Rogier van der Weyden, The Magdalen Reading, 62.2 cm × 54.4 cm (24.5 in × 21.4 in). c. 1435–1438. Oil on mahogany, transferred from another panel. National Gallery, London.
The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panelaltarpiece 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.[2] 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[3] 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.
The background of the painting had been overpainted with a thick layer of brown paint. A cleaning between 1955 and 1956 revealed the figure standing behind the Magdalene and the kneeling figure with its bare foot protruding in front of her, with a landscape visible through a window. The two partially seen figures are both cut off at the edges of the London panel. The figure above her has been identified as belonging to a fragment in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, which shows the head of Saint Joseph, while another Lisbon fragment, showing what is believed to be Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is thought to be from the same larger work.[4] The original altarpiece was a sacra conversazione,[5][6] known only through a drawing, Virgin and Child with Saints, in Stockholm's Nationalmuseum, which followed a partial copy of the painting that probably dated from the late 16th century. The drawing shows that The Magdalen occupied the lower right-hand corner of the altarpiece. The Lisbon fragments are each a third of the size of The Magdalen, which measures 62.2cm ×54.4cm (24.5in ×21.4in).
Although internationally successful in his lifetime, van der Weyden fell from view during the 17th century, and was not rediscovered until the early 19th century. The Magdalen Reading can first be traced to an 1811 sale. After passing through the hands of a number of dealers in the Netherlands, the panel was purchased by the National Gallery, London, in 1860 from a collector in Paris. It is described by art historian Lorne Campbell as "one of the great masterpieces of 15th-century art and among van der Weyden's most important early works."[7]
Description
Detail showing the face and veil of Mary Magdalene painted in pure whites. The eyebrows and eyelids have been plucked in accordance with conventional ideals of beauty at the time.
Mary Magdalene as depicted in early Renaissance painting is a composite of various biblical figures. Here, she is based on Mary of Bethany, who is identified as the Magdalene in the Roman Catholic tradition. Mary of Bethany sat at Jesus' feet and "listened to His Word", and thus is seen as a contemplative figure. The counterpoint is Mary's sister Martha who, representative of the active life, wished that Mary would help her serve.[9] Mary is shown by van der Weyden as youthful, sitting in quiet piety with her head tilted and eyes modestly averted from the viewer. She is absorbed in her reading of a holy book, the covers of which include a chemise of white cloth, a common form of protective binding. Four coloured cloth bookmarks are tied to a gold bar near the top of the spine. According to Lorne Campbell, the manuscript "looks rather like a 13th-century French Bible" and is "clearly a devotional text".[10] It was rare for contemporary portraits to show women reading, and if the model herself could read then she was likely from a noble family.[11]
Van der Weyden often linked form and meaning, and in this fragment the semicircular outline of the Magdalene reinforces her quiet detachment from her surroundings.[9] She is seated on a red cushion and rests her back against a wooden sideboard. By her feet is her usual attribute of an alabaster jar; in the Gospels she brought spices to the tomb of Jesus.[12] The view through the window is of a distant canal, with an archer atop the garden wall and a figure walking on the other side of the water, whose reflection shows in the water.[13]
Detail showing the prayer book, likely a book of hours, decorated with white cloth and gold clasps.
Van der Weyden's pose for the Magdalene is similar to a number of female religious figures painted by his master Robert Campin or his workshop.[14] It closely resembles, in theme and tone, the figure of Saint Barbara in Campin's Werl Altarpiece,[14] and also the Virgin in an Annunciation attributed to Campin in Brussels.[15] Typically for a van der Weyden, the Magdalen's face has an almost sculpted look, and the elements of her clothes are conveyed in minute detail. She wears a green robe; in medieval art the Magdalene is usually depicted naked (sometimes clad only in her long hair) or in richly coloured dress, typically red, blue or green, almost never in white.[16] Her robe is tightly pulled below her bust by a blue sash, while the gold brocade of her underskirt is adorned by a jewelled hem.[11] Art critic Charles Darwent observed that the Magdalen's past as a "fallen woman" is hinted at by the nap in the fur lining of her dress and the few strands of hair loose from her veil. Darwent wrote, "Even her fingers, absent-mindedly circled, suggest completeness. In her mix of purity and eroticism, van der Weyden's Magdalen feels whole; but she isn't."[17] In the medieval period, fur symbolized female sexuality and was commonly associated with the Magdalene. Medieval historian Philip Crispin explains that artists such as Memling and Matsys often portrayed the Magdalen in furs and notes that she "is noticeably dressed in fur-lined garments in The Magdalen Reading by Rogier van der Weyden".[18]
Detail showing the jar and row of nails on the timber floor at the lower right corner of the panel. Note the attention paid to the gilded clasp and fall of the shadow.
