The idea of perspective was further explored through Petrus Christus’ Exeter Madonna and Campin’s Merode Triptych in this class. As we saw previously, Northern artists favored the inclusion of greater detail over following strict rules. This led to the use of rising perspective and tilt as we saw last class. They also utilized aerial perspective, which aims to recreate the way objects look from far away. This includes blurring and less detail, hue shift, and increased saturation coupled with a loss of contrast. The use of aerial perspective enabled artists to accurately represent distance. It was interesting how Christus utilized it to enhance the realistic appearance of the city visible through the arches of the scene. Campin’s triptych provides an excellent example of disguised symbolism through everyday objects. Theological symbols such as the book and scroll, candle, and mousetrap remind the viewer that although the surroundings of the annunciation scene are extremely secular, the figures represent a key message they should recognize and remember. I found this a fascinating way to impart scenes with underlying messages while on the surface appearing strictly secular or earthly.

In this class discussion, we talked about the differences between Northern and Italian Renaissance artists’ focuses in their art, additionally examining the disguised symbolism in the Mérode Triptych to explore the work and styles of Northern artists. In summary, we discussed how while Italian Renaissance artists were more focused on capturing scenes and the general world and scene as a whole, artists to the north were more concerned with the specific details of the scene, thus choosing to use eye-balled, rising perspective, aerial perspective, and oil paints to further achieve this goal of specific details. Using Exeter Madonna as an example, we talked about the rules of aerial perspective: as things get further away, outlines and details get blurrier, colors shift towards blue, and saturation and value contrast lessen. These are all due to the water molecules in the atmosphere. Furthermore, in our discussion of the Mérode Triptych, we defined disguised symbolism as symbolism that would not necessarily be understood with prior education on the subject. The painting, which would have been housed in a domestic setting, depicts Mary, Joseph, the patrons, and the angel Gabriel in a similar contemporary domestic house that it would have been displayed in.

During class we honed in on the idea of the horizon line, vanishing point and the way the Italians use the rules of perspective in their paintings. Specifically, in Exeter Madonna we observe an aerial view with the horizon line being distant and foggy. It includes the blurring of details the farther away things are from the perspective location and the alteration of the hue to being more blue.

We also discussed disguised symbolism which is when symbolistic objects are intentionally painted in the natural environment they belong in. In the Merode Triptych there are many examples of disguised symbolism. The towel is drawn to look like a tallit, the white lilies represent the Holy Trinity and there are two in bloom signifying Jesus yet to be born as human. The candle represents Christ’s human nature, soul and divinity and many speculate it is extinguished because he is giving up his divinity for the time being to be on Earth as a human. It also included the tiny man riding the cross on a ray of light through the window, going in the direction of Mary’s womb, referring to her virginity and the conception of Christ.

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.

In Tuesday’s class, we discussed the details of Robert Campin’s Mérode Triptych at great length. The painting is filled with tiny details that carry significant meaning for the depiction of the annunciation, the timing of the annunciation in relation to the story told by the Bible, and the architecture and fashions of the time in which it was painted. The jug on the table in the middle of the central panel carries lots of meaning—it looks just like the ones used by priests to wash their hands before saying the mass; it bears letters that look like Hebrew; and it holds three white lilies (which are a popular symbol for representing the purity of the Virgin), two of which have bloomed, and one of which is still a bud (the bloomed flowers representing the Father and the Holy Spirit and the bud representing Christ, who has yet to be born in his human form). The candle next to the jug on the table could also carry many different meanings, and our discussion of these possibilities was really thought-provoking for me. We talked about how the extinguished candle could be a metaphor for Christ (the wax as his human nature, the wick as his soul, and the flame as his divinity with the flame being temporarily extinguished because he is temporarily giving up his divinity to become man), it could represent the ending of one religious order and the beginning of a new one, it could represent the brightness of baby Jesus outshining all other light in the world, and it could represent the marital tradition of leaving a candle burning until the marriage has been consummated. I really enjoyed today’s class and look forward to exploring the intricate details of many more paintings like this one.

In today’s class we picked up a where was left off in a conversation on perspective. Not being present in the class where the topic was first introduced, I found it really interesting the points that were made about the significance of vantage point and the different uses from both the Northern and Italian Renaissances. The Italians, which spearheaded the operation, were very meticulous in keeping to rules of perspective while the Northern artists were a bit more lax. This was also connected to the fact that of detail oriented-ness for the Northern artists while the Italians remained more “big picture” in many more of their works. We took a look at the Exeter Madonna painted by Petrus Christus to point out some of those trends. We also spent some time introducing portraiture and some common trends back when they first started coming on the scene.

Our conversation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper was extremely interesting and the depth behind the work was incredible. I especially appreciated the part about numerology in which we compared the importance of the numbers 4, 3, 7, and 12 and their relevance to things we talked about earlier in the course including the trinity, gospels, cardinal virtues, timelessness, the virgin, months and years, and the seasons. Additionally, our conversation of The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors, especially with the inclusion of the message “I once was, what you are, and what I am, you will be” from the skeleton on the wall.

In class on Thursday, we analyzed Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The tempera wall mural is not in the best condition due to the chosen medium and poor conservation. However, the condition doesn’t undermine all the symbolism and technique Leonardo used in this work of art. Leonardo adds depth to this work by employing one-point perspective in his work where the different structures in the mural lead to a singular vanishing point that is conveniently placed by Jesus Christ’s head. This can be seen with the table and the four panels on each side of the walls — all the lines are orthogonal that lead to the vanishing point. The emergence of this vanishing point allows for paintings to be painted in a more naturalistic manner because it replicates what and how people actually see.

Additionally, I found it really convenient how artists were able to portray the religious aspect of the painting without the overuse of gold/gilded backgrounds and unrealistic halos around the heads of religious figures through symbolism. By using numbers such as 3 and 4 that represent Holy Trinity, theological virtues and the gospels, cardinal virtues respectively, artists such as Leonardo are able to emphasize the religiousness of the painting in a more natural manner.

In this class we explored Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It was fascinating to see how Leonardos intellect and curiosity for math heavily influenced this fresco. First off, Prof. Plesch pointed out the very geometric way of the fresco. There are four panels on the walls, and three in the back. This is connected to the four groups of three apostles seen in this scene. The summation of 3 and 4 is twelve, which can be connected to the number of apostles, the hours in the AM and PM, or the months of the year. It is also interesting that Leonardo decided to choose the moment of the scene where Jesus tells them that one of them will betray him. This adds a serious sense of movement to the fresco.

In this class we discussed the suggestion of depth through the use of perspective. Leonardo’s Last Supper provides a great example of the technique, with the vanishing point drawing focus to Christ and the room symbolically suggesting theological concepts. This includes the use of the largest window to invoke a halo behind Christ. I found it interesting how Leonardo utilized numbers within the structure of the “fresco” to invoke such themes. The four groupings of three apostles, coupled with four panels on each side wall and three openings at the back of the room, invoke the Trinity, theological virtues, the gospels, and the cardinal virtues. Taken together, they represent the seven sorrows of the virgin, vices, and virtues, and the 12 apostles, months, and hours of the day. The principles Leonardo used are detailed in Alberti’s On Painting, which served as a comprehensive set of instructions for any painter. I also found it interesting that the usage of perspective greatly differed between Italian and Northern artists, with Northerners using rising perspective and tilt to show more detail while Italians followed stricter rules.