Art and Eye

  Cut down from its original altarpiece format, the  Dormition  by German sculptor Tilman Heysacker suddenly becomes an intimate devotional panel. Expertly revealed to the viewer through the emphatic sweep of the heavy curtain on the left-hand size of the panel, we are invited into this special, intimate scene of mourning, emotion and pain. Sculpted from oak and once painted, today the colour has faded away, leaving us with a monochrome depiction of the Virgin’s death where all attention is on the figures, the use of relief and the sculpted precision by the artist’s hand. Heysacker guides the viewer’s eye to the central, devotional focal point of the relief through the circular disposition of figures. Careful to maintain their devotional distance from the viewer, the Apostles kneel and stand on opposite sides of the Virgin, who lies gracefully across the horizontal axis of the panel, evoking tomb effigies that would have likely populated the church this altarpiece stood within. Each

  Aelbert Cuyp’s skills in contre-jour painting, or capturing the effects of sunlight, are evident in this harmonious, idyllic country landscape. It is immediately striking to a viewer how balanced the painting is when standing directly before the piece and facing the avenue of trees. As the foliage bends in a slight wind, the viewer is welcomed into the scene, stepping forward to wander down the avenue, to take in the expansive setting and feel the serene sunlight on their backs as they move forward into the picture plane. The Dutch master, one of the foremost landscapists of the seventeenth century, was clearly well trained and aware of contemporary art of the time, although little is known about his life and career. The fact that his father, Jacob Gerritsz, was a successful painter, has led to implications in scholarship of artistic skill running through Cuyp’s veins as a naturally gifted oil painter. However, it is more likely his father trained him in the Academic, accepted styl