(jazzy piano music)
- We're in the galleries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
looking at a painting by a Flemish artist,
Juan de Flandes, John of Flanders,
and the painting shows a typical subject
of Christ appearing to his mother.
Christ has died, he's been crucified and we can see
in the background of the painting
that he's been resurrected and so
after his death he miraculously appears to his mother.
- And here in the foreground we see Mary, who is seated,
reading inside of this beautiful space,
and Jesus appears to her and clearly startles her,
her arms are raised and his gestures signal,
"Do not be afraid," this miraculous moment
where he reappears to his mother after his resurrection.
- When we see the resurrection in the background,
it's not actually simultaneously occurring,
we have a continuous narrative here,
we have two different moments of time depicted
in the painting in order to tell us the full story.
- And this story is actually one that does not come
from scripture, it comes from a 13th century text
by Pseudo-Bonaventure, which is an extension of
the narratives that are told in the Bible.
- What we're looking at is really a depiction of
the central miracle of Christianity, of the resurrection,
of life after death, and it's no wonder
that Mary is surprised, she's been praying,
and she's been lost in her prayers,
and then Christ appears to her and he's supposed to be dead.
And so you can imagine that this is a great miracle.
- And the painting is really rooted in reminding us
of the life of the Virgin Mary.
Surrounding Jesus and Mary we have this archivolt
where we have marble sculpture,
here painted in grisaille or a gray scale,
that are showing different scenes of the life of the Virgin.
For instance, I see the Assumption,
I see Pentecost, so these different vignettes
of the life of the Virgin.
And there are two inscriptions in this painting
that relate to the Virgin Mary.
- So we have one inscription
along the hem of Mary's garment,
and that comes from a passage in the Bible
that's referred to as the Magnificat,
which is also the name of the prayer that uses this text.
And it's from the Book of Luke.
And on the hem of the garment, we read,
"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices
"in God my Savior, for he has been mindful
"of the humble state of his servant.
"From now on all generations will call me blessed,
"for the mighty one has done great things for me,
"holy is his name."
- Up at the top we actually see an angel holding a crown
and from that crown we have a banderole
on which is written in inscription and it comes
from the Book of Revelation, and it says.
"This woman persevered, conquering all,
"therefore a crown was given to her."
- And in so many ways, this looks
like a church setting to me.
The sculptures that surround the arch,
the figures on the left of St John, on the right of St Paul,
a space that looks like the architecture
of a church, so a sacred space.
- And I love the gothic tracery that we see
in wood that's just above them
and then as we go further into the background of this space,
we see more of that gothic tracery.
And we also see narrative columns, we see scenes
that are actually pre-figuring Christ's triumph over death.
Such as David defeating Goliath,
- This idea of using Old Testament stories
to pre-figure, to foreshadow, the events of
the Life of Christ and Mary.
- Juan de Flandes was an extremely talented painter,
he was trained in Bruges,
and so he's a Netherlandish artist.
And we see all of the characteristics that we expect
to see in Netherlandish painting of the 15th century.
- So sometimes we use the word Flemish,
sometimes we use the word Netherlandish,
sometimes we call this the Northern Renaissance,
art historians like to complicate things
but we're up in Northern Europe,
which was an important trading center in the 15th century.
- So some of those characteristics
that we see that we associate
with Northern Renaissance painting are things like
the crumpled, the drapery, we see, for instance,
that the Virgin Mary has a lot of extra cloth
to her mantle and it's all crumpled up on the floor.
We see that, too, with Jesus' red mantle.
We also have these hyper realistic details,
this attention to the material splendor of things.
We also have the doors that are open
and windows that are open that lead us
into this vast expanse of terrain in the background.
- And the textures of things
that only oil paint could capture,
so the wood on the bench that Mary is sitting beside,
or even the gold clasp of the book, the Bible,
that she's reading, or the gold embroidery
along the hem of her garment.
This attention to tiny details,
even as we move back into space,
this desire to hold on to those details
and to give us as much information as possible.
Christ does seem to back off a little bit
or to be concerned about Mary's reaction,
but he's also demonstrating his wounds,
or at least showing us his wounds.
The wounds from the nails in his hands,
we clearly see the wound that he got in his side
while he was being crucified.
And the reality of his humanness,
his body, here, is so palpable.
- And I feel like Juan de Flandes accentuates that
by showing us things like the veins popping out
on Christ's arms where you really get the sense
that there is blood once again flowing
through his body after the resurrection.
Something else I'm also struck by in this painting,
is the visual parallel to scenes of the Annunciation,
where Mary is seated, usually inside, reading a book
when the archangel Gabriel enters the room
and announces to her that she's going
to bear the son of God.
And she's usually shocked by this news.
And here we see her once again,
seated inside, reading a book, she has shock on her face,
and it's as if Jesus is the position of Gabriel, here,
making his announcement to her.
- In both cases we see Christ, we see the divine,
become flesh, become earthly.
- And so in some ways it's almost taking
the narrative that begins with Gabriel
and bringing it full circle,
to Christ announcing his presence
after his resurrection to this mother.
Now Juan de Flandes, as we mentioned,
is from the Netherlands, trained in Bruges most likely.
But this is a painting that was actually done
in Spain for an incredibly important patron,
Queen Isabella of Castile herself.
- And it gets even more complicated
because Queen Isabel asked Juan de Flandes to make a copy
of a painting by Rogier van der Weyden,
which had been owned by her father.
So what we're looking at is a copy of one of
the panels of the triptych of the Miraflores altarpiece.
- And so King Juan II, Isabel's father,
had owned the Miraflores altarpiece which he had then gifted
to the Charterhouse in Miraflores, near Burgos in Spain.
And this is also where Isabel will commission
a tomb to commemorate her father.
And so having Juan de Flandes copy this painting suggests
to us that she wanted to have a replica
of something that belonged to her father
and possibly even to legitimize her right
to rule as the Queen of Castile.
- So Isabel is intentionally, perhaps,
looking back to her father and the art that he collected
and he commissioned in order to show her legitimacy as
the Queen of Spain and there were particular reasons
why she might have needed to do that.
- Spanish dynastic history is complicated,
but Isabel needed to legitimize her rule
because her brother and other members of her family,
were vying for the throne or putting their support
behind other members of her family.
So showing a correlation with her father
or things supported by her father,
was helping to maintain consistency and maintain her power.
- This painting's a really
good example of the close relationship
between Northern Europe and Flanders and Spain.
- A great deal of painting
in 15th century Spain looks to Flemish art.
We have Spanish artists who traveled to Flanders,
we have Flemish artists who come to Spain,
we have many peoples in Spain,
such as Isabel, but even rulers and other elites
before her who collect tapestries
and painting and other objects from Flanders.
So there's a long-standing relationship between them.
- This is one reason why you have
a great deal of painting, in particular,
demonstrate Flemish characteristics and techniques.
Juan de Flandes is great example
of the itinerancy of artists in the Renaissance.
And what I mean by that is artists that are moving
around from one place to another throughout their careers.
- And I think one of the problems
that we have in the 21st century is that
we think about Spain as a unified country,
we think about Italy as a unified country
and that wasn't the case then.
And so when we say an Italian artist or a Spanish artist,
it's not quite right, it's not quite historically accurate.
- And Juan de Flandes even changes his
own representational mode or style throughout his career.
There're other paintings here in the Met
that show his transformation over time.
He's a remarkable artist, so remarkable in fact that
when he was brought to Spain by Isabel,
she actually made him her court painter.
- Artists are always adapting their style
to what their patron wants.
What fun to see this painting, here at the museum today.
(jazzy piano music)