.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This regal depiction of the Virgin and Child enthroned beneath an arcade is an emblematic example of the refined devotional paintings produced by one of the most intriguing unidentified Early Netherlandish painters known as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage. In 1926, Max J. Friedländer attributed a group of late-15th century paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child, all in nearly identical poses, to this anonymous hand. The placeholder name derives from the idiosyncratic way that the foliage in his works was painted using small dots to create highlights in a manner reminiscent of the repeated pattern of stitches in embroidery (see: M.J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, IV, Berlin, 1926, pp. 118-9). The core of the artist's accepted works is built around three paintings, all of which draw upon compositions by Rogier van der Weyden: The Virgin and Child in a Garden (E. Proehl Collection, Amsterdam), the triptych of The Virgin and Child with Angels (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille) and The Virgin and Child from the Johnson Collection (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia). Thanks to more recent scholarship produced on the occasion of the monographic exhibition held in Lille, Williamstown and Minneapolis, The Master of the Embroidered Foliage: secrets of Flemish workshops of the late 15th century, in 2004 and 2005, it is now generally accepted that the works given to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage were not created by a single artist, but instead were probably painted by different artists working in a similar style, using common Rogierian sources, but also drawing from the paintings of Bernard van Orley and Dirk Bouts. The artists that comprised this `Master of the Embroidered Foliage Group', were almost certainly active in Brussels, though Maryan Ainsworth has observed that several of their paintings suggest activity, or at least initial training in Bruges (see M. Ainsworth, `The Master of the Embroidered Foliage Group – a Brussels or Bruges Workshop', in F. Gombert, ed., Le Maître au Feuillage brodeé. Démarches d’artistes et méthodes d’attribution d’œuvres à un peintre anonyme des anciens Pays-Bas du XVe siècle, Lille, 2007, pp. 151-163).
In the present painting, the Holy Mother and Child sit enthroned on a balcony overlooking what appears to be a palace garden. Christ holds an apple in his left hand, a reference to original sin and his redemptive role as the New Adam. He grasps his foot with his right hand, a seemingly incidental gesture based on the observation of infants that also functions symbolically as an invitation to the faithful to follow his path (F. Gombert, op. cit., 2005, p. 93). This imagery may ultimately derive from a lost composition by Rogier van der Weyden, though the precise source is unknown.
As several scholars have noted (ibid.), the Master of the Embroidered Foliage’s most immediate model for our painting appears to be a lost work by Dirk Bouts, which exists in numerous versions by late 15th-century Netherlandish artists. The best of these is the panel by a member of Bouts’s workshop now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 1982.60.16). Other versions have been associated with the Master of the Khanenko Adoration, the Master of the Magdalene Legend, the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, Hans Memling and Juan de Flandes (ibid., see also H. Mund, C. Stroo, and N. Goetghebeur, The Mayer van der Bergh Museum Antwerp, Corpus, XX, Brussels, 2003, pp. 125-37).
When he first published the present work, Friedländer (loc. cit.) proposed that it originally formed the central panel of a triptych, whose wings comprise the two donor portraits now in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (fig. 1). Joined into a single panel, likely sometime in the 19th century, these are the only portraits attributed to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, and represent Louis Quarré and his wife, Barbe de Croesinck. Friedländer’s argument was based on the nearly identical decorative arches applied in pastiglia to the upper parts of each of the panels. More recent scholarship, however, has discredited this theory. As Albert Châtelet and Nicole Goetghebeur have demonstrated (op. cit., p. 116), despite their similar architectural framework, the pastiglia decoration on the present panel and the Lille portraits are not identical. The outer columns flanking the Virgin and Child are 2 cm. smaller than those of the portraits. Moreover, dendrochronological examination by Peter Klein shows that our panel could not have been painted before 1492, thus at least 10 years subsequent to the Lille panels, which are dated 1481.
A somewhat later copy of the present panel, which in the 1930s carried an attribution to Dirk Bouts, is now attributed to his son, Albert, or perhaps more generally should be placed in the `Bouts Group' (Stedelijk Museum, Louvain, inv. S.47.B; see F. Gombert, op. cit., 2005, p. 93, no. 11b).
In the present painting, the Holy Mother and Child sit enthroned on a balcony overlooking what appears to be a palace garden. Christ holds an apple in his left hand, a reference to original sin and his redemptive role as the New Adam. He grasps his foot with his right hand, a seemingly incidental gesture based on the observation of infants that also functions symbolically as an invitation to the faithful to follow his path (F. Gombert, op. cit., 2005, p. 93). This imagery may ultimately derive from a lost composition by Rogier van der Weyden, though the precise source is unknown.
As several scholars have noted (ibid.), the Master of the Embroidered Foliage’s most immediate model for our painting appears to be a lost work by Dirk Bouts, which exists in numerous versions by late 15th-century Netherlandish artists. The best of these is the panel by a member of Bouts’s workshop now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 1982.60.16). Other versions have been associated with the Master of the Khanenko Adoration, the Master of the Magdalene Legend, the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, Hans Memling and Juan de Flandes (ibid., see also H. Mund, C. Stroo, and N. Goetghebeur, The Mayer van der Bergh Museum Antwerp, Corpus, XX, Brussels, 2003, pp. 125-37).
When he first published the present work, Friedländer (loc. cit.) proposed that it originally formed the central panel of a triptych, whose wings comprise the two donor portraits now in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (fig. 1). Joined into a single panel, likely sometime in the 19th century, these are the only portraits attributed to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, and represent Louis Quarré and his wife, Barbe de Croesinck. Friedländer’s argument was based on the nearly identical decorative arches applied in pastiglia to the upper parts of each of the panels. More recent scholarship, however, has discredited this theory. As Albert Châtelet and Nicole Goetghebeur have demonstrated (op. cit., p. 116), despite their similar architectural framework, the pastiglia decoration on the present panel and the Lille portraits are not identical. The outer columns flanking the Virgin and Child are 2 cm. smaller than those of the portraits. Moreover, dendrochronological examination by Peter Klein shows that our panel could not have been painted before 1492, thus at least 10 years subsequent to the Lille panels, which are dated 1481.
A somewhat later copy of the present panel, which in the 1930s carried an attribution to Dirk Bouts, is now attributed to his son, Albert, or perhaps more generally should be placed in the `Bouts Group' (Stedelijk Museum, Louvain, inv. S.47.B; see F. Gombert, op. cit., 2005, p. 93, no. 11b).