The Role of the Suspended Crown in Jan van Eyck's Madonna and Chancellor Rolin

The Role of the Suspended Crown in Jan van Eyck's Madonna and Chancellor RolinAuthor(s): Christine Hasenmueller McCorkelSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 516-520Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049565 .

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The Role of the Suspended Crown in Jan van Eyck's Madonna and Chancellor Rolin Christine Hasenmueller McCorkel

The crown suspended by an angel over the head of the Virgin in the Rolin Madonna has received less attention than other, more patently problematical details of the picture (Figs. 1 and 2). Similar crowns are so familiar in representations of the Coronation of the Virgin and in devotional images derived from that composition that the significance of this one has seemed self-evident. There can be little doubt that this crown refers both to the Coronation of the Virgin and to a devotional relationship between the donor and the figures before him, but there are great difficulties with accepting the scene as a depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin to which Rolin has been ad- mitted, or which he imagines. The presence of a donor without benefit of saintly guidance before a devotional image is in- novative enough; such a figure at a historical event that takes place in Heaven without earthly onlookers would require our acceptance that Rolin has, at least in imagination, gained entry to the throne of the Trinity itself.'

In other respects, the scene is quite different from the usual type of the Coronation of the Virgin. She is neither en- throned at the side of her son, nor is she kneeling before him to receive the crown. And Christ is not the crucified and risen Christ, but the child. He is involved not with the bestowal of the crown, but with a gesture of acceptance toward the donor. The Virgin herself seems unaware of the impending coronation: her preoccupied look fixes neither Rolin nor the child, but a point below their heads and to her left. She seems to contemplate the jeweled cross held by the child-or perhaps the cross that forms part of the floor tile design-rather than attend to any part of the event in progress or the persons present.2 The figural arrangement suggests some aspects of typical formats for the Coronation of the Virgin, but this very fact underlines the distinction between what is going on here and the composition it superficially resembles.

2 Jan van Eyck, Madonna and Chancellor Rolin (detail). Paris, Louvre (photo: Reunion des Musees Nationaux)

If the scene is not the historical Coronation of the Virgin, neither is it typical of any established permutation of the theme of the crowned Virgin as a devotional figure.3 This is not the Virgin crowned at all, much less the Virgin-Ecclesia en- throned in triumph. Her modest, oblique seat is quite unlike the elaborate thrones that dominated such compositions, and

1 Questions as to what is happening and where it is happening are at root inseparable. Panofsky identified the setting as the throne room of the Madonna and stressed the necessity of its appearing to be a palace "not of this earth" (Early Netherlandish Painting, New York, Icon ed., 1971, I, 139 and n. 2 and 192ff.). In her recent study of the Ghent Altarpiece (The Ghent Altarpiece and the Art of Jan van Eyck, Princeton, 1967, 190ff.) Lotte Brand Philip identified the elevated room as the New Heaven and the background landscape as the New Earth. Though this responds to the division of space in depth that so strongly marks the picture, it tends to leave the lateral division without satisfying explanation. Among those who identify the room as Rolin's chamber where he is visited by the Madonna are: Leo van Puyvelde (Flemish Painting From the van Eycks to Metsys, trans. Alan Kendall, New York, 1970, 57), James Synder ("Jan van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin," Oud Holland, LXXXII, Pt. 4, 1967, 165), and Julius Held, in a review of Panofsky's Early Netherlandish Painting (Art Bulletin, xxxvii, 1955, 205- 34, 213). Held argued that the fact that the scene could be adopted by Rogier van der Weyden for a Saint Luke Painting the Virgin tended to show that the setting was meant as an earthly one. He adds that the prie- dieu looks permanent, but the Virgin's seat does not, and most important, the room lacks a throne. There is general agreement that the figures seem ill at ease in the space (e.g., Ludwig von Baldass, Jan van Eyck, London and New York, 1952, 56), and that in spite of their apparent intimacy, they do not interact in the manner of persons sharing the same space (e.g., Charles de

