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Picturing the intermediary.
Artistic consciousness in
representations of Saint Luke
painting the Virgin in
Netherlandish art: the case of Van
der Weyden’s Saint
Luke
Annette de Vries, University of
Groningen
Although the visual representation
of Saint Luke painting the
Virgin was more dispersed in
terms of time, geography and genre,
art historical research in the last
three decades has concentrated
mainly on fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century northern panel
painting. An inclination can be
discerned to interpret those
paintings as a kind of northern
pictorial counterpart to the
written art treatises of the
Italian Renaissance. No doubt this
approach has enriched our
perception of representations of
Saint Luke painting the
Virgin as exponents of a
growing artistic consciousness of
the artist. At the same time,
however, it also has shifted the
attention away from the religious
forces at work in this process of
artistic self-assertion. My aim is
to point out that an approach that
considers (interrelated) notions of
religious and artistic mediation is
fruitful for our comprehension of
the phenomenon of artistic
consciousness in representations of
Saint Luke painting the
Virgin. This is demonstrated by
considering closely the ‘founding
image’ of this pictorial motif,
Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint
Luke drawing the Virgin (c.
1435), in relation to one of its
possible artistic prototypes, Van
Eyck’s Rolin Madonna.
There are some obvious pictorial
differences between those two
paintings which are relevant to our
understanding of Van der Weyden’s
Saint Luke: first, the
inversion of the leading figures;
second, the transfer of the red
garment; and third, the inclusion
of the iconographical type of the
Maria Lactans. Van der
Weyden’s ‘amendments’ all seem to
emphasize the importance of the
depicted figures – Saint Luke and
the Virgin - as religious
mediators, thus underscoring the
devotional connotations of the
painting. The Virgin is situated at
the dexter or right side of Saint
Luke, following a format of figural
positioning that was to become
predominant in fifteenth-century
devotional diptychs. Moreover,
Saint Luke is dressed in the red or
scarlet hue of the garment of the
Virgin in the Rolin Madonna.
The colour red had a wide range of
symbolic connotations (expensive,
high grade, elevation). I suggest
that Van der Weyden consciously
tries to evoke the devotional,
intellectual and virtuous
connotations paired with the colour
red to underscore Saint Luke’s
importance as a religious mediator.
On the other hand, his choice of a
Maria Lactans focuses the
attention on the mediating role of
Mary. Van der Weyden favors this
popular devotional type of Madonna
above the traditional prototype of
the frontal Virgin
Hodegitria (which in the
Byzantine tradition always had been
associated with the legend of Saint
Luke). In late medieval time the
nursing Mary had strong devotional
connotations stressing the
intercessory role of Mary
(redemption of mankind by Christ as
human, the role of Mary’s breasts
in pleading on behalf of humankind,
spiritual nourishing).
By picturing the protagonists
Saint Luke and the Virgin Mary as
religious mediators par
excellence Van der Weyden
gradually comes forward as a mediator
in his own right. The fact that Saint
Luke portrays the Virgin by way of a
silverpoint drawing is essential in
this context. It directly refers to
contemporary artistic practice in
which the use of models and
prototypes was widespread. Van der
Weyden’s Saint Luke bears
ample testimony of the transfer of
functional roles from saint/religious
story to painter/artistic practice,
all focusing on the notion of
visibility and accessibility. To sum
up: Van der Weyden’s Saint Luke
drawing the Virgin reveals
artistic consciousness by commenting
upon artistic traditions and by doing
so presents a visual argument for the
role and function of the artist and
his art, one at that time still
predominantly religiously defined.
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