Art History 260/660                                                                                                           Larry Silver

Flemish Art from Van Eyck to Bruegel                                                                                    Fall 2004

 

                                                    Syllabus and Schedule of Lectures

 

Required Readings:

James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art (paper, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall)

Johan Huizinga, Autumn of the Middle Ages (paper, Chicago)

Craig Harbison, The Mirror of the Artist (paper, Prentice-Hall)

Walter Gibson, Hieronymus Bosch (paper, Thames and Hudson)

Walter Gibson, Bruegel (paper, Thames and Hudson)

For 661: Maryan Ainsworth, ed. Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads (paper; Yale)

 

Recommended History Text:

Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier, The Promised Lands. The Low Countries under

Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530 (paper, Penn)

 

1. Introduction: Ars Nova in Sculpture and Painting

Major Artists: Melchior Broederlam, Jacques de Baerze; Robert Campin

Readings: Snyder, 18-59, 110-17; begin Huizinga, esp. 294-396 (required before midterm)

 

Supplement: Falkenburg in Ainsworth, 2-17; Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, esp. 131-48; Cynthia Hahn, “‘Joseph Will Perfect, Mary Enlighten, and Jesus Save Thee’: The Holy Family as Marriage Model in the Mérode Triptych,” Art Bulletin 68 (1986), 54-66; Craig Harbison, “Visions and Meditations in Early Flemish Painting,” Simiolus 15 (1985), 87-118

Recommended: Lynn Jacobs, Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces 1380-1550 (Cambridge, 1998)

 

2. Jan van Eyck

Readings: Snyder, 86-109

Supplement: Jan van Eyck: Two Paintings of St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata (PMA, 1997); Arnolfini readings, Snyder, p. 527, n. 24 (Panofsky; Seidel; Carroll; Bedaux; Campbell entry)

 

3. Rogier van der Weyden

Readings: Snyder, 118-57

Supplement: Carol Purtle, ed. Rogier van der Weyden. St. Luke Drawing the Virgin, Selected Essays in Context, esp. 23-38 (Acres); Bret Rothstein, “Vision, Cognition, and Self-Reflection in Rogier van der Weyden’s Bladelin Triptych,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 64 (2001), 37-55

 

4. Bruges: Hans Memling

Readings: Snyder, 158-213

Supplement: Martens, Geirnaert, Faries, and Ainsworth in Ainsworth, 26-45, 70-121

Recommended: Jean Wilson, Painting in Bruges at the Close of the Middle Ages

 

 

5. Autumn of Manuscripts

Recommended: Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, eds., Illuminating the Renaissance, exh. cat.

 

6. Foreign Relations: Italy and Spain

Main Artists: Justus of Ghent, Hugo van der Goes, Juan de Flandes, Michiel Sittow

 

MID-TERM EXAMINATION

 

7. Hieronymus Bosch

Readings: Gibson, Bosch; Snyder, 394-409

Supplement: Silver, “God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s),” Art Bulletin 83 (2001), 626-50

 

8. Emerging Market: Antwerp

Readings: Snyder, 432-51

Supplement: Filip Vermeylen in Ainsworth, 46-69; Arianne Faber, “Varieties of Repetition,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 28 (1998), 167-200; Silver, “Power and Pelf: A New-Found Old Man by Massys,” Simiolus 9 (1977), 63-92

 

9. Lucas van Leyden

Readings: Snyder, 410-31

Supplement: Elise Lawton Smith, “Women and the Moral Argument of Lucas van Leyden’s Dance around the Golden Calf,” Art History 15 (1992), 296-316; Peter Parshall, “Lucas van Leyden’s Narrative Style,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 29 (1978), 185-238

 

10. “Northern Renaissance”

Main Artists: Jan Gossaert, Lucas van Leyden, Jan van Scorel, Maarten van Heemskerck

Readings: Snyder, 452-71, 482-501

Supplement: Silver, “‘Figure nude, historie e poesie’,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 37 (1986), 1-40; Silver, “The ‘Gothic’ Gossaert,” Pantheon 45 (1987), 58-69

Recommended: Ilja Veldman, Maerten van Heemskerck and Dutch Humanism in the Sixteenth Century

 

11. Tapestries

Main Artists: Bernard van Orley, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Jan Vermeyen

Recommended: Thomas Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance; Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry

 

12. Kitchens and Counting-Houses

Main Artists: Pieter Aertsen, Joachim Beuckelaer. Jan Massys, Jan van Hemessen

Readings: Snyder, 472-81

Supplement: Elizabeth Honig, Painting and the Market, 1-99; Matt Kaveler, “Pieter Aertsen’s ‘Meat Stall’: Divers Aspects of the Market Piece,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 40 (1989), 67-92; Charlotte Houghton, “This Was Tomorrow: Pieter Aertsen’s Meat Stall as Con- temporary Art,” Art Bulletin 86 (2004), 255-76

 

13. Pieter Bruegel

Readings: Gibson, Bruegel; Snyder, 502-23

Supplement: Gibson, “Bruegel and the Peasants: A Problem of Interpretation” 11-52; consult readings in Snyder, 541, n. 165; Silver, “Pieter Bruegel in the Capital of Capitalism,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 47 (1996), 125-53

Recommended: Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Drawings and Prints, exh. cat. Matt Kaveler, Pieter Bruegel. Parables of Order and Enterprise