Academic literature on the topic 'Flemish Altarpieces'

AbstractThis essay shows how scholarship on fifteenth-century Flemish panel painting became intertwined with efforts at national identity-building in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe. Paintings such as Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece were not only dispersed across regional and national boundaries, but were intellectually appropriated for competing national programs. The paintings consequently became a site of conflict between the Latin and Germanic traditions. These conflicts are clearly visible through the shifting terminology of this art, variously claimed as “Flemish” and “Netherlandish.” Such nationalist discourses shaped future scholarship on Flemish painting and contributed to its perceived inferiority vis-à-vis the Southern artistic tradition.

AbstractSources show that the Flemish artist Johannes Stradanus, whose career flourished from about 1555 in Florence, collaborated on several occasions on large-scale, temporary decorations, most of them commissioned by the grand dukes de'Medici, for important dynastic events such as baptisms, entries into cities and funerals. A multitude of artists and craftsmen carried out these decorations on the basis of often complicated iconographic programmes. In 1564, for instance, on the occasion of Michelangelo's funeral in S. Lorenzo, Stradanus painted the grisaille Michelangelo in 1529 in his dwelling in the Giudecca being received by the nobles of Venice by order of the Doge Andrea Gritti and the Signoria. In 1565, for the triumphal entry into the city of Johanna of Austria, he painted all the pictures decorating the triumphal arch erected on the Canto de' Tornaquinci. These consisted of five scenes glorifying the following exploits of rulers of the House of Austria: Rudolf conferring the Archdukedom of Austria on Albrecht I, Maximilian II being crowned emperor, Ferdinand I defending Vienna against the Turks, Albrecht slaing Adolf of Nassau in a battle, Philip II of Spain receiving the corona obsidionalis from Malta and two large trompe-l'oeil street views. In 1574, for the funeral of Cosimo I de'Medici in S. Lorenzo, Stradanus was probably involved in the painting of the skeletons and coats of arms. Furthermore, on the occasion of Francesco I de' Medici's funeral in S. Lorenzo in 1587, he painted the grisaille Francesco visiting his betrothed, Johanna of Austria, in Innsbruck; in 1588, for the entry of Ferdinando I de' Medici into Pisa, the canvas The burial of Pope Stephen I in the catacomb of Callixtus for the decoration of S. Stefano dei Cavalieri; in 1589, for the entry of Christina of Lorraine, the painting The retreat of the Turks after the siege of Vienna, as part of the decorations on the Canto de' Bischeri. Finally, in 1598, for the obsequies in memory of Philip II of Spain in S. Lorenzo, the grisaillc The siege and capture of Antwerp; for the same occasion he also provided the design for the grisaille The conquest of the Philippine islands, painted by his son Scipione. Stradanus' first commissions date from the start of his career in Florence, when he was working in Vasari's studio. As one of the master's assistants in decorating the Palazzo Vecchio, he had already gained ample experience in large-scale painting for the Medici. After leaving Vasari's studio in about 157 and setting up as an independent artist, Stradanus remained one of the leading Florentine artists who received commissions for official large-scale decors. He retained this status up to a venerable age, a sign of the appreciation he continued to enjoy in this field. Unfortunately none of Stradanus' decorative work has survived, with the exception of the canvas in Pisa. An impression of his skill in this field in conveyed by contemporary sources and the sketches, drawings, etchings and engravings presented in this article. This material clearly shows that in his long and productive life Stradanus was not only active as a painter of frescos and altarpieces and a designer of tapestries and engravings, but also played a prominent role at the court of the Medici as a painter of decorations.

The identity of artists and localisation of workshops are rarely known with certainty before the mid-15th century. We investigated the material used by one of the most prolific and enigmatic medieval sculptors, the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece or Master of Rimini, active around 1420–40. The isotope fingerprints (Sr, S and O) of a representative corpus of masterpieces but also minor artworks, attributed to the Master of Rimini and his workshop, are virtually identical, demonstrating the unity of the corpus and a material evidence behind the stylistic and iconographic ascriptions. The material used is exclusively Franconian (N-Bavarian) alabaster, 600 km distant from the supposed zone of activity of the Master of Rimini workshop according to recent literature. The same material was later used by the prominent Late Medieval German carver Tilman Riemenschneider, active in Würzburg after 1483, whose small corpus of alabaster sculptures we have been able to characterize almost entirely. Based on these findings, we propose here an alternative to the prevailing hypothesis of a Flemish or N-French workshop being founded on similarities of the Rimini sculpture with motives in Flemish and French painting. Our scenario, returning to the initial proposal of a German localisation of the Master of Rimini workshop, assumes the migration of an artist, perhaps trained in the Low Countries or strongly inspired by the Flemish art, to Southern Germany where he founded a highly productive export workshop, well situated on the crossroads of medieval trade, with a pan-European radiance. This study sheds a spotlight on the on the trade networks of luxury goods, the raw material used for their production, and the high-end art market in Europe as well as on international migration of artists and styles, at the eve of the Renaissance.