Tolnay, Le Maitre de Flemalle et les freres van Eyck, Burssels, 1938, quoted by Baldass, Jan van Eyck, 58). The foreground architecture seems to lack the truth to nature that has so long compelled scholars to search the background of the Rolin Madonna in attempts to identify the landscape (most recently Joseph Philippe, Van Eyck et la ginese mosane de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas, Liege, 1960, esp. 59- 62) and historical events taking place in it (Emil Kieser, "Zur Deutung und Datierung der Rolin-Madonna des Jan van Eyck," Staedel Jahrbuch, 1, 1967, 73- 95, especially 74). It is interesting to note that in Rogier's Saint Luke Painting the Virgin it is precisely such details as the relationships of the figures to the space and to each other that have been changed. The subject is a charming anecdote. The reading stand visible in the room to our right and the casual pose of the nursing Virgin lend it a homely intimacy despite the cloth of honor and Saint Luke's reverent half-kneeling attitude. The geometrical stringency of design that makes the figures in the Rolin Madonna seem uncomfortable in a space made for some other purpose than their occupancy has been exchanged for an airy environment that is immediately convincing as a shared room. 2 Rogier Wieck, "Jan van Eyck, Designer of Celestial Jerusalem," M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1972, 107- 110, discusses the floor tiles in detail. See note 12.

a See for example Anna B. M. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, rev. ed., London, 1890, repub. Gale Research Co., Detroit, 1972, 13ff, etc.



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1 Jan van Eyck, Madonna and Chancellor Rolin. Paris, Louvre (photo: R6union des Mus6es Nationaux)




that even in Van Eyck's domestic interiors of the 1430's still suggested the Throne of Solomon. But if the Rolin Madonna de-

picts neither the historical Coronation of the Virgin nor a devotional crowned Virgin, we can hardly be satisfied with one scholar's view that the crown is merely an awkward addi- tion to re-establish the distinction between two figures that Van

Eyck's naturalism brought too close to the same level.4 Its dazzling brilliance against the shadowed capitals, and the fact that it seems in the process of being superimposed on an arrangement that would have been symmetrical without it, give the crown compelling prominence in this otherwise austere, immobile foreground. These characteristics of the crown are neither incidental variations of the Coronation theme, nor indicators of the arbitrariness of the motif. They are essential to its interpretation.

Two well-known pictures by Rogier van der Weyden suggest parallels with Van Eyck's use of the crown and with the at- tendant role of the Virgin. In his study of the Escorial Deposi- tion, Von Simson has shown how the Virgin's redemption through compassion is an example for man's proper reception of Christ's sacrifice.5 She lives within herself the sacrifice of the Cross. In her Compassio the historical Virgin shows how the eternal Ecclesia shall merit the salvation proffered on the Cross. The parallel positions and attitudes of the figures of Christ and his mother in the Deposition suggested the iconographical parallel to Von Simson. In the work of an artist to whom the dramatic gestures of figures are so central, it is not unex-

pected to find a device like this as the pictorial means for

juxtaposing ideas. In Jan van Eyck the same kind of motif would be anomalous, but the use of parallel positions in a highly structured pictorial universe to convey similar ideas is entirely consistent with his style.

The Mary Altarpiece or Miraflores Altarpiece of Rogier van

der Weyden focuses on the qualities of Mary that lead to her reward, and symbolizes them with a suspended crown.6 In the Berlin version, which has escaped truncation, each panel is sur- mounted by an angel with a suspended crown and an inscription. The Holy Family, Lamentation, and Appearance of Christ to His Mother have inscriptions reworded from, respectively, James 1:12, Revelation 2:10, and Revelation 6:2. The picture thus correlates three texts relating to the bestowal of crowns, specifically to the corona vitae, with events in the life of the Virgin. The texts had, as Panofsky pointed out, no particular reference to the Virgin.7 All three, however, concern qualities that are rewarded with the Crown of Life. And though Rogier's picture may be the first to associate inscriptions based on these texts with the Virgin, it is worthy of note that the recipient of the crown in Revelation 6:2, the rider on the white horse, had been previously seen as a figure of Ecclesia.8 In the altar-

