Master of Delft - The Crucifixion- Central Panel - Google Art Project

The Master of Delft ( fl –1520) was a Dutch painter of the final period of

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

, whose name is unknown. He may have been born around 1470. The

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

was first used in 1913 by

Max Jakob Friedländer Max Jakob Friedländer (5 July 1867 in Berlin – 11 October 1958 in Amsterdam) was a German museum curator and art historian. He was a specialist in Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Renaissance, who volunteered at the Kupferstichkab ...

, in describing the wings of a ''Triptych with the Virgin and Child with St Anne'' with the central panel by the

Master of Frankfurt The Master of Frankfurt (1460–c. 1533) was a Flemish Renaissance painter active in Antwerp between about 1480 and 1520.Stephen H. Goddard, "Master of Frankfurt," ''Grove Art Online'', Oxford University Press ccessed 9 April 2008/ref>Kate Chall ...

, which is now in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

. This has

donor portrait A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...

s of an identifiable family from

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, that of the

Burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief m ...

of Delft, Dirck Dircksz van Beest Heemskerck (1463–1545), with his wife and children. He can also be connected to Delft by the inclusion of the Nieuwe Kerk tower, which was completed in 1496, in the background of his ''Scenes from the Passion of Christ''

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, 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) t ...

in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

, generally agreed to be his masterpiece, and the "most representative and best preserved triptych in the group" attributed to him. This can be dated fairly precisely to 1509 as none of the

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

it borrows details from are dated later than that. The monastic donor kneeling at the left of the centre panel may be Herman van Rossum, provost of the Koningsveld convent just outside the city. There is a larger, related, triptych in a Cologne private collection. As

Walter Liedtke Walter Arthur Liedtke, Jr. (August 28, 1945 – February 3, 2015) was an American art historian, writer and Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was known as one of the world's leading scholars of Dutch an ...

describes the triptychs, "homely, everyday, types, including a variety of low-life characters, cover most of the surface in jagged rhythms", and (it might be added) very fanciful and extravagant costume in many cases. He is a great borrower of details from prints, especially those by

Lucas van Leyden Lucas van Leyden (1494 – 8 August 1533), also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Dutch painter and printmaker in engraving and woodcut. Lucas van Leyden was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and was a very ac ...

, and possibly worked as a

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

himself, probably in

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

. Friedländer suggested he had illustrated a book published in 1498. Delft was apparently more notable as a centre for miniatures for

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s in this period than for

panel painting A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

; there were many monasteries as well as churches in the city, which though small, was wealthy from textiles and brewing beer. The master's style can be compared to that of the

Master of the Virgo inter Virgines The Master of the Virgo inter Virgines was an Early Netherlandish painter and designer of woodcuts active around Delft between 1483 and 1498. He is named for ''The Virgin and Child with Four Holy Virgins'', an altarpiece of the ''Virgin with Sain ...

, who was the other leading painter active in Delft in the same period. The careers of both are made harder to understand as an unusually high proportion of both local paintings and documents have been destroyed in a series of disasters: a large fire in 1536, the

Beeldenstorm ''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...

of 1566, or other Protestant destruction of images. The great

Delft Explosion Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

of 1654 no doubt destroyed more. There was also a tendency for the largest church commissions to be given to artists in the larger artistic centres to the south.

Rijksmuseum triptych

A triptych of the Virgin with saints and an unidentified donor couple belonging to the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

but on loan to the

Museum Catharijneconvent The Museum Catharijneconvent (St. Catherine's Convent Museum) is a museum of religious art in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is located in the former St. Catharine convent, having been sited there since 1979. Its collections include many artifacts fro ...

, Utrecht, is dated to c. 1500–1510; it lacks the lively crowds of his other triptychs, but is calmer and more traditional. The side wings have the kneeling donor couple, him to the left, her to the right, each with a standing saint behind, presenting them to the divine figures in the centre panel, a common arrangement. The bishop-saint on the left wing, probably Saint

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

, may be a disguised portrait of

David of Burgundy David of Burgundy (c. February 142616 April 1494) was Bishop of Utrecht. The illegitimate son of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, David was made bishop of Utrecht by his father in 1456 in an attempt to enforce more centralised Burgundian co ...

