De Van Eyck à Vermeer : à la recherche d'une symbolique de l'espace
From Van Eyck to Vermeer: in the search of a symbolics of space

Author(s): Cristina Poede
Subject(s): Cultural history, French Literature, Cultural Essay, Philology, History of Art
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: Flemish and Dutch painting; space; the uncanny; Van Eyck; Vermeer; Magritte;
Summary/Abstract: From the fervent universe of “The Mystic Lamb” to the tranquility of bourgeois interiors hiding secrets, Dutch painting evokes an ever more symbolic space marked by thresholds, doors and stairs, cautious or exuberant windows, interior courtyards conducive to melancholy and meditation. French writers have often revealed their attraction for Flemish and Dutch masters: Théophile Gautier (“A Tour in Belgium and Holland”), Gérard de Nerval (“Lorely. Souvenirs d'Allemagne”), Baudelaire (“Les Phares”), Marcel Proust (“The Prisoner”), Paul Valéry (“The Return from Holland”), Marguerite Yourcenar (“L’oeuvre au noir”) comment on the works of these painters, with whom they experienced subtle aesthetic affinities. The paper is an attempt to achieve a diachronic division of two centuries in order to observe certain modifications concerning the representation of space in Flemish and Dutch painting, modifications which took place from the late Middle Ages to the Golden Age, including the Renaissance.

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