Instytut Historii Sztuki <Posen> [Hrsg.]: Artium Quaestiones (14.2003)

96

MACIEJ GĄSIOROWSKI

visage. Ali those personages have their subtle but precise pictorial identity, with the basie
contrast between Mary and Joseph, both emotionally involved, and the donor, an aliena-
ted, indirect observer. The stable, fixed arrangement of the figures corresponds with the
elements organizing the pictorial space which van der Weyden madę so dynamie for the
first time in his career: the barn-shrine occupied by the participants of the Gospel event
and, in the landscape background, the town evidently related to the donor. In planar
terms, it appears right above his head, while horizontally it repeats the man’s turn
towards the miracle (the pałace, which is parallel to his folded arms, reaches to the shrine’
s ruins). Hence, the relationship between the townscape and the donor becomes analogical
to that connecting the barn with the Holy Family - it turns into an inseparable sign, a
vehicle of meanings originating both directly from the Bibie and from the later tradition.
Both elements, occupying an ennobling position, are included in the balanced structure or-
dering the whole altarpiece program - the aforementioned “pictorial pattern.”
The view of the city in the Berlin altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden is not the first
example of that iconographic motif in the Netherlandish art. Already in the early decades
of the 15th century the masters of ars noua borrowed it from book ornamentation. It is pre-
cisely a comparison of van der Weyden’ s strategy of presentation with those proposed by
Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck that particularly well shows its uniąueness and stran-
geness. The two painters developed two essentially contradictory methods of presenting
the city. One shows it as a closed circle seen from a considerable distance, with emphasis
put on the details of fortification works (the walls, dungeons, and gates framed by high
towers) plus the dim tops of chaotically located houses and church belfries. A supplemen-
tary element of such a view would often be a castle, as in Robert Campin’ s Natwity from
Dijon. An alternative type of city view is exemplified by Madonna with Chancellor Rollin
by Jan van Eyck, from Paris, but first of all the panoramas framed by open Windows from
St Joseph’s wing of the Merode Altar from New York and Madonna at the Fireplace from
London. In the two latter cases the spectator confronts the inner townscape from a slightly
uplifted perspective which allows him to take a close look at particular blocks and facades
separated only by a sąuare or a Street (van Eyck’s painting is different in this respect,
sińce the view was arranged in it from a distinctly superior vantage point of the pałace
loggia). Whenever the town turns out to be “internalized” in this manner, the fortification
works are pushed into the background, yet in both types of representation the ties with
the surrounding landscape remain intact, including outskirts and single free-standing
farm buildings or churches. In such a context the ostentatious alienation of the town
shown in Baldelins Triptych becomes particularly striking - it is somewhat artificially
placed in a neutral landscape, an especially prepared hollow. The clarity of that relations-
hip is intensifled by the crystalline precision of architectural details, perfect arrangement
of the town along its main Street, and generally impeccable order. A very different image is
conveyed by morę dynamie and chaotic views by Campin and van Eyck. What is, however,
particularly noteworthy in the view from Berlin is a new principle of appearance — the
town is visible from some distance, but it lacks one formerly obvious element: the surroun-
ding fortification works. This manifest absence not only defies the standard urban icono-
graphy, but also ignores the historically documented practice.
One of the major factors of the historical process of urban Identification, most distinct-
ly stressed in the ceremonies of founding new towns and cities, were their clearly demarca-
ted boundaries. They marked a zonę distinguished from the inchoate, chaotic external
space, having its own rules and regulations, and endowed with far-reaching liberties, in-
cluding also personal freedom. Reinforcing those boundaries by means of the fortification
works had not only a defensive function, but just as much it functioned as a sign both for
the incoming visitors and inhabitants leaving the premises that there was a generic diffe-