The level of detail used in portraying the Magdalene has been described by Campbell as "far exceed[ing]" van Eyck. Her lips are painted with a shades of vermilion, white and red which are mixed into each other to give a transparent look at the edges. The fur lining of her dress is painted in a range of greys running from almost pure white to pure black. Rogier gave the fur a textured look by painting stripes parallel to the line of the dress and then feathering the paint before it dried. The gold on the cloth is rendered with a variety of impasto, grid and dots of varying colour and size.[19]
Many of the objects around her are also closely detailed, in particular the wooden floor and nails, the folds of the Magdalene's dress, the costume of the figures in the exterior and the beads of Joseph's rosary.[9][13] The effect of falling light is closely studied; Joseph's crystal rosary beads have bright highlights, while subtle delineations of light and shade can be seen in the sideboard's tracery and in the clasps of her book. Mary is absorbed in her reading and seemingly unaware of her surroundings. Van der Weyden has given her a quiet dignity although he is generally seen as the more emotional of the master Netherlandish painters of the era, in particular when contrasted with Jan van Eyck.[13]
Lorne Campbell describes the tiny figure of the woman seen through the window and her reflection in the water as "small miracles of painting", and says that "the attention to detail far exceeds that of Jan van Eyck and the skill of execution is astounding". He notes that these tiny details would have been impossible for a viewer to observe when the altarpiece was in its intended position.[20] Other areas of the panel, however, have been described as dull and uninspired. One critic wrote that the areas of the floor and most of the cupboard behind her seem unfinished and "much too narrow and papery in effect".[17] A number of objects placed on the cupboard are now barely visible save for their bases.[21] The object on the right seated on legs alongside a box is likely a small pitcher, possibly a reliquary. A moulding to the left of the cupboard may represent a doorway.[22]
Altarpiece fragment
Head of Saint Joseph (fragment). 21cm ×18cm (8.3in ×7.1in). Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon. This panel is thought to show Saint Joseph, whose body is visible to his upper arm in The Magdalen Reading.
Virgin and Child with Saints,[23] a drawing in Stockholm's Nationalmuseum, is believed to be a study of a portion of the original altarpiece by a follower of van der Weyden,[24] who possibly may have been the Master of the Coburger Rundblätter. The drawing has a loosely sketched background and shows, from left to right: an unidentified bishop saint with mitre and crosier making a blessing gesture; a narrow gap with a few wavy vertical lines suggesting a start at the outline of a further kneeling figure; a barefoot bearded figure in a rough robe identified as Saint John the Baptist; a seated Virgin holding on her lap the Christ Child who leans to the right, looking at a book; and holding the book, a kneeling beardless male identified as John the Evangelist. The drawing stops at the end of John's robe, at about the point on the London panel where Joseph's walking stick meets John and the Magdalene's robes.[24] This suggests that the Magdalene panel was the first to be cut from the larger work.
Head of a Female Saint (Saint Catherine?) (fragment). 21cm ×18cm (8.3in ×7.1in). Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon. A possible representation of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, it is of lower quality than the other two known fragments, indicating that it was probably completed by members of van der Weyden's workshop.