After a huge non-invasive diagnostic campaign performed on the corpus of Giovanni Santi’s artworks, three paintings were selected and investigated: the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian panel, the Visitation altarpiece and the canvas with Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (c. 1487 and 1494). Micro-invasive investigations including optical microscopy, ESEM-EDX, micro-Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and GC-MS were carried out on selected micro samples. The results of the integrated analyses confirmed the use of a Renaissance palette with oil and, only in a few cases, tempera techniques. Some significant peculiarities emerged in Santi’s practice, as he used localized off-white priming and colorless powdered glass with a siccative oil—in red, flesh, pinkish and green hues—confirming the influence of the Flemish painters in Urbino and, possibly, also in western central Italy. This innovative technical expedient compared to the traditional Italian painting technique was identified also in red and bluish samples collected from the Communion of the Apostles panel painted by Justus of Ghent around 1473–1474 for Urbino Corpus Domini Confraternity. The Flemish master was called to the court of Duke Federico to paint in oil and his presence at the ‘Urbino workshop’ probably contributed to the diffusion of this technique. Both in Giovanni Santi’s paintings and the Communion of the Apostles, the glass particles are related to a soda-lime glass typical of the Italian area, widely detected in Italian paintings from the late 15th and 16th centuries.

Abstract Ein Relief mit der Geißelung Christi im Kulturhistorischen Museum Stralsund und einige Bemerkungen zu einer niederländischen Werkgruppe aus der ersten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts The collection of the Stralsund Kulturhistorisches Museum contains a hitherto almost undocumented carved relief of the Flagellation of Christ. Its style suggests that it belongs to a group of widely disseminated works of Flemish origin. For example, similar stylistic details can be observed in the retables of the Capela da Santo Antão da Faniqueira in Portugal, and the Aegidienkirche, now in the St. Annen-Museum, Lübeck. This article will argue that the carvings of the Heiligenthaler altarpiece in the church of St. Nikolai in Lüneburg, traditionally held to be locally produced work, should also be reattributed to this group of works. Consequently, the attribution of a further relief illustrating the Temptation of Christ in the collection of the Liebieghaus Museum (Frankfurt a. M.), also currently regarded as having originated in Lüneburg, should be reconsidered in light of this new classification.

