The Baptism of Christ

c. 1485/1500

Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar

Artist, German, active c. 1475/1510

Surrounded by twenty-two men, women, and winged angels, a young man, wearing only a white loincloth, stands in a shallow body of water facing another man who kneels on the bank next to him and pours water onto his head in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. At the center of the composition, the man in the water, Jesus, stands with his body angled slightly to our right. He is slim with shoulder-length, chestnut-brown hair, and he raises his hands to his chest, fingertips almost touching. To our right, the man who trickles water onto his head, John, faces our left in profile. Long, scraggly brown hair and beard frame his lined, wrinkled face, and he wears a camel-brown robe covering his torso and legs. It appears to be made from an animal skin whose face hangs at the bottom, draped over the edge of the riverbank. His bare arms reach forward toward Jesus as he upends a vessel in his right hand to pour out drops of water. The pair is flanked by three angels. The angel kneeling on the bank to our left has red hair and rust-red and teal-blue wings. That angel wears a scarlet-red cloak richly decorated with gold patterns and bordered with gemstones. With hands raised and fingertips touching, the angel holds a gray-green cloak hanging over a white robe. Two smaller angels kneel closer to us in front of the men. The red-headed angel on our left wears a powder-blue robe and strums a lute. The other, with blond hair and a white robe, draws a bow across a violin to our right. A crowd of fifteen people float above and around Jesus, John, and the angels to create an arch over them. They are dressed in robes of crimson or rose red, violet purple, peacock blue, moss green, or beige, and some are dressed as clergy members. Each person holds an object, for example, a basket of wafers, a sword, or a bishop’s crook. A man on the right side wearing armor kneels on a dragon. An elderly bearded man wearing a crown sits at the top of the arch with his hands raised. Small angels on either side of him hold open his scarlet-red cloak, which is lined with peacock blue. A long, narrow scroll curls in the pale blue sky under him. It reads, “HIC EST EILIVS MEVS DILECTV IN QVO MICHI CONLICVI.” The landscape around Jesus, John, and the angels on the riverbank creates a low hill topped with bushy trees. A half moon of pale blue sky encloses the landscape, creating a dome shape across the center of the composition. The crowd of men and women seem to float between the sky and the shiny gold background that surrounds the people and whole scene.

Media Options

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Saints played a very important role in the popular piety of the late Middle Ages. They were considered to be not only patrons and protectors against all manner of ills, but also mediators between the individual worshiper and God.

In this unusual scene, fourteen saints participate as witnesses at the Baptism of Christ. All the saints are vividly characterized by costume and attributes. They include the giant Christopher carrying the Christ Child on his shoulders, Catherine of Alexandria with sword and wheel of her martyrdom, Augustine holding his heart pierced by the arrow of divine love, Mary Magdalene with her ointment jar, and the chivalrous George kneeling on his dragon. The gold background, the luminescent cloud on which the saints float, and the unrealistic island setting for the Baptism itself all impart a visionary quality to the scene.

The Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar, named after his monumental altarpiece now in Munich, was active in Cologne. Early in his career he seems to have worked as a manuscript illuminator, and this tradition is evident in his fluid paint handling and sparkling treatment of decorative details.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/german-painting-fifteenth-through-seventeenth-centuries.pdf

On View

NGA, West Building, M-035-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 104.3 x 169.7 cm (41 1/16 x 66 13/16 in.)
    support: 105.7 x 170.4 cm (41 5/8 x 67 1/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.78

