MEMHNG'S INDEPENDENT PORTRAITS GIJSBERT GERRIT JACOB DEN BOGGENDE B.A., Queen's University, 1971 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL PULPIIMENT OP THE REQUIREMENTS POR THE DEGREE OP MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Pine Arts We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OP BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1975 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Fine Art a The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 September, 1975 i ABSTRACT At the very end of this thesis I call Memling the mirror of Brugian upper-class society. In order to arrive at this conclusion I approached Memling's portraits in a new way. My starting point was Max J. Friedlander1s hook on Memling in which the author catalogued, in an apparently unsystematic way, the Memling portraits accepted by him. The first chapter of this thesis is an attempt to construct a working chronology. Por a stylistic analysis I distinguish six categories. The first three deal with the three types of background which are found in the portraits. The remaining three relate to basic types in the pose of the hand. The emphasis of the analysis falls on spatial develop• ment and anatomical correctness. In several instances my suggestions are at variance with accepted dates. The new chronology forms the foundation for the other chapters. In chapter II the identity of some known sitters is discussed, using information which has been known for some time. What I have done is simply to combine some of this relevant information in order to make some suggestions for the unidentified sitters, and to show that they came from m restricted social-economic group, and to suggest some possible reasons for commissioning portraits. The third chapter consists of three sections. The first deals with Memling as a historically documented figure. ii Nothing new could he added, hut I give special attention to his social-economic status, which turns out to he similar to that of his sitters. The second concentrates on the historical events between 1465 and 14-94, while Memling was a: Brugian citizen. I give special emphasis to the unification policy of Charles the Bold, because it manifested itself in two ways which were disastrous for Charles as well as for Bruges. The wars which were a. result cost Charles his life in 1477 and the money which was needed to wage them contributed to the financial downfall of Bruges. It is my contention that the social-economic-political-financial instability following Charles' death influenced Memling's style, his iconography and his patrons. The third focusses on the spiritual life of this period. late fifteenth century Dutchr-Plemish literature indicates two schools of thought, namely of pietism and humanism. I discuss the influence of these two schools of thought in Memling's portraits in the last chapter. In discussing the iconography I return to the six categories of the first chapter. The pose of the hands and the objects the sitters hold point in the direction of humanism and piety. It is also in this section dealings with the hands that I reject the idea that any of the portraits are part of a triptych, and also that all sitters with prayer-clasped hands must be ai part of a diptych. I suggest that in some cases these portraits could be independent. Furthermore, in case of a diptych it is not necessary that the other wing must be a Madonna and Child. It could also iii be Christ alone or a saint. My suggestion for the neutral background is that for some portraits there is a possibility that they are related to court portraiture. Italian influence is perhaps most noticeable in the pure landscape portraits. Nearly all the sitters for this type were Italian. Although Memling never saw Piero della Prancesca's Sforza portraits, they may have influenced and stimulated him, via his Italian sitters, to introduce this type in Plemish portraiture. All three types of background create a special psychological atmosphere, closely related to the two schools of thought. It is through the iconography, backed up by historical events and spiritual life, that Memling reflects the spirit of his time and becomes the mirror of Brugian upper-class society. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i TABLE OF CONTENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER L THE CHRONOLOGY 5 THE NEUTRAL BACKGROUND 6 THE LANDSCAPE BACKGROUND 15 THE INTERIOR-EXTERIOR BACKGROUND 25 PRAYER-CLASPED HANDS 34 HANDS HOLDING AN OBJECT 41 HANDS AT REST 45 CHAPTER II. THE. SITTERS, 51 CHAPTER III. MEMLING'S TIME 74 THE HISTORICAL MEMLING 75 A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 78 SPIRITUAL LIFE 82 CHAPTER IV. MEMLING'S PORTRAIT ICONOGRAPHY 98 HUSBAND-WIFE PENDANT PAIRS 98 SITTERS WITH PRAYER-CLASPED HANDS 100 OBJECTS IN THE HANDS OF THE SITTERS 106 HANDS AT REST 113 THE BACKGROUND 116 THE NEUTRAL BACKGROUND 117 THE LANDSCAPE BACKGROUND 119 THE INTERIOR-EXTERIOR BACKGROUND 121 V FOOTNOTES. INTRODUCTION 128 CHAPTER I 130 CHAPTER II . 