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拍品专文
This extraordinary composition once formed part of a much larger panel, depicting the Crucifixion; the setting is Golgotha or Calvary, the hill immediately outside the walls of Jerusalem where Christ was crucified. According to the Gospel of John, 'Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy Son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home' (John, 19:25-7). Shown in the foreground, the Virgin has swooned, overcome by her sorrow at the death of her Son. In allusion to verse 7, her only support is now Saint John the Evangelist. Behind them, the Magdalene, richly dressed in silk robes with a heavily ornamented, gold-embroidered and jewel-studded trim, throws her hands up in despair. The wind driving across the desolate hilltop whips the sleeves of her garment into wild arabesques, and gently moves the tresses of Saint John's hair, while Jerusalem lies in the valley below. The beautifully observed skull at the lower left indicates that the Cross would originally have appeared just beyond the present left edge; Golgotha means 'place of the skull', and by long-standing iconographic convention a skull is often shown at the foot of the Cross, in reference also to the tradition that it was made of the wood of a tree which had grown from the grave of Adam.
An evocative depiction of one of the most dramatic moments of the Gospel narrative, when shortly 'the veil of the temple was rent in twain' (Mark 15:38), this panel almost certainly belonged to the same monumental polyptych as a double-sided fragment preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. nos. 767 and 893), one side of which is from a Crucifixion (fig. 1), the other the lower part of an Ecce Homo. The figures in Vienna are of exactly the same scale relative to the size of the fragment (111 x 72 cm.), while the underdrawing of the present work (fig. 2) is very close to that on either side of the Vienna panel, as documented by Maryan Ainsworth. Moreover, many stylistic features of the present work find an echo in the Vienna paintings -- for example, the costume of the Magdalene closely resembles that of the Virgin in the Circumcision; the spiritedly painted, airborne curls of Saint John the Evangelist are identical in style to those of Saint Joseph's hair and beard; the beautifully modelling of the draperies is consistent; and the somewhat truncated anatomy of the Magdalene's arms finds a parallel in the lower limbs of the figures in the Ecce Homo.
Believed to have been trained by his father, Valentin van Orley, Bernard attracted the attention of Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands on behalf of her nephew, Charles (subsequently Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), and from 1515 he began to fill numerous orders for portraits of the ruling family. Of noble birth (his first major painted work, the altarpiece of the Apostles Thomas and Matthew, is signed not only with his name but also with his coat-of-arms), van Orley seems to have become a courtier-artist of a model that foreshadows that of Rubens; like the later painter, van Orley was inspired by developments in the art of Italy, and his influence did much to introduce many ideals of the Italian Renaissance into northern art. Like his Florentine contemporaries and like Rubens a century later, van Orley championed the artist's role as an inventor of images rather than a mere craftsman, creating designs for tapestry and stained glass as well as for paintings.
The text running along the hem of the Virgin's dress can be precisely identified as belonging to the Stabat Mater, a thirteenth-century hymn evoking the emotional state of the Mother of God as she stands beneath the Cross on which Her Son has been crucified:
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit Illa benedicta,
Mater Unigeniti!
('At the Cross Her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.
'O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One'.
Trans. Fr. E. Caswall, Liturgia Horarum).
