is an outstandr quoted in the Christian number eight as "eternal blessed, piece and in the small portrait of ing example of those hasidim (the urgy.'' ·(The Jerusalem Bible [Lon, ness" and as "the Kingdom that has St. Barbara--consists of cranes. devout) of Judaism ... who were .. on, r966], p. rn35.) no end, so that eternity is signified 0 On the symbolism of the crane, soon to defend their faith against the ' T he recumbent figure of both temporally and spatially." C£ see Donat de Chapeaurouge, Em, persecutions of Antiochus Epipha, Fight-the symbol of infinity in Chapeaurouge, Symbole, pp. 75--77-
., I8 ., ,, 19 .,
side of the painting in the northwest, on the eighth arm of the compassu. The Rolin Madonna shows the world from the per,. spective and in the light of God, who sees that it is good that every thing and every being enjoys its own unique,. cont1 ness. There are shadows, certainly, but there is no total 1 darkness. Darkness is not a black pigment, but is pro,. whi1 duced by numerous transparent layers of paint that trap edg the light in mysterious depths. In this world, everything is the< familiar but at the same time different from real life. In I new, real gardens, iris, columbine, and lily of the valley have wor'. already faded by the time the white trumpets of the thei Madonna lily open. In the garden of the Virgin in front of det the palace, roses, peonies, lilies of the valley, irises, waJ columbines, and lilies are all flowering simultaneously. The painting is a view from the heavenly Jerusalem,r2. in which all opposites are resolved; biblical and Burgun,. dian history, vicinity and distance, day and night, light and shadow form a perfect unity, in which no mediation is needed between redeemed humanity and a mortal God.
Well might these thoughts arise and spread through all the fullness of the sphere of thoug t-sirnilari... ties corresponding to one another, contrasts disclos,. ing and resolving themselves, the miracle of clarity
" Another indication that the no temple in the city." The palace light is coming from the northwest represents the heavenly Jerusalem, is provided bytheshadow of the rod in which "the Lord God the that is the distinguishing mark of Almighty and the Lamb" are the the little man on the rampart. temple, as Revelation declares. 12 With its countless churches, "Paul Valery, Oeuvres, ed. Jean the city belongs to the Messianic Hytier, Pleiade ed. (Paris, !957), world, but is not itself the heavenly vol. r, p. 206. Shortly before his Jerusalem, the holy city of which death in May 1945, the poet de, the book of Revelation says, "I saw scribes in this passage the appear,
,. 20 ,.
thwest, on the eighth arm of ws the world from the per,. od, who sees that it is good !ing enjoys its own unique; rtainly, but there is no total black pigment, but is pro,. ent layers of paint that trap . In this world, everything is e different from real life. In , and lily of the valley have the white trumpets of the rden of the Virgin in front of lilies of the valley, irises, flowering simultaneously. >m the heavenly Jerusalemu, olved; biblical and Burgun,. stance, day and night, light nity, in which no mediation 1umanity and a mortal God.
