HANS MEMLING* (c. 1430/35-1494)

Details

HANS MEMLING* (c. 1430/35-1494)

The wings of a triptych: Saint James the Major; and Saint Christopher

oil on panel
27 x 8¾in. (68.6 x 22.2cm.) Two (2) (2)

Provenance

Rev. Richard Heath collection
Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin
Vicomte Léon de Ruffo de Bonneval de la Fare, and by descent to his heirs, from whom purchased in 1960 by the present owner

Literature

L. Kaemmerer, Memling, 1899, p. 68, pl. 61, as Memling
M.J. Friedländer, Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, 1903, XXVI, p. 84, no. 92, as Memling
K. Voll, Memling, Klassiker der Kunst, 1909, pp. 54-55, illustrated as Memling
S. Reinhardt, III, p. 455, as Memling
Catalogue of the exhibition, Exposition Memling, Bruges, Musée Communal, June 21-Oct. 1, 1939, under no. 4 (central panel of the altarpiece) where it wrongly states that the wings of the altarpiece perished in a fire
L'Opera completa di Memling, M. Corti and G.T. Faggin, ed., 1969, no. 22, p. 96, as Memling
M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, 1971, VIa, pp. 23 and 46, pl. 22, no. 6, as Memling

Exhibited

Berlin, Austellung von Kunst Werken des Mittelalters und der Renaissance aus Berliner Privatbesitz Veranstaltet von der Kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft, May 20-July 3, 1898, pp. 8-9, as Memling
Bruges, Exposition des Primitifs flamands et d'Art ancien, June 15-Sept. 15, 1902, no 92, as Memling (lent by M. von Kaufmann)

Lot Essay

Dirk de Vos will publish the present paintings in his forthcoming catalogue raisonne on Memling (Fonds Mercator publisher, 1994) as by Memling.

The present paintings originally flanked a 'Lamentation', forming an altarpiece, which was formerly in the von Kaufmann collection, Berlin. The center panel is now in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (68.5 x 52.8cm.; Inv. no. 2471).

Friedländer (loc. cit., p. 23) dates the panels to circa 1475. He correctly cites the paintings as in a private Luxemburg collection, although elsewhere in the same publication he mistakenly notes that they were destroyed in a fire in 1917. Corti and Faggin (loc. cit.i also note that the paintings were disfigures by not destroyed in the 1904 fire