Altar compositions of Netherlandish painting of the 15th century. Flemish Painting How Biblical Scenes Moved to Flemish Cities

The culture of the Netherlands in the 15th century was religious, but the religious feeling took on a greater humanity and individuality than in the Middle Ages. From now on, sacred images called the worshiper not only to worship, but also to understanding and empathy. The most common in art were the plots associated with the earthly life of Christ, the Mother of God and the Saints, with their worries, joys and sufferings, well known and understandable to every person. Religion was still given the main place, many people lived according to the laws of the church. Altar compositions written for Catholic churches were very common, because the customers were the Catholic Church, which occupied a dominant position in society, although then the Reformation era followed, which divided the Netherlands into two warring camps: Catholics and Protestants, faith still remained in first place, which changed significantly only in the Enlightenment.

Among the Dutch townspeople there were many people of art. Painters, sculptures, carvers, jewelers, stained glass makers were part of various workshops along with blacksmiths, weavers, potters, dyers, glassblowers and pharmacists. However, in those days, the title of "master" was considered a very honorary title, and the artists carried it with no less dignity than representatives of other, more prosaic (in the opinion modern man) professions. The new art originated in the Netherlands at the end of the 14th century. It was the era of itinerant artists who were looking for teachers and customers in a foreign land. The Dutch masters were primarily attracted by France, which maintained long-standing cultural and political ties with their fatherland. For a long time, Dutch artists remained only diligent students of their French counterparts. The main centers of activity of the Dutch masters in the XIV century were the Parisian royal court - during the reign of Charles V the Wise (1364-1380), but already at the turn of the century, the courts of the two brothers of this king became the centers: Jean of France, Duke of Berry, in Bourges and Philip the Brave, Duke of Burgundy, at Dijon, at the courts whom for a long time worked by Jan van Eyck.

The artists of the Dutch Renaissance did not strive for a rationalistic understanding of the general patterns of being, they were far from scientific and theoretical interests and passion for ancient culture. But they successfully mastered the transfer of the depth of space, the atmosphere saturated with light, the finest features of the structure and surface of objects, filling every detail with deep poetic spirituality. Based on the traditions of the Gothic, they showed a special interest in the individual appearance of a person, in the structure of his spiritual world. The progressive development of Dutch art at the end of the 15th and 16th centuries. associated with an appeal to the real world and folk life, the development of a portrait, elements household genre, landscape, still life, with an increased interest in folklore and folk images facilitated a direct transition from the Renaissance proper to the principles of art XVII century.

It was in the XIV and XV centuries. accounts for the origin and development of altar images.

Initially, the word altar was used by the Greeks and Romans for two wax-covered and joined together writing boards that served as notebooks. They were wooden, bone or metal. The inner sides of the fold were intended for records, the outer ones could be covered with various kinds of decorations. The altar was also called the altar, a sacred place for sacrifices and prayers to the gods in the open air. In the 13th century, during the heyday of Gothic art, the entire eastern part of the temple, separated by an altar barrier, was also called the altar, and in Orthodox churches from the 15th century, the iconostasis. An altar with movable doors was the ideological center of the temple interior, which was an innovation in Gothic art. Altar compositions were most often written according to biblical subjects, while icons with the faces of saints were depicted on the iconostases. There were such altar compositions as diptychs, triptychs and polyptychs. A diptych had two, a triptych had three, and a polyptych had five or more parts connected by a common theme and compositional design.

Robert Campin - a Dutch painter, also known as the Master of Flemal and Merode Altarpiece, according to surviving documents, Campin, a painter from Tournai, was the teacher of the famous Rogier van der Weyden. The best-known surviving works of Kampen are four fragments of altarpieces, which are now kept at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt am Main. Three of them are generally believed to come from the Abbey of Flemal, after which the author received the name of the Master of Flemal. The triptych, formerly owned by the Countess Merode and located in Tongerloo in Belgium, gave rise to another nickname for the artist - the Master of the Altar of Merode. This altar is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). The brushes of Campin also belong to the Nativity of Christ from the museum in Dijon, two wings of the so-called Verl Altarpiece, stored in the Prado, and about 20 more paintings, some of them are only fragments of large works or modern copies of long-lost works to the Master.

The Merode altarpiece is a work of particular importance for the development of realism in Netherlandish painting and, in particular, for the composition of the style of Netherlandish portraiture.

In this triptych, before the eyes of the viewer, a contemporary urban dwelling appears to the artist in all real authenticity. The central composition containing the Annunciation scene depicts the main living room of the house. On the left wing you can see a courtyard fenced with a stone wall with steps of a porch and ajar front door leading to the house. On the right wing there is a second room, where the owner's carpentry workshop is located. It clearly shows the path that the Master from Flemal went, translating the impressions of real life into an artistic image; consciously or intuitively, this task became the main goal of the creative act he undertook. The master from Flemal considered his main goal to be the depiction of the Annunciation scene and the depiction of the figures of pious customers worshiping the Madonna. But in the end, it outweighed the concrete life principle embedded in the picture, which brought to our days in its primordial freshness the image of living human reality, which was once for the people of a certain country, a certain era and a certain social status, the everyday life of their true existence. The master from Flemal proceeded in this work entirely from those interests and that psychology of his compatriots and fellow citizens, which he himself shared. Having apparently paid the main attention to the everyday environment of people, making a person a part of the material world and putting him almost on the same level with household items that accompany his life, the artist managed to characterize not only the external, but also the psychological appearance of his hero.

A means for this, along with the fixation of specific phenomena of reality, was also a special interpretation of the religious plot. In compositions on common religious themes, the Master from Flemal introduced such details and embodied in them such symbolic content that led the viewer's imagination away from the interpretation of traditional legends approved by the church and directed him to the perception of living reality. In some of the paintings, the artist reproduced legends borrowed from religious apocryphal literature, in which an unorthodox interpretation of plots was given, common in the democratic strata of Dutch society. This was most evident in the altar of Merode. A deviation from the generally accepted custom is the introduction of the figure of Joseph into the scene of the Annunciation. It is no coincidence that the artist paid so much attention to this character here. During the life of the Master of Flemal, the cult of Joseph grew enormously, which served to glorify family morality. In this hero of the gospel legend, housekeeping was emphasized, his belonging to the world was noted as an artisan of a certain profession and a husband, who was an example of abstinence; the image of a simple carpenter appeared, full of humility and moral purity, wholly in tune with the burgher ideal of the era. In the altar of Merode, it was Joseph who the artist made the conductor of the hidden meaning of the image.

Both the people themselves and the fruits of their labor, embodied in the objects of the environment, acted as carriers of the divine principle. The pantheism expressed by the artist was hostile to official church religiosity and lay on the path to its denial, anticipating some elements of the new religious doctrine that spread at the beginning of the 16th century - Calvinism, with its recognition of the sanctity of every profession in life. It is easy to see that the paintings of the Master from Flemal are imbued with the spirit of “righteous everyday life”, close to those ideals of the “devotio moderna” teaching, which were mentioned above.

Behind all this stood the image of a new man - a burgher, a city dweller with a completely original spiritual warehouse, clearly expressed tastes and needs. To characterize this man, it was not enough for the artist that he, giving the appearances of his heroes, a greater share of individual expressiveness than did his predecessors miniaturists. To active participation in this matter, he attracted the material environment accompanying a person. The hero of the Master of Flemal would be incomprehensible without all these tables, stools and benches knocked together from oak boards, doors with metal brackets and rings, copper pots and earthenware jugs, windows with wooden shutters, massive canopies over the hearths. An important thing in characterizing the characters is that through the windows of the rooms one can see the streets of their native city, and at the threshold of the house grow bunches of grass and modest, naive flowers. In all this, it was as if a particle of the soul of a person living in the depicted houses was embodied. People and things live a common life and seem to be made of the same material; the owners of the rooms are as simple and "strongly put together" as the things they own. These are ugly men and women dressed in good-quality cloth clothes that fall in heavy folds. They have calm, serious, concentrated faces. Such are the customers, husband and wife, who are kneeling in front of the door of the Annunciation room on the altar of Merode. They left their warehouses, shops and workshops and busily came from those very streets and from those houses that are visible behind the open gate of the courtyard to pay their debt to piety. Their inner world is whole and unperturbed, their thoughts are focused on worldly affairs, their prayers are concrete and sober. The picture glorifies human everyday life and human labor, which, in the interpretation of the Master from Flemal, is surrounded by an aura of goodness and moral purity.

It is characteristic that the artist found it possible to attribute similar signs of human character even to those characters of religious legends, whose appearance was most determined by traditional conventions. The master from Flemal was the author of that type of "burgher Madonna", which for a long time remained in the Netherlandish painting. His Madonna lives in an ordinary room in a burgher's house, surrounded by a cozy and homely atmosphere. She sits on an oak bench near a fireplace or a wooden table, she is surrounded by all kinds of household items that emphasize the simplicity and humanity of her appearance. Her face is calm and clear, her eyes are lowered and look either at a book or at a baby lying on her lap; in this image, the connection with the field of spiritualistic ideas is not so much emphasized as his human nature; he is filled with a concentrated and clear piety, responding to the feelings and psychology of a simple person of those days (Madonna from the scene of the "Annunciation" of the Merode altar, "Madonna in the room", "Madonna by the fireplace"). These examples show that the Master of Flemal resolutely refused to convey religious ideas by artistic means, which required the removal of the image of a pious person from the sphere of real life; in his works, not a person was transferred from the earth to imaginary spheres, but religious characters descended to earth and plunged into the thick of contemporary human everyday life in all its true originality. The appearance of the human personality under the brush of the artist acquired a kind of integrity; weakened the signs of his spiritual splitting. This was largely facilitated by the consonance of the psychological state of the characters in the plot pictures of the material environment surrounding them, as well as the lack of disunity between the facial expressions of individual characters and the nature of their gestures.

In a number of cases, the Master from Flemal arranged the folds of the clothes of his heroes according to the traditional pattern, however, under his brush, the breaks in the fabrics took on a purely decorative character; they were not assigned any semantic load associated with the emotional characteristics of the owners of the clothes, for example, the folds of Mary's clothes. The location of the folds enveloping the figure of St. Jacob's wide cloak entirely depends on the shape of the human body hidden under them and, above all, on the position of the left hand, through which the edge of the heavy fabric is thrown. Both the person himself and the clothes put on him, as usual, have a clearly tangible material weight. This is served not only by the modeling of plastic forms developed by purely realistic methods, but also by the newly resolved relationship between the human figure and the space allotted to it in the picture, which is determined by its position in the architectural niche. By placing the statue in a niche with a clearly perceptible, albeit incorrectly built, depth, the artist at the same time managed to make the human figure independent of architectural forms. It is visually separated from the niche; the depth of the latter is actively emphasized by chiaroscuro; the illuminated side of the figure stands out in relief against the background of the shaded side wall of the niche, while a shadow falls on the light wall. Thanks to all these techniques, the person depicted in the picture seems to himself to be overwhelming, material and integral, in his appearance free from connection with speculative categories.

The achievement of the same goal was served by the new understanding of lines that distinguished the Master from Flemal, which lost its former ornamental-abstract character in his works and obeyed the real natural laws of constructing plastic forms. The face of St. Jacob, although devoid of the emotional power of expressiveness inherent in the features of the Sluterian prophet Moses, features of new quests were also found in him; the image of an aged saint is sufficiently individualized, but it does not have a naturalistic illusory nature, but rather, elements of a generalizing typification.

Looking at the Merode altar for the first time, one gets the feeling that we are inside the spatial world of the picture, which has all the basic properties of everyday reality - boundless depth, stability, integrity and completeness. The artists of international gothic, even in their most daring works, did not strive to achieve such a logical construction of the composition, and therefore the reality they depicted did not differ in reliability. In their works there was something from fairy tale: here the scale and relative position of objects could change arbitrarily, and reality and fiction were combined into a harmonious whole. Unlike these artists, the Flemal master dared to depict the truth and only the truth in his works. This was not easy for him. It seems that in his works, objects treated with excessive attention to the transmission of perspective are crowded into the space occupied. However, the artist writes out their smallest details with amazing perseverance, striving for maximum concreteness: each object is endowed only with its inherent shape, size, color, material, texture, degree of elasticity and the ability to reflect light. The artist even conveys the difference between the lighting, which gives soft shadows, and the direct light streaming from two round windows, resulting in two shadows sharply outlined in the upper central panel of the triptych, and two reflections on the copper vessel and candlestick.

The Flemal master managed to transfer the mystical events from their symbolic surroundings to the everyday environment, so that they do not seem banal and ridiculous, using a method known as "hidden symbolism". Its essence lies in the fact that almost any detail of the picture can have a symbolic meaning. For example, the flowers on the left wing and the central panel of the triptych are associated with the Virgin Mary: roses indicate her love, violets indicate her humility, and lilies indicate chastity. A polished bowler hat and a towel are not just household items, but symbols that remind us that the Virgin Mary is “the purest vessel” and “the source of living water.”

The artist's patrons must have had a good understanding of the meaning of these established symbols. The triptych contains all the richness of medieval symbolism, but it turned out to be so closely woven into the world of everyday life that it is sometimes difficult for us to determine whether this or that detail needs symbolic interpretation. Perhaps the most interesting symbol of this kind is the candle next to the vase of lilies. It has just gone out, as can be judged by the luminous wick and the curling haze. But why was it lit in broad daylight, and why did the flame go out? Perhaps the light of this particle of the material world could not withstand the divine radiance from the presence of the Most High? Or maybe it is the flame of the candle that represents the divine light, extinguished to show that God turned into a man, that in Christ “the Word became flesh”? Also mysterious are two objects that look like small boxes - one on Joseph's workbench, and the other on the ledge outside the open window. It is believed that these are mousetraps and they are intended to convey a certain theological message. According to Blessed Augustine, God had to appear on Earth in human form in order to deceive Satan: "The Cross of Christ was a mousetrap for Satan."

