Discovering the Renaissance in Paris: Field Study to the Louvre

Visiting Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, 1804, by Antoine-Jean Gros in the Louvre in Paris.

Picture taken from Interview Video on The Annunciation.
Rogier van der Weyden. The Annunciation. 1434-1440. Oil on panel. 86cm x 93cm.

I had the pleasure of joining a field study to Paris for my Renaissance Art and Architecture class. In this course we take an in-depth look at the rebirth of art, beginning in the 13th century in Italy with artists like Cimabué and Giotto, to the high renaissance of the 15-16th century with da Vinci and Michelangelo. We explore art movements that took place all over Europe during this time. One of my favorite styles of this era is the Flemish Renaissance, which emerged in what is now modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands. Flemish artists are renowned for their use of oil paints and the incredible amount of details and symbols within their art.

One of the assignments in this course was to choose a Renaissance painting to research and present on, and I immediately gravitated toward the work of Flemish artists. I selected The Lamentation of Christ by Dieric Bouts. I am fascinated by the Flemish use of the International Gothic Style combined with their dedication to realism. Bouts’s painting is a prime example of this unique melding. The International Gothic Style uses more medieval style figures that are slender and delicate, with a lack of emphasis on proportion and accurate anatomy. This style also pairs their delicate figures with masses of curling hair or complex headdresses, giving the characters a bobblehead like appearance—which Bouts captured fantastically in his depiction of Mary Magdalene, on the left. 

I had the opportunity to present my research to Professor Guillaume Durand and a few of my peers while standing directly in front of the artwork itself. And in addition to a presentation our class was tasked with making an interview video that would function as a promotion for a lesser-known artwork of the renaissance. I chose another Flemish work, The Annunciation, by Rogier van der Weyden. This piece is quintessentially Flemish, with its use of symbols and reference to the great master Jan van Eyck as it took inspiration from one of van Eyck’s most famous works, the Arnolfini Marriage. This was such a fun experience, to combine my art historical skills with marketing. And this project is incredibly relevant to the Louvre as they are currently working to promote works other than the Mona Lisa.

It was such an incredible experience to get to see the works in person and the Louvre especially has so many pieces that I had studied in other classes, like Ingres’s Odalesque, the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, and Gros’s Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa. With two days at the Louvre, I really felt like I had time to prepare and explore as much as I wanted. Professor Durand also gave us short tours in every part of the museum that we visited, quizzing us on topics that we covered and pointing out lesser-known pieces, helping us to make connections through the different periods of art history.