Diptychs, Triptychs, and Comic Books

The Ryerson Diptych, 1275-1285

Daredevil, 1963

 

What is the rationale behind imagery that is set within boundaries, another dimension of the 2-D space, next to another?  While it’s something that one may take for granted in the West through altarpieces and comic books, since I use this approach to imagery I ask in order to discover an answer or at least some kind of clue.  I enjoy placing one image next to another in different settings to see how the similarities or contrasts sharpen or enhance the other, but maybe there’s more to it than I realize.  So, let’s review those “bounded images” of diptychs, triptychs, and comic book panels.

Altarpieces and devotional art are a part of the western religious heritage, particularly through Christianity.  A good example of this is the 13^th century Ryerson diptych, a portable religious artwork, seeing that it can close and move where it is convenient.  Each panel is about 11 x 15 inches, and so when open it is large enough to gain the attention of the devout when in prayer. 

The left side portrays Mary with the child Jesus with angels and the donor, the right side presents the crucifixion with Mary and John the evangelist.  There is much to say about this juxtaposition of two scenes from the life of Christ, from birth to death, but I want to discuss only the use of the diptych for it. 

A first question would be why not portray all this in one piece?  Yes, that can be done, and there are paintings of this and other periods that present multiple actions within one 2-D space whether it is a mural, painting, or icon.  So, is there an advantage to two separate works bound together? 

One advantage would be the ease of portability and storage, and while closed would protect both paintings.  A second reason, though not necessarily an advantage, is that the physical division between the two allows one to concentrate on them separately if desired.  Another point of interest is that the artistic comparison between the two allows the viewer to go back-and-forth to gain meaning from correlation, without having them collide visually.  A final motivation is the narrative view, wherein the order is clear and there is no ambiguity regarding the place or time of each event. 

This last item brings us to the comic book page or as in here, the cover.  Throughout the comic book the panels bring the reader through the story in sequence, it has narrative force.  As the cover here shows, however, it is also a way to provide information and allow the viewer to make the connections among them, whether because of an association or a contrast among the topics.  It assists defining figures and actions in their proper context.

Sometimes one of these reasons or motivations are the aesthetic support for what I’m constructing in an image although at other times I’m not sure, honestly, if there is any particular rationale to it.  So far, it appears to work for my various aims as to what I envision for the final image effect.  And yes, this connection to devotional art and comic book illustration is not by content, usually; instead it is the formal structure and effect that they share.

 

Exhibit _Extinction Save the Planet 2022_

Atomic Split; mixed-media on panel and acrylic sheet, 47" x 24"

Extinction: Save the Planet 2022 is an international online exhibit with over 200 artworks. Here is the link and I believe this may take you to my page that shows my artwork Atomic Split.

https://www.gallerium.art/p/extinction-2022.html?AW=AW127039736&fbclid=IwAR0P7nkyrWZ8o92dEdLRrmJRztRGvTB9xi2kNTi4Ja__0DMKN1d-H2EimcM

 This online show continues until May 22, 2022.

Community Artist Feature in _Several Circles_ YouTube Video

Rachel Gould of the Whitney Museum of American Art also produces Several Circles, a YT channel about Art history.  In this video she discusses the work of Zdzislaw Beksinski, then at 13.40 features my art in the community spotlight.

I do not know if my artwork is in the category of "Dystopian Surrealism," but for now it's a convenient label.

Modern Works exhibit at the Artists Group Gallery

 

The Industrial Revolution; mixed-media on paper, 18" x 24"

The Western New York Artists Group is presenting its Modern Works show from March 18 - April 22.  The juror for this exhibition was Michael Beam, curator of the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University.  Mr. Beam selected both of my entries and chose The Industrial Revolution for a second-place award.

An excellent review of modern visual art by regional artists, if you are visiting in the city of Buffalo then consider taking a look at 1 Linwood Avenue. 