140 CHAPTER III 146 CHAPTER IV 154 SUMMARY 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 167 APPENDIX I. THE CATEGORIES 178 APPENDIX II. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OP THE PORTRAITS 181 APPENDIX III. CHART ...... 183 APPENDIX IV. CATALOGUE RAISONNE 184 APPENDIX V. CONCORDANCE 200 APPENDIX VI. PORTINARI FAMILY GENEALOGY 202 1 INTRODUCTION John Memmeling and John van Eyck Hold state at Bruges. In sore shame I scanned the works that keep their name, The carillon, which then did strike Mine ears, was heard of theirs alike: It sets me closer to them. With these words Rossetti put the sentiments of his contemporaries into a poem. It is rather appropriate that Rossetti mentioned Memling first, because he was the first of the "Flemish Primitives" to be rediscovered. Memling1s work was readily accessible at Bruges, the city of which Memling became a citizen in 1465 and in which he died in 2 1494. Por the Pre-Raphaelite Rossetti, Memling must have seemed to be a "devotional ancestor". Perhaps the stagnation of research into Memling's work and his relation to his time found in the twentieth century is a; reaction to this nine• teenth century enthusiasm. In spite of the ardor, exemplified 3 best by Crowe and Cavalcaselle , it was not until the turn of the century that Weale produced some hard historical facts on 4 the artist's life and work. Even so, the tide had turned and Memling tended to be somewhat ignored. Memling became Pried- 5 lander's "flower without thorns" and Panofsky's "very model 6 of a: major minor master". Nevertheless, it was Priedlander who produced a volume on Memling in his series Die altnieder- 7 landische Malerei. And this volume contained a,chapter on Memling's portraits. This volume-and this chapter have formed the basis of subsequent publications and not much has been 8 added to the information supplied by Priedlander. 2 It was not until the 1960s that scholars started to look 9 more sympathetically at Memling. Some facts, like those un• earthed by the historian McFarlane, and the discovery of the 10 original underdrawings, led to a better understanding of Memling's development. Yet, very little attention has been given to the portraits in spite of the fact that roughly one- third of the generally accepted Memling oeuvre consists of independent portraits. It is with this neglected section that this thesis is concerned. When we ask ourselves the question "What are Memling's contributions to the art of portraiture?" immediately serious problems occur, the most serious of which is that none of the generally accepted portraits is signed. Since none are docu• mented either, the portraits have to be ascribed to Memling on stylistic grounds. The problem is compounded by the fact that only two Memling paintings are signed and dated, two others are documented, while a few are 'documented' through 11 tradition. Some of the paintings had a date either on the original frame or in the painting itself which made it easier 12 to ascribe them to Memling, using the others as guidelines. Fortunately, four of the portraits have a date, two of which always stayed in Bruges. To these four portraits two husband- wife pendant pairs can be added which can be roughly dated by historical information. Out of these portraits- Gilles Joye, 1472; Tommaso Portinari and his wife, between 1470 and 1475; a young woman's portrait, 1480; Willem Moreel and his wife, between 1478 and 1484; Benedetto Portinari, 1487; Maarten van 3 Nieuwenhove, 1487- some interesting patterns emerge: the earlier portraits have a neutral "background, while the later ones show an interior-exterior; except one, all the sitters 13 have their hands in prayer. Simplistically stated, Memling seems to have a special interest in the "background and in the hands. Technically these two aspects can "be described as a concern in spatial develop• ment and anatomical correctness. However, I think that Mem- ling's portraits go beyond a mere technical exercise. It is my contention that the aforementioned aspects contributed purposefully to a better understanding of the sitters. In other words, these aspects are essential to Memling's por- 14 traits. Since they are essential I have taken them as a basis and as working tools for this thesis.