Object data
oil on panel
support: height 84.1 cm × width 55.2 cm × height 82.2 cm × width 23.6 cm × height 82.2 cm × width 23.6 cm
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen
Amsterdam, 1517
oil on panel
support: height 84.1 cm × width 55.2 cm × height 82.2 cm × width 23.6 cm × height 82.2 cm × width 23.6 cm
The support of the centre panel consists of two vertically grained oak planks (27 and 28.2 cm), 1.4-1.8 cm thick. The panel is very slightly bevelled on the left, right and bottom edges. Some plane marks are present. The wooden block applied to the middle of the centre panel in order to reinforce the joins is a later addition. Each wing consists of a single vertically grained oak panel. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring of the centre panel was formed in 1476. The panel could have been ready for use by 1487, but a date in or after 1501 is more likely. The white ground on all three panels, which is visible through the paint layers and at the edges, was applied when the panels were framed. The centre panel has unpainted edges of 0.8-1.3 cm on all sides (painted surface: 82.2 x 53.4 cm). There is no barbe. The paint layers extend to the underdrawn outline of the composition (see also SK-A-3480). The underdrawing is visible to the naked eye as well as with infrared reflectography. It consists of contour lines and hatchings in all directions which were probably applied in both a dry and a wet medium. The latter is clearly visible on the outer left wing with St Christopher. The dry medium appears to have been used chiefly to prepare the composition, while the wet one is visible here and there in shaded passages. Interestingly, the outer right wing with St Antony appears to have been designed with the dry medium alone. The painting technique can be characterised as linear and precise. The contour lines were painted in a semi-transparent dark brown, which outline the figures and especially the fingers and hands. The paint layers were applied rather thickly. It is clear to the unaided eye that the small female donor at the back on the inner right wing was added later. This observation was confirmed by infrared reflectography. However, the way in which this figure’s face is painted with brushstrokes of a linear nature and with a dark outline makes it clear that this is not a later overpaint but must have been added by the artist himself.
Van Oosterwijk in Groningen-Oostzaan 2003, pp. 43-47, no. 3
Good. The centre panel has a slightly convex deformation. Both wings have a vertical crack in the centre, possibly the result of the framing (which is too narrow for the panels). The varnish is discoloured.
…; Franciscan convent near Messiera , 1792;1 …; Van Parijs;2 …; purchased from the dealer L.J. Nieuwenhuys, Brussels, by Willem II (1792-1849), King of the Netherlands, Brussels, as Gossaert, with 22 other ‘tableaux gottiques’, probably April 1823;3 his sale, The Hague (De Vries, Roos, Brondgeest), 18 August 1850, no. 15, as ‘Jean Memling’, unsold; from his estate, fl. 7,700, to Frederik (1797-1881), Prince of The Netherlands, 14 October 1850;4 his daughter, Marie (1841-1910), Fürstin zu Wied, Princess of the Netherlands, Neuwied, 1883; her sale et al., London (Sotheby’s), 5 July 1967, no. 11, £ 37,000 to the dealer E.J. Speelman;5…; on loan to the museum from J. William Middendorf II (1924-), Washington and The Hague, 1973-78; from whom, fl. 1,145,833, to the museum, with support from the Prins Bernard Fonds, the Vereniging Rembrandt and Mr and Mrs J. William Middendorf II, 1978; on loan to the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, 2004-10
Object number: SK-A-4706
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt and Mr and Mrs Middendorf, Washington
Copyright: Public domain
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (Oostzaan c. 1472/77 - Amsterdam 1528/33)
Van Mander states that Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen was born in Oostzaan, a small village north of Amsterdam, and that he was already an experienced painter with teenage children when Jan van Scorel entered his workshop around 1512. Going by Van Mander’s information that Jacob’s son Dirck died in 1567 at around 70 years of age, meaning that he was born c. 1497, it is assumed that Jacob was born between 1472 and 1477. There is no information about his parents, nor when he moved to Amsterdam or by whom he was trained. Nor is it known when Jacob married his wife Anna. They had four children, at least two of whom were trained by their father: Cornelis Jacobsz, about whom there is no further information, and Dirck Jacobsz, who was best known as a portrait painter. Also according to Van Mander, Jacob Cornelisz’s brother was Cornelis Buys I, who was active as a painter in Alkmaar. The earliest mention of Jacob Cornelisz in Amsterdam is an archival document from 1500 that shows that he bought a house in the Kalverstraat. Since his wife is recorded as a widow on 18 October 1533, and his second house was sold in his absence in the autumn of 1532, it is accepted that he died before the first date, and possibly before the second. In 1526, 1527 and 1528, Egmond Abbey paid him for work on a large retable, so his date of death can be placed somewhere between 1528 and 1533.
