Jan Gossaert

Mabuse, Jan

Netherlandish, c. 1478 - 1532

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Flemish painter (1478–1532)

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A light-skinned woman wearing a lapis-blue dress sits on a throne, holding a nearly naked pale-skinned baby in this vertical painting. The woman’s long-sleeved dress falls in lively folds as it pools around her legs and feet. Curling tendrils frame her face while the rest of her brown hair is pulled back beneath a cloth headdress. Her body is angled to our left and she looks off just over our left shoulder. She supports the baby who straddles the right arm of the chair and balances on the toes of his right foot. With her right hand, the woman holds a piece of fruit, perhaps a small apple, up by the baby’s mouth. The throne sits low to the ground and is ornately carved and gilded with scrolling arms and intricate tracery up the back around the crimson-red, upholstered center. They sit in a room with a patterned tile floor, thick, brown stone walls, and a window with a view onto other buildings and people in the upper left corner. Three more apples rest on ledges near the window. A thick book lies open in the bottom right corner.
Jan Gossaert, Madonna and Child, c. 1532, oil on panel, Gift of Grace Vogel Aldworth in memory of her grandparents Ralph and Mary Booth, 1981.87.1

Madonna and Child

Jan Gossaert · c. 1532 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1981.87.1

Shown from about the waist up behind a forest-green desktop, a man with smooth, pale pink skin writes in an open book with a quill pen as he looks at us, surrounded closely by papers, pens and ink, and other objects in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled a little to our left but he tips his head slightly back and looks at us from the corners of his dark brown eyes under arched brows. He has a short, round nose, high cheekbones, and his pale pink lips are slightly pursed. His short, chestnut-brown hair curls over his ears, and bangs sweep across his forehead. His black beret is adorned over his right eyebrow, on our left, with a metallic badge with an intertwined "I A S." He wears a crimson-red jacket with puffy red sleeves decorated with black bands. Black lapels open onto a dark garment that has a pewter-gray panel over the upper chest and gray sleeves. The white garment beneath peeks out along the neckline and cuffs at his wrists. His left hand, on our right, rests with fingers extended on a page with writing in the open book, and he wears a gold ring incised with “IS” on his forefinger and a gold band with a ruby-red gem on his pinkie. He writes the beginning of a word with his other hand. In front of him, on the ledge, is a talc shaker pierced with tiny holes in the top, a magnifying glass, a black inkpot, and a small pair of scissors. Near one elbow, to our right, is a pile of coins, a pair of scales with weights, a small leather-bound book, and a receptacle for rolled-up paper and quills. A thick sheaf of curling, crinkled papers hangs to either side of his head. The stack to the left is marked “Alrehande Misseven” and the stack to our right is labeled “Alrehande Minuten.” A black dagger, a tassel, and a set of at least four orbs about the size of ping pong balls hangs between the sheafs, against the dark background.
Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Man, possibly Jan Snoeck, c. 1530, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.4.1

Portrait of a Man, possibly Jan Snoeck

Jan Gossaert · c. 1530 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1967.4.1

Jan Gossaert, Cain Killing Abel, c. 1525, woodcut on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.4704

Cain Killing Abel

Jan Gossaert · c. 1525 · woodcut on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1943.3.4704

A man hangs on a cross nestled into the splayed opening of a splintered, barren tree in a rocky landscape in this narrow, vertical composition, which is painted entirely in black and gray. The man’s hands are nailed to the ends of the wide crossbeam of the cross, and his overlapping feet are nailed to the vertical beam. He wears a ring of thorns on his head and a loincloth across his hips. A voluminous cloth lies just beyond the tree, and farther back on the angular rocks are a lion and mule. A cliff rises steeply to our left and a body of water to our right leads back to a castle-like structure.
Jan Gossaert, Saint Jerome Penitent [left panel], c. 1509/1512, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.40.a

Saint Jerome Penitent [left panel]

Jan Gossaert · c. 1509/1512 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.40.a

A man kneels, holding a rock to his bare chest, in a rocky landscape in this tall, vertical painting. The scene is painted entirely in white and gray. The man, Saint Jerome, takes up the bottom half of the narrow panel. He faces our left almost in profile and looks up and off in that direction. He is clean-shaven with rounded, sagging cheeks, deep-set eyes, and wispy, curly hair. A robe with deep, angular folds is open across his chest and puddles on the ground around his feet. He holds a rock to his chest with one muscular arm, and the other hangs by his side holding another rock. A flat-topped, wide-brimmed hat is on the ground in front of his knees, and a lion lies next to him, to our left. The lion’s features are flattened and rounded, with almost human eyes, mouth, and ears. A ridge of craggy boulders separates Saint Jerome and the lion from the landscape beyond. A man rides a camel next to a walking man on the far side of the ridge. The camel rider holds a whip up high, and the other man carries a basket on a long stick slung across one shoulder. A stony hill rises steeply in the near distance behind this pair. A church is cut from the rock there. On a rocky path leading to the church, the lion rests his front paws up on Saint Jerome like a dog expecting a treat. Here, Saint Jerome wears his hat and long robes. He appears again just to our left, approaching an arched door of the church. Spires and flying buttresses surround the church like lace. A river winds to another town in the deep distance to our left under a cloudy sky.
Jan Gossaert, Saint Jerome Penitent [right panel], c. 1509/1512, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.40.b

Saint Jerome Penitent [right panel]

Jan Gossaert · c. 1509/1512 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.40.b

Jan Gossaert, Two Kings and a Woman Leaving an Elaborate Palace, 1503/1508, pen and black ink on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and Gift of Dian Woodner, 2008.76.1

Two Kings and a Woman Leaving an Elaborate Palace

Jan Gossaert · 1503/1508 · pen and black ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2008.76.1

Bibliography

1945

  • Glück, Gustav. "Mabuse and the Development of the Flemish Renaissance." The Art Quarterly 8 (1945): 116-139.

1965

  • Jean Gossaert dit Mabuse. Exh. cat. Museum Boymans-van Beuningen and Groeningemuseum, Rotterdam and Bruges, 1965.

1967

  • Friedländer 1930, vol. 8 (vol. 8, 1972).

1968

  • Herzog, Sadja. "Jan Gossaert called Mabuse (ca. 1478-1532): A Study of his Chronology with a Catalogue of his Works." Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1968.

  • Herzog, Sadja. "Tradition and Innovation in Gossaert's Neptune and Amphitrite and Danae." Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. 19 (1968): 25-41.

1986

  • Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1986: 98.