piece Mary is the ideal embodiment of the three qualities; she is without blemish, is faithful unto death, and perseveres to

conquer all. The subjects depicted and their arrangement clearly dis-

tinguish the theme of the Mary Altarpiece from the themes of related works culminating in the Coronation of the Virgin. Here her reward is linked to historical action, most specifically to what Panofsky has termed "an emotional situation cast into an image of Rogier's invention."' Phrases from the Mag- nificat, embroidered on the edge of her robe, elaborate the focus of each scene on her ideal response to the events of Christ's life. The use of an inscription associated with Ecclesia for a scene of the appearance of Christ to his mother suggests their comparison. The historical Virgin and her role in the life of Christ had become the ideal figure of Eternal Church in her response to the timeless realities of Christ's acts for man's salvation. 10

4 Leo van Puyvelde, Flemish Painting From the van Eycks to Metsys, 57.

5 Otto von Simson, "Compassio and Co-Redemptio in Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross," Art Bulletin, xxv, 1953, 9- 16, 12. See also Elmile Male, L'Art religieux de la fin du moyen age en France, 3rd ed., Paris, 1925, 122ff. 6 Both versions, the probable original divided between Granada and New York, and a very fine old copy in the Berlin (Dahlem) Museum, are well known. For recent discussion and bibliography see Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden, London, 1972, 213-16.

7 Early Netherlandish Painting, 260, n. 1. Panofsky transcribed the inscriptions and compared them with the texts from which they were drawn, italicizing both to show the derivation: for the Holy Family: "Mulier hec probatissima, munda ab omni labe; ideo accipiet coronam vitae. Ex. Jac. I." James 1:12: "Beatus vir qui suffert tentationem; quoniam cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae." For the Lamentation: "Mulier hec fuit fidelissima in Christi dolore; ideo datur ei corona vitae. Ex. Apoc. II capitulo." Rev. 2:10: "Esto

fidelis usque ad mortem, et dabo tibi coronam vitae." For the Appearance of Christ to His Mother: "Mulier hec perseuerauit vincens omnia; ideo data estei corona. Ex. Apoc. VI capitulo." Rev. 6:2: "Et data est ei (to the rider on the white horse) corona, et exivit vincens ut vinceret." Wording and in one case tense were changed to make the texts refer to the Virgin and progress from future to past. 8 Glossa ordinaria, in J. P. Migne, Patrologia latina, Paris, 1897, cxIv, 721. "In primo sigillo aperto, unde egressus est equus albus, intelligitur Ecclesiae dealbatio per baptismum." The texts, which are so helpful in inter- preting the motif, are not present in the Rolin Madonna; they are thus helpful only to the degree that they clarify a motif that does appear there. It is

interesting, however, that the image of the rider on the white horse-the purified Ecclesia-is elaborated by a bow signifying the Scripture through which Christ illuminates his own and kills his enemies: "Arcum. Christus habet Scripturam qua illuminat suos, et occidit inimicos." The Latin word arcum recalls the rainbow that was God's sign to Noah that the Flood would not be repeated. See Glossa ordinaria, Migne, PL cxiii, 111, and Gertrud Schiller, Christian Iconography, trans. Janet Seligman, Greenwich, Conn., 1971, I, 129- 130, 139 on Noah's ark. The Noah scenes of the last capital over Rolin's head form an exceptionally rich set of Old Testament types of ideas associated with the Virgin as recipient of the corona vitae.

9 Early Netherlandish Painting, 261.

10 The association of the corona vitae with the meritorious acts of the historical Virgin is made particularly strong by the use of a sequence of tenses from future to past in the Mary Altarpiece inscriptions. The key event, with an inscription in the present tense and in the center panel of the triptych, is the Lamentation-her faith unto death. The present tense emphasizes the association of the historical action and the heavenly reward. The past tense of the inscription for the Appearance of Christ to His Mother effectively distinguishes the corona vitae from the crown of the Queen of Heaven, since it refers in the past to her reward with the Crown of Life, while the historical Coronation of the Virgin is still in the future. Also, it is this scene that most clearly invites the comparison of the role of the Virgin with the personified Ecclesia. The election of the Virgin and her reward in the appearance of her son are acts of the Trinity toward Mary that set her apart from mankind. But her Compassio is her own ideal human action in response to Christ's sacrifice for man.