Described as one of the seven greatest Latin hymns, the Stabat Mater is closely associated with the rise of the Franciscan movement and is variously attributed to Pope Innocent III (1160/1-1216), Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274) or Fra Jacopone da Todi c. 1230-1306). Sung during the liturgy of Our Lady of Sorrows, the hymn was well known by the end of the fourteenth century, and its use was widespread in Europe. Amongst many famous settings (Palestrina, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Haydn, Rossini, and Dvoràk), the earliest well-documented music for the hymn was composed by van Orley's compatriot and contemporary, Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/5-1521). Probably born in Hainault, Josquin is considered the central figure of the Franco-Flemish school of music, and was without a doubt the most famous European composer of his time. Like van Orley, Josquin was held in high esteem by the Habsburg court in Brussels, and the two may have known each other. In fact, it seems likely that the composer was in Brussels at just the time when van Orley received one of his major court commissions from the Regent Margaret, the Virtue of Patience (also known as the Job altarpiece, 1521; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), and just before the date to which Friedländer assigned this work (1522). An entry in the papers of Charles V records a substantial payment to 'Joskin' and another singer, who had travelled to the Emperor's court in Brussels or Mechelen to present him with some new works, possibly including Josquin's late chanson Mille regretz, which is known to have been one of the Emperor's favourite pieces of music (P. Macey et al., 'Josquin des Prez', Grove Dictionary of Music, Oxford). It is tempting to wonder whether van Orley could have been the author of the lost portrait of Josquin which was once to be seen in the church of Saint Gudule, Brussels, and which is now known only from an engraving -- it would only be fitting for the greatest Flemish composer, honoured by Charles V, to have been portrayed by the pre-eminent portraitist of the Brussels court.
Sir Francis Cook, Bt. assembled the most important art collection of old masters formed in this country in the nineteenth century. The scion of a long-established Norfolk sheep-farming family who made a fortune in the wool trade, he began collecting with the purchase of a dozen or so Renaissance plaquettes during a youthful tour of Italy in 1840. It was not until 1868, however, that his collecting of old master paintings began in earnest, when he acquired about thirty pictures from the collection of Sir Charles Robinson, former Director of the South Kensington Museum. Robinson served as the catalyst to Cook's collecting instinct and would be his trusted advisor and dealer for the next thirty years, helping him form a collection that above all 'owed its strength to a good eye' (see E. Danziger, 'The Cook Collection, its founder and its inheritors', The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI, July 2004, p. 449). After the death of his father in 1869, he became the head of Cook, Son, and Co., and one of the richest men in England. 'Overnight', as Elon Danziger notes, 'he became one of the most voracious collectors in England: in 1876, just eight years after starting a picture collection, he owned 510 paintings. Many of his most inspired purchases date from this period of intense activity' (ibid., p. 448). These included masterpieces such as Velázquez's Old Woman Cooking Eggs (probably acquired c. 1870; Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland), van Eyck's Three Marys at the Sepulchre (acquired c. 1872; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Magi (acquired 1874; Washington, National Gallery of Art) and Turner's Grand Junction Canal at Southall Mill (acquired c. 1874; England, private collection).
We are grateful to John Somerville, Keeper of the Cook Collection Archive, for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.
An evocative depiction of one of the most dramatic moments of the Gospel narrative, when shortly 'the veil of the temple was rent in twain' (Mark 15:38), this panel almost certainly belonged to the same monumental polyptych as a double-sided fragment preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. nos. 767 and 893), one side of which is from a Crucifixion (fig. 1), the other the lower part of an Ecce Homo. The figures in Vienna are of exactly the same scale relative to the size of the fragment (111 x 72 cm.), while the underdrawing of the present work (fig. 2) is very close to that on either side of the Vienna panel, as documented by Maryan Ainsworth. Moreover, many stylistic features of the present work find an echo in the Vienna paintings -- for example, the costume of the Magdalene closely resembles that of the Virgin in the Circumcision; the spiritedly painted, airborne curls of Saint John the Evangelist are identical in style to those of Saint Joseph's hair and beard; the beautifully modelling of the draperies is consistent; and the somewhat truncated anatomy of the Magdalene's arms finds a parallel in the lower limbs of the figures in the Ecce Homo.
Believed to have been trained by his father, Valentin van Orley, Bernard attracted the attention of Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands on behalf of her nephew, Charles (subsequently Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), and from 1515 he began to fill numerous orders for portraits of the ruling family. Of noble birth (his first major painted work, the altarpiece of the Apostles Thomas and Matthew, is signed not only with his name but also with his coat-of-arms), van Orley seems to have become a courtier-artist of a model that foreshadows that of Rubens; like the later painter, van Orley was inspired by developments in the art of Italy, and his influence did much to introduce many ideals of the Italian Renaissance into northern art. Like his Florentine contemporaries and like Rubens a century later, van Orley championed the artist's role as an inventor of images rather than a mere craftsman, creating designs for tapestry and stained glass as well as for paintings.
