It was years ago when I dwelled in the world of art of 16th and 17th century Nederlanden painting. It will sound strange, but it’s like witchcraft to me. And now I feel as a wanderer again… Its main purpose was focus on moral education, mostly because it’d been heavily rooted in the tradition of devocio moderna of XIVth and XVth century – the world as the mirror of God’s world full of religious themes and moral lessons, but the same time …the same world was perceived as a vain and empty and illusionary, deceiving place, a theatre stage, dust and smoke, just a dream, just a moment, a short lying picture…
Franciscus Gysbrechts - Vanitas (2d half of the 17th century, Oil on canvas, 115 x 134 cm)
So, it was ethics over aesthetics. Always. It was truly unimportant whether this or that work of art had any sensual effect on a viewer. Truly, painting had no place in Luther’s but especially in Calvin’s concept of world if it had no moral message.
And yet, in this protestant world, where as I said aesthetic aspect of art seemed to have no value, most astonishing pieces of artworks were created – blicks of light, composition, perfection of detail…all of those and more could make you feel dizzy. You – being the man of XXIst century art freak…
Exilium Melancholiae, painting by Bartolomeus Hopfer
But it was not technique or beauty of lines and colours that 16th-17th century people saw, it’s what modern art admirers see nowadays whereas people of those past times, saw and understood the art in verbal way. Art did not exist for art, it existed for God, it was made to serve God. It transmitted transcendental world through the mirror-art into our world. Verbum (and Verbum Dei) was the meritum of Art. Work of art was not seen but read.