VAN EYCK'S "ROLIN MADONNA' 519

The adaption of these three texts mentioning the bestowal of crowns as rubrics for events in the life of Mary was undoubtedly suggested by the established association of a crown with Mary in the scene of her Coronation. Yet there is an important difference between Mary as the recipient of the Crown of Life, and as the recipient of a crown as Queen of Heaven. The Crown of Heaven is a sign of the unique glory ascribed to Mary by her son and by the Trinity, and of her resultant power as an intercessor. The Crown of Life, as indicated by the texts associated with it in the Mary Altarpiece, is the reward of spiritual virtue. It is not a statement of the fact of triumph but an accounting of the Virgin's merit of salvation. The Crown of Life itself suggests not dominion but tran- scendance of mortality, and not so much election to a role in divine history as human virtue. Its recipient is not set apart from humanity in a historical coronation, but identified by a metaphorical crown as a model of the virtues through which all mankind may transcend its, fallen nature.

The suspended crown in the Rolin Madonna may be identified as the same Crown of Life as that which symbolizes the

Virgin's conquest of human nature in the Mary Altarpiece. The crown functions as a rubric rather than as part of an event. The Virgin, draped in the red robe of the Passion-the events most closely associated with her Compassio--casts down her eyes. " Her sober visage reflects not maternal joy in the child, but acceptance of his cross. Her robe falls across the row of tiles that forms the upright of the cross on the floor, as

though to incorporate it.12 She is cedrus exaltata, the incor-

ruptible whose freedom from blemish counters Eve's stain, and whose faith unto the death of her son illuminates man's way to

conquest of his fallen nature. Even as she accepts the fate of the child she extends to man, she is exalted, and given the Crown of Life.

Identification of the crown as corona vitae has substantial implications for the interpretation of certain other details of the Rolin Madonna. It has long been recognized that the sym-

metry of the picture sets up a strong relationship of simultane- ous equivalence and separation between paired elements, and that motifs along the center axis, such as the bridge, suggest interchange between two realms. These aspects of the

pictorial structure, as well as the identification of the setting, are problematical if the crown is understood as the Crown of Heaven. Both compositional duality and the absence of features that positively identify the architecture are, however, consistent with a reading as the Crown of Life. The latter is a metaphor of the reward for spiritual virtue rather than part of an event. Its presence demands neither the conventional setting for the Coronation of the Virgin nor the personalized domestic interior we would expect as the stage for a tableau actualizing a part ofd the spiritual life of an individual.

The capitals at the left "crown" Nicolas Rolin just as the Crown of Life suspended by the angel crowns the Virgin. And just as the realm is dominated by an image of ideal virtue accessible to the donor. The Madonna confronts Rolin not with a triumph beyond his aspiration, but with a model for his own spiritual action in response to Christ.

The capitals at the left "crown" Nicolas Rolin just as the Crown of Life suspended by the angel crowns the Virgin. And just as the crown refers to the virtues through which the Virgin merits her position on the right side of the picture, so does the Old Testament narrative above Rolin's head show how man has merited his position in the scheme of things. The events from the Expulsion to the Drunkenness of Noah represent the past, but more directly they symbolize man's status in the cosmos. Though we presume that the Fall begins the sequence, it is not visible from our point of view. If the intent were to show man's early history, or to contrast his repeated disobediences with the Virgin's acceptance of divine will, this is an awkward omission. The part of the sequence we do see chronicles man's estrange- ment from God, despite his attempts to restore a satisfactory relationship, and God's signs to him. Signs become compre- hensible, and a complete reconciliation of man and God pos-