; arise and spread through ere of thought-similari,, another, contrasts disclos., ves, the miracle of clarity
no temple in the city." The palace represents the heavenly Jerusalem, in which "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" are the temple, as Revelation declares. ' 3 Paul Valery, Oeuvres, ed. Jean Hytier, Pleiade ed. (Paris, r957), vol. I, p. 206. Shortly before his death in May I 945, the poet de, scribes in this passage the appear,
,0 /
Jan van Eyck, The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin
incessantly enacting itself, and all the Ideas glitter., in the gentle radiance of each like gems-for is what they are--in the crown of unifying cognition.r,
heaven on earth that Van Eyck is depicting, but a has ascended into heaven, and that is almost u,.u.,.,,...... i;._.,• ., .. ..,J,.., from the real one. Here, however, the shall never be shut by day-and there shall be no night there."14 · Reminiscences of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the murder of Abel, the Flood, and the drunken., ness of Noah are consigned to the capital above the <::hancellor's head; on the Virgin's side, the capital shows 5 thejustice of Trajan.' At the center of the visual square,16 between the world and the palace, at the crosshairs of the artist's gaze, there is a,man in a fuMrimmed blue coat, with a red turban and ted socks, standing at the battlements. His figure casts a
ance.of "a kind of angel" in human the description of the heavenly
form who sits weeping on the edge Jerusalem given in the book of of.afountain. He is living in an age Revelation (2I.I6). In order. co inwhich it is only through despair give the effect of squareness, a pie, that even angels are able to hold fast ture has to be taller than it is wide. to the image of wisdom. It is an Since it appears as a square to the image in which the angel of the eye, without actually being one, it is termed "visual square." Eber, Rolin Madonna seems to find voice, fivehundred years after its creation. hard Schenk zu Schweinsberg has
14 Revelation 21.25. reconstructed the geometrical de, rs According to the interprei:a,, sign of van Eyck's picture for, 'ii tion given by Panofsky in Early macs. The visual square in the ] Nethetlanaish Paintint Roosen,, Rolin Madonna is constructed on I t · Runge interprets the scene as a theformula h = h 2 +g/2: "two ele, depiction of the Qyeen of Sheba ments in a relationship of immedi, t before Solomon--each art historian ate interaction with one another, has his own interpretation. C£ such as half the width plus the · Roosen/Runge, RolwMadonna. height of a triangle of that width 1 • "The city lies foursquare, its on one side, add up to produce the length the same as its breadth" is height of the painting." (Bil4format
., 2I ,,
shadow on the walrl, 7 from which his striking profile His painting has thrown up a great many puzzles for stands out. He is holding a rod in his hand, showing his art historians. They have tried in vain to explain the two status as a court official,rs and he seems to be waiting for magpies on the garden pathr. 9 Why should there be two his brother, with the black turban and black stockings, birds of misfortune, known for their thieving and talka., who is peering endlessly downward, to turn back to him rive ways, in a garden whose flowers glorify the virtues of again. It is Van Eyck standing at the center of the picture the Virgin Mary: Admittedly, magpies are among the he has painted, risking a glance back at the viewer out of birds that remain faithful to a single partner throughout 1cont the corner of his eye. their lives; apart from that, however, nothing Christian is wru known about these nesuobbers. A medieval morality edg1 der Bruder van Eyck [Limburg, beth Dhanens, Jan van Eyck (Ant, tale records the story of a magpie that steals a guilder from the, 1952], p. 12.) werp, 1980). 7 a rich man in order to bring good cheer to its poor mas., ' If the sun were just setting in " The court painter has here nev 20 the west, as some art historians have taken the place of the angel in Reve, ter. The birds' fascination with glittering objects, and WOI thought, then the shadows of the lation, who "had a measuring rod of their motley plumage, suggest a role in restoring equality the figures on the rampart would have gold to measure the city and its gates between rich and poor-at least in fairy tales. Infrared det to be much longer and at a greater and walls." On the interpretation of wa angle to the wall. C£ Roosen, the rod in Christian iconography, photography2r of the Rolin painting has revealed two Runge, Rolin,Madonna, and Elisa, see Chapeaurouge: "In addition to pentimenti involving alterations that affect its composi., lu1 tion. Who, other than Rolin himself, can have requested fr!, that the purse at his belt be deleted from the picture, or fo can have had the arm of the Christ Child, which was E. the crown of laurels ;i.s a sign of eter, · heads, their feathers reflected the i nal victory, it is above all the rod that light shimmering in every color, and p gives a person importance" (Sym, their tails were even longer than the 56). O· bole, p. peacock's. They arrogantly mocked 5,, "C£ Roosen,Runge, Rolin, the dying Savior on the cross, land,
Madonna. The peacocks on the ram, ing on him and laughing and play, part and parapet seem to be easier to ing the fool. In punishment for this, 't decipher. In the fifteenth century, the God transformed their glorious cos,
peacock was considered to be a bird tume into black and white, and of Paradise, and was a symbol of turned their formerly splendid song resurrection and eternal life. The intoa hoarse croaking. C£ Ernst and
ancients regarded its magnificent tail Luise Carriker, Die Vogel im Vo/ks, as reflecting the starry sky, and glauben (Wiesbaden, 1989), p. 179.
