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all right I want to look at these two
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works on the left and the right hand
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side um to keep talking about um the
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specifics of course of particular
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paintings but also what makes for a good
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Northern early Renaissance work um so
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let's look at first at this painting
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here on the left hand side um it's by
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Robert campen it's called the marode uh
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alter piece um this is a very small
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painting this very center here is only 2
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feet square it's in New York um belongs
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to the met and it's in a small
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collection called the cloysters if
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you're ever in uh New York um so it's a
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very small painting because um it is a
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private home alterpiece um so this would
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be placed in the donor's um or the
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Patron's home and then it would be open
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and closed depending on the lurgical
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calendar U maybe at certain times of day
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when prayers were said um particular
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Saints days it would be opened um en
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closed we want to put this in our list
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with the book of ours that list was ways
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that we see in northern Europe the
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privatization of religious worship um we
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know that religion was very important
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that the belief and practice was
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ingrained um in 15th century Flemish and
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Italian life um but in the north we see
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all these ways that they're taking
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religious devotion and placing it in the
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home quite literally here with its
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private home
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uh alterpiece
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um the format is a trip tick now we've
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seen ppics when we talked about Yan
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bik's gent alter piece starting with
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poly we said it was a many panel
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painting trip tick starts with try means
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it's a three- panel painting there are
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things you already I'm sure know about
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this painting um one is the subject
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matter here's an angel here's the Virgin
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Mary so it's again an anunciation scene
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um it takes place in a modern Flemish
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home so we know um that we see this um
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in Italy and the north the idea of
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placing religious stories in the time of
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the donor uh these are the donors down
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over here so they are not really part of
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this religious moment they're quite
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literally on the outside but they are
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sort of watching the moment that's there
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um other things you may note are those
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orthogonal lines this is definitely
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tilted perspective we are before the
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time of Dirk bouts um but really sort of
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trying to give these recessional lines
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um although it's not quite not quite
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working um in this work yet little Karo
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this is all sort of review of things
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that you've heard in the past so now
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let's layer on some things you might not
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know let's add first to our
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iconography um I think I'm going to make
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this a little
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bigger so that we can see a little more
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clearly um iconography uh the lily of
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Purity you know that one The Unbroken
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glass that makes reference to the
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virgin's Purity so you can see see the
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light comes through the window here we
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we get a little tiny Christ on the cross
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sort of flying through the air towards
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his mother um so we've seen that
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unbroken glass The Vessel meaning that
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the Virgin Mary is the perfect vessel
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for Christ let's add to our iconography
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the extinguished Castle uh candle the
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extinguished candle makes reference to
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the Light of Christ it prefigures the
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passion it's not uncommon to just toose
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the greatest Joys and Sorrows of the
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Virgin Mary so it's a sort of joyous
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moment um we see this sort of reminder
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of of Sorrow so the extinguished candle
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is a reminder of the death of Christ um
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the Virgin Mary on the ground we haven't
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seen that before but that is a version
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of the virgin of humility rather than
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the Virgin is the Queen of Heaven or the
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seat of wisdom here she is the virgin of
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humility an Open Door um the one that
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reveals uh the Annunciation to the
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donors is an iconographic symbol as well
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so in in the north remember more is
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better the more detail you can cram in
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you got to put it everywhere um so even
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the open door is iography Paradise is
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opened again because of the Incarnation
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and that's what you see here so Christ
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is coming to the the moment of
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incarnation and now Paradise will be
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sort of available again because of the
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coming of Christ who eventually dies um
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for the believer's uh
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sins uh other iconography an enclosed
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Garden
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lunging towards um the servant and sort
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of slicing off his ear we have some wood
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here in the foreground that makes
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reference to the cross the stick makes
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reference to the uh crown of thorn we
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have hammers and nails that scatter
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around the table here and those make
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sense to uh make reference to the
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instruments of the passion before we
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leave this I want to talk about what
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else makes this a good Northern work
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other than the fact that it's a private
