Why is there someone flying into this room?
Art Unvarnished
9,232 views
In the left panel of the Mérode Altarpiece, a woman kneels behind her husband, squeezed so tightly against the edge of the panel that the frame almost touches her head. Everything else in this painting is measured with obsessive care. She is the one element that doesn't fit, and the reason is that she wasn't there when it was finished. She was added afterwards.
Following that thread leads somewhere strange. The donor is generally identified through the coats of arms in the central panel's windows as a merchant from the Ingelbrecht family of Mechelen. Ingelbrecht translates roughly as "the angel brings", which is why the painting is an Annunciation. The whole commission is a pun on the family name.
The merchant married at least three times. His first wife came from Cologne, was wealthy, and died around the time he left the city. Her surname was Scrynmakere, meaning cabinetmaker. The right-hand panel of the altarpiece is a carpenter's workshop.
On Joseph's workbench, and again on the window ledge facing the street, are two mousetraps, painted with total precision. They refer to Saint Augustine's argument that the crucifixion only worked because the Devil was deceived, and that the cross was the Devil's mousetrap with Christ as the bait. And in the upper left of the central panel, riding down the golden rays coming through a small round window, there is a figure a few millimetres tall: a miniature Christ carrying a cross, gliding into the room.
Then there is the man at the garden gate in a straw hat, painted as carefully as the donors, standing in a position that means nothing. He has been called a town messenger, the merchant's own courier, and the painter himself. Nobody knows.
CHAPTERS
00:00 She doesn't fit
01:00 What it is
02:00 The name
03:00 Joseph's workshop
04:00 The Devil's mousetrap
05:00 The thing in the window
06:00 Back to her
07:15 Three wives
08:30 The man at the gate
The painting is in the public domain and is at The Met Cloisters, New York.
AI narration. Research, writing, image sourcing and editing all done by hand.
10 Comments
It really makes you wonder how many hidden stories are still waiting inside paintings we think we already understand. 👀
The candle on the table has just been extinguished, it hasn't burned all the way down, usually a symbol for a life cut short.. and there's only one candle in candleholder above the fireplace, can the missing other candle symbolize the loss of his first wife? Also, the candleholders are turned in different directions.. and the front door is open with the key hanging openly, could it mean that the door to heaven/God/Christ is always open, and the key to eternal life/heaven is through Christ himself? Is that why the woman has been added?The man outside, can he represent a guard/angel watching the gate into heaven/Christ?..
Only theories but I just love all the symbolism
Why is there someone flying into this room?
Art Unvarnished
9,232 views
In the left panel of the Mérode Altarpiece, a woman kneels behind her husband, squeezed so tightly against the edge of the panel that the frame almost touches her head. Everything else in this painting is measured with obsessive care. She is the one element that doesn't fit, and the reason is that she wasn't there when it was finished. She was added afterwards.
Following that thread leads somewhere strange. The donor is generally identified through the coats of arms in the central panel's windows as a merchant from the Ingelbrecht family of Mechelen. Ingelbrecht translates roughly as "the angel brings", which is why the painting is an Annunciation. The whole commission is a pun on the family name.
The merchant married at least three times. His first wife came from Cologne, was wealthy, and died around the time he left the city. Her surname was Scrynmakere, meaning cabinetmaker. The right-hand panel of the altarpiece is a carpenter's workshop.
On Joseph's workbench, and again on the window ledge facing the street, are two mousetraps, painted with total precision. They refer to Saint Augustine's argument that the crucifixion only worked because the Devil was deceived, and that the cross was the Devil's mousetrap with Christ as the bait. And in the upper left of the central panel, riding down the golden rays coming through a small round window, there is a figure a few millimetres tall: a miniature Christ carrying a cross, gliding into the room.
Then there is the man at the garden gate in a straw hat, painted as carefully as the donors, standing in a position that means nothing. He has been called a town messenger, the merchant's own courier, and the painter himself. Nobody knows.
CHAPTERS
00:00 She doesn't fit
01:00 What it is
02:00 The name
03:00 Joseph's workshop
04:00 The Devil's mousetrap
05:00 The thing in the window
06:00 Back to her
07:15 Three wives
08:30 The man at the gate
The painting is in the public domain and is at The Met Cloisters, New York.
AI narration. Research, writing, image sourcing and editing all done by hand.