0 Augustine mentions in the City of ' Albert Wesselski, Miirchen des
God the legend that its flesh was Mittelalters (Berlin, 1925), p. rr4. imperishable. C£ also Manfred van Asperen de Boer, "La " J. Lurker, Worterbuch der Symbolik Vierge au Chancelier de Rolin
(Stuttgart, 1991). According to a de Van Eyck: Examen au moyen French legend, magpies are meta, de la reflectographie a l'infrarouge," II morphosed peacocks: they once had Revue du Louvre 15 (1990), 37-49. Rolin Madonna (Paris) a golden bush of feathers on their
., 22., ., 23 .,
originally lowered, raised in benediction of the Chancel... subjected to a long,winded tirade; he may have lor? There was to be nothing in the portrait that might objections to altering the composition-to the recall its patron's notorious greed. Among his fulsome · annoyance of his patron, who would have dismissed him compliments to the artist when inspecting the underdraw,, . with a hal&jescing threat to withdraw the commission; he ing for the portrait on its chalk ground, the cunning 3 .had heard of one Rogier de la Pasture2 who wasn't a bad strategist must therefore have included a couple of small painter, either. "buts" expressing his reservations. "But the purse!" "But Studies of the background in the painting have shown COD the benediction!" The first had to be removed and the sec,, ' ;.that its numerous details were not included in the under,. wh. ond had to be painted in. Rolin wanted to present an drawing. Perhaps the magpies flew into the painting edg immaculate image of his own sanctity to an ungrateful >unexpectedly, once Rolin's request had been complied the world, which had eyes only for his purse, ignoring the with:Jf this were the case, then the enigma of the two blessings of his statesmanship, his charitable works, his thieves in the little Garden of Paradise would be solved. WC 22 th1 countless donations. The artist would probably have Van Eyck's learning, his knowledge of ancient 24 de " The historian Hermann pp. 23-2,9. Kamp presupposes a .authors, is attested to by various sources. Some of his Kamp regards Rolins overpainted rigid interpretative scheme: purse = 1?aincings contain references to Ovid, so it would be no purse as indicating the patron's symbol of court official However, surprise if the wily birds here had been transformed in the desire to conceal how recently he symbols can alter their meaning in had been elevated to the aristocracy: context; theit significance can manner described in the Metamorphoses: "Nine magpies, "The purse was a symbol mainly never be stated a priori, but can pirdswho can imitate any kind of sound, had settled on worn by counselors working in only be deciphered from their re, tliehoughs, and were lamenting their fate." The nine the administration ... By request, lacionship with other symbols. gaughters o( the rich landowner Pierus, "proud that they ing the removal of the purse, the On the belt of the traitor Judas, Chancellor was deliberately elirni, the purse signifies treachery; St. e nine in number," challenge the Muses to a singing nating a symbol that would have Matthew the Evangelist wears one suggested a similarity with portraits since he is a former tax collector; of nonatistocrats or recent aristo, St. Louis wears one to symbolize a l3urgundian court. The context Beaune that he had endowed. The crats. Rolin was simply behaving as stable currency. In depictions of the heavenly Jerusalem is com, reverse of the altar wings shows the if he had always belonged to the the Vices, the purse hangs on the different. In Paradise, the elderly Rolin with his third wife, aristocracy." Cf. H. Kamp, Memo, coat of the cardinal sin of greed, ,Purse only works if the presence Guigone deSalins."Il estbien justeqtll! ria, p. 2.59. Without questioning while in images of the humors it bearer is not to be called into Rolin,apres avoir faittant de pauvres pen, Kamp's method, Philippe Lorentz hangs heavily on the melancholic's · n, The needle's eye through dant sa vie, le11r /aisse un asile apri!s sa in r994 proved that the interpreca, belt. As an age,old symbol of the Kingdom of God is mart," Louis XI