2. Bruges: the Dead City?
This one is personal. Though Bruges is the only city in the course that I have visited only once, it left an indelible
impression. It is sometimes called "the Venice of the North," but to float on its canals feels like a journey into
the past. Not for nothing did Korngold write an opera about it called The Dead City; it can feel as if it had
never entered the present. Yet those grey walls and stone churches contain many of the brightest creations of
Renaissance art, brilliant paintings that reflect its erstwhile importance as a thriving center of trade in the 15th
century, the partner and to some extent the master of those great cities of Italy we shall visit in the coming weeks.
In preparing this course, though, I have come to realize that my own impressions of Bruges may not match those of other
people. Back then, I was newly embarked on my first career as an art historian, and was acutely aware of the treasures
behind those walls as though they glowed through them. On the other hand, I knew next to nothing about other aspects of
history or commerce. And visiting in 1965, Bruges could still seem a place of lonely nostalgia. I had no idea of the crowds
that would flock there now in search of beer, chocolate, and camaraderie. Finding some kind of synthesis now between
these different views of the city has been a challenge, but I believe it has its rewards. Roger Brunyate.
The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.
Here are brief bios of the composers and writers considered in the class, listed in order of birth.
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Jan van Eyck, 1390–1441. Netherlandish painter.
The most celebrated and influential northern painter in the earlier 15th century, responsible for developing a style of oil painting capable of magnificent detail and effects of light. His major work, the altarpiece in Ghent Cathedral, is recorded to have been begun by his perhaps even greater brother Hubert. He was a renowned portraitist, including the enigmatic Arnolfini Marriage in London, and the supposed self-portrait seen here.
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Guillaume Dufay, 1397–1474. Franco-Flemish composer.
Dufay (also spelled Du Fay and other variants) was born near Brussels. Writing in most genres and traveling widely, he was regarded as the leading composer of his time, composing for example a motet for the dedication of Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral. [The portait comes from his tomb.]
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Petrus Christus, 1410–76. Netherlandish painter, active in Bruges.
Whether or not he actually studied with Jan van Eyck, he became one of his most distinguished followers, and the leading painter in Bruges after his death. [The portrait is by him, but almost certainly not of him.]
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Hans Memling, 1430–94. German-Flemish painter.
Based in Bruges, and probably a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden, he developed a sweeter more balanced version of his style which brought him great success. Also spelled "Memlinc."
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Hugo van der Goes, 1435–1482. Netherlandish painter.
The major figure of the second half of the 15th century in the Netherlands, he is known for his psychological observation and the richness of his backgrounds, as in the Portinari Altarpiece which introduced his style to Florence. [Identificaton of this as a self-portrait is conjectural.]
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Josquin des Prez, 1440–1521. Franco-Flemish composer.
Josquin is considered one of the leading composers in the High Renaissance, and not just in the Franco-Flemish school. Almost all his works are vocal, mostly sacred. He is credited with breaking away from the tradition of long melismatic lines, writing instead in short imitative phrases that are closely expressive of the text. [This portrait of a musician by Leonardo da Vinci has not definitely been identified as Josquin, although both were in Milan at the same time.]
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Hayne van Ghizeghem, 1445–97. Flemish composer.
Very little is known of his life, other than that he was born in Flanders and served in the court of Charles the Bold. On the other hand, his secular Chansons such as "Allez regets" were so well known that they were transcribed (and later reprinted) several dozen times. [The roughly contemporary portrait is a placeholder only.]
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Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475–1564. Florentine sculptor, architect, painter, and poet.
A towering universal genius, his work virtually defines the Italian High Renaissance. He made his name primarily as a sculptor in his native Florence, though he worked elsewhere as well. His most famous works, however, are in Rome: the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–12) and his work from 1546 as leading architect of the Basilica of St. Peters, one of a succession of masters who brought the building to its present form.
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Jan Gossaert, 1478–1532. Netherlandish painter.
Gossaert, also known as "Mabuse," visited Italy in 1508–9, and thereafter combined Italianate subjects (including those from classical myth) with a Netherlandish precision of detail.
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Simon Bening, 1483–1561. Netherlandish book illuminator.
Working in Bruges, he represents the very end of the Northern European tradition of illustrating religious texts such as Books of Hours with detailed reference to the lives of ordinary people of the time.
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–82. American poet.
Longfellow was born in Maine, and taught at Bowdoin College and later at Harvard. His American themes and stirring diction made him the most popular poet of his day and earned him a reputation abroad. His Song of Hiawatha (1855) and similar poems employed the form of the Finnish Kalevala to create a similar Native American myth.
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Erich Korngold, 1897–1957. German composer.
Korngold was born in Brno, then a German enclave. He showed great promise as a child pianist and soon also a composer, absorbing the richness of late Romanticism which was then at his height. He reached the peak of his fame in the 1920s, when opera houses fought to premiere his opera Die tote Stadt. Invited to Hollywood in 1934 by Max Reinhardt, he both escaped the Nazis (he was a Jew) and began a new career as a film composer, finding that his style worked perfectly for the swashbuckling romances then in fashion.
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