Mérode Altarpiece Essay

Gorgeously. Striking. Grace. The golden painting is taking up by the two most iconic symbols of Christianity: Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. Christ gently placing a golden grown on the inclined head of the Virgin Mary, who is sitting on the right side of Jesus; her hands crossed over her chest symbolist of humble, reverent and loyalty. This position was purposely set by Fabriano. In Christianity art, position is significant in dividing between good manners and malefactors. For instance, in The Last Judgment by Giotto di Bondone in 1305, heaven was placed on right of Christ, and hell was on the left. This ideology was clearly stated in the bible “...before him shall be gathered all nations:

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

Paolo de Matteis’s esteemed work The Adoration of the Shepherds is a large painting, depicting a classic Christian Nativity scene, that is displayed in the Dallas Museum of Art. In the piece, a dozen or so individuals surround the newborn Christ and his parents, gazing at him in admiration and paying him homage while animals look serenely on and angels assemble around the heads of the Holy Family. The artist employs several classic artistic elements in his painting, such as line, light, color, and shape, to draw the viewer’s focus directly to his intended point of emphasis, the infant Jesus.

In this paper, I will describe, compare, and contrast two paintings of the same name, The Annunciation by Gerard David and Joos van Cleve. Beginning with Joos van Cleve’s work, we see the virgin Mary kneeling down before an opened book. An illuminated dove with its wings spread is suspended above Mary. An angel is standing beside her, making a gesture. Both figures are inside an ornately decorated, well lit bedroom.

For My Museum Essay, I have chosen Rogier van der Weyden’s “St. Luke drawing the Virgin” (c. 1435-40). First of all, this painting is an extraordinarily beautiful piece of art, with both meticulous details and true to life emotional state of the figures portrayed. And it intrigued me even more when I found out that there is a very compositionally similar painting by Jan Van Eyck (“Madonna with Chancellor Rolin”).

The Ghent altarpiece and the San Zaccaria altarpiece have many similarities. Starting with the Virgin Mary and the belief in Christ. Both of these artworks depicts the Virgin Mary. At the top of the Ghent altarpiece shows scrolls and books or prophets and sibyls that predicted the coming of the Christ (the coming of the Messiah). The top left is the Old Testament prophet Zacharias and the on the top right we see the Old Testament prophet Micah. The moment that they predicted is unfolding right below the scrolls, which is a scene of the Annunciation. Gabriel is seen on the left and Mary on the right. On angel Gabriel’s hand is lilies, which symbolizes Mary’s purity, her seamlessness, and virginity. He announces her that she is about to conceive Christ. You can actually see words coming out of Gabriel’s mouth in Latin “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary full of grace… blessed art thou women”). On the right, there is a dove above Mary’s head and it symbolizes the Holy Spirit. There are also words coming out of her mouth in reply to angel Gabriel. But

The first work is the center panel of the Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin in 1425. It is titled The Annunciation and is a Flemish painting. The second work is a fresco by Fra Angelico entitled Annunciation. It was made in 1440 in Florence, Italy. The Merode Altarpiece is considered early fifteenth century Flemish art while Annunciation is considered Early Renaissance art. The subject of both of these paintings is the

The couple's outfits are thick and even have fur, although the painting suggests that it is spring or summer, due to the amount of sunlight entering from the window and the fresh oranges (most oranges are harvest during the spring). The furniture and the drapery is impressive, and the oranges themselves are rare and are therefore a symbol of wealth. The painting also illustrates the relationship between the two subjects through various objects. The painting suggests that the subjects are married. There is a dog in between the couple, which represents loyalty. Both characters have rings on their ring fingers, which suggests that they are both married. Also, the painting shows that both characters have removed their shoes, which implies that they are standing on holy ground, such as Moses was when speaking to god through a burning bush in the bible. The reason they are on holy ground is because a holy ceremony has taken place, that is, a wedding. Notice the characters' body language is composed of the dominant husband and the submissive wife. There is also various references to the newlywed couple's intentions of starting a family. Not only does the wife's attire exaggerate her belly, making her seem as if she were pregnant, but behind here there is a statue of Saint Margaret, the saint of childbirth and fertility. When the individual objects of this painting are viewed as a whole, the message becomes clear. Jan van

The Holy Trinity by Masaccio was a painting done in approximately 1428. It is a

The title of this artwork is Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Angels. It was created by François Boucher in Paris. It was painted in the year 1765. It was painted with oil on a canvas. This painting is housed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, New York. In this painting, Boucher wonderfully depicts the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, along with a toddler Saint John the Baptist and a lamb, having a picnic together. They are being watched over by five small cherub angels up in the heavens.

