Flemish painting and De Jonckheere Gallery's old master paintings
Monogrammed by van Noort
Painted with Lambert van Noort
Provenance: private collection, France
Sold to the Musée provincial des arts anciens du Namurois.
As a doctor of the Church and...
read moreMonogrammed by van Noort
Painted with Lambert van Noort
Provenance: private collection, France
Sold to the Musée provincial des arts anciens du Namurois.
As a doctor of the Church and translator of the Vulgate, Saint Jerome became the subject of a genuine iconographical craze in the Renaissance, a period of religious upheaval during which the Saint’s direct proximity to the Scriptures served those on both sides of the debates indirectly as alibi or political argument.
While depictions of Saint Jerome in his study provided an opportunity to emphasize and celebrate the Saint’s humanistic side, at the same time there was a great boom in compositions showing him doing penance in fantastical deserts. Whether the work of Patinir, met de Bles or the Master of the Half Figures, these panels played a truly crucial role at this early stage in the development of the landscape as an autonomous pictorial genre in Flanders.
In this case, far from being lost in a landscape for which he is merely the pretext, the figure of the Saint powerfully dominates the foreground of the painting. A noticeably athletic figure, he is shown kneeling before a crucifix, in a somewhat contorted position that clearly expresses the torments of the penitent, and he appears to be about to beat his bare breast.
The viewer is instructed in no uncertain terms as to the restorative outcome of the penance, with the impressive physical vigor of the Saint as the direct embodiment of the strength and vigor of his moral rectitude.
The overall composition exudes a similar impression of force and power, from the oak tree entwined by the vine of the Christian Virgin, to the Christ figure sculpted on the crucifix.
More specifically, the inclination of the crucifix, combined with the fact that the body of Christ is rendered in a highly naturalistic fashion, suggests that the force of the Saint’s penance has already moved him to a spiritual plane of mystical vision.
The Saint’s attributes are clearly visible at his feet: his cardinal’s hat, together with the lion from whose foot, according to legend, he removed a thorn, thus securing the animal’s loyal companionship. In this case, the animal further reinforces the idea of strength expressed by the Saint’s physique and the vitality of the other elements in the composition.
Behind the pyramid-shaped group in the foreground, in accordance with the somewhat atypical conception that the European artists of the time had of the Oriental deserts, a lush green landscape unfolds.
In the combination of gentle inclines and more tortuous rocky peaks with the particularly well integrated tonal perspective and the highly progressive positioning of the elements, the mark of met de Bles is clearly visible, himself the creator of many landscapes illustrating the legend of Saint Jerome. One of the most convincing comparison pieces for the two artists’ collaboration is provided by a Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist held in the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung in Basel (panel, 60 x 53 cm., inv. N° 76). This panel, which has been in the municipal collection since 1662, came from the famous Amerbach collection, in an inventory of which it is mentioned in 1586 as the work of "Heinrich Blesii Bovinati" (according to tradition, it was given to the humanist Boniface Amerbach by Erasmus himself), which in fact makes it the earliest documented work by met de Bles.
The Basel picture shows the same type of landscape design developed around the stout oak tree in the foreground, beneath which the figures of the holy party are concentrated. These powerfully built figures, which at the same time show a gestural construction that is mannerist, to say the least, and even somewhat convoluted, display a striking similarity to our Saint Jerome, while also recalling the art of Raphael and his followers, an influence to which van Noort is known to have been particularly susceptible. A comparison of these two panels is thus crucial for two reasons. While supporting the stylistic attribution of the landscape background of this painting to met de Bles, it also makes it possible to name the hitherto unidentified author of the figures of the Holy Family in Basel.
1520 Amersfoort – Antwerp 1571
The importance of the mysterious and multitalented artist Lambert van Noort is constantly being reassessed, as his oeuvre is further discovered.
His birth is...
read more1520 Amersfoort – Antwerp 1571
The importance of the mysterious and multitalented artist Lambert van Noort is constantly being reassessed, as his oeuvre is further discovered.
His birth is generally situated around 1520 in Amersfoort, where he received his initial training from his father, Jaspar Willemsz. His brother Willem van Noort, also a painter, was active in Utrecht and it is in this city that Lambert would perfect his skills, apparently in the workshop of Jan van Scorel. His presence is later documented in Antwerp where, after spending time in the workshop of Vincent Sellaer and, probably, of the Master of the Half Figures, he became a master in 1549.
An artist of multifarious talents, he also worked as an architect and ornamental designer, creating projects and cartoons for stained glass windows (for the chapel of the Virgin in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam realized by Digman Meynaert for example), as well as tapestries, decorative ironwork and engravings.
The Italian influence, discernible in his early work, which resulted from his introduction into the circles of Romanist artists in Flanders, was reinforced by a trip to Italy. Judging from the retable he produced showing the Virgin giving the belt to Saint Thomas, which formerly adorned the high altar of Santa Maria di Mortara in Ferrara and is currently held in the Oratorio de la S. Annunziata in the same city, van Noort’s tour of Italy which is situated between 15 March 1558 and the end of 1559, was truly decisive: from Emiglia Romana in Tuscany, he familiarized himself with the greatest masters of Italian Mannerism, from Bronzino to Parmigianino.
In addition to his constant references to Rafael and Tuscan art, a key influence from his Antwerp years was the art of Frans Floris, whose style he strove to assimilate.
His robust male figures demonstrate a genuine fascination with anatomy, as does the work he produced from live models, becoming one of Flanders’ first practitioners of this method.
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