is said to have tion of the purse as symbolizing a wealth and greed, the purse became is, of course, fashioned in remarked on the foundation of the court official was incorrect. Lorentz in the fill:eenth century a consrant way that it is easier for a hospital. ("It is very just that Rolin, presents, among other evidence, that feature of Saturnian images. with two humps to get having created somany paupersdur, of a contemporary witness who Cf. Raymond Klibansk:y, Erwin it than a rich man with a ing his life, should leave a refuge for describes the Duke of Burgundy as Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn them after his death.") Cf. M. G. wearing such a purse in 1461. Cf. and Melancholy: Studies in the History his was the French name of Abord, Nicolas Rolin (Dijon, r958), Philippe Lorentz, "Les Rolins et les of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and er Rogier van der Weyden, p.28. 'Primicifs Flamands,' " the catalog in Art (London, r964), p. z85. In an lincommissioned a decade Z4 C£ Dhanens, Jan van Eyck, p. of the Rolin exhibition La bonne illustration in Hennegau's chroni, van Eyck painting to paint I8I. Etoile des Rolins (Autun, 1994), cle, Rolin is seen with his purse at tych for the hotel,Dien at
/ 25 /
contest. "Though it was shameful to contend with them," • ''xepentance" he had been forced to add. This interpreta,. as Urania, the Muse of astronomy, tells Pallas Athene, .. don of the magpies had to be hidden from contempo,- "there was more shame-we thought-in turning down 0 raries, but a shrewd observer might still have said to ,- their challenge." The Pierides begin with a loud song of himself, "If a man like Rolin can dwell in the heavenly falsehoods belittling the gods and praising the hundred., Jerusalem, then even magpies can live in a garden of armed titan Typhoeus, "who dared to hope for heaven as virtues ... " .. his kingdom." When they lose the contest, they even Rolin himself would hardly have been concerned COil revile the goddesses who have defeated them. At this, whl' about the trivial birdlife in the background, once he had edg Calliope, the Muse of poetry, says, "You challenged us: peen. portrayed without a purse, and receiving God's the for that alone, you merit punishment. But now you dare ;,,benediction in "a home in heaven." After all, the ne, to add your rude abuse. Our patience is not endless: you plumage of the unlucky birds27 fitted the picture rnimeti... would test our anger, and our wrath will rage ally as a continuation of the black.,and,.white stars in the unchecked." At once, the rich man's mocking daughters filing. find their nails turning to claws, their arms becoming 'FThe only case in which the p.15). According to one legend, the covered in down and plumage, and their faces narrowing gpie apparently does not bring magpie has a motley coat because into horny beaks; all that is left of their laughter is a clack,. uck is when it accompanies it laughed at Christ's crucifocion. ing noise. "Yet, though they now are winged, their end., metic in depicrions of the C£ Lurker, Worterbuch, and Han, less need for sharp, impulsive, harsh derisive speech liberal arts; c£ G. Heinz, nelore Sachs, Ernst Badestiibner, 25 r, Lexikon der Symbole (Diissel, and Helga Neumann, Christlithe remains: their old loquacity-they keep." 1971), p. 172. The magpie's Ikonographie in Stichworten (Munich, Arrogance is thus transformed into a bird that steals y plumage sometimes accom, r994). The Larin name for the mag, from the nests of songbirds. The two "daughters" of the paintings of "Lady" Rhe, pie, Pica pica, is related to the root for in ca. 1493 in a woodcut, "pitch," "pitch,black." In French, wealthy Rolin, his two little "buts" of reservation, may ro and Rhetoric," in Katalog the bird is called pie, and there is also 26 have suffered a similar fate. As embodiments of Rolin's chsprachigen illustrierten Hana; a dialect word agace (agacer originally croaking criticism, the two magpies with their notorious des M.ittelalters,ed. N. H. Ott meant "to screech" like a magpie, greed, with their doubts about salvation, may have been a unicb, I99I ), vol. r, no. ro. with the senses "irritate," "aggra, , the magpieis ofi:en seen vate," "pester" later deriving from witty touch of revenge at a deeper mental level, through gallows, or on the cross it). Up to the nineteenth century, pie which the artist consciously gave wings to the touches thief at the Crucifix.ion.. In (from the Larin root pius) in refined ons ofthe Vices, it represents speech was an adjective meaning and extravagance. In Wolf, "pious, charitable, merciful"; faire ,, Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 294- die Age,; trans. Willi.rd R. Trask Eschenbach's Parzival, it oeuvre pie meant "to do a pious 678 ( The Metamorphoses of Ovid, (New York, 1953), pp. 131-134; with doubt concern, work." The magpies might also trans. Allen Mandelbaum [New p. 132:"In medieval didactic poems : "If vacillation dwell therefore be taken to refer to Rolin's York, 1993]). on the virtues and vices, we find heart the soul will rue it. charitable endowments. In French, "' On the personificarion of the rudiments of a 'genealogy of c:Fhonour clash where the of pie is only used today as the adjec, absa:actions in ancient rhetoric and morals.' These genealogical rela, a steadfast man is motley cive meaning "pied, particolored." descendants of the technique in the tionships are not always clear. magpie. But such a man may Superimposing the rwo senses of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and desire for fame the sister, the grand,; e inerry, for Heaven and Hell word in oeuvrepie, the pious/parried, Baroque, c£ Ernst Robert Curcius, daughter, or the daughter of Pride?''. part in him" (a:ans. A. ored deed might seenasa"whitelie." European Literature and the Latin M.id,, ;[Harmondsworth, 1980], Thisis exactly thesense in which the
The magpies' coat is chiaroscuro, but the peacock But when its gaze falls upon its feet, it cries out in shimmers in the colors of the rainbow. Ambivalent like loud complaint; for its feet do not match the rest of many of the birds and animals in Christian iconography, its form at all. the peacock's significance varies according to its sur,, roundings. It is sometimes good, sometimes evil. In Par,, 'I'he moral of the allegory: adise, it symbolizes immortality,28 but in the secular world it is the first of the Vices, Superbia (arrogance, pride). Its You too, wise human being, when you consider seraphic plumage is a feast for the eyes, but its shrill cry is < your destiny and the good things that God has given contest, a cacophony to the ears. Ever since the Physiologus, the you, rejoice and be glad and exult in your heart; but y.rhich bird's shrill cry has been linked to its scratching claws and I when·you look at your feet-which is to say, at your edge ai interpreted as a complaint: sins--then cry out and weep to God, and scorn the the ey, injustice of it, just as the peacock scorns its feet.29 new For the peacock is a quite delightful bird, above world: every other fowl under heaven, having splendid >. The peacock is simultaneously attractive and repul,, plumage and delightful wings, striding about here jiv,e.Its screech is the link between its ability to produce a and there, regarding itself with admiration and ru& · gl rious fan and its sinfully ugly feet; it offends the human fling its feathers, and contorting itself and turning t, but placates the divine one.30 Once it reaches Par,, to look at itsel£ 1#Qise, the screecher has nothing more to reproach itself ·th; magpieisregarded in the Wyngaerden lost in the fall, grow back again in The painting shows three,x peacocks in the first arcade der Sele, a tractate formerly attributed spring afier the intervening winter. to Johannes Veghe (:t43,/32-1504), In the tenth book of his Natural His,, · ·Rolins side of the painting. Concealed by his sleeve, which may be of Dutch origin. In tory, Pliny writes that the peacock chis text, magpies are described as sleeps perched in trees in the dense Physiolagus, trans. and com, on. Its feet receive hardly any atten,, worldly,wise people who are trying forests because it feels shame on los, • by Otto Seel (Zurich, tion anymore, and the contradictory to atone for evil deeds on earth by ing its feathers in thefull, and it only 1992 ed.), p. 78. '½.n old Ital, interpretations both involve the fan. doing as many good deeds in com, reemerges in spring. This is proba, roverb says that the peacock has The peacock came to be regarded as pensation. ( TiVyngaerden der Sele des bly the source of the legend that / umage of anangel, the voice of the vainest of all the birds only after Johannes Veghe, ed. Rademacher its flesh is imperishable, allowing and the gait of an assassin." the belief in immortality became a [Hiltrop, 1940], p. .