Object data
oil on panel
support: height 65.3 cm × width 23.3 cm
depth 5 cm
Master of the Brunswick Diptych (attributed to)
Left Wing of a Triptych with St Valerianus
c. 1490 - c. 1500
Inscriptions
- inscription, bottom, on the niche: VALEM [= RI ?] AN [...S]
Technical notes
The support is a vertically grained oak plank, which has been thinned down to a thickness of 0.3-0.5 cm and cradled. The panel is slightly trimmed on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the plank came from the same tree as the plank used for St Cecilia (SK-A-3306), and that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1381. The panel could have been ready for use by 1392, but a date in or after 1406 is more likely. The white coloured ground was applied up to the edges of the panel. The barbe and the unpainted edges were probably removed when the panel was trimmed on all sides. Infrared reflectography has shown that the underdrawing was applied with a brush in a wet medium and consists of contour lines, without any hatchings. The paint layers are thin and transparent. Minor alterations were made to St Valerianus relative to the underdrawing. His right shoulder was originally narrower and the sword was broader (fig. b). Mordant gilding was used for the brocade; the other ornaments were applied to the clothes in yellow paint.
Scientific examination and reports
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 14 May 2004
- condition report: L. Sozanni, RMA, 16 August 2004
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang, RKD/RMA, no. RKDG370, 11 April 2006
Condition
Poor. The painting is heavily retouched along the edges, in the figure and in the background. The green garment worn by Valerianus has discoloured and now appears brown. The red lakes have faded and the mordant gilding in the brocade is worn away. The varnish is discoloured.
Provenance
… ; private collection, England;1 ...; the dealer N. Beets, Amsterdam, 1920;2 ...; collection Dominicus Antonius Josephus Kessler (1855-1939) and Mrs A.C.M.H. Kessler-Hülsmann (1868-1947), Kapelle op den Bosch, near Mechelen, 1929;3 donated, with xx other objects, by Mrs A.C.M.H. Kessler-Hülsmann to the museum, 1940
Object number: SK-A-3305
Credit line: Gift of Mr and Mrs Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of the Brunswick Diptych (active c. 1480-1510), attributed to
The Master of the Brunswick Diptych was named by Friedländer in 1927 after the Diptych with the Virgin and Child with St Anne, a Carthusian Monk and St Barbara in the museum in Braunschweig, which he had earlier attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans in 1903.4 He regarded the master a pupil of Geertgen’s because he painted the same oval types of face and similar, rather doll-like figures. The rendering of fabrics and landscape is also comparable. In 1958 Boon identified the master as Jacob van Haerlem, whom Van Mander mentions as the teacher of Jan Mostaert. Jacob van Haerlem is probably identical with Jacob Jansz, who is frequently recorded in Haarlem documents between 1483 and 1509, the year of his death. Snyder and Châtelet adopted this identification, but Boon himself withdrew it in 1981. Unfortunately, the corn porters’ altarpiece in the Grote Kerk, which Van Mander states was painted by Jacob van Haerlem, has been lost, so this identification remains hypothetical.
Although the master’s identity is uncertain, the oeuvre that Friedländer grouped around the Brunswick diptych has so far remained unchallenged.5 In 1980 Châtelet, who stood by the identification with Jacob Jansz, added to his oeuvre several paintings that were attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans, among them The Adoration of the Magi (SK-A-2150) and The Tree of Jesse (SK-A-3901).
