From Memling to Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders by Katharina Van Cauteren et al (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: From Memling to Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders by Katharina Van Cauteren et al James P. Gilroy Van Cauteren, Katharina, et al. From Memling to Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders. Hannibal, 2021. ISBN 978 94 6388 744 1. Pp. 432. This richly illustrated book is the catalogue of an exhibit held at the Denver Art Museum, from October 2022 to January 2023, titled “Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks.” Over a hundred paintings created in the French and Flemish-speaking Southern Netherlands from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries were displayed and are reproduced in the catalogue. The volume is divided into two parts. The first half is an insightful, somewhat irreverent, narrative by Katharina Van Cauteren from the Phoebus Foundation in Antwerp, whose collection provided most of the paintings on display. With works of art from the exhibit as examples, she traces the social and religious evolution of the cities of Flanders and Brabant from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance to the Baroque era. The Southern Netherlands were a part of the French sphere of influence since they were ruled for over a century by the Dukes of Burgundy, cousins of the Kings of France. The Dukes sought to recreate the Carolingian “middle empire” of Lothair (22). Tournai-born painter Rogier Van der Wyden, “the court painter of the dukes of Burgundy in Brussels” influenced several later artists, like the Master of the Prado Adoration (232) and Hugo Van der Goes by his “emotionally charged” inspiration (238). A later artist, Joos Van Cleve, was engaged by King Francis Ist to do a series of portraits of the French royal family (282). Medieval works were of a highly religious import. The Church inspired a fear of hell among the people, who were urged to follow a righteous path in this life to be deemed worthy of entrance into heaven after death. Painters were inspired by the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi who preached a more human image of God. The maternal love of Mary for her Son and the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross became more intensely felt by artists and their public. The “Modern Devotion” that developed in Flanders in the fifteenth century beheld manifestations of the divine presence in every aspect of nature and humanity. A growing middle class in commercial centers like Antwerp at first sought to emulate but later came to challenge the nobility and clergy who had dominated society up until then. There was a growing secularization as the desire for worldly affluence and prestige became a stronger motivation than fears about the afterlife. The second half of the catalogue is devoted to analyses of the individual works in the exhibit by six art experts. They trace noteworthy artistic trends. Just as Flemish painters had influenced Italian artists in the fifteenth century by their depiction of minute details and the technique of oil on canvas, later Northern masters like Rubens traveled to Italy and came under the influence of Titian and Caravaggio among others. The former’s dynamic use of color and the latter’s realism and chiaroscuro were an inspiration to several Flemish painters, like Rubens’s disciples, Van Dyck and Jordaens. [End Page 229] James P. Gilroy University of Denver (CO) Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French