This document provides information on several artworks from the Northern Renaissance and Italian Quattrocento periods. It describes Robert Campin's Mérode Altarpiece, highlighting symbols like candles and flowers. It also summarizes Hugo van der Goes' Portinari Altarpiece, noting figures' sizes and symbols like wheat. Pietro Perugino's fresco Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter is analyzed for its use of linear perspective and figures lined up in a classical plaza.

2. Digital
reproducti
on of
original,
front

5. Robert Campin (1425-28)

6. Robert Campin (1425-28) or the Master of Flemalle

11. Robert Campin (1425-28)

16. Northern Renaissance 15th Century
Campin, Mérode Altarpiece
• Donors at left: grave, sedate,
middle class, witness a holy
event
• In center: Annunciation scene
• Domestication of religious
scenes, no haloes
• Water and water basin as a
baptism symbol
• Candle just snuffed out: divine
light puts out human light
• Candles have a phallic
connotation; extinguished
candle: consummation of
marriage
• Lilies: Mary’s purity
• Three flowers indicate the
Trinity, one bud: Christ as yet
unborn
• Virgin on floor: her humility
• Virgin blocks off entrance to
hell, symbolically the fireplace
• At right: Joseph in his
workshop
• Outside, a view of a Flemish
city, with a mousetrap for sale
in the window; mousetrap as
symbol of Christ ensnaring the
devil
• Thin figures, sinuous curves of
drapery
• Microscopic sense of surface
detail

18. Hugo van der Goes, c. 1436-1482 (Flem.),

19. Northern Renaissance 15th Century
Van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece
•
• Painted in Bruges, installed on altar of
a Florentine church attached to the
city’s largest hospital
• Virgin represents alleviation of
suffering
•
• Oddly different sizes of figures
• Solemn grandeur
• Shepherds in wonder, gazing in
curiosity
• Wheat, serving as the bed for the Christ •
Child, is a Eucharistic symbol
• Painted for a church associated with a
maternity hospital in Florence
•
• Mary as the great mother of childbirth •
Flowers are symbolic of
suffering: scarlet lily, white and
purple irises, Mary’s suffering in
childbirth, Christ’s suffering on
the Cross
Many of the flowers were
known for their healing
properties, appropriate for
hospital setting of work
Background left wing: Mary’s
pregnant state revealed as
Joseph helps her
Christ: tiny and frail newborn
Margaret: patron saint of
childbirth on right panel with
female donors
• Left panel: male donors and
saints

22. Deposition
Rogier van der Weyden
c. 1435

24. Northern Renaissance 15th Century
Van der Weyden, Escorial Deposition
• No deep landscape, figures on a shallow stage, silhouetted against a
gold ground
• Dynamically curved composition
• Strong emotional impact on the observer, particularly in the tearstreaked face of swooning Mary
• Dramatic stress
• Zigzag rhythm and profiles
• Parallel relationships in positioning of the figures: Mary and Christ, the
two figures holding them, and the two end figures
• Brilliantly colored

25. Jean Fouquet
Virgin and Child
Surrounded by
Angels
1450

27. Jean Fouquet, 1450

28. Charles VII of France
Jean Fouquet

33. PetrusChristus
Portrait of a
Carthusian Monk,
1446

39. Sluter executed at the end of the fourteenth
century a large fountain (called Well of Moses) in
the Carthusian monastery (Chartreuse de
Champmol). The monastery was intended to be
the burying place of the Prince of Burgundy, Philip
the Bold and his family. The monastery was
destroyed during the French revolution, but the
hexagonal base with the figures of the six
prophets who had foreseen the death of Christ on
the Cross (Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah,
Daniel and Isaiah) survived.
Claus Sluter
Well of Moses
1395 - 1406

40. Mourners from the tomb of John the Fearless, Duke
of Burgundy, by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le
Moiturier, 1443–1457 (total of 36)

45. Unfinished Calendar Page
January
The Très Riches Heures
is the classic example of
a medieval book of
hours. This was a
collection of the text for
each liturgical hour of the
day - hence the name which often included
other, supplementary,
texts. Calendars, prayers,
psalms and masses for
certain holy days were
commonly included.

47. Northern Renaissance 15th Century
Limbourg Brothers, October
• From a Book of Hours
• Top: paired signs of the
zodiac: Libra & Scorpio
• Divide between peasant class
in foreground and ruling
nobility in castle in
background
• Peasants work at farm
routines
• Very detailed observation of
nature: from birds eating the
seed to the shadows cast by
the horse
• Sumptuous colors
1411-16

50. Torment of Saint Anthony
Martin Schongauer, 1480 - 90

51. Tour de force of engraving skill
Textural detail
Focus on spiritual goals
throughout the travails of
temptation

54. Albrecht Durer
St. Jerome
1514

70. Domenico del
Ghirlandaio1449-94
(It), central panel of the
triptychaltarpiece, in
the Church of Santa
Trinita; Florence, Italy,
1485.

72. Saint-Maclou, Rouen
1432 - 1521
1443-51

73. Italian Quattro Cento

74. Major Themes of the Era
• Scholars & artists become fascinated with
classical antiquity – its art, literature and
other forms of culture.
• A new interest in the natural world as artists
search for ways to depict what and how we
see – fields of science, medicine and
engineering are of special interest to the
pioneering thinkers of the time.

75. • Patronage of the church provided financial
support for artwork, and artists portray
humans and their environment in a realistic
manner when visually interpreting biblical
texts.
• Concerns of the era are humanist concerns –
a worldview focused on human beings, their
potential, achievement and subsequent civic
responsibility.

78. Italian Quattrocento Painting
Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the
Kingdom to Saint Peter
• 11’ 5 ½” x 18’ 8 ½”
• Fresco in the Sistine Chapel 1481 - 1482
• Patron – Pope Sixtus IV
• Use of linear perspective (demonstrated by
Brunelleschi in 1420 and codified by
Alberti in 1436 in his treatise “On
Painting”.

79. Italian Quattrocento Painting
Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter
• Figures lined up in a row
• Emphasis on clarity, bright colors
• Feeling of easy grace
• Contemporaries in the painting
• Shapely mantles
• Weight placed on one foot, hip noticeable
• Vast Renaissance plaza
• Arch of Constantine, dome of Florence Cathedral in background
• Catholic Church centered on Saint Peter: open space to highlight the
key
• Middle Left: Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s
• Middle Right: Stoning of Christ
• Located in the Sistine Chapel, the place where Popes are elected

80. Composition

88. • Architecture ties authority of Constantine,
Christ and St. Peter
• Peter, as first Pope, justifies supremacy of
papacy

91. Self-portrait

93. Original setting

96. Sistine Chapel