Werter Tríptice – Wikipedia, free encyclopedia

Triptic Werl O Santa Barbara and San Juan with the donor
Year	1438
Author	Robert Campin
Technique	Oleo on the table
Style	Gothic
Size	101 cm × 47 cm
LocalizaCión	Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

He Triptic Werl It is a triptych painted by Robert Campin (sometimes also called Flèmalle’s teacher) in 1438. Only the two lateral post -postigue in the Museum of the Prado in Madrid are preserved. The dating places these works among the latest author; They are interesting for their symbolic qualities and to show the influence of other great flamenco teachers.

The first table represents the donor, the Franciscan Master Heinrich Werl protected by San Juan Bautista (Heinrich Werl was a Doctor of Natural Theology at the University of Colonia). Robert Campin already denotes a clear influence of Jan van Eyck (the mirror evokes, without a doubt, to which he appears in The marriage arnolfini ). The conception of the general lighting and the interior of the house is also interesting, comparable to that of the canciller Rolin or, even, with that of the Arnolfini. It is a very rigged and clean house, but not luxurious: the circle in which Flèmalle’s teacher was moving was not as high as Van Eyck’s, so his style is more realistic and sensitive, closer to the popular And the everyday.

The same goes for the symbols it represents, they are not so meditated or so subtle. They are much more ostensible, clearer and, therefore, are available to the perception of more people, although not around the world. Something similar is observed in the other table, which represents Santa Barbara reading to the heat of the fire. The saint appears surrounded by objects that allude to history about her life.

Saint Barbara [ To edit ]

The Golden legend From Jacobo de Vorágine he says that Santa Barbara lived when Christianity was still clandestine. Actually, his father was pagan and hated Christians, but he didn’t know that his own daughter was. How much this was going to make a long trip, decided to build a tower to lock her daughter and protect her from possible too voluntary suitors. He left when the tower-prison was not finished, occasion that Barbara took advantage of to ask the masons to do three windows in it and, thus, to be able to pray to the three people of the Holy Trinity, dogma of which he was very devout. When he returned from the trip, his father learned that his own daughter was a Christian and decided to punish her cruelly, but when they were going to whip her, the whips became feathers. After several unsuccessful attempts to torment the saint, his father decided to cut his head himself, such was his hatred towards Christians. But, once the crime was committed, at that moment a ray fulminated it and turned it into a fireball until consuming it. Therefore, it is said that Santa Barbara protects from the rays and is patron of the gunners.

Symbology [ To edit ]

As can be seen in many works of the primitive flamenco, the reality of the painting usually hides a perfectly integrated symbolic content, in such a way that everything that apparently is an object, which dead nature, loses its uniqueness to be part of the complete allegory of The painting, generally, as in this case, with a deep religious character. In the work, there are signs as evident as the sculpture of the Trinity, next to a candle, on the fireplace, which is burning. The fire would have a purifying function of the evils and, in addition, reminds the flame that ended his ruthless father. The lily in a vase refers to the virginity of the protagonist, as well as the glass vase of the wall cornice. Erwin Panofsky is usually based on a well -known hymn to the Nativity of the fifteenth century that he collects, about the Virgin Mary, the metaphor of the sun that passes through the crystal without breaking or staining it. For its part, the brass Aguamanil on the wooden furniture suggests the cleaning of spirit, the purity of soul, but it can also be a reference to the source that usually accompanies the allegories of earthly paradise. In the same sense, the Santa holds the sacred scriptures with a cloth, as if I did not want to touch them, in respect and humility. In the background, through a window with rusty iron nails, a landscape is seen, a path through which a rider walks, indifferent to the construction that several people are raised. The construction is precisely the tower in which Santa Barbara will be locked. Beyond, on the horizon, the needles of some Gothic cathedral appear.

Conclusion [ To edit ]

It can be said that Robert Campin has, just like Van Eyck, a poetic vision of the world and plasma in his paintings. According to Panofsky, the picture represents two united but different universes: a setback, average bourgeois, but lacking ostentation, to relatively vulgar (in its etymological sense), which contrasts with the magnificence of the saint and the ampulosity of its clothes, emphasizing the excellence of his person and his moral superiority in the face of the environment that surrounds it. Although, in this case, Campin’s pious lyricism is more exalted, more extraverted and, at the same time, more everyday, since it offers a plebeian familiarity of the religious and is linked to the taste of accommodated middle classes, of popular culture, of popular culture, that show their feelings before luxury. ^{[ first ]} ​

References [ To edit ]

• Delumeau, Jean. The civilization of the Renaissance . Barcelona, ​​Editorial Juventud. ISBN 84-261-0906-3 .
• Luna, Juan. J. (1992). Prado Guide. A history of painting through the works of the museum . Alfiz Editions, Madrid. ISBN 84-85818-18-0 . Pages: 207-208
• Panofsky, Erwin (1984). Studies on iconology . Madrid, Alliance.
• Pijoán, José (1990). “The art of the Renaissance in the center and northern Europe.” The sum of Artis . General history of art (volume XV). Editorial editorial Calpe, S.A. ISBN 84-239-5200-2 .
• Aa. VV. (1998). “The Renaissance”. Great History of Art Planet . The Renaissance, first part (volume 5). The planet is the ISBN 84-395-7423-1 .