"Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride"

Jan Van Eyck

Symbolism

- Shoe off: holy ground, also gift to wife

- Dog: fidelity

- St. Margaret on bed post: child birth

- Orange: fertility + wealth

- Broom: domestic care

- Candle: God's all seeing eye

- Passions of the Christ on mirror: salvation

Other Notes:

- convex mirror shows artist + witnesses

- purpose was to record/sanctify marriage

- a few people think it was meant to show Giovanni passing rights to his wife while he was out of town

- Oil painting

- Giovanni was a merchant of the Medici family

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"Well of Moses"

Claus Sluter

Location: Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon France

Notes:

- Moses + 5 other prophets

- Supported passion scene above

- looked as if blood flowed from christ above, into the well

- figures are realistic, have personalities, naturalistic

- was originally painted

"Retable de Champmol"

Melchoir Broederlam

Location: Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France

Notes:

- Commissioned by Philup the Bold

- Sculpture shrine inside by Jacques de Baerze, panels by Broederlam

- Left wing depicts Annunciation and Visitation

- Right wing depicts Presentation in Temple and flight into Egypt

- sort of strange, lush, Gothic architecture set in an odd landscape

- naturalistic setting with un-naturalistic gold sky and halos

"Merode Altarpiece"

Robert Campin

Notes:

- Private commission for household prayer

- set in modern Flanders, Flemish home

- Annunciation

- three panels - triptych

- symbols of purity are everywhere (book, extinguished flame, lilies, copper bowl, fire screen, garden)

- Other symbol is Joseph making a mouse trap - a symbol for Christ trapping the evil of the world

- Patrons are in the left panel, witnessing the annunciation

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"Ghent Altarpiece"

Jan Van Eyck

Notes: Chapel Vyd, Saint John the Baptist Cathedral, (Now Saint Bavo Cathedral), Ghent, Belgium

- Polyptych: many panels

- Commissioned by Jodocus Vyd for Chapel Vyd

- Donor portraits on exterior doors, both praying to their patron saints

- Annunciation on upper register of outer panels

- Inside: Humanity's redemption through Christ

- God on throne, Virgin and John the Baptist beside him

- Angels

- Adam and Eve

- Saints + the altar of the Lamb

- fountain + 12 apostles

- martyrs, prophets, confessors, everyone comes to be saved by Christ

- Incredibly detailed

- Oil painting

"Man in a Red Turban"

Jan Van Eyck

Notes:

- at this time secular portraits became more popular as interest in humanity and in memoralizing themselves increased

- man looks directly at viewer, pretty unseen at this time

- probably a self portrait

"Deposition"

Rogier van der Weyden

Location: Louvain, Belgium

Notes:

- commissioned for Notre Dame Hors-Les-Murs (Outside wall) by the Archer's Guild

- little crossbows in corners symbolize the Archer's Guild

- Figures are compressed onto a shallow stage

- Lots of action and anguish in a small place

- depiction of sorry and loss some of the best, Mary faints at the death of her son

"Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin"

Rogier van der Weyden

Notes:

- Probably commissioned by the painters build in Brussels

- Maybe a self portriat

- Saint Luke paints virgin using a silverpoint

- symbols once again, ox shows its Saint Luke, tiny Adam and Eve on Mary's arm rest

"Portrait of a Lady"

Rogier van der Weyden

Notes:

- Her dress implies she is a nobel

- Hands praying, means she is humble, pious, and reserved

- focused on capturing her dignity and elegance

- of a specific woman, we just don't know who

"A Goldsmith in his Shop"

Petrus Christus

- Possibly St. Eligius showing a couple golden rings

- Betrothal girdle on table: symbol of chasity

- Eucharistic wafers on shelf

- marriage portrait, probably commissioned by the goldsmith's guild 

"Last Supper"

Dirk Bouts

Location: Louvain, Belgium

Notes:

- Commissioned by Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament

- Bouts was the official painter of Louvain

- Uses a single vanishing point

- Servants in the painting are probably patrons

- Christ also shows priests the eucharist

"Portinari Altarpiece" (Open)

Hugo van der Goes

Location: Family Chapel in Florence, Italy

Notes:

- Painted for Tommaso Portinari, a shipowner

- Family and their patron saints on wings

- Central panel shows "Adoration of the Shepherds"

- Everyone is sad despite the nativity scene

Symbols

- Iris + columbine flowers: sorrows of the virgin

- 15 angels: 15 joys of Mary

- Harp: ancestors of Christ

"Virgin with Saints and Angels"

Hans Memling

Location: Bruges, Belgium

Notes:

- Commissioned by 4 siblings, all on exterior wings

- princess like Mary, doll-like Christ

- Angels

- St. John the Baptist on left and St. John the Evangelist on the Right

- In foreground, saints Catherine and Barbra

- Celebrates Saint Catherine's "mystical marriage", a spiritual marriage with Christ

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"Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry"

First is January, second is October

Limbourg Brothers

Location: Paris and/or Brourges, France

Notes:

- Commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry who was the brother of King Charles V

- This is a "Book of Hours" for praying

- 12 months of tasks

- January is a giant feast

- October focuses on happy pheasants

- The brothers probably died from the plague before it was finished

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"Melun Diptych"

Jean Fouquet

Notes:

- Commissioned by Etienne Chevalier

- Etiene and Patron Saint, Saint Stephen on Left wing

- Virgin and Child on right wing

- Model for Mary was Anges Sorel, the mistress of King Charles VII

"Death and Assumption of the Virgin"

Veit Stoss

Location: Krakow, Poland

Notes:

- For the Church of Saint Mary in Krakow

- Absolutely huge, some figures 9' tall

- Images from the lives of Christ and Mary on the wings

- Gothic Elements

- Apostles surround Mary, stricken with grief

"The Assumption of the Virgin - Creglingen Altarpiece"

Tilman Riemenschneider

Location: Creglingen, Germany

Notes:

- Intricate gothic forms, but left unpainted

- a lot of Fluid Motion

- Bodies are almost lost inside their flowing garmets

- psychic strain on figures' faces

"The Miraculous Draught of Fish" from "The Altarpiece of Saint Peter"

Konrad Witz

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Notes:

- For the Notre-Dame Des Maccabees in the Cathedral of Saint Paul

- Exterior Wing

- Peter unsuccessfully tries to walk on water

- There is a great amount of detail in the water

- Other wings include "Release of Saint Peter from Prison", "Adoration of the Magi", and Saint Peter's presentation of the donor to the Virgin and Christ Child

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"Nuremberg Chronicle, Tarvisium"

Michael Wolgemut

Notes: 

- More likely a print of a generic town, rather than a specific print of Tarvisium

- The Nuremberg Chronicle was the History of the World according to Anton Koberger

- More than 650 illustrations by Wolgemut's workshop

- Hand colored

- Travisium "4th Age of the World"

- Woodcut

"Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons"

Martin Schongaur

Notes:

- Engraving

- Tonal values and textures created by cross hatching