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拍品专文
While little is known about his career, it is likely that The Master of the Holy Blood trained in Antwerp, possibly in the workshop of Quentin Massys, before establishing his independent practice in Bruges. In 1519, the artist painted a triptych of the Lamentation for the city’s Heilig-Bloedbasiliek (Basilica of the Holy Blood), which housed an important relic of Christ’s blood, allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and bought back from the Holy Land to Bruges by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders (c. 1099-1168) in the mid-twelfth century. That triptych became the central work of the master’s oeuvre, and the painting from which he gained his name. It shows clear evidence of the influence of Antwerp painting, and especially the work of Massys, closely resembling the latter’s Altarpiece of the Lamentation (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) of circa 1507 to 1508, painted for the altar of the carpenter’s guild in Antwerp cathedral. While the Master of the Holy Blood group is not consistent, Till-Holger Borchert, Director of Musea Bruges, Bruges, to whom we are grateful, finds the underdrawing of the present work comparable to that found in the Master’s triptych of the Virgin and Child with St Catherine and St Barbara at the Groeningemuseum, Bruges.
This depiction of the Virgin and Child appears to have been based on a circulated pattern which enjoyed some popularity in both Brussels and Antwerp during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Based ultimately on the same figures, in reverse, in Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint Luke drawing the Virgin and Child (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), very similar figures can be found in paintings by artists like The Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine (formerly with Sam Fogg, London) and Joos van Cleve (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). Indeed, these latter examples appear to have shared an exact model, with the figures exhibiting almost identical (though reversed) drapery lines and poses (G. Steyaert, in L’Héritage de Rogier van der Weyden, V. Bücken and G. Steyaert, eds., exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 2013, pp. 221-2, no. 42).
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt became an increasingly popular subject during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries in Netherlandish painting. Though the events of the flight were only briefly mentioned in the Gospels, later texts elaborated on the story, providing a wealth of narrative details. The account given in Ludolph of Saxony’s widely popular Vita Christi seems to be especially pertinent for the present painting, since it was here that the narrative included a description of how the Virgin stopped to feed the Christ Child during the journey. Here too, beyond the central figures, Saint Joseph can be seen gathering fruit from a tree. This references a miracle, often depicted in paintings of the subject, whereby a date palm tree, under which the Virgin and Child rested, miraculously bent down toward them, enabling them to eat its fruit.
This depiction of the Virgin and Child appears to have been based on a circulated pattern which enjoyed some popularity in both Brussels and Antwerp during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Based ultimately on the same figures, in reverse, in Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint Luke drawing the Virgin and Child (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), very similar figures can be found in paintings by artists like The Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine (formerly with Sam Fogg, London) and Joos van Cleve (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). Indeed, these latter examples appear to have shared an exact model, with the figures exhibiting almost identical (though reversed) drapery lines and poses (G. Steyaert, in L’Héritage de Rogier van der Weyden, V. Bücken and G. Steyaert, eds., exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 2013, pp. 221-2, no. 42).
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt became an increasingly popular subject during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries in Netherlandish painting. Though the events of the flight were only briefly mentioned in the Gospels, later texts elaborated on the story, providing a wealth of narrative details. The account given in Ludolph of Saxony’s widely popular Vita Christi seems to be especially pertinent for the present painting, since it was here that the narrative included a description of how the Virgin stopped to feed the Christ Child during the journey. Here too, beyond the central figures, Saint Joseph can be seen gathering fruit from a tree. This references a miracle, often depicted in paintings of the subject, whereby a date palm tree, under which the Virgin and Child rested, miraculously bent down toward them, enabling them to eat its fruit.