A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools / Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin

by Unknown

1432. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE.

Gerard David (Early Flemish: 1460-1523). See 1045.

This picture (formerly ascribed to Hugo van der Goes) was, like No. 1045, painted for the Collegiate Church of St. Donatian at Bruges. Until the end of the last century it adorned the altar of St. Catherine in that church. The details of the picture are carried out with marvellous care and finish, and the whole displays the utmost perfection of execution. The expression of the figures, is, however, hardly so animated or idealised as in No. 1045. But "the Canon's intelligent head is admirably modelled and painted, and the figure of St. Catherine is executed with rare perfection. The jewellery, stuff, and draperies are all rendered with David's usual skill; while the background, with its rich vegetation, vigorously coloured trees, and picturesque buildings, is hardly surpassed by that of any of his other pictures." The scene of the mystical marriage (for the subject, see under 249) is laid in the emblematic walled garden ("a garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse"), surrounded by a vineyard (in which is an angel gathering grapes). On the right of the picture are seated St. Barbara, holding an open book, and St. Mary Magdalene with the vase of precious ointment in her lap. In front of St. Catherine kneels the donor of the picture, Richard de Visch van der Capelle, Canon and Cantor of the Church; he is accompanied by his greyhound, on whose collar is a shield bearing the Canon's arms. Before him, on the floor, lie a breviary of blue velvet and his precentor's staff. The workmanship of this staff is a good instance of the painter's minute precision. The staff is surmounted by a group representing the Holy Trinity adored by a monk and a cardinal. It was painted from a staff presented to the church in 1338, and the picture precisely corresponds to a description of the staff, to be found in an old inventory of the church property (see authorities cited in the Official Catalogue from Mr. Weale's description in the Academy, xiv. p. 391).

The picture was exhibited at Paris in 1881 under the name of Hugo van der Goes, and was sold for 54,100 francs. It ultimately passed into the possession of Mr. Lyne Stephens, by whom in 1895 it was bequeathed to the National Gallery.