bernhard ridderbos
2006, Renaissance Quarterly
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figure 7-Robert Campin (?), The Mérode Triptych (central panel 64.1 x 63.2 cm; each wing 64.5 x 27.3 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection figure 8-Robert Campin, The Annunciation (61 x 63.2 cm), Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels figure 9-Robert Campin (?), The Mérode Triptych, right wing: Saint Joseph in his workshop figure 10-Rogier van der Weyden, The Descent from the Cross (220.5 x 259.5 cm), Museo del Prado, Madrid figure 12-Copy after Robert Campin, The Descent from the Cross Triptych (central panel 59.5 x 60 cm; each wing 59.5 x 26.5 cm), The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and Gothic art: like the expositions of Denis the Carthusian and Thomas a Kempis, Rogier's painting summons the viewer to experience the suffering of the Virgin and Christ. The pervasive rhythm of the composition also served to arouse a devotional response. Where Campin engaged the viewer by leading his eye from the one group to another and into depth in order to show every incident in the narrative, Rogier achieved a synthesis. Neither style is distinct from the painting's function in conveying the subject: Campin made it come alive and Rogier directly appealed to the viewer's emotions. The parallel poses of Christ and Mary fit the artist's compositional practice so perfectly that one is inclined to credit him with its invention, but that implies a specific theological knowledge which cannot be taken for granted among painters. The chapel of Our Lady of Ginderbuiten was dedicated to Mary's sorrows, and the prominent display of her suffering in the painting must express the wish of the chapel's ecclesiastical authorities and the patrons, the crossbowmen. This wish was translated into a symbolical portrayal of that grief in a form no other artist of that time could have conceived so movingly. The interaction, however, among Rogier, his patrons, and, probably, a theological adviser cannot be reconstructed. rogier van der weyden Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint John The same inventory of the Escorial that lists the Descent from the Cross is a source for another equally monumental work by Rogier van der Weyden, one preserved in the Spanish palace [fig. 13]. The picture is mentioned as 'a large panel on which is painted Christ Our Lord on the cross, with Our Lady and Saint John, from the hand of Master Rogier'. 53 The inventory also states that it had been in the royal palace in Segovia and in the Charterhouse of Brussels. The latter place, the Charterhouse of Scheut, in the vicinity of Brussels, was the original location. In 1448/49 Rogier's son Cornelis entered the Charterhouse of Herinnes, which provided the first prior of the new monastery of Scheut. According to fifteenth-century documents, van der Weyden gave the House of Scheut both money and paintings, and an account of the monastery from 1555 mentions the sale of an image of the crucified Christ given by 'Master Rogier'. 54 Since the monastery was founded in 1456, this year is a terminus post quem for the picture. 55 It has suffered considerable damage and has been overpainted; despite a restoration in 1946-1947 its condition is still ruinous. The crucified Christ is placed against a red cloth hung over a gray wall. His loincloth and the robes of the Virgin and Saint John, now grayish, were originally-28-early netherlandish paintings-29-figure 13-Rogier van der Weyden, Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint John (325 x 192 cm), Escorial, Monasterio de San Lorenzo figure 16-Rogier van der Weyden, The Polyptych of the Last Judgment, interior: Apostles, female saints and damned souls early netherlandish paintings 1-objects and questions-37-van Eyck, but in the second half of the nineteenth century it was restored to Rogier van der Weyden and this attribution is generally accepted. The Adoration of the Magi occupies the central panel. The kings and their retinue form a descending, diagonal movement ending in the middle, where the eldest king touches the Child. Their driving force is counterbalanced by the Virgin and Saint Joseph, who frames the scene with the young king at the far right, just as John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalen frame Rogier's Descent from the Cross. The adoration of the eldest king is particularly emotional: leading both his companions and the viewer in the devotion for Christ, he grasps the Child by the feet with one hand and with the other raises the Child's hand to his lips. This encounter is emphasized by the axis running through the hat before the king, the motif of the kiss and the crucifix that, in token of the future Passion, hangs on a pillar at the rear of the stable. Thus, the Christ Child, together with the crucifix, reminds us of Salvation and the kiss and the doffed hat express veneration. The stable functions as a piece of stage scenery before which the protagonists are placed. It is in the form of a ruin, which could, as in other Netherlandish pictures, refer to the Old Covenant