(lively jazz music)
- [Lauren] We're in the Metropolitan Museum
standing in front of a Spanish altarpiece
from the 15th century by the Master Morata.
- [Beth] We're calling him the Master of Morata.
because we don't know his exact name, the artist.
- [Lauren] This particular altarpiece,
or what's called the retablo in Spanish,
is devoted to the Virgin Mary,
but it also focuses on scenes from the life of Christ.
- [Beth] So we have six different scenes here,
on the upper left, the Nativity,
on the lower left, the Annunciation,
the bottom center, the Madonna and Child,
above that, the Coronation of the Virgin,
the crowning of the Virgin in heaven,
on the bottom right, the Adoration of the Magi,
and above that, the Resurrection of Christ.
This may at first seem like a lot
of very different subjects,
but theologically speaking,
they make a lot of sense together.
- [Lauren] If you think about the Resurrection,
it's paired across the other side of the retablo
with the Nativity and so this idea of the birth of Jesus
and his death and resurrection are paired,
and similarly on the bottom
where we have the Annunciation where Mary learns
that she'll bear the son of God,
is paired, then, with the Magi coming to worship
the Christ child, so this idea of the incarnation
and this focus on the moment, when God is made flesh.
- [Beth] At the very top, this celebration
of Mary's divinity as she's crowned in Heaven
as the Queen of Heaven,
which is possible only because she is the mother of God.
- [Lauren] It's focusing on her role as the co-Redeemer,
she's the co-Redemtrix.
And we see how the artist
has visually tried to tile this together,
using particular techniques.
We see that the Virgin Mary is wearing the same clothing,
her red dress, the blue mantle,
that has embossed gold on the edges,
she has a circular halo that is also embossed with gold,
and likewise we see other figures,
who are repeated across the different scenes.
Saint Joseph has a very particular scalloped halo
and we see him in two different scenes.
All the halos across this composition,
they've been raised with the use of gesso and then gilded.
They have a relief quality to them,
and when we're standing up close to this painting,
they have this three-dimensional quality.
Imagine with flickering candle light
how this would have led your eye
to the most important figures in the painting.
This embossed and gilded technique
we typically call pastiglia in Italian,
but in Spanish is called embutido
and it is a prominent feature
of 15th century Spanish painting.
This particular artist Master Morata
is well known for these concentric circles
that we find here on the halos.
Although this is something you do see
in the artworks of other Spanish painters of the time.
- [Beth] What we're talking about is the way
that an altarpiece function to help educate the laity,
to educate people who are in the church
looking toward the altar.
- [Lauren] The artist here has done this remarkably well.
Beyond repeating some of these motifs
to help identify particular figures,
he also has prominent inscriptions underneath each scene
that are telling us what's happening in that scene.
For instance, in the top scene of the Coronation
the inscription says,
"The Coronation of Our Lady the Virgin Mary."
- [Beth] The other thing, I think, that the artist is doing
to make everything legible and readable
by the people who would be in the church
looking toward the altar,
is that he's enlarged the heads and also the hands,
so that the gestures are very easy to read,
the narrative, the stories that are being told here,
at least in the five surrounding panels,
are easy to read.
- [Lauren] He's also made the compositions very readable.
We do not have a lot of extraneous objects,
we have chest key elements that we need
to be able to identify each scene or each figure.
Something that is visually very striking to me
about this altarpiece
are the projections off the side and the top.
Essentially, what looks like a framing device,
they have all of these decorative patterns,
these are actually patterns from textiles.
It's a pomegranate (mumbles) motif,
that would have come from Islamic textile designs.
And then we also have a coat of arms.
Unfortunately we're not able to identify
which family this is relating to,
but it was most likely the patron,
the person who commissioned this altarpiece.
We also see some of those textile elements
are included in the background on the top portion
of the altarpiece as well,
but instead of in red we have blue textile designs.
- [Beth] And there are several other figures here,
that are wearing what looked like very expensive fabrics.
It's impossible for me to think about the trade in textiles
that was going on across Europe in the 15th century.
- [Lauren] There's a long history of Muslims in Spain,
where you might have the influence
of these textiles as well.
