Работы XVI века – века перемен. Картины, эмаль, мексиканское перо, шпалера и т.д.

[ Lot Description ]

Description



Provenance

(Possibly) Bayer, Elberfeld, Wuppertal, before 1911.



Literature

L. Ninan, 'Un "Christ et les Disciples d'Emmaüs" dans le style de Pierre Coecke', Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts Bulletin, II, March 1953, p. 8.

G. Marlier, Pierre Coeck d'Alost, Brussels, 1966, p. 98, no. 33.

M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, XII, Leiden, 1975, p. 36.



Lot Notes

Pieter Coecke van Aelst's Last Supper was one of the most popular images of the 16th century. It freely combines the compositions of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in Milan (1498) and Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving after Raphael's drawing of the same subject (circa 1510-20) and with the enigmatic gestures of the apostles from the popular print by Albrecht Dürer (1523). The scene with Cain and Abel on the medaillon on the right, is taken directly from a print by another popular Renaissance artist, Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (active 1503-32).



About 50 versions of this composition are known, most of them from the workshop of Coecke van Aelst. Most are dated, of which the present work carries the date 1539. The painting accurately follows the composition of Pieter Coecke van Aelst's Last Supper. The inclusion of specific details such as the ornaments in the windows and the text in the medaillons shows that the painter was well acquainted with the original composition. The most notable difference between the present version and the others are the apostles' heads which differ in style and size from Coecke van Aelst. This variation of the heads - some of them are possibly portraits - points towards a 'customized' serial product. More than one hand can be distinguished in the present painting: the heads on the left and right clearly differ in quality. The specific likenesses and other details here are likely due to the request of the patron of this work.



We are grateful to Drs. Linda Jansen for her assistance in cataloguing this lot, after inspection of the original (written communication 4 March 2013).



Произведения XVI века из разных материалов и стран на сюжет Тайной вечери:

[ It was created by indigenous featherworkers ] It was created by indigenous featherworkers who adapted the pre-Hispanic technique to Christian use. An altar card, it pictures the Last Supper as the first Mass. The Latin text beneath the image begins: “For this is my body. For this is the chalice of my blood.”



Feather mosaics were highly prized by Europeans for their exotic origin and appearance. The present work, which can be traced to a Florentine collection, was among the “objects of curious pictorial art” given to the Museum in 1888 by a Manhattan law firm.



Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Hoc est enim corpus meus / Hic est enim calix saguinis / mei novi et eterni testamenti / mysterium fidei: effundetur in re / missionem peccatorum



(For this is my body. For this is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal testament, the mystery of the faith which shall be shed for you and for many for the remission of sins)

[ Designed by Bernaert van Orley... ] Designed by Bernaert van Orley, who was court painter to Margaret of Austria, the scene is set in an elaborate Italian Renaissance loggia, through which other classically inspired building are visible in the background. The love of decorative detail evident in the marble piers, the patterned tablecloth, and the fictive wall hangings signal the Flemish taste for rich surface ornament. With his enormous nimbus, Christ is shown at the center of the composition with his right arm around the sleeping Saint John and his outstretched left arm directing the viewer's eye toward Judas, who rises to leave in the lower right, his purse already filled with the payment he has received for his promised betrayal.

Several details in the Last Supper suggest it was conceived with a Protestant interpretation. The paschal lamb is absent and the dish at the center of the table that would have held it supports the large chalice filled with wine, reflecting the beliefs of Martin Luther, who repudiated the notion of the sacrifice of the Mass, symbolized by the slaughtered lamb, as an abomination, but supported the partaking of bread and wine. Bread has been placed on the table before the disciples, and a conspicuously placed, lavishly dressed innkeeper pours wine from a ewer into the cup of one of the apostles in the foreground. On the neckline border of Christ's robe is inscribed "MEI," a fragment of his words spoken at the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, "This do in remembrance of me." The composition as well as the poses and gestures of some of the figures are inspired by a 1510 woodcut of the Last Supper by Albrecht Dürer. Raphael’s cartoons for the tapestry series Acts of the Apostles, commissioned for the Sistine Chapel and sent to Brussels to be woven, were significant models for van Orley and other Flemish artists, providing a paradigm of the grand, heroic narrative style of contemporary Roman art. In the Last Supper, populated by muscular, rhetorically gesturing figures engaged in a moment of high drama, van Orley fully realized tapestry's potential for emulating monumental painting.

[ Adam and Eve on the exterior are base ] Adam and Eve on the exterior are based on Dürer's 1504 engraving of the subject. The Old Testament scenes on the inner wings are prefigurations of the Last Supper, which is depicted in a fantastic Renaissance architectural setting on the central panel. The left wing shows the king and high priest Melchizedek outside the gates of Salem giving bread and wine to the patriarch Abraham. The right wing represents Moses and the Israelites in the desert fed by manna falling from heaven.



Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Inscribed (on frame): (under left wing) CENANTIBVSILLIS, ACZEPIT; (under central panel) IESVS PANEM BENEDIXIT, ACFREJIT, DEDITQV[E]; (under right wing) DISCIPVLIS, SVIS, DICENS (And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said . . . [Matthew 26:26].); (right wing, on tent in background) AVE MARIA . . .

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