abrogated by the coming of Christ. The figures and the stable are connected by the ass, bending over a manger perpendicular to the picture plane, and the retinue of the kings, pushing forward through an opening in the right wall. This wall runs into the foreground, but its advance is splayed outward to reinforce the planarity of the composition. A landscape with a town looms up behind the stable like another piece of scenery. The foreground and background are linked by a road which starts behind the donor. Although this painting has no golden niche, like the Descent from the Cross, a wall with a hanging, like the Escorial Christ on the Cross, or a golden heaven, like the Last Judgment, again Rogier affirmed his predilection for a frieze-like arrangement that allowed him to exercise his talent for compositional tension. The groups are not only determined by the diagonal movement from the right and the verticals of Mary and Joseph, but also by two curves which run through the heads of nearly all the figures and intersect in the kneeling king. The arched openings in the stable create a faster counterrhythm, which dissolves in the one arch rising above the stable roof. There is also a rhythmic tension between, on the one hand, the figures of Joseph, Mary and the two younger kings, and, on the other, the pillars of the stable. Many small motifs contribute to the rhythmic character of the composition as well, such as the fluttering scarf of the turban of the youngest king, the curve of his sword, the elegant whippet at his feet, the jutting knee of the second king, the rich folds of his mantle, and the rippling sleeves of the eldest king. Reinforcing the encounter with the Christ Child, the folds of these sleeves accelerate the movement from the right which begins in the flourish of the raised turban and ends in the large hat on the figure 17-Rogier van der Weyden, The Columba Altarpiece (central panel 139.5 x 152.9 cm; left wing 139.4 x 72.9; right wing 139.2 x 72.5 cm), Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, München figure 18-Stefan Lochner, The Adoration of the Magi Triptych (Das Dombild) (central panel 260 x 285 cm; each wing 261 x 142 cm), Cologne Cathedral This is John the Baptist, greater than man, like unto the angels, the sum of the law, who sowed the gospel, the voice of the apostles, the silence of the prophets, the lamp of the world, the witness of the Lord. (Hic est Baptista Iohannes, maior homine, par angelis, legis summa, evangelii sacio, apostolorum vox, silencium prophetarum, lucerna mundi, Domini testis.) figure 25-Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait (82.2 x 60 cm), The National Gallery, London figure 26-Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, detail: Mirror and inscription early netherlandish paintings figure 27-Copy after Jan van Eyck, Women at her Toilet (Bathsheba?) (27.5 x 16.5 cm), Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts figure 28-Willem van Haecht, Albert and Isabella Visiting the Art-Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest (104 x 139 cm), Rubenshuis, Antwerp figure 29-Willem van Hacht, Albert and Isabella Visiting the Art-Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, detail: Jan van Eyck (?), Woman at her Toilet figure 32-Hans Memling, Luxuria (20.2 x 13.1 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg figure 33-Petrus Christus, The Annunciation and the Nativity (134 x 56 cm), Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin figure 34-Petrus Christus, The Last Judgment (134 x 56 cm), Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin figure 36-Hand G, Funeral Mass, The Turin-Milan Hours, fol. 116r, Museo Civico, Turin figure 37-Rogier van der Weyden (or follower), The Annunciation, (87 x 91.5 cm), Musée du Louvre, Paris figure 46-Dirk Bouts, The Justice of Emperor Otto III: The Ordeal by Fire (323.5 x 181.5 cm), Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels figure 47-Hugo van der Goes, The Portinari Altarpiece, exterior, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence figure 48-Hugo van der Goes, The Portinari Altarpiece, interior (central panel 253 x 304 cm; each wing 253 x 141 cm), Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence figure 67-Hugo van der Goes, The Nativity (97 x 246 cm), Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin figure 71-Hans Memling, The Triptych of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, exterior, Hospital of Saint John, Bruges figure 72-Hans Memling, The Triptych of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, interior (central panel including frame 193.5 x 194.7 cm; left wing including frame 193.2 x 97.1 cm; right wing including frame 193.3 cm x 97.3 cm), Hospital of Saint John, Bruges early netherlandish paintings figure 73-Hans Memling, The Triptych of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, interior, right wing: Saint John the Evangelist and apocalyptic scenes figure 79-Geertgen tot Sint Jans, The Man of Sorrows (26.2 x 25.2 cm), Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht figure 81-Albert van Ouwater, The Raising of Lazarus (122 x...