The writer proposes that Mary Magdalene appears as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin in Rogier van d... more The writer proposes that Mary Magdalene appears as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin in Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych, a small devotional triptych (Louvre, Paris) owned by the young widow Catherine de Brabant, who probably commissioned it soon after the death of her husband, Jean Braque, in 1452. The Magdalene's role in this work as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin thematizes penitents' ever-present possibility for transformation, and encourages their timely progress from a state of sin to one of readiness for death and judgment. Such a focus upon the process of the Magdalene's conversion from prostitute to Bride of Christ, a theme that recurs in the Braque Triptych, enables the saint to serve as a most powerful, yet also accessible, intercessor for Catherine de Brabant. The triptych operates most efficaciously as an interactive device for De Brabant to ensure her dead husband's timely departure from purgatory.
In his painting Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), now in the Prado, Madrid, Rogier van der Weyden... more In his painting Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), now in the Prado, Madrid, Rogier van der Weyden uses a rhetoric of dress to investigate and popularize a new visual type hitherto unrecognized by art historians: the metaphorically pregnant Mary Magdalene. This symbolic pregnancy serves as an analog for the Magdalene's conversion from wanton prostitute to Bride of Christ. Laboring beneath the cross, she represents the ideal archetype for repentant sinners, offering everyone hope of redemption. The visual clues that would have reassured the original viewers of the Magdalene's efficacy as both model and intercessory advocate are her loosened laces and her narrow, low-riding belt. The writer traces the development of these elements of costume as indicators of pregnancy in 15th-century northern European art, and goes on to discuss the significance of the Magdalene's metaphorical pregnancy and labor.
What about body hair: axillary, pubic, chest, and leg hair? Less visible in real life than head a... more What about body hair: axillary, pubic, chest, and leg hair? Less visible in real life than head and facial hair, it nonetheless plays key roles in later medieval life and art. Jolly offers an overview of the presence or absence of body hair on nudes in European art from the 13th through the 16th centuries. Drawing on written sources about the body's production of hair, its grooming, and depilatory practices, she compares those contemporary perspectives and customs to artists' constructs of the nude.
Contents: Preface Introduction The 'pregnant' Magdalene, bride of Christ: Rogier van der ... more Contents: Preface Introduction The 'pregnant' Magdalene, bride of Christ: Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross The wise and foolish Magdalene: Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych The engaging Magdalene: Quentin Massys' Mary Magdalene Opening her Jar The lovesick Magdalene: the master of the female half-lengths and Jan van Hemessen's musical Magdalenes The melancholic Magdalene: Adriaen Isenbrant and the master of the female half-lengths' landscape Magdalenes Conclusion Bibliography Index.
While extensive scholarship already exists on Rogier van der Wey-dens Columba Altarpiece (Munich,... more While extensive scholarship already exists on Rogier van der Wey-dens Columba Altarpiece (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), an influential work from the early 1450s originally in Cologne, two details in the triptych’s central Adoration of the Magi (Figure 11.1) deserve further consideration.1 Visible in the original, but difficult to see in reproductions, are two figures who wear earrings: a black man in the Magi’s entourage, framed behind the stable by the backmost arched window; and a bearded man in a turban standing in the closer archway at the right. Rogier, drawing on newly developing conventions in fifteenth-century Flemish art, uses earrings to mark both figures as outsiders: “others” with regard to the Christian society of fifteenth-century Northern Europe. But rather than motivating rejection of these outsiders by viewers, earrings signal acceptance. By intensifying figures’ outsider status, earrings make their eventual conversion all the more remarkable. Rogier’s black attendant will soon see the Christ Child, and will acknowledge him as Son of God; the turbaned and earringed onlooker, a Jew, is this very moment “seeing the light.” This new use of earrings, which develops in fifteenth-century Flanders, can be called the even he/she topos, meaning even such a non-believing outsider as he/she can experience a revelation and convert to Christianity.The power of being a Christian insider in fifteenth-century Flemish society is reinforced by heightening the otherness of the earringed outsider; Christianity’s universal appeal is reconfirmed; and revelation and salvation are possible for all, because even he/she responds to Christianity and therefore converts.
