to detail and realism and it is reflected in the crisp and fresh images. This can be seen in the ornate detail of the Virgin’s clothing, the tapestry on the wall, and also the attention taken to the detail of the landscape in the background. Also, hard to see are the tiny carvings of Adam and Eve on Mary’s throne. This painting is a slight play on the Adam and Eve story in that now Christ, who has just been born, is coming to Earth to save all of humankind from the original sin purged by the former inhabitants of the sublime Eden,In Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, Rogier van der Weyden shows the growing Renaissance mastery of modeling and perspective. Both the Virgin and Saint Luke are not merely figureless shapes slighted by the shapeless drapery placed over them, but you can discern bodily shapes below the drapery which is correctly painted as clothing rather than cloaks without a body underneath. The positioning of the two main characters is also much more natural. Saint Luke is seen to be making a preliminary sketch of the Madonna and her child while kneeling on one knee. Both poses are far more natural and common that all the figures standing in Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine. Also, the articulation of different planes in depth, something Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine does not even attempt, is quite good. There is an indoor space, whereupon even the characters now appear to have mass and depth, and looking to the far right of the painting it is clear the perspective within the building. The depth and recession into space is then continued with the procession out through the columns to the outside, and then far out into the distance. This perspective is created by overlapping figures, relative positioning from the ground line and also the illusion of making parallel lines join somewhere far away in the distance.These two paintings represent typical examples from 14th century Italian artist, Barna...
