Эта статья рассматривает живописный образ Иоанна Крестителя, связанный с кругом Робера Кампена, в фокусе иконографии, материальности и вероятной первоначальной функции створки. Для глубины анализа привлекаются данные о художественной практике мастерской Кампена и параллели с другими его работами и произведениями круга.
Описание и иконография
According to tradition, John the Baptist wears a hair shirt under a white cloth, associated with newly baptized Christians. The flag bearing a red cross symbolizes resurrection. In marked contrast, the background features a lavish gold-patterned silk. The display of such luxurious fabrics continues an ancient tradition of using the finest objects in the worship of God.
This painting has been cut down along the lower edge and would have originally shown a full-length image of the saint. It was probably the right wing of a triptych, with John the Baptist gazing upon a central image of the Virgin and Child.
Размеры и объект
- Measurements Framed: 25 x 20 x 3 cm (9 13/16 x 7 7/8 x 1 3/16 in.)
- Unframed: 17.3 x 11.6 cm (6 13/16 x 4 9/16 in.)
Первоначальная функция: створка триптиха
It was probably the right wing of a triptych, with John the Baptist gazing upon a central image of the Virgin and Child. This painting has been cut down along the lower edge and would have originally shown a full-length image of the saint.
Визуальная логика поворота фигуры к центральному образу согласуется с практикой мастерской Кампена, где фланговые святые часто адресуются к сакральному центру, усиливая направленность молитвенного взгляда зрителя.
Кампена школа: реализм и мастерская
Campin first settled in Tournai around 1405-6 as a free master of the guild of painters, and he bought citizenship there in 1410, which suggests he was born elsewhere. Although heavily indebted to contemporary masters of manuscript illumination, Campin displayed greater powers of realistic observation than any other painter before him. Campin worked in Tournai (Belgium) from 1404 to 1444, and therefore was rather a predecessor (or in any case contemporary) than a successor to the Van Eycks.
The excellence of Campin’s work and his independence prove that the development of the Flemish school of painting was something inevitable. One of the painters of that first Flemish generation that also mastered the use of oil paint was Robert Campin (ca. 1375 - 26 April 1444).
Техника и масло
It was Vasari who erroneously said that Jan van Eyck had “invented” the oil painting and since then this has been sometimes repeated. Oil painting (that is, linseed oil) was already in use long before. In the contract signed by the Catalan Ferrer Bassa to make the wall paintings of the Monastery of Pedralbes, in Barcelona, he promised to use this technique. This happened a century earlier than the paintings of Van Eyck, exactly in 1341.
В работах круга Кампена освоение масляной техники позволило достигать тонких переходов света по тканям, металлам и коже, что напрямую связано с описанным выше контрастом аскезы Иоанна и роскоши золототканого фона.
Иконографические параллели в окружении Кампена
The Mérode Altarpiece, oil on oak panel triptych, (The Cloisters, New York City). The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the Annunciation to Mary (which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting), and Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The wing panels contain views of the city of Liège, in today’s Belgium. This triptych is unsigned and undated, but has been attributed to Robert Campin and an assistant.
Analysis of artistic and iconographic elements of the Mérode Annunciation in comparison to the Brussels Annunciation, however, shows that the image should not be considered a less important work than its model but a product of choices and intentions aiming to optimize its function as a visual accompaniment of a personal prayer practice.
Striking features of the Mérode Altarpiece are, for Tschudi, the vivid but cool colors and the preference for light and dark, with double- or even triple- cast shadows. Light and dark are used not merely for pictorial effects but also to create depth and to model faces and hands. The vestments of the figures have rich folds, which are well observed and suggest the woven materials from which they are constructed.
The depiction of the room was obviously based on a contemporary middle-class rather than biblical setting, and contains many of the same details found in the center panel of the Mérode Altarpiece like the latticed and shuttered window, the reading Virgin seated on a long bench, and the tilted iris in a vase on a table to her side.
Связи с другими произведениями круга
Robert Campin also painted a beautiful panel for the Burgundy Court called the “Adoration of the Child” or “Nativity” (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, France). Here we see again the phenomenon of technical perfection accumulated through centuries by medieval French painting; but, in addition, we perceive in the myriad of precious domestic details and aristocratic local backgrounds something that was exclusively Flemish.
His “Virgin and Child before a fire screen” (National Gallery, London) was painted later, perhaps around 1440. In these works and in the “Santa Barbara reading” panel (Prado Museum) from the Werl Triptych, the characters portrayed offer us one of the highest visions of inner peace because of the predilection they show for the interiors of their houses or landscapes of the Flanders region, where they have descended to live as mere mortals.
Атрибуция и методология: уроки Mérode
Since technical research revealed that the center panel of the Mérode Altarpiece is based on an Annunciation in Brussels and that the wings were added at a later stage, the painting has lost its status as a key work in both the oeuvre of the Master of Flémalle and the history of painting. The remarkable history of the stylistic research into this painting, which shows the Annunciation in the center panel, Saint Joseph in his workshop in the right wing, and portraits of a couple kneeling at the door of the Virgin’s house in the left one, could fill a publication on its own.
In 1909 and 1911, Georges Hulin de Loo attributed, on documentary evidence, panels from an altarpiece made for the abbey in Saint Vaast to Jacques Daret, who with Rogier van der Weyden had been an apprentice of Robert Campin (ca. 1375-1444) in Tournai. The resemblances between the Daret panels on the one hand and works ascribed to Van der Weyden and the Master of Flémalle on the other made Hulin identify the latter as Robert Campin himself.
In his Early Netherlandish Painting from 1953, Erwin Panofsky fully accepted the existence of an oeuvre that had been reconstructed under the label Master of Flémalle and the identification of the painter with Robert Campin, although he preferred to use Tschudi’s Notname (name of convenience). Two years later, however, quite a different opinion was brought forward by Heinrich Musper.
Differences between the underdrawing and the painted surface in the Brussels panel show that a creative process took place during the work’s execution: the positions of certain elements were changed, and motifs that are absent in the underdrawing, such as the door and the brush, were added. In the Mérode Annunciation, on the other hand, most of the architectural elements and objects that it has in common with the other image are either hardly underdrawn or not at all.
These changes were evidently made to compensate…
Campin Mérode Altarpiece
Применение к образу Иоанна Крестителя
В контексте мастерской Кампена описанные приёмы работы с материальностями и светом объясняют, почему волосиница, белое покрывало и штандарт с красным крестом читаются одновременно как аскетические и торжественные сигналы. The display of such luxurious fabrics continues an ancient tradition of using the finest objects in the worship of God. In marked contrast, the background features a lavish gold-patterned silk.
It was probably the right wing of a triptych, with John the Baptist gazing upon a central image of the Virgin and Child. This painting has been cut down along the lower edge and would have originally shown a full-length image of the saint.
Сводная таблица признаков
- Одежда святого: John the Baptist wears a hair shirt under a white cloth, associated with newly baptized Christians.
- Атрибут: The flag bearing a red cross symbolizes resurrection.
- Фон: In marked contrast, the background features a lavish gold-patterned silk.
- Функция: It was probably the right wing of a triptych.
- Состояние: This painting has been cut down along the lower edge.
Таким образом, иконография Иоанна в рассматриваемой панели стыкуется с общей программой мастерской Кампена, где символы таинств, тщательная материальность и обращённость фигур к центральной святыне служат опорой личной молитвенной практики. Although heavily indebted to contemporary masters of manuscript illumination, Campin displayed greater powers of realistic observation than any other painter before him.
