The Beholder and the Humble Style in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Religious Art
by Robert W. Baldwin
Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, May 1983
(this document is a slightly revised version of Aug 1983)
Robert Baldwin
Associate Professor of Art History
Department of Art History
Connecticut College, Box 5411
New London CT 06320
Email:
To jump to all major sections in this manuscript, search for an *
Note from the Author On This Digital Edition, Jan 2010
From time to time, I receive requests for copies of my dissertation. Since this project contains material others may find valuable, I have decided to "publish" it on the web. All of the images are available in PowerPoint slide shows on a CD.
In 1980, I began working on a very different thesis topic: “Gestures of Love and Devotion in Renaissance and Baroque Art” with chapters on the introspective beholder, amorous mutual gazing (published as an article in 1986), and the touch of love in Rembrandt (given as a conference paper in 1987. That material is presented on my web site - www.socialhistoryofart.com - under ESSAYS / 17th North. The longest chapter in this disjointed thesis project on Gestures of Love and Devotion was the first one on the introspective beholder. After enriching the discussion with the related ideas of the hidden God, the humble style, and the inner eye, I divided this chapter into five sections and presented it as a finished dissertation. Two months later, I graduated.
My web site has two articles spun off from my thesis. One expanded on the Protestant theme of beggarly poverty and lowliness, adding new material to that developed here in chapters four and five. It appeared as
"'On earth we are beggars, as Christ himself was': The Protestant Background to Rembrandt's Imagery of Poverty, Begging, and Sickness," Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, LIV, 3, 1985, 122-135
The second, later article attempted to develop a social context for the appeal of Protestant “poverty” to wealthy Dutch burghers. Unfortunately, I rushed this article as the writing shows.
"Rembrandt's New Testament Prints: Artistic Genius, Social Anxiety, and the Calvinist Marketed Image", in Shelley Perlove, ed., Impressions of Faith. Rembrandt's Biblical Etchings, University of Michigan, Dearborn, 1989, 24-34
My web site also offers an essay developing chapter three of my thesis on the humble style in fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. This offers a more sophisticated discussion and a wider array of art works and was presented as a public lecture as a Getty Fellow at Harvard in 1987.
Except for one new section noted below, the text here is identical to a slight revision of my thesis finished in Aug, 1983, three months after handing in the official version on file at Harvard. These minor revisions improved the writing without changing the content. The only change here since the August 1983 draft is a new section on the Devotio Moderna which appears as a separate insert at the start of chapter 3.
I never turned my thesis into a book for two reasons, both of which became apparent by the late 1980s when I abandoned this project for what I hoped would be a short book on Bruegel. First, I realized my methodology was too isolated from social, political, and economic history in its focus on ideas, texts, and aesthetic forms. Though economic issues were central to my discussion, I never grounded my texts and images in a more concrete social history of Dutch art addressing the pressing issues of the day. While my thesis went beyond traditional iconography by treating style and subject matter as overlapping modes unified by the values of particular spectators and groups, I still treated art as an elevated theological, poetic, rhetorical, and aesthetic realm, disconnected from the material lives and concerns of Dutch urban elites and collectors. In May 1983 when I finished my thesis, the new, social history of art had made only a few inroads into the history of Northern Renaissance and Baroque art. I eventually realized that rewriting this book as a social history of three hundred years of Northern European religious art was not something I could finish in time for my tenure review. While the social history of Dutch art has made considerable headway in the 1990s, the task is still too daunting for me to attempt, especially with my energies focused elsewhere.
The other flaw in the original thesis manuscript, much more easily corrected, was its misleading opposition between humanist and Protestant aesthetics, the former supposedly embracing a robust aesthetic of outward grandeur, sumptuousness, and beauty and the latter supposedly retreating to a paradoxical mode of outer plainness, poverty or ugliness concealing an inner spirit. After further reading in classical Stoic and Renaissance neo-Stoic authors, I now recognize a strong Stoic humanist tradition in the early modern Netherlands which was hostile to aesthetic grandeur, splendor, and wealth and which sought an inner,philosophical realm of moderation and simplicity. This tradition and its relevance for Dutch art has recently been discussed in Nicola Courtright’s article on Rembrandt's drawings published in the Art Bulletin (1997). Instead of contrasting humanist and Protestant rhetoric/aesthetics, I now see an aesthetic spectrum within humanist aesthetics with Stoic humanism at one end (along with Protestant thinking) and Platonic humanism at the other. The former stressed simplicity, austerity, inwardness, and poverty while the latter extolled beauty and richness as a sacred aesthetic. This is particularly important for 16th and seventeenth century Northern art, with a Stoic, Erasmian tradition informing the sacred lowliness found in Bruegel’s religious art.
