Object data
oil on panel
support: height 53.5 cm × width 65 cm
Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin (circle of)
The Resurrection
c. 1485 - c. 1500
Technical notes
The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks (35.8 and 29 cm). The original panel has been planned down to a thickness of 0.1-0.2 cm, transferred to a panel with a vertical grain and cradled (the cradling is different from and probably later than the one for The Last Supper (SK-A-2129). Dendrochronology has shown that both planks came from the same tree as that for The Last Supper and that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1460. The panel could have been ready for use by 1471, but a date in or after 1485 is more likely. A white ground covers the actual surface up to the edges; it seems likely that the unpainted borders and a barbe were removed during the transfer, for the borders on all sides are refilled and overpainted. There is no distinct underdrawing visible to the naked eye nor with infrared reflectography. The figures were reserved. The painting technique is precise and detailed. The artist made use of dark brown contour lines for the hands and faces, and detailed blue reflections in the metal surfaces. Oil gilding with a mordant was used for Christ’s halo. The headdress of the soldier on the right behind the tomb does not appear to have been reserved.
Scientific examination and reports
- condition report: I. Verslype, RMA, 26 September 2006
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG421, 16 October 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 24 November 2006
Condition
Fair. The painting is slightly abraded and has some minor paint losses. There is raised paint along the grain of the wood. The varnish is thick and discoloured.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1945: cleaned
- M. Zeldenrust, 1977: raised paint fixed; varnish partly regenerated
Provenance
…; ? in the chapel of the Almshouse of the Seven Electors, Tuinstraat (nos. 197-223), Amsterdam, after 1778;1 in the office of Mr. van Ogtrop, one of the regents of the almshouse, Herengracht 312, Amsterdam, 1928;2 from the regents of the almshouse, Amsterdam, fl. 80,000, to the dealer A. Douwes, Amsterdam, for the museum, 1944; on loan to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2007-10
Object number: SK-A-2130
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin (active in Amsterdam or Utrecht c. 1500), circle of
The Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin was named by Friedländer in 1932 after a painting which at that time belonged to the Almshouse of the Seven Electors (‘Hofje van de Zeven Keurvorsten’) in Amsterdam, and was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1944 (SK-A-3467). Friedländer located the master in Amsterdam around 1500 as a predecessor of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen. He attributed a small and rather heterogeneous group of paintings to the master, including a double portrait of a Utrecht couple in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, which is dated c. 1510-15 on the evidence of the costumes.3 Hoogewerff thought that the master worked in Utrecht and attributed most of these paintings to the Master of the Almshouse of the Seven Electors (named after the former location of the Amsterdam painting), with the exception of the two Passion scenes in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-2129 and SK-A-2130), which he attributed to the Master of the Lantern.
References
Friedländer X, 1932, pp. 114-18, 138; Hoogewerff I, 1936, pp. 518-27; Amsterdam 1958, pp. 64-65; ENP X, 1973, pp. 65-67, 85; Caroll in Turner 1996, XX, p. 616; Giltay in Rotterdam 2008a, p. 183
(J.P. Filedt Kok)
Entry
See SK-A-2129.
Literature
See SK-A-2129.
Collection catalogues
See SK-A-2129.
Citation
J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'circle of Meester van de Amsterdamse Dood van Maria, The Resurrection, c. 1485 - c. 1500', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9039
(accessed 10 November 2024 00:31:50).