AbstractThe precise relationship of The Three Maries at the Tomb (Fig. 1) in the Boymansvan Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam to the work of Hubert and/or Jan van Eyck has proved difficult to establish, mainly because relatively little is known about their output apart from Jan van Eyck's signed paintings of 1432-41. The provenance of the Rotterdam picture has been traced back to the mid 18th century (Note 2), while the coat of arms, a later addition at bottom right, has been identified as that of Philippe de Commines, who has thus been posited as the earliest known owner (Note 3). Since the beginning of this century the panel has generally been ascribed to Hubert van Eyck on the basis of a comparison with his contribution to the Ghent Altarpiece, but doubts have also been expressed about the attribution to the Van Eycks (Note 5), while later dates have been suggested on the grounds of the view of Jerusalem (Note 6, 7) or the arms and armour (Notes 8, 9) . However, Panofsky remained convinced of the early date and kept to the attribution to Hubert, while suggesting that Jan had worked over certain details (Note 10). The restoration of 1947 (Note 11) revealed some gilded rays on the right side, which gave rise to suggestions that the panel had once formed part of a friezelike composition or a triptych (Notes 12-14). Recent opinion still remains divided, Sterling seeing the panel as having been painted by Jan van Eyck after 1426 (Note 15), Dhanens as the work of a follower around 1450-60 (Note 16). Scientific examination appeared to be the only way of obtaining new data, while the recently published results of a similar examination of the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 17) offered an additional incentive. An earlier scientific examination was carried out by Coremans in 1948 (Note rg), while the work had previously been examined by infrared reflectography by the authors in 1971 (JV ote zo) . Tfie 1)(inel on which the picture is painted consists rf three horizontal planks with dowelled joints (Note 21). The four corners are bevelled off at the back, which suggests that any later reduction in the panel can only have been slight. On the back is a sealed statement by D. G. van Beuningen to the effect that the painting had not suffered from being stored underground during the war (Fig. 2, Appendix 2) . The paint surface is in a reasonably good state, but exhibits heavy craquelure, which has played a part in the aesthetic assessment of the picture (Note 23) . Dendrochronological examination (Appendix I) showed that the two oaks from which the planks came were probably not felled before 1423. Since recent research has shown that the gap between felling and usage was not likely to have been much more than fifteen years in the 15th century (Note 25) and there is nothing to support the hypothesis that an old panel was reused here (Note 26), it is highly improbable that the picture was painted at the end of the 15th century. The most likely date is C. 1425-35 i.e. the period when the Ghent Altarpiece was painted or slightly later. No other results of dendrochronological examination on Van Eyck panels are available for comparison as yel. Examination by infrared reflectography (Note 28) revealed detailed underdrawing in virtually all parts of the picture and this was very carefully followed during painting with changes only in small details (cf. Figs.3, 5, 7). Stylistically the underdrawing accords with what is known about underdrawing in Van Eyck paintings today, this exhibiting a considerable difference from that of other Flemish Primitives, so that the Rotterdam panel is certainly a Van Eyck work. Among the most striking similarities to the central panel (x) and that with the Knights of Christ (IX) in the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 30) are the underdrawing of the drapery of the angels (Figs. 7-9), the city in the distance (Figs. 3,4, Note 31) and the minutely detailed armour (Figs. 14, 15, Note 33). Types of hatching that appear to be characteristic of the Van Eyck style are that of the shadows, which is sometimes overlapping and generally parallel to the main contours (Figs. 5,8) and a more rarely used type with short lines at an angle to contours (Fig. 9). The x-radiographs (Note 35) give a good idea of the damage to the paint surface (Figs. 16, 17) , which isfound mainly in the sky, along the crack in the top plank and on the bottom edge on the left. There is also a great deal of abrasion on the edges of the craquelure. The x-radiographs confirm the fact that no radical changes were made in the original, generally underdrawn, composition and reveal that the soldiers and their arms were left in reserve during the painting of the rocks and ground, a detail which likewise indicates continuity during the painting process. The underpainting of the rocks in large light blocks with simple contours shown up by x-ray photography is very close to that in panel IX in the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 38). Examination by stereomicroscope (Note 40) generally already gave an impression of the layered structure of the paint. It also showed up some minute details scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye : two horsemen and somefigures in tlae square on tlte leji qlthe city, a .slalue in a niche in the doorway in the zvall in tlae certtre (Fig. 18; possibly a reminiscence of the Golden Gate, Note 56) and a number of ship's masts with crow's nests on the horizon on the right (Fig. 19). Part of the vegetation was shown to be very finely and precisely rendered (Figs. 20, 21), while the rest was not so fine. Similar differences appear in the two bronze-coloured ointment jars in this painting and also in the bottom zone of the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 41). These may reveal two different hands or the somewhat hasty finishing of some areas. The paint samples (Note 42) revealed the presence of an oleaginous isolating layer over the chalk and glue ground comparable to, but thinner than that on the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 45). The only other Flemish Primitive in whose work such a layer is found is Dirc Bouts (Note 50). The paint layer also exhibits many similarities to that of the Ghent Altarpiece, not only in the number and thickness of the layers, but in the composition and overall structure of the paint. For example, the skies in both works are built up in three layers from light to dark on the basis of lead white with increasing amounts of azurite and sometimes a bit of lapis lazuli, the vegetation consists of two layers of green with a glaze over them and the structure of the red mantle of one of the Maries resembles similar areas in the Ghent Altarpiece. This technique again makes it very unlikely that the panel was painted at the end of the 15th century or later. A final point is that the gilded rays ( Fig. 22), like the coat of arms (Fig. 23), prove to be a later addition. Finally, renewed consideration was given to certain iconographical aspects which have been used as dating criteria. The arms and armour have been seen as grounds for a later dating by Squilbeck in particular, but it seems quite likely that many of the forms are purely imaginary, while other experts do not agree with Squilbeck in dating certain elements to the 16th century (Note 53). The arms and armour are in any case an integral part of the painting. The detailed view of Jerusalem is regarded by some as impossible before Erhard Reuwich's print of 1486, while others express surprise that it was not copied by other artists. In fact, however, it is strikingly close in many details to the view in the Ghent Altarpiece, although the latter is firmer in its spatial construction and more convincing. Whole sentences have been read into the texts on the hems of two of the Maries' garments and the soldier's cap (Note 57 ) and it has been argued that the letters are Roman, not Hebrew (Note 58), but in fact they are indispulably Hebrew and although words can sometimes be recognized, they do no form a sentence or text (Note 59). The coat of arms is certainly that of a nobleman of the Order of St. Michael, but whether he was Philippe de Commines is uncertain. The Van den Woesteyne and Van Meaux van Vorsselaer families also bore these arms, albeit in different tinctures (Note 6o). Since the arms are done, in a brownish-grey, they cannot be more precisely identified. The presence of no less than five layers of varnish between the green meadow and the coat of arms could indicate that the arms were added much later than previously thought, possibly in the 16th or even the 17th century (Note 47). While the present study has shown that the Rotterdam painting is quite an early Van Eyck, its precise position in the Van Eyck oeuvre cannot be determined until results of examinations of other works in the group are available.

