Origins of the Portrait
|
|
see also:
Jan van Eyck |
Jan van Eyck:
Tymotheos (Leal Souvenir)
|
|
|
It is perhaps no accident that Jan van Eyck's earliest surviving portrait
carries a date (10th October 1432), for temporality constitutes an important
aspect of this work in other ways too. Traces of the passage of time - in the
form of cracks, chipped-off or broken pieces of stone and "sgraffito"-like
scratchmarks - are visible on a relatively broad, trompe-l'oeil parapet which
serves as a repoussoir and suggests a frame, pushing the sitter back - though
not very far - from the picture-plane. Even hard, apparently permanent materials
do not last - what hope then for the human counterfeited here! An inscription,
not unlike an epitaph, and yet evidently referring to a living person, is
chiselled on the parapet: LEAL SOUVENIR, "loyal remembrance". The words
anticipate that rapid process of change which the sitter, portrayed here on a
certain day, will soon experience in his own life. The portrait resembles a
record of something which is subject to continual change, and which the painter,
or sitter, wishes to commit to memory, or preserve. It is as though images had
magical powers, as if appearances could replace reality, or, indeed,
be a substitute for life altogether. Yet all that remains is the
apparently authentic reproduction of a physical sensation on the
retina, in other words, the transmission of optical signs, of
perceptions of light, via colour and paint.
|
|
Jan van Eyck
"Leal Souvenir" ("Tymotheos")
1432
|
|
Jan van Eyck
"Leal Souvenir" ("Tymotheos")
detail
1432
It is not clear what kind of document the man is holding in his
hand. If the sitter was a musician, the scroll may be a piece of
music. One theory suggests the paper is the plan for a
sculpture.
|
The portrait is a three-quarters view of a man of about -
according to Erwin Panof sky - thirty years, turned slightly
to the left before an homogenously dark background. He
sports a fashionable green head-dress from which a scarf
hangs down onto his right shoulder. He is also wearing a red
coat with a thin fur collar. His left arm is folded behind
the parapet, his left hand obscured by his right, which is
holding a scroll of paper.
The identity of the sitter has been the subject of
considerable speculation. It would seem logical to expect
the strange name which someone appears to have lettered onto
the stone in Greek - TYMПOEOC (Tymotheos) -
to provide a clue. In fact, the name did not occur in the
Netherlands before the Reformation, a discovery which led
Panofsky to see it as a scholarly humanist metonym whose
purpose was to link the sitter with an eminent figure in
Classical antiquity. As far as Panofsky was concerned, there
was only one outstanding person of that name it could have
been: Tymotheos of Milet, who revolutionized Greek music
during the age of Euripides and Plato. It followed that van
Eyck's sitter could only have been a musician, one equally
renowned for his innovative contribution to the art. What
was more, there had indeed been a radical upheaval in early
fifteenth-century music, centred in Burgundy and known as
"ars nova". Its leading exponents were the courtly composers
Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois. Since Dufay was known
to have been abroad when the portrait was painted, the
sitter - according to Panofsky - can only have been
Binchois.
Wendy Wood's more recent, alternative explanation is based
on a similar argument. Rather than the musician mentioned
above, Wood traces the antique Tymotheos to a sculptor
celebrated for his bas-reliefs. Seeking an analogous
sculptor at the Burgundian court, she identifies "Tvmotheos"
as Gilles de Blachere.
|
|
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
see also:
Jan van Eyck |
Jan van Eyck:
The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
1434
National Gallery, London
|
|
|
This double portrait, dated 1434, is described in the inventories
of Margaret of Austria as a painting of "Hernoulle Fin", or "Arnoult
Fin", probably French corruptions of the Italian name Arnolfim.
