Triptych with the Lamentation of Christ (centre panel), the Donor with St Benedict (inner left wing) and the Donatrix with St Elizabeth of Thuringia (inner right wing)

c. 1540 - c. 1545

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 47.1 cm (centre panel) × width 39.2 cm (centre panel) × height 55.3 cm (left wing) × width 23 cm (left wing) × height 55.3 cm (right wing) × width 23 cm (right wing)
depth 5.6 cm

Technical notes

The support of the centre panel is made up of two vertically grained oak planks (12 and 27 cm), 0.7-1.0 cm thick. It is extended on both sides with modern narrow strips approx. 0.5 cm wide to make it fit in the original frame. Each wing, including the frame, consists of a single vertically grained oak plank, 2 cm thick. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring of the centre panel was formed in 1505. The panel could have been ready for use by 1516, but a date in or after 1530 is more likely. The panels of the wings were made of wood from the same tree. The youngest heartwood ring of the wings was formed in 1529. The panels could have been ready for use by 1540, but a date in or after 1554 is more likely. The white ground, which is visible along the edges of the paintings, was applied in the frames. Remains of a barbe are present around the paint layers of the centre panel, and there are narrow unpainted edges of approx. 0.3 cm at the top and the bottom of the panel (painted surface centre panel: 46.5 x 39 cm; painted surface each of the wings: 49 x 18.5 cm).

The underdrawing is not visible with the naked eye. Infrared reflectography revealed a rather cursory underdrawing in a dry medium, probably black chalk, in which only the contours are indicated. Many of the lines are restless and wavy, and sometimes a little angular. Multiple contour lines here and there betray a search for the right form. In the sky of the centre panel there is a wealth of forms which are difficult to interpret and bear little relation to the painted surface. The underdrawing of this scene was followed fairly closely in the paint. The only underdrawing that could be revealed on the left wing indicates the heads, hand and the crosier. There is a little more underdrawing visible on the right wing, which corresponds to that on the left wing and is comparable to that on the centre panel. The figures were reserved, and rather thickly painted with white highlights. There are minor adjustments relative to the underdrawing in both wings, as in the saint’s crosier, the double crown held by St Elizabeth, and the fingers of her left hand.

Scientific examination and reports

condition report: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 15 January 2007
infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG434, 16 January 2007
dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 20 March 2007

Condition

Fair. The painting is abraded, and there is some lifting paint and discoloured retouchings along the join of the centre panel. The varnish is very discoloured and rather matte.

Original framing

The framing of this triptych is a highly original combination of architectural elements. The frame surrounding the centre panel has a Gothic moulding composed of a tenia, a reverse ogee, a fillet, a scotia, a bevel, and a jump at the sight edge fig. a. The sill on the central frame has a wide bevel at the sight edge fig. b. The central frame has classical cornice mouldings nailed on top of the lintel and underneath the sill. The cross-section of the top cornice shows a fillet, a reverse ogee, a fillet, a larger cove, followed by a smaller cove and a jump fig. a . The bottom cornice has essentially the same sequence of profile elements in reverse order and tilted 90 degrees fig. b. The top and bottom cornices were possibly added somewhat later. The corners of the central frame are joined by means of half laps. These joints are secured with dowels, which are only visible on the reverse, and also with nails fig. c. The wing panels have simple integral mouldings with a tenia, scotia and bevel fig. d, and a bevelled sill at the base fig. e. All mouldings of this triptych have been stripped. On the back of the frame there is an impression which was perhaps created by a second panel to protect the back of the central painting. There are also traces of an early hanging device on the reverse in the form of a set of 45-degree holes at the top.

Provenance

…; sale, Mr Peter Arell Brown Widener (Philadelphia), collection Furstner and Mrs Ter Meulen-Trakranen (†) et al. [not section Widener], Amsterdam (F. Muller), 30 June 1909 sqq., no. 139, as Jan van Scorel, fl. 310, to the museum;¹ on loan to the Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar, since December 2000

Object number: SK-A-2392

The artist

Cornelis Cornelisz Buys II (? Alkmaar c. 1500 - Alkmaar 1545/46), attributed to

Cornelis Cornelisz Buys’s date and place of birth are not known. He is called Cornelis Buys II in the art-historical literature on the assumption that he was born around 1500 as the son of the painter Cornelis Buys I. According to Van Mander, the latter was the brother of the Amsterdam painter Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, and according to Buchelius he died in 1524. Cornelis Buys I has been identified with the Master of Alkmaar in the past. Although the Alkmaar archives contain no biographical data about him, there are documents relating to commissions he received for lost altarpieces for Egmond Abbey and the St Jacobuskerk in Alkmaar. The vault paintings with The Last Judgement of 1516-19 in Alkmaar’s Laurenskerk were already being attributed to Cornelis Buys I at the beginning of the 20th century. Stylistically they are related to the workshop of his brother Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen.