An extinguished candle and a mousetrap are unusual symbols. They were introduced into the fine arts by the Flemal master. In all likelihood, he was either a man of extraordinary erudition, or communicated with theologians and other scientists, from whom he learned about the symbolism of everyday objects. He not only continued the symbolic tradition of medieval art within the framework of a new realistic trend, but expanded and enriched it with his work.

It is interesting to know why he simultaneously pursued two completely opposite goals in his works - realism and symbolism? Obviously, they were for him interdependent and did not conflict. The artist believed that, depicting everyday reality, it is necessary to “spiritualize” it as much as possible. This deeply respectful attitude to the material world, which was a reflection of divine truths, makes it easier for us to understand why the master paid the same close attention to the smallest and almost inconspicuous details of the triptych as to the main characters; everything here, at least in a hidden form, is symbolic, and therefore deserves the most careful study. The hidden symbolism in the works of the Flemalsky master and his followers was not only an external device superimposed on a new realistic basis, but was an integral part of the entire creative process. Their Italian contemporaries felt this well, as they appreciated both the amazing realism and the "piety" of the Flemish masters.

Campin's works are more archaic than the works of his younger contemporary Jan van Eyck, but they are democratic and sometimes simple in their everyday interpretation of religious subjects. Robert Campin had a strong influence on subsequent Netherlandish painters, including his student Rogier van der Weyden. Campin was also one of the first portrait painters in European painting.

Ghent altar.

Ghent, the former capital of Flanders, retains the memory of its former glory and power. Many outstanding cultural monuments were created in Ghent, but for a long time people have been attracted to the masterpiece of the greatest painter of the Netherlands Jan van Eyck - the Ghent Altarpiece. More than five hundred years ago, in 1432, this fold was brought to the church of St. John (now the Cathedral of St. Bavo) and installed in the chapel of Jos Feyd. Jos Feyd, one of the richest inhabitants of Ghent, and later its burgomaster, commissioned an altar for his family chapel.

Art historians have spent a lot of effort to find out which of the two brothers - Jan or Hubert van Eyck - played a major role in the creation of the altar. The Latin inscription says that Hubert started and Jan van Eyck finished it. However, the difference in the pictorial handwriting of the brothers has not yet been established, and some scientists even deny the existence of Hubert van Eyck. The artistic unity and integrity of the altar is beyond doubt that it belongs to the hand of one author, which can only be Jan van Eyck. However, a monument near the cathedral depicts both artists. Two bronze figures covered with green patina silently observe the surrounding bustle.

The Ghent Altarpiece is a large polyptych consisting of twelve parts. Its height is about 3.5 meters, width when open is about 5 meters. In the history of art, the Ghent Altarpiece is one of the unique phenomena, an amazing phenomenon of creative genius. Not a single definition in its pure form is applicable to the Ghent altar. Jan van Eyck was able to see the heyday of an era that is somewhat reminiscent of Florence during the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. As conceived by the author, the altar gives a comprehensive picture of ideas about the world, God and man. However, medieval universalism loses its symbolic character and is filled with concrete, earthly content. The painting on the outer side of the side wings, visible on ordinary, non-holiday days, when the altar was kept closed, is especially striking in its vitality. Here are the figures of donors - real people, contemporaries of the artist. These figures are the first examples of portrait art in the work of Jan van Eyck. Restrained, respectful poses, prayerfully folded hands give the figures some stiffness. And yet this does not prevent the artist from achieving amazing life truth and integrity of images.

In the bottom row of paintings of the daily cycle, Jodocus Veidt is depicted - a solid and sedate person. A voluminous purse hangs on his belt, which speaks of the solvency of the owner. Veidt's face is unique. The artist conveys every wrinkle, every vein on the cheeks, sparse, short-cropped hair, veins swollen at the temples, a wrinkled forehead with warts, a fleshy chin. Even the individual shape of the ears did not go unnoticed. Veidt's small swollen eyes look incredulous and searching. They have a lot of life experience. Equally expressive is the figure of the customer's wife. A long, thin face with pursed lips expresses cold severity and prim piety.

Jodocus Veidt and his wife are typical Dutch burghers, combining piety with prudent practicality. Under the mask of severity and piety, which they wear, a sober attitude to life and an active, businesslike character are hidden. Their belonging to the burgher class is expressed so sharply that these portraits bring a peculiar flavor of the era to the altar. The figures of the donors, as it were, connect the real world, in which the viewer standing in front of the picture, is located, with the world depicted on the altar. Only gradually does the artist transfer us from the earthly sphere to the heavenly one, gradually developing his narrative. Kneeling donors are turned to the figures of St. John. These are not the saints themselves, but their images, carved by people from stone.

The scene of the Annunciation is the main one in the outer part of the altar, and announces the birth of Christ and the advent of Christianity. All the characters depicted on the outer wings are subordinate to it: the prophets and sibyls who predicted the appearance of the Messiah, both Johns: one who baptized Christ, the other who described his earthly life; humbly and reverently praying donors (portraits of the customers of the altar). In the very essence of what is being done, there is a secret foreboding of the event. However, the scene of the Annunciation takes place in a real room of a burgher's house, where, thanks to the open walls and windows, things have color and heaviness and, as it were, spread their meaning widely outside. The world becomes involved in what is happening, and this world is quite concrete - outside the windows you can see the houses of a typical Flanders town. The characters of the outer wings of the altar are devoid of living life colors. Mary and the archangel Gabriel are painted almost in monochrome.

The artist endowed with color only the scenes of real life, those figures and objects that are associated with the sinful earth. The Annunciation scene, divided by frames into four parts, nevertheless makes up a single whole. The unity of the composition is due to the correct perspective construction of the interior in which the action takes place. Jan van Eyck far surpassed Robert Campin in the clarity of his depiction of space. Instead of a heap of objects and figures, which we observed in a similar scene by Campin ("Merode Altarpiece"), Jan van Eyck's painting captivates with a strict orderliness of space, a sense of harmony in the distribution of details. The artist is not afraid of the image of empty space, which is filled with light and air, and the figures lose their heavy clumsiness, acquiring natural movements and poses. It seems that if Jan van Eyck had written only the outer doors, he would have already performed a miracle. But this is only a prelude. After the miracle of everyday life, a festive miracle comes - the doors of the altar swing open. Everything everyday - the hubbub and crowd of tourists - recedes before the miracle of Jan van Eyck, in front of the open window to Ghent of the Golden Age. The open altar is dazzling, like a casket full of jewels illuminated by the sun's rays. Ringing bright colors in all their diversity express the joyful affirmation of the value of being. The sun that Flanders has never known pours from the altar. Van Eyck created what nature deprived his homeland. Even Italy has not seen such a boiling of colors, every color, every shade found here the maximum intensity.

In the center of the upper row rises on the throne a huge figure of the creator - the almighty - the god of hosts, dressed in a flaming red mantle. The image of the Virgin Mary is beautiful, holding the Holy Scriptures in her hands. The Reading Mother of God is a striking phenomenon in painting. The figure of John the Baptist completes the composition of the central group of the upper tier. The central part of the altar is framed by a group of angels - on the right, and singing angels playing musical instruments - on the left. It seems that the altar is filled with music, you can hear the voice of each angel, so clearly it can be seen in the eyes and movements of their lips.

Like strangers, the forefathers Adam and Eve, naked, ugly and already middle-aged, bearing the burden of a divine curse, enter the fold, shining with paradise inflorescences. They seem to be secondary in the hierarchy of values. The image of people in close proximity to the highest characters of Christian mythology was a bold and unexpected phenomenon at that time.

The heart of the altar is the middle lower picture, the name of which is given to the whole fold - "Adoration of the Lamb". There is nothing sad in the traditional scene. In the center, on a purple altar, is a white lamb, from whose chest blood flows into a golden cup, the personification of Christ and his sacrifice in the name of the salvation of mankind. Inscription: Ecce agnus dei qvi tollit peccata mindi (Behold the lamb of God that bears the sins of the world). Below is the source of living water, a symbol of the Christian faith with the inscription: Hic est fons aqve vite procedens de sede dei et agni (This is the source of the water of life that comes from the throne of God and the Lamb) (Apocalypse, 22, I).

Kneeling angels surround the altar, which is approached from all sides by the saints, the righteous and the righteous. On the right are the apostles, led by Paul and Barnabas. To the right are the ministers of the church: popes, bishops, abbots, seven cardinals and various saints. Among the latter are St. Stephen with the stones with which he was beaten, according to legend, and St. Livin - the throne of the city of Ghent with a tongue torn out.

On the left is a group of characters from the Old Testament and pagans forgiven by the church. Prophets with books in their hands, philosophers, sages - all who, according to church teaching, predicted the birth of Christ. Here is the ancient poet Virgil and Dante. In the depths on the left is a procession of holy martyrs and holy wives (on the right) with palm branches, symbols of martyrdom. At the head of the right procession are Saints Agnes, Barbara, Dorothea and Ursula.

The city on the horizon is the heavenly Jerusalem. However, many of his buildings resemble real buildings: the Cologne Cathedral, the Church of St. Martin in Maastricht, a watchtower in Bruges and others. On the side panels adjacent to the Adoration of the Lamb scene, on the right are hermits and pilgrims - old men in long robes with staffs in their hands. The hermits are led by St. Anthony and St. Paul. Behind them, in the depths, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Egypt are visible. Among the pilgrims, the powerful figure of St. Christopher. Next to him, perhaps, St. Iodokus with a shell on his hat.

The legend of the Holy Scriptures became a folk mystery, played out on a holiday in Flanders. But Flanders is unreal here - a low and foggy country. The picture is midday light, emerald green. The churches and towers of the Flanders cities have been transferred to this promised fictional land. The world flocks to the land of van Eyck, bringing the luxury of exotic outfits, the brilliance of jewelry, the southern sun and the unprecedented brightness of colors.

The number of plant species represented is extremely diverse. The artist had a truly encyclopedic education, knowledge of a wide variety of objects and phenomena. From a gothic cathedral to a small flower lost in the sea of ​​plants.

All five wings are occupied by the image of a single action, stretched in space and thus in time. We see not only those worshiping the altar, but also crowded processions - on horseback and on foot, gathering to the place of worship. The artist depicted crowds of different times and countries, but does not dissolve in the mass, and does not depersonalize human individuality.

The biography of the Ghent altarpiece is dramatic. During its more than five hundred years of existence, the altar has been repeatedly restored and taken out of Ghent more than once. So, in the 16th century it was restored by the famous Utrecht painter Jan van Scorel.

Since the end, since 1432, the altar was placed in the church of St. John the Baptist, later renamed the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent. He stood in the family chapel of Jodocus Veidt, which was originally in the crypt and had a very low ceiling. Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, where the altar is now exhibited, is located above the crypt.

In the 16th century, the Ghent altar was hidden from the savage fanaticism of the iconoclasts. The outer doors depicting Adam and Eve were removed in 1781 by order of Emperor Joseph II, who was embarrassed by the nakedness of the figures. They were replaced by copies of the 16th-century artist Mikhail Koksi, who dressed the progenitors in leather aprons. In 1794, the French, who occupied Belgium, took the four central paintings to Paris. The remaining parts of the altar, hidden in the town hall, remained in Ghent. After the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, the exported paintings returned to their homeland and were reunited in 1816. But almost at the same time they sold the side doors, which for a long time passed from one collection to another and, finally, in 1821, got to Berlin. After the First World War, according to the Treaty of Versailles, all the wings of the Ghent Altar were returned to Ghent.

On the night of April 11, 1934 in the church of St. Bavo there was a theft. The thieves took away the sash depicting just judges. It was not possible to find the missing painting to this day, and now it has been replaced by a good copy.

When the Second World War began, the Belgians sent the altar to southern France for storage, from where the Nazis transported it to Germany. In 1945, the altar was discovered in Austria in the salt mines near Salzburg and again transported to Ghent.

In order to carry out complex restoration work, which was required by the state of the altar, in 1950-1951 a special commission of experts was created from the largest restorers and art historians, under the leadership of which complex research and restoration work took place: using microchemical analysis, the composition of paints was studied, ultraviolet, infrared X-rays author's alterations and other people's layers of paints are determined. Then later records were removed from many parts of the altar, the paint layer was strengthened, the polluted areas were cleared, after which the altar again shone with all its colors.

The great artistic significance of the Ghent altarpiece, its spiritual value were understood by van Eyck's contemporaries and subsequent generations.

Jan van Eyck, along with Robert Campin, was the initiator of the art of the Renaissance, which marked the rejection of medieval ascetic thinking, the turning of artists to reality, their discovery of true values ​​and beauty in nature and man.

The works of Jan van Eyck are distinguished by color richness, careful, almost jewelery detailing, and confident organization of an integral composition. The tradition connects with the name of the painter the improvement of the technique of oil painting - repeated application of thin, transparent layers of paint, which makes it possible to achieve greater intensity of each color.

Overcoming the traditions of the art of the Middle Ages, Jan van Eyck relied on living observance of reality, striving for an objective reproduction of life. The artist attached particular importance to the image of a person, sought to convey the unique appearance of each of the characters in his paintings. He closely studied the structure of the objective world, capturing the features of each object, landscape or interior environment.

Altar compositions by Hieronymus Bosch.

It was towards the end of the 15th century. Troubled times have come. The new rulers of the Netherlands, Charles the Bold, and then Maximilian I, forced their subjects to obey the throne with fire and sword. Recalcitrant villages were burned to the ground, gallows and wheels appeared everywhere, on which the rebels were quartered. Yes, and the Inquisition did not doze off - in the flames of bonfires, heretics were burned alive, who dared to disagree with the powerful church at least in some way. Public executions and torture of criminals and heretics took place in the central market squares of Dutch cities. It is no coincidence that people started talking about the end of the world. Scientists theologians even called the exact date of the Last Judgment - 1505. In Florence, the public was turned on by the frantic sermons of Savonarola, foreshadowing the nearness of retribution for human sins, and in the north of Europe, heresiarch preachers called for a return to the origins of Christianity, otherwise, they assured their flock, people would face terrible torments of hell.

These moods could not but be reflected in art. And so the great Dürer creates a series of engravings on the themes of the Apocalypse, and Botticelli illustrates Dante, drawing the crazy world of hell.

