Weighing Relationships:
Form,Content and Function in Paintings by Jan van
Eyck
Carol Purtle, Bernhard
Ridderbos
cpurtle@memphis.edu
This workshop featured
short paired presentations on three Eyckian paintings:
the Van der Paele Madonna (Carol Purtle, Maryan
Ainsworth), the Rolin Madonna (Philippe Lorentz,
Hugo van der Velden), and the Arnolfini Double
Portrait (Anne van Buren, Bernhard Ridderbos).
In each case, views about the form, content and purpose
of these works were presented, offering different
and sometimes divergent perspectives on significance
and meaning.These presentations served to demonstrate
anew the importance of a wider view of iconology which
studies the symbolic meanings of Eyckian works as
a matter, not only of content, but also of form and
function A? incorporating the results of technical
and archival investigation.
The large number of
knowledgeable participants assured a rich and varied
discussion, unfortunately cut short by the constraints
of time. Among the topics introduced, in addition
to different interpretations of a number of issues
involved in the London double portrait, were technical
observations based on the IRR of the Van der Paele
Madonna seen in relation to earlier interpretations,
and, concerning the Rolin Madonna, the significance
of Rolin's cloth of gold, the situation of the commission,
and once again the time of day revealed by the position
of the moon in the sky. (This last study was accompanied
by information on software designed to indicate the
position of the moon on any historical date given.)
Among other unresolved questions were those raised
about the relation of a fully finished frame to the
function and meaning of the work. Participants pointed
out that the Rolin panel is fully painted with faux-marble
finish on the back, whereas the center panel of the
Dresden triptych, a work traditionally assumed to
be designed for mobile use, remains unfinished in
this manner.
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