Research Seminar - Landscape Symbolism and the Two Paths Through Life

Landscape Symbolism and the Two Paths Through Life

Presented by: Mike Levy

Date: Friday 19 August 2022
Time: 12–1pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)

Abstract

Early Netherlandish painters such as the Flemish artist Joachim Patinir (c. 1485-1524) created vast panoramic landscapes that were rich in symbolism. Natural landscape elements were invested with spiritual or moral meanings that merged into an emblematic vocabulary, ‘a visual language every bit as articulate as a developed literary language’ (Andrews, 1999).   

This presentation looks at the concept of the two paths through life as it is expressed through landscape imagery. It begins with a woodcut, then a painting in oil by Lorenzo Lotto. Thereafter it focuses on Patinir’s Landscape with Charon Crossing the River Styx (hereafter Charon). Falkenburg explains that towards the close of the Middle Ages the metaphor of the two paths emerged through a complex program of distinct but interrelated metaphors of the choice between the easy and the difficult paths through life. The broad, easy road leads to the seductive figure of vice, or hell; the narrow road to redemption is harder, up a steeper, rocky path, but leads to virtue, or paradise.   

Remarkably, half a millennium later, Charon was one of four masterpieces selected from the Prado Museum collection to be reinvented for a campaign on behalf of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The campaign, entitled “+1.5 degrees C Lo Cambia Todo” (1.5 degrees changes everything) formed part of the climate change summit held in Madrid in 2019. In the new version of Charon, landscape symbolism is used to convey a different message, again hinging on the metaphor of the choice between two paths. Seeing this distinction, or lack of it, in the landscape symbolism of the version of Charon for the climate summit is as significant now as it was originally 500 years ago, with the caveat that the meanings be applied to a world that is secular rather than sacred. 

Presenter

Mike Levy is a candidate in the PhD (Art History) program, focussing upon the world landscapes of Joachim Patinir. His supervisors are Dr Andrea Bubenik and Dr Paolo Magagnoli.