Several of the paintings and the bulk of the drawings by Jacob Cornelisz bear his initials I (for Iacob) and A (referring to the city where he worked) and his monogram, which consists of a V and an upside-down W, the latter probably an allusion to the surname War or Warre that he sometimes used.
Most of the 200-odd woodcuts after designs by Jacob Cornelisz are dated between 1507 and 1522, making it easy to follow his development. Only 6 of the 30 or so paintings attributed to him have the monogram, but a good number are dated. The earliest ones with dates are two of 1507 that are attributed to him: the Noli me tangere in Kassel,6 and The Crucifixion in a private collection.7 His last known, securely attributed painting dates from 1526 (SK-A-668).
In addition to paintings on canvas and panel and woodcuts there are designs for stained-glass windows and copes, and ceiling paintings. Jacob’s painted oeuvre mostly consists of religious works: large altarpieces, smaller panels for private devotion, and several which appear to have been made for the open market. There are also a few autonomous portraits that are attributed to him. Jacob’s earliest works are craftsman-like and executed in a very laborious technique, looking more as if they were drawn with paint than painted. The choice of subject is traditional. It was only in his later work, undoubtedly influenced by Jan van Scorel, that he transcended the craftsman-like in technique, style and iconography. His large output indicates that he had a sizable workshop with several assistants, including Jan van Scorel and his sons Cornelis Jacobsz and Dirck Jacobsz, and possibly his grandsons Cornelis Anthonisz and Jacob Dirksz as well.
References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 207r-v; Brulliot I, 1832, no. 19; Cohen in Thieme/Becker VII, 1912, pp. 428-30; Steinbart 1922, pp. 2-8; Steinbart 1929, pp. 1-48; Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 96-111; Steinbart 1937; Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 72-143; Bruyn 1966, pp. 149, 160, 161; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 53-64; Van Eeghen 1986, pp. 95-132; Carroll 1987; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 284-93; Carroll in Turner 1996, VII, pp. 868-70; Beaujean in Saur XXI, 1999, pp. 235-38; Meuwissen 2006, pp. 55-81
(Daantje Meuwissen)
The centre panel of this triptych of 1517 shows the adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2:11). The Virgin is seated in the centre of the scene with the Christ Child on her lap. The oldest king is kissing Christ’s right hand, while the younger one, depicted in profile, is proffering a goblet of myrrh, which is an allusion to Christ’s divinity. Both motifs are found in adorations by Geertgen tot Sint Jans,8 and Jacob Cornelisz used them in one version of the woodcut series of The Life of the Virgin of 1507 (fig. a).9
On the left wing are the donor with his six sons and Jerome, his patron saint. One of the boys is wearing a white shroud, signifying that he had died before the painting was made. The man’s wife is depicted on the right wing with St Catherine of Alexandria and seven daughters, the smallest of whom, on the left, is also wearing a shroud. At the tops of the wings are the donors’ coats of arms. Painted in grisaille on the outer wings are St Christopher on the left and St Antony Abbot on the right, and two more coats of arms.
Several attempts have been made to identify the donors on the wings. Back in 1926 Sterck suspected that they were members of the Heereman family. He linked the woman’s coat of arms to the Ramp family, which is supported by the research presented below.10 In 1993, Dudok van Heel again associated the arms with the old Amsterdam family of Heereman.11 He identified the quarterings as (1) Heereman, (2) Van Hollen, (3) Van Zeller and (4) Baerland, and the woman’s arms of alliance on the right wing as (1) Heereman and (2) unknown. However, since the coats proved to be later overpaints, possibly dating from the 18th century, Dudok van Heel suggested in 1996 on the basis of genealogical research that the triptych had been made for the Amsterdam apothecary Claes Bouwesz Cat (?-after 1536) and his second wife Volckgen Jansdr (before 1489-1551).12 Although the visible coats of arms are indeed later overpaints, examination with infrared reflectography clearly shows that the division of the shields and devices in the fields of the woman’s arms had already been planned in the underdrawing stage, although there it was smaller and hung vertically rather than diagonally (fig. b).13 The later overpaint made it a little larger to match the man’s quartered arms, which were painted at the same time. The man’s original coat, which can be seen beneath the surface of the paint (fig. c), probably consists only of the Heereman arms, although the X-radiographs are a little unclear on this point. Although it proved impossible to detect an underdrawing of the man’s coat of arms, and since X-radiographs failed to provide any additional information, the underdrawing of the woman’s arms makes it clear that the couple must indeed be members of the Heereman family.