The writer proposes that Mary Magdalene appears as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin in Rogier van d... more The writer proposes that Mary Magdalene appears as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin in Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych, a small devotional triptych (Louvre, Paris) owned by the young widow Catherine de Brabant, who probably commissioned it soon after the death of her husband, Jean Braque, in 1452. The Magdalene's role in this work as both a Foolish and Wise Virgin thematizes penitents' ever-present possibility for transformation, and encourages their timely progress from a state of sin to one of readiness for death and judgment. Such a focus upon the process of the Magdalene's conversion from prostitute to Bride of Christ, a theme that recurs in the Braque Triptych, enables the saint to serve as a most powerful, yet also accessible, intercessor for Catherine de Brabant. The triptych operates most efficaciously as an interactive device for De Brabant to ensure her dead husband's timely departure from purgatory.
In his painting Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), now in the Prado, Madrid, Rogier van der Weyden... more In his painting Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), now in the Prado, Madrid, Rogier van der Weyden uses a rhetoric of dress to investigate and popularize a new visual type hitherto unrecognized by art historians: the metaphorically pregnant Mary Magdalene. This symbolic pregnancy serves as an analog for the Magdalene's conversion from wanton prostitute to Bride of Christ. Laboring beneath the cross, she represents the ideal archetype for repentant sinners, offering everyone hope of redemption. The visual clues that would have reassured the original viewers of the Magdalene's efficacy as both model and intercessory advocate are her loosened laces and her narrow, low-riding belt. The writer traces the development of these elements of costume as indicators of pregnancy in 15th-century northern European art, and goes on to discuss the significance of the Magdalene's metaphorical pregnancy and labor.
What about body hair: axillary, pubic, chest, and leg hair? Less visible in real life than head a... more What about body hair: axillary, pubic, chest, and leg hair? Less visible in real life than head and facial hair, it nonetheless plays key roles in later medieval life and art. Jolly offers an overview of the presence or absence of body hair on nudes in European art from the 13th through the 16th centuries. Drawing on written sources about the body's production of hair, its grooming, and depilatory practices, she compares those contemporary perspectives and customs to artists' constructs of the nude.
Contents: Preface Introduction The 'pregnant' Magdalene, bride of Christ: Rogier van der ... more Contents: Preface Introduction The 'pregnant' Magdalene, bride of Christ: Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross The wise and foolish Magdalene: Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych The engaging Magdalene: Quentin Massys' Mary Magdalene Opening her Jar The lovesick Magdalene: the master of the female half-lengths and Jan van Hemessen's musical Magdalenes The melancholic Magdalene: Adriaen Isenbrant and the master of the female half-lengths' landscape Magdalenes Conclusion Bibliography Index.
While extensive scholarship already exists on Rogier van der Wey-dens Columba Altarpiece (Munich,... more While extensive scholarship already exists on Rogier van der Wey-dens Columba Altarpiece (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), an influential work from the early 1450s originally in Cologne, two details in the triptych’s central Adoration of the Magi (Figure 11.1) deserve further consideration.1 Visible in the original, but difficult to see in reproductions, are two figures who wear earrings: a black man in the Magi’s entourage, framed behind the stable by the backmost arched window; and a bearded man in a turban standing in the closer archway at the right. Rogier, drawing on newly developing conventions in fifteenth-century Flemish art, uses earrings to mark both figures as outsiders: “others” with regard to the Christian society of fifteenth-century Northern Europe. But rather than motivating rejection of these outsiders by viewers, earrings signal acceptance. By intensifying figures’ outsider status, earrings make their eventual conversion all the more remarkable. Rogier’s black attendant will soon see the Christ Child, and will acknowledge him as Son of God; the turbaned and earringed onlooker, a Jew, is this very moment “seeing the light.” This new use of earrings, which develops in fifteenth-century Flanders, can be called the even he/she topos, meaning even such a non-believing outsider as he/she can experience a revelation and convert to Christianity.The power of being a Christian insider in fifteenth-century Flemish society is reinforced by heightening the otherness of the earringed outsider; Christianity’s universal appeal is reconfirmed; and revelation and salvation are possible for all, because even he/she responds to Christianity and therefore converts.
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