In this class, we first encountered the concept of “aerial perspective”. This refers to the fact that when seeing something afar we cannot see them as well as if they are close, not because they are smaller when being afar (which is instead attributed to linear perspective), but because of the water in the atmosphere. Some examples of aerial perspective are the blurring of the outline/edges, loss of details (not that sharp) and color saturation, etc. We also discussed how the combination of rising perspective and the emergence of oil paintings allows northern artists to include a large amount of details in their artworks.
Then we moved to the idea of “disguised symbolism”, which means some domestic objects in a painting have symbolic meanings. Robert Campin’s Mérode Triptych provides us with many examples. Three lilies are a symbol of Mary’s virginity, and the number three represents Trinity. Two of them being bloomed refers to God Father and Holy Spirit respectively, while one being still a bud refers to the unburned Christ Jesus. What stood out to me is the candle and its metaphor for Christ (wax for his human nature, wick for his soul, and frame for his divinity). The three different explanations are so interesting! It can refer to the transform of the old testament to the new testament, the birth of the child of Jesus being so bright for our world, and the marital tradition. The mousetrap that Joseph is making also stood out to me, as it is a metaphor for the deception–the devil would be fooled by the imperfect, seemingly fully human-natured child of Jesus.