1077. ALTAR-PIECE (dated 1501).
Borgognone (Lombard: about 1455-1523). See 298.
A picture of the "man of sorrows." On either side of the infant Christ are shown the scenes of his suffering[209]—
In stature grows the Heavenly Child,
With death before his eyes;
A Lamb unblemished, meek and mild,
Prepared for sacrifice.
For sacrifice—but also for redemption, and so above the throne are the angels of God, playing the glad music of death swallowed up in victory. In the right-hand compartment is Christ bearing his cross; in the left his agony in the garden. The three disciples are here crouched asleep lower down, and behind a wall are the Roman soldiers, whilst from above an angel brings a cup with a cross, two spears, and a crown of thorns in it: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke xxii. 42, 43).
1078. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS.
1079. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century).
See also (p. xx)
These two pictures closely resemble in style and colouring the large altar-piece in the church of St. Bavon at Ghent, which is attributed to Gerard van der Meire.[210] That painter flourished at Ghent about the middle of the fifteenth century; entering the Guild of St. Luke in 1452, and becoming sub-dean in 1474. He is described in a chronicle of the time as a pupil of Hubert van Eyck, but the historian Van Mander says he began to paint after the death of Jan van Eyck, a statement which is confirmed by the date of his enrolment in the Guild. Nothing is yet really known about him except the bare fact of his existence, for no picture has been certainly identified as his.
(1079.) It is interesting to compare this representation of the scene, almost childlike in its simplicity, alike with the treatment by later painters (see, for instance, Rembrandt's, No. 47), and with the more decorative and symbolic treatment of the early Italians (e.g. Botticelli, No. 1034). The picture before us "shows no particular felicity of rendering, no depth or insight; it carries little conviction of reality, but it has a homely charm. The painter was thoroughly convinced of the actual truth of what he represented, and thought only of bringing the same home to everyday experience. In the background he has placed a village, in which men are discussing what is going on" (J. E. Hodgson, R.A., in the Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 42).