The technique of oil painting facilitated a seismic shift in art. It was a better medium than egg tempera for portraying realistic details like atmospheric conditions, surface effects, texture, and brilliant color. From the Renaissance on, oil became the favored fine art painting method.
Flemish Masters
The full biographies of both artists are incomplete. Little is known of the early life of the Flemish van Eyck (circa 1390–1441), though it is known that he came from a family of artists. He was active in the city of Bruges, Belgium and is considered by scholars to be one of art history’s greatest painters. His “The Arnolfini Portrait” and “Ghent Altarpiece” are amongst the most famous artworks in the world.
Campin, a pioneering artist at the dawn of the Northern Renaissance, worked in Tournai, Belgium, and presided over a significant workshop. Some of the paintings produced there, such as The Met Cloisters’ treasured “Merode Altarpiece,” were erroneously attributed to Campin’s celebrated pupil Rogier van der Weyden. The identification of Campin’s work remains controversial and complex.
‘The Betrothal of the Virgin’
This painting, from circa 1420 to 1430, is replete with creativity, naturalistic images, and rich, decorative details. “The Betrothal of the Virgin” is split into two distinct scenes thanks to prominent architectural structures. Prado curator José Juan Pérez Preciado describes how “the painter demonstrates his significant creativity, which extends to both iconographical and compositional aspects. The Master of Flemalle brings to the idea of portraying the two scenes in the same surroundings ... the powerful symbolism of the dual architecture, a decision that is closely related to the message to be conveyed and attests to the innovative capacity of painting in the Netherlands of his day, of which he was one of the driving forces.”
On the left is a rotunda in a broadly Romanesque style. It has typical rounded arches, stained glass, carved stone capitals, as well as imagined elements. The action in this setting is the story of the miracle of the flowering rod. All the widowers of Judea were gathered in the temple and while praying Joseph’s rod bloomed with flowers. It signified he was the one chosen to be Mary’s husband.
Campin shows the moment after this miracle. While the figural group is positioned around the central praying priest, the important action takes place at the temple’s doorway. Joseph, who has hidden the staff under his cape, attempts to leave unobserved, but is stopped as two figures uncover the rod.
‘The Madonna in the Church’
The Madonna and Child are shown in a stunning Gothic church interior lit by filtered sunlight through clerestory windows and a side portal. This advanced, nuanced illumination is achieved thanks to the properties of oil paint. Van Eyck even denotes light reflections on the nave’s walls and floor. However, the light source is purposefully orientated unnaturally. The Museum explains that “all Gothic churches always faced east with their choirs, you will see that in our picture the sunlight does not enter the church from the south, but, contrary to reality, from the north. It is therefore not natural light, but eternal light.” Van Eyck took masterful artistic license, just like Campin, in service to his pictorial purpose.
Van Eyck portrays Mary monumentally. She towers over the pilasters and other architectural components. This unrealistically scaled representation emphasizes her otherworldliness. Behind her is a niche with lit candles that houses a sculpture of the Virgin and Jesus, painted in a way that looks like a real carving. The juxtaposition of a stone Madonna and Child with a human one gives the impression of a miracle brought to life.
The work of early Netherlandish painters continues to amaze viewers. These artists employed virtuosic oil painting techniques to depict expressive compositions with astonishingly realistic details. The naturalism in masterpieces by the likes of Campin and van Eyck blurs the line between the pictorial plane and the viewer’s reality, allowing a deeper sense of connection.
