Van Eyck's "Madonna in a Church" vs. Masaccio's "Madonna and Child Enthroned"

Jan Van Eyck’s “Madonna in a Church,” and Masccio’s “Madonna and Child Enthroned” are paintings that tell the same story. However, the way they go about telling that story have many similarities and differences, stylistically.

Both paintings, for example, have the Madonna holding the child that is supposed to be Christ. The interesting thing is that in Van Eyck’s painting, the child is much younger, and infant actually, and the Madonna’s face is turned away from the child, achieving a less engaged look to me. In Masaccio’s painting, the child is actually quite large, with a more mature look about him than that of the infant in Van Eyck’s. Also, the Madonna is turned towards the child, seemingly much more engaged. It’s interesting to me that in both paintings, the Madonna maintained the same positioning of their bodies, but that Van Eyck chose to place the child on the left away from her gaze, whereas Masaccio chose to place the child on the right, so that the Madonna’s gazed seemed to be more involved.

In both photos, you can tell that the light source is coming from the left side of the frame. It is much more obvious in the Van Eyck, as there are actual windows depicted. However, when one looks closely at the Masaccio, you can definitely tell by the shadowing, that the light is coming from the left, which leads me to believe that both of these paintings were model paintings.

Upon deciding that these paintings were model paintings, I’ve also come to the conclusion that these models were of great wealth. The gold coloring behind each of them is very regal, along with the quality of the fabric of their clothing. The regal status is much more obvious to me in the Van Eyck, because the Madonna is wearing an actual jewel encrusted crown. Whereas the Madonna is Masaccio’s painting does have a more transparent looking implied “halo” or crown behind her.

Both of these paintings seem to have been painted to achieve some sort of realism, but Van Eyck’s depicts that...