Since this early explanation of his identity has never been called
into question, it is probably permissable to assume that the man
wearing the scapular-like, mink-trimmed coat and tall, broad-brimmed
hat is indeed the Italian merchant Arnolfini, who managed the
Lucchese company of Marco Guidecon at Bruges, where Jan van Eyck
lived and worked. Records show his wife was Jeanne (Giovanna) Cenami,
born in Pans and also of Italian extraction. She is consequently the
woman in the picture, wearing a heavy, green dress and extending her
hand to Arnolfini. Arnolfini has his hand raised in what appears to
be a gesture of blessing. He may be about to lay his hand upon the
open, outstretched palm of his young wife. Arnolfini faces the
spectator, although his gaze itself is averted; Giovanna Cenami's
eyes are meekly lowered. She is carrying the fur-lined train of her
dress bunched up in front of her. This has caused some critics to
see the swelling contours of her belly as a sign that the lady is
pregnant. However, this was no more than a ritual gesture,
consistent with contemporary conventional attitudes towards the
family and marriage and intended to symbolise fertility, for the
double portrait was painted on the occasion of the couple's
marriage. The painting is a visual record of the event; indeed it
even acts as a wedding certificate, since it documents the artist's
attendance and consequent witness of the ceremony in the inscription
on the far wall ("Johannes de Eyck fuit hic"). Along with a second
witness, van Eyck is reflected in a convex mirror on the same wall.
The mirror enlarges the room and is framed by ten painted scenes
from the Passion. It was still customary in the fifteenth century
for bride and bridegroom to promise marriage without the presence of
a priest. The "dextrarum junctio" -joining of right hands - and the
bridegroom's pledge were considered legally binding.
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
(detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
(detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The use of the inscription illustrates a growing tendency to
document legal transactions in writing, a development which
accompanied the adoption of Roman Law. The inscription should
therefore not be understood as functioning here simply as a
signature. It had a real testimonial force, as in the signing of a
official register.
Van Eyck depicts this early bourgeois interior with its wooden floor
as a thalamus, or inner, nuptial chamber, adding, by his faithful
rendering of objects in the room, a number of hidden meanings, a
theological and moral commentary on the event taking place. Thus the
everyday convex mirror is a "speculum sine macula" (an immaculate
mirror), signifying the purity of the Virgin and the virgin purity
of the bride, who, according to contemporary tracts on marriage,
would be expected to remain "chaste" as a married woman. In the
foreground, the dogalways a symbol of devotion - stands for conjugal
fidelity. The red alcove to the right, an allusion to the Song of
Solomon, symbolises the bridal chamber. The cork clogs on the left,
evidently removed by the bridegroom and casually left lying on the
floor, are a reference to the Book of Exodus ("Put off thy shoes
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground", Exodus 3, 5). The burning candle in the chandelier, a
wedding candle, cites traditional Annunciation iconography. It
underlines the Mariological character of the painting. Addressed
specifically to women, Mariolatry was a constitutive factor in
fifteenth-century conjugal mores. The apples lying on the
window-sill are an allusion to the Fall and a warning against sinful
behaviour. The switch hung from the wooden paneling is an
etymological pun on the Latin words "virga/virgo", and serves to
emphasise the motif of virgin purity. Its counterpart in folklore
was the "rod of life", a symbol of fertility, strength and health,
with which the bridegroom was ritually beaten in order to ensure the
couple was blessed with a large number of children.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
(detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
Together with a second witness, van Eyck is reflected in a convex
mirror on the wall. The reflection creates the illusion that the
room extends to a point behind the spectator.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
(detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
It was customary in the fifteenth century for bride and bridegroom
to promise marriage without the presence of a priest. The joining of
hands and the bridegroom's oath were legally binding.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
The burning candle in the chandelier is a traditional motif in
Annunciation iconography.
|
 Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (detail)
1434
National Gallery, London |
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
(detail)
1434
National Gallery, London
|
|
|
The dog, a symbol of devotion since time immemorial, stands for conjugal
fidelity,
while the apples on the window-sill are an allusion to the Fall and a
warning against sin.
