THE ANTWERP SCHOOL
Quentin Matsys, the painter of The Banker and his Wife (No. 2029, [Plate XIX.]), of which numerous replicas and variants are known, some probably from the hand of his pupil Marinus van Roymerswaele, still owes his training to the primitives of his race, but heralds the new era which was to culminate in the art of Rubens, by passing from the earlier minute precision of detail to a certain breadth of style and boldness of brushwork, necessitated partly by the larger scale adopted for his figures. Neither The Saviour Blessing (No. 2030) nor The Virgin and Child (No. 2030a), both of which are catalogued under his name, can be accepted as authentic; but the interesting genre group of The Banker and his Wife is not only fully signed and dated
QVENTIN MATSYS, SCHILDER, 1514,
but is unmistakably the work of his brush, although the woman’s face and hands appear to have been badly repainted. It was bought in 1806 at the low price of £72. The best version of the same subject is the one in the Sigmaringen Gallery. By Quentin Matsys is also, probably, the Pietà (No. 2203), which is catalogued officially as “Flemish xvith Century.” Quentin’s son Jan, who followed his father’s tradition and achieved considerable distinction, is the painter of the hideous David and Bathsheba (No. 2030b), which bears the inscription
1562. IOANES MASSIIS PINGEBAT.
Next in importance among the Antwerp masters is Jan Gossart (c. 1470–1533?), better known as Mabuse, from the name of his native town Maubeuge in the Hainault. In his early work he followed the tradition of the great masters of his own country, but a journey to Italy in 1508 made him change his manner, and led him to adopt, together with the amplitude of Italian design, a certain floridness which compares unfavourably with the honest realism of his precursors and which led to the rapid decadence of the Flemish school. In the magnificent portrait of Jean Carondelet, Perpetual Chancellor of Flanders (No. 1997, [Plate XX.]), although it was painted as late as 1517, he is still faithful to the great tradition of his country for honest, straightforward, shrewdly observed, and delicately wrought portraiture. An inscription on the top of the arched gilt frame reads:
REPRÉSENTACION DE MESSIRE JEHAN CARONDELET,
HAVLT DOYEN DE BESANÇON, EN SON EAGE DE 48Ā,
and, below, “fait l’an 1517.” In a niche behind the panel are the letters “i c” entwined with strings, and the motto “matvra.” The portrait was, therefore, obviously painted just before Carondelet accompanied Charles v. to Spain in 1517.
This portrait panel, together with The Virgin and Child (No. 1998), which bears on the frame the inscription
MEDIATRIX NOSTRA QVE EST POST DEVM
SPES SOLA TVO FILIO ME REPRESENTA,
and the signature “johannes melbodie pingebat,” formed a diptych which was bought in 1847 from a Valenciennes architect for the ridiculous price of £40! A later portrait of Carondelet by Mabuse, dated 1531, appeared in 1907 at Christie’s under the name of C. Amberger, and realised the price of £3885. Another portrait of Carondelet, by B. van Orley, is in the Munich Gallery, where it is officially ascribed to Quentin Matsys, who is probably the painter of yet another portrait of the Chancellor which was recently in the Duchâtel collection in Paris. The Portrait of a Benedictine (No. 1999) bears the date 1526 and the signature
JOANNE MALBOLD PINGE.
The decline of the Antwerp school through the introduction of Italian mannerisms is illustrated in Young Tobias restoring Sight to his Father (No. 2001), a fully signed late picture by Jan van Hemessen, who flourished in that city towards the middle of the sixteenth century, and in whose art the last traces of the great national tradition disappear.
PLATE XIX.—QUENTIN MATSYS
(1466?–1530)
FLEMISH SCHOOL
No. 2029.—THE BANKER AND HIS WIFE
(Le Banquier et sa femme)
On the far side of a table covered with a green cloth and strewn with various objects, which include a crystal cup and a circular mirror, are seated the banker, wearing a dark blue robe edged with fur, and his wife who is turning over the leaves of an illuminated book of hours. At the back are shelves, on which are displayed books and many decorative objects.
Painted in oil on panel.
Signed on a roll of paper in the background:—“quentin matsys, schilder, 1514.”
2 ft. 5¼ in. × 1 ft. 11¾ in. (0.74 × 0.60.)