![Robert Campin 006](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Robert_Campin_006.jpg)
The Mérode Altarpiece (or ''Annunciation Triptych'') is an
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
on oak panel
triptych
A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...
, now in
The Cloisters
The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a fo ...
, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to
Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin
Robert Campin (c. 1375 – 26 April 1444), now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was the first great master of Early Netherlandish paint ...
and an assistant. The three panels represent, from left to right, the
donors
A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as r ...
kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the
Annunciation to Mary
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and
Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain (symbolising the purity of Mary), and the
Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window.
The central panel was completed after 1422, likely between 1425 and 1428, it is thought by a member of Campin's workshop. An earlier version, now in Brussels, may be Campin's original panel. The outer wing panels are later additions by a workshop member, probably on request by the donor who sought to elevate the central panel to a triptych and place himself in the pictorial space. They contain views of the city of
Liège, in today's Belgium.
The triptych is a founding and important work in the then emerging late Gothic, Early Netherlandish style, and has been described as a "milestone between two periods; it at once summarizes the medieval tradition and lays the foundation for the development of modern painting".
[Rousseau (1957), 117]
Dating and attribution
The attribution of the New York triptych has been the subject of wide scholarly debate. It seems to have been completed the same year as the ''
Ghent Altarpiece
The ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', also called the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' ( nl, De aanbidding van het Lam Gods), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420 ...
'', in 1432, making the painter a contemporary of
Jan van Eyck.
It is usually accepted as belonging to a group of paintings associated with the Master of Flémalle, assumed to be
Robert Campin
Robert Campin (c. 1375 – 26 April 1444), now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was the first great master of Early Netherlandish paint ...
.
For a time it was attributed to Campin's apprentice
Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
[Burroughs, 131] based on the realistic style that would become van der Weyden's hallmark.
There is another version of the Annunciation panel in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, slightly earlier but damaged,
[Campbell (1974), 643] which may represent the original version by Campin.
Technical examination of the wood panels suggest that the triptych was completed by a number of hands. The wood of the central panel is different and earlier to that of the wings, while the hinging further suggest that the central panel was not intended as part of a triptych. The central panel is likely a copy of an earlier composition by Campin, while the wings were probably a later commission from the donor to attach to the main panel to form a small private devotional altarpiece.
Areas of the panels have been reworked; both the female donor and bearded man on the left wing were painted over landscape, while the window behind the Virgin was originally painted in gold.
[Suhr, 140-44]
Campbell Campbell may refer to:
People Surname
* Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell
Given name
* Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer
* Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...
is not convinced by the association with Flémalle group, and thus Robert Campin. He describes the Mérode as "incoherent in design", lacking Campin's usual trait of spatial continuity, as found in the ''
Seilern Triptych''.
The open sky as seen through the central panel windows is incongruous in point of view with the street scene in the donor panel. Campbell highlights poor command of perspective in the donor panel, and observes that it is "unfortunate that a line of one of the mortar courses in the garden wall disappear into the donor's mouth".
Campbell describes the wing panels as pedestrian, and the product of lesser hands. He gives prominence to the Brussels panel, which he cautiously attributes to the Master of Flémalle.
Description
The triptych is relatively small, indicating that it was commissioned for private, domestic use; the central panel measures 64 × 63 cm and each wing is 65 × 27 cm. The panels share a very steep perspective, in which the viewer seems to be looking down on the figures from an elevated point of view. In other respects the perspective is underdeveloped; neither the Virgin nor Gabriel seem to rest on solid ground, while the female donor appears to hover and appears to be barely able to fit within the space she is positioned in.
[Rousseau (1957), 124]
The panels are in good condition, with little over-paint, glossing, dirt layers, or paint losses.
[Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)]
. Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. Retrieved 17 March 2017 They are almost entirely in oil, and establish many of the inventions that were to make the technique so successful and adaptable over the following centuries.
[Rousseau (1957), 121] The serenity of the works is achieved, in part, through the dominance of pale, opaque white, red, and blue hues. The size of the panels and the at times minute attention to detail are similar to the focus of contemporary miniatures, of the kind seem in the two
illuminated manuscripts
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
in the central panel.
Annunciation
![Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) MET DT7255](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Annunciation_Triptych_%28Merode_Altarpiece%29_MET_DT7255.jpg)
The panel is one of the earliest representations of the
Annunciation to Mary
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
in a contemporary Northern European interior,
which appears to be a dining room. This is Campin's main innovation, showing a reading Madonna, with unbound hair in a familiar setting, an image that lead to many adoptions, most famously
Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
's ''
Reading Magdalen''. The colors in the upper part of the central panel are dominated by the cool grays of the plaster and the brown of the timber wall,
[Gottlieb (1970), 76] while the lower half is mostly of warmer and deeper brownish greens and reds.
