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Standardization versus observation
The
van Eyck's, and many other later Early Netherlandish artists,
too, remained indebted to the Middle Ages not just in their working
methods. For all the verism they achieved in individual heads, they
simply replaced the broad-foreheaded faces of the period around 1400
with their own ideal of an elongated oval. One stylization thus
replaced another — thanks not least to
Rogier, the master of the
type. In other respects, too, until far into the 16th century the
only corrections being made were minor adjustments, rather than
fundamental changes to composition, proportion, the human figure,
draperies or landscape. The innovations being pioneered south of the
Alps found their way at best into subsidiary details. Even the
tracery, crockets and finials of Gothic decoration remained
fundamental not just to built architecture but also to goldsmiths,
sculptors and painters.
In complete contrast to developments in Italy, this led in most
cases to an even greater proliferation of the old forms, to greater
overloading rather than greater simplicity. The Netherlandish,
German and Spanish artists were so immersed in the formulae of the
past that, even when they adopted a Renaissance motif for a capital,
frieze or gable, the composition, proportion and structure of the
building or furnishing in question remained entirely beholden to the
Gothic style. At the same time, and again in contrast to Italy,
virtually no new pictorial genres were evolving. Although the
individual portrait was becoming increasingly popular, production
continued to be dominated by religious subjects.
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Perpetuation of the calligraphic element
For all the brilliance of colour, for all the delights of the
pictorial surface, however, supremacy continued to lie with
two-dimensional line, as can be seen particularly from the few
preparatory drawings that survive from the 15th century. The
drawings executed directly on the panel itself, as visible today
either through the fading glazes above them or with the help of
infra-red light, concentrate primarily upon the detailed positioning
of the draperies. Whereas heads, hands and elements of landscape are
indicated for the most part with the most fleeting of strokes, the
contours of drapery folds are precisely laid down and their hollows
shaded with generous hatching. The only thing that changed after
1400 with the
van Eyck's and
Campin was the style of these folds:
softly undulating hems now gave way to sharp fissures. Whereas the
painters of the International Gothic had indulged their love of line
in the billowing draperies which enfolded their figures, these had
now dropped flat to the ground, lying like a front garden at their
wearer's feet and gridded with clearly ridged folds.
The Ghent Altar Annunciation can be seen as highly
typical of this trend, although it was by no means restricted to
kneeling or seated figures. The two Ghent figures are typical in
another respect, too. Their draperies are intended to look
unstudied, but in truth nothing has been left to chance. In the case
of the Virgin, the effect is achieved by the folds which fall first
vertically downwards, and which then spill sharply sideways, in a
slight overlapping of astonishingly smooth rectangular and
trapezoidal planes. Almost more influential would be the numerous
triangular forms making up the angel, who is lent additional relief
by the wedge-shaped hollows in his robes. No less important than the
folds themselves are the strong light and deep shadows which make
them visible, and which give the draperies their powerful
plasticity.
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Impact of the
Eyck' innovations
The style of an artist's drapery folds is thus the most reliable
criterion by which to determine whether he had come under the spell
of the
Eyck revolution — more so than broader proportions, more
individual faces or the "realistic" representation of plants and
other details, aspects which depend more on the individuality of the
artist and the subjectivity of the viewer. The impact of the
Eyck'
innovations upon their contemporaries must have been enormous. When
a visit to an exhibition introduces us to a previously unknown
direction in art, after leaving the museum we see our surroundings
through the eyes of the artist we have just been viewing. The
painters who were confronted by the inventions of the
van Eyck
could no longer see a face, a fold, a fruit tree or a sunset in the
same way as before. Within just five years of the completion of the Ghent Altar,
outstanding representatives of this new direction in art had already
emerged in various parts of southwest Germany. The Magdalene Altar
by Lukas Moser (c. 1390 — after 1434) in Tiefenbronn
carries the same 1432 date as the
van Eyck own masterpiece, while
the Wurzach Altar by the Ulm artist
Hans Multscher (c.
1390-c. 1467) is dated 1437. The Albrecht Altar
in
Vienna must also have arisen around 1437, and the Rottweil artist
Konrad Witz appears to have painted his great
Mirror of Salvation
altarpiece in Basle at about the same time. Six hundred miles
further west, Nicolas Frances (c. 1434— c. 1468) had already painted
the high altar for Leon cathedral before 1434. They
all feature the new realism, the heavy, massive forms and the heavy
draperies falling in angular folds.
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Lukas Moser(
fl c. 1430).
German painter. His name is known only through an
inscription on the frame of the altarpiece above the altar
of St Mary Magdalene in the parish church at Tiefenbronn,
near Pforzheim. This altarpiece is as important to the art
of German-speaking lands as van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece is
to that of the Netherlands. Both were completed in 1432.
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Magdalene Altar
1432 |
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Lucas Moser
Magdalene Altar
1432 |

Lucas Moser
Magdalene Altar
1432 |
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Lucas Moser
Magdalene Altar (detail)
1432 |
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Lucas Moser
Magdalene Altar (detail)
1432 |
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Master of the Albrecht Altar
Viennese Master, active 1430-1450
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Master of the Albrecht Altar
Elijah Divides the River of Jordan
c. 1437
Museum des Chorherrenstifres, Klosterneuburg |
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Master of the Albrecht Altar
Mary as Queen of the Powers
c. 1437
Museum des Chorherrenstifres, Klosterneuburg |
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Frances Nicolas
Spanish painter (active 1424-1468 in Leon)
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Nicolas Frances
Mary Enters the Temple
1434
(from the high altar of Leon cathedral)
Cathedral, Leon |
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Nicolas Frances
St Jerome in his Cell
1450s
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
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Nicolas Frances
St Jerome in his Cell
1450s
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
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Nicolas Frances
Altarpiece with the Lifestory of the Virgin and St Francis
or Altarpiece of La Baneza
1440s
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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Nicolas Frances
Altarpiece with the Lifestory of the Virgin and St Francis
or Altarpiece of La Baneza
Scenes from the Life of St Francis
1440s
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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Nicolas Frances
Altarpiece with the Lifestory of the Virgin and St Francis
or Altarpiece of La Baneza
Scenes from the Life of St Francis
1440s
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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Nicolas Frances
Altarpiece with the Lifestory of the Virgin and St Francis
or Altarpiece of La Baneza
Scenes from the Life of St Francis
1440s
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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Nicolas Frances
Altarpiece with the Lifestory of the Virgin and St Francis
or Altarpiece of La Baneza
Anunciacion
1440s
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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