The Burning Bush Triptych is a 1475-1476 oil on panel triptych by Nicolas Froment in Aix Cathedral.
Weighing half a ton, René of Anjou commissioned it in 1476 for the tomb designed for his entrails. [1] It originally stood on the altarpiece in the Grands-Carmes convent, destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution, when it was moved to Aix Cathedral in 1808. After a restoration it was reinstalled in the cathedral's Saint-Lazare chapel late in January 2011. [2]
A trompe-l’œil grisaille on its outer panels shows the Annunciation, with Gabriel and Mary's words inscribed on scrolls in the centre and Gabriel holding an olive branch with twelve olives, a symbol of peace. Opened, the left panel shows René wearing his coats of arms (Hungary, Sicily, Anjou and Aragon), kneeling and wearing the habit of the canons of the Abbey of St Victor. Around him are his patron saints Mary Magdalene, Anthony the Great and Maurice carrying the banner of the Ordre du Croissant, founded by René. Facing him on the right hand panel is his wife Jeanne de Laval, kneeling before her prayer book and backed by John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria and Nicholas of Myra.
This shows the Madonna and Child on the Burning Bush from the Book of Exodus, with Moses in the right foreground looking at the vision. The town in the right background evokes Avignon, whilst the castle on the left may be René's château de Saumur in Anjou. [3] The scene is full of symbols, including the ewes, vegetation, gestures, mirror, clothes, rising sun, river, beasts and colours, along with the rock (a biblical image of God) out of which the bush's twelve fig branches grow. The medallion on the angel's chest shows Adam and Eve, whose original sin was redeemed due to Mary's bearing of Christ.[ citation needed ]
A painted frame around the central panel shows the twelve Kings of Judah, with an inscription on the base of the frame which translates as "In the bush which Moses saw burning without being consumed, we recognised, Holy Mother of God, your virginity wondrously preserved". At its top is another inscription which translates as "Whoever finds me will find life and draw salvation from the bosom of God", a free translation of Proverbs 8: 35 [1] alluding to the believers saved by their faith.
Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a city and commune in southern France, about 30 km (20 mi) north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the subprefecture of the arrondissement of Aix-en-Provence, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The population of Aix-en-Provence is approximately 145,000. Its inhabitants are called Aixois or, less commonly, Aquisextains.
René of Anjou was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples as René I from 1435 to 1442. Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence, he is known in France as the Good King René.
The Ghent Altarpiece, also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is a very large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it is attributed to the Early Netherlandish painters and brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The altarpiece is considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the world's treasures, it was "the first major oil painting", and it marked the transition from Middle Age to Renaissance art.
The burning bush refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah. It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb. According to the biblical account, the bush was on fire but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name. In the biblical narrative, the burning bush is the location at which Moses was appointed by Yahweh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan.
The Mérode Altarpiece is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain, and the Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window.
The Church of St. Trophime (Trophimus) is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral located in the city of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department of southern France. It was built between the 12th century and the 15th century, and is in the Romanesque architectural tradition. The sculptures over the church's portal, particularly the Last Judgement, and the columns in the adjacent cloister, are considered some of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture.
Aix Cathedral in Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a Roman Catholic church and the seat of the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence and Arles. The cathedral is built on the site of the 1st-century Roman forum of Aix. Built and re-built from the 12th until the 19th century, it includes Romanesque, Gothic and Neo-Gothic elements, as well as Roman columns and parts of the baptistery from a 6th-century Christian church. It is a national monument of France.
La Barben is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southern France.
Barthélemy d'Eyck, van Eyck or d' Eyck, was an Early Netherlandish artist who worked in France and probably in Burgundy as a painter and manuscript illuminator. He was active between about 1440 to about 1469. Although no surviving works can be certainly documented as his, he was praised by contemporary authors as a leading artist of the day, and a number of important works are generally accepted as his. In particular, Barthélemy has been accepted by most experts as the artists formerly known as the Master of the Aix Annunciation for paintings, and the Master of René of Anjou for illuminated manuscripts. He is thought by many to be the Master of the Shadows responsible for parts of the calendar of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.
