GOSWIJN VAN DER WEYDEN BRUSSELS CIRCA 1465 - AFTER 1538 ANTWERP SEVEN SCENES FROM THE LIFE AND VENERATION OF SAINT DYMPHNA A) SAINT DYMPHNA BAPTISED BY GEREBERNUS; B) HER FATHER THE KING TELLING HIS DAUGHTER OF HIS INTENTION TO WED HER: C) SAINT DYMPHNA EMBARKING WITH HER RETINUE; D) THE KING'S SOLDIERS LOOKING FOR THE SAINT; E) AN EMISSARY REPORTS HER DISCOVERY TO THE KING; F) THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODIES OF SAINT DYMPHNA AND GEREBERNUS; G) THE BODY OF SAINT DYMPHNA RETURNED TO GEEL Quantity: 8 all oil on oak panel the dimensions vary from 120 to 126 cm. by 71 to 79 cm.; 47 1/4 to 49 1/2 in. by 28 to 31 in.
Ghent, L'Art Ancien dans les Flandres, 1913, no. 548, lent by Onnes; London, Royal Academy, Flemish and Belgian Art, 1927, nos. 281-5, lent by Tietje; Vienna, Sezession, Drei Jahrhunderte Vlamische Kunst 1400-1700, 1930, nos. 53, 54, 58, 59, 62, 63, 64; Antwerp, Exposition Internationale. Section d'Art Ancien, 1930, nos. 316, 317; Brussels, Exposition Universelle. Cinq Siecles d'Art, 1935, no. 85; Antwerp, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, on loan, 2001-2010.
Literature
G. Hulin de Loo, 'Ein authentische Werk von Goossen van der Weyden'' in Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kustsammlungen, vol. xxxxiv, 1913, p. 59ff; 'L'Exposition d'Art Ancien dans les Flandres. Gand 1913'' in Art Flamand & Hollandais, vol. x, no. 9, 15 September 1913, p. 71; M. Conway, The Van Eyck and their followers, 1921, p. 272; J. Cassirer, P. Bergmans, L'Art ancien dans les Flandres, 1922, vol. iii, pp. 48ff, 344-51, reproduced plates ccxxxvi-ix; M.J. Friedlander, Die Altniederlandische Malerei, vol. iv, Leiden 1926, pp. 102-3; T. Borenius, in M. Conway (ed.), Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Flemish & Belgian Art... A Memorial Volume, London 1927, pp. 90-91, 92, 114-115, nos. 214, 217, 281-2, 284-6, two reproduced plate lxxxii; Various authors, Tresor de l'Art Flamand, 1932, vol. i, reproduced plate xv; M.J. Friedlander, Die Altniederlandische Malerei, vol. xi, Leiden 1933, pp. 31-3; F. Winkler, in U. Thieme, F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon..., vol. 35, Leipzig 1942, p. 467; M.J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. xi, Leiden 1974, pp. 22-3, reproduced plates 22-3; G. Passemiers, Goossen van der Weyden, thesis, Brussels 1987, pp. 112-126, no. 1, all reproduced; N. Toussaint, "Goswijn van der Weyden", in Les primitifs flamands et leur temps, ed. B. de Patoul & R. van Schoute, Louvain-la-Neuve 1994, pp. 558-60; C. Perier d'Ieteren, in The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 33, pp. 129-30; N. Toussaint, in C. Strybo, P. Syfer-d'Olne, A. Dubois, R. Slchmuylders, N. Toussaint, The Flemish Primitives, III, Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting in the Royal Museums of fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels 2001, p. 333
Provenance
Painted for the chapel of Saint Dymphna in the Abbey church at Tongerlo near Geel in 1505; In situ at Tongerlo until the rule of Abbot Van der Achter (1724-1745), who had the altarpiece dismembered; Kept at Tongerlo (in store or re-hung) until the Napoleonic suppression of the Abbey in 1794; Apparently hidden near the Abbey, and in 1837 recorded in the possession of M. Lebon, Burgomaster of Geel; Recorded in the possession of librarian Fr. Olivier, Brussels, 19 May 1869 (by which time one of the original eight was already missing), by whom returned them to Tongerlo; Acquired by Fred. Muller, Amsterdam, 1912; Onnes, Nijenrode, Breukelen, 1913-1923; His sale, Amsterdam, Fred. Muller, 10 July 1923, lot 22; Tietje, Amsterdam; His sale, Amsterdam, Fred. Muller, 4 June 1929; Baron Jo van der Elst, Vienna, by 1930; Thence by descent until sold, London, Sotheby's, 12 July 2001, lot 14, where acquired by the present owner.