[Rousseau (1957), 117] Art historians suggest that the success of the panel is due to the contrast between the warm reds of the Virgin's robe and the pale blue hues of the archangel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...
's vestment.
[Rousseau (1957), 118]
![Mérode Altarpiece (Mary)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/M%C3%A9rode_Altarpiece_%28Mary%29.jpg)
The panels' perspective is unusually steep and unevenly distributed. The angle of the table in particular is illogical. Art historian
Lorne Campbell describes these distortions as "disturbing".
[Campbell (1974), 644]
It shows the moment before the traditional Annunciation scene, when Mary is still unaware of the presence of Gabriel.
She is in a red gown rather than the more usual blue, and in a relaxed pose, reading from a
book of hours, with her hair unbound. Unusually for a medieval depiction of the Annunciation, the dove of the Holy Spirit is not visible. Instead he is represented by the extinguished light of the candle, and the beam of light falling from the window to the left, which carries the Christ Child holding a cross.
[Reuterswärd (1998), 47–51]
The Christ Child flies down towards Mary from the left oculus, signifying her impregnation by
God the Father. He gazes directly at her and holds a cross. The folding-table contains a recently extinguished candle,
and shows coiling smoke and a still glowing
wick
Wick most often refers to:
* Capillary action ("wicking")
** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp
** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts
Wick or WICK may also refer to:
Places and placename ...
. This may be a reference to the Holy Spirit, who, according to some late medieval writers, descended to the apostles "like a puff of wind".
[Reuterswärd (1998), 47]
The white
lily
''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...
in a Tuscan earthenware jug
on the table represents Mary's virginity and purity, as does the white,
ocher
Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
towel. The jug contains a series of enigmatic letters in Latin and Hebraic, deciphered by some art historians as ''De Campyn'', which they presume as the artist's signature.
An open manuscript is placed on the green velvet book pouch. Unusually, the book is positioned next to the Virgin rather than the shelf. The pages seem worn and handled, indicating that it has been well read.
It has been suggested that the book reflects the
Carthusian
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has i ...
Ludolf of Saxony's idea of the secluded life of the Virgin - that she earlier lived with "the Holy Scriptures as her sole companion".
The right hand half of the back wall holds three windows, one of which contains a
lattice
Lattice may refer to:
Arts and design
* Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material
* Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios
* Lattice (pastry), an orna ...
screen.
The beams of the ceiling are supported by a series of
corbels.
[Rousseau (1957), 120] The sky visible through the windows is a later addition, which was painted over an earlier
gold ground. The armorial shields are also later additions.
Donors
![Merode Altarpiece left Panel Detail a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Merode_Altarpiece_left_Panel_Detail_a.jpg)
The
donor and his wife are shown kneeling in prayer are in the left panel, looking through a half-open door into the Virgin's
Hortus conclusus
''Hortus conclusus'' is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". At their root, both of the words in ''hortus conclusus'' refer linguistically to enclosure. It describes a genre of garden that was enclosed as a practical concern, a majo ...
.
[Rousseau (1957), 117] The door presents a continuity oddity; although it can be seen opening into the Virgins room from the left panel, no such door entrance is visible in the center panel. Addressing this, the art historians Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen suppose that the donor is "imagining that she has entered into his house. From without, he has opened the door; with his own eyes he beholds the Mother of God and petitions her for a family".
[Hagen; Hagen (2003), 33]
The attendant dressed in a festive outfit
[Rousseau (1957), 122] is by a later artist, perhaps it was added after the donor's marriage. The left hand space contains an unlocked entrance leading to a minutely detailed street scene.
[Reuterswärd (1998), 46] The panel is the more striking as the door leading into the Virgin's chamber is wide open, hugely presumptuous for even a mid-fifteenth century commission, and suggesting access to the gates of heaven.
[Gottlieb (1970), 78]
The donors are identifiable as bourgeoisie from nearby
Mechelen, and are documented in Tournai in 1427, identifiable from the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
in the
stained glass window of the central panel.
It is assumed that this panel was a later commission to Campin's workshop, not part of the original single panel design. There has been speculation that it was completed by the young
Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
.
The altarpiece was commissioned either by the businessman Jan Engelbrecht, or the
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
-born merchant Peter Engelbrecht and his wife Margarete Scrynmaker.
[Kleiner (2013), 441][Merode Altarpiece (1435)]
. visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017 Engelbrecht translates from German as "angel brings", while Scrynmaker means "cabinet maker", the latter perhaps influencing the choice of Joseph in the right hand panel.
