impressionism vs. post-impressionism
... the open doors. The painting is comprised of three panels. The Triptych illustrates key themes of Northern Renaissance works. The act of observing is shown, access is granted for the privileged to the sacred realm, and the appearance of a reality that could only be imagined is created within this masterpiece. The scene does not take place in a church, but a house. It contains many symbols alluding to an inner meaning. A lily with three flowers is shown on the center of the table. There are two flowers open, and one about to bloom. This signifies the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Jesus and the purity of the Virgin. Next to the flower there is a candle that has been blown out by an angel. The smoke rising suggests a holy presence. The angel proceeds to fly down from heaven carrying the cross. The laver in the niche with the towel makes reference to the cross being carried by the child. “The child slides down the light rays toward the womb.”(Carrier, 245) The Virgin is shown sitting on the ground. Mary is reading from the sacred book draped in her hands. Showing her reading with the violet flower is symbolic of her humility and piety. The left panel shows the Virgin’s husband, Joseph, at work. On the window ledge of his workshop there is a mousetrap. The mousetrap, displayed in the window, alludes to the cross the unborn Christ carries in the center panel. The trap is used to catch the devil (Christ). The devil is seen as being trapped by the cross. Here mice are caught in the trap made by Joseph. The tiny naked child bearing the cross as he enters through the window in the central panel emphasizes that here “metaphor and reality are condensed in a single object.”(Meiss, 10) This religious symbol overlaps with the sexual symbolism of the mouse-trap, the candles, the lilies, the windows, and fireplace. The trap has also been considered as a symbol of a ‘female object’ destroying sexual temptation. Some argue that the table “signifies the altar-table; the wooden beams and rafters “identify the shrine as Solomon’s bridal-bower, and the shutter, screen and window view symbolize the eschatological marriage.”(Gottlieb, 115) There are two candleholders above the fireplace, but only one holds a candle. The absence of the candle is meaningful. The only candle sits above Mary, the Virgin. In its entirety, the Triptych gives a “picture window effect”.(Campin, 238) From the open windows there is a view of the city, but from a different perspective or viewpoint. “His (Robert Campin) ability to unite his major and minor themes with the donor portraits” is shown. (Cuttler, 76) Distinct problems arose due to the type of lighting. All elements of natural appearance-perspective, space, light, color, and form are portrayed throughout the Triptych. The use of oil as a medium helped to create a unique sense of naturalism. However, the one-point perspective in this work was still not been completely mastered by Campin. Jan van Eyck was an innovative painter of the fifteenth century. It is thought that he came from the village of Maaseyck in Limbourg. Like Campin, there is little information of the life of van Eyck, but his work is well documented. It is believed that he was born about 1390. From 1422 to 1424, van Eyck was employed by the count of Holland and in 1425 he was made court painter to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Van Eyck signed and dated a series of paintings from 1432 to 1439. Van Eyck’s fame has primarily been credited to his invention of oils. He was able to use them to create a sense of realism that had not been seen in the past. Another painting that was a prominent piece from the North during the age of the Renaissance was Jan van Eyck’s, The Arnolfini Portrait. This painting was done as not just a double portrait of a newly wedded couple, but as a record of the wedding itself. The images throughout this painting are intended to be disguised symbolism as well. The people in the painting are Giovanni di Nicolao and his wife. Arnolfini was a merchant of Lucca. He is shown in a purple velvet tunic. His wife was a Paris-born Italian. She is shown in a blue dress and a green mantle. The couple is being wed in their own home. The room in which they are standing has had connotations of a sacred room in the Ince Hall and Lucca Madonna paintings. It is believed that the marriage did not take place in the church, not because she is pregnant, but because this was not Giovanni di Nicolao’s first marriage. She is his second bride. It is also believed that this marriage could not have taken place in the holy temple because she is not a virgin. The inscription, ‘Johannes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434’ can be translated as, “this man was here”. This is not just a way that he signed the work, but a way to show that he was a witness as well. The calligraphy that he used was a style in which legal signatures were written that day. There are many elements throughout this painting that contain allegorical and symbolic meaning. Some elements that stand out are the six-armed chandelier with one candle burning; the armchair with the depiction of St. Margaret; the reflections of two people, one ‘apparently’ van Eyck, in the mirror. The dog in the painting is used as a symbol of marital faith. The one burning candle symbolizes “the all seeing wisdom of God”, the fruit on the window sill “reminds us of out innocence before the fall,”(Carrier, 238) and the discarded shoes at the lower left refers to God’s command to Moses on Mt. Sinai, showing that the setting is sacred.(Panofsky, 198) Alternatively, the mirror is “a symbol of the virgin, and at the same time, through the reflection appearing in it, a model of painting as a perfect image of the visible world.”(Schwarz, 100) The reflection may be an additional witness to the marriage, or perhaps van Eyck’s “intention was…to introduce into the world of God a painted world which would be an infinitesimal reflection of its proportions.”(Focillon, 2:169) However, a more mundane view of the mirror is also conceivable: “The convex diminishing mirror is there in order that the whole of the room may be seen…convex mirrors are always round, for which reason the roundness i...