Fifteenth-century Flemish Research Articles

Honour, Harmony and the King of Outspokenness. The Use of Stage Plays and Festive Culture in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Coastal Communities

ABSTRACT The history of fifteenth-century theatre in the Low Countries has long been studied primarily as the history of culture, literature and theatre. It has now attracted the attention of social historians and anthropologists and is being studied as an urban history of corporations, fraternities and chambers of rhetoric. That creative and art-loving activities in the Low Countries also frequently occurred in the fifteenth-century coastal communities, which largely comprised fishermen and sailors,, usually escapes the attention of historians. I argue these communities integrated drama into a survival strategy motivated by the spatial, economic and sociocultural context in which they were living.

The Mystery of Systems by Carl Rosenstock, and: The Blue Canoe of Longing by Margot Farrington

Reviewed by: The Mystery of Systems by Carl Rosenstock, and: The Blue Canoe of Longing by Margot Farrington Stephanie Rauschenbusch (bio) the mystery of systems Carl Rosenstock CW Books https://readcwbooks.com/rosenstock.html 102 Pages, $19.00 the blue canoe of longing Margot Farrington Dos Madres Press https://www.dosmadres.com/shop/the-blue-canoe-of-longing-by-margot-farrington/ 100 Pages, $17.00 In Carl Rosenstock's book of poems, The Mystery of Systems, the second half of the book consists of a faux scholarly essay on three invented Russian poets [End Page 128] in exile in Paris after the Russian Revolution. This section is entitled "Translations from the Russian" and should be seen as an inwardly consistent, brilliant, bravura fiction or short story, along the lines of Nabokov's ventriloquistic novels. When I first read it, I almost believed it, so accurate is the professorial tone, the biographer's fussy notations, and the fake poems themselves with titles like "The Alphabet of Winter" and "Blue Wine Mixed with Sorrow." Anyone who has read the poems of Anna Akhmatova would recognize their period and style—Symbolist, imagistic, ironic and full of romantic angst. "The Alphabet of Winter" This night, the windA shallow breath, movesUp the side streets, alongThe boulevard. Winter Provides such definition,The cold forcing me to thinkOnly of the way once the blackSky cut off the snowfields Somewhere long ago. I tear upYour letters from there. It snowsA few days later. I look underneathThe hard snow for shreds that Ask over and over again—do youThink you will ever leave thisPlace you've fled to. The questionCuts through like a wire. The stars locked in thisClarity, even as the colorOf my breathing. It isNo longer easy to forget. Several lines in the first stanza make an oblique reference to a painting by the French Symbolist, Marcel Radoter (1832–1905). The title of that painting, Le [End Page 129] Royaume D'Hiver, refers, in turn, to a work by the fifteenth century Flemish master, Rogier van der Garten. In fact, parts of the second and third stanzas can be construed as references to this latter painting. Lazarev characterized this device of referring to a work that referred to an earlier work as "second generation allusion." In a letter to Izmena, he explained, "the insinuation into the poem of such works-within-works not only enhances the patina, but heightens its emotional validity." This poem is purportedly written by N. N. Lazarev, the first poet to be introduced. The essay on Lazarev ("someone who doesn't exist") begins with a photograph of a group of badly dressed Russian poets in front of a Paris café. The "biographer" or "critic" describing this photo writes, "If I am correct, it is the only known photograph of Lazarev." In the photo, Lazarev makes himself as invisible as possible "so that he might be glanced at and forgotten as one's eye moved across the group. His gaze, averting the camera's lens, is down and to his left, toward the center of the group, drawing the viewer's attention there as well. How perfect they seem, posed as their lives were turning to words." It turns out that the self-described biographer has discovered notebooks recovered after World War Two in which Lazarev's poems, published and unpublished, appear. A biographical sketch of Lazarev follows. Born outside Odessa in 1883, the son of a village schoolmaster, he graduates from university in Moscow and leaves Russia in 1920 to make his living as a "freelance journalist" and writer of "forgettable feuilletons." In 1932 in Paris, he is said to have started writing poems inflected by his affair with a second Russian poet, Nadja Izmena. His style hovers between "Symbolism, Rayonism and Maximalism." Of these movements, Maximalism is fictitious, attributed to "its founder Maxim Trigoriev" (poet #3). Trigoriev seems to be a sort of Mayakovsky whose style, full of ellipses, is partly explained by his inability to use the Russian verb for "to be" in the present tense. More about Lazarev in the biographical notes: "In the photograph, Lazarev...

