''Christ Surrounded by Singing and Music-making Angels'' or ''Santa María la Real de Nájera Altarpiece'', is a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

by the Flemish painter of German origin

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...

, active in Bruges in the second half of fifteenth-century. The altarpiece was commissioned by wealthy Spanish traders as the high altarpiece for the monastic church of Santa Maria la Real in

Nájera Nájera () is a small town, former bishopric and now Latin Catholic titular see, former capital of the Kingdom of Navarre, located in the "Rioja Alta" region of La Rioja, northern Spain, on the river Najerilla. Nájera is a stopping point on the F ...

. Only three panels of the original altarpiece survive. In the nineteenth century, they were acquired by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp, where they are now exhibited. These panels have been described as an avant-garde work in Renaissance decorative art.Fierens-Gevaert, 1908,

Historical context

The altarpiece was commissioned in 1487 by the consuls of the Spanish merchants in Bruges, Pedro, and Antonio de Nájera, to decorate the organ of the

Santa María la Real of Nájera Santa María la Real is a monastery in the small town of Nájera in the La Rioja (autonomous community), La Rioja community, Spain. Originally a royal foundation, it was ceded by Alfonso VI of Castile, Alfonso VI to the Cluny, Cluniac order. It ...

, the former pantheon of the kings of Navarre. Some of the ornaments of the 17 (larger-than-life) figures depicted bear the arms of Castile and León. The original altarpiece was huge, and the three surviving paintings were likely part of its upper tier. The central panel depicted the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

. This is a rare work in which Christ is depicted surrounded by angelic musicians. After having been abandoned for four centuries, it was bought in 1885 by an art dealer and sold to the Belgian government, which entrusted it to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. Quintanilla , 2007, An extensive restoration campaign began in 2001. It took a total of 16 years, due partly to the huge surface area of the work and the complex nature of the treatment.

Composition

Altarpiece-of-santa-maria-la-real-in-najera-2044

The Christ surrounded by angels stands against a golden background surrounded by black clouds. On his collar are the words ''Agyos Otheos'' (Holy God). The three precious stones which adorn the fibula of his mantle evoke the Holy Trinity: God the Father,

God the Son God the Son ( el, Θεὸς ὁ υἱός, la, Deus Filius) is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus as the incarnation of God, united in essence (consubstantial) but distinct in ...

and the Holy Spirit. With his crown and his crystal ball surmounted by a cross, he reigns over the Christian kingdom, both celestial and terrestrial. He is flanked by sixteen angels who sing (6) and play music (10). Their instruments are typical of the fifteenth century. The scene was possibly inspired by the passage from the

Gospel according to Matthew Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

, which mentions: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, then he will sit on his throne of glory" ( Matthew 25: 31-46). The central panel represents Christ blessing and looking down in the direction of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, his mother, with three angels on either side. Each group of angels holds a large songbook. On the two side shutters, angels play musical instruments, five on each side. In the left panel the instruments are, from left to right, a psaltery, a ''tromba marina'', a lute, a trumpet and a shawm. In the right panel, from left to right, there are a straight trumpet, a looped trumpet, a portative organ, a harp and a fiddle. The panels are 170 cm (5'6") high, thus the angels, or what we can see of them (the clouds obscure the part of their body below the knee), are life-size. Many replicas of these panels have been produced. Montagu, 2007,

References

Sources and bibliography

* Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, ''Les primitifs flamands'', Ver. Monnom, 190
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* Rosa Alcoy, « Una santa Clara de Pedralbes de l'escola de Bruges i alguna reflexió sobre l'estil de Hans Memling », dans ''Matèria : revista d'art'', n°4, 200
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* Giorgio T. Faggin, Maria Corti, ''Memling'', Noguer, 197
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* Maurice B. McNamee, ''Vested angels : eucharistic allusions in early Netherlandish paintings, url= Peeters Publishers, 1998,
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* Jeremy Montagu, ''Musical instruments in Hans Memling's paintings'', vol. 35, 2007
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* Maurice B. McNamee
The Good Friday Liturgy and Hans Memling's Antwerp Triptych
* Luis Quintanilla, Esther López Sobrado, ''De pinturas : vidas comparadas de artistas'', éd. Universidad de Cantabria, 2007,
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External links

*http://www.kmska.be/fr/collectie/albums/Christus_engelen.html {{Authority control 1480s paintings 1490s paintings category:Paintings by Hans Memling Paintings in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp Triptychs