At an unknown point before 1811, the original altarpiece was broken into at least three pieces,[25] possibly due to damage, although The Magdalen fragment is in good condition. The black overpaint was likely added after the early 17th century when Netherlandish painting had fallen from favour and was unfashionable. Campbell believes that after the removal of the background detail "it looked sufficiently like a genre piece to hang in a well-known collection of Dutch seventeenth-century paintings".[7] From the size of three surviving panels in relation to the drawing, it is estimated that the original was at least 1m high by 1.5m wide; the bishop and the Magdalene seem to clearly mark the horizontal extremities, but the extent of the picture above and below the surviving elements and the drawing cannot be judged. This size is comparable with smaller altarpieces of the period.[24] The background was overpainted with a thick layer of black/brown pigment until it was cleaned in 1955; it was only after the layer's removal that it was linked to the upper body and head of Joseph from the Lisbon piece. These two works were not recorded in inventory until 1907, when they appear in the collection of Léo Lardus in Suresnes, France.[23]
The London panel shows much of the clothing of two other figures from the original altarpiece. To the left of the Magdalene is the red robe of what appears to be a kneeling figure. The figure and robe, and less precisely the background, match a kneeling Saint John the Evangelist.[23] Behind the Magdalen is a standing figure in blue and red robes, with linear rosary beads in one hand[26] and a walking stick in the other. A panel at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon shows the head of a figure believed to be the Saint Joseph; the background and clothes match with those of the figure behind the Magdalen on the London panel.[23]
Cropped 1930s black and white photograph of the panel before it was cleaned of the overpaint. The reasons for the overpainting and the breaking up of the altarpiece are unknown.
There is a further small panel in Lisbon of a female head, richly or royally dressed, which first appeared in 1907 with the Joseph panel when it was recorded in the inventory of Leo Nardus at Suresnes. The figure may represent Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and from both the angle of her cloth and the fact that the river behind her would be parallel to that in the exterior of the London panel it can be assumed that she was kneeling.[28] In the Stockholm drawing she is omitted, or only traces of her dress shown. The Joseph panel has a sliver of a view through a window to an exterior scene; if the other female is presumed to be kneeling, the trees above the waterway aligns with those in the London panel.[24] Some art historians, including Martin Davies and John Ward,[29] have been slow to allow the Catherine panel as part of the altarpiece, though it is undoubtedly by van der Weyden or a near-contemporary follower. Evidence against this link includes the fact that the moulding of the window to the left of the Gulbenkian female saint is plain, while that next to Saint Joseph is chamfered. Such an inconsistency in a single van der Weyden work is unusual. The panels are of equal thickness (1.3cm) and of near-identical size; the Saint Catherine panel measures 18.6cm ×21.7cm (7.3in ×8.5in), the Saint Joseph 18.2cm ×21cm (7.2in ×8.3in).[30]
Lorne Campbell thinks that though the Catherine head is "obviously less well drawn and less successfully painted than the Magdalen",[19] it "seems likely" that all three fragments came from the same original work; he points out that "about half way up the right edge of this fragment ["Catherine"] is a small triangle of red, outlined by a continuous underdrawn brushstroke... It is likely that the red is part of the contour of the missing figure of the Baptist".[24] The small piece is on the outermost edge of the panel, and only visible when it was removed from the frame. Ward believes the piece corresponds directly with the folds of John's robes.[30]
The Stockholm drawing contains a narrow blank gap to the right of the bishop with a few indistinct lines that could represent the lower profile of the kneeling figure of Saint Catherine. Although none of the faces in the three surviving panels match any in the drawing, a 1971 reconstruction by art historian John Ward—which combined all of the works into a composition of a central Virgin and Child flanked by six saints—is widely accepted. The Stockholm drawing's original location or history before the 19th century is unknown, except that the verso shows a surviving carving of the Virgin and Child attributed to a Brussels workshop from about 1440. This carving is also now in Portugal.[31]