Squeezing, Squirting, Spilling Milk: The Lactation of Saint Bernard and the FlemishMadonna Lactans(ca. 1430–1530)

AbstractThe focus on three drops of milk issuing from the Virgin’s breast in “The Virgin in Front of a Fire Screen” was inspired by contemporary representations of the Lactation of Saint Bernard. This latter iconography provides the visual context for the vivid address of eroticized depictions of the Madonna’s “one bare breast” in Flemish art and shows the intricate connections between visuality and materiality in fifteenth-century Flemish religious art. Some depictions of Saint Bernard’s lactation transform the Madonna’s jets of milk into rays of light aiming for his eyes, stressing the interchangeability of materiality and visuality as modes that were expected to facilitate and/or authenticate miraculous appearances of the Madonna.

The Invisible Presence: Cut-In, Close-Up, and Off-Scene in Antonello da Messina's Palermo Annunciate

Antonello da Messina's Palermo Annunciate (c. 1475) is usually construed as the equivalent of an icon. Relying on the iconography of the fifteenth-century Flemish Annunciation, Lorenzo Pericolo demonstrates that Antonello's panel must rather be interpreted as a "truncated" narrative in the form of an icon. From this premise, Pericolo also unveils the experimental charge of some pictorial devices used by Antonello, such as close-up, cut-in, and off-scene.

Mimetic muscles and emotions: Hans Memling's fifteenth century masterpiece, "Last judgment," as a study for aesthetic surgery.

As the most recognizable part of the body, the face has always interested, not only artists, but doctors as well. Each has had their own perception of facial beauty. The task for plastic and aesthetic surgery regarding the face is to reconstruct, not only traumatic lesions, but also to prevent the effects of facial tissue aging. It is also important to preserve the aesthetic values of the face in different emotional conditions. Those conditions are partially represented by mimetic or facial muscles. One might suggest that the perception of human beings portrayed by the artists could be very helpful in the realm of plastic and aesthetic surgery. Take, for example, Hans Memling, a fifteenth century Flemish artist whose masterpiece "Last Judgment" is exhibited at Gdańsk National Museum in Poland. The fortunate individuals on the left side of the painting are queuing at heaven's gate to receive their reward. Their faces are smooth with smiles, displaying blessings and happiness. The right-hand side of the painting exemplifies the expression of fear and the drama of the situation. These sinners have been damned and sentenced to hell by evil creatures. The fear, pain, and tragedy of condemnation fill their faces. For plastic and cosmetic surgeons, studying the works of great artists has not been as valuable as using the emotionless and intangible figures of an anatomy book. Undoubtedly, the only useful paintings and sculptures are those that are full of expression with the face displaying a plethora of emotions. In all surgical approaches where mimetic muscles are concerned, one has to remember and be conscious of the fact that the face is a very significant part of our body.

Looking and Not Seeing

Looking and Not Seeing

The Sign of the Rose: A Fifteenth-Century Flemish Passion Scene

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Sign of the Rose: A Fifteenth-Century Flemish Passion SceneHans J. Van MiegroetHans J. Van Miegroet Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Metropolitan Museum Journal Volume 271992 Sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1512936 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1992 The Metropolitan Museum of ArtPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Andrea G. Pearson Gendered Subject, Gendered Spectator: Mary Magdalen in the Gaze of Margaret of York, Gesta 44, no.11 (Oct 2015): 47–66.https://doi.org/10.2307/25067111

Petrus Christus: his place in fifteenth-century Flemish painting

Petrus Christus: his place in fifteenth-century Flemish painting

The Recovery of a Fifteenth-Century Flemish Book of Hours (University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, HRC 2)

The Recovery of a Fifteenth-Century Flemish Book of Hours (University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, HRC 2)

The Hastings Hours. A Fifteenth-Century Flemish Book of Hours made for William, Lord Hastings, now in the British Library, London. Preface and commentary by D. H. Turner. 18.5 × 12.5 cm. Pp. 159, 78 col. pls. London: Thames and Hudson, 1983. £25.00.

