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Lot Essay
This large panel by the Master of the Antwerp Adoration is an exceptionally well preserved example of the vibrant colouration, technical precision and inventive compositions which typified the so-called ‘Antwerp Mannerist’ style. The scale and quality of the panel suggest that it would have been an important commission for the painter and represents a highly original treatment of what appears to have been an unusual subject in the canon of early Netherlandish painting.
Though perhaps slightly cropped at the upper edge, the panel does not appear to have been altered to any great extent. Though its original function remains somewhat unclear, it is possible to propose that the painting originally formed the predella of a large, almost certainly sculpted, retable. Carved retables were widespread throughout Northern Europe in the late Middle Ages (though the overwhelming majority have now been lost or dismantled) and specifically became a luxury export from the southern Netherlands, especially Brussels and Antwerp. Typically, these altarpieces consisted of a caisse, a large wooden case often shaped as an inverted ‘T’, which was divided into various compartments into which sculptural groups, carved in high relief, could be fitted. Painted wings were usually then attached (though sculpted wings also appeared, these are less frequent given their considerably greater weight) and the altarpieces raised on a predella. These vary greatly in form and style, from simple monochrome wooden structures, to paintings and highly worked sculpted groups.
The predella often featured scenes of the Last Supper and, as Lynn Jacobs has argued, this may have been intended as a ‘theological explanation of the nature and meaning of the Eucharist, one devoted specifically to the celebrant performing this rite’ (Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380-1550: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing, Cambridge, 1998, p. 65). Scenes of the Last Supper in the predellas of carved retables were often linked to other meals of Christ like the Supper at Emmaus (as in the predella of the Affeln altarpiece made in Antwerp in circa 1520; Affeln, St. Lambertus Pfarrkirche) or Christ in the House of Simon (Fellingsbo altarpiece, Fellingsbo). The didactic qualities of these scenes, aimed at the celebrants of the Mass, were not usually followed through into the main iconography of the altarpiece which were frequently more ‘historically (rather than theologically) orientated’ (ibid.). As a prefiguration of the Last Supper and consequently the Eucharist, the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes, depicted in the present panel, would certainly appear to have been an appropriate subject for a predella panel, placed close to the altar where the Eucharist rite was celebrated.
The scale of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, if indeed it originally formed a predella, would suggest it was part of an altarpiece of a grand scale, representing a considerable commission. A similarly shaped panel, flanked on either side by a sculpted angel and Virgin Annunciate, forms the inner part of the predella of the Saint Agilulfus Altarpiece in the cathedral at Cologne. This triptych was also made in Antwerp during the 1520s and therefore can perhaps give some suggestion of how the present panel would have appeared in its original context. Its predella has moveable wing panels and this may also have been the case with the Multiplication. If it were, this may offer an explanation for its excellent state of preservation.
Representations of this subject are surprisingly sparse in the southern Netherlands during the later Middle Ages. Indeed, in his corpus of early Netherlandish painting, Friedländer lists only a handful: notably a circa 1540 panel attributed to Jan Swart van Groningen (Groningen, Groninger Museum, inv. no. 1957-213) and a large picture by Lambert Lombard. Both of these are of a later date than the present work, which likely dates to the late 1510s or early 1520s. Significantly, in Swart’s treatment of the subject, the figures of Christ, Saint Peter and the child carrying the two fish and five loaves, in particular, are replicated with only minor changes from the present painting, suggesting that the composition was not only known by later artists but also influential in shaping the ways in which the iconography of the subject developed. By the time Lombard completed his painting, the composition had somewhat evolved, but elements like the seated woman with a small child in the left foreground can still be recognised in the Master of the Antwerp Adoration’s picture. The highly detailed underdrawing of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, executed in a liquid medium and revealed through infrared analysis (fig. 1), suggests that the main figures in the composition were perhaps transferred from pre-existing drawings in the painter’s workshop. The freer, more schematic treatment of the landscape at the upper right of the picture is evidently different in approach and likely represents the painter working freely without an established design.
The initial oeuvre of the Master of the Antwerp Adoration was assembled by Friedländer in 1915, centred around the triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in the royal museums in Antwerp (fig. 2; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. no. 208-210). The painter’s elegant compositions and vibrant colouration are typical of the artistic milieu of Antwerp during the early years of the sixteenth century. With the silting up of the Zwin canal which led into Bruges, Antwerp overtook the city as the artistic and mercantile capital of the Southern Netherlands. The city’s new status rapidly led to an expansion and flourishing of art production in the city. Combining new influences from Italy, brought north from studies made by painters like Jan Gossaert who visited Rome in the early years of the century, ‘Antwerp Mannerism’ lavished the traditional precision of detail and technique which had made Netherlandish paintings internationally desirable objects during the fifteenth century with more animated, flamboyant compositions. Working within a group of other painters, whose styles and compositional types often interlink, the Master of the Antwerp Adoration was one of the leading exponents of this style and, thus, one of the most significant painters working in Antwerp during the early sixteenth century. This unpublished and impressive picture is a significant addition to his oeuvre.
