Northern Renaissance Art

Reviews exotic to the everyday/The ethnographic exhibition in Germany’, specifically to ‘promote fresh discussion of nineteenthcentury visual culture’. The other essays in this section all offer scope for visual culture through art history: for example, Linda Nochlin’s ‘The imaginary orient’, which takes as its starting point the 1982 exhibition ‘Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800–1880’ and questions ‘the recent spate of revisionist or expansionist exhibitions of nineteenth-century art’. As expressed in their preface, Schwartz and Przyblyski have focused on ‘objects consumed for their image-value and the institutions that facilitated such looking’ (e.g. photographs, exhibitions, advertising), rather than ‘the rich visual culture of such things as quilts and teacups which surely shaped visual experience as well’. Quilts and teacups are perhaps a mistaken example to use here, as their visual and symbolic importance in the nineteenth century could well have been included, but one understands that the cutting-off line had to be drawn somewhere. The general topics are broken down into individual case studies so that we come away feeling we have absorbed some fascinating details about a variety of subjects. The coherent and cohering thread of visual impact runs throughout the book and allows some interesting juxtaposing of essays: for example, the Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee’s ‘empire-wide scheme of lantern-slide lectures’ in education (James R Ryan, ‘On visual instruction’) is set alongside the use of advertising by the newly founded Selfridge’s (Erika Rappaport, ‘A new era of shopping’). From Part Three onwards, most of the essays carry illustrations. It actually comes as a surprise that there are 78 in total because the initial impression of the book implies such a density of text, but a flick through serves to reiterate the range of subjects covered: to cite but a few, stereoscopes, phantasmagoria, Vienna, California, Buffalo Bill, suffragettes, slaves; Cézanne, Gérôme, Van Gogh and Willette. Part One, ‘Visual culture and disciplinary practices’, is headed by an essay by the editors and provides the bridge between the nineteenth century and contemporary visual culture studies, which, after all, as a discipline did not then exist. The other two essays here, both new, explore the role of the visual as it is perceived and may be exploited within other disciplines; they draw the reader further into the issues raised by posing many questions. Part Two, ‘Genealogies’, offers extracts from seven essays which, if not actually published in the nineteenth century, were written by men born into it and who all explore and demonstrate an awareness of visual experience: Baudelaire, Marx, Freud, Simmel, Riegl, Kracauer and finally Benjamin, whose role as one of the forefathers of visual culture studies is made very clear by the number of times he is cited throughout the book. The remaining 28 essays are then divided thematically into Parts Three to Eight, each part being introduced by the editors. One aspect that is particularly rewarding about this book is that it takes topics which had all gathered momentum in the nineteenth century, such as the new technologies of the railways or photography; urbanisation; emancipation; museums and exhibitions; advertising; and more, and requires the reader to regard them anew. Aspects are highlighted which might otherwise be overlooked both because of their normality then (such as the Parisian portière or prostitution), or our contemporary acceptance of a status quo and therefore our need to be reminded of the extraordinary power of nineteenth-century innovations (such as electric signs, travelling by train, urban expansion or even the fear engendered by lantern slides and cinema). This makes it a compelling read for someone with a general interest in the nineteenth century, as well as a bridge for interdisciplinary research. At the same time, it is a book to be absorbed slowly, if its richness of content is to be fully appreciated. marjorie corner The Open University NORTHERN RENAISSANCE ART james snyder Pearson Prentice Hall 2005 (2nd Edn) d40.99 $75.99 578 pp. 255 colour/415 mono illus isbn 0-13-189564-8 hinking of the later medieval art of northern Europe conjures up images of a certain type: Jan van Eyck’s muchloved Arnolfini Wedding, combining everyday detail with a scientific gaze that prefigures Vermeer; the demure aristocratic Madonnas of Rogier van der Weyden in their T enclosed gardens; Hieronymus Bosch’s strange visions of the hereafter populated by animated combinations of plant, animal and kitchenware; and the application of German sensibilities to the scope of Italian Renaissance thinking in Dürer’s oeuvre. Art of this kind, particularly the small rich paintings produced in what would become the Netherlands and Belgium, attracts large audiences on the infrequent occasions when exhibitions of it are organised. It is ironic, given that a large proportion of these works can be reproduced at life-size in coffee-table books, that more has not been published on the subject. It is thus very important that when these books are written, they are written well. James Snyder has written a book (first published 1985) crammed full of pictures, covering the entire range of northern European art production from the last flowering of the International Gothic to the first stirrings of Baroque sensibility. It includes sculpture and tapestry as well as paintings, and is both informed and informative; subject and object alike are treated with sensitivity, and the author pays heed to the need of the art under consideration to be shown as part of culture as a whole. With these characteristics, why is Northern Renaissance Art such an unsatisfying read? Part of the answer lies in the book’s strictly chronological sequence: we are led from early fourteenth-century Bohemia to the late sixteenth-century Netherlands as if on a school trip around a particularly large gallery. There are no diversions or tempting side-rooms, nothing to distract us from the beaten track, and Snyder’s single unexpected card, the unusual inclusion of Bohemia as a starting point, is played far too early owing to the demands of this chronology. On this excursion we have all been allowed our packed lunches too soon and as a result may become tired later on. The second factor in rendering Northern Renaissance Art such a stodgy meal is its similarity to many of the less-inspired paintings discussed and, ironically, its differences from some of the best. Snyder’s technique of describing much of the detail in most of the images is at first illuminating, but after the first couple of chapters the descriptions fit together to create not a glittering multi-faceted set of observations, but a flat surface rather like lace under glass. The details are all there, and many of them are fascinating, but the effect is spoiled by the impenetrability of the sur- volume 12 issue 2 may 2005 r bpl/aah