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Lot Essay
Full of pathos, this portrait of Saint Luke drawing the Virgin with silverpoint by Colijn de Coter was directly inspired by the figure of Nicodemus in Rogier van der Weyden's enormously influential Descent from the Cross (Prado, Madrid, inv. no. P002825). Rogier’s famous altarpiece was painted sometime before 1443 for the high altar of the Great Archers’ Guild’s chapel of Our Lady Without the Walls at Leuven. It resided there until Mary of Hungary moved it to her château of Binche, Hainaut, exchanging it with a contemporary copy by Michiel Coxcie and an organ of 1500 Florins. Around 1555, the altarpiece had entered the collection of Mary’s cousin, Philip II of Spain. Rogier’s altarpiece was revolutionary and had an enormous impact on Northern European Art, inspiring numerous copies starting almost immediately after it was painted. Here, De Coter focuses exclusively on the single figure of Nicodemus in Rogier's painting, producing a remarkably exact copy yet simultaneously transforming it into a new composition. Curiously, De Coter retained Nicodemus’s tears, thus defying convention to present Saint Luke as weeping. This unusual iconography suggests that the present work likely once formed the right part of a diptych, almost certainly facing a Virgin and Child. In such a pairing, Luke’s sadness functions as a foretelling of Christ’s suffering.
Only three signed paintings by Colijn de Coter, along with a pair of contracts for church commissions and a few archival references survive, defining the known boundaries of his production between 1480 and 1525. Although little is known of the artist's life, he is mentioned as a master in the Guild of St. Eloi in 1476 and later mentioned in Antwerp by Der Liggeren in 1493, as having come from Brussels. De Coter's works are recognized by his use of chiaroscuro to create volume and sculptural draperies, as evidenced by the present panel.
The attribution of the present work to Colijn de Coter was first proposed in 2003, when the painting was in the Brussels art trade (J. de Maere, loc. cit.). At that time, both Catherine Périer d'Ieteren and Didier Martens observed workshop participation for the painting of the saint’s hands. At the time of the 2006 sale (loc. cit.), these scholars refined this attribution, dating the panel to between 1490-1500 and suggesting that the hands may have been painted by a specific member of De Coter’s workshop, namely the Master of the Orsoy Panels.
Peter van den Brink has more recently expanded upon this in an unpublished essay, noting De Coter’s astonishing accuracy as a copyist: `Every single detail was taken over literally, all the lines and swollen veins on his forehead, the beard of a single day, the headdress, the lips pressed tight together in emotion, even every single tear was copied directly after the model’. As such, he posits that De Coter may have relied on a mechanical device for the transfer, such as a cartoon. Technical examination of the painting using Infra-reflectography and X-radiographs appears to confirm this.
Van den Brink compares the present work to De Coter’s circa 1510-15 Lamentation in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 1), a painting that Périer-d’Ieteren considers to be completely autograph. Van den Brink points to De Coter’s typical, hard lines, seen here for instance in Saint Luke’s eyelids, and notes that they are treated in a nearly identical manner in the Saint John the Evangelist in Amsterdam. Likewise, he observes that the treatment of the two saints’ right hands are again, indistinguishable in both paintings. Accordingly, Van den Brink sees no reason why the present work should not be considered to be entirely the work of De Coter himself.
A version of the present composition, of lesser quality, was formerly in Vicomtesse Adolphe de Spoelberch's collection, Brussels (sold, Sotheby's, London, 20 April 1977, lot 46). A third version in the collection of Lord Egerton, at Tatton Park, and attributed to Aelbrecht Bouts, depicts Saint Luke's hands folded in prayer.
We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for kindly sharing his research on this painting and for proposing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection (Private communication, December 2025).
Only three signed paintings by Colijn de Coter, along with a pair of contracts for church commissions and a few archival references survive, defining the known boundaries of his production between 1480 and 1525. Although little is known of the artist's life, he is mentioned as a master in the Guild of St. Eloi in 1476 and later mentioned in Antwerp by Der Liggeren in 1493, as having come from Brussels. De Coter's works are recognized by his use of chiaroscuro to create volume and sculptural draperies, as evidenced by the present panel.
The attribution of the present work to Colijn de Coter was first proposed in 2003, when the painting was in the Brussels art trade (J. de Maere, loc. cit.). At that time, both Catherine Périer d'Ieteren and Didier Martens observed workshop participation for the painting of the saint’s hands. At the time of the 2006 sale (loc. cit.), these scholars refined this attribution, dating the panel to between 1490-1500 and suggesting that the hands may have been painted by a specific member of De Coter’s workshop, namely the Master of the Orsoy Panels.
Peter van den Brink has more recently expanded upon this in an unpublished essay, noting De Coter’s astonishing accuracy as a copyist: `Every single detail was taken over literally, all the lines and swollen veins on his forehead, the beard of a single day, the headdress, the lips pressed tight together in emotion, even every single tear was copied directly after the model’. As such, he posits that De Coter may have relied on a mechanical device for the transfer, such as a cartoon. Technical examination of the painting using Infra-reflectography and X-radiographs appears to confirm this.
Van den Brink compares the present work to De Coter’s circa 1510-15 Lamentation in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 1), a painting that Périer-d’Ieteren considers to be completely autograph. Van den Brink points to De Coter’s typical, hard lines, seen here for instance in Saint Luke’s eyelids, and notes that they are treated in a nearly identical manner in the Saint John the Evangelist in Amsterdam. Likewise, he observes that the treatment of the two saints’ right hands are again, indistinguishable in both paintings. Accordingly, Van den Brink sees no reason why the present work should not be considered to be entirely the work of De Coter himself.
A version of the present composition, of lesser quality, was formerly in Vicomtesse Adolphe de Spoelberch's collection, Brussels (sold, Sotheby's, London, 20 April 1977, lot 46). A third version in the collection of Lord Egerton, at Tatton Park, and attributed to Aelbrecht Bouts, depicts Saint Luke's hands folded in prayer.
We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for kindly sharing his research on this painting and for proposing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection (Private communication, December 2025).