European Art
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MEDIEVAL AND NEAR EASTERN ART
The Gallery of Medieval and Near Eastern Art covers a time span of over a thousand years and represents diverse artistic traditions of Europe, the Near East, and North Africa - regions once governed by the Roman Empire.
In Summer 2005, a new gallery installation was completed, featuring devotional art from Krannert Art Museum's permanent collection with loans from other institutions. This installation includes objects that were created to aid in devotional prayer and meditation both in church and domestic settings in the European late Middle Ages.
Romanesque capital (c. 1150-1200 CE)
French, late 12th century Sculpture: marble
16" x 19" x 12"
Art Acquisition Fund 1990-1-1
The many stone churches built in the twelfth century provided special opportunities for sculpture. Even structural units, such as the capitals of shafts or columns, became elaborate fields of sculptural design that often told stories with human or animal subjects. European stonecarvers who lived in former provinces of the Roman empire could be inspired by ancient models, yet Roman carving seldom displays the whimsy characteristic of much of the sculpture and painting we call Romanesque. In making the Krannert capital, the carver has used the coarse, local marbles of southwestern France to create a delicate symmetry of birds and vines.
Leaded window glass: The Prodigal Son
French, early 13th century
Glass: pot metal glass and vitreous paint
69 1/2" x 27 1/2"
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herman C. Krannert 1963-45-1
France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was the homeland of Gothic architecture, where arched and vaulted spaces made room for tall windows filled with colored glass. Enlivened by vivid jewel-like colors set in a framework of lead, the windows conveyed the teachings of the church through stories from the Bible. In its present reconstruction, this window depicting the story of the Prodigal Son reads from the top down, although medieval churchgoers expected to read the stories in their windows starting at the bottom and proceeding upward. Dated to the early thirteenth century, this version of the parable in glass is very close to the one in Bourges Cathedral.
In the top scene (mostly reconstructed), the son rides off with his inheritance; then, in the first of two virtually intact roundels, he wastes his money in a house of ill repute, where he is crowned with a wreath of profane love in front of a bed. Finally, dressed as a swineherd, he comes home to his father and is forgiven. The lamp of welcome hanging in the door echoes in its shape the neckline of the rich clothing he is about to receive. His father's loving embrace contrasts with the impure kiss we see above.
Panel: St. Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1335)
Ugolino di Nerio Italian, 14th century
Painting: tempera on panel with gold leaf
21 3/4" x 12 3/4"
Gift of Ellnora D. Krannert 1965-16-4
A painting of St. Catherine, attributed to Ugolino da Siena (active c. 1317-37), shows the saint against a gold ground that would have reflected the light of liturgical candles as if it were the glorious light of heaven. St. Catherine wears the crown and carries the triumphal palm of a Christian martyr. The tooling of her halo with a pattern of elaborate leaves recalls the engraving of works in silver and gold. Ugolino was a follower of Duccio, the leading Sienese painter who worked in the maniera graeca, the manner of the Byzantine Greeks.
St. Catherine's Greek characteristics--long fingers and the green underpainting that shadows her face--blend with the hallmarks of the International Gothic style that spread from France. Ugolino was commissioned to paint high altarpieces for both Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce in Florence; neither altarpiece survives intact, but the St. Catherine panel may have been part of one of them. The original arched format can be seen below the upper corners of the Krannert panel.
Altarpiece: Madonna and Child with Four Saints (c. 1480)
Master of the St. Ursula Legend Flemish, Bruges, 15th century
Painting: oil on panel 29 1/2" x 37"
Gift of Katherine Trees Livezy, George S. Trees and the Ellnora D. Krannert Fund 1976-20-1
Until the third quarter of the 15th century, the Franco-Flemish town of Bruges enjoyed a period of great prosperity. At that time there arose a large school of artists whose names can be found in historic guild lists but to whom specific works cannot be attributed. The title of the most well-known from a group of paintings assumed to be by some unknown artist is often used as a pseudonym for that artist. The Master of the St. Ursula Legend is one of these. In his works we find reflections of the greatest Flemish artists including Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden, artists known for depicting their subjects with the extreme realism characteristic of Northern European painting from this period. Additional early Northern Renaissance devices are brought to light in this painting.
The rediscovery of laws governing linear perspective in Renaissance Italy, for example, would have meant little without the discovery of laws governing atmospheric perspective, as demonstrated in the small landscape at the upper left hand corner of this panel:here the artist deliberately diminished the range of color in the landscape, giving the appearance of something being seen through a great expanse of bluish atmosphere. Also characteristically, the artist aims to impress the viewer with the physical presence of the holy group by placing it in a contemporary setting and by exposing the long leg of St.John the Baptist. The court of heaven comes down to earth in this scene, with glimpses of sunlit landscapes at each side. The Infant Christ on his mother's lap ruffles the pages of an open book, a reminder that he is the Word made flesh. Lined up like courtiers or ambassadors to the heavenly queen is a row of saints: Augustine, John the Baptist, an unidentified woman --perhaps Augustine's mother, Monica--and a man who may be Nicholas of Tolentino, a plague saint.
LATER EUROPEAN ART
Christ after the Flagellation
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1616-1682)
Spanish, 17th century
Painting: oil on canvas
50 1/8" x 57 1/2"
Gift of Ellnora D. Krannert 1960-4-1
In this picture, Murillo expresses the piety of 17th-century Spain with great simplicity. We are shown Christ moments after he has been scorned and beaten, rather than the act itself. Down on his knees, wounded and in pain, he grabs the "royal" cloak used to mock him, conveying the understanding that through suffering he will find his royal destiny. Submission to suffering was an ideal of the Franciscan brothers for whom Murillo probably painted this scene. The deep brown background is broken by rich variations.