All of Europe reads Dante's Divine Comedy and the Revelation of St. John” (Apocalypse), as well as the book “Vision of Tundgal”, which appeared in the XII century, written allegedly by the Irish king Tundgal, about his posthumous journey through the underworld. In 1484, this book was also published in 's-Hertogenbosch. Of course, she also ended up in Bosch's house. He reads and rereads this gloomy medieval opus, and gradually the images of hell, the images of the inhabitants of the underworld displace from his mind the characters of everyday life, his stupid and rogue countrymen. Thus, Bosch began to turn to the topic of hell only after reading this book.

So, hell, according to the writers of the Middle Ages, is divided into several parts, each of which is punished for certain sins. These parts of hell are separated from each other by icy rivers or fiery walls, and connected by thin bridges. This is how Dante imagined hell. As for the inhabitants of hell, Bosch’s idea is formed from the images on the old frescoes of city churches and from the masks of devils and werewolves that the inhabitants of his hometown wore during holidays and carnival processions.

Bosch is a real philosopher, he painfully thinks about human life, about its meaning. What could be the end of the existence of a man on earth, a man so stupid, sinful, low, unable to resist his weaknesses? Only hell! And if earlier on his canvases the pictures of the underworld were strictly separated from the pictures of earthly existence and served rather as a reminder of the inevitability of punishment for sins, now hell for Bosch becomes just a part of human history.

And he writes "Hay Cart" - his famous altar. Like most medieval altarpieces, the Hay Cart consists of two parts. On weekdays, the doors of the altar were closed, and people could only see the image on the outer doors: a man, exhausted, bent by the hardships of being, wanders along the road. Bare hills, almost no vegetation, only two trees were depicted by the artist, but under one a fool plays the bagpipes, and under the other a robber mocks his victim. And a bunch of white bones in the foreground, and a gallows, and a wheel. Yes, the gloomy landscape was depicted by Bosch. But there was nothing fun in the world around him. On holidays, during solemn services, the doors of the altar were opened, and the parishioners saw a completely different picture: on the left side, Bosch painted paradise, Eden, a garden where God settled the first people Adam and Eve. The whole history of the fall is displayed in this picture. And now Eve turned towards earthly life, where - in the central part of the triptych - people rush about, suffering and sinning. In the center is a huge wagon of hay around which human life goes. Everyone in the medieval Netherlands knew the saying: "The world is a hay cart, and everyone tries to get as much as they can out of it." The artist depicts here both a disgusting fat monk, and illustrious aristocrats, and jesters and rogues, and stupid, narrow-minded burghers - everyone is involved in a crazy pursuit of material wealth, everyone is running, not suspecting that they are running to their inevitable death.

The picture is a reflection on the madness reigning in the world, in particular, on the sin of stinginess. It all starts with original sin (earthly paradise on the left side) and ends with punishment (hell on the right side).

An unusual procession is depicted on the central part. The whole composition is built around a huge cart of hay, which is dragged to the right (to hell) by a group of monsters (symbols of sins?), followed by a cortege led by the powers that be on horseback. And a crowd of people rages around, including priests and nuns, and by all means try to snatch some hay. Meanwhile, something like a love concert is going on upstairs in the presence of an angel, a devil with a monstrous trumpet nose, and various other devilish spawn.

But Bosch was aware that the world is not unambiguous, it is complex and multifaceted; low and sinful side by side with high and pure. And in his picture a beautiful landscape appears, against the background of which all this swarm of small and soulless people seems to be a temporary and transient phenomenon, while nature, beautiful and perfect, is eternal. He also paints a mother washing a child, and a fire on which food is cooked, and two women, one of whom is pregnant, and they froze, listening to a new life.

And on the right wing of the triptych, Bosch depicted hell as a city. Here, under the black and red sky, devoid of God's blessing, work is in full swing. Hell is settling down in anticipation of a new batch of sinful souls. Bosch's demons are cheerful and active. They resemble costumed devils, the characters of street performances, who, dragging sinners into the "hell", amused the audience with jumping grimaces. In the picture, the devils are exemplary workers. True, while some towers are erected by them with such zeal, others manage to burn down.

Bosch interprets the words of the scripture about hellfire in his own way. The artist represents it as a fire. Charred buildings, from the windows and doors of which fire bursts out, become in the master's paintings a symbol of sinful human thoughts, burning out from the inside to ashes.

In this work, Bosch philosophically summarizes the entire history of mankind - from the creation of Adam and Eve, from Eden and heavenly bliss to retribution for sins in the terrible kingdom of the Devil. This concept - philosophical and moral - underlies his other altars and canvases ("The Last Judgment", "The Flood"). He paints multi-figure compositions, and sometimes in the depiction of hell, its inhabitants become not like the builders of majestic cathedrals, as in the triptych "Hay Carriage", but like vile old women, witches, with the enthusiasm of housewives preparing their disgusting cooking, while they serve as instruments of torture ordinary household items - knives, spoons, frying pans, ladles, cauldrons It was thanks to these paintings that Bosch was perceived as a singer of hell, nightmares and torture.

Bosch, as a man of his time, was convinced that evil and good do not exist one without the other, and evil can be defeated only by restoring the connection with good, and good is God. That is why the righteous of Bosch, surrounded by fiends, often read the Holy Scriptures or even just talk with God. So they, in the end, find strength in themselves and, with God's help, overcome evil.

Bosch's paintings are truly a grandiose treatise on good and evil. By means of painting, the artist expresses his views on the causes of evil reigning in the world, talks about how to fight evil. There was nothing like this in art before Bosch.

A new, 16th century began, but the promised end of the world never came. Earthly worries supplanted torments about the salvation of the soul. Trade and cultural ties between cities grew and strengthened. Paintings by Italian artists came to the Netherlands, and their Dutch counterparts, getting acquainted with the achievements of their Italian colleagues, perceived the ideals of Raphael and Michelangelo. Everything around was changing quickly and inevitably, but not for Bosch. He still lived in 's-Hertogenbosch, in his beloved estate, reflected on life and wrote only when he wanted to pick up brushes. Meanwhile, his name became known. In 1504, the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, ordered him an altar with the image of the Last Judgment, and in 1516, the governor of the Netherlands, Margarita, acquired his “Temptation of St. Anthony." Engravings from his work were a huge success.

Among the last works of the artist, the most notable are " Prodigal son and The Garden of Earthly Delights.

The large altar "Garden of Earthly Delights" is perhaps one of the most fantastic and mysterious works in world painting, in which the master reflects on the sinfulness of man.

Three paintings depict the Garden of Eden, an illusory earthly paradise and Hell, thus telling about the origins of sin and its consequences. On the outer wings, the artist depicted a certain sphere, inside which, in the form of a flat disk, is the earth's firmament. The rays of the sun break through the gloomy clouds, illuminating the earth's mountains, reservoirs and vegetation. But neither animals nor man are here yet - this is the land of the third day of creation. And on the inner doors, Bosch presents his vision of earthly life, and, as usual, the left door depicts the gardens of Eden. Bosch, by the will of his brush, inhabits the Garden of Eden with all the animals known in his time: there is a giraffe and an elephant, a duck and a salamander, a northern bear and an Egyptian ibis. And all this lives against the backdrop of an exotic park in which palm trees, oranges and other trees and shrubs grow. It would seem that complete harmony is spilled in this world, but evil does not sleep, and now a cat is clutching a strangled mouse in its teeth, in the background a predator is tormenting a dead doe, and an insidious owl has settled in the fountain of life. Bosch does not show the scenes of the fall, he seems to be saying that evil was born along with the appearance of his life. Departing from tradition, Bosch on the left wing of the triptych tells not about the fall, but about the creation of Eve. That is why it seems that evil came into the world from that moment, and not at all when the devil seduced the first people with the fruits from the tree of knowledge. When Eve appears in Paradise, ominous changes take place. A cat strangles a mouse, a lion pounces on a doe - for the first time, innocent animals show bloodthirstiness. An owl appears in the very heart of the fountain of life. And on the horizon, silhouettes of bizarre buildings are piled up, reminiscent of outlandish structures from the middle part of the triptych.

The central part of the altar shows how evil, which was only born in Eden, flourishes magnificently on Earth. Among unseen, fantastic plants, half-mechanisms, half-animals, hundreds of naked, faceless people enter into some kind of surreal intercourse with animals and with each other, hide in the hollow shells of giant fruits, assuming some crazy poses. And in the whole movement of this living, bustling mass - sinfulness, lust and vice. Bosch did not change his understanding of human nature and the essence of human existence, but unlike his other earlier works, there are no everyday sketches here, nothing resembles the genre scenes of his previous paintings - just pure philosophy, an abstract understanding of life and death. Bosch, as a brilliant director, builds the world, manages a huge mass of swarming people, animals, mechanical and organic forms, organizing them into a strict system. Everything here is connected and natural. The bizarre forms of the rocks of the left and central wings continue with the forms of burning structures in the background of the underworld; the fountain of life in heaven is contrasted with the rotten "tree of knowledge" in hell.

This triptych is undoubtedly the most mysterious and symbolically complex work of Bosch, which gave birth to the most different interpretations assumptions regarding the religious and sexual orientation of the artist. Most often, this picture is interpreted as an allegorical - moralizing judgment of lust. Bosch paints a picture of a false paradise, literally filled with symbols of lust, drawn mainly from traditional symbolism, but partly from alchemy - a false doctrine that, like carnal sin, blocks a person's path to salvation.

This altar impresses with countless scenes and characters and an amazing heap of symbols behind which there are new hidden meanings, often indecipherable. Probably, this work was not intended for the general public coming to the church, but for educated burghers and courtiers who highly valued scholars and intricate allegories of a moralistic content.

And Bosch himself? Hieronymus Bosch is a gloomy science fiction writer, proclaimed by the surrealists of the 20th century as his predecessor, spiritual father and teacher, the creator of subtle and lyrical landscapes, a deep connoisseur of human nature, a satirist, moral writer, philosopher and psychologist, a fighter for the purity of religion and a fierce critic of church bureaucrats, whom many considered a heretic - this truly brilliant artist managed to be understood even during his lifetime, to achieve the respect of his contemporaries and to be far ahead of his time.

At the end of the 14th century, Jan Van Aken, the great-grandfather of the artist, settled in the small Dutch town of 's-Hertogenbosch. He liked the town, things were going well, and it never occurred to his descendants to leave somewhere in search of a better life. They became merchants, artisans, artists, built and decorated 's-Hertogenbosch. There were many artists in the Aken family - grandfather, father, two uncles and two brothers Jerome. (Grandfather Jan Van Aken is credited with the authorship of the murals that have survived to this day in the 's-Hertogenbosch church of St. John).

The exact date of Bosch's birth is not known, but it is believed that he was born around 1450. The family lived in abundance - the artist's father had many orders, and the mother, the daughter of a local tailor, probably received a good dowry. Subsequently, their son Hieronymus Van Aken, a great patriot of his native city, began to call himself Hieronymus Bosch, taking the shortened name of 's-Hertogenbosch as a pseudonym. He signed Jheronimus Bosch, although his real name is Jeroen (the correct Latin version is Hieronymus) Van Aken, that is, from Aachen, where his ancestors apparently came from.

The pseudonym "Bosch" is derived from the name of the city of 's-Hertogenbosch (translated as "the ducal forest"), a small Dutch town located near the Belgian border, and in those days - one of the four largest centers of the Duchy of Brabant, the possession of the Dukes of Burgundy. Jerome lived there all his life. Hieronymus Bosch had a chance to live in a troubled era on the eve of great changes. The undivided dominion of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, and with it and everything else in life, comes to an end. The air was full of anticipation of religious unrest and the upheavals associated with them. Meanwhile, outwardly, everything looked safe. Trade and crafts flourished. Painters in their works glorified a rich and proud country, every corner of which was turned into an earthly paradise by hard work.

And so, in a small town in the south of the Netherlands, an artist appeared, filling his paintings with visions of hell. All these horrors were written out so colorfully and in detail, as if their author had looked into the underworld more than once.

's-Hertogenbosch was a prosperous trading city in the 15th century, but it stood apart from the great centers of art. To the south of it were the richest cities of Flanders and Brabant - Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, where at the beginning of the 15th century the great schools of the Dutch "golden age" of painting were formed. The powerful Burgundian dukes, who united the Dutch provinces under their rule, patronized the economic and cultural life of the cities where Jan Van Eyck and the Master from Flemal worked. In the second half of the 15th century, in the cities north of 's-Hertogenbosch, Delft, Harlem, Leiden, Utrecht, bright masters worked, and among them the brilliant Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes, new, revivalist ideas about the world and the place of man in it were taking shape. Man, the philosophers of modern times argued, is the crown of creation, the center of the universe. These ideas were brilliantly embodied in those years in the work of Italian artists, the great contemporaries of Bosch Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci. However, the provincial 's-Hertogenbosch did not at all resemble Florence, the free and flourishing capital of Tuscany, and for some time this cardinal breakdown of all established medieval traditions and foundations did not concern it. One way or another, Bosch absorbed new ideas, art historians suggest that he studied in Delft or in Harlem.

Bosch's life came at a turning point in the development of the Netherlands, when, with the rapid growth of industry and crafts, sciences and education became increasingly important, and at the same time, as often happens, people, even the most educated, sought refuge and support in the dark medieval superstitions, in astrology, alchemy and magic. And Bosch, a witness of these cardinal processes of transition from the dark Middle Ages to the light Renaissance, brilliantly reflected in his work the inconsistency of his time.

In 1478, Bosch married Aleid van Merwerme, a family that belonged to the top of the urban aristocracy. The Boschs lived on a small estate owned by Aleyd, not far from 's-Hertogenbosch. Unlike many artists, Bosch was financially secure (the fact that he was far from poor is evidenced by the high amounts of taxes he paid, records of which are preserved in archival documents) and could only do what he wanted. He did not depend on orders and the location of customers and gave himself free rein in choosing the subjects and style of his paintings.

