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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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