Notes
Sold together with:
Saint Dymphna and Saint Lucy oil on oak panel, en grisaille 122 by 75 cm.; 48 by 29 1/2 in.
Goswyn van der Weyden was the grandson of Rogier van der Weyden, and the son of Pieter van der Weyden, also a painter. He is thought to have been an apprentice of his father in Brussels until 1492. Thereafter he worked at Lier, where he worked at the Church of Saint Gommaire, before beginning his association with the Premonstrant Abbey at at Tongerlo, near Geel, in 1499. After his marriage to Anthonia Wellens in 1498 he settled in Antwerp, but his close connections with Tongerlo continued to strengthen. In 1507 he produced a small triptych with the Passion of Christ for Abbot, Antonius Tsgrooten, and in 1508 he received 7 Rhenish Guilders for gilding the chandelier of the Abbey church.υ1 A letter from him asking for an advance of money from the Abbey, written two weeks after Easter 1509 survives, as does one from his wife the following year, and in 1513 he was appointed hospes of the refuge belonging to the Abbey in Antwerp, and he remained in the service of the Abbey for the rest of his life. A Virgin and Child with Donors of circa 1510 depicts the act of donation of land to the Abbey of Tongerlo in the 12th Century, just a few years after its foundation.υ2 Goswyn is mentioned in connection with the Abbey in a document as late as 1533-5, recording a large triptych of the Death, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin for the High Altar of the Abbey church, in which he depicted himself next to his grandfather on the left wing.υ3
These are seven of the original eight panels painted by Goswyn van der Weyden for the chapel dedicated to Saint Dymphna in the transept of the Abbey church of Saint Norbert at Tongerlo. One panel, the sixth in the cycle, presumably representing The Martyrdom of Saint Dymphna and her confessor Gerebernus, is missing. Three of the wing panels retain their grisaille reverses, although two of these are barely legible now; one grisaille reverse has been detached and is included with this lot, catalogued separately below. According to Passemiers' reconstruction of the original altarpiece,υ4 reproduced here as fig. 1, scenes b), c) & f) are three of the original four central panels (the missing panel was the fourth), while panels a), d), e) & g) formed the inner wings.
These panels are recorded as having been in place in 1505, according to a manuscript annotation in the hand of the late 18th Century archivist of the Abbey, Adrien Heylen, who had access to many contemporary accounts and documents, all now lost: 1505. Facta tabula in choro S. Dymphnae. Their authorship is not mentioned. However, Goswyn van der Weyden's well documented close association with the Abbey from 1499 onwards, and the absence of any evidence of any other painter having had any such connection with it in this period, makes it most unlikely that his extremely important commission could have been entrusted any other artist. Furthermore, these panels are stylistically consistent with Van der Weyden's few other known works. He is likely to have started work on them a year or two before 1505, and they are generally dated 1503-5. Their presence in the Abbey in or by 1505 is confirmed by the grisaille reverse of g), depicting the Abbot, Arnold Streyters, with his Chamberlain Wilhelm Sapeel, who was appointed Curé at Mierlo in the course of that year.
The Irish saint Dymphna is the patron saint of Geel. She is believed to have been the daughter of a pagan Irish chieftain in the 7th Century. According to legend her mother, a Christian, died when she was a child, and when she reached maturity, her father found in her such a striking likeness of his widow that he declared his intention of marrying her. His incestuous intentions prompted her to flee, accompanied by servants and her priest and confessor, Saint Gerebernus, and they settled near Geel. Her father had them traced by the coins they were using, had Gerebernus caught and murdered, and when Dymphna continued to refuse to return, had her martyred in turn, at Westerlo, near Tongerlo. Her relics and those of Gerebernus were discovered in the 13th Century, but it was not until after it was discovered that they were particularly efficacious in curing epilepsy, lunacy, and other mental afflictions, to the extent that many miracles have been attributed to her intercession, that her cult grew and she became the patron saint of the insane. Her saint's day is May 15th. She is still venerated in the area of her martyrdom, and since Catholic emancipation, has drawn a following in Ireland, where Dymphna is a popular name for girls.
1. See C. Stroo et al under literature, p. 333. The triptych is the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. 2. Idem, p. 334. the panel is in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. 3. Ibid. The altarpiece vanished around 1795 when the abbey was occupied by invading French troops following its supression. 4. See underliterature, p. 127, plate xiv
