Moreel Triptych

Last updated December 13, 2024

The Moreel Triptych (or the Saint Christopher Altarpiece) is the name given to a 1484 panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling (d. 1494). It was commissioned by the prominent Bruges politician, merchant and banker Willem Moreel (d. 1501) and his wife Barbara van Vlaenderberch, née van Hertsvelde (d. 1499). It was intended as their epitaph at the chapel^[1] of the St. James's Church, Bruges, an extension they had paid for.

The inner centre panel of the triptych altarpiece shows Saint Christopher holding the Christ Child, with Saint Maurus to his left and Saint Gills to his right. In the left-hand panel, Willem Moreel kneels in prayer and venerates the saints with their five sons. Barbara kneels with eleven of their daughters on the right panel. The exterior panels are probably an early 16th-century addition, completed after the donor's and artist's deaths.

The triptych was installed on the altar of St. James's Church in 1484.^[2] It is in its original frames, which are each inscribed with the words anno Domini 1484, or a variant containing the year, on their lower borders.^[3] The altarpiece has a strong association with the Benedictine order; three of the figures are Benedictine monks or saints.^[4] It is dedicated to Saint Maurus and St Giles, the latter a Benedictine hermit. Today the work is located in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges.

Commission

The family of Willem Moreel are known to have lived in Bruges since the 13th century.^[5] Willem inherited land and the title "lord of Oostcleyhem" from his father. During his career, he was twice appointed both alderman and burgomaster of the city, as well as its bailiff and later its treasurer. He was named one of the fortieth richest men in the city in a 1490 tax list. The couple has eighteen children. Memling earlier portrayed the couple in 1482, with a pair of panel portraits now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

Saint James's Church was his family's burial ground and was founded in the 12th century.^[1] It underwent a major reconstruction in the late 15th century, which Willem Moreel partly financed along with members of the prominent Portinari, Gros and Moor families.^[6] The couple intended to be buried in the church building, in a chapel they had paid for and dedicated to saints Gills and Maurus, with space left before the altar as burial space for two people. To the same end, they commissioned the triptych from Memling, then a highly prominent, prestigious and sought-after painter, to be placed on the chapel altar, and only interred in the chapel in 1504, at the request of their son John.^[6] Barbara died in 1499, he followed in 1501.^[6]

The Moreels did not at first get their wishes as to their burial places. Their standing and political security was hampered by the struggles after the deaths of Charles the Bold in 1477 and Mary of Burgundy in 1482 and the struggle with Maximilian of Austria. Willem was a prominent adversary of Maximilian and was imprisoned in October 1481 for six months.^[7] On their deaths, they were each buried on exterior church grounds.^[6] They were not moved to their intended resting places in front of the chapel altar until 1504.

Interior

The inner panels share a continuous overcast skyline and broad landscape,^[3] which contains two city-scapes, cottages and a meadow with a variety of trees, animals and wild strawberries, daisies, daffodils and other recognisable flowers and plants.^[8] Adding to the sense of harmony, both wing panels are identically composed, excepting the number of children.^[9] Sixteen of the couple's eighteen children are shown in total. However, some of the figures are later additions, painted over the first layers of oil and pigment.^[2]

The figures were identified in the mid-19th century by James H. Weale through their facial characteristics and extant established portraits, through the commonality of Christian names from family names to some of the saints, city records, and the examination of headstones in the Saint James graveyard.^[7]

The inner panels are in relatively good condition for late 15th-century oil paintings but have suffered some damage and paint loss and have been depreciated by ill-advised restorations and touch-up work.^[8]

Center panel

The central figure is Saint Christopher, patron saint of travellers, who shares his feast day, July 25, with Saint James, after whom the containing church is named.^[1] He is shown standing in water as he crosses a river or inlet, carrying the Child Jesus on his shoulders. He is presented with his attributes, including a large staff, a symbol of Christ's miraculous presence,^[4] and is intended as a protector against sudden death.^[10] Christopher is dressed in a blue coat, covered with a long red cape folded over his right shoulder. He closely resembles depictions in both Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and now lost Saint Christopher , by whom Memling was deeply influenced by.^[11]

On the left is Saint Maurus, who holds a crosier and looks at an open book. Saint Giles stands to the right, standing with his attributes, an arrow and a doe.^[3] Both are dressed in long black robes and are holding books.

