Body Gestures in the Paintings of Rogier Van Der Weyden
The end of the Middle Ages saw an increase in the numbers of painters, illuminators, tapestry makers and other artists of the Burgundian States. Notable among these was Rogier Van Der Weyden, the official painter of Brussels, who achieved great heights in his ability to portray emotion from a personal point of view. The art of Van Der Weyden was striking to his contemporaries in his methods of using gesture, particularly hand gesture, to convey symbolic meaning.
It is important to note that in medieval iconography, position, grouping, and symmetry were of extraordinary importance. Attributes to the saints, the usual subjects of religious art, were commonly understood. In some artistic works the whole life of a saint was gathered up in one distinctive feature, such as St. Martin accompanied by a wild goose. In this instance, the goose is intended as a reminder that the feast of St. Martin at the beginning of winter coincides with the migration of the birds. This type of emblem conveys a great deal of meaning to the viewer. In this situation art has given form to a commonly understood association between the event and the time of year in which it occurs.
Learned art historians and ecclesiologists have determined the value of emblems in the fact that they are prescriptive historical tokens, a type of recognized language of symbolism. The modern mind does not express itself in this way, and it is important to recognize that the medieval conventions were intelligible to those of the time. There existed consensus in the meanings of certain emblems, and this consensus was necessary for the artists to communicate with their work. The medieval man desired to externalize images, to transpose them into hieroglyphs, and this was how emblems came to be used. The artist of this time took delight in driving home a point with an understandable representation. The term...