Optical Symbolism as Optical Description: A Case Study of Canon van der Paele’s Spectacles

When Carol Purtle published her influential study of Van Eyck’s Marian paintings, it ran counter to a growing methodological tendency, which has become increasingly evident over the last twenty years or so, to favor iconographically minimalist interpretations of early Netherlandish paintings whereby only obvious symbols are accepted as necessary or valid. This article argues that this reductionist trend is in direct contradiction of the allusive and responsive ways in which Eyckian paintings communicate symbolic meaning visually, using a distinctive optical language which establishes a fluid integration of description and meaning. The following discussion demonstrates how this language operates on a symbolic level using the example of a single object–the pair of spectacles in The Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele (completed 1436).

DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2009.1.1.2

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Review: Peer Review (Double Blind)
DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2009.1.1.2
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Recommended Citation:
Stephen Hanley, "Optical Symbolism as Optical Description: A Case Study of Canon van der Paele’s Spectacles," Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 1:1 (Winter 2009) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2009.1.1.2