The ‘Cornelis Buys the painter’ first mentioned between 1516 and 1519 in the Alkmaar archives was probably the son, not the father. In 1521 Cornelis Buys II paid off a debt owed by his wife Katrijn Ghijsbertsdr, whom he must have married around that time, and her sister Bartte. Cornelis and Katrijn had two sons, Cornelis and Gijsbert, both of whom trained as artists with their father. Another apprentice, who entered the workshop in 1521, was Henrick Adriaensz. Today there are no known works by any of these pupils. Cornelis Buys II worked as a decorative painter on the frame of the St Lawrence Altarpiece of 1538-42 by Maarten van Heemskerck. He died in 1545/46, shortly after his wife, and was buried with her in the St Laurenskerk.

Cornelis Buys II probably trained in the workshop of his father, Cornelis Buys I (?-1519/24), and possibly that of his uncle Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (c. 1472/77-1528/33) in Amsterdam as well. He was of the same generation as Jan van Scorel, who according to Buchelius was a pupil of Cornelis Buys I, and according to Van Mander of Jacob Cornelisz. The family relationship with the latter is apparent from the only documented painting by Cornelis Buys II, Rebecca at the Well, which is signed with the initials ‘C B’ and Cornelisz’s family monogram, ‘VW’ (SK-A-4219).

This signed painting served as the basis for Hoogewerff, and more recently De Vries, to assemble a small attributed oeuvre for Cornelis Buys II, including a Last Supper and Jacob leaving Laban.² These paintings display the influence of Jan van Scorel, most notably in the landscape, and have a distinctive, fairly smooth and hard manner with a wealth of ornamental detail.

References
Buchelius 1583-1639 (1928), p. 30; Van Mander 1604, fol. 207v; Kalcken/Six 1903; Bruinvis 1904, pp. 212-14; Bruinvis in Thieme/Becker V, 1911, pp. 307-08; Six 1925, pp. 1-12; Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 357-58, IV, 1941, pp. 20-22, 27-29, 205-14; Wescher 1946; Bruyn 1966, pp. 149, 158-59; De Vries in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 242-45; De Vries 1987; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 287-88, 290-91; Kloek 1996, pp. 52-71; Miedema III, 1996, pp. 274-75; Grubach in Saur XV, 1996, p. 399

(Jan Piet Filedt Kok)

Entry

The centre panel of this triptych depicts The Lamentation of Christ. The composition is a reduced and slightly simplified version of SK-A-4219 or fig. f, which is attributed to Cornelis Buys II. The proportions of the figures have changed, Joseph of Arimathaea is turning Christ’s head towards the Virgin, and the standing and kneeling Marys behind Mary Magdalen have changed places. Mount Calvary behind the figure group has been replaced by an empty cross and a ladder. The cloudy sky and the rather minimalist landscape behind the figures extend onto the wings.

On the left wing is a kneeling monk accompanied by St Benedict holding a crosier adorned with a small pennant. In the past it was thought that this figure was probably St Francis,³ which is unlikely, given the crosier and the absence of a stigmata. On the right panel is a nun in a brown habit and the crowned St Elizabeth of Thuringia with her usual attributes of a double crown in her hand and a beggar at her feet.⁴ Unfortunately it is not possible to identify the monk and the nun or to tie them to specific monastic institutions. The outer wings were left unpainted.

The small size of the triptych suggests that it was used for private devotion. As noted, the centre panel is a simplification of an existing composition. The linear underdrawing, which was followed faithfully in the painted surface, appears to have been done freehand from a model. Taking the difference in size into account, the nature of the underdrawing differs little from that of the larger version of The Lamentation SK-A-4219. Although it is conceivable that the wings were added to the centre panel later, the mouldings of the frames resemble each other very closely. The painting of the wings could have been later than that of the centre panel, but one argument against that is the background landscape, which is in the same style on all three panels. The cursory underdrawing on the wings is comparable to that on the centre panel, but the way in which the donors and their patron saints were painted is more refined and old-fashioned, and is more closely related to the work of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen. Only the broadly painted landscape extending across the panels, the style of which is reminiscent of Jan van Scorel, appears to be by one hand. The figures on the wings were probably painted by an artist other than the one responsible for the centre panel and the landscape. Dendrochronology suggests a late date for the wings: the beginning of the 1540s at the earliest. This rules out the possibility that the young Jan van Scorel painted the figures in Jacob Cornelisz’s workshop, as suggested by Kloek.⁵ In view of the broad similarities to SK-A-4219 and the resemblance of the underdrawings, it seems likely that the triptych was made in the workshop of Cornelis Buys II, which is why we have retained that attribution.

(Jan Piet Filedt Kok)

Literature

Van Luttervelt 1962, p. 66 (as centre panel by Buys II, wings by another, perhaps somewhat later hand); Kloek 1996, pp. 64-69 (as workshop of Cornelis Buys I, wings by a pupil, perhaps Jan van Scorel before he left for Italy); Bangs 1999, pp. 131-32 (as centre panel attributed to Buys II and the wings by Simon Claesz II van Waterlant, after 1539)

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Collection catalogues

1912, p. 349, no. 666a; 1976, p. 158, no. A 2392

Citation

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'attributed to Cornelis Cornelisz. (II) Buys, Triptych with the Lamentation of Christ (centre panel), the Donor with St Benedict (inner left wing) and the Donatrix with St Elizabeth of Thuringia (inner right wing), c. 1540 - c. 1545', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8105

(accessed 25 November 2024 10:55:16).