The Timken Museum of art holds the painting Death of the Virgin by Petrus Christus, ca 1460-65 Putnam Foundation, oil on oak, transferred to mahogany (171.1x138.4 cm). There are six different galleries the Italian gallery, the French gallery, the American gallery, the Donna Knox sefton gallery, the Special Exhibition gallery and the Icon gallery. The Italian gallery is pink and the paintings hang from the walls on pink cords. The French gallery is a mirror image of the Italian gallery. The American gallery is a replica of the Italian gallery. Next is the Special Exhibitions gallery which currently has on display Witness to War: Callot, Goya, Bellows. The Icon gallery has green carpeted walls. Some of the pieces hang from the walls on ropes
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One of the most defining characteristic is his use of perspective. As stated by max J Friedlander “Space and figures are seen from the same viewpoint-a pictorial advance which is surprising to the historian who knows the development of flemish painting. The artist follows in the track of Jan Van Eyck, but has advanced beyond his forerunner. Jan van Eyck satifes his desire for space by purely visual means, but Petrus Christus does it by calculation and approaches the principles of correct perspective. The superiority of the follower in this respect-but in this respect alone-can often be seen in other examples of his work. Comparing the Exeter Madonna with Van Eyck’s slightly Earlier picture in the Rothschild collection, we find that Petrus Christus has set his horizon further back than Van Eyck in the interest of a more well developed illusion of …show more content…
J. Friedlander One of the examples presented was the similaritiy of the perspective in this painting to that of others by Christus. But the most compelling reason presented was that the Death of the Virgin was part of a triptych, the Death of the Virgin is the center panel and the paintings depicting St John the Baptist and St Catherine are the wings. These two pieces already considered part of Christus,s overe were destroyed during world war 2, but black and white pictures still remain to be compared to the Death of the Virgin. Right away similarities can be seen for example the the landscape continuing on it St Catherine's panel from the Center panel or the similarities of the way the figures are constructed. These many similarities come together to prove without a doubt that the Death of the Virgin belongs in Christus’s
One of the most defining characteristic is his use of perspective. As stated by max J Friedlander “Space and figures are seen from the same viewpoint-a pictorial advance which is surprising to the historian who knows the development of flemish painting. The artist follows in the track of Jan Van Eyck, but has advanced beyond his forerunner. Jan van Eyck satifes his desire for space by purely visual means, but Petrus Christus does it by calculation and approaches the principles of correct perspective. The superiority of the follower in this respect-but in this respect alone-can often be seen in other examples of his work. Comparing the Exeter Madonna with Van Eyck’s slightly Earlier picture in the Rothschild collection, we find that Petrus Christus has set his horizon further back than Van Eyck in the interest of a more well developed illusion of …show more content…
J. Friedlander One of the examples presented was the similaritiy of the perspective in this painting to that of others by Christus. But the most compelling reason presented was that the Death of the Virgin was part of a triptych, the Death of the Virgin is the center panel and the paintings depicting St John the Baptist and St Catherine are the wings. These two pieces already considered part of Christus,s overe were destroyed during world war 2, but black and white pictures still remain to be compared to the Death of the Virgin. Right away similarities can be seen for example the the landscape continuing on it St Catherine's panel from the Center panel or the similarities of the way the figures are constructed. These many similarities come together to prove without a doubt that the Death of the Virgin belongs in Christus’s