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 63 (2015), issue 4. The painting Ascent into Heaven (88.8 x 39.9 cm; dendrological dating: 1482–1490) kept in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice is one of the four eschatological panels (the other three are: Earthly Paradise, Fall of the Damned, Hell) which probably were in the collection of the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani in the 1520s. The panels’ original arrangement and function are unknown. The paintings are not signed and their attribution to Jheronimus Bosch (c. 1450–1516 ) is based largely on the grounds of stylistic criteria. In the study, I put Ascent into Heaven into two fundamental contexts for the iconographic analysis of this work: eschatological literature and Netherlandish/ Flemish painting and in the context of near-death experiences (NDE) as well. The answer to the question posed in the title of the study must remain twofold. On the basis of the data gathered in the study, the content of the painting can be comprehended by references to the most frequently quoted sources of inspiration for Bosch: one painting by Dieric Bouts (left wing of the Last Judgement Altarpiece; Lille, Palais des Beaux Arts), two illuminations by Simon Marmion (Le livre des sept Ages du monde; Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Ms. 9047, fols. IV & 12r) and a literary work Dat rike der ghelieven by Jan van Ruusbroec. Its content can be equally understood by reference to the role of the painter’s imagination (categories of inventio and fantasia), using his theological and astronomical knowledge. The above line of interpretation that emphasizes the influence of biblical logosphere, takes into account undeniable religious experience of the painter from ‘s-Hertogenbosch resulting from being a member of the Church. The factor of an epistemological importance which influences the form of the answer to the title question is hypothetical non-verifiable Bosch’s personal transcendental experience, thus it becomes impossible to evaluate the translation of what is spiritual (experience) into visual (image). Due to the elusive, not fully scientific nature of NDE this phenomenon should be excluded from the final conclusion.

