In today’s class, we finished the 14th century by finishing off the well of Moses. We wrapped up the sculpture by talking about its importance and illusionistic theme. That form of sculpting was an important part of the North in the 14th and 15th centuries. After the Well of Moses, we moved to disguised symbolism, which was used prominently during the time. A known great artist Jan Van Eyck created “The Arnolfini Portrait” which we dissected and pointed out all of the symbols to understand the painting. We inspected the small details like the shoes, the setting, the fruits, the dog, and other small details. We were able to convey that the portrait was of a wedding that was a holy scene that was not witnessed by all but a priest and one other person. We then shift to Rogier Van Der Weyden a prodigy of Van Eyck who created “ St. Luke Drawing the Virgin ”. We discussed the modern tech being used by St. Luke in the portrait that was held in a contemporary Nothern Europe. After dissecting the piece of art we then moved to Conrad Witz’s commission of “ The Miraculous Draught of Fishes ” which we also inspected for disguised symbols. We then wrapped up the lecture with printmaking.
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