The Crucified Thief by Robert Campin (Master of Flemalle)

around 1410, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

This is the only surviving original part (right wing) of The Deposition altarpiece, now lost, but with a copy in Liverpool. If the dating around 1410 is to be believed, it’s one of the earlier paintings attributed to Master of Flémalle (Robert Campin). With its golden background which gives the whole painting an abstract, hieratic character, it shows that the early style of Master of Flémalle was still dependent on the traditions of the Middle Ages and International Gothic style. However, there are hints of braking out of boundaries of iconographic and formal norms. In that sense, there is some symbolism in the way the depicted landscape, which lays humbly behind the dominant figures, is trying to break through the two-dimensional golden background and deepen the pictorial space. This is something that Master of  Flémalle will manage to do in his later work, and the landscape, that runs behind the main scene and creates the three-dimensional space so intuitively, will be one of the important means (that goes for the other early Netherlandish painters as well).

The clash of the old and new is also seen in the new humanity given to the figures, subtle emotions shown on the faces and gestures of two Roman soldiers, the quiet pathos of the thief. His body looks sculpted in the best tradition of Claus Sluter, and with a fine feeling for a right balance between mass and detail. Still, the most striking thing about this burst of humanity on top of golden background is the depicted beauty in suffering, nobility in tragedy. This shows another step in moving away from the mystique and asceticism of the Middle Ages to one very much human (and rational) aesthetic awareness.