The Art Book 37 Reviews face. Jan van Eyck’s paintings, for example the Altarpiece of the Lamb (1432, Cathedral of St Bavo, Ghent), with its characterised individuals and depth of feeling, its translucent highlights of oil colours, could for the sake of analogy usefully be contrasted with Stephan Lochner’s Last Judgement (1435,Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne). Lochner’s work is much flatter and more dense than Van Eyck’s, and this painting in particular has none of the fluidity of surface of its counterparts further west. Snyder’s writing is neat and informative, but has a uniformity of tone so that the very few exclamations of interest seem odd and out of place. Comparison is not something that Snyder seems particularly comfortable with, unless it involves comparing paintings to the standards set by Van Eyck and, in particular, Rogier van der Weyden. These two are obvious favourites, and the largest central section of Northern Renaissance Art (entitled ‘Fifteenth-century innovations’) is dominated by them. After a brief discussion of Germany and Switzerland, Van Eyck is introduced and takes pride of place in the first half of the section with his undeniably impressive works, numbering among them the Van der Paele Madonna of 1436 in Bruges’ Groeninge Museum and several portraits, from whose dark velvet backgrounds stare remarkably self-contained individuals. Following Van Eyck, Rogier (he is referred to, as all artists credited with being somehow greater than their times are, by his first name alone) makes his entrance, and proceeds to dominate the art world with his tall and refined nobles, and his ability to make individuals appear both stylised and life-like at once. For most of the book, Snyder’s chapters read like a series of lectures placed together in chronological order: no attempt is made to relate sections to any others, all of them functioning as selfcontained worlds much like the images they describe. It is only in the chapters on the most famous artists (Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Bosch, Dürer, Brueghel) that a sense of a larger artistic life is seen. To be fair to Snyder, the vast majority of the work he discusses is quite obscure and the artists more so. Many of them have no more individual identity than ‘Master of the. . .’ work in question. The little we do know of them is presented skilfully, but the thought cannot be suppressed that some of them would have been better left un- 38 The Art Book mentioned rather than exposing such tiny tantalising details. This would have given Snyder room to elaborate further upon the background to the growing Italian influence on northern Europe, touched on in his Dürer chapter but given a relatively small section at the end of the book. Yet Snyder’s text makes an extremely good reference book for the entirety of the period it covers. There cannot be many painters, sculptors, manuscript illuminators or tapestry weavers that it does not refer to, however briefly, and the index is comprehensive. Students of northern Renaissance art in search of an image will probably find it in the seven hundred or so selected by Snyder; there are also maps of the many centres of art production throughout Europe and a timeline showing artistic advances in relation to other fields of endeavour. A sense of how the artists of this time related to one another is, however, relegated to discussions of workshops, or on a few occasions their meetings. Despite such a long text, the burgeoning world of the print is left relatively unexplored in favour of biography, and woodcuts and engravings appear only fleetingly. This is not to say that Northern Renaissance Art is a bad book, or even that its merits in comparison with others on the same period make it unworthy of attention. It is a text of its time, and that was a time when the relationships between art and the rest of the world were not pursued with the same vigour as they are now. Snyder’s words are well written, but they are not an engaging read. matt cambridge Freelance Art Historian, Edinburgh RADICAL ART: PRINTMAKING AND THE LEFT IN 1930s NEW YORK helen langa University of California Press 2004 d36.95 $55.00 345 pp. 104 mono illus isbn 0520231554 n Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York, Helen Langa offers the most extensive overview to date of American printmaking during the Great Depression and the New Deal. She makes an excellent case for the need for such a study; because printing was relatively inexpensive, it made art as affordable and I volume 12 issue 2 may 2005 r bpl/aah accessible to the public as was realistically possible during the worst economic crisis in American history, and many artists produced prints hoping to make collectors out of ordinary people. Many of these prints depicted the lives and problems of factory labourers, miners, construction workers, African Americans, the unemployed and the homeless with great compassion and journalistic acuity. Some artists used prints to condemn the spreading totalitarianism and political instability that precipitated the Second World War. However, in spite of the abundance of prints made, much more attention has been given to painting of the era. The author’s explanation of the problems, using the terms ‘Social Realism’ and ‘social viewpoint art’, is a cogent, helpful scrutiny of commonly used terminology in the study of American art of the 1930s and how this period has been traditionally understood, but it remains to be seen if her new term will gain favour with scholars. Langa’s extensive discussion of the different organisations that supported the dissemination of prints, of the connections between artists and left-wing political organisations, and the differences in ideas about appropriate subjects and styles for prints is highly informative. She reveals much about the problems that artists encountered in resolving the competing goals of appealing to the public, recording the harsh truths of contemporary life, and satisfying their desire for selfexpression and artistic creativity. Langa’s decision to focus on New York City, however, is curious, disappointing, and unsubstantiated. It reinforces the assumption that innovative art was made only in the large cities of the northeast, particularly the presumptive capital of American art, New York. This focus on New York excludes many significant artists who worked elsewhere. Without further explanation, the reader falls back on preconceived notions that New York was the heart and soul of leftist politics and art in 1930s’ America and that art in the rest of the nation was inconsequential and provincial. Perceived divisions of religion, race and political thought in the America of the 1930s are similarly reinforced. The irony of Langa’s limited geographic scope is that she frequently discusses artists who are hardly typical, life-long New Yorkers, such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and Diego Rivera, to clarify and reinforce aspects of her thesis. Langa discusses few