Van der Weyden's depiction of the Magdalen is based on Mary of Bethany,[9][33] identified by the time of Pope Gregory I as the repentant prostitute of Luke 7:36–50.[34] She then became associated with weeping and reading: Christ's mercy causes the eyes of the sinner to be contrite or tearful. Early Renaissance artists often conveyed this idea by portraying contemplative eyes, associating tears with words, and in turn weeping with reading. Examples can be seen in 16th-century works by Tintoretto and Titian which show the Magdalen reading, often with her eyes averted towards her book (and presumably away from a male gaze), or looking up to the heavens or, sometimes, glancing coyly towards the viewer.[35] Writing in "The Crying Face", Mosche Barasch explains that in van der Weyden's time the gesture of averting or concealing the eyes became a "pictorial formula for crying".[36]
By the medieval period, reading became synonymous with devotion, which involved withdrawal from public view. Van der Weyden's placement of the Magdalen in an interior scene reflects the increasing literacy of domestic or laywomen in the mid-15th century. The increased production of devotional texts showed that noble women of the period routinely read texts such as a psalter or book of hours in the privacy of their homes.[37] Whether the Magdalen herself was a reader, by the 17th century she was firmly established as such in the visual arts. Because the Magdalen was present at Christ's death and subsequent resurrection, she was seen as the bearer of news—a witness—and hence directly associated with the text.[38]
The Magdalen imagery further draws on the idea of Christ as the word, represented by a book, with the Magdalen as the reader learning of her own life story in a moment of reflection and repentance. Her devotion to reading reflects her traditional status as the piously repentant harlot, as well as a prophetess or seer.[35] According to legend, the Magdalen lived the last 30 years of her life as a hermit in Sainte-Baume and is often shown with a book, reading or writing, symbolizing her later years of contemplation and repentance.[39] By the 13th century she acquired the imagery of a once-shamed woman who, clothed in long hair, now hid her nakedness in exile and "borne by angels, floats between heaven and earth".[40]
The Magdalen's ointment jar was common in the lexicon of art in van der Weyden's period. Mary of Bethany may have used a jar when she repented of her sins at Christ's feet in her home; by the Renaissance, the image of the Magdalen was of the woman who bathed Christ's feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.[41] She signified the "sacrament of anointing (Chrism and Unction)" by pouring precious spikenard on Christ's feet at his tomb.[42]
Dating and provenance
The Stockholm drawing, attributed to the Master of the Coburger Rundblätter, likely shows the portion of the altarpiece to the left of the Magdalen. The kneeling figure to the far right is probably Saint John the Evangelist, some of whose red drapery can be seen in the London fragment. Mary's position on the lower right hand corner (out of view) is guessed at by Ward from van der Weyden's positioning of similar figures in other works.
The altarpiece's date is uncertain but believed to be between 1435 and 1438. Van der Weyden was made painter to the city of Brussels in 1435, and it is believed to have been painted after this appointment. The National Gallery gives "before 1438".[45] Art historian John Ward notes that the altarpiece was one of van der Weyden's first masterpieces, created early in his career when he was still heavily influenced by Robert Campin.[22] He proposes a c. 1437 date based on similarities to Campin's Werl Altarpiece.[46]
Because van der Weyden, like most of the early Netherlandish painters, was not rediscovered until the early 19th century, many of his works were wrongly attributed or dated, and major pieces such as the Berlin Miraflores Altarpiece continue to emerge. Conversely, when a number of pieces considered either by van der Weyden or assistants under his supervision were cleaned in the mid- to late 20th century, his hand or direct influence was disproved,[47] or in the case of the Magdalen, associated with other images whose attribution had been uncertain.
