Saint Luke painting the Virgin
Encyclopedia
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
with the Baby Jesus. Such paintings were often painted for chapels of Saint Luke in European churches during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, and often include the pose of the Salus Populi Romani
Salus Populi Romani
Salus Populi Romani -Protectress translates literally as "salvation or health" -is a title given in the 19th century to the Byzantine icon of the Madonna and Child, reputed to date to the Early Christian era, in the Borghese or Pauline Chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.It has...
, based on the legend of Luke's portrait of Mary. Versions of the subject were sometimes painted as the masterpiece
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, in the original sense, that many guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s required an artist to submit before becoming a master
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
.
History
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of artists, and more specifically, as patron saint of the Guild of Saint Luke
Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identified by John of Damascus as having painted the...
, which was often the name of the painters' guild. As the patron saint of artists gained popularity, so did the painters themselves ascend to a higher class of craftsmen beyond sculptors during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. Before this period masons, sculptors and architects were typically grouped together in the a guild, as all worked with stone, and tended to be perceived as higher status than painters. Many Guilds of St. Luke were conglomerate guilds with various professions, including painters, paint-mixers, book illuminators
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
, saddle-makers, and sellers of all of these things. Though saddle-makers may seem out of place in this setting, it helps to know that early manuscripts were painted by hand on vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
, and that colorful military harness was painted in the same way as paintings.
Early versions
The earliest known version of this theme in Byzantine artByzantine art
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
is a 16th century russian icon depicting the painting of the Theotokos of Vladimir
Theotokos of Vladimir
The Theotokos of Vladimir , also known as Our Lady of Vladimir or Virgin of Vladimir and "The Vladimir Madonna" - is one of the most venerated Orthodox icons and a typical example of Eleusa Byzantine iconography. The Theotokos is regarded as the holy protectress of Russia...
, which is a rival of the Salus Populi Romani for the first known painting by Luke. Such devotional icons were made in the belief that the original prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
icon was a genuine painting recording the appearance of Mary, though it is clear that the legend only appears several centuries later. The earliest known version of this theme in Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
is the version by Rogier van der Weyden, which is in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and copies of which are in Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
, where it was originally painted, Alte Pinakothek
Alte Pinakothek
The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum situated in the Kunstareal in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings...
, Munich, and the Hermitage
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
.
Self-portrait
Traditionally, the donor of the painting to the chapel is the Guild of Saint Luke, which often appointed its best painter for the job. If the painting never found its way into a church, it was hung in the Guildhall. This painter then painted a self-portrait, although in some cases St. Luke is accompanied by a helper or admirer, and sometimes this is the self-portrait.Iconography
The attributes in such paintings tell us a story about the art of painting through the centuries. In the Rogier van der Weyden and El GrecoEl Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
versions, the painter seems to be making a miniature on his own, while in other versions the painter is shown at his easel
Easel
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it.-Etymology:The word is an old Germanic synonym for donkey...
, using a maulstick
Maulstick
A maulstick, or mahlstick, is a stick with a soft leather or padded head, used by painters to support the hand that holds the brush. The word is an adaptation of the Dutch maalstok, i.e...
, with the flesh tones present on a palette
Palette (painting)
A palette , in the original sense of the word, is a rigid, flat surface on which a painter arranges and mixes paints. A palette is usually made of wood, plastic, ceramic, or other hard, inert, nonporous material, and can vary greatly in size and shape...
for the incarnation of the scene. Often a worker is seen mixing paint in the background. Though typically the subject of the painting is shown twice, once in the flesh and once on the easel, sometimes it seems as though Maria and Jesus are too holy to be shown incarnate, which is possibly the case with the painting by El Greco, since the painter's face seems paler than the subject.
External links
- http://www.aiwaz.net/panopticon/saint-luke-triptych/gi1863c260Saint Luke Triptych by Derick Baegert, 1480, BrandenburgBrandenburgBrandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
.] - St Luke Painting the Virgin Woodcut, anonymous German artist on Lib-Art