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Provenance

Queen Isabel of Castile [d. 1504], castle of Toro, Zamora province. Diego Flores, by 13 March 1505, possibly as agent for Margaret of Austria.[1] Margaret of Austria [d. 1530], Regent of the Netherlands, Mechelen, inventories of 1516 and 1524.[2] Her nephew, Emperor Charles V [d. 1558]; given to his wife Isabel of Portugal [d. 1539], along with several other panels from Isabel of Castile's retable made up into an altarpiece;[3] their son, King Philip II of Spain [d. 1598], Madrid.[4] Oderisio de Sangro, Prince of Fondi, Naples; (sale, Galerie Sangiorgi, Rome, 22 April-1 May 1895, no. 738, with no. 738bis, The Marriage at Cana, as Bolognese school, bought in), until at least 1897.[5] (Stefano Bardini [1836-1922], Florence); Vernon James Watney [d. 1928], Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, from 1899;[6] his son, Oliver Vernon Watney [1902-1966], Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 23 June 1967, no. 32, together with no. 33, The Marriage at Cana); (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); purchased 1967 by NGA.

Exhibition History

1908
Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1908, no. 12, as Gerard David.
1969
In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.
1991
Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1991-1992, no. 43, repro.
1992
Hispania-Austria: Die Katholischen Könige - Maximilian I und di Anfange der Casa de Austria in Spanien, Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck (part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), July-September 1992, no. 53b, repro.
1992
Reyes Y Mecenas: Los Reyes Católicos - Maximiliano I y los Inicios de la Casa de Austria en España, Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain, March-May 1992, no. 208, repro.
2018
Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 2018, no. 5, repro.

Technical Summary

The panel is made of a single piece of wood. All four corners are slightly worn and chipped. There are nicks in the center of all four sides, probably resulting from the way the painting was mounted at some point. The painted surface is bordered by a gold band, which seems to be original. Beneath it is what appears to be a layer of pale gray bole.[1] No underdrawing is visible with infrared reflectography. Removal of labels formerly affixed to the back of the panel[2] revealed old inscriptions, one below the other, on the panel itself: Luca di . . . d . . . in black ink; Gerardo van der [M]eir ... in blue crayon; and 2 in black ink.[3] The painting is in very good condition, with some loss in the corners and some minimal inpainting, particularly along the crackle in the sky.

[1]A survey of the condition of the unpainted edges of all the panels belonging to the series would probably provide some information on their framing history. Thus, in Christ Appearing to His Mother with the Redeemed of the Old Testament in London, one of four not sold in 1505, a whitish chalk ground extends over the unpainted edges at top and sides. A gold border, said to be a recent addition, was removed in 1967-1968; see MacLaren 1952 (2d ed. 1970), 42. Christ and the Samaritan Woman in the Louvre, the only panel bought by the head of the pages in 1505, has both an unpainted edge and a gold border apparently added within the painted image and now partially removed and overpainted.

[2] In addition to two typed descriptive labels, one stating, "... bought by J.W. from Bardini, the dealer, in Florence, in 1899...," and a label from Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., no. 28505, these are a label from the Royal Academy Winter exhibition, 1908, and smaller stickers with 55 in ink and HAB/7 2 A in ink. The labels are now in the curatorial files.

[3] The second inscription most probably refers to Gerard van der Meire, a documented Ghent painter to whom many early Netherlandish paintings were attributed in the nineteenth century; see J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, The Early Flemish Painters: Notices of their Lives and Works, 2d ed. (London, 1872), 147-154.

