"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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