" Panofsky comments on the use of red drapery specifically in the Lamentation panel of the Mary Altarpiece (Early Netherlandish Painting, I, 261). Her contemplative, humble expression and placement of the child on a drapery recalling that of the Lamentation are indications of something other than simply a triumphant Madonna and child. I cannot believe with Kieser ("Deutung und Datierung," 80) that this lowering of the eyes expresses shame over Rolin's failure to lower his eyes in humility. Kieser's implication that the figures ought to respond to each other in the ordinary way assumes that they are tangibly present to each other and that the details of the picture are based more directly on observation of human behavior than on concern for the visual coherence of the symbolic structure. If we accept the premise that underlies the question of why Rolin does not lower his eyes, we must also ask why he does not raise them to see the crown placed on the Virgin's head, and why she does not perceive her impending coronation. 12 Kieser ("Deutung und Datierung," 75) uses the atypical tile that marks the center of the lower edge of the picture and the orthogonal row extending from it as a key to the derivation of the date of the affair of Montereau, the number of intervening years, and the date of the picture. Wieck ("Jan van Eyck, Designer of Celestial Jerusalem," 107- 110) examines the floor pat- tern in detail, noting that the atypical tiles form a cross, but he focuses on the task of projecting the plan of the room in which we are standing from

this evidence. If we accept that the crown is the corona vitae, these ideas are not contradicted, but new importance must be given to the incorpora- tion of the line of the upright of the cross by the figure of the Virgin, and to the fact that the arms of the cross connect the Virgin and Rolin. The Mary Altarpiece stresses the direct connection between the Virgin's acceptance of the Cross and her merit of the Crown of Life. In each panel the hem of her robe is inscribed with lines from the Magnificat so that the tableaux fuse event and effect. In a similar way the robe of the Rolin Virgin both expresses acceptance of the Cross and juxtaposes this act with her glorification. As Panofsky noted, her robe is inscribed along the hem with phrases from Ecclesiasticus, of which the words "exaltata sum in Libano" (Ecclesiasticus 24:17) are most prominent (Early Netherlandish Painting, 139, n.2). He gave greatest importance to the fact that phrases from the text adjacent to this, but not legible here, refer to Sion and Jerusalem. The character of the whole passage is doubtless important, but in the presence of the corona vitae and the Cross, the emphasis of these particular words on the very element that takes the Cross into itself is crucial. It is in her acceptance of the Cross that the Virgin is exalted and given the Crown of Life. Even the first-person form of the phrase reflects an immediacy paralleled only by the suspended crown--the only detail that seems to move free of the static geometry of the picture.




sible, only with Christ. The reconciliation thus made pos- sible may be actualized through man's reception of Christ. Christ neutralizes the determining effect of the Fall on man, but man must accept the sacrifice made for him. The relief narrative ends with the Drunkenness of Noah and the responses of his sons, prefiguring the Cross and the three reactions to it of Jew, Gentile, and heretic. 13 It is precisely this human dilemma - proper response to the Cross - that confronts Rolin and whose solution is shown by the Virgin.

The capitals above the head of the Virgin are in the process of being overshadowed by the crown. Though the subject of the reliefs of this capital may remain obscure, two things are obvious: they are in shadow, whereas the reliefs above Rolin are well lighted from the right side of the picture, and they are being replaced as a "rubric" by the brilliantly jeweled crown. The Crown of Life takes precedence over the scenes behind it in the elaboration of the significance of the Virgin. There are many possibilities for the subject of the partially visible relief, but whatever it is, its function within the whole is significantly modified by these facts.14 The Virgin's status with regard to the chronicle of the capitals has changed, as indicated by her position on the right side of the picture and the crown. She is the link between Christ and the human past recounted on the reliefs, yet she has transcended that history.

The iconographic role of the Virgin in the Rolin Madonna is different from her role in identifiable prototypes. Her function as a model for man in the merit of salvation is newly empha- sized. She is no longer primarily a sympathetic object of devo- tion, nor a divinely proclaimed Queen of Heaven, but a spiritual heroine. The distinction between the triumphant

devotional Madonna of the International-Style and the Rolin Virgin represents an important step in the evolution of one of the two essential images that for Emile M^ile mark the supreme realization of the double ideal of the Middle Ages: a suffering Christ who offers himself for men, and "une Vierge sans tache qui les invite a resister aux fatalites de la chair et a vaincre la nature."'"

