Northern Renaissance Portraiture Contrast the Research Paper

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Even the Virgin and Christ are depicted in a realistic fashion

Rogier van der Weyder, another great Northern master of the portrait, likewise used symbolism in an instructive fashion for the reader, as manifest in works such as his Madonna in Red. In the painting, the infant Christ clearly pages backward to the beginning of a Bible, indicating how his coming is the fulfillment of the prophesy of the coming of the Messiah in the Old Testament. "So specific are the Child's efforts, in fact, that he should be seen not only to be paging through the book, but to be doing so backward, toward its beginning. Once this is recognized as deliberate and unusual, it becomes clear that the entire composition is devised to urge attention toward it" (Acres 2000: 77). The use of symbolism is more subtle than in Van Eck's work and more naturalistic -- instead of the ostentatious clutching of material objects; the gesture of paging backwards in the book has a natural and unforced quality. Van der Weyder's later works, such as his Last Judgment Altarpiece, are almost totally stripped bare of conventional symbolism used to signify hell and judgment. When symbolism is apparent, it is of a more private and interior nature, as manifested in St. Luke Painting the Virgin. Although St. Luke was ostensibly the patron saint of artists, this depiction of the saint creating a small miniature work, as if for himself, versus a tapestry stuffed with symbols like Van Eck, manifests Van der Weyder's tendency to focus on only a few symbols rather create the many layered, almost 'footnoted' and annotated painted, instructive text of Van Eck. Van Eck's work demands careful and meticulous study while Van der Weyder is more concerned upon creating an immediate impression and using the symbolism for dramatic effect and intensity.

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However, Jean Fouquet, another contemporary of Van Eck has been described as more highly influenced the Italian style, and fundamentally less naturalistic than either Van Eck or Van der Weyder. His style was more static and less naturalistic: "The weak side of Fouquet's conception of the world lies, not surprisingly, in his representation of action or movement. For even here where the subject-matter demands an expression of passing events he tries to find a device to stabilize the scene. He sees every action as part of a mass movement, which proceeds according to a fixed plan" (Pacht 1941: 97). Fouquet's output often made use of idealized, posed portraits in the style of the Italian Renaissance that were absent of natural lighting and elaborate symbolism. Rather than constructed to be read as symbolically instructive, they instead celebrated the glory of humankind as seen in his Portrait of Jouvenel des Ursins (Pacht 1941: 100). Form rather than meaning is at the forefront of Fouquet's portraits......

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