Object data
oil on panel
support: height 24.3 cm × width 31.4 cm × height 21 cm (painted surface) × width 28.7 cm (painted surface)
Cornelis Engebrechtsz
Christ on the Cross with the Virgin, St John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalen, and Sts Cecilia and Barbara (left), and Sts Peter, Francis and Jerome (right)
Leiden, c. 1505 - c. 1510
Technical notes
The support is a single horizontally grained oak plank, approx. 0.8-1.1 cm thick. There are evenly spaced holes along the edges on the reverse of the panel which are probably remnants of the attachment in the original frame. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1482. The panel could have been ready for use by 1493, but a date in or after 1507 is more likely. There is a white chalk ground, visible along the edges, which was applied in the original frame. There are unpainted edges of approx. 1.4-1.6 cm on all four sides, with a well-preserved barbe (painted surface: 21 x 28.7 cm). Infrared reflectography did not reveal a clear underdrawing for the entire composition. The view of the town in the distance and St Barbara’s tower in the left background were, however, underdrawn in a dry medium. There are a few lines visible in the figures, and parallel hatchings on Christ’s right thigh. Peter’s keys were large in the underdrawing, and were at more of an angle. St Barbara’s tower is larger in the underdrawing than in the finished painting. The figures were reserved. The paint layers are rather thick; the brocade patterns on the dresses of the female saints were applied flatly in red and blue, without following the folds of the garments. St Jerome’s head was made smaller.
Scientific examination and reports
- X-radiography: RMA, no. 1401, 1973
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / A. Wallert [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG42, 1 October 1998
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 14 May 2004
- condition report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 4 April 2006
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG368, 5 April 2006
Condition
Good. The painting is slightly abraded and the varnish is discoloured.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1948: cleaned
Provenance
…; ? the Brigittine convent Mariënwater, Koudewater, near ’s-Hertogenbosch, before 1713;1 transferred to the Brigittine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713;2 from which institution, fl. 2,000, as Anonymous, early 16th century, with other objects, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. no. 1223), 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, 2004-10
Object number: SK-A-859
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Cornelis Engebrechtsz (Leiden c. 1462 - Leiden 1527)
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.3 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.4 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.
Updated by J.P. Filedt Kok, 2017
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
Entry
In addition to larger, many-figured scenes of the Crucifixion in late medieval Dutch and German painting, the smaller devotional works often have only the crucified Christ with the Virgin, St John and Mary Magdalen in a landscape, sometimes with a few saints, as here.5 The ones in this painting can be recognised from their attributes as St Cecilia with her falcon and sword, St Barbara with tower and peacock’s feather, St Peter with the keys and a book, St Francis in a friar’s habit displaying his stigmata, and St Jerome with a red cardinal’s hat, robe and a lion.
The panel, which was first attributed to Engebrechtsz by Dülberg in 1899, is usually regarded as an early work from before 1500. However, distinctive features like the elongated, oval faces of the women, the beady black eyes and the bright palette can also be found in his Triptych with the Lamentation in Leiden, datable c. 1508.6 It is only logical that the small size of the panel and the simple composition led to the figures being squatter and the draperies less lively than in the larger works. The simplification of the figures probably indicates that this little panel was part of the stock output of small devotional works by Engebrechtsz and from his workshop. This suspicion is confirmed by the existence of similar compositions, such as a Crucifixion with Saints in a private American collection (fig. a).7 It is for that reason that the Amsterdam panel can be dated later than is assumed in the literature, to around 1505-10, when Engebrechtsz’s shop was operating at full capacity. The dendrochronology, which indicates that the panel was ready for use by 1493 at the earliest, but more probably by 1507, points in the same direction.
This and four other paintings came from the Brigittine convent of Mariënwater in Koudewater, near ’s-Hertogenbosch.8 Going by the provenance, size and simple composition, this little picture was made for the private devotions of a nun. It is possible that there were contacts between the convent and the Mariënpoel nunnery near Leiden, which Engebrechtsz supplied with two altarpieces and probably several other devotional works as well.9 It could also have accompanied nuns from Leiden who sought refuge in the Brabant convent later in the 16th century.
(Jan Piet Filedt Kok)
Literature
Dülberg 1899a, pp. 76-77; Friedländer 1906, pp. 26-38; Wescher 1924, p. 102; Gavelle 1929, p. 290, no. 37; Friedländer X, 1932, pp. 66, 131, no. 91; Hoogewerff III, 1939, p. 201; Pelinck 1948, p. 53; Gibson 1969a, pp. 33-37, 239-40, no. 13; ENP X, 1973, pp. 40, 79, no. 91; Koldeweij in ’s-Hertogenbosch 1990, p. 162, no. 94
Collection catalogues
1887, p. 182, no. 1564 (as Flemish school, c. 1500); 1903, p. 96, no. 905 (as attributed to Engebrechtsz); 1934, p. 95, no. 905; 1960, p. 96, no. 905; 1976, p. 220, no. A 859
Citation
J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'Cornelis Engebrechtsz., Christ on the Cross with the Virgin, St John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalen, and Sts Cecilia and Barbara (left), and Sts Peter, Francis and Jerome (right), Leiden, c. 1505 - c. 1510', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8386
(accessed 27 November 2024 00:38:43).