AHIS 120g 1st Edition Lecture 18Current LectureRenaissance painting in Northern EuropeRogier van der Weyden in Brussels- Aspiring artists learned their craft as apprentices in the workshop of a certified master.- Regulations for the training of artists and the market for works of art came from the guilds,professional organizations of artists established to protect the interests of their members.o Guilds not only controlled training but limited competition from artists outside theirtowns.o Guilds were both economic and social institutions, assuring the quality of theirproducts and seeing to the well-being of their members.- One illustrious graduate of the guild system was Rogier van der Weyden.o By 1435, Rogier has established a successful workshop in Brussels that tookcommissions from as far as Italy and Spain.o His most influential work is Descent from the Cross (Entombment), 1435.- Descent from the Cross (Entombment).o Depicts the moment when Christ’s followers lower his body from the Cross; themourners crowd into a shallow box space.o Figures were carefully modeled in order to demonstrate every nuance of texture. o Goal was to increase the expressive content of his pictures by emphasizing theemotional impact of the scene on its participants. Postures and faces of the figures express grief.  The Virgin’s swoon echoes the pose and expression of her son.o Rogier depicts the Virgin’s intense pain and grief in order to inspire the samecompassion in a viewer. o The image is staged in a shallow niche, not against a landscape, which allows theviewer’s attention onto the foreground and allows the artist to mold the figures intoa coherent group. o Placing the body of Christ at the center of the composition refers to the celebrationof the Eucharist, which takes place before the altarpiece during the Mass.o Comparison—the Roettegen Pieta.Late fifteenth-century art in the Netherlands- In the later 15th century, patronage by the merchant class continued to grow, and paintersfound work in commissions from the middle classes.- Panel paintings were in demand by the middle-class.- Innovations of the early 15th century painters spread to the northern Netherlands (present-day Holland).- The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch (1480).o Divided into three panels, The Garden…represents humans in the natural world.o A continuous landscape unites the three sections; the high horizon and atmosphericperspective imply a deep vista of the earth from an omniscient vantage point.o Small creatures, both human and nonhuman, swarm.o The left-hand wing appears to represent the Garden of Eden. This airy landscape is filled with animals, including exotic creatures such as anelephant and a giraffe, in addition to hybrid monsters.o The central panel reveals a world inhabited by tiny humans who frolic among giantfruits, birds and other creatures.  In the middle ground, men parade around a circular basin on the backs of allsorts of beasts. o The right-hand wing depicts an infernal zone, which maybe hell, where strangehybrid creatures torment tiny humans with punishments.o Despite its triptych format, it is not a traditional altarpiece but a secular work.o Scholars have had difficulty deciphering its meaning but some argue it represents thetime of