Who was he, Hieronymus Bosch, this, perhaps, the most mysterious artist in world art? A suffering heretic or a believer, but with an ironic mindset, cynically mocking human weaknesses? A mystic or a humanist, a gloomy misanthrope or a merry fellow, an admirer of the past or a wise seer? Or maybe just a lonely eccentric, displaying the fruits of his crazy imagination on canvas? There is also such a point of view: Bosch took drugs, and his paintings are the result of a drug trance

So little is known about his life that it is completely impossible to get an idea of ​​​​the artist's personality. And only his paintings can tell about what kind of person their author was.

First of all, the breadth of interests and depth of knowledge of the artist strikes. The plots of his paintings are played out against the background of buildings of both contemporary and ancient architecture. In his landscapes - all the then known flora and fauna: animals of the northern forests live among tropical plants, and elephants and giraffes graze on Dutch fields. In the painting of one altar, he reproduces the sequence of building a tower according to all the rules of engineering art of that time, and in another place he depicts the achievement of 15th-century technology: water and windmills, melting furnaces, forges, bridges, wagons, ships. In the paintings depicting hell, the artist shows weapons, kitchen utensils, musical instruments, and the latter are written out so accurately and in detail that these drawings could serve as an illustration for a textbook on the history of musical culture.

Bosch was well aware of the achievements of contemporary science. Doctors, astrologers, alchemists, mathematicians are frequent heroes of his paintings. The artist's ideas about the world beyond the grave, about what the underworld looks like, are based on a deep knowledge of theological, theological treatises and the lives of the saints. But the most amazing thing is that Bosch had an idea about the teachings of secret heretical sects, about the ideas of medieval Jewish scientists, whose books at that time had not yet been translated into any European language! And, besides, folklore, the world of fairy tales and legends of his people, is also reflected in his paintings. Surely Bosch was true man new time, a man of the Renaissance, he was excited and interested in everything that happened in the world. Bosch's work conditionally consists of four levels - literal, plot; allegorical, allegorical (expressed in parallels between the events of the Old and New Testaments); symbolic (using the symbolism of medieval, folklore representations) and secret, associated, as some researchers believe, with the events of his life or with various heretical teachings. Playing with symbols and signs, Bosch composes his grandiose pictorial symphonies, in which the themes of a folk song, the majestic chords of the heavenly spheres, or the insane roar of an infernal machine sound.

Bosch's symbolism is so diverse that it is impossible to pick up one common key to his paintings. Symbols change their purpose depending on the context, and they can come from a variety of, sometimes distant from each other, sources - from mystical treatises to practical magic, from folklore to ritual performances.

Among the most mysterious sources was alchemy - an activity aimed at turning base metals into gold and silver, and, in addition, to create life in a laboratory, which clearly bordered on heresy. In Bosch, alchemy is endowed with negative, demonic properties and its attributes are often identified with symbols of lust: copulation is often depicted inside a glass flask or in water - a hint of alchemical compounds. Color transitions sometimes resemble the first stages of the transformation of matter; jagged towers, trees hollow inside, fires are both symbols of hell and death and a hint of the fire of alchemists; a hermetic vessel or a melting furnace are also emblems of black magic and the devil. Of all the sins, lust has perhaps the most symbolic designations, starting with cherries and other “voluptuous” fruits: grapes, pomegranates, strawberries, apples. It is easy to recognize sexual symbols: men's are all pointed objects: a horn, an arrow, a bagpipe, often hinting at an unnatural sin; female - everything that absorbs: a circle, a bubble, a clam shell, a jug (also denoting the devil who jumps out of it during the Sabbath), a crescent moon (also hinting at Islam, which means heresy).

There is also a whole bestiary of "unclean" animals, drawn from the Bible and medieval symbols: a camel, a hare, a pig, a horse, a stork and many others; one cannot fail to name a snake, although it is not so common in Bosch. The owl is the messenger of the devil and at the same time heresy or a symbol of wisdom. The toad, denoting sulfur in alchemy, is a symbol of the devil and death, like everything dry - trees, animal skeletons.

Other common symbols are: a ladder, indicating the path to knowledge in alchemy or symbolizing sexual intercourse; an inverted funnel is an attribute of fraud or false wisdom; a key (cognition or sexual organ), often shaped not to be opened; a severed leg is traditionally associated with mutilation or torture, and in Bosch it is also associated with heresy and magic. As for all sorts of evil spirits, then Bosch's fantasy knows no bounds. In his paintings, Lucifer takes on a myriad of guises: these are traditional devils with horns, wings and a tail, insects, half-humans - half-animals, creatures with a part of the body turned into a symbolic object, anthropomorphic machines, freaks without a body with one huge head on legs, dating back to antique in a grotesque way. Often demons are depicted with musical instruments, mostly wind instruments, which sometimes become part of their anatomy, turning into a nose-flute or nose-trumpet. Finally, the mirror, traditionally a diabolical attribute associated with magic rituals, Bosch becomes an instrument of temptation in life and ridicule after death.

In the time of Bosch, the artists painted mainly paintings on religious subjects. But already in his earliest works, Bosch rebels against the established rules - he is much more interested in living people, people of his time: wandering magicians, healers, jesters, actors, beggars musicians. Traveling through the cities of Europe, they not only fooled gullible dupes, but also entertained respectable burghers and peasants, told what was happening in the world. Not a single fair, not a single carnival or church holiday could do without them, these vagabonds, brave and cunning. And Bosch writes these people, preserving for posterity the flavor of his time.

Let us imagine a small Dutch town with its narrow streets, pointed churches, tiled roofs and the indispensable town hall on the market square. Of course, the arrival of a magician is a huge event in the life of ordinary burghers, who, in general, have no special entertainment - maybe only a festive service in the church and an evening with friends in the nearest tavern. The performance scene of such a visiting magician comes to life in a painting by Bosch. Here he is, this artist, laying out the objects of his craft on the table, fooling the honest people with great pleasure. We see how a respectable lady, carried away by the magician's manipulations, leaned over the table in order to better see what he was doing, while a man standing behind her pulled a wallet out of her pocket. Surely a magician and a clever thief are one company, and both of them have so much hypocrisy and hypocrisy on their faces. It would seem that Bosch is writing an absolutely realistic scene, but suddenly we see a frog climbing out of the mouth of a curious lady. It is known that in medieval fairy tales, the frog symbolized naivety and gullibility, bordering on outright stupidity.

Around the same years, Bosch created the grandiose painting The Seven Deadly Sins. In the center of the picture is placed the pupil - "God's Eye". On it is an inscription in Latin: "Beware, beware - God sees." Around are scenes representing human sins: gluttony, laziness, lust, vanity, anger, envy and stinginess. The artist dedicates a separate scene to each of the seven deadly sins, and the result is a story of human life. This picture, written on a blackboard, first served as a table surface. Hence the unusual circular composition. The scenes of sins look like cute jokes on the theme of the moral baseness of a person, the artist is more likely to joke than to condemn and be indignant. Bosch admits that stupidity and vice thrive in our lives, but this is human nature, and nothing can be done about it. People from all classes, from all walks of life appear in the picture - aristocrats, peasants, merchants, clergy, burghers, judges. On the four sides of this large composition, Bosch depicted "Death", "Last Judgment", "Paradise" and "Hell" - what, as they believed in his time, ends the life of every person.

In 1494, Sebastian Brant's poem "The Ship of Fools" with illustrations by Dürer was published in Basel. “In night and darkness the world is plunged, rejected by God - fools swarm on all roads,” wrote Brant.

It is not known for sure whether Bosch read the creations of his brilliant contemporary, but in his painting “Ship of Fools” we see all the characters of Brant’s poem: drunken revelers, loafers, charlatans, jesters and grumpy wives. Without a rudder and without sails, a ship with fools is sailing. Its passengers indulge in gross carnal pleasures. No one knows when and where the voyage will end, which shores they are destined to land on, and they don’t care - they live in the present, forgetting about the past and not thinking about the future. The best places are occupied by a monk and a nun bawling obscene songs; the mast has turned into a tree with a lush crown, in which Death grins evilly, and over all this madness a flag with the image of a star and a crescent, Muslim symbols, signifying a departure from the true faith, from Christianity, flutters.

In 1516, on August 9, according to the archives of 's-Hertogenbosch, " famous artist» Hieronymus Bosch passed away. His name became famous not only in Holland, but also in other European countries. The Spanish King Philip II collected his best works and even placed the Seven Deadly Sins in his bedroom in the Escorial, and the Hay Cart above his desk. A huge number of "masterpieces" of numerous followers, copyists, imitators and simply scammers who forged the works of the great master appeared on the art market. And in 1549, in Antwerp, the young Pieter Brueghel organized the "Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch", where, together with his friends, he made engravings in the style of Bosch, and sold them with great success. However, already at the end of the 16th century, people's lives changed so dramatically that the symbolic language of the artist became incomprehensible. Publishers, printing engravings from his works, were forced to accompany them with lengthy comments, while speaking only about the moralizing side of the artist's work. Bosch's altars disappeared from churches, moving into the collections of highbrow collectors who enjoyed deciphering them. In the 17th century, Bosch was practically forgotten precisely because all his works were filled with symbols.

Years passed, and of course, in the gallant 18th and practical 19th centuries, Bosch turned out to be completely unnecessary, moreover, alien. The Gorky hero Klim Samgin, looking at a picture of Bosch in the old Munich Pinakothek, is amazed: “It is strange that this annoying picture found a place in one of the best museums in the German capital. This Bosch acted with reality like a child with a toy - broke it, and then glued the pieces as he wished. Nonsense. This is suitable for a feuilleton of a provincial newspaper. The artist's works were gathering dust in the storerooms of the museum, and art historians only briefly mentioned in their writings about this strange medieval painter who painted some kind of phantasmagoria.

But then the 20th century came, with its terrible wars that turned all the understanding of man about man, the century that brought the horror of the Holocaust, the madness of the continuously adjusted work of Auschwitz furnaces, the nightmare of the atomic mushroom. And then there was the American apocalypse of September 11, 2001, and Moscow's Nord-Ost how old values ​​are debunked and discarded in the name of some new and unknown, in our time it has again become amazingly modern and fresh. And his painful reflections and mournful insights, the results of his thoughts about the eternal problems of good and evil, human nature, about life, death and faith, which does not leave us no matter what, become incredibly valuable and truly necessary. That is why we look again and again at his brilliant, ageless canvases.

Bosch's works in their symbolism resemble the works of Robert Campin, but the comparison of Campin's realism and the phantasmagoria of Hieronymus Bosch is not entirely appropriate. In the works of Campin there is the so-called "hidden symbolism", the symbolism of Campin is well-established, more understandable, as if the glorification of the material world. Bosch's symbolism is more of a mockery of the world around, its vices, and not a glorification of this world. Bosch interpreted biblical stories too freely.

Conclusion.

Many artists of the 15th century became famous for praising religion and the material world in their works. Most of them used symbolism for this, a hidden meaning in the depiction of everyday objects. The symbolism of Kampin was somehow ordinary, but despite this it was not always possible to understand whether secret symbolism was hidden in the image of any object or whether the object was just a part of the interior.

Jan van Eyck's works contained religious symbolism, but it faded into the background, in his works Jan van Eyck depicted elementary scenes from the Bible, and the meaning and plots of these scenes were clear to everyone.

Bosch mocked the world around him, used symbolism in his own way and interpreted the surrounding events and people's actions. Despite the extreme interest of his work, they were soon forgotten and were mostly in private collections. Interest in it revived only at the beginning of the 20th century.

Dutch culture reached its peak in the 1960s. XVI century. But in the same period, events occurred that caused the old Netherlands to cease to exist: the bloody rule of Alba, which cost the country many thousands human lives, led to a war that completely ruined Flanders and Brabant - the main cultural regions of the country. The inhabitants of the northern provinces, speaking out in 1568 against the Spanish king, did not lower their arms until the very victory in 1579, when the creation of a new state, the United Provinces, was proclaimed. It included the northern regions of the country, led by Holland. The southern Netherlands remained under Spanish rule for nearly a century.

The most important reason for the death of this culture was the Reformation, which forever divided the Dutch people into Catholics and Protestants. At the very time when the name of Christ was on the lips of both warring parties, the fine arts ceased to be Christian.

In Catholic areas, painting on religious subjects has become a dangerous business: both following the naive colorful medieval ideals and the tradition of free interpretation of biblical themes coming from Bosch could equally bring artists under suspicion of heresy.

In the northern provinces, where Protestantism had triumphed by the end of the century, painting and sculpture were "expelled" from churches. Protestant preachers vehemently denounced church art as idolatry. Two destructive waves of iconoclasm - 1566 and 1581. - destroyed a lot of wonderful works of art.

At the dawn of the New Age, the medieval harmony between the earthly and heavenly worlds was broken. In the life of a person at the end of the 16th century, a sense of responsibility for one's actions in the face of God gave way to following the norms of public morality. The ideal of holiness was replaced by the ideal of burgher integrity. Artists depicted the world that surrounded them, increasingly forgetting about its Creator. The symbolic realism of the Northern Renaissance was replaced by a new, worldly realism.

Today, the altars of the great masters lend themselves to restoration, precisely because such masterpieces of painting are worthy of being preserved for centuries.

