Eyck, Jan van: altarpiece in Ghent
Eyck, Jan van: altarpiece in Ghent
It
was not a sculptor who carried out the final conquest of reality in the North.
For the artist whose revolutionary discoveries were felt from the beginning to
represent something entirely new was the painter Jan van Eyck (1390?-1441).
Like Sluter, he was connected with the court of the Dukes of Burgundy, but he
mostly worked in the part of the Netherlands that is now Belgium. His most
famous work is a huge altarpiece with many scenes in the city of Ghent. It is
said to have been begun by Jan's elder brother Hubert, of whom little is known,
and was completed by Jan in 1432. Thus it was painted during the very years
that saw the completion of the great works of Masaccio and Donatello already
described.
For
all their obvious differences there are a number of similarities between
Masaccio's fresco in Florence and this altarpiece painted for a church in
distant Flanders. Both show the pious donor and his wife in prayer at the
sides, and both center on a large symbolic image - that of the Holy Trinity in
the fresco, and on the altar the mystic vision of the Adoration of the Lamb,
the lamb, of course symbolizing Christ. The composition is mainly based on a
passage in the Revelations of St John (vii. 9), 'And I beheld... a great
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindred and people and
tongues which stood before the throne and before the lamb...', a text that is
related by the Church to the Feast of All Saints, to which there are further
allusions in the painting. Above, we see God the Father, as majestic as
Masaccio's but enthroned in splendor like a Pope, between the Holy Virgin and
St John the Baptist, who first called Jesus the Lamb of God.
The
altar, with its many images, could be shown open, which happened on feast-days,
when its glowing colors would be revealed, or shut (on week-days) when it
presented a more sober appearance. Here the artist represented St John the
Baptist and St John the Evangelist as statues, much as Giotto had represented
the figures of Virtues and Vices in the Arena Chapel. Above, we are shown the
familiar scene of the Annunciation, and we need only look back again at the
wonderful panel by Simone Martini, painted a hundred years earlier, to gain a
first impression of van Eyck's wholly novel 'down to earth' approach to the
sacred story.
His
most striking demonstration of his new conception of art, however, he reserved
for the inner wings: the figures of Adam and Eve after the Fall The Bible tells
us that it was only after having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge that they
'knew they were naked'. Stark naked indeed they look, despite the fig leaves
they hold in their hands. Here there is really no parallel with the masters of
the early Renaissance in Italy who never quite abandoned the traditions of
Greek and Roman art. We remember that the ancients had 'idealized' the human
figure in such works as the Venus of Milo or the Apollo Belvedere. Jan van Eyck
would have had none of this. He must have placed naked models in front of him
and painted them so faithfully that later generations were somewhat shocked by
so much honesty. Not that the artist had no eye for beauty. He clearly also
enjoyed evoking the splendors of Heaven no less shall the master of the Wilton
Diptych had done a generation earlier. But look again at the difference, at the
patience and mastery with which he studied and painted the sheen of the
precious brocades worn by the music-making angels and the sparkle of jewelry
everywhere. In this respect the Van Eycks did not break as radically with the
traditions of the International Style as Masaccio had done. They rather pursued
the methods of such artists as the Limbourg brothers and brought them to such a
pitch of perfection that they left the ideas of medieval art behind. They, like
other Gothic masters of their period, had enjoyed crowding their pictures with
charming and delicate details taken from observation. They were proud to show
their skill in painting flowers and animals, buildings, gorgeous costumes and
jewelry, and to present a delightful feast to the eye. We have seen that they
did not concern themselves overmuch with the real appearance of the figures and
landscapes, and that their drawing and perspective were therefore not very
convincing. One cannot say the same thing of Van Eyck's pictures. His
observation of nature is even more patient, his knowledge of details much more
exact. The trees and the building in the background show this difference
clearly. The trees of the Limbourg brothers, as we remember, were rather
schematic and conventional. Their landscape looked like a back-cloth or a
tapestry rather than actual scenery. All this is quite different in Van Eyck's
picture. In the details we have real trees and a real landscape leading back to
the city and castle on the horizon. The infinite patience with which the grass
on the rocks and the flowers growing in the crags arc painted bears no
comparison with the ornamental undergrowth in the Limbourg miniature. What is
true of the landscape is true of the figures. Van Eyck seems to have been so
intent on reproducing every minute detail on his picture that we almost seem
able to count the hairs of the horses' manes, or on the fur trimmings of the
riders' costumes. The white horse in the Limbourg miniature looks a little like
a rocking-horse. Van Eyck's horse is very similar in shape and posture, but it
is alive. We can see the light in its eye, and the creases in its skin, and,
while the earlier horse looks almost flat, Van Eyck's horse has rounded limbs
which arc modeled in light and shade.
It
may seem petty to look out for all these small details and to praise a great
artist for the patience with which he observed and copied nature. It would
certainly be wrong to think less highly of the work of the Limbourg brothers
or, for that matter, of any other painting, because it lacked this faithful
imitation of nature. But if we want to understand the way in which northern art
developed we must appreciate this infinite care and patience of Jan van Eyck.
The southern artists of his generation, the Florentine masters of
Brunelleschi's circle, had developed a method by which nature could be
represented in a picture with almost scientific accuracy. They began with the
framework of perspective lines, and they built up the human body through their
knowledge of anatomy and of the laws of foreshortening. Van Eyck took the
opposite way. He achieved the illusion of nature by patiently adding detail
upon detail till his whole picture became like a mirror of the visible world.
This difference between northern and Italian art remained important for many
years. It is a fair guess to say that any work which excels in the representation
of the beautiful surface of things, of flowers, jewels or fabric, will be by a
northern artist, most probably by an artist from the Netherlands; while a
painting with bold outlines, clear perspective and a sure mastery of the
beautiful human body, will be Italian.
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