Vanderbilt University

13 Panofsky lists the subjects as: the Expulsion, story of Cain and Abel, and the Drunkenness of Noah (Early Netherlandish Painting, 139). Dispute as to what is depicted has been negligible, though Wieck attempts to add the Departure of the Sons of Noah as the last scene, turning the corner of the capital ("Jan van Eyck, Designer of Celestial Jerusalem," 15). Two figures turn toward Noah, the nearer one to cover his nakedness. A third at the corner of the capital faces away from the reclining figure and seems to move around the capital. Beyond, strongly foreshortened, is at least one more figure. They certainly represent Noah's sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who in their responses to their father's nakedness prefigure the three reactions to the Cruci- fixion of Jew, Gentile, and heretic. See for example Augustine, City of God, Bk. xvI, chap. 2 and the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis 9: 21-29: PL cxIIi:112- 13. The presence of at least four figures on the relief requires some explanation, but it is unlikely that there are as many as six figures-the three sons of Noah depicted in two distinct episodes-as Wieck implies. More likely the fourth figure is Canaan, the son of Ham and indirect recipient of Noah's curse on his erring son. If this is the case, strong emphasis is placed on the contrast between the reactions of the three sons and on the prophetic

.blessings and

curse that follow. And, their fates are linked directly to their response to the sign of Noah's drunkenness, as man's fate under the New Order is linked to his response to the reality of Christ's sacrificial death. 14 The very devices that emphasize the process of superimposition complicate the identification of that which is being superseded. All that may be deter- mined from the relief itself is that it involves two principal figures: one is standing, in military dress, followed by what appear to be soldiers, and the other, who is probably youthful or female, kneels before him in a long robe or tunic. There seems to be some object between them, but it is not clearly identifiable. Tolnay suggested that the scene showed Esther and Ahasuerus (Le Maitre de Flemalle, 50, n. 67), Panofsky preferred the Justice of Trajan (Early Netherlandish Painting, 139 and n. 2), and Snyder follows Philippe in

identifying it as Abraham and Melchizedek ("Jan van Ecyk," 170 and Van Eyck et la genese mosan, 136). Costumes and figure types and dispositions do not precisely fit established types for any of these scenes. Though the last suggestion probably accounts best for the standing soldiers, and though the relief has a close relative on the capital in the Madonna and Canon van der Paele, which very likely does represent Abraham and Melchizedek, the contextual details that would convincingly support this hypothesis are lacking. The two capitals are nearly contemporary and quite similar, but they are by no means identical.

The capital is on the right or "heavenly" side of the picture, but it is being obscured, and it is part of a broken pair of capitals linked--at least on the left-to the Old Testament. These factors tend to suggest a subject that signifies a limited resolution of the relationship of man and God that prefigures the perfect solution embodied in the right foreground figures. One possibility is that it may represent the scene of David receiving the news of the death of Saul, given in 2 Samuel 1:1-18. Though I can propose no examples of this rare scene closely predating the Rolin Madonna, its composition in Fouquet's Antiquites judaiques (illustrated in Charles Sterling, Les peintres du moyen age, Paris, 1942, pl. 50) is re- markably close to the composition of the Rolin relief. David stands before his soldiers rending his garments. The young Amelekite who brings the news kneels before him, offering a crown and fragments of Saul's armor. The establishment of the Old Testament kingdom with this coronation is a partial solution to the problem of the relationship between God and his chosen people. David is already crowned in the Fouquet miniature, to show that his anointing has preceded his inheritance of the earthly crown. His establishment of God's kingdom prefigures Christ's kingdom: what appears to be promised regarding Solomon is to be fulfilled in Christ, the second king from the House of Jesse. 15 L'Art religieux, 221.



Documents

The Role of the Suspended Crown in Jan van Eyck's Madonna and Chancellor Rolin