A conflict between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) in France that began when, in 1562, the supporters of the Catholic Guise, a French noble family that enjoyed the support of the Spanish monarchy and exerted great political influence in France, massacred 1,000 Huguenots at Vassi. After a massive uprising, in 1563, Catherine de’ Medici, Henry II’s widow and regent to his heirs, encouraged both sides to reach a settlement. Peace was to last until 1568, when the Huguenots, led by Gaspard de Coligny, sought to abduct the royal family. In 1570, Coligny and his army marched toward Paris. As they advanced, Catherine persuaded her son, King Charles IX, to negotiate a peace agreement. As a result, Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV), who was a Huguenot, was betrothed to Charles’ sister Margaret, and as Protestants gathered in Paris for the marriage celebrations, soldiers murdered them in the streets. About 3,000 Huguenots were killed, including Coligny, at this St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572).
The monarchy’s actions backfired. Protestants throughout Europe and even French Catholics were outraged and turned against the Guise’s fanaticism. Charles died in 1574, and Henry III, another of Catherine’s sons, ascended the throne. Two years later, he negotiated the Peace of Beaulieu. Duke Henry de Guise rejected the treaty and instigated further civil unrest. He allied himself with Spain and organized a Holy League against the Huguenots. In 1585, Henry III officially ended religious tolerance, which caused further rebellions. In 1587, the Huguenots, led by Henry of Navarre, defeated the Holy League at Coutras. The Duke de Guise and the Holy League took Paris, for which he and his brother Louis were assassinated the following year. In turn, Henry III was murdered in 1589, and after further conflict, Henry of Navarre converted to Catholicism in 1593 and ascended the throne as Henry IV. The war finally ended in 1598, with the Edict of Nantes, which gave amnesty and civil rights to the Huguenots.
Painting by Diego Velázquez, created four years before he entered in the service of King Philip IV of Spain. The Water Carrier of Seville belongs to Velázquez’s Sevillian period, when bodegónes were his favored subjects, usually painted in the Caravaggist style. The work features a humble street peddler of advanced age in torn clothes offering a glass of water to a customer. He is depicted with the same dignity as a priest holding the challis during the mass. The fact that there are three males in the picture at three different stages of life—one in profile, another in a three-quarter turn, and the last in a frontal pose—suggests the theme of the three ages of man—childhood, adulthood, and old age—common to the Baroque era. The painting demonstrates Velázquez’s ability to render different textures, including the terracotta jugs, the beads of sweat on them, the transparency of the glass and water, and the fig at the bottom of the glass, then thought to possess purifying properties.
One of the leading Early Netherlandish painters. Van der Weyden was born in Tournai. His apprenticeship with Robert Campin (See MASTER OF FLEMALLE) is known to have begun in 1427, and his entry into the painter’s guild to have taken place in 1432. He is recorded in Brussels in 1435, where he was appointed city painter the following year and where he remained for the rest of his life, save for a trip to Rome in the jubilee year of 1450. None of his paintings are signed or dated, and many are lost; therefore, attributions and chronology relating to his oeuvre rely mainly on visual evidence. Although van der Weyden’s art depends on the developments introduced by Campin, what sets him apart from his contemporaries is the emotive content of his works.
The Virgin and Child in a Niche (c. 1432–1433; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) is believed to fall in the early years of the artist’s career. It shows the crowned Mary suckling the Christ Child, both standing in a shallow niche to imitate Gothic sculpture. The Virgin type, with a broad face, van der Weyden borrowed from Campin. The tender tilt of Mary’s head and her smile as she nurtures her infant son is, however, very much his own. Van der Weyden’s Visitation (c. 1435; Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste) also belongs to his early years. Here, the Virgin and St. Elizabeth meet at the crossing of two paths, the two women affectionately touching one another’s pregnant bellies to feel the children they carry inside.
One of van der Weyden’s most striking works is the Deposition (c. 1438; Madrid, Prado), commissioned by the Archers’ Guild of Louvain for Notre Dame Hors-les-Murs. This too takes place in a shallow Gothic niche to give the impression of sculpture that has come alive. The brilliant colors used by the artist and rhythmic linear contours add to the work’s aesthetic appeal. The scene is deeply emotional. Mary, who has fainted, echoes her son’s limp body to denote that his pain is hers. The other figures cry, their eyes and noses red and swollen. To this period also belongs the Calvary Triptych (c. 1438–1440; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), an altarpiece with the Crucifixion in the center and Mary Magdalen and Veronica on the wings. The Virgin embraces the cross, and her facial expression, like that of John, is that of deep sorrow. The intense emotionalism of van der Weyden’s work continued into the 1440s and 1450s. Particular examples include the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (c. 1448; Antwerp, Musée des Beaux-Arts), painted for Jean Chevrot, Bishop of Tournai; the Entombment (c. 1450; Florence, Uffizi), painted in Italy, possibly for the Medici; and the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John (c. 1455–1459; Philadelphia Museum).