Although a significant number of outstanding monuments of Netherlandish art of the 15th and 16th centuries have come down to us, it is necessary, when considering its development, to take into account the fact that much perished both during the iconoclastic movement, which manifested itself in a number of places during the revolution of the 16th century, and later, in particular in connection with the little attention paid to them in later times, until the beginning of the 19th century.
The absence in most cases of artists' signatures in the paintings and the scarcity of documentary data required significant efforts by many researchers in order to restore the heritage of individual artists through a thorough stylistic analysis. The main written source is the Book of Artists published in 1604 (Russian translation, 1940) by the painter Karel van Mander (1548-1606). Compiled on the model of Vasari's "Biographies", the biographies of the Dutch artists of the 15th-16th centuries by Mander contain extensive and valuable material, the special significance of which lies in information about monuments directly familiar to the author.
In the first quarter of the 15th century, a radical revolution took place in the development of Western European painting - an easel painting appeared. Historical tradition connects this revolution with the activities of the van Eyck brothers, the founders of the Netherlandish school of painting. The work of the van Eycks was largely prepared by the realistic conquests of the masters of the previous generation - the development of late Gothic sculpture and especially the activity of a whole galaxy of Flemish masters of book miniatures who worked in France. However, in the refined, refined art of these masters, in particular the Limburg brothers, the realism of details is combined with the conditional image of space and the human figure. Their work completes the development of Gothic and belongs to another stage of historical development. The activities of these artists took place almost entirely in France, with the exception of Bruderlam. The art created on the territory of the Netherlands itself in the late 14th and early 15th centuries was of a secondary, provincial nature. Following the defeat of France at Agincourt in 1415 and the transfer of Philip the Good from Dijon to Flanders, the emigration of artists ceased. Artists find numerous customers, in addition to the Burgundian court and the church, among wealthy citizens. Along with creating paintings, they paint statues and reliefs, paint banners, perform various decorative works, and decorate festivities. With a few exceptions (Jan van Eyck), artists, like artisans, were united in guilds. Their activities, limited to the city limits, contributed to the formation of local art schools, which, however, were less isolated due to small distances than in Italy.
Ghent altar. The most famous and largest work of the van Eyck brothers, The Adoration of the Lamb (Ghent, St. Bavo Church) belongs to the great masterpieces of world art. This is a large two-tier folded altar image, consisting of 24 separate paintings, 4 of which are placed on the fixed middle part, and the rest on the inner and outer wings). The lower tier of the inner side makes up a single composition, although it is divided into 5 parts by the sash frames. In the center, in a meadow overgrown with flowers, a throne with a lamb rises on a hill, the blood from the wound of which flows into the bowl, symbolizing the atoning sacrifice of Christ; a little lower beats the fountain of the "source of living water" (ie the Christian faith). Crowds of people gathered to worship the lamb - on the right were kneeling apostles, behind them were representatives of the church, on the left - the prophets, and in the background - the holy martyrs emerging from the groves. The hermits and pilgrims depicted on the right side wings, led by the giant Christopher, also go here. Horsemen are placed on the left wings - defenders of the Christian faith, indicated by inscriptions as "Christ's soldiers" and "Righteous judges". The complex content of the main composition is drawn from the Apocalypse and other biblical and gospel texts and is associated with the church holiday of all saints. Although individual elements date back to the medieval iconography of this theme, they are not only significantly complicated and expanded by the inclusion of images on the doors not provided for by tradition, but also translated by the artist into completely new, concrete and living images. Particular attention deserves, in particular, the landscape, among which the spectacle unfolds; numerous species of trees and shrubs, flowers, rocks covered with cracks and the panorama of the distance opening up in the background are conveyed with amazing accuracy. Before the sharp gaze of the artist, as if for the first time, the delightful richness of the forms of nature was revealed, which he conveyed with reverent attention. Interest in the diversity of aspects is clearly expressed in the rich variety of human faces. With amazing subtlety, the bishops' mitres decorated with stones, the rich harness of horses, and sparkling armor are conveyed. In the "warriors" and "judges" the magnificent splendor of the Burgundian court and chivalry comes to life. The unified composition of the lower tier is opposed by large figures of the upper tier placed in niches. Strict solemnity distinguishes the three central figures - God the Father, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. A sharp contrast to these majestic images are the naked figures of Adam and Eve, separated from them by images of singing and playing angels. For all the archaism of their appearance, the artists' understanding of the structure of the body is striking. These figures attracted the attention of artists in the 16th century, such as Dürer. The angular forms of Adam are contrasted with the roundness of the female body. With close attention, the surface of the body, covering its hairs, is transferred. However, the movements of the figures are constrained, the poses are unstable.
Of particular note is a clear understanding of the changes resulting from a change in point of view (low for the progenitors and high for other figures).
The monochromaticity of the outer doors is designed to set off the richness of colors and the festivity of the open doors. The altar was opened only on holidays. In the lower tier there are statues of John the Baptist (to whom the church was originally dedicated) and John the Evangelist, imitating stone sculpture, and the kneeling figures of donors Iodokus Feit and his wife standing out in relief in the shaded niches. The appearance of such picturesque images was prepared by the development of portrait sculpture. The figures of the archangel and Mary in the scene of the Annunciation unfolding in a single, albeit separated by sash frames, interior are distinguished by the same statuary plasticity. Attention is drawn to the loving transfer of furnishings of burgher housing and the view of the city street that opens through the window.
An inscription in verse placed on the altar says that it was begun by Hubert van Eyck, "the greatest of all", finished by his brother "the second in art" on behalf of Jodocus Feit, and consecrated on May 6, 1432. The indication of the participation of two artists, naturally, led to numerous attempts to distinguish between the share of participation of each of them. However, it is extremely difficult to do this, since the pictorial execution of the altar is uniform in all parts. The complexity of the task is compounded by the fact that, while we have reliable biographical information about Jan, and most importantly, we have a number of his undisputed works, we know almost nothing about Hubert and do not have a single documented work of his. Attempts to prove the falsity of the inscription and declare Hubert a "legendary figure" should be considered unproven. The hypothesis seems to be the most reasonable, according to which Jan used and finalized the parts of the altar begun by Hubert, namely, the “Adoration of the Lamb”, and the figures of the upper tier that initially did not form a single whole with him, with the exception of Adam and Eve, wholly executed by Jan; the belonging of the entire outer valves to the latter has never caused discussions.
Hubert van Eyck. The authorship of Hubert (?-1426) in relation to other works attributed to him by a number of researchers remains controversial. Only one painting "Three Marys at the tomb of Christ" (Rotterdam) can be left behind him without much hesitation. The landscape and female figures in this painting are extremely close to the most archaic part of the Ghent altar (the lower half of the middle painting of the lower tier), and the peculiar perspective of the sarcophagus is similar to the perspective image of the fountain in the Adoration of the Lamb. There is no doubt, however, that Jan also took part in the execution of the picture, to whom the rest of the figures should be attributed. The most expressive among them is the sleeping warrior. Hubert, in comparison with Jan, acts as an artist whose work is still associated with the previous stage of development.
Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441). Jan van Eyck began his career in The Hague, at the court of the Dutch counts, and from 1425 he was an artist and courtier of Philip the Good, on whose behalf he was sent as part of an embassy in 1426 to Portugal and in 1428 to Spain; from 1430 he settled in Bruges. The artist enjoyed the special attention of the duke, who in one of the documents calls him "unequaled in art and knowledge." His works vividly speak about the high culture of the artist.
Vasari, probably drawing on an earlier tradition, details the invention of oil painting by the "sophisticated in alchemy" Jan van Eyck. We know, however, that linseed and other drying oils were already known as a binder in the early Middle Ages (tracts of Heraclius and Theophilus, 10th century) and were quite widely used, according to written sources, in the 14th century. Nevertheless, their use was limited to decorative works, where they were resorted to for the greater durability of such paints compared to tempera, and not because of their optical properties. So, M. Bruderlam, whose Dijon altarpiece was painted in tempera, used oil when painting banners. The paintings of the van Eycks and the neighboring Dutch artists of the 15th century are noticeably different from the paintings made in the traditional tempera technique, with a special enamel-like sparkle of colors and depth of tones. The van Eycks' technique was based on the consistent use of the optical properties of oil paints applied in transparent layers on the underpainting translucent through them and highly reflective chalk ground, on the introduction of resins dissolved in essential oils and the use of high quality pigments. The new technique, which arose in direct connection with the development of new realistic methods of depiction, greatly expanded the possibilities of truthful pictorial transmission of visual impressions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in a manuscript known as the Turin-Milan Book of Hours, a number of miniatures stylistically close to the Ghent altar were discovered, 7 of which stand out for their exceptionally high quality. Particularly remarkable in these miniatures is the landscape, rendered with a surprisingly subtle understanding of light and color relationships. In the miniature “Prayer on the Seashore”, depicting a rider surrounded by a retinue on a white horse (almost identical with the horses of the left wings of the Ghent Altar), giving thanks for a safe crossing, the stormy sea and cloudy sky are amazingly conveyed. No less striking in its freshness is the river landscape with the castle, illuminated by the evening sun (“St. Julian and Martha”). The interior of the burgher room in the composition "The Nativity of John the Baptist" and the Gothic church in the "Requiem Mass" are conveyed with surprising persuasiveness. If the achievements of the innovative artist in the field of landscape do not find parallels until the 17th century, then thin, light figures are still entirely associated with the old Gothic tradition. These miniatures date from about 1416-1417 and thus characterize the initial stage of Jan van Eyck's work.
Significant proximity to the last of the mentioned miniatures gives grounds to consider one of the earliest paintings by Jan van Eyck "Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), in which the light streaming from the upper windows is amazingly conveyed. In a miniature triptych written somewhat later, with the image of the Madonna in the center, St. Michael with the customer and St. Catherine on the inner wings (Dresden), the impression of the church nave going deep into the space reaches almost complete illusion. The desire to give the image a tangible character of a real object is especially pronounced in the figures of the archangel and Mary on the outer wings, which imitate statuettes made of carved bone. All the details in the picture are written with such care that they resemble jewelry. This impression is further enhanced by the sparkle of colors, shimmering like precious stones.
The light elegance of the Dresden triptych is opposed by the heavy splendor of the Madonna of Canon van der Pale. (1436, Bruges), with large figures pushed into the cramped space of a low Romanesque apse. The eye does not get tired of admiring the amazingly painted blue and gold episcopal robe of St. Donatian, precious armor and especially the chain mail of St. Michael, a magnificent oriental carpet. Just as carefully as the smallest links of chain mail, the artist conveys the folds and wrinkles of the flabby and tired face of an intelligent and good-natured old customer - Canon van der Pale.
One of the features of van Eyck's art is that this detail does not obscure the whole.
In another masterpiece, created a little earlier, “Madonna of Chancellor Rolen” (Paris, Louvre), special attention is paid to the landscape, which is viewed from a high loggia. The city on the banks of the river opens up to us in all the diversity of its architecture, with figures of people on the streets and squares, as if seen through a telescope. This clarity changes markedly as it moves away, the colors fade - the artist has an understanding aerial perspective. With characteristic objectivity, the facial features and the attentive look of Chancellor Rolen, a cold, prudent and self-serving statesman who led the policy of the Burgundian state, are conveyed.
A special place among the works of Jan van Eyck belongs to the tiny painting “St. Barbara ”(1437, Antwerp), or rather, a drawing made with the finest brush on a primed board. The saint is depicted sitting at the foot of the cathedral tower under construction. According to legend, St. Barbara was enclosed in a tower, which became her attribute. Van Eyck, preserving the symbolic meaning of the tower, gave it a real character, making it the main element of the architectural landscape. Similar examples of the interweaving of the symbolic and the real, so characteristic of the period of transition from the theological-scholastic worldview to realistic thinking, in the work of not only Jan van Eyck, but also other artists of the beginning of the century, one could cite quite a few; numerous details-images on the capitals of columns, furniture decorations, various household items in many cases have a symbolic meaning (for example, in the scene of the Annunciation, a washstand and a towel serve as a symbol of Mary's virgin purity).
Jan van Eyck was one of the great masters of the portrait. Not only his predecessors, but also the Italians of his day adhered to the same scheme of the profile image. Jan van Eyck turns his face ¾ and illuminates it strongly; in modeling the face, he uses chiaroscuro to a lesser extent than tonal relationships. One of his most remarkable portraits depicts young man with an ugly face, but attractive for its modesty and spirituality, in red clothes and a green headdress. The Greek name "Timothy" (probably referring to the name of the famous Greek musician), indicated on the stone balustrade, along with the signature and date 1432, serves as an epithet for the name of the depicted, apparently one of the major musicians who were in the service of the Duke of Burgundy.
The “Portrait of an Unknown Man in a Red Turban” (1433, London) stands out with the finest pictorial performance and sharp expressiveness. For the first time in the history of world art, the gaze of the depicted is fixed intently on the viewer, as if entering into direct communication with him. It is highly plausible to assume that this is a self-portrait of the artist.
For the "Portrait of Cardinal Albergati" (Vienna), a remarkable preparatory drawing in silver pencil (Dresden), with notes on color, has been preserved, apparently made in 1431 during a short stay of this important diplomat in Bruges. The pictorial portrait, apparently painted much later, in the absence of a model, is distinguished by a less sharp characterization, but a more emphasized significance of the character.
The last portrait work of the artist is the only female portrait in his heritage - "Portrait of his wife" (1439, Bruges).
A special place not only in the work of Jan van Eyck, but also in all the Dutch art of the 15th-16th centuries belongs to the “Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife” (1434, London. Arnolfini is a prominent representative of the Italian trading colony in Bruges). The images are presented in the intimate setting of a cozy burgher interior, but the strict symmetry of the composition and gestures (the man’s hand raised up, as if taking an oath, and the couple’s joined hands) give the scene an emphatically solemn character. The artist pushes the boundaries of a purely portrait image, turning it into a marriage scene, into a kind of apotheosis of marital fidelity, the symbol of which is the dog depicted at the feet of the couple. We will not find such a double portrait in the interior in European art until Holbein's "Messengers" written a century later.
The art of Jan van Eyck laid the foundations on which Netherlandish art developed in the future. In it, for the first time, a new attitude to reality found its vivid expression. It was the most advanced phenomenon in the artistic life of its time.
Flemish master. The foundations of the new realistic art were laid, however, not only by Jan van Eyck. Simultaneously with him, the so-called Flemalsky master worked, whose work not only developed independently of the art of van Eyck, but, apparently, had a certain influence on the early work of Jan van Eyck. Most researchers identify this artist (named after three paintings of the Frankfurt Museum, originating from the village of Flemal near Liège, to which a number of other anonymous works are attached according to stylistic features) with the master Robert Campin (c. 1378-1444) mentioned in several documents from the city of Tournai.
In the early work of the artist - "The Nativity" (c. 1420-1425, Dijon), close ties with the miniatures of Jacquemart from Esden (in the composition, the general character of the landscape, light, silvery coloring) are clearly revealed. Archaic features - ribbons with inscriptions in the hands of angels and women, a kind of "oblique" perspective of the canopy, characteristic of the art of the 14th century, are combined here with fresh observations (bright folk types of shepherds).
In the triptych The Annunciation (New York), the traditional religious theme unfolds in a detailed and lovingly characterized burgher interior. On the right wing - the next room, where the old carpenter Joseph makes mousetraps; Through the lattice window, a view of the town square opens up. On the left, at the door leading to the room, kneeling figures of customers - the Ingelbrechts spouses. The cramped space is almost completely filled with figures and objects depicted in a sharp perspective reduction, as if from a very high and close point of view. This gives the composition a flat-decorative character, despite the volume of figures and objects.
Jan van Eyck's acquaintance with this work of the Flemal master influenced him when he created the "Annunciation" of the Ghent Altarpiece. A comparison of these two paintings clearly characterizes the features of the earlier and subsequent stages in the formation of a new realistic art. In the work of Jan van Eyck, who was closely associated with the Burgundian court, such a purely burgher interpretation of the religious plot does not receive further development; at the Flemalsky master, we meet with her more than once. “Madonna by the Fireplace” (c. 1435, St. Petersburg, Hermitage) is perceived as a purely everyday picture; a caring mother warms her hand by the fireplace before touching the naked child's body. Like the Annunciation, the picture is lit with a steady, strong light and is sustained in a cold color scheme.
Our ideas about the work of this master, however, would be far from complete if fragments of two of his great works had not come down to us. From the triptych "Descent from the Cross" (its composition is known from an old copy in Liverpool), the upper part of the right wing with the figure of a robber tied to a cross, near which two Romans are standing (Frankfurt), has been preserved. In this monumental image, the artist retained the traditional golden background. The naked body that stands out on it is conveyed in a manner that is sharply different from that in which Adam of the Ghent altar is written. The figures of Madonna and St. Veronica" (Frankfurt) - fragments of another large altar. The plastic transfer of forms, as if emphasizing their materiality, is combined here with the subtle expressiveness of faces and gestures.
The only dated work of the artist is the sash, with the image on the left of Heinrich Werl, a professor at the University of Cologne and John the Baptist, and on the right - St. Barbarians, sitting on a bench by the fireplace and immersed in reading (1438, Madrid), refers to the late period of his work. Room of St. Varvara is very similar in a number of details to the already familiar interiors of the artist and at the same time differs from them in a much more convincing transfer of space. The round mirror with figures reflected in it on the left wing is borrowed from Jan van Eyck. More clearly, however, both in this work and in the Frankfurt wings, there are features of closeness to another great master of the Dutch school, Roger van der Weyden, who was a student of Kampen. This closeness has led some scholars who object to the identification of the Flémalle master with Campin to argue that the works attributed to him are in fact the works of Roger's early period. This point of view, however, does not seem convincing, and the emphasized features of intimacy are quite explicable by the influence of a particularly gifted student on his teacher.
Roger van der Weyden. This is the largest, after Jan van Eyck, an artist of the Netherlandish school (1399-1464). Archival documents contain indications of his stay in the years 1427-1432 in the workshop of R. Campin in Tournai. From 1435, Roger worked in Brussels, where he held the position of city painter.
His most famous work, created in his younger years, is Descent from the Cross (c. 1435, Madrid). Ten figures are placed on a golden background, in a narrow space of the foreground, like a polychrome relief. Despite complex pattern, the composition is extremely clear; all the figures that make up the three groups are combined into one inseparable whole; the unity of these groups is built on rhythmic repetitions and the balance of individual parts. The curve of the body of Mary repeats the curve of the body of Christ; the same strict parallelism distinguishes the figures of Nicodemus and the woman supporting Mary, as well as the figures of John and Mary Magdalene closing the composition on both sides. These formal moments serve the main task - the most vivid disclosure of the main dramatic moment and, above all, its emotional content.
Mander says of Roger that he enriched the art of the Netherlands by conveying movements and "especially feelings, such as grief, anger or joy, in accordance with the plot." Making individual participants in a dramatic event bearers of various shades of feelings of grief, the artist refrains from individualizing the images, just as he refuses to transfer the scene to a real, concrete setting. The search for expressiveness prevails in his work over objective observation.