Left panel

The left interior wing shows Willem Moreel kneeling, his hands clasped in prayer, before an open prayer book. His hair is short in a bowl cut,^[8] wears a fur-lined dress and black doublet, a very fashionable outfit in the 1480s. Behind him are his five male children, who are also shown kneeling. Of the sons, two are known to have died in infancy. Willem was the oldest, while John and George are thought to have commissioned the outer panels after their parents' death (see below).

The Moreels are presented by Saint Wilhemus van Maleval,^[10] who stands among them, dressed in a fur-lined black coat over army clothing.^[8] He places his hand on Willem's shoulder as he guides and presents him to Christopher in the centre panel.^[2]

Right panel

The right interior wing presents Barbara Moreel with eleven of her thirteen daughters,^[9] who all also kneel in prayer before an open book. Barbara wears a truncated hennin, a damask silk dress with a white collar, and a wide red belt with a golden buckle. They are presented by Saint Barbara, patron of the donor's wife,^[12] who is shown standing before the tower where she was, by legend, imprisoned, which through innovative use of perspective, she seems to hold in her hand.^[8]

One of the daughters, Catherine, earlier posed for Memling's 1480 Sibylla Sambetha .^[8] The eldest daughter, shown directly behind Barbra, and also in a black dress, is known to have become a Dominican nun. The girl in the light brown clothing, black v-neck and transparent veil has been identified as Maria from her name written in her headband, their second-born daughter, given her linear position in the painting. Genealogical research notes that the couple has two daughters named Marie, but it is assumed one died in infancy, and the second was named after her. Efforts to name other of the daughters have been unsuccessful.^[13]

Not all of the daughters were painted by Memling; examination by the art historian Dirk De Vos identifies at least six that are later additions layered over the original landscape. Some of these additions can be explained by daughters born after the 1484 completion date and were probably added by members of Memling's workshop. The left-hand panel containing sons underwent a similar update.^[13]

Exterior

The outer part of the wings contains grisaille representations of John the Baptist with his lamb and staff (left wing) and Saint George in full armour, slaying the dragon (right wing) with a lance. The panels may have been completed after the deaths of Willem and Barbara, and dated as c 1504 by a number of art historians, probably commissioned by two of their sons,^{[note 1]} Jan (John) and Jaris (George), as the final, successful, effort to have their parents interred within the chapel space.^[14]

Notes

↑ Shirley Blum considers this "highly likely".^[14]

Related Research Articles

Hans Memling was a German-Flemish painter who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. Born in the Middle Rhine region, he probably spent his childhood in Mainz. During his apprenticeship as a painter he moved to the Netherlands and spent time in the Brussels workshop of Rogier van der Weyden. In 1465 he was made a citizen of Bruges, where he became one of the leading artists and the master of a large workshop. A tax document from 1480 lists him among the wealthiest citizens. Memling's religious works often incorporated donor portraits of the clergymen, aristocrats, and burghers who were his patrons. These portraits built upon the styles which Memling learned in his youth.

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.

The Portinari Altarpiece or Portinari Triptych is an oil-on-wood triptych painting by the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes, commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, representing the Adoration of the Shepherds. It measures 253 x 304 cm, and is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy. This altarpiece is filled with figures and religious symbols. Of all the late-fifteenth-century Flemish artworks, this painting is said to be the most studied.

The Beaune Altarpiece is a large polyptych c. 1443–1451 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.

A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or her, family. Donor portrait usually refers to the portrait or portraits of donors alone, as a section of a larger work, whereas votive portrait may often refer to a whole work of art intended as an ex-voto, including for example a Madonna, especially if the donor is very prominent. The terms are not used very consistently by art historians, as Angela Marisol Roberts points out, and may also be used for smaller religious subjects that were probably made to be retained by the commissioner rather than donated to a church.

The Donne Triptych is a hinged-triptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling. The painting was created around 1478 for the soldier, courtier and diplomat Sir John Donne. The triptych comprises three panels that include five individual paintings. The central interior panel depicts the Virgin and Child, donor portraits of Sir John Donne, the patron, along with his wife and daughter, as well as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Barbra, The two double-sided wings include images of Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist on the interior sides of the wings, and Saint Christopher and Saint Anthony Abbot on the two exteriors of the wings.

