without breaking it, signifying the perpetual virginity of Mary. Everything in
the room can be read symbolically, but we also are affected by its warmth.
Although the angular drawing of the robes reÀ ects the style of traditional
Gothic art, the comfortable interior reÀ ects a contemporary Flemish home
and furnishings.
On the right wing is Joseph’s workshop. He was a carpenter, and he is busily
boring holes in a board, probably the top of a stool. The image also shows
Joseph’s mousetraps, which are meant to catch the devil—an analogy of St.
Augustine’s, in which the Incarnation was devised to fool the devil, as mice
are fooled by bait. One trap is shown on Joseph’s work table and another
on a ledge projecting from his window. Although this work is very small,
the others that we will study are quite large. In all of them, the artists have
lavished their attention on small details even while constructing larger
forms. The ability to paint small details with compelling clarity is a mark of
artistic genius, not just a technical accomplishment. When viewers look at
these paintings closely, they are entering the painted world in an entirely new
way—through the looking-glass into both the microcosm and the macrocosm
of the world. Once immersed in the painted universe of the Flemish masters,
you are launched on a fascinating voyage of visual and intellectual discovery.
This can only happen completely in front of the original paintings.
Our next image shows Rogier van der Weyden’s Deposition (c. 1435). Rogier
was the pupil of Robert Campin, but he was of a different temperament. This
altarpiece is one of the most startlingly original of all Flemish paintings. The
body of Christ is lowered into the center of the picture, but the scene is not
realistic. Set in a shallow, golden, box-like space rather than a landscape,
it resembles a painted wooden sculpture. This painting was above an
altar. Therefore, the upward projection of the panel might have suggested
the moment during the Mass when the priests elevate the Host, the wafer
representing the body of Christ. Moreover, the nearly horizontal position of
the body suggests a lowering of it onto the altar table.
Note the emotional signi¿ cance of the 10 closely packed ¿ gures. St. John
and Mary Magdalene bracket the scene. The cross is short and seems to grow
from Christ’s body. The colors are varied and intense. The detail shows the
hands of Christ and the Virgin. The realism is intense, yet it is placed in an