Lot 19: Gerard David (Oudewater c. 1460-1523 Bruges)

The Madonna and Child
oil on a circular panel, set into a rectangular panel, unframed
8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm.) diameter

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Gerard David is known as the last of the 'Flemish Primitives'. Although born in the northern Netherlands, he moved to Bruges as a young man, and most of his work expresses the impassive, unmannered, microscopically realistic approach peculiar to southern Netherlandish art in the time of Jan van Eyck. David was adept at combining the artistic styles of several important Flemish predecessors, adapting, for example, the compositions of van Eyck and the technique of Hugo van der Goes. He was also influenced by Hans Memling, whose example led him to refine and polish his cruder northern Netherlandish style and to adopt the popular theme of the Virgin and Child enthroned.

It is hard to form a chronology of David's oeuvre, as the only dated works are from the period 1498-1509 and none of his paintings are signed. However, there are approximately 60 paintings that can be securely attributed to him, half of which are single-figure devotional panels, mainly Epiphanies and scenes from the Passion of Christ. There are about ten religious triptychs and one or two polyptychs, but only one secular work, the Cambyses diptych (Groeningemuseum) and only one surviving portrait, the Portrait of an Ecclesiastic National Gallery, London. In contrast to Memling, who had a very large private clientele, David worked primarily for churches, monasteries, convents, societies and magistrates. By January 1484, David had settled in Bruges and become a master in the Guild of Saint Luke there. He became dean of the Guild in 1501 and from that year received a series of important altarpiece commissions.

In 1515 a 'Meester Gheraert van Brugghe' (almost certainly Gerard David) became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, by then a more dynamic center than Bruges, and it is likely here that David executed the present painting. David's late work, into which category the present painting likely falls, is characterized by an almost intimate character, with soft rendering of volumes and misty, subdued coloring, rich in contrast, anticipating that of Adriaen Isenbrandt. In fact, a variant of this composition is recorded by Friedländer, formerly in the Fuller Maitland and Schloss collections as Isenbrandt (M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden, 1973, XI, pl. 142, fig. 193). Other paintings by David from this period include the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), the various versions of the Virgin with the porridge spoon (for example, the Aurora Trust painting), and the Adoration of the Magi (National Gallery, London). Also recognizable is David's characteristic rendering of faces, slightly flat with high foreheads, almond-shaped eyes, thick eyelids, straight mouths and pronounced chins.

David's skill in faithfully representing the atmospheric background landscape is evident in this painting. In general, the importance that David accorded to landscapes within his compositions is fundamental for the later development of panoramic landscape painting as practiced by artists such as Joachim Patenir. David makes the scene intimate and homelike. In Byzantine icons, images of the Virgin embracing the Child are called Eleüsa, and this emphasis on tenderness is typical for late Paleologan Byzantine icons, which made their appearance in the twelfth century. Perhaps also one of the principle sources of this motherly gesture may have been the Louvain tradition established by Dieric Bouts.

We are grateful to Till-Holger Borchert for endorsing the attribution of the present work to David (verbal communication, 13 October 2005).