Master of the Legend of the Magdalen

Last updated
The Magdalen Weeping, c 1525. Oil on oak panel, 52cm 34.9 cm. National Gallery, London. Workshop of Master of the Magdalen Legend - The Magdalen Weeping NG3116.jpg
The Magdalen Weeping , c 1525. Oil on oak panel, 52cm 34.9 cm. National Gallery, London.

The Master of the Legend of the Magdalen (sometimes called the Master of the Magdalen Legend) was an Early Netherlandish painter, active from about 1483 to around 1527. He has not been identified; his name of convenience is derived from a large, now-dispersed altarpiece with scenes from the life of Mary Magdalene, which has been dated to between 1515 and 1520 based on the costumes of the donor portraits. However other works attributed to him are extremely difficult to date with any accuracy. Many paintings have been linked with the triptych, which is thought to have been finished late in the artist's career. Other major works include his two Magdalen panels in London.

Contents

He is not to be confused with the "Master of the Mansi Magdalen" (fl. ?Antwerp, c. 1515–25) or the Magdalen Master (fl. Florence, c. 1265–90). [1]

Some of his portraits suggest a possible link with artists in Brussels, and it is thought that he worked there, and headed a large workshop. An early influence appears to have been Rogier van der Weyden; his work also shares characteristics with that of Bernard van Orley, and a link with the Master of the Death of the Virgin (Joos Van Cleve) has been suggested. Like van Orley, this artist is believed to have been active in the court of Margaret of Habsburg, regent of the Netherlands from 1507 until 1530. Works ascribed to the Master are in the collections of the National Gallery, London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

He is sometimes associated with Pieter van Coninxloo based on similarities of style, time and location. [2] A number of art historians, including Max Friedländer, who first made the association between the works now attributed to the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen, have speculated that they may have been the same person. [2] [3] It is possible also that van Coninxloo for a time was a member of the master's workshop. [4]

Works

Master of the Magdalen Legend - "The Magdalen" 1510-20 Master of the Magdalen Legend - The Magdalen NG2614.jpg
Master of the Magdalen Legend - "The Magdalen" 1510-20

Thirteen versions of a portrait format image of "The Magdalen" were painted by the Master of the Magdalen Legend and his workshop between the years of 1510-20. [5] This piece in particular was originally thought to depict Mary of Burgundy under the guise of the Magdalen, but it has since been discovered to be her daughter, Margaret of Austria. [5] The faint gilding in the shape of a halo above the head of the sitter implies it is of a saint, and she wears a dress similar to those worn by 16th century courtesans, which was representative of Mary Magdalene's sinful past. [5] The jar of ointment which she holds was the usual attribute of the Magdalen, as she was known for pouring this ointment on Jesus's feet. [5]

Notes

  1. Hans M. Schmidt, et al. "Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 7, 2015, subscription required
  2. 1 2 Meester van de Legende van de Heilige Magdalena in the RKD
  3. Friedländer, Max J. Early Netherlandish Painting: Volume 13: Antonis MOR and His Contemporaries. Kluwer Academic Publishers, ed 1975. 48. ISBN   90-286-0595-9
  4. Campbell, 114
  5. 1 2 3 4 Haskins, Susan (2010). "Mary Magdalen and the Burgundian Question". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 73: 120–126. doi:10.1086/JWCI41418715. JSTOR   41418715. S2CID   190406530.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan van Eyck</span> Flemish painter (died 1441)

Jan van Eyck was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. According to Vasari and other art historians including Ernst Gombrich, he invented oil painting, though most now regard that claim as an oversimplification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Campin</span> Belgian painter (c. 1375 – 1444)

Robert Campin, now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle, was a master painter who, along with Jan van Eyck, initiated the development of Early Netherlandish painting, a key development in the early Northern Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriaen Isenbrandt</span> Early Netherlandish painter (c. 1485–1551)

Adriaen Isenbrandt or Adriaen Ysenbrandt was a painter in Bruges, in the final years of Early Netherlandish painting, and the first of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting of the Northern Renaissance. Documentary evidence suggests he was a significant and successful artist of his period, even though no specific works by his hand are clearly documented. Art historians have conjectured that he operated a large workshop specializing in religious subjects and devotional paintings, which were executed in a conservative style in the tradition of the Early Netherlandish painting of the previous century. By his time, the new booming economy of Antwerp had made this the centre of painting in the Low Countries, but the previous centre of Bruges retained considerable prestige.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard van Orley</span> Flemish artist

Bernard van Orley, also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who was equally active as a designer of tapestries and, at the end of his life, stained glass. Although he never visited Italy, he belongs to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting, in his case especially by Raphael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Netherlandish painting</span> Work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance

Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flourished especially in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, although many scholars extend it to the start of the Dutch Revolt in 1566 or 1568–Max J. Friedländer's acclaimed surveys run through Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Early Netherlandish painting coincides with the Early and High Italian Renaissance, but the early period is seen as an independent artistic evolution, separate from the Renaissance humanism that characterised developments in Italy. Beginning in the 1490s, as increasing numbers of Netherlandish and other Northern painters traveled to Italy, Renaissance ideals and painting styles were incorporated into northern painting. As a result, Early Netherlandish painters are often categorised as belonging to both the Northern Renaissance and the Late or International Gothic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo van der Goes</span> Flemish painter (c. 1430/1440–1482)

Hugo van der Goes was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduced important innovations in painting through his monumental style, use of a specific colour range and individualistic manner of portraiture. From 1483 onwards, the presence of his masterpiece, the Portinari Triptych, in Florence played a role in the development of realism and the use of colour in Italian Renaissance art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joos van Cleve</span>