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 Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-oak panel painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within an apparition of saints. The Virgin Mary is enthroned at the centre of the semicircular space, which most likely represents a church interior, with the Christ Child on her lap. St. Donatian stands to her right, Saint George—the donor's name saint—to her left. The panel was commissioned by van der Paele as an altarpiece. He was then a wealthy clergyman from Bruges, but elderly and gravely ill, and intended the work as his memorial.

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.

Sibylla Sambetha is a small oil on oak panel painting by Hans Memling, completed in 1480 and still in its original frame. It is now in the Hans Memling museum at the Old St. John's Hospital in Bruges and shows a young woman who is not pretty, but nonetheless elegant and well dressed. She is set against a black background and looks out of the picture as if she is at a window. Her hands are folded and rest on the lower border of the brown marbled frame, in an early and effective example of trompe-l'œil.

The St John Altarpiece is a large oil-on-oak hinged-triptych altarpiece completed around 1479 by the Early Netherlandish master painter Hans Memling. It was commissioned in the mid-1470s in Bruges for the Old St. John's Hospital (Sint-Janshospitaal) during the building of a new apse. It is signed and dated 1479 on the original frame – its date of installation – and is today still at the hospital in the Memling museum.

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine is a c. 1480 oil-on-oak painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Virgin Mary sits on a throne in a garden holding the Child Jesus in her lap. Mother and child are flanked by angels playing musical instruments, with St Catherine of Alexandria to the left opposite St Barbara on the right. The male figure standing slightly behind the celestial group presumably commissioned the painting as a devotional donor portrait.

The Annunciation is an oil painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling. It depicts the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, described in the Gospel of Luke. The painting was executed in the 1480s and was transferred to canvas from its original oak panel sometime after 1928; it is today held in the Robert Lehman collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Saint Columba Altarpiece is a large c. 1450–1455 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden painted during his late period. It was commissioned for the church of St. Columba in Cologne, and is now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. It depict scenes from the early life of Jesus. They show, from left to right, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation, when she presents the infant at the Temple in Jerusalem. In each panel, Mary is distinguished by her blue clothes. The reverse of the exterior panels are covered with plain paint and lack indication that they ever contained donor portraits as were typical for the time.

Portrait of Maria Portinari is a small c. 1470–72 painting by Hans Memling in tempera and oil on oak panel. It portrays Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, about whom very little is known. She is about 14 years old, and depicted shortly before her wedding to the Italian banker, Tommaso Portinari. Maria is dressed in the height of late fifteenth-century fashion, with a long black hennin with a transparent veil and an elaborate jewel-studded necklace. Her headdress is similar and a necklace identical to those in her depiction in Hugo van der Goes's later Portinari Altarpiece, a painting that may have been partly based on Memling's portrait.

Bathsheba are names given to a c 1480 oil on wood panel painting by the Early Netherlandish artist Hans Memling, now in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. Its unusually close framing and the fact that many of the details are cut off suggests that it is a fragment of a larger, probably religious, panel or triptych that was broken up. The painting is noted for being a rare 15th century depiction of a nude person in Northern Renaissance art; such figures typically only appeared in representations of the Last Judgement, and were hardly as deliberately erotic. Memling is attributed one other secular nude portrait, in the center panel of his c. 1485 Vanitas allegory Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. As opposed to Bathsheba, that nude is fully exposed, with visible genitalia.

<i>Seilern Triptych</i> Painting attributed to Robert Campin

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 Bladelin Altarpiece, or Middelburg Altarpiece, is a triptych painting created around 1450 by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, towards the end of his artistic career. It depicts scenes relating to the birth of Jesus; and as the only nativity scene definitively attributed to van der Weyden is sometimes known as the Nativity Triptych.

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.

