The Morrison Triptych
The Morrison Triptych is an altarpiece in triptych or three-paneled form, by the master and probably painted around 1500 A.D. The work is named after an earlier owner, the British collector Alfred Morrison, and is now in the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, United States. The painting is not to be confused with a modern work of the same name celebrating Jim Morrison of The Doors.
The work loosely repeats the composition of an earlier triptych, now in Vienna (the St John Altarpiece), by Hans Memling, with the addition of the lute-playing angel. The new composition, in turn, was copied by Joos van Cleve in another altarpiece - such borrowings being very common in Early Netherlandish art. [3] The external panels are decorated with paintings intended to appear as sculpture depicting Adam and Eve, characters from the Old Testament. These “painted sculptures” of Adam and Eve cast shadows to their proper left and the front panel is painted to appear to reflect a candle that would be placed on the altar in front of this altarpiece. The pedestals in which the “sculptures” stand protrude toward the viewer, appearing three-dimensional and including the viewer in their realm.
The panels open to reveal a landscape in the background and in the central panel an image of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child and angels, central figures of the Christian religion. Connecting the three scenes of the inner view are not only the floor tiles, blue sky and continuous landscape but also the repetition of the architectural arch motif and the balustrade with tracery at the top of the image.
Although the design is continuous, the characters depicted on the inner left and right-hand panels are not quite in the same picture space as the central group, though they share the architectural setting. This is because, most unusually, the side-panels are unframed, and there is a frame around the central panel. [4]
Iconography
When the triptych panels are closed Adam and Eve, subjects of “The Original Sin” are portrayed on the outer left hand (Adam) and right hand (Eve) panels of the triptych. When the triptych panels are opened images immediately recognizable to anyone viewing this in the 16th century showing the enthroned Virgin Mary accompanied with the Christ child and two angels. On the inner left-hand panel John the Baptist with his attribute of a lamb and on the inner right-hand panel John the Evangelist with his of a chalice. The columns in the center image also host portrayals of figures painted as if sculpture on the capitals: on the left a man with a sword raised to decapitate a character and another man above the capital on the right column a character who has just decapitated the head of a character. These images are depicting sacrifice: Abraham being stopped by an angel before sacrificing his only son Jacob on the left and on the right, Jephthah (“the fool”) who sacrificed his daughter because of a promise to sacrifice the first person he saw when he returned to his city, despite being saddened to be greeted by his own daughter upon that return. “Sacrifice and Salvation” are portrayed by the open prospect of the triptych.
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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.
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The Beaune Altarpiece is a large polyptych c. 1445–1450 altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, painted in oil on oak panels with parts later transferred to canvas. It consists of fifteen paintings on nine panels, of which six are painted on both sides. Unusually for the period, it retains some of its original frames.
The Master of Frankfurt was a Flemish Renaissance painter active in Antwerp between about 1480 and 1520. Although he probably never visited Frankfurt am Main, his name derives from two paintings commissioned from patrons in that city, the Holy Kinship in the Frankfurt Historical Museum and a Crucifixion in the Städel museum.
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The Miraflores Altarpiece is a c. 1442-5 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin since 1850. The three panels are each 71 x 43 cm and show, from left to right, a portrait of the Holy Family, a Pietà and Christ's appearance to Mary—a chronological reading of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, with Mary the focus of both wings. The altarpiece examines Mary's relationship with Christ at different stages of his life. It is notable for its use of colour, distinguished by its use of whites, reds and blues, and use of line—notably the line of Christ's body in the central panel—and, typically of van der Weyden, its emotional impact.
Triptych of the Sedano family is an oil-on-panel triptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Gerard David, usually dated between 1490 and 1498, probably c. 1495. It is noted for its innovative framing and for its rendering of the decorative oriental carpet seen at Mary's feet.
The Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi was a Netherlandish painter active between c. 1475 and 1500 whose identity is now lost. He is thought to have originated from the southern Netherlands and is known for his vibrant colourisation in panels depicting scenes from the infancy of Christ, he is thought to have been a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden, and is named after a copy of the "Adoration of the Magi" panel from that painter's St Columba Altarpiece. Although the Magi became a popular topic for northern painters in the second half of the 15th century and the Columba altarpiece was widely copied, the master is associated with van der Weyden's workshop because the copy is so close, it is believed he must have had access to a reproduction of the underdrawing.
The Nativity is a devotional mid-1450s oil-on-wood panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It shows a nativity scene with grisaille archways and trompe-l'œil sculptured reliefs. Christus was influenced by the first generation of Netherlandish artists, especially Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and the panel is characteristic of the simplicity and naturalism of art of that period. Placing archways as a framing device is a typical van der Weyden device, and here likely borrowed from that artist's Altar of Saint John and Miraflores Altarpiece. Yet Christus adapts these painterly motifs to a uniquely mid-15th century sensibility, and the unusually large panel – perhaps painted as a central altarpiece panel for a triptych – is nuanced and visually complex. It shows his usual harmonious composition and employment of one-point-perspective, especially evident in the geometric forms of the shed's roof, and his bold use of color. It is one of Christus's most important works. Max Friedländer definitely attributed the panel to Christus in 1930, concluding that "in scope and importance, [it] is superior to all other known creations of this master."
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The Master of Delft was a Dutch painter of the final period of Early Netherlandish painting, whose name is unknown. He may have been born around 1470. The notname was first used in 1913 by Max Jakob Friedländer, in describing the wings of a Triptych with the Virgin and Child with St Anne with the central panel by the Master of Frankfurt, which is now in Aachen. This has donor portraits of an identifiable family from Delft, that of the Burgomaster of Delft, Dirck Dircksz van Beest Heemskerck (1463–1545), with his wife and children.
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The Seilern Triptych, variously dated c. 1410-15 or c. 1420–25, is a large oil and gold leaf on panel, fixed winged triptych altarpiece generally attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin. It is the earliest of two known triptychs attributed to him, although the outer wing panels paintings are lost. The work details the events of Christ's passion; with iconography associated with the liturgy of Holy Week. The panels, which should be read from left to right, detail three stations of the cycle of the Passion of Jesus; the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection.
The Pagagnotti Triptych is an oil-on-wood triptych by Hans Memling produced circa 1480. The original was disassembled and separated, with the center panel held at the Uffizi gallery in Florence and the two wing panels at the National Gallery in London.
