GOTHIC ART
PART 1 : INTERNATIONAL GOTHIC
Jacques ROUVEYROL
I. ARCHITECTURE
Two styles dominate the second half of the 14th and 15th centuries:
The perpendicular style (in England). The fan vault.
Here and there, two styles have been referred to as "baroque" or "mannerist," in an anachronistic manner since the Baroque belongs to the 17th century and the Mannerism to the 16th century. Behind these two labels, there is the idea of decadence. As if the classical Gothic represented a peak, the "purity" of Gothic.
From our time, marked by the functionalism of Le Corbusier and his successors, it is clear that classical Gothic, which eliminates all excess to reveal only the essential elements of construction, represents a key moment in architecture itself. In contrast, the "perpendicular" and "flamboyant" styles are moments of decoration. However, nothing justifies making value judgments unless one conceives history, in the manner of the 19th century (Hegel, Marx), as a progression (with its pauses and setbacks) toward an ideal or some form of perfection.
It is also worth noting that while sculpture tends to free itself from the constraints of architecture, in which it was confined, especially during the Romanesque period, it remains in harmony with architecture. The refinement of curves, the delicacy of the small columns, is mirrored by the refinement and delicacy of sculpture and painting in the 14th and 15th centuries.
II. Sculpture, Painting: The Form
1. Refinement and Preciosity.
1. Small Objects of Precious Materials
The objects are small in size, portable, and made of ivory and precious materials (gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, black horn). They are intricately carved in the finest detail, imbued with a grace that will indeed be characteristic of Mannerism in the 16th century. These include statuettes, small diptychs or triptychs, etc., intended for individual devotion.
2. The Search for Depth in the Rejection of Realism: Illuminations
Painting begins with the illuminations of manuscripts. It is here that the "search" occurs, where innovations are encountered. The detachment from architecture allows what the 12th century forbade: the hollowing out of the wall (which disappears in Gothic architecture): perspective. Several formulas are experimented with.
a. Atmospheric Perspective
A "distance" is created through a lightening of the sky near the horizon line. Of course, nothing here is "realistic." The sunbeams are clearly materialized as "rays." The landscape remains distinct, however far it may be, instead of gradually blending into the sky. But there are two planes: one near and the other distant.
b. The Diaphragm
Another way to represent depth: adding a diaphragm in front of the scene. In the example below, two small columns and a transverse beam frame the area where the scene takes place. They position us in front and thus create a background.
The diaphragm technique refines two other methods, the first being more artificial, the second more symbolic. The first involves "removing" the wall that blocks the view of the scene happening inside a building; this technique is called explicit interior. The second consists of tiling the floor in such a way that, although the scene appears to be set outdoors, it is actually taking place indoors; this technique is called implicit interior.
3. When naturalism appears, it is in a "mannerist" form, not realistic. Example: The Limbourg Brothers, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.
Certainly, in this Calendar, we see the first snowy landscape, the first cast shadows—things that left the illuminators of previous eras indifferent, who were mainly concerned with depicting human laborious activity (the work of the months), but with a moralistic (virtues linked to labor) and religious (the fruits of nature are gifts from God) perspective. While the Limbourg Brothers' Calendar still depicts the work of the fields and vineyards, the search for acorns, and the gathering of wood for heating, it does so against a backdrop of "precious material": each panel has a castle of the Duke in the background, and a large part of the scenes are courtly and entirely secular, aimed at showcasing the nobility through its wealth and, particularly, the elegance of its adornments.
4.The Altarpiece.
But painting is not limited to illumination. The 15th century sees the development of the altarpiece, and in the north (Belgium, the Netherlands), painting develops at the expense of sculpture. One of the most famous is by the Van Eyck brothers and is located at Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent: it is the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" altarpiece. (below, closed and then opened)
II. SCULPTURE, PAINTING: THE CONTENT
Melancholy
The 12th century was the age of faith. The belief in a completely foreign and terrifying God. The 13th century was the age of piety. The belief in a severe (Judge and Father) but understanding God. The 14th and 15th centuries are the centuries of devotion. The belief in a human God, too human, who died for mankind, a God of pity. Several themes emerge from this:
a. Death
Death, ever-present, becomes an obsessive theme. It is important to remember that between 1347 and 1350, half of the European population (around 25 million people) was decimated by the Black Death. In France, it continued to ravage the population between 1353 and 1355. It is a looming threat that weighs on people's minds.
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Death is the subject of many illuminations.
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The "Dit des Trois Morts et des Trois Vifs" (The Saying of the Three Dead and the Three Living), which tells the story of three young men encountering their own corpses, serves as a reminder that death is always present, is in everyone's memory.
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The "Dance of Death" makes its appearance.
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In funerary art, the effigy (gisant) is replaced by the "transi." The deceased is no longer represented without the stigmas of death. Two-level tombs emerge at the end of the 14th century. In the upper part, the spiritual, immortal part of the deceased. In the lower part, the corporeal, mortal part.
b. The Crucifixion.
