Campin, Merode Altarpiece, 1425-28

Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece, tempera and oil on panel, 1425-28 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

For more about this altarpiece: http://smarthistory.org/Campin.html

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>>: Let's talk about Campin's Merode Altarpiece

Which is in the Cloisters in New York.

>>: And, in fact, we're not really sure it's by Campin.
We're guessing but usually

there's a little question mark after his name
and so art historians do this funny thing where

they'll make up a name if they're not sure.

So, we definitely know it's this person
we've invented called the Master of Flemalle

>>: We have a triptych.
Three panels on the left.

The donors on, in the center panel,
a scene of the Annunciation

and on the right, Joseph

>>: It's such a great example
of the North.

It's relatively small.

This is a portable object.

>>: It's small because it was made
for someone's private home.

>>: As opposed to the sort
of the public art that we're used

to seeing in Italy.

>>: Right, giant altarpieces.
So, it's a good indication

of a change in who's buying art
to a sort of new upper-middle class,

who is very affluent who want to buy art
for their private altarpieces

in their homes.

>>: And that's beautifully reflected in

this very odd decision of the artist

to represent the Annunciation
in the middle, in

what was then a modern
interior environment.

In other words, this is the kind
of house that you would

see an altarpiece like this in.

>>: Right, so it's sort
of the equivalent of doing the

Annunciation in Brooklyn.

>>: She could be reading.

>>: Maybe, she's
reading it on her iPod.

>>: That's right,
or she's looking at wikipedia. [laughing]

>>: [laughing] Could be. Maybe she's
sitting in front of her laptop.

>>: So this would have looked
that odd to people in

the 15th century. In other words,

that this was sort of that out of time.

>>: But it was something
that was appealing

to them that out of time.
It made them feel

that these figures were

closer to them
and that they could relate more

emotionally to what this must have been like

for Mary as a woman
to have been told this.

To sort of get inside those feelings

which was an important, I think, way

in the early 15th century that people

were connecting to God.

>>: It's interesting,
because that you say feelings,

because other important aspects

are so different in Northern painting,

and I think are beautifully

examined here, which is that
there's such attention to the material.

Such attention to the materialilty,

to material culture. You know, everything

is so specific.
The brass of the candle

or the wood of the table and the way

it was constructed
and the carving and the

cloth, and the beams of the ceiling.

>>: Or Joseph's worktable
with the grain

in the wood.

>>: Oh, and all of the tools.

I mean, and that's actually sort of a

wonderful aspect. I've always imagined

that one of the reasons that

there was such attention to those

tools is because Campin himself was the person,

was a craftsman. Was somebody who would've

made this object, and so Joseph is --

>>: And probably
got the wood ready and prepared

his paints and made his brushes
and things like that.

>>: And so, this is kind of love
of that,

that material culture.

>>: But of course those things
are also symbols.

>>: All symbols.

>>: Yes.

>>: And, in fact, there are
a tremendous amount of symbols in here.

>>: Yeah, more than we can recount, I think.

>>: Yeah. Although there are a couple
of little details

that we probably
should sort of point out.

One of my favorites
is the little teeny image of Christ

surfing down on
the little golden rays.

>>: Yeah.

>>: With a cross on his back...

heading right to Mary,
by the way.

>>: Right. Right
to her womb, actually.

>>: And then there's
that fabulous almost starburst

as her knee projects forward.

>>: Uh-huh.

>>: And look how beautifully
rendered all of that

light and shadow is.
And it's sort of so odd

because the artist is so technically proficient

in rendering textures and forms.

>>: And, of course,
it's because they have oil paint.

>>: Ah, and it's so luminous
as a result.

>>: Right, and so we can get
the reflections on the

reflective surfaces
like the brass candlestick

or the brass pot
in the background, or the --

>>: The porcelain --

>>: Of the vase or
the heavy wool fabric,

I imagine, of Mary's dress.

>>: But then, at the same time, there's

some real structural problems

because in Italy by this time,

Brunelleschi is doing his thing, and

linear perspective is being understood.

And this, this floor --

>>: Now Masaccio would've

cut his hands off if he had painted this.

[laughter]

He would have been
very unhappy with himself.

>>: That's right.

>>: He would have thought
he made a big mistake.

>>: Well, that's absolutely,
look at the tabletop

and look at how it
disagrees with the floor,

which is still too steep,
and there are

just too many multiple,
sort of, perspectives here.

>>: Right, and the room looks narrower

in the back than it does
in the front, and

the floor looks like it tilts upward.

We're looking at the top
of the table and the

side of things at the same time.

The space is all wrong.
In fact, the

figures are too large for the room,

and the, the room is not --
it's packed with objects.

>>: There's no room for anyone
to walk around in.

So it's not a real space.

>>: And it's fabulous in the information

that it conveys. I have to tell you,

I'm especially in love with the most

distant views. If you look in the donor panel

all the way on the left, and you look through

the open door, you can
actually see the streetscape

And, you can see a horse
and you can actually see a shop --

>>: And people by a window.

>>: That's right. People
in the window.

And on the opposite side,

in back of Joseph,
and back of --

>>: A whole Flemish city back there.

>>: Oh, it's incredible.

>>: Yep

>>: And, so it's all this important

religious symbolism placed within

this modern mercantile environment.

>>: You know, with all this sort of

mundane things of everyday life.

My favorite part are those shutters
above Joseph on the ceilings,

those little hooks that hold the shutters
to get up

that hold the shutters to get up

and then you can imagine them coming down,

and you can see how the bolts in the wood there

and how rust is stripped down and

this attention to things
that are so seemingly mundane

and unimportant next to this
very, very sacred moment.

>> So what exactly is it
that Joseph is making there?

>>: I think he's making a mousetrap.

>>: Because of course the trap for the devil.

>>: And there's lots
of other symbols too.

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