Object data
oil on panel
support: height 65.2 cm
suppport: width 23.5 cm
depth 5 cm
Master of the Brunswick Diptych (attributed to)
Right Wing of a Triptych with St Cecilia
1490 - 1500
Inscriptions
- inscription, inscribed, bottom, on the niche: nup… Cecilie
Technical notes
The support is a vertically grained oak plank and has been thinned down to a thickness of 0.3-0.5 cm and cradled. The panel was trimmed on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the plank came from the same tree as the plank for St Valerianus (SK-A-3305), 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.
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 [2], 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 red lakes have faded and the varnish is discoloured.
Provenance
See the provenance for SK-A-3305.
Object number: SK-A-3306
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 1903.1 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.2 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
See SK-A-3305.
Literature
See SK-A-3305.
Collection catalogues
See SK-A-3305.
Citation
J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'attributed to Meester van de Brunswijkse Diptiek, Right Wing of a Triptych with St Cecilia, 1490 - 1500', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9052
(accessed 20 September 2024 23:29:05).