We have a lot of other types of influences
that are clear in this painting.
- [Beth] I'm seeing the Northern Renaissance
in this exaggerated perspective of the floors,
the way that we have this intuitive perspective
where the floor looks like it tilts upward
but we do have a real sense of an illusion of space
with diagonal lines that recede into a background,
but we don't have perfect linear mathematical perspective.
- [Lauren] The interest in all of these naturalistic details
and the material splendor of things like textiles
reminds me so much of Northern painting.
But I also see Italy here, particularly in the central panel
of the Virgin and Child.
I mean I think of Giotto or Duccio here
with the Virgin seated on this throne,
that's heavily foreshortened
and receding into space behind her.
- [Beth] And I think about Masaccio and Giotto,
where the Virgin Mary's body is monumental
and takes up space on this thrown.
She sits back into that thrown in a way that is very real
and gives us a palpable sense
of her weight of gravity and of space.
These are things that were really important
to the artists of the Italian Renaissance.
- [Lauren] We have influences that are very local to Spain.
I look at these tiled floors,
and they remind me of Islamic tiles
that you would find in Spain.
- [Beth] Let's focus on the Annunciation panel.
We have typical Annunciation iconography here,
we have the angel Gabriel on the left,
he's coming and announcing to Mary
that she will bear the Son of God,
Mary is surprised to see the angel Gabriel,
the Holy Spirit takes the form of a dove,
we have that vase of lilies
that symbolizes Mary's virginity,
Mary is seated at a little prayer table
and she's been in her humility and piety,
she's been reading the Bible.
- [Lauren] Behind her we have a double window
that's split by a column that allows us
to look out into this landscape,
and it recedes far off into the distance,
which is once again something
that we typically associate with Flemish painting.
- [Beth] And we are also seeing that tilted up floor
and that exaggerated perspective.
Look how prominent the gestures are,
the angel Gabriel who points up to God,
and Mary whose hands are enlarged,
and she spreads them in surprise
at the words of the angel Gabriel,
which are actually written on that little banner
that comes between them.
At this point in history, Spain is not a unified country
the way we think of it today.
- [Lauren] Spain has a very complicated history
at this point in time, there were different crowns,
you have the crown of Castile, the crown of Aragon,
- [Beth] Crown refers to a monarch,
who might rule over several kingdoms.
- [Lauren] This particular artist is from Aragon.
We see some typical Aragonese features here.
This painting is most likely from the late 15th century,
we have those Netherlandish influences,
Aragon was one of the earliest places
where we see artists adopting these Flemish techniques,
but in the later 15th century in the crown of Aragon
is also when we begin to see these characteristics
that we associate with Italian Renaissance Art
of the trecento and the quattrocento.
- [Beth] Well, and it makes me wonder
how much of the Art of the Renaissance that we look at,
is a mixture of the Renaissance,
especially as we move
into the latter part of the 15th century
and into the 16th century, when there was more movement
and trade across Europe.
- [Lauren] Spanish art of this time
has often been omitted from discussions of Renaissance Art,
and I think part of that reason is
because it has been challenging
to use our historical terminology
that is so ingrained in this field,
because it doesn't accurately describe
what we're seeing here:
we have these Italianizing qualities,
we have these Netherlandish or Flemish qualities,
we have the Spanish qualities
and how does one talk about that?
Typically, people have called this Hispano-Flemish,
but I find that to be a problematic term
for a lot of reasons.
- [Beth] I think, any time that we make
very broad generalizations
about a style being related to a country or region,
we're ignoring the incredible amount of movement
and exchange that happened in places.
- [Lauren] Spain at this time had lots of movement
in the form of trade and commercial activity,
but also of artists.
You have artists from Spain going to other parts of Europe
and you have other artists from around Europe
coming to Spain.
You also have things like textiles and ceramics
and metalwork and paintings
that are being collected and traded across vast distances.
We tend to forget in the Renaissance,
that things and people and ideas
were constantly on the move.
An altarpiece like this does highlight
some of the challenges we face in the field of art history
at trying to develop more accurate terminology
to describe artworks like this.
(lively jazz music)