The Magdalen Reading can first be traced to an 1811 sale of the estate of Cassino, a little-known collector in Haarlem,[48] when the work was already cut down.[17] The painting is recorded in the inventory of Demoiselles Hoofman, also of Haarlem.[49] After passing to the Nieuwenhuys brothers, who were leading dealers in art of the early Netherlandish period, it moved to the collector Edmond Beaucousin[49] in Paris, whose "small but choice" collection of early Netherlandish paintings was purchased for the National Gallery, London by Charles Lock Eastlake in 1860; an acquisition that also included two Robert Campin portraits and panels by Simon Marmion (1425–1489).[50][51] This was during a period of acquisition intended to establish the international prestige of the gallery.[50] Probably before 1811, all the background except the red robe on the left and the alabaster jar and floorboards was overpainted in plain brown, which was not removed until the cleaning begun in 1955.[52] In general the "painted surface is in very good condition", although better in the parts that were not overpainted, and there are a few small losses.[53]
The Magdalen Reading was transferred from its original oak to a mahogany panel (West Indian swietenia)[54] by unknown craftsmen sometime between 1828 and when the National Gallery acquired it in 1860. Campbell states that the transfer was "Certainly after 1828, probably after 1845, and certainly before 1860", the year it was acquired by the National Gallery.[53] Artificial ultramarine-coloured paint found in the transfer ground indicates that the change of panel took place after 1830.[55] The heads in Lisbon are still on their original oak panels.[56] The Stockholm drawing was discovered in a German inventory c. 1916 and is likely of Swedish origin.[57] It was bequeathed by a Norwegian collector, Christian Langaad, to the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts in 1918.[23]
Gallery
Partial reconstruction of the larger painting with Catherine, Joseph and Mary Magdalen
Saint Barbara from the right hand wing of Robert Campin'sWerl Altarpiece, 1438. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Campin was master to van der Weyden and strongly influenced his work. Note how, as with van der Weyden's image, the only movement in this very still image is the turning page
Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden, c. 1440/1460. Master of Flémalle or Workshop of Robert Campin. National Gallery of Art, D.C.[58] Campin's influence is seen in the seated, reading St. Catherine, the heavy folds of her dress, and the enclosed garden (domestic interior) itself.[59]
Detail from Descent from the Cross depicting Mary Magdelen. The altarpiece was completed a year or two before The Magdalen Reading.[60]
The Durán Madonna is believed to have been completed around the same time as The Magdelen Reading.
Ambrosius Benson, The Magdalen Reading, c 1525. This work shares van der Weyden's emphasis on the volume and bulk of her book, and similarly concentrates on her delicately rendered fingers.[61]
Rogier van der Weyden or Roger de la Pasture was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly successful in his lifetime; his paintings were exported to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and foreign princes. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the 200 years that followed; today he is known, with Robert Campin and van Eyck, as the third of the three great Early Flemish artists, and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.
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.
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 Mérode Altarpiece is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain, and the Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window.
The Master of the Legend of the Magdalen 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.
The Descent from the Cross is a panel painting by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created c. 1435, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. The crucified Christ is lowered from the cross, his lifeless body held by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
Portrait of a Lady is a small oil-on-oak panel painting executed around 1460 by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The composition is built from the geometric shapes that form the lines of the woman's veil, neckline, face, and arms, and by the fall of the light that illuminates her face and headdress. The vivid contrasts of darkness and light enhance the almost unnatural beauty and Gothic elegance of the model.
The Braque Triptych is a c. 1452 oil-on-oak altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. When open, its three half-length panels reveal, from left to right, John the Baptist, The Virgin Mary with Jesus and Saint John the Evangelist, and on the right, Mary Magdalene. When the wings are closed, the work shows a vanitas motif of a skull and cross.
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin is a large oil and tempera on oak panel painting, usually dated between 1435 and 1440, attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. Housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, it shows Luke the Evangelist, patron saint of artists, sketching the Virgin Mary as she nurses the Child Jesus. The figures are positioned in a bourgeois interior which leads out towards a courtyard, river, town and landscape. The enclosed garden, illusionistic carvings of Adam and Eve on the arms of Mary's throne, and attributes of St Luke are amongst the painting's many iconographic symbols.