References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 229r; Friedländer V, 1927, pp. 51-54; Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 194-202, 220-21; Amsterdam 1958, pp. 55-58; ENP V, 1969, pp. 31-32, 97; Snyder 1971, pp. 451-53; Boon 1981a, pp. 313-20; Châtelet 1981, pp. 122-31, 223-26; Snyder in Turner 1996, X, pp. 636-37; Lammertse in Rotterdam 2008a, pp. 130-32
(J.P. Filedt Kok)
Entry
In all likelihood, the panels with Sts Valerianus and Cecilia (SK-A-3306) were originally the outer wings of a triptych. The two saints, husband and wife, were martyrs who were persecuted for their faith in the Roman empire in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. According to the ‘Legenda aurea’, a collection of saint’s lives written in the 13th century, Cecilia received a Christian education, took a vow of chastity, and persuaded her husband, the noble pagan Valerianus, to practice celibacy. He agreed on condition that he be allowed to see the angel who guarded over his wife’s chastity and life. The angel descended from heaven and crowned the couple with garlands of roses and lilies as a sign of their chaste lives. Both Valerianus and Cecilia were eventually put to the sword by the Roman authorities.6
Both martyrs stand in niches and are identified by the inscriptions below them. Oddly enough, the letters of the inscription on the left panel are capitals, while those on the right panel are in a smaller script. It is possible that they are later additions, or at least partly overpainted. Valerianus is holding a garland of flowers and a sword (the latter the symbol of his martyrdom), while Cecilia has a white bird, a garland of roses on her head and an organ at her feet. The white bird is probably meant to be a falcon, in allusion to her high birth.7 The organ is a reference to the music that was played when she entered her husband’s house on the day of their marriage, and is the symbol of her role as the patron saint of music - a motif that was first depicted in 15th-century painting.8 The garland of roses on her head and that held by Valerianus are allusions to the flowers with which they were crowned by the angel to mark their lives of chastity.
Both panels have been sawn through crosswise. The inner wings were probably two panels preserved in Brussels with ‘The taking of Christ and The Entombment’ (fig. a).9 If that is the case, the centre panel could have been a ‘Crucifixion’ or a ‘Lamentation’. Given the presence of St Cecilia, it is assumed that the panels were made for a Cecilian convent in Haarlem or Amsterdam.10 However, Cecilia was a popular saint who was not solely depicted in commissions from nuns in convents dedicated to her.
In 1927 Friedländer attributed the panels in Brussels and Amsterdam to the Master of the Brunswick Diptych.11 That attribution was widely accepted, except by Châtelet, who in 1980 gave the Amsterdam panels to the Master of the Figdor Deposition.12 However, in style and technique there are too few points of similarity with that artist’s ‘Martyrdom of St Lucy’ (SK-A-1688) to justify the attribution. Compared to the Brunswick diptych and the Brussels wings, the execution of the two Amsterdam panels is not very refined and is rather schematic, but that is partly due to their poor condition. The figure of St Bavo on the outside of the Brunswick diptych is very comparable to that of St Valerianus from a stylistic point of view, but the former painting is clearly of a better quality in its convincing depiction of space and details.13 Infrared reflectography has revealed a cursory brushed underdrawing in a wet medium on both Amsterdam panels, but it is not characteristic enough to provide a decisive argument for the attribution. We are therefore retaining the attribution to the Master of the Brunswick Diptych, but it is conceivable that the panels are workshop products. The date, which is usually placed around 1490-1500 on the evidence of the dress and style, remains rather uncertain, and could not be resolved by the dendrochronology.
(J.P. Filedt Kok)
Literature
Friedländer V, 1927, pp. 53, 135, no. 21; London 1929, pp. 5-6, nos. 4-5 (as follower of Geertgen tot Sint Jans); Kessler 1930, pp. 13-16 (as Geertgen tot Sint Jans); Rotterdam 1936, pp. 17-18, nos. 8-9; Hoogewerff II, 1937, p. 200; Van Luttervelt 1951b, pp. 81-82; Amsterdam 1958, p. 57, no. 27; ENP V, 1969, pp. 32, 76, no. 21; Châtelet 1981, pp. 138, 225, 228, no. 103 (as Master of the Figdor Deposition); Lammertse in Rotterdam 2008a, pp. 136-38, no. 17
Collection catalogues
1948, p. 61, nos. 1538 H2-3; 1960, p. 196, nos. 1538 H2-3; 1976, p. 631, nos. A 3305, A 3306 (as Master of the Brunswick Dyptich)
Citation
J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'attributed to Meester van de Brunswijkse Diptiek, Left Wing of a Triptych with St Valerianus, c. 1490 - c. 1500', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9051
(accessed 20 September 2024 23:49:00).Figures
fig. b Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of SK-A-3305, showing the left shoulder and the sword of St Valerianus (© Stichting RKD)
fig. a Master of the Brunswick Diptych, The Taking of Christ and The Entombment, c. 1490-1500. Oil on panel, c. 62 x 22 cm. Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Photo Bridgeman Images)