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拍品专文
Painted by Cornelis Engebrechtsz, Leiden’s preeminent painter of the early sixteenth century, this panel depicts the crucified Christ, with Mary Magdalene hugging the Cross below. Saints John the Evangelist and Peter stand at right, with the sorrowful Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist standing at left. In their monograph on the artist, Jan Piet Filedt Kok and Walter Gibson note that the present panel was likely intended for display in a small private chapel, and relate it to Cornelis’s early Lamentation Triptych of circa 1508, one of the artist’s two principal works, both painted for the Augustinian convent of Mariënpoel at Oegstgeest (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden; loc. cit.). The scholars observe striking similarities between the two works, particularly ‘in the warm coloring and the delicacy of touch in the execution’ as well as the ‘detailed painting style of the faces and the costumes with deft highlights and elaborate ornamental details…’ (ibid.). The simplified landscape, with the city of Jerusalem in the background, executed in grays, browns and blue tones, is also typical of Cornelis’s works from this period. Accordingly, they date the painting to circa 1510-15, in line with the panel’s dendrochronology, which suggests a likely use date of or after 1488 or 1496.
Infrared reflectography reveals a somewhat cursory underdrawing, executed in a dry medium, likely black chalk. Though this practice is atypical for Cornelis’s paintings from this period, which tend to be underdrawn with a brush in black paint, Filedt Kok and Gibson suggest that this may be due to the fact that the composition was based on an existing model, with figures that recur in several paintings that were produced by the Engebrechtsz workshop (ibid.). Indeed, the pattern of the Magdalene’s red, gold-brocaded skirt was frequently used by the workshop. Nevertheless, they point to numerous details, especially the refined treatment of the faces and hands, as indications that Cornelis himself executed the majority of the painting, particularly the figures and landscape (ibid.), whereas the garments might have been painted by a workshop assistant.
The Eucharistic iconography of the two angels who catch Christ’s blood in golden chalices was popularized by an engraving by Martin Schongauer of circa 1475, which was widely circulated in Antwerp at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and likewise appears in contemporary paintings by Jan de Beer and Joos van Cleve (ibid.). The depiction of the sun and moon, one on either side of the Cross, was commonplace in Medieval depictions of the Crucifixion, but was used less frequently after the fifteenth century. The origins of this iconography appear to go back to Antiquity, but in this context relates to the darkness that descended upon the world during the Crucifixion between noon and three o’clock, as described in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44). At once an expression of how the heavens themselves mourn the passing of Jesus, Saint Augustine favored a reading of this imagery as symbolic of the Old Testament (the moon), which can only be understood under the light cast upon it by the New Testament (the sun).
Infrared reflectography reveals a somewhat cursory underdrawing, executed in a dry medium, likely black chalk. Though this practice is atypical for Cornelis’s paintings from this period, which tend to be underdrawn with a brush in black paint, Filedt Kok and Gibson suggest that this may be due to the fact that the composition was based on an existing model, with figures that recur in several paintings that were produced by the Engebrechtsz workshop (ibid.). Indeed, the pattern of the Magdalene’s red, gold-brocaded skirt was frequently used by the workshop. Nevertheless, they point to numerous details, especially the refined treatment of the faces and hands, as indications that Cornelis himself executed the majority of the painting, particularly the figures and landscape (ibid.), whereas the garments might have been painted by a workshop assistant.
The Eucharistic iconography of the two angels who catch Christ’s blood in golden chalices was popularized by an engraving by Martin Schongauer of circa 1475, which was widely circulated in Antwerp at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and likewise appears in contemporary paintings by Jan de Beer and Joos van Cleve (ibid.). The depiction of the sun and moon, one on either side of the Cross, was commonplace in Medieval depictions of the Crucifixion, but was used less frequently after the fifteenth century. The origins of this iconography appear to go back to Antiquity, but in this context relates to the darkness that descended upon the world during the Crucifixion between noon and three o’clock, as described in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44). At once an expression of how the heavens themselves mourn the passing of Jesus, Saint Augustine favored a reading of this imagery as symbolic of the Old Testament (the moon), which can only be understood under the light cast upon it by the New Testament (the sun).