Mededelingen van het

voor Documentatie Rijksbureau Kunsthistorische

NEW OBSERVATIONS ON JOOS painted figures, Saint John the Baptist and VAN CLEVE Saint Reinhold (fig. 2). These two figures were always considered as the best part of the by Jan Bialostocki altar and the only ones which had so far been The Passion scenes are not I reproduced'). good enough for the artist himself, the master's The studies devoted to the problem of workshop must have had a great share in Joos van Cleve or the "Master of the Death painting them. of the Virgin" present us with a most interest- The most important feature for the identi- ing example of art-historical research. The fication of the master was the panel with the real name Joos van Cleve was first put for- "Last Supper" (fig.4), which is signed with ward by Eduard Firmenich-Richartz and a monogram in the stained glass window 8). Carl Justi in 18941). His oeuvre and his The same monogram appears in two other artistic personality had before that date al- works of our painter: in the "Death ready been studied under the name of the of the Virgin", the key-picture of his oeuvre, anonymous "Master of the Death of the and in the "Adoration of the Kings", formerly Virgin." Ludwig Baldass, M. J. Friedlander in the Van Gelder collection at Uccle 9). and many others 2) have accepted the identi- The monogram was read as a combination of fication, but Martin Davies characterizes the J V A B, pointing to Joos van der Beke = evidence of this identification as "very Joos van Cleve. This interpretation is due to weak" 3) and Erwin Panofsky expresses Firmenich-Richartz 10). Among these so- doubts about the "cogency" of the identi- called signed works the St. Reinhold fication 4). is the only one which can be dated by doc- Some new observations about the problem uments. The information collected and can be made in connection with a work by the published by L. Kaemmerer proves with all "Master of the Death of the Virgin", which - probability that the altarpiece was consecrated important though it was for the identification in the chapel of the St. Reinhold brotherhood - of the artist has not been sufficiently in the "Artushof" at Danzig in the autumn studied by the students of Netherlandish of 1516 11). painting. It is the St. Reinhold altarpiece, II which was in the Church of Our Lady at One of the links uniting the numerous Gdarisk and which is now exhibited in the works attributed to the "Master of the Death National Museum at 5). This work, of the Virgin" and consequently to Joos van which has never before been reproduced in its Cleve are the self-portraits, for which the entirety (fig. 1)6), shows when opened, above artist shows a great predilection. Baldass and the predella, eight painted scenes representing Friedlander have tried to date the pictures on the inner wings the "Baptism of Christ" according to the age of the artist, but the (fig. 3), the "Last Supper" (fig. 4), "Christ chronology proposed by them is not con- before Pilate", "the Road to Calvary"; on the vincing. Nevertheless, the appearance of the outer wings the "Presentation in the Temple" same self-portrait on about ten pictures (as an (fig. 5), "Ecce Homo", the "Garden of individual or "in assistenza") is a strong Olives" and the "Crucifixion" (fig. 6). On argument in favour of the coherence of the the backs of the outer wings are two large artist's oeuvre. It had not yet been observed

121 FIG.1. JOOSVAN CLEVE AND HIS WORKSHOP.ST. REINHOLDALTARPIECE, OPEN. WARSAW,NATIONAL MUSEUM. that a self-portrait can also be identified on the fig. 8) 13) and the well-known picture in the St. Reinhold altarpiece and this is important, Thyssen collection at Lugano (fig. 9) - as this work is signed with the monogram; it leaves little doubt as to the identification of is the only signed one which has a self- portrait. the model. This self-portrait as St. Reinhold It is the figure of St. Reinhold himself on the has an additional value as being datable with right outer wing (fig. 7) which, when closed, the year 1516 as "terminus ante quem." So just covers the "Last Supper" with the the speculations about the age of the artist artist's monogram. The comparison with the represented in his various self-portraits are at - generally accepted self-portraits of Joos as least given one more exact date 15). on the so-called "little" and "great" Epipha- It is fascinating to see how Joos van Cleve nies at Dresden lz), on the predella of the observes himself in his portraits: he appears "Lamentation" (the "Last Supper", young and dreamy as St. Reinhold, domi-

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