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home alter piece and the fact that it's
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filled with a ton of detail in
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iconography the other thing I want you
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to see is in the north we often times
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see moments of Domesticity
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Domesticity um in the domestic real the
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Virgin Mary sort of placed in a cozy
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sort of home setting that's very popular
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in the north they sort of um don't
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always go for these big dramatic moments
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but rather they place the Virgin Mary in
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sort of a quiet home domestic setting so
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a lot of ways that this is sort of nice
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uh Northern
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work let's look next uh at our painting
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that we have here on the right hand side
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this is by an artist named Petrus
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Christos it's called a Goldsmith in his
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shop um it's purported to be the first
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example of netherlandish secular art um
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although you know I don't know how that
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would be with a Halo um this is St algus
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so already not secular um he was
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martyred in
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Flanders uh he was a Goldsmith before
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committing to God um he was commissioned
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this painting was commissioned to be
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installed in the Goldsmith's guilds
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Chapel let me decode that for you a
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guild is like a union of today group of
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workers that um are employed in the same
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like a similar Manner and this was the
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Goldsmith Guild they had a chapel it was
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consecrated in 1449 they wanted a
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painting for that Chapel so they um
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employed Petrus Christus to paint St
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Alis who was their patron saint so it
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makes sense um because St algas himself
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was a Goldsmith that he would be the
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patron saint of goldsmiths also
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blacksmiths and metal workers and so
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what they do here is they take their
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patron saint um and show him in this
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sort of common economic transaction um
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he's here with this bride and groom who
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come in for their uh gold wedding rings
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um it's a generic image we a very
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generic couple it's not really a
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portrait um but what the one thing
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that's sort of interesting about this
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work is that it shows us how very
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important the Goldsmith's Guild is of
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course this is their painting they're
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going to make themselves look good but
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it's an advertisement really for their
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business and it's on display all around
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um and it's important to note that they
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see themselves as integral to secular
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and religious life secular life you can
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see it's a sort of economic transaction
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he's Lally sort of weighing the gold so
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he's an important part of secular life
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and business and prosperous sort of
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netherlandish communities um but also to
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the sacrament of marriage as they're
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here to buy their wedding rings um
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Eucharistic containers are up here um he
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also of course holds um the scale which
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is of course used in a common economic
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transaction for fairness but it's also a
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symbol of judgement a little more
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iconography so the goldsmiths really
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sort of show they are an important part
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of society both in what they can provide
00:09:08
in terms of the sacraments like the
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Eucharist and like marriage um but also
00:09:13
the important sort of services the good
00:09:15
and services that their trade provides
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let's see what else um about this work
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is sort of interesting it's a good sort
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of Northern um trait that you see down
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here on the right hand side Northern
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Works in the 1400s and in the 1500s and
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even in the 1600s like to show you sort
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of the good and bad sort of the ying and
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yang kind of thing what you should be
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doing and what you should not be doing
00:09:40
and so we see that in this little convex
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mirror it's kind of interesting because
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it's turned towards us so these two are
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in our space which is kind of
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interesting kind it opens up space into
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our realm rather than space always going
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back and away from us it's opening up
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space to us this is called a vanitas
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image vanitas refers to emptiness and
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the meaninglessness of our Earthly life
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um so the way we see that is that we see
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these two figures here they are very
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wealthy they'd be called dandies um they
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have nothing better to do but than to
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practice falconry during the day so why
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we see the good Earnest hardworking
00:10:27
Saint elious here good for religion and
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Commerce these two were the kind of
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people in society who really didn't um
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really provide much in the way of um
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sort of economic gain um they were
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already sort of filthy stinking rich and
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they had nothing to do all day but look
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fabulous get dressed up and sort of play
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with their Falcon there this is a
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reminder um that this shows us the
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meaninglessness and The Emptiness of
00:10:54
Life the idea of all the stuff that you
00:10:56
can gather and how fabulous you can be
00:10:58
is really
00:10:59
um really not of any consequence and so
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it kind of shows you the way that life
00:11:05
should be led and the sort of good
00:11:07
prosperous work and good religious work
00:11:09
of these figures here in conjunction
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with those um who are living a sort of
00:11:14
shallow and hollow life down here um so
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these two uh sort of seen together sort
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of open up more um in terms of our
00:11:23
understanding of what makes for a good
00:11:24
Northern 15th century
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work