Although there is no couple in the family tree for this period who are known for certain to have had six sons and seven daughters, there is a possibility that the man is Peter Ghijsbertsz Heereman (May 1469 - between February 1539/1541) and the woman his first wife, whose name is not known.14 The coats of arms on the outer wings, which are original and not overpainted, are those of the Heereman family on the left wing and an unidentified mark on the right wing.
The overpainting of the arms on the fronts of the wings may have been ordered by Frederik Jacob Heereman van Zuydtwijck (1663-1745), who might have had his family portraits enhanced in an attempt to gain entry to the knightage of the province of Gelderland. The male coat of arms on the triptych was augmented with three quarterings belonging to Gelderland families, possibly as a result of Frederik’s marriage to Elisabeth Catharina van Scherpenzeel (1674-1720), who came from an old family of Gelderland nobility. He was buried in the Church of the Clarissenkerk (Church of the Poor Clares) in Roermond in 1745, and there is a suspicion that the triptych was taken to Italy from a church or monastery in Roermond at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, for in 1792 it was in a Franciscan friary near Messiera.
There may be some uncertainty about the identity of the donors, but there is none at all about the attribution to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen. Stylistically, there are many points of correspondence with other works that are fairly securely attributed to him, such as the St Jerome Altarpiece of 1511 in Vienna,15 and the epitaph with The Nativity of 1512.16 Various aspects of the technique are also his, such as the almost hatched manner of painting with a small, stiff brush and thick, sturdy paint. He also enclosed almost all of the contours with dark brown paint, and the palette is fairly turbid. The underdrawing, too, corresponds to many of the works by Jacob Cornelisz examined with infrared reflectography, and betrays a crabbed hand of the kind described by Jacobowitz and Stepanek in connection with his woodcuts as ‘gnarled and frequently disorganised’.17 He consistently used more hatching in the underdrawing than seems necessary for preparing the specific passage.
The architecture on the wings does not match up with that of the centre panel, and there are also differences in colour between them, as well as physical discrepancies.18 It is therefore not inconceivable that the wings were attached to the centre panel later, although the technical and stylistic unity of the wings and the central panel, as well as the comparable underdrawings, indicate that the wings are autograph as well, and cannot have been attached to the centre panel long after 1517.
There are three other versions of the centre panel, dated 1520, 1536 and 1537, the first of which was regarded as autograph by Friedländer.19
(Daantje Meuwissen)
Passavant 1841, p. 46 (as Lucas van Leyden); Scheibler 1882, p. 22; Scheibler 1904, p. 551; Voll 1904, p. 540; Steinbart 1922, pp. 107, 157; Six 1925, p. 35 (as Jan van Hout ?), Six 1926, p. 141 (as Jan van Hout); Sterck 1926, p. 255; Steinbart 1929, p. 234; Kessler 1932, p. 101 (as Jacob Cornelisz or Cornelis Buys I); Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 103, 104, 212; Hoogewerff III, 1939, p. 120; Amsterdam 1958, p. 99, no. 107; Wegner 1959, p. 8; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 56, 57, 114; Heller 1976, p. 220, no. 276; Carroll 1987, pp. 122-29, with earlier literature; Kloek 1989a, pp. 169-70; Dudok van Heel 1993, p. 55; Dudok van Heel 1996, pp. 199-223; Bangs 1999, p. 119 (as Jacob Cornelisz and Simon Claasz II van Waterlant); Van Bueren 1999, p. 117; Meuwissen in Groningen-Oostzaan 2003, pp. 25, 42-47, no. 3; Meuwissen in Rotterdam 2008a, pp. 201-05, no. 32, with earlier literature
1976, p. 176, no. C 1554; 1992, p. 48, no. A 4706
D. Meuwissen, 2008, 'Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi (centre panel), the Donor and his Six Sons with St Jerome (inner left wing), the Donor’s Wife and her Seven Daughters with St Catherine of Alexandria (inner right wing), St Christopher (outer left wing) and St Antony Abbot (outer right wing), Amsterdam, 1517', in Cat. 15e en 16e eeuwse Nederlandse Schilderijen, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8175
(accessed 9 November 2024 17:15:19).