µ8. On the feathers to be instantaneously or Tierleben, vol. 7, p. 49.) seu,serving one. This was when the question of its authorship, see Diet, cyclically resurrected from it. The e change in the peacock's peacock's puffed,up courtship dis, bird's negative associations surely rich Schmidtke, "Bemerkungen ce seems to have begun in play entered the symbolism of Van, derive from its behavior: "The most zum 'Wyngaerden der Sele' des Ps., Middle Ages, when the ity. The feet and the screech are outstanding characteristic of the, Veghe," in Verbum et Signum: [sight began to vie with the forgotten, although the physical peacock is its arrogant thirst Festschr!ft fur Friedrich Ohly, ed. Hans for of hearing for predominance. examples of the species are still domination, which it manifests not Fromm et al. (Munich, 1975], vol. e excellent study by Donat de heard to complain. 2, pp. 413-436.) only toward its mate, but also. Das Auge ist ein " The symbolism of the num, ,a The peacock symbolizes res, toward human beings-ofi:en mak) (Wiesbaden, ber three here refers to the three days urrection in two different rime peri, ingit intolerable on a poultry farm''.. Svrrtbolism, the peacock that Christ spent in the tomb before ods. It can instantaneously raise its (Brehms Tierleben (Leipzig, 1911} silent as time goes the Resurrection. tail into a fun, while its tail feathers, vol. 7, p. 49).
,, 28 ,, ,, 29 ,,
the body of one of the birds seems to have been separated .k Matthew has his greed for profit transformed into gen,, from its head, like Argus Panoptes in Greek mythology. ·· erosity. He humbly confesses the baseness of his origins: In the ancient world, the peacock was honored as the bird "following the prescription that the just man is his own 30 of Juno, the Qyeen of Heaven. Jupiter's jealous wife firstaccuser, he called himself Matthew the publican." transformed the hundred eyes of her herdsman Argus, 'fhe evil dragons that fell asleep at his feet are seen deco,, who was tricked by Mercury and beheaded, into "jewels • rating the arch of the central arcade. His sermon after that glittered like the stars,"32 which she set on the tail of overcoming the dragons also fits the picture: her favorite bird. In Christian interpretations of Ovid, Argus was seen as representing secular princes and the Now the apostle began to preach a great sermon to shepherds of the Church, who practice wise foresight the people about the glory of the earthly paradise, with a hundred eyes, but can still be deceived. "One who telling them that it had stood above all the moun/ 33 has lost his prudence is like a peacock without a tail." ta.ins and had been dose to heaven; that in it there None of the peacocks in the Rolin portrait has fanned were no thorns or brambles, and lilies and roses did out its feathers. With its tail of eyes turning toward the not wither; that old age never came, and people curios in the space above, one of the peacocks is standing always stayed young; that there the angels played on the battlements and peering in the direction of Rolin. upon their instruments, and that when the birds Its clumsy feet are clearly visible; as the Physiologus shows, were called, they obeyed at once. The apostle went these are no obstacle on the path to eternal life. Its own on to say that mankind had been expelled from this screeching complaint follows swiftly on its heels, just as earthly paradise, but that through the birth of forgiveness follows the complaint-provided that the sin,, Christ they had been recalled to the paradise of 37 ner will part with his purse. heaven. The anniversary of the Treaty of Arras was the annual feast day of the apostle and evangelist St. Matthew, whose Thus, even the tiniest detail in the painter's cosmos symbol is his purse.34 "Matthew sinned by avarice by pritains hidden significance. seeking ilL,gotten gains, since he was a tax gatherer, a keeper of the customs."