The text running along the hem of the Virgin's dress can be precisely identified as belonging to the Stabat Mater, a thirteenth-century hymn evoking the emotional state of the Mother of God as she stands beneath the Cross on which Her Son has been crucified:
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit Illa benedicta,
Mater Unigeniti!
('At the Cross Her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.
'O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One'.
Trans. Fr. E. Caswall, Liturgia Horarum).
Described as one of the seven greatest Latin hymns, the Stabat Mater is closely associated with the rise of the Franciscan movement and is variously attributed to Pope Innocent III (1160/1-1216), Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274) or Fra Jacopone da Todi c. 1230-1306). Sung during the liturgy of Our Lady of Sorrows, the hymn was well known by the end of the fourteenth century, and its use was widespread in Europe. Amongst many famous settings (Palestrina, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Haydn, Rossini, and Dvoràk), the earliest well-documented music for the hymn was composed by van Orley's compatriot and contemporary, Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/5-1521). Probably born in Hainault, Josquin is considered the central figure of the Franco-Flemish school of music, and was without a doubt the most famous European composer of his time. Like van Orley, Josquin was held in high esteem by the Habsburg court in Brussels, and the two may have known each other. In fact, it seems likely that the composer was in Brussels at just the time when van Orley received one of his major court commissions from the Regent Margaret, the Virtue of Patience (also known as the Job altarpiece, 1521; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), and just before the date to which Friedländer assigned this work (1522). An entry in the papers of Charles V records a substantial payment to 'Joskin' and another singer, who had travelled to the Emperor's court in Brussels or Mechelen to present him with some new works, possibly including Josquin's late chanson Mille regretz, which is known to have been one of the Emperor's favourite pieces of music (P. Macey et al., 'Josquin des Prez', Grove Dictionary of Music, Oxford). It is tempting to wonder whether van Orley could have been the author of the lost portrait of Josquin which was once to be seen in the church of Saint Gudule, Brussels, and which is now known only from an engraving -- it would only be fitting for the greatest Flemish composer, honoured by Charles V, to have been portrayed by the pre-eminent portraitist of the Brussels court.
Sir Francis Cook, Bt. assembled the most important art collection of old masters formed in this country in the nineteenth century. The scion of a long-established Norfolk sheep-farming family who made a fortune in the wool trade, he began collecting with the purchase of a dozen or so Renaissance plaquettes during a youthful tour of Italy in 1840. It was not until 1868, however, that his collecting of old master paintings began in earnest, when he acquired about thirty pictures from the collection of Sir Charles Robinson, former Director of the South Kensington Museum. Robinson served as the catalyst to Cook's collecting instinct and would be his trusted advisor and dealer for the next thirty years, helping him form a collection that above all 'owed its strength to a good eye' (see E. Danziger, 'The Cook Collection, its founder and its inheritors', The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI, July 2004, p. 449). After the death of his father in 1869, he became the head of Cook, Son, and Co., and one of the richest men in England. 'Overnight', as Elon Danziger notes, 'he became one of the most voracious collectors in England: in 1876, just eight years after starting a picture collection, he owned 510 paintings. Many of his most inspired purchases date from this period of intense activity' (ibid., p. 448). These included masterpieces such as Velázquez's Old Woman Cooking Eggs (probably acquired c. 1870; Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland), van Eyck's Three Marys at the Sepulchre (acquired c. 1872; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Magi (acquired 1874; Washington, National Gallery of Art) and Turner's Grand Junction Canal at Southall Mill (acquired c. 1874; England, private collection).
We are grateful to John Somerville, Keeper of the Cook Collection Archive, for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.