Acting as an artist, sharply different in his creative aspirations from Jan van Eyck, Roger experienced, however, the direct impact of the latter. Some of the master’s early paintings speak eloquently about this, in particular, The Annunciation (Paris, Louvre) and The Evangelist Luke Painting the Madonna (Boston; repetitions - St. Petersburg, the Hermitage and Munich). In the second of these paintings, the composition repeats with slight changes the composition of Jan van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin. The Christian legend that developed in the 4th century regarded Luke as the first icon painter who depicted the face of the Mother of God (a number of “miraculous” icons were attributed to him); in the 13th-14th centuries, he was recognized as the patron of painters' workshops that arose at that time in a number of Western European countries. In accordance with the realistic orientation of the Dutch art, Roger van der Weyden depicted the evangelist as a contemporary artist, making a portrait sketch from nature. However, in the interpretation of the figures, the features characteristic of this master clearly stand out - the kneeling painter is filled with reverence, the folds of clothing are distinguished by Gothic ornamentation. Painted as an altarpiece for the painters' chapel, the painting was very popular, as evidenced by several repetitions.
The Gothic stream in the work of Roger is especially pronounced in two small triptychs - the so-called "Altar of Mary" ("Lamentation", on the left - "Holy Family", on the right - "The Appearance of Christ Mary") and later - "The Altar of St. John" ("Baptism", on the left - "The Birth of John the Baptist", on the right - "The Execution of John the Baptist", Berlin). Each of the three wings is framed by a Gothic portal, which is a picturesque reproduction of a sculptural frame. This frame is organically linked to the architectural space depicted here. The sculptures placed on the portal plot complement the main scenes unfolding against the backdrop of the landscape and in the interior. While in the transfer of space Roger develops the conquests of Jan van Eyck, in the interpretation of figures with their graceful, elongated proportions, complex turns and curves, he adjoins the traditions of late Gothic sculpture.
The work of Roger, to a much greater extent than the work of Jan van Eyck, is associated with the traditions of medieval art and is imbued with the spirit of strict church teaching. Van Eyck's realism, with its almost pantheistic deification of the universe, he opposed art, capable of embodying canonical images in clear, strict and generalized forms. Christian religion. The most indicative in this regard is the Last Judgment - a polyptych (or rather, a triptych in which the fixed central part has three, and the wings, in turn, two divisions), written in 1443-1454 by order of Chancellor Rolen for the hospital he founded in the city of Bon (located there). This is the largest scale (the height of the central part is about 3 m, the total width is 5.52 m) work of the artist. The composition, which is the same for the entire triptych, consists of two tiers - the “heavenly” sphere, where the hieratic figure of Christ and the rows of apostles and saints are placed on a golden background, and the “earthly” one with the resurrection of the dead. In the compositional construction of the picture, in the flatness of the interpretation of the figures, there is still a lot of medieval. However, the diverse movements of the naked figures of the resurrected are conveyed with such clarity and persuasiveness that speak of a careful study of nature.
In 1450 Roger van der Weyden traveled to Rome and was in Florence. There, commissioned by the Medici, he created two paintings: "The Entombment" (Uffizi) and "Madonna with St. Peter, John the Baptist, Cosmas and Damian" (Frankfurt). In iconography and composition, they bear traces of familiarity with the works of Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano. However, this acquaintance in no way affected the general nature of the artist's work.
In the triptych created immediately after returning from Italy with half-figured images, in the central part - Christ, Mary and John, and on the wings - Magdalene and John the Baptist (Paris, Louvre), there are no traces of Italian influence. The composition has an archaic symmetrical character; the central part, built according to the type of deesis, is distinguished by almost iconic rigor. The landscape is treated only as a background for the figures. This work of the artist differs from earlier ones by the intensity of color and the subtlety of colorful combinations.
New features in the artist's work are clearly visible in the Bladelin Altarpiece (Berlin, Dahlem) - a triptych with an image in the central part of the Nativity, commissioned by P. Bladelin, head of finance of the Burgundian state, for the church of the city of Middelburg founded by him. In contrast to the relief construction of the composition, characteristic of the early period, here the action unfolds in space. The nativity scene is imbued with a gentle, lyrical mood.
The most significant work of the late period is the Adoration of the Magi triptych (Munich), with the image on the wings of the Annunciation and the Presentation. Here, the trends that have emerged in the altar of Bladelin continue to develop. The action unfolds in the depths of the picture, but the composition is parallel to the picture plane; symmetry harmonizes with asymmetry. The movements of the figures have acquired greater freedom - in this respect, the graceful figure of an elegant young sorcerer with the facial features of Charles the Bold in the left corner and the angel, slightly touching the floor in the Annunciation, especially attract attention. The clothes completely lack the materiality characteristic of Jan van Eyck - they only emphasize the form and movement. However, like Eick, Roger carefully reproduces the environment in which the action unfolds, and fills the interiors with chiaroscuro, abandoning the sharp and uniform lighting characteristic of his early period.
Roger van der Weyden was an outstanding portrait painter. His portraits differ from those of Eyck. He singles out features that are especially outstanding in physiognomic and psychological terms, emphasizing and strengthening them. To do this, he uses the drawing. With the help of lines, he outlines the shape of the nose, chin, lips, etc., giving little space to modeling. The bust image in 3/4 stands out against a colored - blue, greenish or almost white background. With all the differences in the individual characteristics of the models, the portraits of Roger have some common features. This is largely due to the fact that almost all of them depict representatives of the highest Burgundian nobility, whose appearance and demeanor were strongly influenced by the environment, traditions and upbringing. These are, in particular, "Karl the Bold" (Berlin, Dahlem), the militant "Anton of Burgundy" (Brussels), "Unknown" (Lugano, Thyssen collection), "Francesco d" Este "(New York)," Portrait of a young woman "(Washington). Several similar portraits, in particular "Laurent Fruamont" (Brussels), "Philippe de Croix" (Antwerp), in which the depicted one is depicted with folded hands in prayer, originally formed the right wing of later scattered diptychs, on the left wing of which was usually bust of the Madonna and Child.A special place belongs to the "Portrait of an Unknown Woman" (Berlin, Dahlem) - a pretty woman looking at the viewer, written around 1435, in which the dependence on the portrait work of Jan van Eyck clearly appears.
Roger van der Weyden had an extremely great influence on the development of Netherlandish art in the second half of the 15th century. The artist's work, with its tendency to create typical images and develop complete compositions distinguished by a strict logic of construction, to a much greater extent than the work of Jan van Eyck, could serve as a source of borrowings. It contributed to further creative development and at the same time partly delayed it, contributing to the development of repetitive types and compositional schemes.
Petrus Christus. Unlike Roger, who headed a large workshop in Brussels, Jan van Eyck had only one direct follower in the person of Petrus Christus (c. 1410-1472/3). Although this artist did not become a burgess of the city of Bruges until 1444, he undoubtedly worked in close association with Eyck before that time. His works such as Madonna with St. Barbara and Elisabeth and a Monk Customer” (Rothschild collection, Paris) and “Jerome in a Cell” (Detroit), perhaps, according to a number of researchers, were started by Jan van Eyck and completed by Christus. His most interesting work is St. Eligius” (1449, collection of F. Leman, New York), apparently written for the workshop of jewelers, whose patron saint was considered this saint. This small picture of a young couple choosing rings in a jeweler's shop (the halo around his head is almost invisible) is one of the first everyday paintings in Netherlandish painting. The significance of this work is further enhanced by the fact that not a single one of the paintings on everyday subjects by Jan van Eyck, which are mentioned in literary sources, has come down to us.
Of considerable interest are his portrait works, in which a half-figured image is placed in a real architectural space. Particularly noteworthy in this regard is the "Portrait of Sir Edward Grimeston" (1446, Verulam collection, England).
Diric Boats. The problem of transferring space, in particular the landscape, occupies a particularly large place in the work of another, much larger artist of the same generation - Dirik Boats (c. 1410 / 20-1475). A native of Harlem, he settled in Louvain at the end of the forties, where his further artistic activity proceeded. We do not know who his teacher was; the earliest paintings that have come down to us are marked by the strong influence of Roger van der Weyden.
His most famous work is "The Altar of the Sacrament of Communion", written in 1464-1467 for one of the chapels of the Church of St. Peter in Louvain (located there). This is a polyptych, the central part of which depicts " last supper”, on the sides, on the side wings, there are four biblical scenes, the plots of which were interpreted as prototypes of the sacrament of communion. According to the contract that has come down to us, the theme of this work was developed by two professors from the University of Louvain. The iconography of the Last Supper differs from the interpretation of this theme common in the 15th and 16th centuries. Instead of a dramatic story about Christ's prediction of the betrayal of Judas, the institution of the church sacrament is depicted. The composition, with its strict symmetry, emphasizes the central moment and emphasizes the solemnity of the scene. With full persuasiveness, the depth of the space of the Gothic hall is conveyed; this goal is served not only by perspective, but also by a thoughtful transmission of lighting. None of the Dutch masters of the 15th century managed to achieve that organic connection between figures and space, as Boats did in this wonderful picture. Three of the four scenes on the side panels unfold in the landscape. Despite the relatively large scale of the figures, the landscape here is not just a background, but the main element of the composition. In an effort to achieve greater unity, Boats foregoes the richness of detail in Eik's landscapes. In "Ilya in the Wilderness" and "Gathering Manna from Heaven" by means of a winding road and the scene arrangement of mounds and rocks, for the first time he manages to connect the traditional three plans - front, middle and back. The most remarkable thing about these landscapes, however, is the lighting effects and coloring. In Gathering Manna, the rising sun illuminates the foreground, leaving the middle ground in shadow. Elijah in the Desert conveys the cold clarity of a transparent summer morning.
Even more amazing in this regard are the charming landscapes of the wings of a small triptych, which depicts the "Adoration of the Magi" (Munich). This is one of the latest works of the master. The attention of the artist in these small paintings is entirely given to the transfer of the landscape, and the figures of John the Baptist and St. Christopher are of secondary importance. Particularly noteworthy is the transmission of soft evening lighting with sun rays reflecting from the water surface, slightly rippled in a landscape with St. Christopher.
Boats is alien to the strict objectivity of Jan van Eyck; his landscapes are imbued with a mood consonant with the plot. A penchant for elegy and lyricism, a lack of drama, a certain static and stiffness of poses are the characteristic features of an artist who is so different in this respect from Roger van der Weyden. They are especially bright in his works, the plot of which is full of drama. In "The Torment of St. Erasmus ”(Louvain, Church of St. Peter), the saint endures painful suffering with stoic courage. The group of people present at the same time is also full of calm.
In 1468, Boates, who had been appointed city painter, was commissioned to paint five paintings for the decoration of the newly completed magnificent town hall building. Two large compositions have been preserved depicting legendary episodes from the history of Emperor Otto III (Brussels). One shows the execution of the count, slandered by the empress, who did not achieve his love; on the second - the test by fire before the court of the emperor of the widow of the count, proving the innocence of her husband, and in the background the execution of the empress. Such "scenes of justice" were placed in the halls where the city court sat. Paintings of a similar nature with scenes from the story of Trajan were performed by Roger van der Weyden for the Brussels City Hall (not preserved).
The second of Boates' "scenes of justice" (the first one was made with significant participation of students) is one of the masterpieces in terms of the skill with which the composition is solved and the beauty of color. Despite the extreme stinginess of gestures and immobility of poses, the intensity of feelings is conveyed with great persuasiveness. Attract attention superb portrait images retinues. One of these portraits has come down to us, undoubtedly belonging to the artist's brush; this "Portrait of a Man" (1462, London) can be called the first intimate portrait in the history of European painting. A tired, preoccupied and full of kindness face is subtly characterized; Through the window you have a view of the countryside.
Hugo van der Goes. In the middle and second half of the century, a significant number of students and followers of Weiden and Bouts worked in the Netherlands, whose work is of an epigone nature. Against this background, the powerful figure of Hugo van der Goes (c. 1435-1482) stands out. The name of this artist can be placed next to Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden. Admitted in 1467 to the guild of painters in the city of Ghent, he soon achieved great fame, taking an immediate, and in some cases leading part in large decorative works on the festive decoration of Bruges and Ghent on the occasion of the reception of Charles the Bold. Among his early small-sized easel paintings, the most significant are the diptych The Fall and Lamentation of Christ (Vienna). The figures of Adam and Eve, depicted in the midst of a luxurious southern landscape, are reminiscent of the figures of the progenitors of the Ghent altar in their elaboration of plastic form. Lamentation, akin to Roger van der Weyden in its pathos, is notable for its bold, original composition. Apparently, an altar triptych depicting the Adoration of the Magi was painted somewhat later (St. Petersburg, the Hermitage).
In the early seventies, Tommaso Portinari, the Medici representative in Bruges, commissioned Hus a triptych depicting the Nativity. This triptych has been in one of the chapels of the church of Site Maria Novella in Florence for almost four centuries. The triptych Portinari Altarpiece (Florence, Uffizi) is the artist's masterpiece and one of the most important monuments of Dutch painting.
The artist was given an unusual task for Dutch painting - to create a large, monumental work with large-scale figures (the size of the middle part is 3 × 2.5 m). Keeping the main elements of the iconographic tradition, Hus created a completely new composition, significantly deepening the space of the picture and placing the figures along the diagonals crossing it. Having increased the scale of the figures to the size of life, the artist endowed them with powerful, heavy forms. Shepherds burst into solemn silence from the depths to the right. Their simple, rough faces are lit up with naive joy and faith. These people from the people, depicted with amazing realism, are of equal importance with other figures. Mary and Joseph are also endowed with the features of ordinary people. This work expresses a new idea of ​​a person, a new understanding human dignity. The same innovator is Gus in the transmission of lighting and color. The sequence with which the lighting is conveyed and, in particular, the shadows from the figures, speaks of a careful observation of nature. The picture is sustained in cold, saturated colors. The side wings, darker than the middle part, successfully complete the central composition. The portraits of members of the Portinari family placed on them, behind which the figures of saints rise, are distinguished by great vitality and spirituality. The landscape of the left wing is remarkable, conveying the cold atmosphere of an early winter morning.
Probably, the "Adoration of the Magi" (Berlin, Dahlem) was performed a little earlier. As in the Portinari altar, the architecture is cut off by a frame, which achieves a more correct relationship between it and the figures and enhances the monumental character of the solemn and magnificent spectacle. The Adoration of the Shepherds by Berlin, Dahlem, written later than the Portinari altarpiece, has a significantly different character. The elongated composition closes on both sides with half-figures of the prophets, parting the curtain, behind which a worship scene unfolds. The impetuous run of the shepherds rushing in from the left, with their excited faces, and the prophets, seized with emotional excitement, give the picture a restless, tense character. It is known that in 1475 the artist entered the monastery, where, however, he was in a special position, maintaining close contact with the world and continuing to paint. The author of the monastery chronicle tells about the difficult state of mind of the artist, who was not satisfied with his work, who tried to commit suicide in fits of melancholy. In this story, we are confronted with a new type of artist, sharply different from the medieval guild craftsman. The depressed spiritual state of Hus was reflected in the painting “The Death of Mary” (Bruges), imbued with an anxious mood, in which the feelings of sorrow, despair and confusion that gripped the apostles are conveyed with great force.
Memling. By the end of the century, there is a weakening of creative activity, the pace of development slows down, innovation gives way to epigonism and conservatism. These features are clearly expressed in the work of one of the most significant artists this time - Hans Memling (c. 1433-1494). A native of a small German town on the Main, he worked in the late fifties in the workshop of Roger van der Weyden, and after the death of the latter he settled in Bruges, where he headed the local school of painting. Memling borrows a lot from Roger van der Weyden, repeatedly using his compositions, but these borrowings are of an external nature. The dramatization and pathos of the teacher are far from him. You can find features borrowed from Jan van Eyck (detailed rendering of ornaments of oriental carpets, brocade fabrics). But the foundations of Eik's realism are alien to him. Without enriching art with new observations, Memling nevertheless introduces new qualities into Netherlandish painting. In his works we find a refined elegance of postures and movements, attractive prettiness of faces, tenderness of feelings, clarity, orderliness and elegant decorativeness of the composition. These features are especially clearly expressed in the triptych "Betrothal of St. Catherine" (1479, Bruges, St. John's Hospital). The composition of the central part is distinguished by strict symmetry, enlivened by a variety of poses. On the sides of the Madonna are the figures of St. Catherine and Barbara and two apostles; the throne of the Madonna is flanked by the figures of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist standing against the background of the columns. Graceful, almost incorporeal silhouettes enhance the decorative expressiveness of the triptych. This type of composition, repeating with some changes the composition of more early work artist's triptych with the Madonna, saints and customers (1468, England, collection of the Duke of Devonshire), will be repeatedly repeated and varied by the artist. In some cases, the artist introduced individual elements borrowed from the art of Italy into the decorative ensemble, for example, naked putti holding garlands, but the influence of Italian art did not extend to the depiction of the human figure.
The Adoration of the Magi (1479, Bruges, St. John's Hospital), which goes back to a similar composition by Roger van der Weyden, but subjected to simplification and schematization, also distinguishes frontality and static character. The composition of Roger's "Last Judgment" was reworked to an even greater extent in Memling's triptych "The Last Judgment" (1473, Gdansk), commissioned by the Medici representative in Bruges - Angelo Tani (excellent portraits of him and his wife are placed on the wings). The individuality of the artist manifested itself in this work especially brightly in the poetic depiction of paradise. With undoubted virtuosity graceful nude figures are executed. The miniature thoroughness of execution, characteristic of The Last Judgment, was even more evident in two paintings, which are a cycle of scenes from the life of Christ (The Passion of the Christ, Turin; The Seven Joys of Mary, Munich). The talent of the miniaturist is also found in the picturesque panels and medallions that adorn the small Gothic “St. Ursula" (Bruges, St. John's Hospital). This is one of the most popular and famous works of the artist. Much more significant, however, artistically monumental triptych "Saints Christopher, Moor and Gilles" (Bruges, City Museum). The images of the saints in it are distinguished by inspired concentration and noble restraint.
His portraits are especially valuable in the artist's heritage. "Portrait of Martin van Nivenhove" (1481, Bruges, St. John's Hospital) is the only portrait diptych of the 15th century that has survived intact. The Madonna and Child depicted on the left wing represents a further development of the portrait type in the interior. Memling introduces another innovation in the composition of the portrait, placing the bust image either framed by the columns of an open loggia, through which the landscape is visible (“Paired portraits of Burgomaster Morel and his wife”, Brussels), then directly against the background of the landscape (“Portrait of a Praying Man”, The Hague; "Portrait of an unknown medalist", Antwerp). Memling's portraits undoubtedly conveyed an external resemblance, but with all the difference in characteristics, we will find in them a lot in common. All the people depicted by him are distinguished by restraint, nobility, spiritual softness and often piety.
G. David. Gerard David (c. 1460-1523) was the last major painter of the South Netherlandish school of painting in the 15th century. A native of the Northern Netherlands, he settled in Bruges in 1483, and after the death of Memling became the central figure of the local art school. The work of G. David in a number of respects differs sharply from the work of Memling. To the light elegance of the latter, he contrasted heavy pomp and festive solemnity; his overweight stocky figures have a pronounced volume. In his creative search, David relied on the artistic heritage of Jan van Eyck. It should be noted that at this time, interest in the art of the beginning of the century becomes quite a characteristic phenomenon. The art of Van Eyck's time acquires the meaning of a kind of "classical heritage", which, in particular, finds expression in the appearance of a significant number of copies and imitations.
The artist's masterpiece is the large triptych "The Baptism of Christ" (c. 1500, Bruges, City Museum), which is distinguished by a calmly majestic and solemn order. The first thing that catches the eye here is the angel standing out in relief in the foreground in a superbly painted brocade chasuble, made in the tradition of the art of Jan van Eyck. Particularly remarkable is the landscape, in which the transitions from one plan to another are given in subtle shades. The convincing transmission of evening lighting and the masterful depiction of transparent water attract attention.
Of great importance for the characterization of the artist is the composition Madonna among the Holy Virgins (1509, Rouen), which is distinguished by strict symmetry in the arrangement of figures and thoughtful color scheme.
Imbued with a strict church spirit, the work of G. David was generally, like the work of Memling, conservative in nature; it reflected the ideology of the patrician circles of the declining Bruges.