•5 Speedily converted by Christ, .Jfui van Eyck evolved a technique so ineffably < minute that the number of details comprised by the >total form approaches infinity. This technique ;, Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.720- only in effigie. September 21 had achieves homogeneity in all visible forms as calculus 724- been celebrated as St. Matthew's ll Gudrun Schleusener,Eich, Day, a public holiday, since the early achieves continuity in all numerical quantities. holz, Das Auge im Mittelalter (Mu, Middle Ages. I am grateful to ;That which is tiny in terms of measurable magni,, nich, 1985). K. Ferrari d'Occhieppo for this ude yet is large as a product of the infinitesimally '4 In the case of the Evangelist, observation. the presence of the purse reveals the is Jacobus de Voragine, The vanquishing of greed, while the Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, · Galam Legend was the most pop, 36 Ibid., p. I86. absence of the purse in Rolin's case trans. .William Granger Ryan ;eligious book of the Middle 37 Ibid., p. 184. conceals the vanquishing of greed (Princeton, I993), vol. 2, p.
-' 30 -' / 31 ,,
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small; that which is sizable in terms of .measurable Does not all philosophy ultimately con/ magnitude yet is small as a fraction of the infinitely sist of this: behaving as if it did not know what we l..'l!ow with 38 large. certainty-and as if,on the contrary, it knew precisely what wecertainlydonotknow? PAUL VALERY ,.. Panofsky makes reference to Nicholas of Cusa, whose theological and mathematical speculations prepared the way for the modem spacial concept of quantum contin,, IV COi. uum, and whose philosophy parallels van Eyck's art. wl. A Cosmographer's ed 1 th 38 Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting (Cambridge, Mass.), p. I8I. Conjectures U('
w, tt toic, Platonic and Neoplatonic, nominal,, ist, and mystical currents fuse together in d I the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa to form a single, unique structure. If we were "' . to regard the collapse of the foundations of ; I!ledieval philosophy as a fall from grace--and at the end · of the twentieth century there might be good reason to do .so--c.nen the Franciscan William of Ockham might be as the serpent on the. Tree of Knowledge, and ;i/.J.',1;1,cr1011i.s of Cusa would be among those who devoured fruit. In contrast to other students of the serpent, how,,
r, Nicholas never lost sight of Paradise, in spite of rupture caused by the forbidden fruit. The Invincible cher--one of the honorifics by which Ockham addressedr-challenged the Aristotelian distinction een celestial and earthly matter, and ascribed the nature to celestial bodies as to ephemeral earthly · s. Here below and there above, there was not the test difference. Everything in the world and every,, ··.above it must be contingent, for God could have
redeverything quite differently.
term of praise was Venerabilis Inceptor-the Admirable
,, 32,, / 33 /
Anita Albus
here wa ago, wh art, and contestT between' which we had p edge and the wo1 HEART the eye, which \i new breed of p; OF ARTS world of the sem their goal was I Rediscovering Painting details and van way of perceivu Anita Albu: lution of tromp ftli:eenth, sixteer focusing her aq TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON European artis I As a scholar, 1 Panofsky; as a I others have no she skillfully tj vivid and exci( technique of assumes an abi different levels, ingthem.
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Eyck-his vis technique, an third parts ar the genres of· and "forest fl Alfred A. Knopf bumblebees, :! New York bokov emerge in literature of 2000 ish from the fl continuing p conjectures a.i