This document discusses 15th century art in Northern Europe and Spain through analyzing various figures and artworks. It describes artworks like the Well of Moses sculpture by Claus Sluter that was commissioned for the Chartreuse de Champmol in France. It also examines important paintings by early northern Renaissance artists like Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, and Hans Memling that advanced oil painting techniques and set new standards for realism, detail, and virtuosity in works like Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife. The document also notes history was increasingly depicted in illuminated manuscripts and early printed books through woodcut illustrations.

1. Chapter 20 Piety, Passion, and Politics: 15 th Century Art in Northern Europe and Spain Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12e

2. Europe in the 15 th Century

3. Figure 20-2 CLAUS SLUTER, Well of Moses, Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, 1395–1406. Limestone with traces of paint, figures approx. 6’ high.

4. Figure 20-3 MELCHIOR BROEDERLAM, outer wings of the Retable de Champmol. Annunciation and Visitation (above) and Presentation and Flight into Egypt (right), from Chapel of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, installed 1399. Panels, each 5’ 5 3/4” x 4’ 1 1/4”. Musée de la Ville, Dijon.

5. Figure 20-4 ROBERT CAMPIN (Master of Flémalle), Mérode Altarpiece (open), The Annunciation (center panel), ca. 1425–1428. Oil on wood, center panel approx. 2’ 1” x 2’ 1”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (The Cloisters Collection, 1956).

6. Figure 20-4 ROBERT CAMPIN (Master of Flémalle), Mérode Altarpiece (open), The Annunciation (center panel), ca. 1425–1428. Oil on wood, center panel approx. 2’ 1” x 2’ 1”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (The Cloisters Collection, 1956). This is the earliest Annunciation in panel painting that takes place in a fully equipped domestic interior. It is also first to truly honor Joseph, the humble carpenter by showing him working next door.

7. Figure 20-5 JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432. Oil on wood, approx. 11’ 6" x 7’ 6".

8. Figure 20-6 JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (open), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432. Oil on wood, approx. 11’ 6" x 15’.

9. Figure 20-1 JAN VAN EYCK, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434. Oil on wood, approx. 2’ 8" x 1’ 11 1/2". National Gallery, London.

10. Figure 20-1 detail JAN VAN EYCK, detail of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434. The couple seems to be alone but behind them in the mirror is a reflection of two other people. One of them is presumably the bride’s father and the other must be the artist since the words above the frame say “Jan van Eyck was here…”

11. Figure 20-7 JAN VAN EYCK, Man in a Red Turban, 1433. Oil on wood, approx. 10 1/4" x 7 1/2". National Gallery, London.

12. Figure 20-8 ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Deposition, from Notre-Dame hors-les-murs, Louvain, Belgium, ca. 1435. Oil on wood, approx. 7’ 3" x 8’ 7". Museo del Prado, Madrid.

13. Figure 20-10 ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, Portrait of a Lady, ca. 1460. Oil on panel, 1’ 1 3/8" x 10 1/16". National Gallery, Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection).

14. Figure 20-11 PETRUS CHRISTUS, A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius, 1449. Oil on wood, approx. 3’ 3" x 2’ 10". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (the Robert Lehman Collection, 1975). Christus rose to prominence as Bruges' leading painter of the mid-fifteenth century, after the death of Jan van Eyck in 1441, and before Hans Memling arrived, around 1465.

15. Figure 20-12 DIRK BOUTS, Last Supper (central panel of the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament), Saint Peter’s, Louvain, Belgium, 1464–1468. Oil on wood, approx. 6’ x 5’. In Last Supper, Bouts presented Christ as a priest performing the consecration of the Eucharistic wafer.

16. Figure 20-13 HUGO VAN DER GOES, Portinari Altarpiece (open), from Sant’Egidio, Florence, Italy, ca. 1476. Tempera and oil on wood, 8’ 3 1/2" x 10’ (center panel), 8’ 3 1/2" x 4’ 7 1/2" (each wing). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. No paintings by Hugo are signed and this only securely documented work is his masterpiece made by Vasari in his Vite of 1550.

17. Figure 20-13 Left Panel Total © 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd. On this side of the panel, van der Goes has placed Tommaso, the manager of the Medici bank in Bruges, and his son Anthony and their patron saints behind them. The younger son, Pigello, was apparently added after the composition was set and has no patron saint.

18. Figure 20-13 Right Panel Total © 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd. On the right side, Maria (his wife) and her daughter Margherita are presented by Saints Mary Magdalen and Margaret.

19. Figure 20-14 Hans Memling, Virgin with Saints and Angels, center panel of the Saint John Altarpiece, Hospitaal Sint Jan, Bruges, Belgium, 1479. Oil on wood, approx. 5’ 7 3/4" x 5’ 7 3/4" (center panel), 5’ 7 3/4" x 2’ 7 1/8" (each wing).

20. Figure 20-16 LIMBOURG BROTHERS (POL, HENNEQUIN, HERMAN), October, from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413–1416. Ink on vellum, approx. 8 1/2” x 5 1/2”. Musée Condé, Chantilly. The Limbourg Brothers showed the laboring classes in a way that was acceptable to the aristocracy; happily working for their benefit.

21. Figure 20-17 JEAN FOUQUET, Melun Diptych. Étienne Chevalier and Saint Stephen, (left wing), ca. 1450. Oil on wood, 3’ 1/2” x 2’ 9 1/2”. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Virgin and Child, right wing of Melun Diptych, ca. 1451. Oil on wood, 3’ 1 1/4” x 2’ 9 1/2”. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium.

22. Figure 20-18 VEIT STOSS, The Death and Assumption of the Virgin (wings open), altar of the Virgin Mary, church of Saint Mary, Kraków, Poland, 1477–1489. Painted and gilded wood, 43’ x 35’.

23. Figure 20-19 TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER, The Assumption of the Virgin, center panel of the Creglingen Altarpiece, parish church, Creglingen, Germany, ca. 1495–1499. Carved lindenwood, 6’ 1" wide. An Ornate Spiritual Vision: In the center panel of the Creglingen Altarpiece , Tilman Riemenschneider carved intricate Gothic forms set in a restless design. The troubled facial expressions of the figures and their floating and flowing draperies create a sense of anxious spirituality.

24. Figure 20-20 KONRAD WITZ, Miraculous Draught of Fish, from the Altarpiece of Saint Peter, from Chapel of Notre-Dame des Maccabées in the Cathedral of Saint Peter, Geneva, Switzerland, 1444. Oil on wood, approx. 4’ 3” x 5’ 1”. Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva. The setting for this Biblical scene is a particular view of Lake Lehman near Geneva. The ease with which the topography can be identified suggests that the artist must have closely and carefully observed his subject from nature.

25. Figure 20-21 MICHEL WOLGEMUT and Shop, "Tarvisium," page from the so-called Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Printed by Anton Koberger. The Nuremberg Chronicle is an early example of a woodcut illustration in a printed book. The more than 650 pictures include detailed views of towns, but they are generic rather than specific portrayals.

26. Figure 20-22 MARTIN SCHONGAUER, Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons, ca. 1480–1490. Engraving, approx. 1’ 1" x 11". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Rogers Fund, 1920). Albrecht Durer had hoped to become a member of Schongauer’s workshop but arrived shortly after the older artist’s death, when he seems to have aquired some drawings from Schongauer’s family.