Joos van Cleve was a leading painter active in Antwerp from his arrival there around 1511 until his death in 1540 or 1541. Within Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, he combines the traditional techniques of Early Netherlandish painting with influences of more contemporary Renaissance painting styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Sittow</span> Estonian painter

Michael Sittow, also known as Master Michiel, Michel Sittow, Michiel, Miguel, and several other variants, was a painter from Tallinn (Reval), Estonia who was trained in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. For most of his life, Sittow worked as a court portrait painter, for Isabella of Castile and her Habsburg relatives in Spain and the Netherlands, and other prominent royal houses. He is considered one of the most important Netherlandish painters of the era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master of the Female Half-Lengths</span>

The Master of the Female Half-Lengths is the notname given to a painter, or more likely a group of painters of a workshop, active in the Low Countries in the early sixteenth century. The name was given in the 19th century to identify the maker or makers of a body of work consisting of 67 paintings to which since 40 more have been added. The Master created female figures in genre scenes, small religious and mythological works, landscapes and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master of Affligem</span> Painter

The Master of Affligem or Master of the Joseph Sequence was an accomplished painter of the South Netherlandish school, apparently working in Brussels, whose name is not known, but whose hand can be detected in a number of surviving paintings on panel. The pseudonym Master of the Joseph Sequence was given him as a name of convenience in 1923 by Walter Friedländer, who identified a series of tondi illustrating the Legend of St Joseph, which had become scattered among several museums, as all coming from the same painter. Subsequently Friedländer attributed to the same workshop eight further panels with scenes from two other sequences, the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin These came from the abbey of Affligem in Brabant, providing the alternate name for the artist.

<i>The Magdalen Reading</i> Fragment of altarpiece painting by Rogier van der Weyden

The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 1438 and has been in the National Gallery, London since 1860. It shows a woman with the pale skin, high cheek bones and oval eyelids typical of the idealised portraits of noble women of the period. She is identifiable as the Magdalen from the jar of ointment placed in the foreground, which is her traditional attribute in Christian art. She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading, a model of the contemplative life, repentant and absolved of past sins. In Catholic tradition the Magdalen was conflated with both Mary of Bethany who anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and the unnamed "sinner" of Luke 7:36–50. Iconography of the Magdalen commonly shows her with a book, in a moment of reflection, in tears, or with eyes averted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambrosius Benson</span> Italian painter (c. 1495/1500–1550)

Ambrosius Benson was an Italian painter who became a part of the Northern Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelis van Cleve</span>

Cornelis van Cleve, Cornelis van Cleef or Cornelis van der Beke, nickname Sotte Cleve was a Flemish Renaissance painter active in Antwerp who is known for his religious compositions and portraits. Starting his career in Antwerp in the workshop of his father Joos van Cleve, he later worked for a while in London. When he failed to achieve success in England, he became insane and stopped painting.

<i>Portrait of Margaret van Eyck</i> Painting by Jan van Eyck

Portrait of Margaret van Eyck is a 1439 oil on wood painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck. It is one of the two latest of his surviving paintings, and one of the earliest European artworks to depict a painter's spouse. Completed when she was around 34, it was hung until the early 18th century in the Bruges chapel of the Guild of painters. The work is thought to be a pendant or diptych panel for either a now lost self-portrait known from records until 1769, or of Jan van Eyck's likely self-portrait now in the National Gallery in London.

<i>The Magdalen Weeping</i> Painting by the workshop of Master of the Legend of the Magdalen

The Magdalen Weeping is an oil on oak panel painting attributed to the workshop of the unidentified Early Netherlandish artist known today by the notname the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen, active in Brussels. Although beautiful, the painting is significantly damaged and has been restored and overpainted a number of times since the 19th century; not always successfully and the impact of the image is considered to have been lessened as a result. It is held in the National Gallery, in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pieter van Coninxloo</span> Early Netherlandish painter (c. 1460–1513)

Pieter van Coninxloo was an Early Netherlandish painter first documented as active in Brussels from 1479. Little is known of his life apart from his appearance in records of 1479, 1503 and 1513, in the archives of Margaret of Austria when he is mentioned in relation to the commission of portraits. He came from a family of artists; at least six generations were painters. His brother was Jan van Coninxloo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine</span>

The Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine is the notname for an unknown late 15th century Early Netherlandish painter. He was named after a painting with Scenes from the Legend of Saint Catherine, now kept in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. He was active between c. 1470 and c. 1500, probably around Brussels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master with the Parrot</span>

The Master with the Parrot or Master of the Parrot is the notname given to a group of Flemish painters who likely worked in a workshop in Antwerp in the first half of the 16th century. They produced devotional pictures for the local bourgeoisie in a style reminiscent of contemporary Flemish painters working in an Italianate style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriaen van Overbeke</span>

Adriaen van Overbeke, Adrian van Overbeck and Adriaen van Overbeke was a Flemish Renaissance painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism. He operated a large workshop with an important output of altarpieces, which were mainly exported to Northern France, the Rhineland and Westphalia. His known works were predominantly polychromed wooden altarpieces with painted shutters, which were created through a collaboration between painters and sculptors.

<i>Lamentation of Christ</i> (Bouts) Painting by Dieric Bouts

Lamentation of Christ is an Early Netherlandish panel painting made 1455–1460 by Flemish painter Dirk Bouts of the Lamentation of Christ. the picture was bequeathed to the Louvre Museum by Constant Mongé-Misbach in 1871, at which time it was misattributed to Rogier van der Weyden. It remains in that museum's collection as RF 1.