Heike Schlie. Bilder des Corpus Christi: Sakramentaler Realismus von Jan van Eyck bis Hieronymus Bosch.

Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2002. 360 pp. + 9 col. and 70 b/w pls. Index. Illus. bibl. 78 [euro]. ISBN: 3-7861-2392-6.

This is an ambitious book. Its title only hints at the breadth of interpretative and pictorial issues tackled by the author. The text, originally submitted as a dissertation at the University of Bochum in 1999, is not, however, easy to read. Schlie's writing style is, at times, unnecessarily dense. Or as one colleague aptly put it, the text exemplifies the "abuse of an additive language." Schlie's basic thesis is that the realism of early Netherlandish painting must be understood as a sacramental realism. Society's fixation with the body of Christ, especially the real presence of Christ within the Eucharist, spurred artists to develop a highly naturalistic pictorial rhetoric. This quest, rather than realism for its own sake, stimulated fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. Schlie criticizes earlier scholars, notably Barbara Lane (The Altar and the Altarpiece: Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting [1984]), for positing overly complex iconographic readings for many pictures. Schlie approaches the issue from the opposite direction. She maintains that the very portrayal of Christ, regardless of subject or composition, was sufficient to stimulate the viewer's sacramental memory. Society's preoccupation with Christ's real and symbolic body partially explains the remarkable blossoming of narrative and iconic depictions of Christ's infancy and passion during this period.

In chapter 2 ("Altarbild-Altar-Altarsakrament"), Schlie correctly reminds her readers that most early Netherlandish paintings were originally altarpieces. As such, these must be studied in the context of the altar and its accompanying liturgical celebrations. These were not independent works of art. Instead these paintings operated in concert with priestly vestments, sacramental vessels, and other necessary adornments. Only in this setting and in conjunction with the officiating priest's ritual was the retable's imagery fully activated. Schlie begins with a detailed discussion of Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece. She challenges its traditional reading as an MI Saints picture. Building upon the undeveloped ideas of Lotte Brand Philip (The Ghent Altarpiece and the Art of Jan van Eyck [1971]), Schlie views the altarpiece as a monumental tabernacle whose interior paintings function as a pictorial pendant to the actual performance of the eucharist at the mensa below. The Lamb of God stands on the altar with his blood filling the chalice. Together with the majestic figure of Christ above and the Fountain of Life, these features form an "Eucharistic axis" that links the retable with the altar below. She dismisses the frequent identification of the central figure of the Deesis as God the Father. Because of the inscription IHESVS XPS and the accompanying grapevine and pelican, both common Christological symbols of sacrifice, on the cloth covering his throne, this figure must be Christ. Aided by Mary, John the Baptist, and the musical angels, he is the priest celebrating the heavenly liturgy and, below, the offering on the altar.

This discussion introduces another of the book's principal topics: the distinctiveness of pictorial rhetoric. Although art historians have long sought texts to explain iconographic peculiarities of pictures, Schlie insists that Netherlandish paintings are not dependent upon texts. Rather paintings have their own "legality" to function autonomously and to communicate using visual, not textual, languages. Artists, like van Eyck, heightened the realism of their images and experimented with different compositional formulas to speak more immediately with the viewer. Retables present a rich dialogue between the primary and secondary scenes. The latter may be located on the wings, predella, or superstructure. Many altars are transformative as the folding wings may be opened or closed. The very act of "reading" a painting differs from that of a text. The author questions the common assumption that the closed retable represents the work day setting and the open retable is the Sunday or feast day setting. She claims that the scant evidence from mass books covers only choir or high altars not the far greater number of secondary or private altars. She believes the users had much greater discretion about how retables were displayed on a daily basis.

Chapter 3 ("The Exemplum as Rhetorical Picture Strategy") is among the book's most stimulating. Schlie returns again to the inherent differences between texts and images. While the mutual influence of texts and images is acknowledged, she stresses that written words have less immediate stimulative impact than either spoken words, as in the form of a sermon in which the speaker imparts a mood or emphasis, or in striking visual images. For example, Netherlandish art favored the use of exempla. These could be positive as in the display of a saint's life, which offered a visualization of proper conduct. Others portrayed negative examples as a warning. The famous justice cycles formerly in the city halls of Brussels, Leuven, and Bruges each represented wrongful actions, such as bearing false witness or accepting a bribe. These instances of improper behavior are then followed immediately by correct justice and the horrifying physical punishments of the guilty. In each of these cases, most of the viewers would not have known the details of the often obscure stories; however, the essential messages were clearly and graphically represented. Like sermons, Netherlandish pictures utilized rhetorical antithesis in which the viewer must make a judgment or draw larger associative meanings. Hugo van der Goes' Fall of Man-Lamentation Diptych in Vienna juxtaposes the sinfulness of Adam and Eve with Christ's physical death as a means to redemption. Each panel relates a familiar tale, yet poignant new meanings emerge from their juxtaposition. Schlie explores how artists constructed their positive exempla, such as Rogier van der Weyden's St. Columba Altarpiece in Munich, and negative or antithetical examples, as in Hieronymus Bosch's Adoration of the Magi Altar in Madrid with its diabolical audience brooding upon Christ.

Other chapters treat the exhibition of the sacrificial body (chap. 4), private devotional images and the eucharist (chap. 5), realism in early Netherlandish painting (chap. 6), van Eyck's St. Barbara in Antwerp (chap. 7), and the cult of the sacrament and the concept of images (chap. 8). Her examination of the spiritual basis for the idea and the phenomenon of realism is especially stimulating. She offers a useful historical summary of the scholarship before tying this much-praised feature of Netherlandish art back to her thesis about sacramental realism and the visualization of Christ's body. Schlie's arguments are not always convincing or wholly original to the author. One is left wondering whether portraits, secular art, and other forms of religious painting are mere by-products of sacramental realism. Nevertheless, Schlie's book is highly stimulating. Like Hans Belting's Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art (1994; 1990 in the original German), which she cites as a model, the author explores trends that transcend the contributions of individual artists.

JEFFREY CHIPPS SMITH

University of Texas

Austin