The Entombment is a glue-size painting on linen attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Dieric Bouts. It shows a scene from the biblical entombment of Christ, and was probably completed between 1440 and 1455 as a wing panel for a large hinged polyptych. While the altarpiece remains lost as a complete set, it is thought to have contained a central crucifixion scene flanked by four wing panel works half its height – two on either side – depicting scenes from the life of Christ. The smaller flanking panels would have been paired in a format similar to Bouts's 1464–1468 Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament. The larger work was probably commissioned for export to Italy, possibly to a Venetian patron whose identity is lost. The Entombment was first recorded in a mid-19th-century inventory in Milan, and has been in the National Gallery, London, since its purchase on the Gallery's behalf by Charles Lock Eastlake in 1861.
The Werl Triptych is a triptych altarpiece completed in Cologne in 1438, of which the center panel has been lost. The two remaining wings are now in the Prado in Madrid. It was long attributed to the Master of Flémalle, now generally believed to have been Robert Campin, although this identity is not universally accepted. Some art historians believe it may have been painted as a pastiche by either the workshop or a follower of Campin or the Master of Flémalle.
The Lamentation of Christ is an oil-on-panel painting of the common subject of the Lamentation of Christ by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, dating from around 1460–1463 and now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
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.
Virgin and Child with Saints, is a large mid-15th century oil-on-oak altarpiece by the early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The work is lost since at least the 17th century, known only through three surviving fragments and drawing of the full work in Stockholm's Nationalmuseum by a follower of van der Weyden. The drawing is sometimes attributed to the Master of the Drapery Studies.
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.
Man of Sorrows is a small Early Netherlandish oil on wood panel painting completed c. 1485–1495. It is attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans and in the tradition of the devotional images of the "Man of Sorrows", which typically show Christ before his crucifixion, naked above the waist, bearing the wounds of his Passion. The panel has an unusually complex and suffocating spatial design, and depicts the mocking of Jesus, and his grieving mother. The panel is steeped in both complex iconography and deep pathos. Christ is in obvious pain and holds his wounds up for the viewer. He looks out while white robed weeping angels bear the Arma Christi -objects associated with his crucifixion and death- float around him. The attending saints include Mary and the Magdalene.
Durán Madonna is an oil on oak panel painting completed sometime between 1435 and 1438 by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The painting derives from Jan van Eyck's Ince Hall Madonna and was much imitated subsequently. Now in the Prado, Madrid, it depicts a seated and serene Virgin Mary dressed in a long, flowing red robe lined with gold-coloured thread. She cradles the child Jesus who sits on her lap, playfully leafing backwards through a holy book or manuscript on which both figures' gazes rest. But unlike van Eyck's earlier treatment, van der Weyden not only positions his Virgin and Child in a Gothic apse or niche as he had his two earlier madonnas, but also places them on a projecting plinth, thus further emphasising their sculptural impression.
The Virgin and Child Enthroned is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1433, usually attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. It is closely related to his Madonna Standing, completed during the same period. The panel is filled with Christian iconography, including representations of prophets, the Annunciation, Christ's infancy and resurrection, and Mary's Coronation. It is generally accepted as the earliest extant work by van der Weyden, one of three works attributed to him of the Virgin and Child enclosed in a niche on an exterior wall of a Gothic church. The panel is housed in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
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.
A Man and A Woman is the title sometimes used for a pair of oil and egg tempera on oak panel paintings attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin, completed c. 1435. Although usually considered pendants or companion pieces, they may also have been wings of a since dismantled diptych. The latter theory is supported by the fact that the reverse of both panels are marbled, indicating that they were not intended to be hung against a wall.
↑ Panofsky pp.258–9 (writing before the painting had been cleaned of its overpaint): "Soon after the completion of the 'Descent from the Cross,' that is to say, in 1436–1437, Roger would seem to have produced two works in which the youthful feminine types of the Escorial picture, still vaguely Flémallesque, appear refined to greater spirituality: a major composition, apparently a Virgo inter Virgines, of which only a fragment, the 'Magdalen Reading' in the National Gallery at London, survives; and the beautiful "Madonna Duran" or "Madonna in Red" in the Prado".
↑ Joseph's beads closely resemble those in the Arnolfini Portrait, which was painted around the same time and is on permanent display in the National Gallery alongside The Magdalen Reading. See Jones, 46, 54
↑ Davies and Ward have published, in 1957 and 1971 respectively, diagrammatic reconstructions of the altarpiece based on evidence available of the time. Campbell is responsible for much of the scholarship since.