Van der Weyden was also an accomplished portraitist. His Portrait of a Lady (c. 1455; Washington, D.C., National Gallery) presents the sitter in bust length, with hands clasped together and resting on the frame. The crisp rendering of the costume, coif, and veil identify the woman as an aristocrat, while her lowered eyes grant her a sense of introspection. The Portrait of Francesco d’ Este (c. 1455–1460; New York, Metropolitan Museum), the illegitimate son of Lionello d’ Este who was sent to Brussels in 1444 for his education, is the male version of the aristocratic portrait type.
The fact that many copies were made of van der Weyden’s works attests to his immense popularity. He was a major influence on Northern artists until the end of the 15th century. Regrettably, by the 19th century, he had fallen into complete oblivion, and it was not until recently that methodic study of documentation pertaining to the artist returned him to his rightful placement in the history of art.
Duke William IV of Bavaria was the son of Albert IV, from the House of Wittelsbach, and the Hapsburg Kunigunde of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. He was tutored by Leonhard von Eck, who later became his chancellor and a champion of the suppression of Protestantism in Bavaria. William succeeded his father in 1508, and from 1516 until 1545, he coruled with his younger brother, Louis X. In 1522, he banned the circulation of Martin Luther’s works in Bavaria, and in 1524, after an agreement with Pope Clement VII in which he was granted the power to keep surveillance over abbeys and bishoprics, he became one of the major leaders of the German Counter-Reformation. In 1534, to step up his efforts, he welcomed the Jesuits into his dominion.
William was the patron of Albert Altdorfer, Barthel Beham, Jörg Breu the Elder, and Hans Burgkmair. His most notable commission is a set of history paintings showing ancient battles that includes Altdorfer’s Battle of Issus (1529), Beham’s Battle of Zama (1528), and Burgkmair’s Battle of Cannae (1529) (all now housed in Munich, Alte Pinakothek). These were intended to reflect William’s ability as ruler and military commander, and to speak of his sophisticated taste as art patron and collector.
William “the Silent” of Orange was born in Dillenburg near Wiesbaden, Germany, to the Protestant count William of Nassau and Juliana of Stolberg. In 1544, William became the Prince of Orange when his cousin René de Châlon, who held the position, died without leaving any heirs. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who acted as William’s regent until he came of age, insisted that the boy receive a Catholic education at the court in Brussels. In 1559, Philip II of Spain, Charles’ son, appointed William stadholder (governor) of Holland, Utrecht, and Zeeland. The king’s persecution of Protestants in the region and his curtailment of freedom prompted William to lead the revolt against the Spanish Crown, which resulted in the declaration of emancipation by the United Dutch provinces in 1579. In 1581, Philip denounced William as a traitor and offered a reward on his head, at the same time that Brabant, Flanders, Utrecht, Gelderland, Holland, and Zeeland declared Philip’s deposition from sovereignty over them. A Catholic fanatic assassinated William in Delft in 1584.
German painter from Rottweil, in Württemberg, who entered the Painter’s Guild in Basel in 1434, and became a citizen of the region the following year. The fact that Witz purchased a house there in 1443 suggests that he had a busy workshop. Nothing is known of his training. His earliest known work is the Heilspiegel Altarpiece (c. 1435), its panels now dispersed in various museums and its main scene missing. Of these, Esther and Ahasuerus, in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, demonstrates Witz’s use of deep contrasts of color and angular draperies, typical of the Early Netherlandish style. His Sts. Catherine and Mary Magdalen (c. 1440–1443; Strasbourg, Musée de l’Ouvre Notre-Dame) shows a major departure from the earlier, more naïve portrayal. Here the sense of depth is successfully rendered through a repetition of four-partite vaults that diminish in size as they move into the distance. The same feature is seen in his Madonna and Child with Saints in a Church Interior (c. 1443) in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
Witz’s best-known work is the Miraculous Draft of Fishes (1444; Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), part of the St. Peter Altarpiece commissioned by Bishop François de Mies for the chapel of Notre-Dame des Maccabées in the Cathedral of St-Pierre in Geneva, which belonged to his uncle, Cardinal de Brogny. The scene shows Witz’s close study of reflections on the water and distortions of figures and objects seen beneath its surface. The date of the artist’s death is not known. In 1466, his wife is referred to in a document as a widow.