 

Drawing in the Family Room

Can I draw a cafe wall illusion with color pencils and crayons?  Here's hoping!  I'm drawing it as a centerpiece for a triptych.

Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder

     

Hieronymus Bosch, The Adoration of the Magi (c. 1495).  Note the jerry-built construction of the stable.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Peasant Dance (c. 1568).  A handful of Netherlandish moral proverbs within this robust scene.

             Two painters who lived in the same era of the early Renaissance present a type of artist who was typical of the northern European genre, Hieronymus Bosch (Jeroen van Aken, c. 1450-1516) and Pieter Brueghel the Elder (Bruegel, c. 1525-1569).  And like those artists, from Jan Van Eyck to Albrecht Durer, both provided fine detail in their imagery whether it was the fur of a rabbit or the bucket of an old stone well.  Their compositions?  I’d say they were teeming with figures, flora, and fauna though others may have seen these works as crowded and cluttered.  Also, while they stayed in the mainstream of content with commissions of religious works, many northern European artists painted daily life of the average person.

What did other artists of the same era from another region think?  Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) stated that Flemish art was “…without reason or art, symmetry and proportion.”  He went on to judge that it appealed to “women and laggards,” in line with the cultural view of his time that women were lesser judges of what was fine in the Fine Arts.  More of his views can be found here, http://arthistoryresources.net/renaissance-art-theory-2012/michelangelo-on-painting.html.

Apparently, Michelangelo reasoned that only the Italian style was true Art.  Of course, he was wrong.

Reviewing both painters, a quick judgement is that Bosch is otherworldly whereas Brueghel is of this world.  The former, with his saintly figures and hybrid monsters, does fit that label well; the latter, portraying stout people in their daily chores, also follows that line of description. 

Another look, however, shows that Bosch employed the natural and human environments of his day in landscape and structures.  Even the fires of hell that he painted may likely have had as a source of inspiration the blast furnaces of the region within a hundred miles, the new medieval technique for producing iron would have been important.  Of course, it is unknown whether he ever saw them.  Witch-burning?  That is another possibility.  A more likely and frightening experience for him may have been the disastrous fire of 1463 that destroyed not only his family home but also thousands of others when he was a boy or a young teenager.

Also, the structures he painted with their ad hoc appearance was not a result of sloppy planning on Bosch’s part, but taken from actual houses and barns he observed.  Old buildings in rural Netherlands reveal how many repairs were jerry-built since the locals did not have a craftsperson at hand and it was imperative to fix the issue.  Surely, this was true of Bosch’s day.

Concerning Brueghel, yes, he engaged daily lives of people in their environment.  Nonetheless, like Bosch this deserves scrutiny.  It may well be that a painting as Peasant Dance (c. 1568) presents a scene that was typical of his region in that time, a rousing celebration with food, drink, and dance (of course!).  This may have been a companion piece to Peasant Wedding painted around the same time, and if so does give a clue to the reality and feeling the artist strived to re-create.  And yet, in both there was likely a moral message given as he put in symbols and gestures that indicate that he went beyond the appearance of things.  Like many artists of his day, he knew that appearances did not necessarily deceive but presuppositions about them do. 

Along with these “everyday” scenes, however, he did paint religious imagery.  The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (1559) depicts the conflict between feast and fast, moderation and merriment.  Here, the carnival prince and the lady of Lent joust playfully in the bottom center, each approaching from their respective strongholds of inn and church.  And throughout, whether drinking or praying, Brueghel tells us that everyone is merely doing what they will for their own convenience.

I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say that while Bosch emphasized the supernatural and the fantastic, he relied on his own knowledge of people, nature, as well as human nature, to describe what he wanted to depict.  With Brueghel, surely he stressed the natural but he depended often upon moral or religious lessons to provide a narrative structure for his art.  However and whatever each of them painted most, if not all, of their work was done on commission, and reveal not only the artists’ inner thought but also the feeling of the time.