Page 31 - Gothic
P. 31
Painting with oil on canvas did
not become popular until the
15th and 16th centuries and was
a hallmark of Renaissance art. In
Northern Europe the important
and innovative school of Early
Netherlandish painting is in an es-
sentially Gothic style, but can also
be regarded as part of the North-
ern Renaissance, as there was a
long delay before the Italian reviv-
al of interest in classicism had a from the realistic detail they could
great impact in the north. Painters now include, even in small works.
like Robert Campin and Jan van In Early Netherlandish painting,
Eyck, made use of the technique from the richest cities of Northern
of oil painting to create minutely Europe, a new minute realism in oil
detailed works, correct in per- painting was combined with subtle
spective, where apparent realism and complex theological allusions,
was combined with richly com- expressed precisely through the
plex symbolism arising precisely highly detailed settings of religious
scenes. The Mérode Altarpiece
(1420s) of Robert Campin, and the
Washington Van Eyck Annunci-
ation or Madonna of Chancellor
Rolin (both 1430s, by Jan van Eyck)
are examples.[14] For the wealthy,
small panel paintings, even polyp-
tychs in oil painting were becoming
increasingly popular, often showing
donor portraits alongside, though
often much smaller than, the Virgin
or saints depicted. These were usu-
ally displayed in the home.
