From Jan Gossaert called Mabuse, 16th century, Madonna with Child

From Jan Gossaert called Mabuse, 16th century

Madonna with Child

Oil on panel, 62 x 43 cm

With frame, 72 x 54 cm

Written report by Prof. Didier Bodart

This Madonna and Child possesses the harmony, the seraphic serenity and the expertise of the details typical of the great old Masters of Flemish painting. In particular, following the thesis of Prof. Bodart, this panel takes up the version of the Madonna with the hair parted in the middle, made by Jan Gossaert, known as Mabuse (1478 –1532); unfortunately the original is now lost but there are several interpretations, one of which is preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, which can objectively come close to the presumed original. The artist's personality is emblematic with regard to the fruitful artistic and cultural exchanges between Flanders and Italy: he was in fact among the first to make the journey across the peninsula, staying there between 1508 and 1511, touching various places but stopping above all in Rome, where he became acquainted with the ancient statuary models that will return in the nudes such as in the Danae of Munich, in the Adam and Eve of Berlin or in the Venus and Cupid of Brussels. In the future he will prove capable of combining the multiple instances of the Flemish, such as Gerard David, Durer and Metsys, and those of Italian painters such as Raphael, Mantegna and other contemporary artists. The mastery with which the details of the draperies are executed, linear, sinuous and almost metallic in the light reflections, of the rosary in the hands of Jesus, of the diadem that crowns the Virgin, are perfectly configured in the typical qualities of the Flemish school. Even the anatomies stand out with a certain three-dimensionality, evident in the limbs of the Child, while the lenticular attention to the hair is exalted even more in the play of light that strikes them. The warm tones also continue in the dark red background, which frames the imperturbable, majestic and solemn faces of the protagonists, who show the portrait skills typical of Mabuse.

From Jan Gossaert called Mabuse, 16th century

Madonna with Child

Oil on panel, 62 x 43 cm

With frame, 72 x 54 cm

Written report by Prof. Didier Bodart

This Madonna and Child possesses the harmony, the seraphic serenity and the expertise of the details typical of the great old Masters of Flemish painting. In particular, following the thesis of Prof. Bodart, this panel takes up the version of the Madonna with the hair parted in the middle, made by Jan Gossaert, known as Mabuse (1478 –1532); unfortunately the original is now lost but there are several interpretations, one of which is preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, which can objectively come close to the presumed original. The artist's personality is emblematic with regard to the fruitful artistic and cultural exchanges between Flanders and Italy: he was in fact among the first to make the journey across the peninsula, staying there between 1508 and 1511, touching various places but stopping above all in Rome, where he became acquainted with the ancient statuary models that will return in the nudes such as in the Danae of Munich, in the Adam and Eve of Berlin or in the Venus and Cupid of Brussels. In the future he will prove capable of combining the multiple instances of the Flemish, such as Gerard David, Durer and Metsys, and those of Italian painters such as Raphael, Mantegna and other contemporary artists. The mastery with which the details of the draperies are executed, linear, sinuous and almost metallic in the light reflections, of the rosary in the hands of Jesus, of the diadem that crowns the Virgin, are perfectly configured in the typical qualities of the Flemish school. Even the anatomies stand out with a certain three-dimensionality, evident in the limbs of the Child, while the lenticular attention to the hair is exalted even more in the play of light that strikes them. The warm tones also continue in the dark red background, which frames the imperturbable, majestic and solemn faces of the protagonists, who show the portrait skills typical of Mabuse.