.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In 2000, Didier Martens assembled a group of seven paintings around this serene altarpiece, which he considered to be the most important work by an anonymous Bruges painter active in the first half of the 16th century (op. cit.). Stylistically, these paintings resemble the mature work of Gerard David and Ambrosius Benson, yet are distinguished by the idiosyncratically rounded, full faces of the figures. On the basis of this key and consistent identifying trait, Martens named the artist 'The Master of the Plump-Cheeked Madonnas'.
The present picture is a sacra conversazione, a format popular in mid-15th-century Italy, in which saints from different epochs are grouped together in a single space. The Virgin and Child are enthroned within a vast, verdant landscape with carefully-observed architecture in the distance. They are attended by a court of two male and two female saints, arranged in a frieze-like manner. As Martens has observed, the Mary and Christ figures appear to have been inspired by the designs of Rogier van der Weyden, which were still widely circulating in Bruges around 1500. Martens further noted that the pattern for the Virgin and Child was also used in a painting formerly in the Musées de Liège by a painter in the Circle of Joos van Cleve (ibid., pp. 114-155, fig 3.).
Saint Dominic (1170-1221), the founder of the Dominican Order, stands at the far left, dressed in his black and white habit. Before him is a dog with a lighted torch in its mouth, the traditional emblem of the Dominicans, who, due to the ferociousness of their faith and as a pun on Saint Dominic's name, were known as the "dogs of God" (domini canes). Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) stands to his right, wearing a red and gold mitre decorated with an embossed relief of the Virgin and Child standing on a crescent moon. He holds a crozier and a heart, a symbol of his religious fervor. Flanking the Virgin is Saint Margaret trampling a dragon. According to the Golden Legend, the Prefect of Antioch wished to marry her, but she refused and was jailed. While praying for her true enemy to be revealed, she was swallowed whole by the devil in the form of a dragon. After making the sign of the cross, she burst forth unscathed, and as such became the patron saint of pregnant women. Dressed in an elegant green gown with golden damask sleeves, the radiant Margaret reads from her prayer book while gesturing in benediction with her right hand. As Martens has noted (ibid., p. 114), similar figures are found in the wings of two Bruges altarpieces, the first by the Master of Saint Ildefonse (Musée de Cluny, Paris), and the second by a follower of Pieter Pourbus (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). In the present painting, Saint Barbara appears at far right, holding a martyr's palm and standing before the tower in which she was imprisoned by her father, Dioscurus, to protect her from suitors. These four saints would have been selected by the patrons, and may have held special significance for the owners of the chapel where the panel was originally displayed. While no donor figures are present, they may have appeared with additional saints in altar wings as this panel likely once formed the central element of a triptych.
The detailed treatment of the vegetation in the foreground is reminiscent of tapestries, the costliest and most luxurious art form of the 16th century. Many of the flowering plants and herbs are identifiable and were chosen for their symbolic significance, including wild strawberries, snapdragons, dandelions (a symbol of Christ's passion), sage, and lily of the valley. Such a meticulous description of plant life is typical of Bruges painting of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and is often found in the work of artists active in the circle of Gerard David. Sensitively-rendered details such as the reflection of the trees on the surface of the water and the minute travelers in the background point to the Master's talent for combining spiritual vision with earthly beauty.
The present picture is a sacra conversazione, a format popular in mid-15th-century Italy, in which saints from different epochs are grouped together in a single space. The Virgin and Child are enthroned within a vast, verdant landscape with carefully-observed architecture in the distance. They are attended by a court of two male and two female saints, arranged in a frieze-like manner. As Martens has observed, the Mary and Christ figures appear to have been inspired by the designs of Rogier van der Weyden, which were still widely circulating in Bruges around 1500. Martens further noted that the pattern for the Virgin and Child was also used in a painting formerly in the Musées de Liège by a painter in the Circle of Joos van Cleve (ibid., pp. 114-155, fig 3.).
Saint Dominic (1170-1221), the founder of the Dominican Order, stands at the far left, dressed in his black and white habit. Before him is a dog with a lighted torch in its mouth, the traditional emblem of the Dominicans, who, due to the ferociousness of their faith and as a pun on Saint Dominic's name, were known as the "dogs of God" (domini canes). Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) stands to his right, wearing a red and gold mitre decorated with an embossed relief of the Virgin and Child standing on a crescent moon. He holds a crozier and a heart, a symbol of his religious fervor. Flanking the Virgin is Saint Margaret trampling a dragon. According to the Golden Legend, the Prefect of Antioch wished to marry her, but she refused and was jailed. While praying for her true enemy to be revealed, she was swallowed whole by the devil in the form of a dragon. After making the sign of the cross, she burst forth unscathed, and as such became the patron saint of pregnant women. Dressed in an elegant green gown with golden damask sleeves, the radiant Margaret reads from her prayer book while gesturing in benediction with her right hand. As Martens has noted (ibid., p. 114), similar figures are found in the wings of two Bruges altarpieces, the first by the Master of Saint Ildefonse (Musée de Cluny, Paris), and the second by a follower of Pieter Pourbus (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). In the present painting, Saint Barbara appears at far right, holding a martyr's palm and standing before the tower in which she was imprisoned by her father, Dioscurus, to protect her from suitors. These four saints would have been selected by the patrons, and may have held special significance for the owners of the chapel where the panel was originally displayed. While no donor figures are present, they may have appeared with additional saints in altar wings as this panel likely once formed the central element of a triptych.
The detailed treatment of the vegetation in the foreground is reminiscent of tapestries, the costliest and most luxurious art form of the 16th century. Many of the flowering plants and herbs are identifiable and were chosen for their symbolic significance, including wild strawberries, snapdragons, dandelions (a symbol of Christ's passion), sage, and lily of the valley. Such a meticulous description of plant life is typical of Bruges painting of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and is often found in the work of artists active in the circle of Gerard David. Sensitively-rendered details such as the reflection of the trees on the surface of the water and the minute travelers in the background point to the Master's talent for combining spiritual vision with earthly beauty.