LATE MIDDLE AGES The influence of Classical philosophy

LATE MIDDLE AGES The influence of Classical philosophy Two modes in the history of West European art.

PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

εἶδος (eidos) and ἰδέα (idea) from the Indo. European root *weid-, "see". Form, or idea – aspatial and atemporal.

ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

EPISTEMOLOGY • Aristotle: particular phenomena → knowledge of essences • Plato: knowledge of universal Forms → knowledge of particular imitations of these

JAN VAN EYCK, ADORATION OF THE MYSTIC LAMB, 1432

MORALIZED BESTIARIES, HERBALS AND LAPIDARIES

CORINTHIAN CAPITAL

REPRESENTATION OF SPACE 7 TH CENTUR 7 15 TH CENTURY

DEVOTIO MODERNA, MODERN PIETY

ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, DESCENT FROM THE CROSS, MID 15 TH C.

MASTER OF FLEMALLE (ROBERT CAMPIN) MERODE ALTARPIECE, 1425

LIGHT PASSING THROUGH GLASS = IMMACULATE CONCEPTION • "As the sunbeam through the glass passeth but not staineth, Thus the Virgin as she was, Virgin still remaineth. " • (Fifteenth-century hymn, "Dies est Laetitiae“)

• Scroll=Old Testament • Book = New Testament • Lilies = virginity

• "The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death"[7] • Saint Augustine

JAN VAN EYCK, THE ARNOLFINI DOUBLE PORTRAIT, 1434

Erwin Panofsky, 1934: “disguised symbolism”

JAN VAN EYCK, MADONNA OF CANON VAN DER PAELE

• nagelbloem (the carnations), гвоздика • Cruciferae (the mustard flowers) • • the parrot - Ave

• schild/schilder - the shield • and reflection of the artist