Augustine Sacrificing to an Idol of the Manichaeans (?)

Entry

In this densely populated scene set in a town, a priest kneeling on the left is swinging a thurible in front of an open hexagonal shrine in which a lamb and a goat are being sacrificed to an idol. A group of onlookers stand behind the priest. For a long time the subject was thought to be King Solomon worshipping an idol, but that was rejected by Friedländer because of the absence of the heathen women of Solomon’s harem, who tempted him into idolatry. He suggested instead that this painting and a panel in Dublin (fig. a) come from an altarpiece with scenes from the life of St Nicholas of Bari.⁵

During the world exhibition Cinq siècles d’art held in Brussels in 1935 it became clear that the Rijksmuseum painting, the Dublin panel and another one in Paris (fig. b) almost certainly belonged to the same ensemble, either a polyptych or a series of individual panels.⁶ All three have virtually the same dimensions, and are closely related as regards architecture, colouring and style, and each one contains the same figure of a man wearing a red gown, blue stole and purple hat. In the Rijksmuseum panel he is speaking to two people in the background. In the Dublin painting he is curing a sick man and baptising three youths, while in Paris he appears as a preacher in the foreground and also features in the background. The three works undoubtedly depict events from the life of a saint whom it is difficult to identify, since the episodes are not characteristic of one specific saint. Suggestions for the Rijksmuseum painting are a scene from the life of the apostle Philip and the sacrifice of the high priest of the Belgae to Mercury.⁷ De Tervarent thought that the presence of the Brussels Church of St Gudule in the background of the Paris panel (fig. b) identified the figure as St Géry, the patron saint of the city.⁸ Van de Castyne disagreed, feeling that all three scenes fit in well with the life of St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), one of the four fathers of the Latin church.⁹ The latter identification seems to be the best one at present, although Augustine is usually depicted in a bishop’s robe. It is also possible that he is the priest in the Rijksmuseum panel, for in his youth he embraced the doctrine of Manichaeism, a heretical religion which he attacked fiercely after his conversion.¹⁰

Friedländer attributed this painting to the Master of the Legend of St Barbara, a painter whose oeuvre he reconstructed around two panels with scenes from that saint’s legend.¹¹ Reynaud and Foucart distinguish two separate sets within that oeuvre. They grouped several paintings, including the one in Amsterdam, around an Altarpiece with the Martyrdom of Sts Crispin and Crispinian,¹² which is attributed to the Brussels painter Aert van den Bossche on documentary evidence.¹³ There is a continuing discussion as to which works by the Barbara master can be attributed to Van den Bossche. Périer-D’Ieteren proposed the complete conflation of both artists.¹⁴ The attribution of the Amsterdam panel to Aert van den Bossche certainly seems convincing, given its quality and the stylistic and technical similarities to the Crispin and Crispinian altarpiece, such as the use of bold colours and the dynamic narrative style with densely packed figures.¹⁵

However, the Altarpiece with the Martyrdom of Sts Crispin and Crispinian, which was commissioned in 1490, is a freer and more inventive composition. The figures occupy the space more convincingly, and there is more variety in the clothing, gestures and poses. The present painting should therefore probably be dated a little earlier. This is borne out by the Church of St Gudule in the background of the Paris preaching scene (fig. b). Its north tower is only half finished, and since it was not completed until 1480-85 this provides a terminus ante quem for the dating of the panel. It is likely, then, that the entire ensemble, including the Rijksmuseum painting, was painted shortly before.¹⁶

(Vanessa Hoogland)