29/1/07 - History of Art - Robert Campin: The Workshop of a Netherlandish Painter and Its Clients

Robert Campin was a contemporary of Van Eyck, who died in 1441.

The Duke of Burgundy acquired many European countries: he married an heiress and married off his children to the heirs of other countries, making himself incredibly powerful.

Melchior Broederlam kicked off a new Netherlandish style. His altarpiece at the Chartreuse de Champmol made new use of space, directing the eye into the distance. He used architectural settings to encompass his figures; he used light and darkness to contrast the figures with the architecture. He made use of symbolic features such as the white lily to represent virginity.

Campin's Merode Altarpiece dates to the mid-1420s. The relationship between setting and figures in painting had improved since the previous century (see Pucelle's Annunciation manuscript page). Now the paintings were more convincing and successful. Inspiration could be got from everyday life. The altarpiece shows a prosperous household. The left wing features devotional figures, a man and wife looking into the annunciation room. The Virgin has not yet noticed the angel; she is reading the prophecy in the Bible that a virgin would conceive. Her lowly status and humility are signified by her sitting on the floor rather than on the bench. The details are appropriate to the time of year: the newly stifled fire and March flowers. Besides, Spring is associated with new birth.

Artists of this time took Joseph's job as carpenter much more seriously, due to a closer reading of the Bible. Joseph is shown darning socks in Malouel's Nativity, and on the right wing of Campin's Merode Altarpiece.

The Ingelbrecht coat-of-arms is shown in the window, which symbolises 'angel bringing forth.' The family is based in Malines near Brussels.

X-rays show that the woman donor on the left wing was painted after the man, but not by the original artist. Perhaps the man was single when the painting was commissioned. The rosebush and the servant guarding the door are painted more crudely than the male donor. The key is painted in detail, inscribed IHS, a symbol relating to Jesus.

On the right wing, there is a mouse trap on display. This is significant as At Augustine wrote that the Devil knew there would be a conception of a virgin, and Joseph was given to Mary to lure the Devil off the scent, like a mouse trap. Four items in the picture also appear in Isaiah's prophecies: a footstool, a rod, an axe and a saw. The artist includes these to draw attention to the Bible story.

The angel in the central panel is dressed in a deacon's clothing. The table has sixteen sides: Hebrew sacrificial altars were supposed to have sixteen sides. The candle is smouldering as if its light has been eclipsed by the light of Christ passing directly through it. The Florentine jug has a white lily in it. The jug is decorated with a bird motif and there is an anagram of 'R. Campin' written in hebraicised letters. It is not a signature because it is too hidden, but it is still an acknowledgement of the identity of the artist. It was acceptable for some artists to publicise their identity, but some did not wish to do this and so they compromised with a kind of code.

The Virgin has the style of a 'moon-faced' Virgin. Her hands are not painted very sophisticatedly, which suggests that an apprentice painted them.

Campin also painted a Nativity, earlier in his career. Does this painting seem less sophisticated than the altarpiece? There is a winter landscape, and an accounting for the time of day: dawn is parallel to the birth of Christ. There is a contrast between natural light and religious light. Perhaps the Nativity is not really unsophisticated.

In Campin's Marriage of the Virgin, around 1430, there is more emphasis on Joseph than on Mary, who was 'chosen' to marry the virgin because he had the flowering rod that appeared in the prophecy. The architecture is detailed; Joseph is surrounded by Romanesque architecture and Mary by Gothic architecture.

Robert Campin and his associates were among the earliest Netherlandish painters to explore an understanding of the play of light in their work, resulting in a more acute portrayal of naturalistic detail. These developments were facilitates by refinements in the technique of oil paint, giving rise to a greater sense of luminosity and sparkle in painting. The new naturalism developed by Campin and his contemporaries seems to have stimulated a reconsideration of modes of pictorial symbolism. Even everyday objects, like carpenters' tools, not previously considered worthy of pictorial representation, might suggest exceptional meaning, or special spiritual significance.