Artist: Jan van Eyck
Themes
-Hands: partnership in marriage
-Marriage: loyalty shown by dog, hands at the center of painting, shoes add depth; empirical perspective; painting serves as testament of marriage (mirror shows witnesses: painter! us!)
-Religion: mirror shows passions of cross; beads on bed; one lit candle
-Gender: green dress shows fertility w/ red bed; male on right next to window (aka outside world)
-Materiality: clothes of couple in Denmark
Artist: Hieronymus Bosch
Themes:
-Religion: Paradise w/ Adam and Eve; Hell on Earth
-Paradise: fruit and animals represent lusciousness; colors are whimsical and childlike; four fantastical structures in back;
-Fertility: orgy; sex portrayed as innocent and fun; egg; mollusk; Adam & Eve in left panel; NO CHILDREN (prior to childbirth pain and predators everywhere)
-Hell: animals dominate Man; 7 deadly sins; musical instruments are torture devices; hell is on Earth
-Utopia: an ideal world; all things that should be happening in the world; Bosch masks social ideas in allegory; beginning of imagination/creativity
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Proverb: list of points, not a story; central proverb: “pulling the wool over his eyes”
-Illusion: “Praise of Folly” by Erasmus speaks to the world being filled w/ fools (fool is in center)
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Religion: Protestant=carnival and Catholicism=lent
-Carnival vs. Lent: indulgence vs. denying themselves
-Theatrical: people in costumes and playing certain roles
-Urbanism: people congregate in town center
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Contemporary life: Antwerp in 1560s is height of publishing industry; selling indulgences for St. Peters funding; dealing w/ corruption/building is crumbling/losing sense of spirituality
-Religion: Tower of Babel marks moment of god destroying tower and dispersing language; building looks classical for St. Peters funding
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Gender: women in hell; they led the world to wrath and ruin
-Illusion/Contemporary allegory: political leaders in 1560s were leading people to doom
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Labor: The years is structured around weather and peasantry tasks
-Season: Timeless image engaging humankind
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Otium: joys of working land; perfect place, joys of being in natural world
-Class: division of labor class in front and newly merchant/rich class in back; satire of working class
Artist: Giorgione or Titian
Themes
-Arcadia: perfect place, joys of being in natural world; sensuality/leisurely lounging in Italy
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
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Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Population: figures are bigger
-Satire: satire of religious procession
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes
-Fertility: green color of wife
-Marriage: wedding, music, food, drinking
-Indoors as opposed to outdoor
-Satire: humorous wedding of working class
Artist: Pieter Bruegel
Themes:
-Satire: blind leading blind