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In the Byzantine and then Romanesque periods, Christ on the cross is depicted as triumphant (over death).
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In the Classical Gothic period, the Crucifixion has a dogmatic and pedagogical value.
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In the 14th century, the idea of triumph disappears, but the treatment remains refined and mannerist.
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In the 15th century, Christ is depicted as suffering and overwhelmed.
c. The Figures of the Suffering Christ.
Two figures are often confused: the Christ of Pity and the Man of Sorrows. The latter is a 15th-century invention.
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The Christ of Pity is shown dead, half-risen from his tomb, supported or not by angels, displaying his wounds.
The Man of Sorrows is still alive. He is Christ at Calvary, waiting to be crucified.
We are far from the terrifying God of the Apocalypse on the tympanum of Moissac, or the Supreme Judge from the classic Gothic tympana. This is the Ecce Homo, the one who, in his humanity, suffered all that it was possible to suffer, and who died as every human being dies. A God who is close, human, too human.
From the Romanesque era to the end of the 15th century, we seem to witness the decline of God, His "de-divinization," which leads to the end of medieval culture — a culture that, in some way, will persist in the North.
PART 2 :THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH, 15th CENTURY (OR THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES)
I. THE CODES
Symbolism, which is obvious in medieval representation, becomes hidden in Northern Renaissance art. Everything needs to be interpreted.
Thus, a Romanesque window will signify the Old Testament, or the Ancient Times, or the Time before Time: the eternity of the Kingdom of God. A Gothic window will refer to the New Testament or the current time. A window is therefore never just a window, but a sign. Again, one must know how to read it. The difficulty is that this symbolism is hidden.
II. THE WORLD AS ALLEGORY
The challenge, in a work of art, is to determine whether a particular object or decorative element is a symbol intended by the painter or invented by later commentators. In the somewhat inconsistent symbolism of the early period (for example, the Master of Flémalle’s Mérode Altarpiece), this problem arises. It no longer arises with later masters like Jan (or Hubert) van Eyck.
The interpretation of the symbols in The Virgin with Chancellor Rolin, for example (see below), reveals that the portrait of the Chancellor is not simply that of a donor, as one might first think, but represents his soul (meaning he is already dead) presented before the Virgin in the City of God.
Indeed, where are we? The view is sharp from the foreground to infinity. This is not the vision of a human eye; only the eye of God can thus embrace the totality of the visible. Therefore, we are in the City of God, not on earth, and the painting does not depict the Virgin in Majesty with a donor’s portrait as it might seem at first glance.
The three round Romanesque arches are three: the Trinity. They are Romanesque: they evoke the ancient times, even the time before time — eternity. Thus, the Chancellor is dead and received into Paradise by the Virgin. A hidden symbolism, beneath the surface of a scene that at first appears to be something else (the Virgin in Majesty with a donor).
The figure of the Virgin in The Virgin in a Church (also by Jan van Eyck, see below) is not the Virgin herself, nor is the church an actual church, but rather the Church personified within a small structure (an edicule) that itself represents the Idea of the Church. This only becomes apparent through a symbolic interpretation of the work.
Indeed, the Virgin is far too large in proportion to the building. Yet she fits perfectly within the traditional proportions of the Church in an edicule motif.
The church itself is not a real church. The light, given the usual orientation of such buildings, comes from the north — an unusual detail. Therefore, it must symbolize something else. What exactly? Given the Virgin's disproportionate size, the building represents the edicule within which the Church is symbolically depicted.
Similarly, it is not simply the Arnolfini couple on the eve of their wedding night that Van Eyck represents (see below), but rather the painting is a marriage certificate issued by the painter himself.
This can only be established beyond doubt through the interpretation of all the symbols within the work.
In the mirror at the back, not only the couple is reflected, but also — in the position we occupy as spectators of the scene — the painter himself and another figure: witnesses to the marriage.
The signature is not the traditional "Johannes van Eyck fecit" ("Jan van Eyck made this [painting]") but "Johannes van Eyck fuit hic" ("Jan van Eyck was here").
The rest of the signs and symbols in the painting fully confirm this interpretation.
III. THE ARS NOVA
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Ars Nova is a new way of painting that emerged in the North in the 15th century.
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The color palette expanded.
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Oil paint began to be used — brighter, with greater chromatic intensity, and closer to reality.
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Artists succeeded in creating an illusion of reality on the canvas — but an illusion that does not deceive, as it presents itself as such and invites interpretation.
IV. TOWARDS THE END OF SYMBOLISM
The successors of Van Eyck (Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Dirk Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling, and others) gradually abandoned symbolism.
This marks the end of the Middle Ages.
The world ceased to be seen as the “Scripture” of the Creator that the artist was tasked with deciphering.
It began to assert itself in its autonomy, as an "object" (an ob-ject) that science would soon seek to understand — and which would require new methods and new systems of representation, already being developed during the 14th and 15th centuries by the Italian Renaissance.
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