↑ Described as "This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair".John 11:1–3
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "The Tears of Mary Magdalene". in Patton, Kimberley Christine, Hawley, John Stratton (eds). Holy Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN0-691-11443-9
Badir, Patricia. "Medieval Poetics and Protestant Magdalenes". in McMullan, Gordon, Matthews, David (eds). Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN978-0-521-86843-3
Barasch, Moshe. "The Crying Face". Artibus et Historiae. 8, 1987. 21–36.
Belloli, Andrea P.A. Exploring World Art. London: Frances Lincoln, 2001. ISBN0-7112-1895-1
Bjurström, Per. Dürer to Delacroix: Great Master Drawings from Stockholm. Fort Worth, TX: Kimbell Art Museum, 1985. ISBN978-0-912804-21-7
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Borchert, Till-Holger. "Collecting Early Netherlandish Paintings in Europe and the United States". in Ridderbos, Bernhard, Van Buren, Anne, Van Heen, Henk (eds). Early Netherlandish Paintings: Rediscovery, Reception and Research. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005. ISBN978-90-5356-614-5
Campbell, Lorne. Van der Weyden. London: Chaucer Press, 2004. ISBN1-904449-24-7 (The text dates from 1977)
Campbell, Lorne; Stock, Jan van der, (eds). Rogier Van Der Weyden 1400–1464: Master of Passions. Waanders Uitgeverij, 2009. ISBN90-8526-105-8
Clark, Kenneth. Looking at Pictures. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1960. 45.
Crispin, Philip. "Scandal, Malice and the Bazoche". in Harper, April, Proctor, Caroline (eds). Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook. New York: Routledge, 2008. ISBN978-0-415-97831-6
Davies, Martin. "Netherlandish Primitives: Rogier van der Weyden and Robert Campin". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 71, 1937. 140–145.
Davies, Martin. "Rogier van der Weyden's Magdalen Reading". Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Antwerp: Uitgevrij de Sikkel, 1957. 77–89
Green, Dennis. Women Readers in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN978-0-521-87942-2
Hand, John Oliver; Wolff, Martha. Early Netherlandish Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN0-521-34016-0
Jagodzinski, Cecile. Privacy and Print: Reading and Writing in Seventeenth-Century England. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1999. ISBN0-8139-1839-1
Jones, Susan Frances. Van Eyck to Gossaert. London: National Gallery, 2011. ISBN978-1-85709-504-3
Maisch, Ingrid. Mary Magdalene: The Image of a Woman through the Centuries. Collegeville, MN: Order of St. Benedict Press, 1998. ISBN978-0-8146-2471-5
McNamara, Jo Ann. "Saint and Sinner". The Women's Review of Books, vol. 12, 1994. 24–25
Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting. Harvard University Press, 1971. ISBN978-0-06-436682-3
Potterton, Homan. The National Gallery, London. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977.
Salih, Sarah. "The Digby saint plays and The Book of Margery Kempe". in Riches, Samantha J. E., Salih, Sarah (eds). Gender and Holiness: Men, Women, and Saints in Late Medieval Europe. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN978-0-415-25821-0
Turudich, Daniela. Plucked, Shaved & Braided: Medieval and Renaissance Beauty and Grooming Practices 1000–1600. Streamline Press, 2004. ISBN978-1-930064-08-9
Ward, John. "A Proposed Reconstruction of an Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden". The Art Bulletin, vol. 53, 1971. 27–35.
Further reading
Campbell, Lorne. "The Materials and Technique of Five Paintings by Rogier van der Weyden and his Workshop". London: National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 18, 1997. 68–86
White, R. "Medium Analysis of Campin Group Paintings in the National Gallery" in Foister, Susan; Nash, Susie (eds). Robert Campin: New Directions in Scholarship. Antwerp: Turnhout, 1996. 71–76 ISBN978-2-503-50500-8
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