14th, 15th and 16th centuries
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The Devils of Art
Caravaggio The Sacrifice of Isaac (det.)
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14th, 15th and 16th centuries
The Devils of Art 14th, 15th and 16th centuries
Paulo Martins Oliveira
Akenvis 3
The Devils of Art
The Devils of Art – 14th, 15th and 16th centuries Š Paulo Martins Oliveira ISBN: 978-1482398410 February, 2013 Print on demand
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Contents Prologue│7 Selected references│17 Giotto│18 Simone Martini│19 Ambrogio Lorenzetti│20 Jean Malouel│21 Robert Campin│22 Jan van Eyck│23 Rogier van der Weyden│24 Masaccio│25 Filippo Lippi│26 Domenico Veneziano│27 Jean Fouquet│28 Hans Memling│29 Giovanni Bellini│30 Bartolomé Bermejo│31 Sandro Botticelli│32 Martin Schongauer│33 Domenico Ghirlandaio│34 Jheronimus Bosch│35 Perugino│36 Leonardo da Vinci│37 Gérard David│38 Piero di Cosimo│39 Quentin Matsys│40
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Matthias Grünewald│41 Albrecht Dürer│42 Lucas Cranach│43 Michelangelo│44 Giorgione│45 Mabuse│46 Albrecht Altdorfer│47 Lorenzo Lotto│48 Raphael│49 Hans Baldung│50 Joos van Cleve│51 Sebastiano del Piombo│52 Andrea del Sarto│53 Titian│54 Correggio│55 Rosso Florentino│56 Jan van Scorel│57 Parmigianino│58 Giorgio Vasari│59 Antonis Mor│60 Tintoretto│61 Pieter Bruegel│62 Federico Barocci│63 Paolo Veronese│64 El Greco│65 Abraham Bloemart│66 Caravaggio│67 Images by Section│69 Notes│73
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Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the Devil prows around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Prologue: The Devils of Art The History of Art is still full of surprises, and one of the most perplexing is the camouflage of devils and other fabulous creatures, especially in paintings, but in some sculptures as well. The subtle insertion of such figures was methodical in certain cases, and for instance Johannes Vermeer would even create a symbolic grammar using those elements, in order to criticize some of his compatriots and to express the concerns about the destiny of the prosperous and coveted Netherlands.
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The Devils of Art
Examples The Dutch patriotic concerns expressed differently first by Rembrandt, and a few decades later by Vermeer.
Rembrandt The Stoning of St. Stephen
France
Spain
The Holy Empire
The Holy See
The Netherlands The Dutch corrupted by foreign powers
Key message: The siege laid by ambitious enemies, always trying to divide the Dutch.
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Vermeer, using concealed devils1 The Love Letter
The map of the desirable Netherlands The greedy King Louis XIV of France, Vermeer's greatest fear
Key message: The new corrupting and tempting invitation from outside.
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Ignoring such devices, the common viewer was somehow instinctively conditioned by the obvious shapes, and continued to see only the expected images, without realizing its subsidiary figures 2. Boldly some of these are almost obvious, whereas others are part of intricate compositions, in which multiple creatures are interconnected in a manner that reinforces the concealment3. Examples Single creatures
Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper (det.)
Michelangelo Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (det.)
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Examples Interconnected creatures
Tintoretto The Miracle of St. Mark (det.)
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Hans Holbein the Elder O Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
Correggio Noli Me Tangere (det.)
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But if these solutions remained invisible in the eyes of the unwary viewer, among the informed artists they functioned as a code, stating both the intellectual autonomy and the wit of the respective creator, also implying that certain works have more than one meaning (sometimes cunningly contradicting the official interpretation).
Leonardo da Vinci The Virgin of the Rocks 1st version (Paris), 2nd version (London)
In both versions there is a concealed cardinal looking down menacingly, expressing Leonardo’s criticism of the institutional Church.
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Indeed, as small as flowers or as large as mountains, these figures were very heterogeneous, being integrated in different kinds of narratives. Thus, they often encode a sarcastic opinion about the ambitions and vanities of dominant powers, including popes, emperors, kings, dukes or wealthy merchants, for instance4. In other cases (sometimes simultaneously), the devils symbolize the unavoidable presence of evil and sin, including in the Saints and even in Christ, for the humanists often emphasized His earthly dimension, as a symbol of communion between Mankind and God. But ultimately, those ghostly creatures materialize the sense of mortality, the nightmares and the “demons� of the artists themselves, who on many occasions took part in the scenes by means of suggestive characters, always living together with the creatures that they were able to see. These devils can be detected in some medieval pieces, especially in Italy, when the painters were still working with tempera5. However, in the beginning of the 15th century, with the development of oil painting6 in the northern Flemish region, the discreet creatures were adopted in much more complex, multi-layered works, in which various narratives were skillfully superimposed. Later in that 15th century and in the early 16th, the Italian artists of the Renaissance would take the lead, designing increasingly sophisticated creations, not only in oil paintings, but also in large frescoes and even in carved stone, in which the devils made their always elusive appearance.
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Example Michelangelo’s devils in his carved Moses7
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The challenging fantastic creatures continued to be included in artworks throughout the 16th century (the limit of this survey), but also afterwards8. In order to simply introduce and exemplify this odd feature of Art, the present study gathers fifty painters from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, highlighting in each representative work the most relevant devils, with the warning that others often grow secondarily from them. In any case there are probably other creatures still hidden in the same illustrative pictures, because if there is anything that characterizes those artists, it is the ability to surprise.
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The Devils of Art Other books of the author (History of Art) Leonardo x Michelangelo Separata 1 Jheronimus Bosch Os Demónios de Arte Os Painéis de Avis A Janela de Tomar Reynaldo dos Santos akenpapers.bravesites.com
Albrecht Dürer
Adoration of the Trinity