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Lot Essay
This extraordinary, jewel-like work has until now escaped the attention of modern scholarship, having previously been published with only a brief description in two exhibition catalogues of the 1950s, remaining in the same private collection since at least that period. At that time it was attributed to The Master of the Female Half-Lengths, a shadowy but prolific figure described by Friedländer as one of the most successful and popular artists working in Antwerp in the second quarter of the sixteenth century (Early Netherlandish Painting, XII: Jan van Scorel and Pieter Coeck van Aelst, Leiden, 1975, pp. 18-21). His works are now perceived to be in large part the product of a workshop, specialising in half-length depictions of the Magdalene and elegantly dressed young ladies shown reading, writing or playing musical instruments, which gained particular popularity at the courts of Burgundy and France. While the present work is indebted to The Half-Lengths Master in conception and composition, it is subtly different in handling from the majority of works usually ascribed to him.
Moreover, there is a subtle but striking difference between the treatment of the two figures: while that of the seated figure quotes the Master's types, that of the saint displays distant echoes of Jan Gossaert in the manneristic, calligraphic drapery and the saint's hands, compared to the smooth, idealised hands and face of the seated figure; the seated figure is evenly lit, while the flesh-tones of the saint shine with enhanced highlights, creating a more sculptural effect. It may be the product of a pictorially erudite and well-informed court artist, playing a sophisticated, chameleon-like game of imitation, quoting the styles of other earlier artists with a superlative finesse of execution (made evident in the delicate treatment of the seated lady's hair and costume, the saint's attributes and the draughtsmanship of the whole) which is all his own. The underdrawing is just visible to the naked eye in certain passages of the seated figure, but is very faint in infrared, suggesting the use of an unusual medium for this stage of the execution.
The stylistic differentiation between the two figures can be seen as a conscious way of differentiating between a mortal figure and a sacred one. It is probable that the name of the female sitter was Elisabeth or Isabella, as by long-standing tradition she may be shown with her patron saint, and it has been suggested that she may be Isabella of Austria, the sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the wife, from 1514, of King Christian II of Denmark. Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, shown with her attribute of three crowns (one on her head and two, one on top of the other, in her hand), was a famous royal saint who was highly venerated at the Burgundian court in Brussels, due no doubt in part to the importance of the name Isabella for the ruling dynasty, which could trace its bloodline back to the great Queen Isabella I of Castille, patroness of Colmbus's discovery of the New World. This veneration would see the donation of a relic of the saint's head to Brussels Cathedral in 1617 by a later Isabella of Austria, the daughter of King Philip II of Spain. The composition suggests that the panel may very well have originally been part of a diptych, the untraced wing of which might have shown The Virgin and Child (as in a diptych portraying Isabella's guardian, the regent Margaret of Austria, given by Friedländer to Barend van Orley, ENP, VIII: Jan Gossaert and Bernart van Orley, no. 133, pl. 115) or a husband -- in Isabella of Austria's case, King Christian of Denmark. Susan Haskins has discussed in a recent article ('Mary Magdalen and the Burgundian Question', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LXXIII, 2010, pp. 99ff), female members of the Burgundian court, including Isabella's guardian, the regent Margaret of Austria, were often portrayed in the guise of saints; and the potential juxtaposition of Isabella and Saint Elisabeth may have been the product of a similar courtly rhetoric. The laurels worn by the seated figure are highly unusual, and hard to reconcile with any but the most elevated of female sitters; while her rounded, serene features bear a clear resemblance to accepted portraits of Isabella of Austria in The Royal Collection (see L. Campbell, The Early Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge, 1985, nos. 24 and 68) and the profile portrait in Krakow, Muzeum Narodowe (given to the Master of the Legend of Saint Mary Magdalene). While invoking the tradition of the Half-Lengths Master, the Isabella figure also recalls works by Joos van Cleve - his Portrait of a woman in Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, for the pose and costume; and a Magdalene given to Joos van Cleve and workshop (location unknown; see J.O. Hand, Joos van Cleve: The Complete Paintings, nos. 67 and 53.1 respectively). The most convincing attribution, however, is to the close circle of Barend van Orley, whose activity in Brussels placed him close to court circles and under the patronage of Margaret of Austria and her successors (compare, for example, Van Orley's Portrait of Marie Haneton in Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland). We are grateful to Hélène Mund of KIK/IRPA for her placement of the picture in the School of Brussels, in the close circle of Van Orley, and for providing information about the cult of Saint Elisabeth in Brussels.