The silvery white of the loin cloth is complemented by the drapery masses on the ground in gray and violet.There are unexpectedly luminous passages behind Christ's head, while the wounds on the body and blood in the background glow with an almost unnatural quality, conveying a combination of naturalism and mystical spirituality. Devotional images rendering the horrors of Christ's torment were not new, but the power of this variation comes from its ability to bring the viewer close to a private scene not recorded in the Bible. In the 19th century the painting was the property of King Louis Philippe, and hung for a time in the Louvre until the king was dethroned by the Revolution of 1848.
Portrait of Cornelis Guldewagen, Mayor of Haarlem (c. 1660)
Frans Hals (1582-1666)
Dutch, 17th century
Painting: oil on panel
16" x 12"
Gift of Emily N. and Merle J. Trees 1953-1-1
Hals is famous for his frank portrayals of gypsies, musicians, beer drinkers, and lower ranking officials of which this portrait of a 17th-century Haarlem burgher and brewer is typical. It appears as if it were dashed off in a moment; and, indeed, Hals did not make the customary preparatory sketches for his paintings, aiming for a more immediate directness. He aspired to convey, not so much the exact physical likeness of the sitter, but more the vitality and personality of a living person. The dashing brushstrokes, typical of the painter's late work, loosely sketch the folds of Guldenwagen's cloak and his gloved left hand. Quick but sure strokes suggest rather than detail the hair, collar, tassels, and buttons. Broadly brushed areas of light and dark indicate shapes.
A swift brush stroke suggests a cuff, a hand, or a glove. The silver pins on his collar are flashes of white paint. As with the clothing, the face is painted expertly but without fine detail. There are no smooth surfaces or neat compositional outlines. The later French Impressionists studied the techniques Hals used to convey the impression of a fleeting moment animated by sparkling light. Newly rich burghers and middle-class professionals of a prosperous Holland wanted portraits of themselves and their families. They became the clients for Hals' portraits, but he himself did not prosper. Hals' own life was marred by critical financial and domestic problems. In later years, he was forced to rely on subsidies from the City of Haarlem. Out of gratitude he sometimes painted pictures of those who came to his aid. Perhaps the portrait of Haarlem's Mayor was one of these.
The Pont-Neuf: a Winter Morning (1900)
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
French, 19th century
Painting: oil on canvas
29 x 36 3/8"
Gift of Emily N. and Merle J. Trees 1951-1-2
Painted by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) near the end of his life, The Pont Neuf: A Winter Morning carries the vision of the French Impressionists into the twentieth century. The artist is said to have painted it from the window of his apartment on the Ile de la Cité in Paris.
The painting poignantly contrasts the momentary effects of a winter sunrise with the lasting monuments of the city. The bare tree branches, the paving stones, and the distant buildings are briefly touched by the still-hidden sun, which warms and softens the gray chill with a suffused glow. As people go about their early-morning business and the river Seine flows strongly but calmly by, everything is dappled with pink or red lights and blue shadows or reflections from the sky.
The unusually pristine condition of this painting, on a canvas that has never been relined, provides a rare opportunity to appreciate the textured surface, which carries an air of spontaneity for all its analytical craft.
The Blue Gable (1911)
Gabriele Münter (1877-1962)
German, 20th century
Painting: oil on canvas
34 15/16" x 39 5/8"
Gift of Albert L. Arenberg 1956-13-1
The stark colors and distinctive lines in the painting The Blue Gable demonstrate the pictorial force and expressionistic character of the work of the German artist Gabriele Münter (1877-1962). Initially influenced by the Impressionists, Münter quickly adapted the color schemes of the Fauves, characterized by unnatural color and simplified shapes. Her painting was enhanced by her interest in regional folk art, particularly the Hinterglas-malerei (painting on and behind glass) of Bavaria. The blue gable in this painting, created in 1911, represents the facade of a house in the small village of Murnau where Münter spent her summers away from Munich with fellow artists Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, the latter her companion from 1902 until 1916. With Marc, Kandinsky, and Alexei von Jawlensky, Münter participated in the 1911 and 1912 exhibitions of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of artists whose work was distinguished by vibrant color, dynamic form, and intense emotion.
Suffering Softens Stones (1948)
Yves Tanguy (1900-1955)
French, 20th century
Painting: oil on canvas
36" x 28"
Festival of Arts Purchase Fund 1949-9-1
The painting by the Surrealist painter Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) called Le Malheur Adoucit les Pierres (Bad Luck Softens Stones, or Suffering Softens Stones) shows a dark, stormy sky looming over a landscape strewn with lithic remains. Some of the mysterious formations resemble the debris of a nuclear explosion or perhaps stones that have undergone a strange geological metamorphosis. Other shapes give the appearance of folded paper, often associated with Surrealist and Dadaist work closely associated with them.
Tanguy was born in France but came to the United States just before the outbreak of World War II. He married the American painter Kay Sage and became a naturalized citizen. Some of Tanguy's biographers maintain that a trip he took to Africa in 1931 was the inspiration for the stonelike forms in his paintings, while others have cited a visit to Mexico in 1942 as his motivation. Suffering Softens Stones, impenetrable and personal as its message may be, creates an ominous atmosphere through a landscape that is both alien and convincing.