Enguerrand Quarton was a French painter and manuscript illuminator whose few surviving works are among the first masterpieces of a distinctively French style, very different from either Italian or Early Netherlandish painting. Six paintings by him are documented, of which only two survive, and in addition the Louvre now follows most art historians in attributing to him the famous Avignon Pietà. His two documented works are the remarkable Coronation of the Virgin and The Virgin of Mercy. Two smaller altarpieces are also attributed to him.
Nicolas Froment was a French painter of the Early Renaissance. Nicolas Froment is one of the most notable representatives of the Second School of Avignon,, a group of artists at the court of the Popes in Avignon, who were located there from 1309 to 1411.
St George's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, and the seat of the Archbishop of Cape Town. St. George's Cathedral is both the metropolitical church of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and a congregation in the Diocese of Cape Town.
Jeanne de Laval, was the second wife and titular Queen consort of René I of Anjou, King of Naples, Sicily, titular King of Jerusalem, Aragon, and Majorca; Duke of Anjou, Bar, and Lorraine; and Count of Provence and Piedmont.
The Aix Annunciation is a painting attributed to the Barthélemy d'Eyck or the so-called Master of the Annunciation of Aix-en-Provence. Executed in 1443-1445, it was originally placed in the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur, Aix-en-Provence, southern France. Now it is divided between the Église de la Madeleine in the same city, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at Rotterdam, the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, while the right panel is in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. Side panels are painted on both sides, showing Christ on the right and Mary Magdalene on the left ; together they used to form a Noli me tangere scene when the triptych was folded shut.
The Dresden Triptych is a very small hinged-triptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It consists of five individual panel paintings: a central inner panel, and two double-sided wings. It is signed and dated 1437, and in a permanent collection of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, with the panels still in their original frames. The only extant triptych attributed to van Eyck, and the only non-portrait signed with his personal motto, ALC IXH XAN, the triptych can be placed at the midpoint of his known works. It echoes a number of the motifs of his earlier works while marking an advancement in his ability in handling depth of space, and establishes iconographic elements of Marian portraiture that were to become widespread by the latter half of the 15th century. Elisabeth Dhanens describes it as "the most charming, delicate and appealing work by Jan van Eyck that has survived".
The Church of St. John in Aix-en-Provence, situated at the corner of rue d'Italie and rue Cardinale, is a Gothic Roman Catholic church, the first in Provence. It was built in the 13th century, mostly in the 1270s.
The Madonna of Nicolas van Maelbeke was a large but now lost hinged triptych attributed to Jan van Eyck, thought to have been completed late in his career, perhaps his final work. It is known today through a replica dating to 1757–1760, and several near contemporary silverpoint copies, one by Petrus Christus or his workshop c. 1445 in Vienna, and another by an unknown artist, probably a member of his workshop, which is now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. The original was commissioned by Nicolas Maelbeke for the Saint Martin monastery in Ypres where it was installed in 1445. That the donor is present in the central panel is unusual; typically in mid-15th century triptychs donors would be in an accompanying wing.
The Saint Columba Altarpiece is a large c. 1450–1455 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden painted during his late period. It was commissioned for the church of St. Columba in Cologne, and is now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The Bladelin Altarpiece, or Middelburg Altarpiece, is a triptych painting created around 1450 by the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden, towards the end of his artistic career. It depicts scenes relating to the birth of Jesus; and as the only nativity scene definitively attributed to van der Weyden is sometimes known as the Nativity Triptych.
Miniature Altarpiece with the Crucifixion is a very small and complex early 16th century Netherlandish microcarved miniature sculpture in boxwood, now in The Cloisters, New York. The central carvings of the upper triptych show the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, each outer wing contains two scenes from the biblical Old Testament. The complex base contains a round carving which opens like a boxwood prayer nut.