Object data
oil on panel
support: height 37.5 cm × width 29 cm
support: depth 5 cm (painted surface)
Cornelis Engebrechtsz (circle of)
Crucifixion with the Virgin, Mary Magdalen and St John the Evangelist
Leiden, c. 1510 - c. 1520
Technical notes
The support is a single vertically grained oak plank, 0.5-0.8 cm thick, bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1477. The panel could have been ready for use by 1488, but a date in or after 1502 is more likely. The white ground, visible at the edges of the panel, was applied when the panel was already framed. Part of the barbe is preserved, and there are unpainted edges of approx. 0.6 cm on all sides (painted surface: 36 x 27.3 cm). The underdrawing in a wet medium was applied with a brush, and is partially visible with the naked eye and could be revealed entirely with infrared reflectography. The figures were reserved. The paint was applied with little detail, and mordant gilding was used for the haloes and the edges of the Virgin’s dress.
Scientific examination and reports
- condition report: Z. Benders, RMA, 15 February 2007
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 19 March 2007
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG504, 10 January 2008
Condition
Fair. The painting is a little abraded, and there is slightly lifting but stable paint along the grain of the panel. There are a number of discoloured retouchings, and the thick varnish is also very discoloured.
Provenance
…; sale, O.A. Spitzen (†) (Zwolle), sold on the premises (Van der Biesen), 15 October 1889, no. 6, fl. 70, to W.J.W. Mulder, Zwolle, for the museum
Object number: SK-A-1508
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Cornelis Engebrechtsz (Leiden c. 1462 - Leiden 1527), circle of
Cornelis Engebrechtsz was probably born around 1462 in Leiden, for he is first documented as a painter in 1482. Going by the mentions of his name in the Leiden archives, he must have died there between 11 February and 26 August 1527. He probably married Elysabeth Pietersdr in or before 1487. They had six children, three of them sons: Pieter Cornelisz named Kunst (c. 1490-1560/61), Cornelis Cornelisz named Kunst (c. 1493-1546) and Lucas Cornelisz named De Cock (c. 1495-before 27 June 1552), all of whom became painters. The archives show that Engebrechtsz was in Leiden almost uninterruptedly from 1497 to his death. The membership rolls of the city’s civic guard companies show that he was a member of the archers’ guard from 1499 to 1506, and of the crossbowmen’s guard between 1514 and 1522, of which he was captain around 1520, so he clearly belonged to the well-to-do burgher class.
In 1482 he was paid for painted work by the Hieronymusdal priory (also known as Lopsen) near Leiden, and it is not inconceivable that he was trained by Brother Tymanus, who was the resident painter there from 1444 to 1482. The Leiden city accounts record two commissions awarded to Engebrechtsz, one in 1522 for a map made by himself and his son Pieter, and the second in 1525 for four banners. In addition, there are documented commissions between 1496 and 1507 for decorative work for Rijnsburg Abbey and for designs for stained-glass windows. According to Van Mander, he taught not only his sons but also Aert Claesz, better known as Aertgen van Leyden, and was the second teacher of Lucas van Leyden.
Cornelis Engebrechtsz is the earliest Leiden painter to whom work can be attributed with certainty. It includes a Triptych with the Lamentation and a Triptych with the Crucifixion, both of which were made for the Mariënpoel Convent near Leiden and are mentioned by Van Mander.1 The wings with donors’ portraits from a Triptych with a Scene of the Revelation of St John described by Van Mander, an epitaph which was made for the Van der Does-Van Poelgeest family, have also survived.2 Dülberg, Friedländer and Gibson attributed several dozen paintings to Engebrechtsz on the basis of these documented works. This makes it likely that he had a large workshop specialising in devotional works. Although his pupils, and above all his three sons, must have played an important role in the shop, it has so far proved impossible to associate one or more of them with specific paintings. Since none of the works described by Van Mander is dated, the chronology of Engebrechtsz’s work is also problematic. His early paintings owe a small debt to the rather archaic style of the Brussels painter Colijn de Coter, while the Leiden altarpieces mentioned above display the influence of the dynamic, mannered style and palette of the Antwerp Mannerists.
References
Van Mander 1604, fols. 210r-11r, 217r-v; Taurel 1881, pp. 175-92; Dülberg 1899a, pp. 40-88; Cohen in Thieme/Becker X, 1914, pp. 526-28; Friedländer X, 1932, pp. 53-77, 129-33; Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 144-206; Gibson 1969a, pp. 11-30; ENP X, 1974, pp. 34-45; Bangs 1979, pp. 1-46; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 317-23, III, 1996, pp. 60-65; Caroll in Turner 1996, X, pp. 216-17; Gibson in Saur XXXIII, 2002, pp. 569-70; Filedt Kok in exh. cat. Leiden 2011, pp. 195-97; Filedt Kok et al. 2014, pp. 12-29, 223-66
(Jan Piet Filedt Kok)
Entry
The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Mary Magdalen and St John was undoubtedly intended for private devotion. The fairly coarse manner of painting and the simple, clichéd composition mark it out as a workshop product. An almost identical Crucifixion with a different background in the Lakenhal in Leiden suggests that several versions were probably painted in the workshop.3 In the Rijksmuseum panel, though, costly gold was used for the haloes, the Magdalen’s jar of ointment and for the gold stitching along the hem of her dress.
Gibson attributed this and several other small devotional panels to Hand A in Engebrechtsz’s workshop, and described them as ‘cruder interpretations of Engebrechtsz’s style’.4 Engebrechtsz’s style is indeed no longer recognisable, but the composition and figure types are clearly derived from a prototype from his workshop.5
Several workshop paintings have an underdrawing by the master himself, but his distinctive drawing style is lacking in this one, which makes it doubtful that it came from his shop. It can be dated c. 1510-20 on the evidence of the style, the models on which the composition is based, and the dendrochronology.
Updated J.P. Filedt Kok, 2017
Literature
Dülberg 1899a, p. 84; Wescher 1924, p. 102; Gibson 1969a, pp. 167, 247, no. 33 (as workshop of Engebrechtsz, Hand A)
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 7, no. 51 (as Dutch school, early 16th century); 1976, p. 675, no. A 1508 (as Holland school, c. 1500)
Citation
J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'circle of Cornelis Engebrechtsz., Crucifixion with the Virgin, Mary Magdalen and St John the Evangelist, c. 1510 - c. 1520', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8710
(accessed 15 November 2024 02:18:55).