Welcome Caroline Niesley!

Happy Advent.
I am very excited to introduce my friend Caroline Niesley to my readers. Caroline has agreed to educate all of us on Sacred Art. Caroline is a member of the North Penn Art Alliance and works as an instructor for North Penn School District’s Community Education Program. She teaches Cartooning and Portrait Drawing. She is a devout Catholic and is an inspiration to anyone who has the privilege of speaking with her. Please take the time to not only read her articles but to look at the pieces of artwork and to let them inspire you and your prayers.   

Jan Van Eyck Annunciation by: Caroline Niesley

If Jan Van Eyck had only known, what the paintings he suffered to create would undergo, he might have despaired of his art.  The Three Marys at the Tomb was originally a risen Christ but Our Lord was sawed off and lost.  We only know Jesus was there for the telltale rays coming from the frame.  The outer panels of the Ghent Altarpiece were split lengthwise for display.  Just one of many harrowing adventures the altarpiece survived including two anti-Catholic bonfires and many thefts.  One panel, held for ransom, is still missing.  The pradella burned.

One of the most regrettable “operations” occurred when the Hermitage in Russia “transferred” The Annunciation to canvas.   In the Czar’s time, sans climate control, a panel painting could easily warp in St. Petersburg.  The answer?  Chisel off the wood.  So they transferred a 400 year old glaze painting to a canvas with sturgeon glue and a hot iron. It works pretty well, sometimes.  But not in this case.  When they removed the glue blue paint came off with it. When the Soviets needed money to further their plans they sold it to Andrew Mellon.  Now it hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

What is exciting about this Annunciation is it reads like a Bible Time Line.  Briefly this painting was part of an altarpiece, probably the left door panel.  If so, there should have been an image painted on the back.  If there was, we will never know.  The scene depicts the Golden Mass of Ember Wednesday, which this year would be December 17th.  On that feast, choir boys would re-enact the Annunciation following the Gospel reading from Luke.  You can read more about this Mass and take a close look at the painting at The National Gallery’s website http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight46.html.

Any good Catholic apologist like Scott Hahn or Jeff Cavins would relate the importance of events in the Old Testament which prefigure the New Testament.  The interior of the building is not a humble home and if a great Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral take note all the art therein depicts the Old Testament.  On the floor tiles are vivid drawings of David killing Goliath, Samson tied to a column about to literally bring the house down and Absalom hanging from a tree.  Beneath the damaged wooden ceiling of this temple is a single stained glass of God the Father with Seraphim.  Flanking the window, Romanesque style wall paintings of Pharaoh’s daughter and maid rescuing infant Moses and Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.  On the next tier down there are a row of columns and a curious little door is open below the Lord.  Below are rondels of Isaiah and Jacob but beneath are three leaded glass windows which clearly represent the Trinity.  It is a pious expression of awe and faith in a mystery which is inexpressible and therefore difficult to illustrate with pictures.  Jan comes close illustrating a supernatural event in a fleshy reality.  Mary wears an ermine collar denoting her Davidic ancestry.  She may have been modeled on the Infanta of Portugal, the new bride of Van Eyck’s patron, the immensely wealthy and mercenary Philip the Good.  He, Duke of Burgundy, turned over St. Joan to the English and it is tantalizing to wonder at the theory Jan was asked to draw her likeness in prison.  If he ever did, like most of his other work, it is lost.  Mary’s long cloak covers the marble table before her like an altar cloth and a large lectionary like book sits upon it.  For the altar is the symbol of Christ present, see The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1383.  We read Gabriel’s greeting and the words of Mary’s fiat are inverted so the Lord can read them.  Is that the reason for the little open door beneath the stained glass image of God?  The Lord is placed on the other side of the picture plane, interesting to any artist.  Mary raises her hands in astonishment and prayer.  Mary says her fiat and Jesus unseen, as in the Blessed Sacrament, is there for the angels to worship.  She does not look at Gabriel.  She looks ahead for she lives in time.  Gabriel is wearing a cope, the cape like vestment worn for Benediction for Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  What a cope, gold brocade with blood red velvet dianthus flowers.  Dianthus, a “carnation” or “Dianthus Caryophyllus” is the “Flower of God”.  The carnation’s original hue being flesh hence from the Latin, “Incarnation”.  When Jan died he bequeathed “vestments” to a convent in Maaseyck.  His daughter Lavinia entered the convent when she came of age.   The BBC documentary The Private life of a Christmas Masterpiece 2006 documents the details from the transfer operation to Gabriel’s cope.  They show a surviving vestment with the same dianthus pattern which may have been very like those bequeathed vestments.

I would be remiss not to mention the possible input of Jan’s mysterious older brother Hubert who literally haunts most of Jan’s early works.  A script on the Ghent Altarpiece identifies him as the one who started the work and indeed the greatest of us all.  And yet apart from a few mentions of his name in documents, his works remain a mystery.  He was never in a guild and yet appears to have had a studio with apprentices.  His name was found among the membership of The Society of Our Lady of the Rays.  Hieronymous Bosch was a member.  And rays abound in Van Eyck’s work.  Some in gold leaf as we see here.  The Holy Spirit, no bigger than an origami bird swoops down on action lines of pure gold leaf.  Seven rays for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear (awe) of the Lord.  Because he was not a member of a guild, an essential for an artist of the time, a theory has been proposed Hubert may have been a priest or in minor orders.  Certainly this is a possibility and the theology of Van Eyck’s works point to a creator who had either seminary training or the spiritual direction of a highly educated clergyman.  There was indeed a priest/homilist who said Mass at St. Bavo in Ghent at the time Hubert lived.  He was famous for his homilies on, can you guess?  The Eucharist.  http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight46.html