Analysis of Van Eyck's Madonna Term Paper

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Within the painting, the
narrow space in which the woman is seated, with child and tome in lap, is
otherwise toned by a severe symmetry. Furniture, window and angles are cut
with a perfect sharpness, exposing only rightly angled arrangement. This
is even so with the corners of a throw rug and some square floor tiles
which peek out from the Madonna's flowing red gown.
The colors in this gown, as with the green and white embroidered
parlor headboard which looms comfortingly over the figures, represent the
most dramatic and compelling of impressions here. The gown in particular
drapes across the woman's shoulders and spills out in dominant array in the
direct center of the image. Creased and shadowed by its own fabric, the
gown seems to jump from the canvas as a lucid photograph flanked by sharply
painted objects. Among such objects, a brass chamber pot to the bottom
right of the figures does also catch the eye as a break from the symmetry.
This inclusion also reinforces the painter's persistence toward physical
and historical accuracy.
The faint cascade of light which filters through a left-bound window
cast a compelling shadow of tree branch and window pain on the wall just to
woman's upper right side. The light falls across a narrow portion of the
credenza just to her waist-side as well. The restrained use of light and
shadow here helps to reinforce the pallor of the woman and the quiet
ruefulness of the moment.

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Accordingly, it here that "van Eyck uses light
to create a remarkable interplay between a woman and an interior" (Haber,
1) This interplay is important as the piece is as much recommended by its
atmosphere as by its characterizations of the individuals within.
One more thematic impetus of some importance may be one to resolve
the discussion with optimism. The marked proportion of the Madonna, a
figure of angelic largeness, as compared to the child is important to our
interpretation of the inclusion of both. Our research argues that the work
thus "stresses the idea of human redemption, which is one reason that the
infant appears. The myth of a virgin birth turns out also to underlie that
glorious light." (Haber, 1) This is a pleasing lens through which to
consider a work that might otherwise be interpreted only in light of its
permeating sobriety. Ultimately, it helps to suggest that the pursued
realism of the works by Van Eyck and his Northern European contemporaries
could nonetheless hold the capacity for incredible and humanist poignancy.
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