Medieval Art in the Northern Netherlands before Van Eyck. New Facts and Features—Review by Anne-Maria J. van Egmond and Claudine A. Chavannes-Mazel (original) (raw)

Art and Iconoclasm, 1525-1580: The Case of the North Netherlands

J.P. Filedt Kok et al. (eds.), Kunst voor de Beeldenstorm [Cat. Exhib., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum], 1986

a m s t e r d MUSEUM a m Kunst 6® XdenstoA-^ CO =3 CUO _o (X5 •+-> 03 O Redactie J. P. Filedt Kok W. Halsema-Kubes W. Th. Kloek Metinleidingen door/with introductions by B. Dubbe en W. H.Vroom David Freedberg J.R.J.vanAsperendeBoer, M. FariesenJ. P. FiledtKok Staatsuitgeverij ' s -g r a V e n h a g e

Mediaeval painting in the Netherlands

2005

M e d i a e v a l p a i n t i n g i n t h e N e t h e r l a n d s In the first decade of the fifteenth century, somewhere in the South Netherlands, the Apocalypse (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, néerlandais 3) was written in D utch (dietsche) and illuminated. Noone knows w ith any certainty exactly where this happened. Erwin Panofsky in his famous Early Netherlan dish Painting (1953) argued convincingly for Liège,• later Maurits Smeyers (1993) claimed it for Bruges (and did so again in his standard work Vlaamse Miniaturen (1998)). The manuscript cannot possibly have been written and illum inated in Liège, nor is it certain that it comes from Bruges (as convincingly demonstrat ed by D e Hommel-Steenbakkers, 2001). Based on a detailed analysis of the language and traces of dialect in the D utch text of the Apocalypse, N elly de Hommel-Steenbakkers concluded that the manuscript originated in Flanders, or perhaps in Brabant. It m ight well have come from Bruges though, a flourishing town in the field of commerce and culture, but other places, such as G hent, Ypres, Tournai and maybe Brussels, cannot be ruled out,• other possible candidates are the intellectual and cultural centres in the larger abbeys. In the Apocalypse manuscript the accent is firmly on the com plicated and high-quality page-sized miniatures. The manuscript may definitely be characterized as a luxury item-a highly representative luxury item. The person who ordered it was surely a member of the wealthy South-Netherlandish élite w hich on the one hand wanted a complex iconographie pictorial account, and on the other hand wanted to read the Apocalypse in its native tongue, the Flemish vernacular. The figures depicted at the bottom left in the foreground of f. 4 are probably the principal actors in this splendid manuscript: a married couple kneeling in prayer, a second couple close behind them, and opposite them a man kneeling in devout prayer. The foremost couple is clad in opulent, fashionable attire: the man in a brown waisted jack et w ith extremely wide sleeves, close-fitting red hose and-the height of fashion-m atching pointed-toe shoes. A thickly gilded belt accentuates his hips. The woman's vivid red cloak is folded back to reveal a blue-grey dress,• a white cloth is draped over her head. The second couple is only partly visible and appears to be dressed entirely in dull red. The older man at the front is also well-dressed in a wideskirted garment and a dark blue cape w ith white piping and a dull red lining, the same colour as his hood; his sleeves are bright red. This group of notew orthy persons calls a variety of scenarios to mind. The foremost couple, advised by the somewhat older figure as their (spiritual?) leader and mentor, could perhaps have commissioned the manuscript. An alternative possibility is that the elder man commissioned the manuscript and that the couples kneeling opposite him are his children, married or otherwise. M ore scenarios are conceivable, but this is all pure conjecture. The only thing we can be certain of is that this is an extremely valuable South Netherlandish manuscript w ith a well-planned iconographie programme that was almost certainly written in Flanders and illum inated for a wealthy patron from what was probably an urban background. There is no indication that it was commissioned by a man of the church, nor is there any allusion to-or accent on-an aristocratic environment. Stylis tically the miniature cycle is consistent with what is known as International G othic, the highly fashion able late G oth ic style of around 1400. Let us first dwell briefly on the artistic situation in the South Netherlands in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the direct context of the Flemish Apocalypse. This is followed by a general survey of mediaeval painting in the Netherlands, for w hich we have created four time-blocks: the period prior to ca. 1300, the years 1300-1375 and 1375-1425 for "full" G othic, ending w ith the period spanning the years from 1425 to the beginning of the sixteenth century for the heyday of late G othic and the transition to the Renaissance. Each of these four time-blocks is introduced by a brief historical setting, followed by a dis cussion of early D utch painting and ends w ith a brief look at the tradition of Apocalypse representations and depictions of John on Patmos in D utch painting. Throughout all this, and from both a historical and an art-historical point of view, the special accent is on Flanders,• Flanders, after all, was the most prosper Bruges had become one of Europe's leading cultural and artistic centres. O ther important centres in the