If I were to revise my thesis, I would also develop a section on the aesthetics of simplicity and inwardness in the Devotio Moderna. (I have included a short, new discussion on the latter at the beginning of chapter III, separate from the original thesis material.) In my new understanding, I see a Northern intellectual tradition moving from a Devotio Moderna simplicity to a Dutch humanist Stoic simplicity. Erasmus is the key to this shift since he himself moved from a Devotion Moderna education to the Northern Stoic humanism also found in Vives, Coornhert, and in sixteenth-century Northern art (Dürer, Altdorfer, Bruegel, etc.). This Stoic humanist tradition continued in later 17th-century Northern humanists such as Junius and Huygens where a Stoic plainness and simplicity fused with the ethos of Dutch Calvinism. Of course Calvinism was itself profoundly Stoic in its orientation as indicated by Calvin's first book, a commentary on Seneca.)
I would also try to ground this Stoic plain style in a Northern burgher mentality. There is, after all, a coherent burgher tradition which runs from the lowly Holy Families of fifteenth-century Dutch artists like Campin and the Master of Cleves to the seventeenth-century Dutch family painting of De Hooch. From this perspective, Rembrandt’s humble religious imagery has as much if not more to do with the nostalgic, republican agrarian ideology of Dutch burgher culture seen in Potter’s family farm landscapes and Steen’s Peasant Family Saying Grace. Of course, this “burgher” aesthetic transcended class. It also appealed, at times, to a Northern nobility, especially within the confines of religious aesthetics and art extolling sacred lowliness as an antidote to prosperous lives and worldly spirits.
New London, January 2010.
BEGINNING OF THE DISSERTATION
The Beholder and the Humble Style in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Religious Art
by Robert W. Baldwin
Ph.D. Thesis
Harvard University, 1983
Advisers: James Ackerman, Konrad Oberhuber
For Harold Joachim
TABLE OF CONTENTS *
Preface
List of Illustrations
INTRODUCTION
I. UT PICTURA RHETORICA
Classical Decorum and the Intelligible World
Christian Decorum: "Things which are despised hath God chosen"
II. NOBLE VISION VS. THE "MEDITATING INWARD EYE".
Humanistic Vision: Plato, Aristotle, and the Rhetorical Tradition
Christian Sight: The Eye of Lust vs. the Eye of the Soul
Insight and Difficulty: the Beholder's Share
III. "PERCEIVED ONLY BY FAITH": THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY TRADITION
Impact of the Devotio Moderna (new 1998 section)
The Poverty of God: Style in the Early Northern Renaissance.
IV. "VERILY THOU ART A HIDDDEN GOD": THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TRADITION
V. THE PLAIN STYLE IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HOLLAND
"Concealed...so as...to be seen": Rembrandt and the Protestant Christ.
The Prodigal Son and the Mystery of God's Love
Chiaroscuro vs. Color: Style Modes in the Dutch Baroque.
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABSTRACT
NOTES
“The Beholder and the Humble Style in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Religious Art"
by Robert Baldwin
Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, 1983
PREFACE *
This book developed out of my dissertation written at Harvard University under the supervision of Konrad Oberhuber and James Ackerman. Their critical support helped me unearth my ideas from much irrelevant material and present them with at least some clarity. More than this, they oversaw my days as a graduate student like Pliny's she-bear, licking its shapeless cub into proper form. Beyond their help, my greatest debt is to literary scholars, particularly Erich Auerbach, whose article, "Sermo Humilis" originally inspired my project. In addition, I have benefited from readings by Barbara Butts, Marvin Eisenberg, Edward Goldberg, Craig Harbison, Nathan Whitman, and Jan Ziolkowski.
Addressing more intangible debts, I am grateful to my wife, Mary Jo, for putting up with me for the past four years and helping me remain human through the research and writing. Finally, this book is dedicated to Harold Joachim, the late curator of prints and drawings at the Chicago Art Institute. As an authority on Northern art, a past employer, and a friend, Dr. Joachim inspired and guided my work more than he ever knew. His "many unremembered acts of kindness and of love" do not go forgotten by those who miss him. Unfortunately, an untimely death prevented him from seeing the manuscript.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS *
1. Caravaggio, St. Matthew Writing the Gospel, first version, 1598, formerly Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, destroyed
2. Pordenone, Christ Nailed to the Cross, 1521, detail of fresco in Duomo, Cremona
3. Anonymous satirical drawing of the Crucifixion, 2nd-century A.D., Casa dei Cesari, Rome (from Raffaele Garrucci, Il Crocifisso Graffito..., Rome, 1857, p. 5)
4. School of Rembrandt, The Art Critic as Ass, c. 1644, Metropolitan Museum, New York
5. Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin, ca. 1606, Louvre
6. Bohemian, Christ Carrying the Cross, illumination to Jena Codex, ca. 1475, National Library, Prague
7. Bohemian, The Emperor Constantine Crowning the Pope Ruler of the World, illumination to Jena Codex, ca. 1475, National Library, Prague
8. Lucas Cranach, Christ on the Ass Entering Jerusalem, woodcut from the Passional Christ et Antichristi, Wittenberg, 1521
9. Lucas Cranach, The Pope on His Stallion Riding to Hell, woodcut from the Passional Christi et Anti-christi, Wittenberg, 1521
10. Lutheran Broadsheet, The Humble Christ vs. the Worldly Pope, 16th century
11. Dutch, The Humble Christ vs. the Worldly Pope, 17th century, Rijksmuseum het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht
