Heaven and Hell in Flanders

The first work you encounter by Dieric Bouts is a pretty gruesome one. 

It's a triptych depicting the martyrdom of St Erasmus. The saint lies tied to a board, looking remarkably stoic considering his intestines are being wound out of him by two men straining at a windlass. His bishop's mitre can be seen at the bottom left of the central panel. Four men oversee the torture, the central figure gorgeously attired in a fur-trimmed green-and-gold coat, his gaze directed to the incision in Erasmus's stomach. This frightful subject matter is beautifully laid out, precisely drawn and bursting with colour. Your average visitor to St Peter's Church in Leuven 550 years ago might not have been able to read, but in Bouts's painting they could take in the story of Erasmus in one powerful image.  

Thus begins Dieric Bouts: Creator of Images at M Leuven. Bouts lived and worked in this Flemish university city in the late 15th century, a generation or so behind those founding fathers of the Northern Renaissance, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. He's not quite in the same league, but in this show we still get to see some exquisite, fascinating paintings of great skill, imagination and beauty.

The curators, though, seem worried you won't be able to comprehend the work of this fine artist half a millennium on without comparing him to contemporary image-makers -- video-game creators, photographers, cartoonists, someone who designed an ad for cut-price tickets on Belgian railways. Now, while we don't live in a particularly religious age and may not be able to appreciate all the subtleties of Christian iconography, this idea is rather overplayed and comes across at times as exceptionally crass: "Mary was in many ways the pop star of the 15th century," one wall caption tells us.   

Luckily, it's not all like that. If you're not distracted by thoughts of Taylor Swift, you can learn how Bouts's work fitted into contemporary religious thinking. Following the horrors of the Black Death, Leuven was a centre of the Modern Devotion movement, which saw individuals as responsible for their own salvation and promoted private devotion and meditation. Consequently, religious art that could assist you in your contemplation was in high demand among wealthy patrons. And Bouts was the best painter in town. 

And there's an interesting and informative explanation of how the faithful should interact with those portraits of Jesus that have him staring us straight in the face....

The German theologian Cusanus advised monks to sit in a semi-circle in contemplation round such a Vera Icon. Each monk would feel individually addressed, because Christ's eyes would make direct contact with them whatever their position. But God would have given the same message to all. 

Can't get your head around that? Next to the Vera Icon, they've given you a photo of the iconic cyclist, Eddy Merckx, looking a bit God-like (let's be fair, he does have something of a semi-divine status in Belgium) because, to quote the text on the wall, athletes "are sometimes seen as quasi-deities" and "we admire them precisely because of their suffering."

But let's move on to Beyoncé -- sorry, to Mary. And another fascinating discovery.  

It's this icon from Cambrai Cathedral in northern France, made in Tuscany in the early 14th century, that was the inspiration for paintings of the Virgin by Bouts and other Northern Renaissance artists. This image, you see, was believed to have been painted by St Luke himself. 

And so we get to see St Luke Drawing the Virgin, in a version by Rogier van der Weyden, and then Bouts's own interpretation of the same event. But whereas van der Weyden represents the saint as an evangelist first and foremost, with the writing desk at which he composed his gospel visible at the side of the depiction, Bouts makes Luke a real artist, with a work in progress on his easel in the right background. 

This is a gorgeous painting. The folds of the gowns, the tiles, the wall-hanging, the landscape, all executed with consummate skill. Who ever came up with the idea of calling these artists the Flemish Primitives?

There's so much to look at in Bouts, and that was surely the point. The believer looking at this pair of images would surely want to walk with the blessed on their way to Heaven through the bucolic landscape on the left rather than joining the damned who are being assailed by demons or cast into the fiery furnaces and seas of pitch in Hell on the right.    

You don't really need too much elucidation for this diptych, but we wouldn't have minded being told a bit more about what was going on in the Triptych with the Martyrdom of St Hippolytus, by Bouts and Hugo van der Goes, in which the unfortunate holy man, looking rather less stoic than St Erasmus, is about to be torn apart by four horses attached to his arms and legs (not one of Bouts's more realistic compositions, it must be admitted). And, unless we missed it, we're told nothing at all about another artist called Albrecht Bouts, several of whose paintings appear dotted throughout the exhibition, and who we later looked up to find he was the son of Dieric. It really is a frustrating show in many ways.

And yet there are so many paintings to admire and much to take on board. Bouts, we learn, was one of the first two painters in the Low Countries to consistently use linear perspective, with a single vanishing point, the new Italian discovery that allowed artists to give convincing depth to their pictures. The other was Petrus Christus from Bruges, and this, from 1457, is believed to be the oldest example of such work. 

The fitting climax to this exhibition is Bouts's Last Supper Triptych, which, like the Martyrdom of St Erasmus, has been transferred to the museum from St Peter's, just a few minutes walk away, the church for which it was commissioned. And, slightly footsore, you can sit down and drink in a quite remarkable artistic achievement. 

Bouts spent four years working on this triptych. The contract specified that he must not accept any other commissions until it was finished. Two professors of theology from Leuven University acted as advisors, to ensure accuracy, and the contract also specified which Old Testament scenes should be depicted in the side panels. 

What makes it so special? Well, it's just such a compelling image.... full of real life in the decorated interiors, the distant landscapes and cityscapes glimpsed through doors and windows, the incidental detail and the people -- the two heads seen through the serving hatch in the left background of the central panel, for instance. 

Sit in front of the triptych for a few minutes and you'll appreciate that Dieric Bouts was a remarkable painter. And you don't need Eddy Merckx or Beyoncé to tell you that. 

Practicalities

Dieric Bouts: Creator of Images is on at M Leuven until January 14. The museum is open daily from 1100 to 1800, with lates on Thursdays until 2200. Standard tickets cost 12 euros and can be bought online here. We spent around two hours in this exhibition, sustained by a coffee break half-way through. The museum is in the historic city centre, about 15 minutes walk from Leuven station. There are frequent trains to Leuven from Brussels, taking half an hour or less. 

While you're in Leuven....

St Peter's Church, where the two major Bouts triptychs are normally on show, is on the main market square. It's a remarkably light and airy Gothic structure, with an incredible Baroque pulpit in carved wood. Just across the square is the fairy-tale town hall, adorned with towers and sculptures. 

Images

Dieric Bouts (c. 1410-1475), Martyrdom of St Erasmus Triptych, c. 1460-64, M Leuven/St Peter's Church, Leuven. Photo: artinflanders.be, Dominique Provost
Dieric Bouts, Vera Icon, 1456-64, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 
Unknown Tuscan artist, Notre Dame de Grâce ('Cambrai Madonna'), c. 1300-25, Notre Dame de Grâce Cathedral, Cambrai
Studio of Dieric Bouts, St Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, c. 1467-75, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham 
Dieric Bouts, The Blessed on Their Way to Heaven and The Fall of the Damned, 1469-70, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
Petrus Christus (c. 1410-c. 1475), Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis, 1457. © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Dieric Bouts, Last Supper Triptych, 1464-68, M Leuven/St Peter's Church, Leuven. Photo: artinflanders.be, Dominique Provost