Portrait styles and artistic approaches to portraiture across artists

Northern Renaissance Portraiture

Contrast the portrait styles and how does each artist address the concept of portraiture.

Portraiture in Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Jean Fouquet

The Northern Renaissance, like the Italian Renaissance, was an age of great artistic development. However, there were considerable differences between the Northern and Italian styles in terms of the quality of portraiture. "The Italians used perspective to 'keep the beholder at a respectful distance' while the Northern artists aimed at 'admitting him to the closest intimacy'" (Held 1955: 207). The Italianate style was idealistic and highly influenced by the classics, the Northern style was more realistic. "Similarly, light as conceived by the Italians is 'quantitative and isolating' while with the transalpine painters it is 'qualitative and connective'" (Held 1955: 207). The aim of this greater connection is manifested in the desire to invest the ordinary world with symbolic intensity, as manifested in the portraiture of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, while the Northern Renaissance painter Jean Fouquet adopted the Italian attitude into his style. Van Eyck and to a lesser extent Van der Weyden use symbolism as a way of conveying to the viewer truths about the condition of humanity, and encourage gazers to 'read' their paintings, much as one might 'read' a text. This paper will examine the significance of symbolism in these artists' works (or lack thereof). Van Eyck and Van der Weyden urge the reader to 'read' the painting and the world from a Christian perspective, while Fouquet is more concerned with presenting an idealized rendering of humanity.

Much has been written of Jan van Eyck's use of symbolism, particularly in his most famous work, the Arnofini Marriage Portrait. "Because of the close relationship of structure and concept, God's plan of salvation appears to be woven into the very fabric of reality and to become visible in the transcendent state of meditation, at times with the force of sudden revelation," such as the nature of marriage in the symbolism of the dog, the carved gargoyle in the background, the mirror, and the clothing of the bride which is draped to suggest pregnancy in a manner common to how the Virgin was depicted in many contemporary works of art (Ward 1994: 45). Sacredness is thus manifest in the very human institution of marriage.

Van Eck used material symbols to flesh out the meaning of his works: for example, in his portrait The Virgin with Canon van der Paele, the holy man apprehends the Virgin holding the infant Christ either as he meditates or has a vision. Christ gives a nosegay of flowers to the Virgin: "the red symbolizing Christ's love, shown in the shedding of his blood, the white his purity and the dark his humility" and holds a parrot (Ward 1994: 24). Parrots were not a symbol usually associated with Christ, but the inclusion of the bird seems to be a referent to the commonly-held notion at the time that parrots said ave as a greeting. The bird and Christ's giving of the flowers to the Virgin "depicts the undoing of Man's Original Sin by Christ's willing sacrifice," which is reinforced by carved images of Adam and Eve in the background (Ward 1994: 25). Portraiture is thus connected to a larger spiritual truth in Van Eck's work, and the ordinary world is depicted as intimately connected with the spiritual world. Even the Virgin and Christ are depicted in a realistic fashion

Rogier van der Weyder, another great Northern master of the portrait, likewise used symbolism in an instructive fashion for the reader, as manifest in works such as his Madonna in Red. In the painting, the infant Christ clearly pages backward to the beginning of a Bible, indicating how his coming is the fulfillment of the prophesy of the coming of the Messiah in the Old Testament. "So specific are the Child's efforts, in fact, that he should be seen not only to be paging through the book, but to be doing so backward, toward its beginning. Once this is recognized as deliberate and unusual, it becomes clear that the entire composition is devised to urge attention toward it" (Acres 2000: 77). The use of symbolism is more subtle than in Van Eck's work and more naturalistic -- instead of the ostentatious clutching of material objects; the gesture of paging backwards in the book has a natural and unforced quality. Van der Weyder's later works, such as his Last Judgment Altarpiece, are almost totally stripped bare of conventional symbolism used to signify hell and judgment. When symbolism is apparent, it is of a more private and interior nature, as manifested in St. Luke Painting the Virgin. Although St. Luke was ostensibly the patron saint of artists, this depiction of the saint creating a small miniature work, as if for himself, versus a tapestry stuffed with symbols like Van Eck, manifests Van der Weyder's tendency to focus on only a few symbols rather create the many layered, almost 'footnoted' and annotated painted, instructive text of Van Eck. Van Eck's work demands careful and meticulous study while Van der Weyder is more concerned upon creating an immediate impression and using the symbolism for dramatic effect and intensity.