Justin Montgomery 2nd hr
Hans Suess von Kulmbach
Hans Suess von Kulmbach was born in 1480 in Kulmbach, Franconia (Germany.) He originally worked for Durer who is also an artist during the renaissance. He was doing alter pieces and paintings for Durer when he worked for him. There work always seemed to involve religion in some way, most of their stain glass and alter pieces were made for churches. Durer may have taught Hans Suess von Kulmbach a lot of what he knows but throughout all the learning Hans kept his own style which often displayed vivid color. In 1505, Hans became an apprentice to a painter and printmaker and no longer worked under Durer, but they always remained close. Then when Durer retired in 1510 Hans received most of Durer’s most important commissions one of these included was an alter piece for Maximilian (roman emperor.)
The painting, “Mary Salome and Zebedee with Their Sons James the Greater and John the Evangelist” is done with oil on panel. In this painting it depicts the family of four sitting down in what looks like a family portrait. There is a women (Mary Salome) sitting down in front of the man(Zebedee) who is standing behind her. I think this conveys the idea that the man is dominating the women by her sitting down showing that he has more power of her and during this time period men had a lot more rights than women. Mary in this photo has two kids who are next to her, she has a naked baby on her lap and a toddler with no pants to her side I believe this shows that the kids are dependent on the women and that most of the time back then the women did all the things with the kids while men were working.
In the photo no one is looking towards you they are all looking in different directions. The man’s eyes are to his right, while the woman’s looking to her left. The baby on Mary’s lap is looking at her and the other toddler is looking to his right. I think this is suppose to be showing how when kids(especially boys), when they are really young they lean more towards their mom and are often with them and that’s why the baby is looking up to the mom. Then once they start to get older they start to lean more on their dad and want to be with them and spend more time with them than their mom’s because they want to be just like their dads. That’s why the toddler is looking in the same direction as his dad.
I agree with the children being dependent on the mother at a younger age and as they grow older they drift away from the mother and more towards the father. This is especially relevant to boys, because they want to become more manly and be like their father. It shows the transition from a child to an adult. When I looked at this painting, one detail that stood out to me was the mother's white veil on her head. The color white symbolizes purity and innocence. Back in that time period, women were supposed to be viewed as something precious and proper, not scandulous or revealing so I thought that had a good way of showing that.
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