Saint William of Aquitaine with a Donor, possibly a member of the Albret family (recto); Saint Jerome (verso); and Saint Catherine (recto); Saint Agnes (verso)

Name: BRUSSELS SCHOOL, CIRCA 1490
Brand: Saint William of Aquitaine with a Donor, possibly a member of the Albret family (recto); Saint Jerome (verso); and Saint Catherine (recto); Saint Agnes (verso)
Price: 85000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Estimate

GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000

Closed: 8 Jul 2022

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BRUSSELS SCHOOL, CIRCA 1490

Saint William of Aquitaine with a Donor, possibly a member of the Albret family (recto); Saint Jerome (verso); and Saint Catherine (recto); Saint Agnes (verso)

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Closed: 8 Jul 2022

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Closed: 8 Jul 2022

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

BRUSSELS SCHOOL, CIRCA 1490
Saint William of Aquitaine with a Donor, possibly a member of the Albret family (recto); Saint Jerome (verso); and Saint Catherine (recto); Saint Agnes (verso)
oil on panel, engaged frames
16¹⁄₂ x 5⁷⁄₈ in. (42 x 15.2 cm.)
the outer wings of a triptych

Obertribunal -Prokurator Abel, Stuttgart; Lempertz, Cologne, 9 October 1863, lot 13, as 'Rogier van der Weyden', as a triptych, where acquired on behalf of,
Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1811-1885), Schloss Sigmaringen, no. 31.
with A.S. Drey, New York, by 1928, as a triptych.
with M. Knoedler & Co. New York, 1938, as a triptych.
Archibald and Margaret Z. van Beuren, Rhode Island; her sale; Christie's, New York, 11 January 1989, lot 183, as a triptych by the Master of the Magdalene Legend, ($220,000).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 8 July 2009, lots 33 and 34.

F.A. von Lehner, Photographische Edition von 50 der bedeutenderen Gemälde des Museums zu Sigmaringen, Stuttgart, 1868, nos. 35-37, as 'School of Rogier van der Weyden'.
F.A. von Lehner, Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen, Sigmaringen, 1871, p. 11, no. 31, as 'School of Rogier van der Weyden'.
(Possibly) F. Winker, Die Altniederlandische Malerei: Die Malerei in Belgien und Holland von 1400-1600, Berlin, 1921, p. 371, as in the Hague and by the Master of the Miracle of the Loaves.
J. Tombu, 'Le Maitre de la Legende de Marie-Madeleine', Gazette des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1929, pp. 259 and 263-264, illustrated.
Pantheon, vol. VII, 1931, p. 218, as 'The Master of the Magdalene Legend'.
M.J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden, 1975, XII, p. 90, no. 5, as a triptych, with the central panel as The Master of the Magdalene Legend and the shutters by another hand.

Munich, Alte Pinakothek, September-October 1928.
Toledo, Ohio Museum of Art, French and Flemish Primitives, 3 November-15 December 1935, no. 25.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

These shutters originally formed part of a triptych, the central panel of which depicted the Virgin and Child. As discussed by Max Friedländer (p. 90), this central panel was executed by the Master of the Magdalene Legend after a prototype by Rogier van der Weyden, but the shutters are by a hand closer in style to the Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine, the latter possibly identifiable with Pieter van der Weyden, Rogier’s son (see D. Martens, ‘Portrait explicite et portrait implicite à la fin du Moyen Âge: l' exemple du Maître de la Légende de sainte Catherine (alias Piérot de le Pasture?)’, 1998).

The male saint was previously thought to be Saint Arnold of Soissons; however, he has since been identified as Saint William of Aquitaine on account of the Benedictine habit over his armour and the absence of a bishop’s mitre. The second Duke of Toulouse (755-812/814), and a distant cousin of Charlemagne, William defeated the forces of Hisham I when they declared holy war and invaded Languedoc in 793. He later founded Gellone Abbey, becoming a monk and retiring there in 806. He was canonised a saint in 1066 and his legend grew rapidly, with an entire cycle of being dedicated to his history. The earliest of these, the , dates to 1140, bestowed on him the nickname (‘fierce’ or ‘strong arm’).

Saint William presents a kneeling donor to the (now absent) Virgin and Child. Recent research suggests that this is a member of the Albret family, as the saint holds a flag that is almost identical to the Albret coat of arms (quarterly, one and four azure with three fleur-de-lys or, two and three gules). The seigneurie d’Albert was one of the most powerful feudal families in France. At the date at which the shutters were executed, the head of the family was Alain the Great (1440-1522) who, despite waging the ‘Mad War’ of 1485-1488 against royal authority in the hopes of marrying Anne of Brittany, was very successful in augmenting his dynastic power through the astute marriages of his children. His eldest son, Jean, became King of Navarre through his marriage to Catherine, Queen of Navarre in 1484 (through which line Alain would become the great-grandfather of King Henry IV of France). In addition to which, he successfully agreed the match of his daughter to Cesare Borgia in 1499, aligning the family with the Papacy.

The triptych remained of a piece until its sale in 1989, after which point it must have been dismantled. The central panel of the triptych was sold at Christie’s, London, 7 July 2000, lot 24 (£333,750).