Bibliography

1905
Glück, Gustav. "Kinderbildnisse aus der Sammlung Margaretens von Österreich." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungenen in Wien 25 (1905): 228.
1907
Winkler, Friedrich. "Juan de Flandes." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 19(1926):278-279.
1908
Justi, Carl. Miscellaneen aus drei Jahrhunderten spanischen Kunstlebens. 2 vols. Berlin, 1908: 1:316-319.
1930
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. "El retablo de la Reina Católica." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 6 (1930) 97-98, 120.
1931
Isherwood, Kay H. "Two Paintings by Juan de Flandes." The Burlington Magazine 58 (1931): 197-201.
1931
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. "El retablo de la Reina Católica (Addenda et corrigenda)." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 7 (1931): 149-150, pl. 2.
1932
Hulin de Loo, Georges. Trésor de l'art flamand du moyen âge au XVIIIe siècle. Mémorial de l'exposition de l'art flamand à Anvers 1930. 2 vols. Paris, 1932: 1:50-51.
1933
Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1930-1966: 4: part 1, 9.
1933
Winkler, Friedrich. Appendix to Gustav Glück. Aus drei Jahrhunderten europäischer Malerei. Vienna, 1933: 322, nt. b.
1950
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. Libros, tapices y cuadros que coleccionó Isabel la Católica. Madrid, 1950: 185.
1952
MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues. The Spanish School. London, 1952: 24. (Second edition revised by Allan Braham. London, 1970: 45.)
1962
Bermejo, Elisa. Juan de Flandes. Madrid, 1962: 12, 41, pl. 2.
1965
Eisler, Colin T. "The Sittow Assumption." Art News 64 (September, 1965): 53.
1967
Christie, Manson & Woods. Christie's Review of the Year, October 1966 - July 1967. London, 1967: 25-26, repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 62, repro.
1970
Davies, Martin. Primitifs flamands. Corpus. The National Gallery London. 3 vols. Brussels, 1970: 3:9.
1974
Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector. Boston and Toronto, 1974: 42-44.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 184, repro.
1979
Thomas, Denis. The Face of Christ. London, 1979: 129, color repro.
1981
Demus, Klaus, Friderike Klauner, and Karl Schütz. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Flämische Malerei von Jan van Eyck bis Pieter Bruegel der Ä. Vienna, 1981: 176.
1982
Kauffmann, C. M. Victoria and Albert Museum. Catalogue of the Paintings in the Wellington Museum. London, 1982: 78-79.
1984
Bauman, Guy C. "Juan de Flandes." In The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984: 60, 62; 63 nt.2 under no. 20.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 138, no. 135, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 212, repro.
1986
Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 133-139, repro. 135.
1991
Brown, Jonathan. The Golden Age of Painting in Spain. New Haven, 1998: 10, fig. 3.
1991
MacCormack, Sabine. "Demons, Imagination, and the Incas." Representations 33, Winter (1991): 126, fig. 5.
1993
MacCormack, Sabine. "Demons, Imagination, and the Incas." In New World Encounters. edited by Stephen Greenblatt. Berkeley, 1993: 106-107, fig. 5.
1996
Marquand, Edward Bruce, ed. The Devil's Mischief: In Which His Own Story is Told in Word and Pictures. New York, 1996: [70], repro.
1996
Woodard, Russell Main. Revelation--A Spiritual Study. Silver Spring, 1996: repro.
1998
Ainsworth, Maryan W. and Keith Christiansen, ed. From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. New York, 1998: 73. (NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)
1998
Brown, Jonathan. Painting in Spain, 1500-1700. New Haven, 1998: 19, color fig. 24.
2000
Fahy, Everett. Dipinti, disegni, miniature, stampe: L'Archivio storico fotografico di Stefano Bardini. Florence, 2000: 55, no. 551.
2001
Horgan, Marta. "The Golden Age of Spanish Art." Washington Parent (April 2001): 14.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 56-57, no. 40, color repro.
2010
Juan de Flandes en het Mirafloresretabel, gesignaleerd en opgespoord. Exh. cat. Musée Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp, 2010: 36, fig. 8.
2011
Klamt, Johann-Christian. Verführerische Ansichten: Mittelalterliche Darstellungen der Dritten Versuchung Christi. Regensburg, 2011: 18, 101, color pl. 2.
2011
Weniger, Matthias. Sittow, Morros, Juan de Flandes: Drei Maler aus dem Norden am Hof Isabellas der Katholischen. Kiel, 2011: 210-215, 283, no. 3.1, fig. 123, color plates 11a.
2013
Ninagawa, Junko. "A Succession of Wishes: The Triptych of the Baptism of Christ by Gerard David." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 76, no. 1 (2013): 25, note 58.

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