AbstractThe painter Mattheus Terwesten, much esteemed in his own day, and highly praised by Van Gool, was born in 1670 in The Hague. He was taught by his older brother Augustinus, Willem Doudyns and Daniel Mytens. In 1695 he travelled by way of Berlin, where Augustinus was court painter, to Rome, where he became a member of the Bentyvueghels, who nicknamed him 'Arend' (eagle). Back in Berlin in 1698, he was commissioned by the Elector to design two ceilings for the palace in Charlottenburg. From 1699 on, apart from a brief sojourn in Berlin as court painter in 1710, he lived in The Hague. Many of his patrons were prominent members of the regent class. Terwesten continued to paint until a ripe old age; throughout his life he was an active member of the Pictura Confrerie and the Hague Academy. He died in 1757. The Rijksprcntenkabinet possesses a biography written by his son Pieter, based on the painter's own notes. The carliest known work is a Liberation of Andromeda in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Brunswick, dated 1697 Berlin', a combination of location and year that cannot be correct. The ceilings painted by Augustinus and Mattheus for Charlottenburg have been lost; since 1977 however, the palace again contains four large paintings by Mattheus with scenes from the story of Aeneas and Dido, one of them signed and dated 1702. Preparatory studies, as part of a series of twelve drawings, are in the Rijksprentenkabinct in Amsterdam. The paintings probably belong to the series of twelve pieces devoted to Aeneas which Mattheus, according to Pieter's manuscript, painted in 1702 for the house of Van der Straaten in the Hoogstraat, The Hague. Terwesten's most ambitious ceiling is the cupola of Fagel, a combination of painting and painted stucco, done in collaboration with the flower painter Gaspar Peeter Verbrugghen. Restoration of the old town hall of The Hague in 1974 revealed a ceiling painted by Terwesten in 1737. ln the Drents Provinciaal Museum in Assen is a Terwestcn ceiling, regarded as an anonymous work, which has been established as coming from 22, Hooglandse Kerkgracht in Leiden. Terwesten rarely received church commissions; an exception is an altarpiece, the Transfiguration, for the Old Catholic church in the Juffrouw Idastraat, The Hague. His later works, like Solomon's first judgment in the town hall of Monster, are characterized by a certain rigidity. This also applies to an Allegory on peace, catalogued as an anonymous painting, in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, which may be attributed to Terwesten. Mattheus Terwesten not only carried out commissions but painted for the open market as well. In view of the relatively large number of religious works listed in the catalogue of his estate, which was auctioned in 1757, there seems to have been a market for biblical scenes. His paintings of children or putti at play were very popular. Many of them have been erroneously attributed over the years: an Allegory on spring in the museum at Tarbes and an Allegory on spring in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich arc attributed to Augustinus Terwesten. Mattheus Terwesten collaborated with various flower painters, in keeping with a Flemish tradition to which he had been introduced by Gaspar Peeter Verbrugghen, who came from Antwerp. After Verbrugghen left The Haguc (in 1732), Terwesten worked with Pieter Hardimé and Coenraet Roepel, who later taught his son Pieter. Terwesten's decorative and later somewhat mechanical style catered to the taste of the wealthy citizens of his day. It is in this light that his works mcrit attention.

Syfte med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka färgens och gestikens påverkan på altarskåpets iscensättning av berättelserna och därmed även budskapet. Uppsatsen har ett bildsemiotiskt perspektiv som en utgångspunkt. Materialet för undersökningen är ett flandriskt altarskåp från Skånela kyrka som finns idag i Uppsala domkyrka. Skåpet är tillägnat Joakim och Sankta Anna. Undersökningen har avgränsats till att enbart analysera de sex skulpterade scenerna i korpusen. Analyserna har utförts genom en formell beskrivning och diskussion med hjälp av Lena Liepes lågikonografiska analys och med Norbert Ottos trestegsmetod för gestfunktioner. Lena Liepes metod och teori används som underlag för undersökningen. Undersökningen ansluter till Virginia Nixons forskningsarbete om Jesu mormor i kyrkokonsten. Det har konstaterats att färg- och gestikanalyserna möjliggör en nyanserad tolkning. Undersökningen har visat att färgen och gestiken är ett påverkningsmedel i syfte att leda betraktaren mot ett dolt budskap i bilden. Och att det finns en koppling mellan Skånelaskåpets budskap och den medeltida kvinnofientlighet som var rådande då. Annaskåpet innehåller budskap som präglas av den dåvarande barn- och kvinnosyner.
Purpose of this essay has been to examine the color's and gesticulation's impact on the altarpiece staging of the stories and thus the message. The essay has a semiotic perspective as a starting point. The material for the study is a flemish altarpiece from Skånela church that exists today in Uppsala Cathedral. The altarpiece is dedicated to Joachim and St. Anne. The study has been limited to only analyze the six sculptured scenes in the corpus. The analyzes have been performed through a formal description and discussion by Lena Liepes low iconographycal analysis and with Norbert Otto's three-step approach for gesture features. Lena Liepe's method and theory was used as a basis for the investigation. The study connects to Virginia Nixon's research on Jesus' grandmother in church art. It was found that the color and gesticulation analyzes enables a nuanced interpretation. The investigation has shown that the color and gestures are an actuation in order to lead the viewer towards a hidden message in the picture. And that there is a link between Skånela altarpiece's messages and the medieval misogyny that prevailed then. Anne-altarpiece contains messages that are characterized by the contemporary child and female visions.