Lot Essay
Max Friedländer considered this dynamic panel to be an autograph work by Van Orley datable to 1521 (loc. cit.). Having inspected the painting firsthand when it was on the art market in Antwerp in 1930, Ludwig Baldass independently arrived at the same conclusion, identifying it as an innovative example of Van Orley's late monumental style, while further observing that Raphael's Spasimo di Sicilia (Prado, Madrid) was ultimately the primary source for the composition (op. cit.). Indeed, there are strong parallels between this painting and Raphael's design, which Van Orley would have encountered when its cartoon was sent to Brussels to be woven as a tapestry for Cardinal Bibbiana between 1516 and 1520. The most immediate source for the present painting, however, was surely Van Orley's own interpretation of Raphael's design as it appears in the Northern artist's Christ Carrying the Cross cartoon, which he created for Margaret of Austria's "square" Passion tapestries of c. 1520-1522 (Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid), and which was later rewoven for the Alba Passion tapestries of c. 1525-1528 (Museé Jacquemart-André, Paris). Van Orley also took inspiration from the work of Albrecht Dürer, with whom he was personally acquainted: in 1520, Van Orley hosted a dinner party with Dürer as his guest. As in Dürer's Christ Carrying the Cross from the Large Passion prints of c. 1497-1500, in the present panel the main focus is not Christ's interaction with the swooning Virgin, but rather the miracle of the Sudarium, the holy cloth held by St. Veronica.
Farmer (loc. cit.) considered this painting to be the work of a clearly identifiable hand distinct from Van Orley, yet very close to him. This artist, whom he christened "The Brussels Master of 1520," tends to paint his figures with idiosyncratic, at times awkward poses and may have led a small, independent workshop that produced paintings most reminiscent of Van Orley's style of the late teens, while demonstrating a familiarity with the master's work through the thirties. Farmer hypothesized that The Brussels Master of 1520 may have even been related to Van Orley, suggesting the artist's brother, Evrard, as a plausible candidate.
Farmer (loc. cit.) considered this painting to be the work of a clearly identifiable hand distinct from Van Orley, yet very close to him. This artist, whom he christened "The Brussels Master of 1520," tends to paint his figures with idiosyncratic, at times awkward poses and may have led a small, independent workshop that produced paintings most reminiscent of Van Orley's style of the late teens, while demonstrating a familiarity with the master's work through the thirties. Farmer hypothesized that The Brussels Master of 1520 may have even been related to Van Orley, suggesting the artist's brother, Evrard, as a plausible candidate.