, a bastard son of Duke

Philip the Good Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...

of Burgundy, who was made

Bishop of Utrecht List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht. Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580 Founders of the Utrecht diocese * * * * * Bishops * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

. He died in 1496, although the portrait might be a posthumous memorial. The outside of the wings, which would probably have been the everyday view of the work, kept closed except on special feasts or perhaps Sundays, show an ''Annunciation'', mostly in ''

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

'' except for the hair & other small areas. The central panel shows a

hortus conclusus ''Hortus conclusus'' is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". At their root, both of the words in ''hortus conclusus'' refer linguistically to enclosure. It describes a genre of garden that was enclosed as a practical concern, a majo ...

or small garden enclosed with a (very low) wall set in an urban scene with water and mountains in the distance. The Virgin sits near the front, with the Christ Child standing naked on her lap, holding her hair for support. There are several other figures, all female (or angelic) except for

Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...

at the back of the garden. At the front and sitting on the wall are two exotically dressed women; behind the Virgin a group of three angels are performing music, with bagpipes, a recorder, and the third singing from a musical score. Further back, and outside the garden, four women, none paying attention to those in the garden, seem to be ordinary inhabitants of the setting going about their lives. In the sky, a vision shows the ''

Arma Christi Arma Christi ("weapons of Christ"), or the Instruments of the Passion, are the objects associated with the Passion of Jesus Christ in Christian symbolism and art. They are seen as arms in the sense of heraldry, and also as the weapons Christ ...

'', or Instruments of the Passion, in a tent whose hangings are pulled back by angels. The scene is unusual in

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, and has been explained by one scholar in an interpretation not yet generally accepted, and recognised but not agreed by Jan Piet Filedt Kok in his Rijksmuseum catalogue. According to this, rather than being saints who are hard to identify, the two women at the front of the gardens are

sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...

s, one of whom is showing the infant Christ his future.

Other works

The outer sides of the van Beest triptych in Aachen whose wings he painted have a scene of

Saint Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

in the desert with his lion. This is fully coloured, while there are saints in ''grisaille'' on the outsides of the wings of the London (two per wing) and Cologne triptychs. The Museum Catharijneconvent in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

have a ''Virgin with the vision of

Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through ...

'' of perhaps 1495. He or an artist in his workshop or circle painted a ''Christ Carrying the Cross'' in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

(not on display in 2020).

Christ Church Picture Gallery Christ Church Picture Gallery is an art gallery located inside Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The gallery holds an important collection of about 300 Old Master paintings and nearly 2,000 drawings. The ...

in Oxford has a ''Lamentation''. A triptych "possibly" by the master, in a private collection in Switzerland, has a central ''Adoration of the Magi'', with a ''

Flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 2:13– 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the i ...

'' on the left panel, and a '' Massacre of the Innocents'' on the right. Several other possible attributions or ascriptions are given on the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

database.

Gallery

File:Master of Delft - Christ presented to the People- Left Hand Panel - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Christ Presented to the People'': left wing, London File:Master of Delft - The Deposition- Right Hand Panel - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Deposition'': right wing, London File:Meester van Delft - De kruisdraging van Christus - 0041 - Rijksmuseum Twenthe.jpg, Side wing from a ''Crucifixion'' triptych,

Rijksmuseum Twenthe The Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, the Netherlands, was founded in 1927 by textile industry Baron Jan Bernard Van Heek. He donated his own private collection and the museum building to the government, thus making it a national museum. The muse ...

, "workshop of the Master of Delft".Rijksmuseum Twenthe page
/ref> File:Meester van Delft - Het visioen van de H. Bernardus - ABM s59 - Museum Catharijneconvent.jpg, ''Virgin with the vision of

'', c. 1495,

. File:Maestro di delft, cristo portacroce, 1490 ca..JPG, Workshop or follower, ''Christ Carrying the Cross'',

Notes

References

* Campbell, Lorne, ''The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings'', National Gallery Catalogues (new series), 1998, *Filedt Kok, J.P., "Master of Delft, Triptych with the Virgin and Child and saints (centre panel), the Donor with St Martin (inner left wing), the Donor’s wife with St Cunera (inner right wing) and the Annunciation (outer wings), c. 1500 – c. 1510", in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam 2010: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9539 (accessed 25 December 2020)
online
* Liedtke, Walter
Walter Liedtke, Michiel C. Plomp and Axel Ruger, ''Vermeer and The Delft School''
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001 *NG"
"Triptych: Scenes from the Passion of Christ" ("in depth" tab)
*Ringbom, Sixten (1989). "Vision and Conversation in Early Netherlandish Painting: The Delft Master's "Holy Family", ''Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art'', 19(3), 181–190.
JSTOR

External links