Moreover, there is a subtle but striking difference between the treatment of the two figures: while that of the seated figure quotes the Master's types, that of the saint displays distant echoes of Jan Gossaert in the manneristic, calligraphic drapery and the saint's hands, compared to the smooth, idealised hands and face of the seated figure; the seated figure is evenly lit, while the flesh-tones of the saint shine with enhanced highlights, creating a more sculptural effect. It may be the product of a pictorially erudite and well-informed court artist, playing a sophisticated, chameleon-like game of imitation, quoting the styles of other earlier artists with a superlative finesse of execution (made evident in the delicate treatment of the seated lady's hair and costume, the saint's attributes and the draughtsmanship of the whole) which is all his own. The underdrawing is just visible to the naked eye in certain passages of the seated figure, but is very faint in infrared, suggesting the use of an unusual medium for this stage of the execution.
The stylistic differentiation between the two figures can be seen as a conscious way of differentiating between a mortal figure and a sacred one. It is probable that the name of the female sitter was Elisabeth or Isabella, as by long-standing tradition she may be shown with her patron saint, and it has been suggested that she may be Isabella of Austria, the sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the wife, from 1514, of King Christian II of Denmark. Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, shown with her attribute of three crowns (one on her head and two, one on top of the other, in her hand), was a famous royal saint who was highly venerated at the Burgundian court in Brussels, due no doubt in part to the importance of the name Isabella for the ruling dynasty, which could trace its bloodline back to the great Queen Isabella I of Castille, patroness of Colmbus's discovery of the New World. This veneration would see the donation of a relic of the saint's head to Brussels Cathedral in 1617 by a later Isabella of Austria, the daughter of King Philip II of Spain. The composition suggests that the panel may very well have originally been part of a diptych, the untraced wing of which might have shown The Virgin and Child (as in a diptych portraying Isabella's guardian, the regent Margaret of Austria, given by Friedländer to Barend van Orley, ENP, VIII: Jan Gossaert and Bernart van Orley, no. 133, pl. 115) or a husband -- in Isabella of Austria's case, King Christian of Denmark. Susan Haskins has discussed in a recent article ('Mary Magdalen and the Burgundian Question', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LXXIII, 2010, pp. 99ff), female members of the Burgundian court, including Isabella's guardian, the regent Margaret of Austria, were often portrayed in the guise of saints; and the potential juxtaposition of Isabella and Saint Elisabeth may have been the product of a similar courtly rhetoric. The laurels worn by the seated figure are highly unusual, and hard to reconcile with any but the most elevated of female sitters; while her rounded, serene features bear a clear resemblance to accepted portraits of Isabella of Austria in The Royal Collection (see L. Campbell, The Early Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge, 1985, nos. 24 and 68) and the profile portrait in Krakow, Muzeum Narodowe (given to the Master of the Legend of Saint Mary Magdalene). While invoking the tradition of the Half-Lengths Master, the Isabella figure also recalls works by Joos van Cleve - his Portrait of a woman in Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, for the pose and costume; and a Magdalene given to Joos van Cleve and workshop (location unknown; see J.O. Hand, Joos van Cleve: The Complete Paintings, nos. 67 and 53.1 respectively). The most convincing attribution, however, is to the close circle of Barend van Orley, whose activity in Brussels placed him close to court circles and under the patronage of Margaret of Austria and her successors (compare, for example, Van Orley's Portrait of Marie Haneton in Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland). We are grateful to Hélène Mund of KIK/IRPA for her placement of the picture in the School of Brussels, in the close circle of Van Orley, and for providing information about the cult of Saint Elisabeth in Brussels.