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) - a construction 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, in a more modern spirit, embroidered on a long mantle (as on clothes in real world really embroidered coats of arms of their owners).

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 an 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 the saints, before him in the Dutch and European medieval art in general, there are no family portraits (and even in full growth), 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 shoes taken off (Giovanna's red shoes are still visible in the back of the room) are full of erotic associations: the clogs hinted that the spouses were waiting for the wedding night, 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.

On the Ghent Altar precious stones, decorating the clothes of God the Father, John the Baptist and one of the singing angels, is reflected in the window. 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.

Although in many places, it is true, inconsistently, the works of some excellent Flemish painters and their engravings have already been discussed, I will not now keep silent about the names of some others, since I have not previously been able to obtain exhaustive information about the creations of these artists who visited Italy, in order to learn the Italian manner, and most of whom I knew personally, for it seems to me that their activities and their labors for the benefit of our arts deserve it. Leaving aside, therefore, Martin of Holland, Jan Eyck of Bruges, and his brother Hubert, who, as has already been said, made public in 1410 his invention of oil painting and the method of its application, and left many of his works in Ghent, Ypres, and Bruges, where he lived and died honorably, I will say that they were followed by Roger van der Weyde from Brussels, who created many things in different places, but mainly in his hometown, in particular in his town hall, four most magnificent oil-painted boards with stories pertaining to justice. His student was a certain Hans, whose hands we have in Florence a small picture of the Passion of the Lord, which is in the possession of the duke. His successors were: Ludwig of Louvain, the Fleming of Louvain, Petrus Christus, Justus of Ghent, Hugh of Antwerp and many others who never left their country and adhered to the same Flemish manner, and although Albrecht came to Italy at one time Dürer, who was talked about at length, nevertheless, he always retained his former manner, showing, however, especially in his heads, a spontaneity and liveliness that was not inferior to the wide fame that he enjoyed throughout Europe.

However, leaving them all aside, and with them also Luca from Holland and others, in 1532 I met in Rome with Michael Coxius, who had a good command of the Italian manner and painted many frescoes in this city and, in particular, painted two chapels in the church of Santa Maria de Anima. Returning after this to his homeland and having gained fame as a master of his craft, he, as I heard, painted on a tree for the Spanish King Philip a copy from a painting on a tree by Jan Eyck, located in Ghent. It was taken to Spain and depicted the triumph of the Lamb of God.

Somewhat later Martin Geemskerk studied in Rome, a good master of figures and landscapes, who created in Flanders many paintings and many drawings for engravings on copper, which, as already mentioned elsewhere, were engraved by Hieronymus Cock, whom I knew when I was in the service of the cardinal Ippolito dei Medici. All these painters were the most excellent writers of stories and strict zealots of the Italian manner.

I also knew, in 1545, in Naples, Giovanni of Calcar, a Flemish painter, who was a great friend of mine, and who had mastered the Italian manner to such an extent that it was impossible to recognize the hand of the Fleming in his things, but he died young in Naples, while on him there were high hopes. He made drawings for the Anatomy of Vesalius.

However, even more appreciated Diric from Louvain, an excellent master in this manner, and Quintan from the same regions, who in his figures adhered to nature as closely as possible, like his son, whose name was Jan.

Likewise, Jost of Cleve was a great colorist and a rare portrait painter, in which he greatly served the French king Francis, writing many portraits of various gentlemen and ladies. The following painters also became famous, some of whom come from the same province: Jan Gemsen, Mattian Cook from Antwerp, Bernard from Brussels, Jan Cornelis from Amsterdam, Lambert from the same city, Hendrik from Dinan, Joachim Patinir from Bovin and Jan Skoorl, from Utrecht a canon who transferred to Flanders many new pictorial techniques he brought from Italy, as well as: Giovanni Bellagamba from Douai, Dirk from Haarlem of the same province and Franz Mostaert, who was very strong in depicting landscapes, fantasies, all sorts of whims, dreams and visions. Hieronymus Hertgen Bosch and Pieter Brueghel of Breda were his imitators, and Lencelot excelled in the rendering of fire, night, lights, devils, and the like.

