Comparative Analysis of Altarpieces - Essay Example

Comparative Analysis of Altarpieces In art, a comparative analysis is the process that enables one to study in detail a piece of artwork by observing the application of elements, concepts, and ideas. Studying an artwork brings out contrast and correlation between two or more pieces to better understand its history and time of creation, the style in use, its function, the artistic period and so on. To guide one in comparing art pieces, it is important consider the formal elements, variety in lines, motion, use of space, texture, pattern, function, medium and every other aspect that has any effect on the particular piece. This essay will carry out a comparative analysis of two altarpieces created in the renaissance period: Fra Angelico’s The San Marco Altarpiece and Robert Campin’s The Merode Altarpiece, with emphasis on similarities and differences. The San Marco Altarpiece (Madonna and Saints) This piece is the work of early Italian renaissance artist, Fra Angelico. It is currently in Florence, France at the San Marco Museum. Its estimated time of creation is around 1438 to 1443. It is tempera on wood and is a panel artwork, with a main panel accompanied by nine other predella panels although only the main panel remains today. The main panel has an illustration of the enthroned virgin and child with saints and angels surrounding them. There is a curtained panel standing on two pillars overlapping a landscape with trees forming the background (Woods 204). The Merode Altarpiece (The Annunciation) Renaissance artist Robert Campin did this piece in the period 1427 to 1432 and it is currently in the Metropolitan Museum, USA. It oil on oak with three panels. It has a main (center) panel in between two smaller panels. The main panel shows the moment just before the annunciation of Mary. She is sitting on the floor reading a bible and is looking down. To her left is an angel she is not aware of, with an oval table separating them. A small figure of Jesus is flying towards Mary holding a crucifix. The right panel has Saint Joseph in a carpentry workshop where he is making mousetraps with a townscape appearing behind him in an open window. The right panel has two figures called the donors waiting to go inside an open door (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Similarities The scenarios appearing in both paintings depict religious themes. In The San Marco Altarpiece, there is Virgin Mary who is holding baby Jesus around saints and angels, which is a scenario in Christian beliefs. The same case applies in The Merode Altarpiece where the same Virgin Mary is in the same room with an angel and a perception of Jesus flying in. much of the iconography is therefore religious. On another note, both paintings are renaissance panel altarpieces that Italians made in the 1300’s to 1400’s. Altarpieces consist of wooden panels covered with cloth that is plastered with gesso paste to create a smooth painting surface (D'Elia 19). Both have several panels that make up a complete work under the same theme. Another similarity between the two is the exclusion of the crucifix with Christ on it from the main idea of the picture. According to Casa Santa Pia, the Dominican order of those days only allowed painted or sculpted crucifixes on altarpieces. In The San Marco Altarpiece, Angelico uses a special optical illusion to include the crucifix in the main picture but still it appears as a unique piece on top of the bigger painting. In The Merode Altarpiece, Campin uses an almost similar tactic. The crucifix is not easy to spot but it is in a miniature size above the angel’s head and appears as a small figure (representing Jesus) flying down towards Mary clutching onto a crucifix. There is also a similarity in the use of a single color to highlight subjects in both paintings. In The Merode Altarpiece, the highlight color is red. In the left panel, the color red attracts the eyes to reveal a tiny figure in the extreme background. In the main panel where the most red is, the eye concentrates on Mary’s robe as it is all red. Mary here is the main subject and the highlight lets one notice the bible, her pose, the table and angel beside her. There is also a bit of red on the angel’s wings, maybe to emphasize that this is not a human being. He uses same red on the descending crucifix such that one does not fail to notice it, and on Joseph’s cuffs, to bring out the action that he is doing. The same applies to The San Marco Altarpiece where orange is the highlight color throughout the painting. It is used on the saints, the virgin, the angels, the crucifix, and on the upper corners to include the curtains within the painting. In both paintings, the artists employ one-point perspective to create an illusion of continuity. In Angelico’s The San Marco Altarpiece, every object in the workspace has scale and place that recede as they go deeper into the work. From the foreground, the arrangement of saints is wide and progressively narrows until the eye gets to the centre of the piece where there is Mary and the baby who overlap the panel that covers the vanishing point (Levy 3). In The Merode Altarpiece, the one-point perspective is visible especially in the right panel with Joseph where in the open window; a linear townscape visibly recedes into the background. On the aspect of balance, the two pieces show similarities. The balance in use is symmetrical. Looking at the main panel of The San Marco Altarpiece, the symmetrical aspect is obvious due to the mirror effect that balances both sides. If the panel splits in half, the resulting halves will weigh equal. The same balance appears in Robert’s The Merode Altarpiece. If one draws a vertical line in the middle of the main panel, the table splits into two, Mary and the angel go to either side, the dark chimney on the right balances with the angel’s dark wings on the right, and the depression in the left background will balance with the open window to the right of the background. Differences One of the outstanding differences is the size, thus use of the two altarpieces. The Merode Altarpiece measures 64cm by 63cm. It was a private commission to Robert Campin. The commissioner commonly referred to as “donors” assumingly needed it for household prayer that in those days represented personal devotion (Kleiner 220). On the contrary, The San Marco Altarpiece is bigger in size, measuring 195cm by 158cm. The commissioner, Cosimo de Medic, intended it for a monastery’s beautification, therefore for aesthetic purposes in appealing to the visitors or congregation (Finnan). The San Marco Altarpiece is tempera on wood. The Merode Altarpiece is oil on oak. The renaissance age saw the preference of using oil over tempera owing to the many limitations tempera has. When using tempera for instance, an artist had to work fast because it dries out fast. The problem with drying out fast is potential inability to mix and acquire a color similar to the previous. This greatly affected the quality of work. Tempera also limited the style of achieving some important effects while painting. For instance, The Renaissance Connection states that the only way an artist could achieve three-dimensional forms was only by layering more and more tempera color over another to blend or shade. On the side of oil paints, the style of working depends on the artist’s preference. A good example is The Merode Altarpiece in which Robert Campin achieved the three-dimensional effect on a flat surface by foreshortening as is visible in the center panel of the piece; the beams on the ceiling recede into the background creating the perception of spatial depth. The use of different medium (tempera and oil), affects the overall appearance of the altarpieces. The tempera (The San Marco Altarpiece) displays less brightness, quality, and detailing. The difference might not be because of skill level but rather medium used. According to (renaissance), the extraordinary realism of oil colors was not discovered until the 15th century even though its use dates back to the 12th century. The new artists’ combination of realism, together with the easy of application by brush of oil paints, slow drying, and ease of blending opened a new chapter of realism. In addition, the oil in them makes the pigments translucent enabling the application of paint in thin glazes (superimposing) thus creating amazing effects such as the ability to express textures, sparkles, light, and glass effect. These qualities of oil paints gave Flemish artists like Campin the ability to represent objects with sharp, clear, and focused clarity, irrespective of their size (Barnet & Nancy 131). An example of their application appears on Mary and the angel’s robes that have a silky finish. Work Cited Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. Print. Casa Santa Pia. Art in Tuscuny. Web. 7 Nov 2013. D'Elia, Una R. Painting in the Renaissance. St. Catharines, Ont: Crabtree Pub. Co, 2009. Print. Finnan, Vincent. Fra Angelico. The Patron of Catholic Artists. 2008. Web.7 Nov 2013. Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History. Boston, MA: Thomson, 2009. Print. Levy, Allison M. Re-membering Masculinity in Early Modern Florence: Widowed Bodies, Mourning and Portraiture. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.2013. Web. 4 Nov 2013. The Renaissance Connection. Tempera versus oil paint. Web.7 Nov 2013. Read More