|
|
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
see also:
Jan van Eyck |
Jan van Eyck:
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris
|
|
|
The painting shows Chancellor Nicolas Rolin (1376?—1462), born at
Autun into bourgeois circumstances, who, entrusted with setting up
an early absolutist system of state administration under Philip the
Good, had attained the high rank of a Notable. Van Eyck - who had
entered the Duke's service as "varlet de chambre" (valet) in 1425,
which in fact meant he was court painter — has portrayed him attired
in an opulent, brownish, mink-trimmed brocade coat with a raised
pomegranate pattern in gold thread. Rolin is viewed from the side,
though not in full profile, kneeling at a cushioned table spread
with a turquoise cover. His eyes are directed towards the Virgin
sitting opposite him with the naked Child on her lap, while the
Child is in the act of blessing Rolin. This arrangement is unusual.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris
On becoming Chancellor, Nicolas Rolin (1376?—1462), a lawyer from Autun,
had risen to the highest public office at the Burgundian court. Rolin
was elevated to the nobility by the Duke. The "noblesse de robe" to
which Rolin belonged distinguished itself from military knighthood in
that its members were lawyers, scholars and civil servants.
|
|
|
In his Virgin with Canon van der Paele, van Eyck painted a
majestic Virgin, enthroned in full-face view, presenting her as the
virtual object of his adoration. Here, however, the side view
objectifies the Virgin so that the spectator acts as the witness of
her meeting with the Chancellor. Van Eyck has minutely recorded the
signs of aging in Rolin's face. The folds and wrinkles are no less
precisely rendered than the arteries at Rolin's shaved temples,
however. Van Eyck, although he was not — despite Vasari's later
claim - the actual inventor of oil-painting, brought a previously
unparallelled mastery to this new art, revealing, by means of
repeated glazing, the throbbing life beneath Rolin's skin. Van Eyck
does not present the face as a vehicle for the expression of
feelings, but records the quiddity of each object: a visual
nominalism, with precise syllabic counterparts for every "thing"
that met his gaze. However, his radical empiricism did not preclude
use of the kind of allegory found in late scholastic biblical
exegesis.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris
|
 Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
 Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On the contrary, almost every detail of the painting contains a
spiritual allusion. This is borne out by the triple-arched loggia
through which the interior gives onto a crenellated
courtyard-garden. Reliefs decorating architectural features on the
right of the loggia show scenes from the Old Testament: the
expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel and Noah's drunkenness. The
scene on the capital at the right depicts the justice of Trajan.
These motifs, in other words, refer to the Fall, and to a paragon of
virtue. The enclosed garden with its blossoms - roses, irises and
lilies traditionally symbolised the Virgin - alludes to the "garden
enclosed" (hortus conclusus) in Song of Solomon (4, 12), equated
metaphorically in medieval exegesis with the Virgin Mary. The
peacocks suggest Paradise. Two men, one of whom seems to be gazing
into the receding landscape, are shown looking over the parapet. The
one on the right is wearing a red, scarfed headdress, presumably
similar to that worn by van Eyck himself - a hypothesis prompted by
van Eyck's Man in a Red Turban (London), thought to be a
self-portrait, and by the metallic reflection on St. George's armour
in his Paele-panel. Although the landscape is realistic in the
Chancellor Rolin painting, it is not, in fact, an authentic scene.
Instead, van Eyck has used various sketches to construct an ideal
"panoramic landscape" with an alpine massif disappearing into the
distant, atmospheric blue.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
Man in a Red Turban
1433
National Gallery, London
|
|
|
Emil Kieser has shown convincingly that the bridge over the river,
on which a tiny cross may be made out, should be seen
in connection with the murder of Philip the Good's father, John the
Fearless, on the bridge at Montereau on 10 Sept. 1419. The Treaty of
Arras, concluded by Rolin on 21 Sept. 1435, contained a decree to
the effect that a cross in memory of the assassination be erected on
the bridge. The years between the murder and the recently concluded
Treaty can be read in the number of floor-tiles between the arcade
and the picture-plane.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris
A bridge can be seen in the middle distance of a landscape extending to
an Alpine skyline. Van Eyck probably wished to refer to some historical
event. John the Fearless was murdered on the bridge at Montereau in
1419.
|
|
|
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail)
1435
Musee du Louvre, Paris
The terraced garden with its roses, irises and lilies, symbols of the
Virgin,
is an allusion to a passage in Song of Solomon:
"A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed"
(4, 12).
|
|
 |