Peter Cook showed great ingenuity in stories and made the most magnificent cardboard for tapestries and carpets, had a good manner and a lot of experience in architecture. No wonder he translated into German the architectural works of the Bolognese Sebastian Serlio.

And Jan Mabuse was almost the first to transplant from Italy to Flanders the true way of depicting stories with a lot of naked figures, as well as depicting poetry. He painted the large apse of Midelburg Abbey in Zeeland. Information about these artists I received from the master painter Giovanni della Strada of Bruges and from the sculptor Giovanni Bologna of Douai, who are both Flemings and excellent artists, as will be said in our treatise on academics.

As for those of them who, being from the same province, are still alive and valued, the first of them in terms of the quality of paintings and the number of sheets engraved by him on copper is Franz Floris from Antwerp, a student of the above-mentioned Lambert Lombarde. Revered, therefore, as the most excellent master, he worked so hard in all areas of his profession that no one else (so they say) better expressed his states of mind, grief, joy and other passions with the help of his most beautiful and original ideas, and so much so that , equating him with the Urbian, he is called the Flemish Raphael. True, his printed sheets do not fully convince us of this, for the engraver, be he any master of his craft, will never be able to fully convey either the idea, or the drawing, or the manner of the one who made the drawing for him.

His fellow student, trained under the guidance of the same master, was Wilhelm Kay of Breda, also working in Antwerp, a man of restraint, strict, reasonable, in his art zealously imitating life and nature, and also possessing a flexible imagination and able to do better than anyone else, to achieve a smoky color in his paintings, full of tenderness and charm, and although he is deprived of the glibness, lightness and impressiveness of his classmate Floris, he is, in any case, considered an outstanding master.

Michael Coxlet, whom I mentioned above and who is said to have brought the Italian style to Flanders, is very famous among Flemish artists for his strictness in everything, including his figures, full of some kind of artistry and severity. It is not for nothing that the Fleming Messer Domenico Lampsonio, who will be mentioned in his place, when discussing the two above-mentioned artists and the last one, compares them with a beautiful three-voiced piece of music, in which each performs his part with perfection. Among them, Antonio Moro from Utrecht in Holland, the court painter of the Catholic king, enjoys high recognition. It is said that his coloring in the image of any nature he chooses competes with nature itself and deceives the viewer in the most magnificent way. The aforementioned Lampsonius writes to me that Moreau, who is distinguished by the noblest disposition and enjoys great love, painted the most beautiful altarpiece depicting the resurrected Christ with two angels and Saints Peter and Paul, and that this is a wonderful thing.

Martin de Vos is also famous for good ideas and good coloring, he writes excellently from nature. As for the ability to paint the most beautiful landscapes, Jacob Grimer, Hans Bolz and all the other Antwerp masters of their craft, about whom I have not been able to get exhaustive information, have no equal. Pieter Aartsen, nicknamed Pietro the Long, painted in his native Amsterdam an altarpiece with all its doors and with the image of Our Lady and other saints. The whole thing as a whole cost two thousand crowns.

Lambert of Amsterdam is also praised as a good painter, who lived for many years in Venice and mastered the Italian style very well. He was the father of Federigo, who, as our academician, will be mentioned in his place. Also known are the excellent master Pieter Bruegel from Antwerp, Lambert van Hort from Hammerfoort in Holland, and as a good architect Gilis Mostaert, brother of the aforementioned Francis, and, finally, the very young Peter Porbus, who promises to be an excellent painter.

And in order to learn something about the miniaturists in these parts, we are told that the following were outstanding among them: Marino from Zirksee, Luca Gourembut from Ghent, Simon Benich from Bruges and Gerard, as well as several women: Susanna, the sister of the said Luke, invited for this by Henry VIII, King of England, and lived with honor there all her life; Clara Keyser of Ghent, who died at the age of eighty, retaining, it is said, her virginity; Anna, daughter of a doctor, Master Seger; Levina, daughter of the aforesaid master Simon of Bruges, who was married to a nobleman by the aforementioned Henry of England, and was valued by Queen Mary, just as Queen Elizabeth values ​​her; likewise Katharina, the daughter of Master Jan of Gemsen, went to Spain in due time for a well-paid service under the Queen of Hungary, in a word, and many others in these parts were excellent miniaturists.

As for colored glass and stained glass, there were also many masters of their craft in this province, such as Art van Gort from Nimwengen, Antwerp burgher Jacobe Felart, Dirk Stae from Kampen, Jan Eyck from Antwerp, whose hand made the stained glass windows in the chapel St. Gifts in the Brussels Church of St. Gudula, and here in Tuscany, for the Duke of Florence and according to the drawings of Vasari, many of the most magnificent stained-glass windows made of fused glass were made by the Flemings Gualtver and Giorgio, masters of this business.

In architecture and sculpture, the most famous Flemings are Sebastian van Oye of Utrecht, who did some fortification work in the service of Charles V and later King Philip; Wilhelm of Antwerp; Wilhelm Kukuur from Holland, a good architect and sculptor; Jan from Dale, sculptor, poet and architect; Jacopo Bruna, sculptor and architect, who did many works for the now reigning Queen of Hungary and was the teacher of Giovanni Bologna of Douai, our Academician, of whom we shall speak a little further.

Giovanni di Menneskeren from Ghent is also revered as a good architect, and Matthias Mennemaken from Antwerp, who is under the king of Rome, and, finally, Cornelius Floris, brother of the aforementioned Francis, is also a sculptor and an excellent architect, the first to introduce in Flanders the method of how make grotesques.

Sculpture is also, with great honor for himself, Wilhelm Palidamo, brother of the aforementioned Henry, a most learned and diligent sculptor; Jan de Sart of Niemwegen; Simon from Delft and Jost Jason from Amsterdam. And Lambert Souave from Liège is a most excellent architect and engraver with a chisel, in which he was followed by Georg Robin of Ypres, Divik Volokarts and Philippe Galle, both from Harlem, as well as Luke of Leiden and many others. They all studied in Italy and painted ancient works there, only to return, as most of them did, to their homes as excellent craftsmen.

However, the most significant of all the above was Lambert Lombard from Liège, a great scientist, intelligent painter and excellent architect, teacher of Francis Floris and Wilhelm Kay. Messer Domenico Lampsonio of Liège, a man of the most excellent literary education and very versed in all fields, who was with the English Cardinal Polo while he was alive, and is now secretary to the Monsignor of the Bishop - Prince of the City, informed me in his letters of the high merits of this Lambert and others Liege. It was he, I say, who sent me the life of the said Lambert, originally written in Latin, and more than once sent me bows on behalf of many of our artists from this province. One of the letters I received from him and sent on October 30, 1564, reads as follows:

“For four years now, I have been constantly going to thank Your Honor for the two greatest blessings that I received from you (I know that this will seem to you a strange introduction to a letter from a person who has never seen or known you). This, of course, would be strange if I really didn’t know you, which was the case until good fortune, or rather the Lord, showed me such mercy that they fell into my hands, I don’t know in what ways, Your most excellent writings on architects, painters and sculptors. However, at that time I did not know a word of Italian, whereas now, although I have never seen Italy, I, by reading your above-mentioned writings, thank God, have learned in this language the little that gives me the courage to write this letter to you. . Such a desire to learn this language was aroused in me by these writings of yours, which, perhaps, no other writings could ever do, for the desire to understand them was caused in me by that incredible and innate love that I had from childhood for these most beautiful arts. , but most of all to painting, your art, pleasing to every sex, age and condition and not causing the slightest harm to anyone. At that time, however, I still did not know at all and could not judge about it, but now, thanks to persistent repeated reading of your writings, I have acquired so much knowledge in it that, however insignificant this knowledge may be, or even almost non-existent, nevertheless, they are quite enough for me for a pleasant and joyful life, and I value this art above all the honors and riches that only exist in this world. This insignificant knowledge, I say, is nevertheless so great that I could well oil paints, no worse than any mazilka, depict nature, and especially the naked body and all kinds of clothes, not daring, however, to go further, namely to write things less definite and requiring a more experienced and firm hand, such as: landscapes, trees, waters, clouds , lights, lights, etc. However, in this, as in the realm of fiction, I could, to a certain extent and if necessary, perhaps show that I made some progress thanks to this reading. Nevertheless, I have limited myself to the above boundaries and paint only portraits, especially since numerous occupations, necessarily connected with my official position, do not allow me more. And in order to at least somehow testify to you my gratitude and appreciation for your good deeds, that is, that thanks to you I learned the most beautiful language and learned painting, I would send you, along with this letter, a small self-portrait, which I painted looking at my face in the mirror, if I had no doubt whether this letter would find you in Rome or not, since you could currently be in Florence or in your homeland in Arezzo.

In addition, the letter contains all sorts of other details that are not relevant to the case. In other letters, he asked me, on behalf of many kind people living in these parts and who heard about the secondary printing of these biographies, that I write for them three treatises on sculpture, painting and architecture with illustrations, which, as models, from case to case, explained would be separate provisions of these arts, as did Albrecht Dürer, Serlio and Leon Battista Alberti, translated into Italian by the nobleman and Florentine academician Messer Cosimo Bartoli. I would have done it more than willingly, but my intention was only to describe the life and works of our artists, and by no means to teach by means of drawings the arts of painting, architecture and sculpture. Not to mention the fact that my work, which for many reasons has grown under my hands, will probably turn out to be too long without other treatises. However, I could not and should not have acted otherwise than I did, could not and should not deprive the due praise and honor of any of the artists and deprive readers of the pleasure and benefit that I hope they will derive from these my labors.

If the center of artistic production in the 15th and 16th centuries was perhaps more in Flanders, in the south of the Netherlands, where Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, Bernart van Orley, Jos van Cleve and Hans Bol, where Koninksloo, Herri met de Bles and the painter families Brueghel, Winckbons, Walkenborch and Momper, in the 17th century not only was a balance established between the northern and southern provinces, but, as far as many centers were concerned, it leaned in favor of Holland. However, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we observe the most interesting results of the development of painting among the Flemings.

In art, despite the rapid changes in the structure and life of the Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century, there were no particular sharp leaps. And in the Netherlands there was a change of power, followed by the suppression of the Reformation, which caused resistance from the population. An uprising began, the result of which was the withdrawal from Spain in 1579 of the northern provinces united in the Utret Union. We learn more about this time from the fate of artists, many of whom were forced to leave their homeland. In the 17th century, painting becomes more connected with political events.

The Flemings made a decisive contribution to the development of the landscape as an independent genre of painting. After the first beginnings in religious paintings of the 15th century, where the landscape serves only as a background, Paternir, revered by Dürer, did a lot to develop this genre. In the days of Mannerism, the landscape again aroused interest and found final recognition, which was strengthened only in the Baroque era. From at least the middle of the 16th century, Netherlandish landscapes became an important export item.

Since 1528, Paul Bril lived in Rome, who for decades was known as a specialist in this field. Impressed by the landscapes of Annibale Carracci, following Elsheimer, he overcame the manneristic fragmentation in the construction of paintings and, using a small format, approached the ideal of a classical landscape. He painted ideal views of the Roman Company, filled with poetry, with ancient ruins and idyllic staffing.

Roeland Saverey was a student of his brother Jacob, but the school of Brueghel and Gillis van Connixloo probably made a decisive influence on him. His landscapes are often characterized by a wildly romantic note, picturesquely inscribed overgrown ruins are a symbol of frailty, his images of animals have something fantastic. Severei carried Mannerist tendencies deep into the 17th century.

Flemish painting of the 17th century

Flemish painting of the 17th century can be understood as the embodiment of the concept of baroque. An example of this are the paintings of Rubens. He is at the same time a great inspirer and embodyer, without him Jordaens and van Dyck, Snyders and Wildens would be inconceivable, there would be no what we today understand by Flemish Baroque painting.

The development of Netherlandish painting was divided into two lines, which over time were to acquire the character of national schools in accordance with the political division of the country, which at first seemed only temporarily existing. The northern provinces, simply called Holland, developed rapidly and had a flourishing trade and important industry. Around 1600, Holland was the richest state in Europe. The southern provinces, present-day Belgium, were under Spanish rule and remained Catholic. Stagnation was observed in the field of economy, and the culture was courtly aristocratic. Art here experienced a grandiose flowering; many brilliant talents, led by Rubens, created Flemish baroque painting, the achievements of which were equal to the contribution of the Dutch, whose outstanding genius is Rembrandt.

The division of his country was especially experienced by Rubens, as a diplomat he tried to achieve the reunification of the country, but soon had to give up hope in this area. His paintings and the entire school clearly show how great the difference between Antwerp and Amsterdam was even then.

Among the Flemish artists of the 17th century, along with Rubens, Jordaens and van Dyck were the most famous; Jordanes retained a relatively independent position, but without the example of Rubens, he is inconceivable, although he was not his student. Jordaens created a world of forms and images, rude in a popular way, more mundane than Rubens's, not so colorfully shining, but still no less broad thematic.

Van Dyck, who was 20 years younger than Rubens and five years younger than Jorden, brought something new, especially in portraiture, to the Flemish Baroque style developed by Rubens. In the characterization of the portrayed, he is characterized not so much by strength and inner confidence as by some nervousness and refined elegance. In a certain sense, he created the modern image of man. Van Dyck spent his entire life in the shadow of Rubens. He had to constantly compete with Rubens.

Rubens, Jordaens and van Dyck owned a complete thematic repertoire of painting. It is impossible to say whether Rubens was more inclined to religious or mythological assignments, to landscape or portrait, to easel painting or to monumental scenery. In addition to his artistic skill, Rubens had a thorough humanistic education. Many of the master's most outstanding paintings arose thanks to church orders.