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly a church in Arnhem.[1] Count Jacques de Bryas, Paris; (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 6 February 1905, no. 20); (Galerie F. Kleinberger, Paris).[2] Richard von Kaufmann [1849-1908], Berlin; (his sale, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Berlin, 4 December 1917, no. 132); possibly purchased by (Paul Graupe, Berlin)[3] for Otto Henkell [1869-1929], Wiesbaden. (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York); purchased February 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Unfortunately, we know nothing about the commission or the original location of the panel. Based on a note affixed to the back of the picture, the painting is traditionally thought to have been in a church in Arnhem, in the Gelderland region of the Netherlands. Colin Eisler's assertion that the painting may have been done for the high altar of the Sint Janskerk in Arnhem, is possible, but awaits confirming evidence. (Eisler 1977, 9, where he also suggests that the commission may have been given to Johan van Hatstein, Commander of the Order of Saint John from 1486 to 1497.) The Sint Janskerk was demolished in 1817 and the first mention of the painting in connection with the "cathédrale" in Arnhem occurs in 1905: Catalogue des Tableaux Anciens ... Provenant de la Collection de M. le Comte Jacques de Bryas, Hôtel Drouot (Paris, 1905), 11, "Cette oeuvre du plus grand caractère, et dans le plus admirable état de conservation, provient de la cathédrale d'Aarnheim, édifice gothique qui fut au XVIIe siècle désaffecté du culte catholique." Friedländer in the sales catalogue Die Sammlung Richard von Kaufmann Berlin, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing (Berlin, 1917), no. 132, cites a "Notiz auf der Rückseite" as the basis for the Arnhem provenance. This notice was never described and had disappeared by 1941, as per Karl vom Rath, Der Meister des Bartholomäusaltares. (Bonn, 1941), 125, no. 9.
[2] Handwritten note in the margin of the copy of the catalogue in the NGA library.
[3] Handwritten note in vol. 2 of the catalogue in the NGA library.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2087.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1914

  • Austellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbesitz von Mitgliedern des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1914, no. 92.

1925

  • Jahrtausend Ausstellung der Rheinlande in Köln, Messehalle, Cologne, 1925, no. 71.

Bibliography

1906

  • Head, Alban [pseudonym]. "The Schools of Cologne, Hamburg and Westphalia." In Exhibition of Early German Art. Exh. cat. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1906: 55.

1907

  • Rath, Karl vom. "Meister des Bartholomäus-Altares." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 37(1950):35.

1913

  • Plietzsch, Eduard. "Die Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst in der Berliner Kgl. Akademie der Künste." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst N.F. 25 (1913/1914): 225, 228, repro.

1917

  • Friedeberger, Hans. "Die Sammlung Richard von Kaufmann-Berlin." Der Cicerone 9 (1917): 377.

1918

  • "Die Versteigerung der Sammlung von Kaufmann." Der Cicerone 10 (1918): 26.

1923

  • Schaefer, Karl. Geschichte der kölner Malerschule. Lübeck, 1923: 19.

1924

  • Brockmann, Harald. Die Spätzeit der kölner Malerschule. Der Meister von St. Severin und der Meister der Ursulalegende. Bonn and Leipzig, 1924: 53. (The 1932 printing appeared in Forschungen zur Kunstgeschichte Westeuropas 6; Jahresgabe des Kreises der rheinischen Heimatfreunde.)

1925

  • Reiners, Heribert. Die kölner Malerschule. Munich, Gladbach, Bonn and Leipzig, 1925: 182, 186-187, 190, pl. 37.

1939

  • Ring, Grete. "Die Gruppe der heiligen Agnes." Oud Holland 56 (1939): 39.

1940

  • Boon, Karel G. "Einige Opmerkingen naar aanleiding van Vroege Nederlandsche Schilders." Oud Holland 57 (1940): 101.

1941

  • Rath, Karl vom. Der Meister des Bartholomäusaltares. Bonn, 1941: 52-57, 59-61, 125, no. 9, figs. 19-23.

1950

  • Stange, Alfred. German Painting XIV-XVI Centuries. New York, Paris, and London, 1950: 25. ( _Altdeutsche Malerei des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. Cologne, 1950, reprinted 1969.)

1952

  • Fritz, Rolf. "Aquilegia: Die symbolische Bedeutung der Akelei." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 14 (1952): 101, 109, no. 58, fig. 93.

1953

  • Pieper, Paul. "Miniaturen des Bartholomäus-Meisters." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 15 (1953): 149-152, 154, fig. 133.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 124, no. 47, repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "Crystal Anniversary in the Capital." Art News 55, no. 1 (March 1956): 35.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." National Geographic_ 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 626-627, 643, color repro.

  • "The Kress Collection." Arts 30, no. 6 (March 1956): 49, repro.

1959

  • Levey, Michael. The German School. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1959: 92.

  • Pieper, Paul. "Das Stundenbuch des Bartholomäus-Meisters." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 21 (1959): 139, 155-157, figs. 75-76.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 301, repro.

1960

  • Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 3, 18-19, color repro.