Joseph
Saint Joseph, a carpenter by trade, occupies the right-hand panel. He is shown at work, boring spike holes into one of the instruments of the Passion. An unusual feature is that, although Mary and Joseph did not marry until after the Annunciation, they are apparently living together and sharing the same space. Joseph is shown with the tools of his craft, visible implements include an ax, saw, rod, and a small footstool sitting before a fire of burning logs. Joseph's presence is may be intended to invoke 10 :15 from the
Book of Isaiah: "Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth there-
with? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?
as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if
the staff should lift up itself as if was it were no wood."
[Minott (1969), 267] Isaiah's words were intended as incentatory and revolutionary, were followed by a treatise for the salvation of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, and protested against an
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n king he considered boorish and vainglorious.
Given this, Joseph is seen by art historians as a reassuring presence, warding the devil from the center panel.
[Schapiro (1945), 185]
Joseph is presented as a relatively old man
wearing an
eggplant coloured coat and blue turban, in a panel dressed by dark and warm colours, framed by shadows thrown from the window shutters.
He works on a mouse trap, probably a symbol of the cross at the
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
,
[Duchesne-Guillemin (1976), 129] in that it represents an imagined but literal capture of the Devil, said to have held a man in ransom because of the
sin of Adam.
[Minott (1969), 268] In some scripts, Christ's naked flesh was served as bait for the devil; "He rejoiced in Christ's death, like a bailiff of death. What he rejoiced in was then his own undoing. The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death."
The background contains a cityscape, probably fictitious, showing the spires of two churches, one of which is now lost, the churches of St. Pierre (left) and Sainte Croix (right) in Liege.
[Duchesne-Guillemin (1976), 130-31]
Iconography
![Merode Altarpiece Center Panel Detail d](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Merode_Altarpiece_Center_Panel_Detail_d.jpg)
The
iconography contains complex religious symbolism, although their extent and exact nature is debated –
Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...
pioneered the study of the symbolism of the mousetrap,
[Schapiro (1945), 82] and
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Panofsky's work represents a high ...
later extended, or perhaps over-extended, the analysis of symbols to cover many more details of the furniture and fittings. Similar debates exist for many Early Netherlandish paintings, and a number of the details seen for the first time here reappear in later Annunciations by other artists.
The symbolic elements in the central panel mostly relate to the Annunciation, the Mass and the
sacrament of the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
. Mary sits on the floor to show her humility. The
scroll and book in front of
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
symbolize the Old and the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
s, and the roles Mary and the
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
child played in the fulfillment of prophecy. The lilies in the earthenware vase on the table represent Mary's virginity. Other symbols of her purity include the enclosed garden (''
Hortus conclusus
''Hortus conclusus'' is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". At their root, both of the words in ''hortus conclusus'' refer linguistically to enclosure. It describes a genre of garden that was enclosed as a practical concern, a majo ...
''),
and the white towel, while the small windows to the right, and the half-closed windows at the rear, serve to emphasise the quiet, virginal life she has lived.
![Merode Altarpiece Center Panel Detail c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Merode_Altarpiece_Center_Panel_Detail_c.jpg)
The lion finials on the bench may have a symbolic role (referring to the
Seat of Wisdom
Seat of Wisdom or Throne of Wisdom (Latin: ''sedes sapientiae'') is one of many devotional titles for Mary in Roman Catholic tradition. In Seat of Wisdom icons and sculptures, Mary is seated on a throne with the Christ Child on her lap. For the ...
, or throne of
Solomon) – this feature is often seen in other paintings, religious or secular (like
Jan van Eyck's ''
Arnolfini Portrait''). The arrangements for washing at the back of the room, which are considered unusual for a domestic interior, may relate to the similar arrangements of a
piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...
for the officiating priest to wash his hands during
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
. The sixteen sides of the table may allude to the sixteen main Hebrew prophets; the table is usually seen as an altar, and the
archangel
Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...
wears the
vestment
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religion, especially by Eastern Churches, Catholics (of all rites), Anglicans, and Lutherans. Many other groups also make use of liturgical garments; this ...
s of a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
. The basin may represent both the purity of Virgin, and the cleansing of the Christian act of
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
.
In the right-hand panel,
Saint Joseph, a carpenter, has constructed a mouse trap symbolizing Christ's trapping and defeat of the devil, a metaphor used three times by
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
: "The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death." The iconography of the right-hand panel has been studied in detail by Russell. He shows that the object that Joseph is working on is a scandalum or stumbling block, a spiked block that gashes the legs of a punishment victim who walks with it hanging from a cord around his waist. Joseph's joinery instruments are displayed in a consistently unnatural manner, suggesting that they have been planned to fit a specific agenda; for example the joinery instruments on the table are so placed as to represent the three crosses of Christ and the two thieves.
