Flemish Art:
1960s Photorealism and Flemish Analytic
realism
Religious painting
Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece
oil paint
Rogier van der Weyden’s Deposition
cultural mediator
Secular painting/private portraiture
Van Eyck Arnolfini portrait
realistic symbolism and the
involvement of the spectator
Rogier’s “psychological” Portrait of a
Lady
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Emerged in the US in the late
1960s, Photorealism was a style
that reproduced a photograph in
paint
In Chuck Close’s monumental
heads
photographs are enlarged and
reproduced, through a meticulous
technique
with thousands of tiny airbrush
bursts, thumbprints, or looping
brushstrokes,
Chuck Close, Big Self-
Portrait, 1967-68.
Acrylic on canvas. 107 1/2
x 83 1/2" (273 x 212 cm).
double effect:
1) Watching them from a
distance, viewers are
impressed by the
monumentalization of the
photographic objectivity
2) at a closer view, they get lost
in the universe of infinite signs
and brushstrokes that together
form those images
Flemish 15th
century painting
and in particular Van
Eyck were very
influential on Chuck
Close and his
movement
This connection
introduces us to the
concept of Flemish
analytic realism
as opposed to the
synthetic realism of
early Italian
Renaissance
Jan van Eyck (ca. 1390-1441)
was the main author in the
Flanders of an artistic
revolution parallel to that of
Florence
Which corresponded
historically to the early stage
of European capitalism
(entrepreneurship,
individualism, materialism)
Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece
(closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral,
Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432,
oil on wood
This multi-image
format provided the
artist the opportunity to
construct complex
narratives through a
sequence of images
Jan van Eyck, Ghent
Altarpiece (closed
and opened), 1432,
oil on wood
This is a large-scale public
ALTARPIECE
Altarpiece: a panel or
composition of panels, painted
or sculpted, positioned above
or behind the altar, served as
backdrop for the Mass
The altar could be
shown shut (on
weekdays)
or open, which
happened on feast
days
Prophets of the Old Testament,
who pre-announced the arrival of
Christ
The Annunciation in a Flemish
interior with the view on a
Flemish town outside
The two donors (Vyd, the chief
magistrate, and his wife) praying
at illusionistic stone sculptures
of Ghent’s patron saints
Subject matter: exterior
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Subject matter: interior
Sinful humanity
(Amdam &
Eve)
Saved by the sacrifice
of Christ Lamb
God The Father,
Virgin and S. John
Diversity of styles for different
subjects:
between medieval vision and
Renaissance rationality
Medieval vision:
frontal,
symmetrical,
symbolic,
sparkling
The Bible tells us that it was only
after having eaten from the
Tree of Knowledge
Adam and Eve ‘knew they were
naked’
Stark naked indeed they look
despite the fig leaves they hold
in their hands
Not only did Van Eyck depict their
nudities but he also represented
their uneasy feeling about their
bodies!
later generations were shocked
by these nudes
And by Van Eyck’s cool
representation of details
He is considered the
inventor of oil painting
To prepare their paints,
during the Middle Ages,
artists used to bind the
colored pigment powder
with egg
This method was called
TEMPERA
Van Eyck started using
oil instead of egg
Oil paint
Oil vs. Tempera
2 main differences:
1) While tempera dries quickly
Oil paints permitted the artist to work
more slowly and accurately
2) with oil the painter could make glossy
colors which could be applied in
transparent layers or ‘glazes’
This would allow him to achieve smooth
transitions by letting the colors shade
off into each other
While the opaque tempera was perfect
for volumes and sharp dark/light
contrasts,
oil was more suitable for accurate
details and subtle passages of dark
and light (chiaroscuro)
Rogier van der Weyden,
Deposition, from Louvain
Belgium, ca. 1435, oil on wood
Dramatic effect:
No landscape: Rogier compressed the
figures and action onto a shallow stage
Crisp drawing and precise modeling of
forms, as a stratified relief carving
DINAMISM COMPRESSED
Patrons are
part of the
action
colors and perceived textures!
Active in Florence in the 1420s,
Rogier has an immense
responsibility in the history of art
as cultural mediator
He brought to Italy the technique of
oil paint and the Flemish detailed
realism,
And spread the Italian Renaissance
revolution in North Europe
Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and
His Bride, 1434, oil on wood
Van Eyck’s art reached its greatest
triumph in the painting of private
portraits
The most famous is the portrait of
the Italian merchant Giovanni
Arnolfini
Who had come to the Netherlands
on business, with his bride Jeanne de
Chenany
Portraiture was revived in Europe
in the 15th century:
From now until the advent of
photography it would constitute a
major means of support for artists
This private portrait is simultaneously
mundane and charged with the
spiritual
Every object conveys the holiness of
matrimony
Arnolfini and his bride are taking the
marriage vows
The cast aside clogs indicate that the
event takes place in an holy ground
Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and
His Bride, 1434, oil on wood
The dog symbolizes fidelity
Even something that seems to be a
furniture’s ornament is a tiny statue of
Saint Margaret, patron saint of
childbirth
The position of the two figures
suggests conventional gender roles:
the woman stands near the bed and
well into the room
The man stands near the window,
symbolic of the outside world
Every detail is painted meticulously:
Every different texture, light,
reflections, shadows
In this extremely precise visual
machine, nothing is random,
also the viewer has a specific role
Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and
His Bride, 1434, oil on wood
Van Eyck painted a convex
mirror
which show us the whole
scene, seen from the back:
two persons are facing the
Arnolfini couple
These generic persons are the
viewers of this painting who
are involved in the scene
as witnesses at the wedding
the act of looking at the
painting is turned into a
ritual:
the reciprocal responsibilities
of the wedding
Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a
Lady, ca. 1460, oil on panel, National
Gallery of Washington
Also Rogier painted private portraits,
with a different approach:
This is the portrait of an unidentified lady
Even if we don’t know who she was, from
this image we can deduce a big deal of
information about her
(Her dress and bearing imply noble rank)
Not only did the artist faithfully represent
his sitter’s likeness, he also revealed her
individual character:
Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, ca.
1460, oil on panel, National Gallery of
Washington
Lowered eyes, tightly locked fingers,
and fragile physique bespeak a
reserved and pious demeanor
Unlike van Eyck, Rogier placed little
emphasis on minute description of
surface detail:
Planes and volumes give an effect of
dignity and elegance (Italian
influence)
Rogier’s representation of the sitter’s
individual character
is a starting point for Leonardo da
Vinci’s developments of portraiture