About this
work
Object details
- Title:
- Saint Luke Painting the Virgin
- Date:
- 1602
- Dimensions:
- 270 × 217 cm
- Inventory number:
- 88
- Inscriptions:
- lower right: 1602 F.M.D.VOS
More about this work
The Virgin has the Christ Child on her lap as her portrait is being painted by St Luke. According to the legend, they appeared to him in a vision, whereupon he immortalised them in art history’s first icon. Lying behind Luke’s easel is a bull, which is the saint’s attribute. On the left a studio assistant is making paint with pigment, oil and a grinding stone. The background is populated with a few secondary figures. The scene is taking place in a classical setting, with pillars, rounded arches and coffered ceilings.
A preparatory drawing for this picture (Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 13199) shows the main figures with more generalised facial features. That was probably because the artist used live models for the actual painting. The pigment grinder has the familiar face of Abraham Grapheus, the messenger of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, who was used as a model by various Antwerp artists. It was also suggested in the past that Maerten De Vos, who painted this scene, based the figure of St Luke on himself.
This panel is part of a larger ensemble, a triptych that once adorned the guild altar in Antwerp Cathedral. Luke was the patron saint of artists, and is the figure linking the various panels of this altarpiece. The side and outer panels were painted by Otto Van Veen and Ambrosius Francken. The left wing shows St Luke preaching (inv. no. 274, Francken), and the right wing St Paul before proconsul Felix of Caesarea (inv. no. 484, Van Veen), a biblical episode at which St Luke was probably present. The outer wings, which were painted by Francken, depict the four evangelists with their attributes. Finally, De Vos also painted two predellae in grisaille with St Luke appearing in the Church of Our Lady in Tripoli (inv. no. 101) and St Luke giving alms to three pilgrims (inv. no. 102). In 1754 the triptych was transformed into a portico altarpiece in which only the central scene remained.
The history of the commission was long and odd. Immediately after Catholic Spain conquered Antwerp in 1585, the authorities ordered that the churches stripped by the Protestants be redecorated. It was not until 1589 that the Guild of St Luke ordered a panel for an altarpiece from the sculptor Otmaer Van Ommen, which was installed in the guild chapel eight years later. When Adam Van Noort was dean of the guild (1597-1602) he had the panels taken to his studio and began painting them on his own initiative. This precipitated a conflict with the guild brothers in 1600. New panels were ordered and the commission for the guild altar was officially awarded to Maerten De Vos. He completed the centre panel in 1602, a year before his death. It is his last known work. Van Veen and Francken may have been called upon for the wings because De Vos was no longer fit enough to complete the triptych himself.
The commission for the St Luke altarpiece was probably awarded to De Vos as a mark of respect. Although he is not as well-know nowadays as his predecessor Pieter Bruegel or successor Peter Paul Rubens, De Vos was very famous in his lifetime. He painted several major altarpieces for Antwerp churches after the Iconoclasm, one of them being for the Old Arbalest guild (KMSKA 72-76), the city’s oldest and most prestigious civic guard. He was honoured as a pictor doctus, a learned artist who invented erudite compositions. De Vos designed many prints and book illustrations for Plantin’s publishing house. They had a wide circulation throughout Europe and the Spanish colonies. Like De Vos, Van Veen and Francken were among the most highly regarded artists in Antwerp.
A preparatory drawing for this picture (Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 13199) shows the main figures with more generalised facial features. That was probably because the artist used live models for the actual painting. The pigment grinder has the familiar face of Abraham Grapheus, the messenger of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, who was used as a model by various Antwerp artists. It was also suggested in the past that Maerten De Vos, who painted this scene, based the figure of St Luke on himself.
This panel is part of a larger ensemble, a triptych that once adorned the guild altar in Antwerp Cathedral. Luke was the patron saint of artists, and is the figure linking the various panels of this altarpiece. The side and outer panels were painted by Otto Van Veen and Ambrosius Francken. The left wing shows St Luke preaching (inv. no. 274, Francken), and the right wing St Paul before proconsul Felix of Caesarea (inv. no. 484, Van Veen), a biblical episode at which St Luke was probably present. The outer wings, which were painted by Francken, depict the four evangelists with their attributes. Finally, De Vos also painted two predellae in grisaille with St Luke appearing in the Church of Our Lady in Tripoli (inv. no. 101) and St Luke giving alms to three pilgrims (inv. no. 102). In 1754 the triptych was transformed into a portico altarpiece in which only the central scene remained.
The history of the commission was long and odd. Immediately after Catholic Spain conquered Antwerp in 1585, the authorities ordered that the churches stripped by the Protestants be redecorated. It was not until 1589 that the Guild of St Luke ordered a panel for an altarpiece from the sculptor Otmaer Van Ommen, which was installed in the guild chapel eight years later. When Adam Van Noort was dean of the guild (1597-1602) he had the panels taken to his studio and began painting them on his own initiative. This precipitated a conflict with the guild brothers in 1600. New panels were ordered and the commission for the guild altar was officially awarded to Maerten De Vos. He completed the centre panel in 1602, a year before his death. It is his last known work. Van Veen and Francken may have been called upon for the wings because De Vos was no longer fit enough to complete the triptych himself.
The commission for the St Luke altarpiece was probably awarded to De Vos as a mark of respect. Although he is not as well-know nowadays as his predecessor Pieter Bruegel or successor Peter Paul Rubens, De Vos was very famous in his lifetime. He painted several major altarpieces for Antwerp churches after the Iconoclasm, one of them being for the Old Arbalest guild (KMSKA 72-76), the city’s oldest and most prestigious civic guard. He was honoured as a pictor doctus, a learned artist who invented erudite compositions. De Vos designed many prints and book illustrations for Plantin’s publishing house. They had a wide circulation throughout Europe and the Spanish colonies. Like De Vos, Van Veen and Francken were among the most highly regarded artists in Antwerp.
Acquisition history
handed over by: Ecole Centrale du Département des Deux-Nèthes, 1810
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