The Hastings Hours. A Fifteenth-Century Flemish Book of Hours made for William, Lord Hastings, now in the British Library, London. Preface and commentary by D. H. Turner. 18.5 × 12.5 cm. Pp. 159, 78 col. pls. London: Thames and Hudson, 1983. £25.00. - Volume 64 Issue 2

The Iconography of the Friedsam Annunciation

The Friedsam Annunciation is one of its museum's most important and at the same time most debated examples of fifteenth-century Flemish painting (Fig. 1).1 The major point of contention among scholars is the attribution: Hubert and Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus are the leading contenders.2 The complex iconography of the work is, however, also important. The setting for the Annunciation is the portal of a church in a small, partly enclosed garden. The Annunciate stands in the doorway, the open doors behind her revealing part of the church's dimly lit interior. On a bench to her right is a vase of lilies partly concealed by the stone molding of the outer jamb. The floor on which she stands is covered with multicolored tiles decorated for the most part with geometric and floral patterns. The tile to the far left of the third row back, however, bears the letter “A,” and its counterpart on the right, only half visible, bears an “M.” The outer step of the building is also decorated with lettered tiles which ...

The Iconography of the FriedsamAnnunciation

The Friedsam Annunciation is one of its museum's most important and at the same time most debated examples of fifteenth-century Flemish painting (Fig. 1).1 The major point of contention among scholars is the attribution: Hubert and Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus are the leading contenders.2 The complex iconography of the work is, however, also important. The setting for the Annunciation is the portal of a church in a small, partly enclosed garden. The Annunciate stands in the doorway, the open doors behind her revealing part of the church's dimly lit interior. On a bench to her right is a vase of lilies partly concealed by the stone molding of the outer jamb. The floor on which she stands is covered with multicolored tiles decorated for the most part with geometric and floral patterns. The tile to the far left of the third row back, however, bears the letter “A,” and its counterpart on the right, only half visible, bears an “M.” The outer step of the building is also decorated with lettered tiles which form the phrase “REGINA CELI LET[ARE]” (Queen of Heaven, Rejoice). The angel stands outside the church to the left of the doorway.3

The Missals of Felix V and Early Savoyard Illumination

The casual suggestion by an anonymous book reviewer1 in 1895 that a study of the library of the House of Savoy might well repay the effort has never been fully heeded. Two manuscripts once part of that library,2 the Heures de Turin and the Très Riches Heures, have since become fundamental in histories of fifteenth century Flemish and French art, but the very importance of these superb manuscripts may have hindered further investigation of the Savoyard collection. Only two manuscripts bearing Savoyard arms have attracted any serious critical attention: the so-called Escorial Apocalypse of 1428, to which we shall return, and a book of hours made for Duke Louis of Savoy ca. 1450.3 In 1955 the latter served as the focus for a group of five manuscripts,4 the catalogue of which was notable for the use of the term “Savoyard” in a regional rather than a family sense. Some of the manuscripts associated with the Hours of Duke Louis, like the sumptuous Hours of Saluzzo,5 were certainly made for people close to, but not members of, the House of Savoy, and the stylistic cohesion within this group constitutes evidence of an interesting indigenous school. The 1955 catalogue, however, although a useful preliminary guide to illumination in Savoy during the second half of the fifteenth century, suggests that no Savoyard art datable between the Apocalypse and the book of hours has survived. Yet as early as 1910 Toesca6 had remarked (without amplifying) that there were points in common among the Apocalypse, the Hours of Duke Louis, the Hours of Saluzzo, and two Roman missals that once belonged to the Savoyard antipope Felix V and are now both in Turin, one in the Biblioteca Reale7 (hereafter called the “Royal Missal”), and the other in the Archives of State8 (hereafter the “Archives Missal”). These two missals, long neglected, prove to be works that, by enlarging our knowledge of the artistic activity in Savoy between 1430 and 1445, indicate the library of the House of Savoy may still be profitably studied.

Reflections in Armor in the Canon Van De Paele Madonna

That painters of fifteenth and sixteenth century Flanders were aware of the aesthetic possibilities of the polished surfaces to be found in armor one sees in the delight taken in the portrayal of reflections, reflections which underlined the dual nature, the microcosm and macrocosm of the world in fifteenth century Flemish eyes. Recall for a moment the salade of an archer with the skyline of a town reflected on its bowl appearing in the Judgment of Cambyses by Gerard David in the Municipal Museum of Fine Art in Bruges or the breastplate of an infidel reflecting martyred and martyrers alike in Hans Memling's Martyrdom of St. Ursula on the reliquary chasse of that saint in the Hospital of St. John in Bruges.