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580! CHAPTER 20 Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Northern Europe

Rogier’s extraordinary ability to represent !esh and fabric rivaled Jan van Eyck’s, and few painters, not even Jan, have equaled him in rendering passionate sorrow as it vibrates through a "gure or distorts a tearstained face. Rogier’s depictions of the agony of loss in Deposition and of the terror of the damned in Last Judgment (#$%. 20-13A) are among the most moving and unforgettable images in religious art. It was probably Rogier whom Michelangelo had in mind when, according to the Portuguese painter Francisco de Hol- landa (1517–1584), the Italian master observed, “Flemish paint- ing [will] please the devout better than any painting of Italy, which will never cause him to shed a tear, whereas that of Flanders will cause him to shed many.”1

and dramatically confronting the viewer, but the setting of the Cru- ci"xion in a box is unrealistic, as is the size of the cross, the arms of which are not wide enough for Jesus’s hands to have been nailed to them. &e painting, with the artist’s crisp drawing and precise mod- eling of forms, resembles a strati"ed relief carving, and the viewer may wonder if this is a painting of the biblical event or a painting of a shrine representing the event. In any case, a series of lateral undu- lating movements gives the group a compositional unity, a formal cohesion that Rogier strengthened by depicting the sorrowful anguish that many of the "gures share. Present are the Virgin, sev- eral of her half-sisters, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Saint John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene. &e similar poses of Christ and his mother further unify the composition, evoke the shape of the crossbows in the corner tracery, and re!ect the belief that Mary su'ered the same pain at the Cruci"xion as her son.

20-13A VAN DER WEYDEN, Last Judgment, ca. 1443–1451.

ART AND SOCIETY

The Artist’s Profession in Flanders As they did in Italy (see “Artistic Training,” page 434), guilds controlled artistic production in Flanders. To pursue a craft, individuals had to belong to the guild representing that craft. Painters, for example, sought admission to the Guild of Saint Luke, the patron saint of painters because Luke made a portrait of the Virgin Mary (FIG. 20-1). The patron saint of the metalworkers’ guild was Saint Eligius (FIG. 20-14), who was a goldsmith before devoting himself to the Church and eventually becom- ing bishop of Tournai.

The path to eventual membership in the guild began, for men, at an early age, when the father apprenticed his son in boyhood to a mas- ter, with whom the young aspiring painter lived. The master taught the fundamentals of his craft—how to make implements, prepare panels with gesso (plaster mixed with a binding material), and mix colors, oils, and varnishes. Once the youth mastered these procedures and learned to work in the master’s traditional manner, he usually spent several years working as a journeyman in various cities, observing and absorbing ideas from other masters. He then was eligible to become a master and could apply for admission to the guild. Fees could be very high, espe- cially if an artist was not a citizen of the same city, as was the case, for example, when Petrus Christus of Baerle purchased citizenship in Bruges in order to join that city’s painters’ guild. Sometimes, an art- ist seeking admission to a guild would marry the widow of a member. (A woman could inherit her husband’s workshop, but could not run it.) Guild membership was essential for establishing an artist’s reputation and for obtaining commissions. The guild inspected paintings to evalu- ate workmanship and ensure that its members used quality materials. It also secured adequate payment for its artists’ labor.

Women had far fewer opportunities than men to train as artists, in large part because of social and moral constraints that forbade women to reside as apprentices in the homes of male masters. Moreover, from the 16th century, when academic training courses supplemented and then replaced guild training, until the 20th century, women would not as a rule expect or be permitted instruction in figure painting, because it involved dissection of cadavers and study of the nude male model. Flemish women interested in pursuing art as a career—for example, Caterina van Hemessen (FIG. 23-16)—most often received tutoring from fathers and husbands who were professionals and whom the women assisted in all the technical procedures of the craft. Despite these

obstacles, membership records of the art guilds of Bruges and other cities reveal that a substantial number of Flemish women were able to establish themselves as artists during the 15th century. That they suc- ceeded in negotiating the difficult path to acceptance as professionals is a testament to both their tenacity and their artistic skill.

20-14 P!"#$% C&#'%"$%, A Goldsmith in His Shop, 1449. Oil on wood, 39 30 ( 29 100. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Robert Lehman Collection, 1975).

Once thought to depict Eligius, the patron saint of goldsmiths, Christus’s painting, made for the Bruges goldsmiths’ guild, is more likely a genre scene of a couple shopping for a wedding ring.

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