Portable Altar with Christ as the Man of Sorrows

Entry

The austere, green monochrome painted exterior of this small portable altarpiece contrasts greatly with its richly decorated interior. Upon opening the wings, the figure of Christ as the Man of Sorrows appears in the middle. Standing in his tomb, he points to the wounds sustained from his crucifixion in a manner clearly derived from a print by Master E.S. (active c. 1450-c. 1467),² Christ wears the crown of thorns and is surrounded by various other attributes of his suffering (the Arma Christi): draped over the edge of his open tomb is the linen cloth, with the three ointment jars on the left and the three dice on the right. Behind him are the spear, a section of the reed with the sponge, and the cross. No trace of the ladder remains; two of the three nails in the cross are also missing. Each altarpiece wing frames an angel standing on a triangular pedestal that terminates in a sharp, visually disproportionate point in the centre. The attributes in the angels’ hands are incomplete and therefore indeterminate, but these would most likely have been additional Arma Christi or candlesticks. The tracery (metselrie) consists of trefoils and quatrefoils, mouchettes and arches, all resting on colonettes. Silver imitation pearls and lead rosettes have been applied to the concave moulding, with the larger ornaments set with imitation gems made of coloured glass.

This small retable belongs to a group of at least eleven diptychs and triptychs bearing numerous similarities, as observed by Leeuwenberg and Lemmens in their extensive discussions of these works.³ The compact size, the undecorated, robust exterior, the sturdy hinges – conjoined with a metal spindle on both sides – and the ability to securely close these objects are details that confirm their function as portable altarpieces. Barring one exception in Écouen (see below), all are dated on stylistic grounds to the period 1490-1510, with height dimensions varying between 23 and 24 centimetres. One noteworthy feature found virtually in every case is the sharply pointed triangular form of the angels’ socles in the altarpiece wings. Additionally, a number of the altarpieces repeat exactly the same composition. For instance, a second version of the present altarpiece with Christ as Man of the Sorrows is preserved at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne,⁴ together with an unpublished, third version held in a Dutch private collection.⁵ The core group of portable altarpieces of this type furthermore includes: two triptychs with the Adoration of the Magi, respectively in the Victoria and Albert Museum⁶ and the Iglesia San Pedro, Arajona (Navarra),⁷ with a possible third triptych held in a private collection in Barcelona in 1952;⁸ a triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin (recently rediscovered in the collection of the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, Katonah NY);⁹ two diptychs with the Annunciation, preserved respectively at the Sint-Annahofje, Leiden,¹⁰ and a Belgian private collection;¹¹ a triptych with St Christopher flanked by Sts Sebastian and Roch (whereabouts unknown);¹² a triptych with the Nativity in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras,¹³ and a triptych with the Lamentation in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. ¹⁴

A small portable altarpiece of the same type featuring the Holy Trinity in Musée national de la Renaissance (Écouen) is stylistically more evolved.¹⁵ Measuring 30 centimetres in height, its size is also somewhat larger than the core group. Gliesmann dated the origin of this work ten years later than the others, circa 1510-20. As Guillot de Suduiraut has since convincingly argued, however, the mannerist traits of the various figures, e.g. the puffed-up tunics and other elements such as the angels’ essentially bare legs and the renaissance colonettes on the throne, are more indicative of a dating somewhat later, circa 1525-40.¹⁶ The inscription on the reverse, which commemorates the triptych’s presentation by a certain Sister Perrette Dobray to her brothers and sister, strongly suggests this altarpiece was indeed made around 1540-42. The apparent conclusion is that the production of this type of portable altarpiece, which shows a considerable agreement in style and technique as a group, continued from around 1490 to the 1540s. The more enduring serial production of this kind of portable altarpiece is indicative of the growing demand for objects of private devotion in the Netherlands during the first half of the sixteenth century. Attempts to date the undocumented pieces must therefore be approached with some reserve, as they are possibly derived from earlier examples. Accordingly, a broader dating of the present altarpiece circa 1500-25 is deemed justified.

