The first thing that we did in this class we finish our discussion on Petrus Christus’ Exeter Madonna. This artwork also implemented eyeballed perspective meaning that the perspective lines did not line up completely and only appear to. This was a less rigorous way of doing perspective that contrasted the precise way Italians used. Northerners like Petrus Christus also often used rising perspective in their paintings. Rising perspective is a construction that allows more details to be shown. This was unique to the Northerners where detail was considered crucial compared to the Italians that placed more emphasis on the big picture. The Exeter Madonna painting also gave us an example of aerial (or atmospheric) perspective. This perspective showed how air or atmosphere changes how things look when further away because you cant see something objects as well because of the bits of suspended water in between you and the further away object.

We also discussed a lot about disguised symbolism which is when objects are symbols but also are at home where they are. With this topic in mind, we looked at Robert Campin’s Merode Triptych which depicted a completely domestic image. This triptych also featured a rising perspective to show everything on the table tops. Campin also makes a conscientious decision not to include halos in order to make the Saints feel more like regular people. One of the disguised symbols present in this artwork was the open door. This door was meant to show that the annunciation was the beginning of the process that would unlock the gate of heaven. Another symbol was the vase on the table that is decorated with what looks like Hebrew letters. This was a reference to the Old Testament. Another reference to the old testament is the book that is placed over the scroll. This showed that the book, the more recent version, is taking over what was used in the past, scrolls. White lilies in the annunciation were also representative of Mary. In this one particular, two are bloomed and one has not yet. The unopened bloom is for Jesus who had not been born yet. This is not all there is and there are in fact many more symbols in this painting however what ties them all together and makes them disguised symbolism is the fact that the objects do not look out of place.