Kult und Kunst – Kopie und Original

Some princely collectors in the early modern period established an unusual way of dealing with sacred pictures: they had altarpieces replaced by copies, which remained in the church room while the originals passed into courtly possession. How did these substitutions come about, and why were the sacred institutions content with the copies? Did the function of the originals change with the shift of location? And what role did the copies play? Antonia Putzger explores these questions on the basis of altarpieces by Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer. With a view to various concepts of originality that formed in the 16th and 17th centuries, she investigates whether the changed contexts of presentation also indicate a change in the religious and aesthetic reception of those works. The supposed opposition of cult and art is thus productively questioned.

IMAGEM ELOQUENTE: A LINGUAGEM VISUAL RELIGIOSA DO ALTAR DOS SETE SACRAMENTOS (1445/1450) DE ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN

Esse artigo explora a linguagem visual da pintura “Altar dos sete sacramentos” (1445/1450) de Rogier van der Weyden e sua articulação da teologia sacramental na transição da época medieval tardia à Renascença. Em sua organização acompanha o artigo as características composicionais do tríptico como seus principais motivos e sua interpretação inspira-se em aspectos dos métodos interpretativos de Heinrich Wölfflin e Erwin Panofsky.

Juana of Castile’s Book of Hours: An Archduchess at Prayer

This article examines one of Juana of Castile’s books of hours (London, BL Add. MS 18852) comparing it with those written for members of Juana’s family and seeking to discern how it was used, in order to reassess her peers’ evaluation of her spiritual affinities. It considers how Juana customized her book of hours with a miniature of the Virgin and Child, comparing it with a gifted panel painted by Rogier van der Weyden that Juana treasured to show how she placed herself under the protection of the Virgin. Numbered precepts would be intended for her to instruct any future children and are replicated in Isabel, her daughter’s, book. The office of the Guardian Angel is compared with similar ones in Spain and Burgundy and, like devotion to St Veronica, such prayer is another means of protection. The striking mirror of conscience with its reflected skull, like other similar objects decorated with a skull that Juana possessed, sought to lift her from the decay and sinfulness of the world to the spiritual realm.

‘Christ in the Manner of God the Father’

Chapter 3 looks at the iconography of the image now called the Salvator Mundi, though this is not a name used at the time for images of Christ blessing and holding the globe of the world. Texts from the gospels of St Matthew and St John portray Christ as the benign comforter of the world’s inhabitants. The bands across Christ’s chest evoke the ‘yoke’ that the biblical Christ invites us to take up. The orb appears in Renaissance paintings in many guises, including metal spheres and terrestrial globes. The genre grew in popularity in the fifteenth century, not least in emulation of images by Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. The stock frontal presentation of Christ related to a supposed eyewitness account and miraculous images made without human intervention. The direct stare is explained by Cusanus (Nicholas of Cusa) as expressing the ubiquitous nature of God’s gaze. There are also less common variants of the Salvator Mundi as a young Christ.

Un precedente del microrrelato en la pintura del siglo XV: Discursos paralelos en los trípticos de los Primitivos Flamencos.

La revolución pictórica que impulsan los primitivos flamencos en el siglo XV implica una renovación de sus repertorios y esquemas compositivos, sumando a la perfección técnica del óleo una gran riqueza de significados en sus obras. El diseño de los trípticos, al modo de los pórticos monumentales de las iglesias y catedrales del medioevo, podría equiparase a los microrrelatos literarios, en la medida que los pintores componen narraciones pictóricas a partir de la suma de pequeñas escenas trabajadas en grisalla. Estos episodios, expuestos secuencialmente, responden fundamentalmente a una fuente primaria, la Biblia, si bien en muchos casos su interpretación remite a otros escritos de la tradición cristiana y la teología medieval que enriquecen su interpretación y explican la unidad del conjunto. La creación de microrrelatos plásticos se concreta en el “Tríptico de Miraflores”, de Rogier van der Weyden, el “Tríptico de la Virgen”, de Dieric Bouts y el “Tríptico de la Redención”, de Vrancke van der Stockt, quienes aúnan caracteres narrativos y simbólicos para mayor expresividad de sus microrrelatos plásticos.

Un imitateur moderne des Primitifs flamands établi en Espagne: le Faussaire de Valls Marín

Le Faussaire de Valls Marín peut être considéré comme l’un des imitateurs de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas ayant connu le plus grand succès, une sorte de Joseph Van der Veken ibérique. Il semble avoir travaillé durant la première moitié du XXe siècle, principalement pour le marché d’art espagnol. Il réussit à vendre des peintures de sa main comme des œuvres flamandes authentiques à des collectionneurs renommés, tels l’éditeur José Lázaro Galdiano, le médecin Carmelo Valls Marín et l’historien d’art José Camón Aznar. Ses sources principales furent probablement des photographies de tableaux de Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden et Hans Memling. À l’occasion, il prit aussi pour modèles des œuvres allemandes. Comme de nombreux faussaires de son époque, il eut une activité de restaurateur. Parfois, il alla bien au-delà de la simple restauration d’une peinture ancienne et chercha à augmenter sa valeur marchande en y ajoutant des visages et des détails d’architecture dans le style des Primitifs flamands. L’une de ses ‘hyperrestaurations’ les plus spectaculaires concerne une Présentation au Temple due à un artiste aragonais: le Maître de Sijena. De ce tableau du début du XVIe siècle, il a tenté de faire une œuvre de Memling.

The Place of Inspiration of the Flemish Triptych by Rogier van der Weyden. A Contribution of the landscape busting to one of the vexata quaestio of the Sicilian History

One of the greatest masterpieces of Flemish art of global importance has been analyzed, through geological and geomorphological evidence, in order to identify the ‘hidden landscapes’ depicted within it. The conclusions of this study suggest that the views may be Sicilian. This fact is particularly important as it is believed that the masterpiece was imported into Sicily, but the history of its origin is not yet well known, indeed, it is still under discussion. Reasonably, therefore, in the light of the results achieved, the possibility that it has been realized on the island itself can be seen.