.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
One of the few paintings fully attributed to Jan Provost to remain in private hands, this grisaille is a part of a now-dispersed triptych of which the known constituents are in the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, and the Prado, Madrid. Originally this panel was the outer face of the triptych's left wing, the reverse or inner face depicting Saint Andrew (Bonnenfanten Museum). The right wing, now in the Prado, depicts Saint Cristopher on the inner face and on the outer face, which is the counterpart to the present painting, the Virgin Annunciate.
Stylistically, both wings date from relatively early in Provost's career, showing the dual influences of Rogier van der Weyden - in Bruges through Memling - and Gerard David. The present painting of the Archangel Gabriel recalls the wing of Memling's Triptych of Jan Crabbe, in whch the Angel's right hand is raised in blessing while the arm is held back in a gentle, almost reassuring manner. These derive from Rogerian prototypes, the Louvre Annunciation or the copy after a lost painting (Berlin, Staatliche Museum).
Stylistically, however, the present figure is entirely Provost: in the characteristically idealized, open, high foreheaded face, the slightly protruding lower lip, the fingers bent at the second joint, and the open, soft palette. Provost was particularly unusual in his practice of never repeating his compositions, an unusual restraint at the time but one that lends a lifelike freshness to his works that is evident throughout his oeuvre. Characteristic also is the able draughtsmanship that is particularly important to the convincing rendition of the trompe l'oeil effects that artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would produce but that this type of work presaged some two hundred years before.
Stylistically, both wings date from relatively early in Provost's career, showing the dual influences of Rogier van der Weyden - in Bruges through Memling - and Gerard David. The present painting of the Archangel Gabriel recalls the wing of Memling's Triptych of Jan Crabbe, in whch the Angel's right hand is raised in blessing while the arm is held back in a gentle, almost reassuring manner. These derive from Rogerian prototypes, the Louvre Annunciation or the copy after a lost painting (Berlin, Staatliche Museum).
Stylistically, however, the present figure is entirely Provost: in the characteristically idealized, open, high foreheaded face, the slightly protruding lower lip, the fingers bent at the second joint, and the open, soft palette. Provost was particularly unusual in his practice of never repeating his compositions, an unusual restraint at the time but one that lends a lifelike freshness to his works that is evident throughout his oeuvre. Characteristic also is the able draughtsmanship that is particularly important to the convincing rendition of the trompe l'oeil effects that artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would produce but that this type of work presaged some two hundred years before.