The great thing about art, is that there are multiple portrayals of one idea but, the artist’s own personal style allows one to feel something that another may not. Early Renaissance painters, Giotto di Bondone and Duccio di Buoninsegna established their own unique style to depict a biblical scene known as, The Betrayal of Christ. Through a close analysis of each artist’s representation of, The Betrayal of Christ, one is able to compare and contrast the artists own understanding of the scene through their attention to detail, character, and space throughout the painting. When examining these two works, one will have a stronger emotional response towards Giotto’s interpretation rather Duccio’s, due to his methods of handling organization, figures, and space.

When the Isenheim Altar is in phase one you see. On the left side of the painting you can see Gabriel the angel telling Mary she is pregnant. This is telling a story that is in the bible. For example in Luke 1:29-32 it says “29. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,Mary; you have found favor with God. 31. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus 32.”(Bible). The middle painting to the right shows the angels watching Marry give birth to baby Jesus. In the middle painting on the left side you can see Mary holding baby Jesus. In the painting on the right you see Jesus resurrected to heaven. This painting is telling a story that happened in the bible. For example, in “5. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6. He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7. ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8. Then they remembered his words”(KJV/AMP Parallel Bible). There was one last Phase of the paintings. The last

Stylistic concern is not the only argument that objects the painting’s attribution to Raphael, but also the inferior quality in the rendition of Mary and Christ. Observations of Beck suggest that Mary’s hair looks confusing and unsolved , while the underdrawing revealed by IR investigation shows a clearer representation of the braids that possibly the painter-in-question became more “exclusive on this own during the painting stage that he dropped the refinement of her hair” stemming from mimicking Raphael’s painting when drafting. Furthermore, the current depiction conveys a sense of obfuscation in posing of Mary’s right thigh compared to Small Cowper Madonna (fig. 2) or the Bridgewater Madonna (fig.4), with statically drawn Infant balancing difficultly on the invisible leg of Mary . It is inexplicable that the engravings (fig. 6 and 7) after the painting look more convincing that they have complemented the unnaturalness of the original.

Fig. 1 captures the very moment that the archangel Gabriel comes down from the heavenly realm to earth to announce to Mary that she will conceive the Christ-child and he shall be called Jesus. The gold of his crown is representative of the “celestial realm that he has left to deliver this message” (Kleiner, 2010:387). The announcement is depicted very much in the moment as the words are quite literally illustrated with the text "Ava gratia plena Dominus tecum" (Van Dijk, 1999:420), which leave his mouth from left to right as if they were encapsulated in a speech bubble. The phrase is in fact inscribed in Latin and reads as "Hail, Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women” (Van Dijk, 1999:420). The draping cloth around Gabriel’s gold-infused light blue robe whips around the angel as if he had just land and his wings, which are still erect, depict an effortless grace of divine delicacy in the way that Martini executed them. Making use of undulating, long curved linear lines, they are almost liquid-like in their fluidity. The angel is painted holding a branch of olive leaves in his left hand. This is a symbol of the Christ-head and his coming to earth as the “Prince of Peace” (Emmerson, 2006:456), and also makes a reference to the traditional biblical story of Noah, the ark and the dove returning with an olive branch as a promise of the covenant of peace made by God with man (Genesis 8:11, English Standard Version)

This major innovation that Georges adds to his Caravaggio inspired paintings would be showing the light source of the painting to the viewer, and putting the light source directly in the center of the piece. In his painting, Mary Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, Georges’ goal was to create a calm, reflective state of a follower of Christ. This painting shows Mary Magdalen, a repentive prostitute, putting aside her jewels and rich clothing to meditate on mortality while looking into a flickering flame. Georges creates subtle hints of religious meaning through items throughout the painting. The skull sitting in her lap refers to morality and the vanity of human life, the books of scripture refer to her following of Christ, and the scourge refers to the pain and suffering that Mary may have been experiencing in the past or during her