12. Anonymous Italian woodcut, Lateran Procession of Pope Leo X, April 11, 1513
13. Titian, Triumph of Christ, woodcut, c. 1510, detail
14. German, A Soul Saved by Seeing the Eucharist, woodcut from Stephan Arndes, (title unknown) Lübeck, 1492
15. Bohemian, Satire of the Roman Mass, illumination to the Jena Codex, ca. 1475, National Library, Prague
16. Marten de Vos, Sight, engraving, from a series of the "Five Senses", ca. 1575.
17. Rembrandt, Baptism of the Eunuch, 1626, Utrecht Museum
18. Robert Campin, Nativity, early 15th-century, Musée de la Ville, Dijon
19. Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece, early 15th century, The Cloisters, New York
20. Christ with His Mystical Brides: Ecclesia and Humanity, illustration to Honorius of Autun, Expositio in Cantico Canticorum, 13th century, Staatsbibliotek, Munich
21a. Hieronymous Bosch, Adoration of the Magi, 1475-85, Metropolitan Museum, New York
21b. Detail of fig. 21a
22a. Hans Memling, Landscape with Scenes from the Life of Christ, 1480, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
22b. Detail of fig. 22a
22c. Detail of fig. 22a
23. Dirck Bouts, Last Supper, ca. 1465, St. Peters, Louvain
24. Rhenish, Joseph Hailing Mary as the Mother of God, ca. 1350, Dahlem Museum, West Berlin
25. Rhenish, Holy Family, ca. 1400, Dahlem Museum, West Berlin
26. Michelangelo, Holy Family ("Madonna del Silenzio"), ca. 1535-40, drawing, Coll. Duke of Portland
27. Geertgen tot sint Jans, Nocturnal Nativity, ca. 1490-1500, National Gallery, London
28. Dutch, The Birth of Moses, from the Lockhorst Bible, British Museum, London, ms. Add. 38122, f. 73v., 15th century
29. Jean Colombe, Man of Sorrows Worshipped by Duke Charles I and Duchess Blanche de Montferrat, Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, ca. 1415, Chantilly, Museé Condé
30. Rohan Master, Lamentation, Rohan Hours, ca. 1425-30, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
31. Boucicaut Master, Reception of the Duke of Berry into Paradise, Grand Heures, 1409, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Ms. lat. 919, fol. 96
32. Rohan Master, Dead Man Before God, Rohan Hours, ca. 1425-30, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
33. Housebook Master, Vagabond Family, drypoint
34. Housebook Master, Holy Family, drypoint
35. Housebook Master, Man of Sorrows, drypoint
36. Bernt Notke, Christ Appearing Among the Beggars to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 1483, Talinn, cathedral, St. Elizabeth altar
37. Lucas van Leyden, Holy Family, engraving, ca. 1505-8
38. Lucas van Leyden, St. Jerome, engraving, 1521
39. Jan Mostaert?, Holy Family, ca. 1480-1500, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
40. Pieter Bruegel, Adoration of the Magi, 1564, National Gallery, London
41. Pieter Bruegel, Christ on the Way to Calvary, ca. 1564, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
42. Lucas Cranach, St. Bernard's Vision of the Man of Sorrows, woodcut, c. 1515
43. Grünewald, Crucifixion, ca. 1513, Kunstmuseum, Basel
44. Grünewald, Crucifixion, c. 1515, Isenheim Altar, Colmar
45. Grünewald, Resurrection, c. 1515, Isenheim Altar, Colmar
46. Christ in the Wine Press, Frontispiece to Martin Luther, Eyn sermou von dem newen Testament, Leipzig, Valentinus Schumann, 1520
47. Master Betram wookshop, Simeon Recogizes the Christ Child, ca. 1365, Rood screen altar, Doberan, monastery church
48. Rembrandt, Simeon Recognizes the Christ Child, ca. 1628, Kunsthalle, Hamburg
49a. Rembrandt, Simeon Recognizes the Christ Child, etching, 1654
49b. Detail of fig. 49a
50a. Rembrandt, Simeon Recognizes the Christ Child, ca. 1669, National Museum, Stockholm
50b. Detail of fig. 50a
51. Rembrandt, Flight into Egypt, etching, 1633
52. Rembrandt, Beggar Family, etching, c. 1634
53. Rembrandt, Holy Family, ca. 1635, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
54. Poussin, Holy Family of the Steps, 1648, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
55. Mair von Landshut, Holy Family, 1499, engraving
56. Mair von Landshut, Madonna and Child with Angel, ca. 1485-1510, engraving
57. Rembrandt, Holy Family, 1654, etching