We are grateful to Peter van der Brink for proposing the attribution to the Master of the Antwerp Adoration and to Till-Holger Borchert for independently endorsing the attribution, both on the basis of photographs.
Though perhaps slightly cropped at the upper edge, the panel does not appear to have been altered to any great extent. Though its original function remains somewhat unclear, it is possible to propose that the painting originally formed the predella of a large, almost certainly sculpted, retable. Carved retables were widespread throughout Northern Europe in the late Middle Ages (though the overwhelming majority have now been lost or dismantled) and specifically became a luxury export from the southern Netherlands, especially Brussels and Antwerp. Typically, these altarpieces consisted of a caisse, a large wooden case often shaped as an inverted ‘T’, which was divided into various compartments into which sculptural groups, carved in high relief, could be fitted. Painted wings were usually then attached (though sculpted wings also appeared, these are less frequent given their considerably greater weight) and the altarpieces raised on a predella. These vary greatly in form and style, from simple monochrome wooden structures, to paintings and highly worked sculpted groups.
The predella often featured scenes of the Last Supper and, as Lynn Jacobs has argued, this may have been intended as a ‘theological explanation of the nature and meaning of the Eucharist, one devoted specifically to the celebrant performing this rite’ (Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380-1550: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing, Cambridge, 1998, p. 65). Scenes of the Last Supper in the predellas of carved retables were often linked to other meals of Christ like the Supper at Emmaus (as in the predella of the Affeln altarpiece made in Antwerp in circa 1520; Affeln, St. Lambertus Pfarrkirche) or Christ in the House of Simon (Fellingsbo altarpiece, Fellingsbo). The didactic qualities of these scenes, aimed at the celebrants of the Mass, were not usually followed through into the main iconography of the altarpiece which were frequently more ‘historically (rather than theologically) orientated’ (ibid.). As a prefiguration of the Last Supper and consequently the Eucharist, the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes, depicted in the present panel, would certainly appear to have been an appropriate subject for a predella panel, placed close to the altar where the Eucharist rite was celebrated.
The scale of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, if indeed it originally formed a predella, would suggest it was part of an altarpiece of a grand scale, representing a considerable commission. A similarly shaped panel, flanked on either side by a sculpted angel and Virgin Annunciate, forms the inner part of the predella of the Saint Agilulfus Altarpiece in the cathedral at Cologne. This triptych was also made in Antwerp during the 1520s and therefore can perhaps give some suggestion of how the present panel would have appeared in its original context. Its predella has moveable wing panels and this may also have been the case with the Multiplication. If it were, this may offer an explanation for its excellent state of preservation.
Representations of this subject are surprisingly sparse in the southern Netherlands during the later Middle Ages. Indeed, in his corpus of early Netherlandish painting, Friedländer lists only a handful: notably a circa 1540 panel attributed to Jan Swart van Groningen (Groningen, Groninger Museum, inv. no. 1957-213) and a large picture by Lambert Lombard. Both of these are of a later date than the present work, which likely dates to the late 1510s or early 1520s. Significantly, in Swart’s treatment of the subject, the figures of Christ, Saint Peter and the child carrying the two fish and five loaves, in particular, are replicated with only minor changes from the present painting, suggesting that the composition was not only known by later artists but also influential in shaping the ways in which the iconography of the subject developed. By the time Lombard completed his painting, the composition had somewhat evolved, but elements like the seated woman with a small child in the left foreground can still be recognised in the Master of the Antwerp Adoration’s picture. The highly detailed underdrawing of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, executed in a liquid medium and revealed through infrared analysis (fig. 1), suggests that the main figures in the composition were perhaps transferred from pre-existing drawings in the painter’s workshop. The freer, more schematic treatment of the landscape at the upper right of the picture is evidently different in approach and likely represents the painter working freely without an established design.
The initial oeuvre of the Master of the Antwerp Adoration was assembled by Friedländer in 1915, centred around the triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in the royal museums in Antwerp (fig. 2; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. no. 208-210). The painter’s elegant compositions and vibrant colouration are typical of the artistic milieu of Antwerp during the early years of the sixteenth century. With the silting up of the Zwin canal which led into Bruges, Antwerp overtook the city as the artistic and mercantile capital of the Southern Netherlands. The city’s new status rapidly led to an expansion and flourishing of art production in the city. Combining new influences from Italy, brought north from studies made by painters like Jan Gossaert who visited Rome in the early years of the century, ‘Antwerp Mannerism’ lavished the traditional precision of detail and technique which had made Netherlandish paintings internationally desirable objects during the fifteenth century with more animated, flamboyant compositions. Working within a group of other painters, whose styles and compositional types often interlink, the Master of the Antwerp Adoration was one of the leading exponents of this style and, thus, one of the most significant painters working in Antwerp during the early sixteenth century. This unpublished and impressive picture is a significant addition to his oeuvre.
We are grateful to Peter van der Brink for proposing the attribution to the Master of the Antwerp Adoration and to Till-Holger Borchert for independently endorsing the attribution, both on the basis of photographs.