References

Citations

1 2 3 Blum, 100
1 2 3 Pearson, Andrea. Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional Art, 1350–1530. Ashgate, 2005. ISBN 978-07-5465-154-3
1 2 3 Ridderbos et al., 352
1 2 Blum, 101
↑ Blum, 97
1 2 3 4 Blum, 98
1 2 Ridderbos et al., 356
1 2 3 4 5 6 Michiels, 141
1 2 3 Jacobs, 163
1 2 "Moreel Triptych". Flemish Art Collection. Retrieved 16 November 2017
↑ "The Paintings". Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Retrieved 16 November 2017
↑ Ridderbos et al., 355
1 2 Ridderbos et al, 360
1 2 Blum, 102

Sources

Ainsworth, Maryan. Hans Memling as a Draughtsman, in Hans Memling: Essays (ed. Dirk De Vos). Ghent, 1994. ISBN 978-90-5544-030-6
Blum, Shirley Neilsen. "Early Netherlandish Triptychs: A Study in Patronage". Speculum, Volume 47, No. 2, April 1972
Jacobs, Lynn. Opening Doors: The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011. ISBN 0-271-04840-9
Michiels, Albert. Hans Memling. Parkstone, 2008. ASIN B0084FABCA
Ridderbos, Bernhard; Van Buren, Anne; Van Veen, Henk. Early Netherlandish Paintings: Rediscovery, Reception and Research. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-89236-816-0

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[15] Shirley Blum considers this "highly likely".^[14]

[b100-1] 1 2 3 Blum, 100

[ap-2] 1 2 3 Pearson, Andrea. Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional Art, 1350–1530. Ashgate, 2005. ISBN 978-07-5465-154-3

[r352-3] 1 2 3 Ridderbos et al., 352

[b101-4] 1 2 Blum, 101

[b97-5] Blum, 97

[b98-6] 1 2 3 4 Blum, 98

[r356-7] 1 2 Ridderbos et al., 356

[m141-8] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Michiels, 141

[j163-9] 1 2 3 Jacobs, 163

[vp-10] 1 2 "Moreel Triptych". Flemish Art Collection. Retrieved 16 November 2017

[11] "The Paintings". Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Retrieved 16 November 2017

[r355-12] Ridderbos et al., 355

[r360-13] 1 2 Ridderbos et al, 360

[b102-14] 1 2 Blum, 102

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v t e Hans Memling
Individual religious panels	Virgin and Child Enthroned with two Musical Angels , c. 1467 Scenes from the Passion of Christ , c. 1470 Adoration of the Magi , c. 1471 Mater Dolorosa , c. 1475 Madonna and Child with Angels , c. 1479 Allegory with a Virgin , c. 1479–1480 Advent and Triumph of Christ , c. 1480 Mater Dolorosa , c. 1480 Mystic Marriage of St Catherine , c. 1480 Angel Musicians , 1480s Pagagnotti Triptych , c. 1480 Christ Surrounded by Musician Angels , c. 1480s Annunciation , 1480s Adam and Eve , c. 1485 Bathsheba , c. 1485 Madonna and Child with Saint James and Saint Dominic , c. 1485
Polyptychs	Last Judgment , c. 1467–1471 Diptych of an elderly couple , c. 1470–1472 Diptych of Jean de Cellier , c. 1475 Jan Floreins Altarpiece , 1479 St John Altarpiece , 1479 Adoration of the Magi , c. 1479–1480 Adriaan Reins Altarpiece , 1480 Donne Triptych , c. 1480 Moreel Triptych , 1484 Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation , c. 1485 Benedetto Portinari Triptych , 1487 Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove , 1487 St. Ursula Shrine , c. 1489 Christ Surrounded by Singing and Music-making Angels , c. 1483–1494
Portraits	Portrait of a Man in a Red Hat,c. 1465–1470 Portrait of a Man , c. 1470–1472 Portrait of Tommaso Portinari , c. 1470–1472 Portrait of Maria Portinari , c. 1470–1472 Portrait of an Elderly Man , c. 1470–1475 Portrait of an Elderly Woman , c. 1470–1475 Portrait of a Man with a Pink Carnation , 1475 Portrait of Benedetto Portinari , 1478 Portrait of Willem Morell , c. 1480 Portrait of a Man with a Roman Medal , c. 1480 Portrait of Barbara van Vlaendenbergh , c. 1480 Sibylla Sambetha , c. 1480 Portrait of Folco Portinari , c. 1490