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Lot Essay
The Master of the Magdalene Legend, named after a series of dispersed altarpiece panels depicting the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, was one of Bruges’s leading painters in the late fifteenth century, alongside Hans Memling and the Master of the Legend of Saint Ursula. Max J. Friedländer proposed both Pieter Coninxloo and William Scrots as possible identifications for this anonymous master, as both artists were active at the Burgundian court in Brussels, however these hypotheses have not found widespread support (see Early Netherlandish Painting, XII, New York, 1975, pp. 13–17). While little is known about the master’s biography, it is clear he maintained a thriving workshop producing paintings for local patrons — such as Donaes de Moor (d. 1483), whose portrait the artist included in the Pietà Triptych (dated circa 1475; Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza) — as well as works for international export.
The Master of the Magdalene Legend reused compositional models devised by his predecessors and contemporaries, including Rogier van der Weyden, Bernard van Orley, and Joos van Cleve. In the present work, the position of the Virgin’s face and hand recalls van der Weyden’s widely replicated Madonna Lactans composition, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. One such replication, dated circa 1460, now ascribed to van der Weyden's workshop, in the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1933.1052) bears striking similarities to the present painting. Here, the specificity of the Christ Child’s facial features and distinctive blonde hair suggests that the likeness may be a portrait.
In the early 1930s, the present work belonged to Richard Semmel (1875-1950), a German textile manufacturer, who lived in Berlin with his wife, Clara née Bruck (1879-1945). In 1933, after the National Socialist government came to power, Semmel was increasingly under pressure, both for his Jewish background and for his involvement in the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party). The Semmels fled Germany soon after, moving first to Amsterdam. Their villa in Berlin-Dahlem was sold under duress in their absence in 1934 and Richard’s business holdings in Germany were also targeted by punitive measures. Fearing the occupation of The Netherlands in 1940, the Semmels fled again, this time to New York, where they lived from 1941 onwards and where this painting was sold at auction in 1944.
The Master of the Magdalene Legend reused compositional models devised by his predecessors and contemporaries, including Rogier van der Weyden, Bernard van Orley, and Joos van Cleve. In the present work, the position of the Virgin’s face and hand recalls van der Weyden’s widely replicated Madonna Lactans composition, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. One such replication, dated circa 1460, now ascribed to van der Weyden's workshop, in the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1933.1052) bears striking similarities to the present painting. Here, the specificity of the Christ Child’s facial features and distinctive blonde hair suggests that the likeness may be a portrait.
In the early 1930s, the present work belonged to Richard Semmel (1875-1950), a German textile manufacturer, who lived in Berlin with his wife, Clara née Bruck (1879-1945). In 1933, after the National Socialist government came to power, Semmel was increasingly under pressure, both for his Jewish background and for his involvement in the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party). The Semmels fled Germany soon after, moving first to Amsterdam. Their villa in Berlin-Dahlem was sold under duress in their absence in 1934 and Richard’s business holdings in Germany were also targeted by punitive measures. Fearing the occupation of The Netherlands in 1940, the Semmels fled again, this time to New York, where they lived from 1941 onwards and where this painting was sold at auction in 1944.