The technical and stylistic cohesion of these portable altarpieces is so substantial that one may conclude their production arose from a single workshop or a working association of specialized workshops. In the absence of any archival data and quality marks, however, it is impossible to assess the actual state of affairs with certainty. Leeuwenberg believed these works could be ascribed to a single (Brussels) workshop or master.¹⁷ Conceivably, however, these small portable altarpieces – as has been demonstrated with several larger documented retables – were the product of a collaboration between associated woodcarvers, polychromers and joiners from two or more specialized studios.¹⁸ Most of the stylistic characteristics and the applied decorating techniques can be directly linked to Brussels. As confirmed by comparisons with a number of retables bearing the Brussels mark, the style of the scenes is decidedly characteristic of that city.¹⁹ More pointedly, these works embody the idiom of the immeasurably influential workshop of the Borman family. Under the direction of Jan Borman II (c. 1460-c. 1520), this shop evolved to become one of the most important woodcarving studios in Brussels. In the present work, Christ’s emaciated corporeal type, highly detailed at the level of the navel, recalls that of St Adrian in a relief from an altarpiece dedicated to the saint in the Sint-Adrianuskerk in Elsene (Brussels), dated circa 1490-95 and attributed to Jan II or his father Jan I (c. 1440-c. 1502/3).²⁰ In addition, the angels of these portable altars have the same round, charming faces with almond-shaped eyes and framed by the outspread hair – consisting of three layered rows of curls emerging from a hairband and crowned by a forelock with two upright curls – as the angels on the Saluzzo Altarpiece (today preserved in Brussels), dated circa 1500-10 and attributed to one of the sons, either Jan III (c. 1480-?) or Pasquier (c. 1470-c. 1537?).²¹ Also comparable is the Pair of Hovering Angels in the Rijksmuseum (BK-1960-31-A and -B). Furthermore, the press brocade on the background of virtually every portable altar (though on the present piece largely faded) is a costly decorative technique, as far as can be ascertained, applied solely in Brussels. Likewise traceable to this city is the pattern of floral pointillé motifs punched in the fresh poliment gilding on the portable altarpiece with the Coronation of the Virgin.²²

As Lemmens rightly observed, however, the ‘dominant role of the quasi-precious ornamentation’ in the form of (originally gilded) small lead ornaments with imitation gems on the frame is atypical of Brussels production and more in line with that of Mechelen.²³ In the late Middle Ages, a strong tradition in luxury artistic handwork, often produced in a somewhat factory-like process, blossomed in this city. Well known are the partly gilded alabaster tablets bearing mythological or biblical scenes (e.g. BK-NM-3499) and the small, polychromed wooden statuettes of saints (e.g. BK-NM-2493) referred to as poupées de Malines (Mechelen dolls), an appellation derived from their doll-like faces. These figurines functioned as independent objects but were also displayed in special house retables. These were sometimes so-called hortus conclusi (enclosed gardens), where they were placed amidst miniature relics and an abundance of foliage and flowers made of silk or papier-mâché.²⁴ Because the lead ornaments with imitation gems on the frames of the portable altarpieces also commonly appear on the socles of these ‘dolls’ and miniature crucifixes produced in Mechelen,²⁵ various authors have recently proffered that the production of these altars may have occurred in collaborating workshops in Brussels and Mechelen.²⁶ That artisans from these cities collaborated on occasion is evident from the fact that a large number of the more elaborate Mechelen dolls are furnished with a Brussels quality mark for the polychromy.²⁷ Vice versa, documented examples also exist of Brussels woodcarvers subcontracting work to polychromers from Mechelen.²⁸ On the basis of their distinctive stylistic characteristics, the portable altarpieces carved and polychromed in Brussels could indeed hypothetically have received their ornamentation (perhaps also their caisses and/or frames) in Mechelen. But the possibility they were made entirely in Brussels, as a by-product of the city’s regular retable production, may not be excluded. The Brussels polychromy mark found on a number of Mechelen dolls with lead ornamentation on their socles in fact strongly suggests that such ornamentation – logically applied only after the polychromy was added – was also used in Brussels.²⁹

Bieke van der Mark, 2024