Provenance
Its early history is obscure. The triptych was owned by the aristocratic
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
Arenberg
Arenberg, also spelled as Aremberg or Ahremberg, is a former county, principality and finally duchy that was located in what is now Germany. The Dukes of Arenberg remain a prominent Belgian noble family.
History
First mentioned in the 12 ...
and
Mérode families from 1820 to 1849 before reaching the art market, and has been in the collection of
the Cloisters
The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a fo ...
, New York since 1956. Until its acquisition it had been in private collection for many years and thus inaccessible to both scholars and the public. Its purchase was funded by
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
and was described at the time as a "major event for the history of collecting in the United States".
[The Merode Altarpiece, a great and famous landmark in the history of western painting, by the Master of Flémalle, has been acquired for the Cloisters]
". Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9 December 1957. Retrieved 30 March 2018
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
Ainsworth, Maryan. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Paintings". ''Metropolitan Museum Journal''. 2005, volume 40, 51–65
* Ainsworth, Maryan. "Religious Painting from 1420 to 1500". Maryan Ainsworth, et al. (eds.), ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. New York: Metropolitan Museum, 1998.
* Bauman, Guy. "Early Flemish Portraits 1425–1525". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Volume 43, No. 4, Spring, 1986
* Burroughs, Alan. "Campin and Van der Weyden Again". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Studies'', Volume 4, No. 2, March, 1933
*
Campbell, Lorne. ''The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings''. London: National Gallery, 1998.
* Campbell, Lorne. "Robert Campin, the Master of Flémalle and the Master of Mérode". ''Burlington Magazine'', volume 116, no. 860, November 1974
* Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques.
On the Cityscape of the Mérode Altarpiece. The University of Chicago Press; ''Metropolitan Museum Journal'', volume 11, 1976
* Davies, Martin. "Rogier van der Weyden: An Essay, with a Critical Catalogue of Paintings Assigned to Him and to Robert Campin". London: Phaidon, 1972
* Freeman, Margaret. "The Iconography of the Merode Altarpiece". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 16, No. 4, December 1957
* Gottlieb, Carla. "The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''Oud Holland'', volume 85, No. 2, 1970
* Hagen, Rose-Marie; Hagen, Rainer. ''What Great Paintings Say, Volume 2''. Cologne: Taschen, 2003.
*
Harbison, Craig. "The Art of the Northern Renaissance". London: Laurence King Publishing, 1995.
* Jacobs, Lynn. ''Opening Doors: The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted''. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
* Kleiner, Fred. ''Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume 2''. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2013.
* McNamee, Maurice. ''Vested Angels: Eucharistic Allusions in Early Netherlandish Paintings''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998.
* Minott, Charles Ilsley. "The Theme of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''The Art Bulletin'', volume 51, No. 3, 1969
* Lane, Barbara ''The Altar and the Altarpiece, Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting''. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
*
Panofsky, Erwin. ''Early Netherlandish Painting''. London: Harper Collins, 1971.
* Installé, H. "The Merode-triptych. A Mnemonic Evocation of a Merchant Family that fled from Cologne and settled down in Mechelen" (''Le triptique Merode: Evocation mnémonique d'une famille de marchands colonais, réfugiée à Malines''). In: ''Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen'', No. 1, 1992
* Reuterswärd, Patrik. "New light on Robert Campin". ''Konsthistorisk tidskrift (Journal of Art History)'', volume 67, No. 1, 1998
* Rousseau, Theodore. "The Merode Altarpiece". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 16, No. 4, 1957
*
Schapiro, Meyer. "'Muscipula Diaboli', The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''The Art Bulletin'', volume 27, No. 3, 1945
*
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. ''The Northern Renaissance''. London: Phaidon Press, 2004.
* Thürlemann, Felix. "Robert Campin: A Monographic Study with Critical Catalogue". Prestel, 2012.
* Van Asperen de Boer, J.R.J., et al. "Underdrawing in Paintings of the Rogier Van Der Weyden and Master of Flémalle Groups.” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art, vol. 41, 1990
* Wolff, Martha; Hand, John Oliver. ''Early Netherlandish painting''. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1987.
External links
Catalogue entry at The Metropolitan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merode Altarpiece
1420s paintings
Paintings by Robert Campin
Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Christian iconography
Renaissance paintings
Triptychs
Paintings depicting the Annunciation
Barocci
Federico Barocci (also written ''Barozzi'')(c. 1535 in Urbino – 1612 in Urbino) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and i ...
Books in art