1961

  • Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altares, der Meister des Aachener Altares: Kölner Maler der Spätgotik. Exh. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1961: 27, 29, 91 under no. 22, 92, under no. 23. (The NGA picture was not in the exhibition.)

  • Andree, Rolf, Helmut R. Leppien and Horst Vey. "Nachlese der Ausstellung `Kölner Maler der Spätgotik'." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 23 (1961): 331-332.

  • Oswald, Fritz. "Die Darstellungen des hl. Hieronymus beim Meister des Bartholomäusaltares." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 23 (1961): 342, 344, fig. 229.

  • Wallrath, Rolf. Exhibition review, "Kölner Maler der Spätgotik." Kunstchronik 14, no. 6 (June 1961): 153, 155.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, ed. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 66-67, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 112-113, repro.

1964

  • Malkon, K. [pseudonym] "Meister des Bartholomäusaltars." In Kindlers Malerei Lexikon, edited by Germain Bazin, et al. 6 vols. Zürich, 1964-1971. Zürich, 1964: 1:214-215.

  • Steingräber, Erich. "Ein neu entdecktes Werk vom Meister des Bartholomäus-Altares." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 26 (1964): 224, n. 6.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 86.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:104-105, color repro.

1967

  • Stange, Alfred. Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. 3 vols. Munich, 1967: 1:85, no. 252.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 76, repro.

1969

  • Osten, Gert von der and Horst Vey. Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands 1500 to 1600. Harmondsworth, 1969: 138-139.

  • De Montebello, Philippe. "Master of the St. Bartholomew Altarpiece." In McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art ed. Bernard S. Myers. 5 vols. New York, 1969: 4:13.

1970

  • Musper, Heinrich Theodor. Altdeutsche Malerei. Cologne, 1970: 11.

  • Herbst des Mittelalters. Spätgotik in Köln und am Niederrhein. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle, Cologne, 1970: 48, under no. 34.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 224, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 8-10, fig. 10.

1983

  • Wolff, Martha. German Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: unpaginated, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: no. 147, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 256, repro.

1986

  • Budde, Rainer. Köln und seine Maler 1300-1500. Cologne, 1986: 141-143, 258, no. 95, figs. 121, 122, color pl. 30.

  • Ford, Terrence, ed. Inventory of Music Iconography, no. 1. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York 1986: 1, no. 10.

1989

  • Michaelis, Rainer. Deutsche Gemälde 14. - 18. Jahrhundert. Staatliche Museen au Berlin. Gemäldegalerie. Berlin, 1989: 82.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 59, repro.

1993

  • Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 133-140, color repro. 135.

1994

  • MacGregor, Neil. A Victim of Anonymity: The Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece. (Walter Neurath Memorial Lectures, no. 25, London, 1993.) New York, 1994: 35-36, fig. 26.

1995

  • Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 18.

  • Hall, Edwin and Horst Uhr. "Das Kronenmotiv bei Maria und anderen heiligen in der Altkölner Malerei." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 56 (1995): 119, fig. 18.

1997

  • Nürnberger, Ulrike. "The Late Medieval Workshop of the Master of the St. Bartholomew Altar: An Investigation of Underdrawings and Paintings." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1997: 244-260 (no. 1), figs. 6, 11a, 20a-c, 25, 27a, 30-35, 47a-b, 51-53, 58a-b, 70, 92. 107-110, 114a, 181.

2000

  • Corley, Brigitte. Painting and Patronage in Cologne, 1300-1500. Turnhout, 2000: 46, 233-236, fig. 200-202.

2001

  • Krischel, Roland. Genie ohne Namen: Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars. Exh. cat. Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne, 2001: 446-447, no. 97, color repro. (Not in the exhibition.)

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 64-65, no. 48, color repro.

2009

  • Mack, Rosamund E. "When Armor Was Art: Exploring Images of Armor in the National Gallery of Art Collections." Washington, 1990, recto.

2011

  • Lüdtke, Hartwig and Kurt Schietzel, ed. Handbuch zur mittelalterlichen Keramik in Nordeuropa. 3 vols. Kiel and Hamburg, 2001: 3:691 (no. 77), 1857, fig. 4.

Inscriptions

on banderolle: HIC EST EILIVS MEVS DILECTV IN QVO MICHI CON[P]LICVI (This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased), from Matthew 3:17; on heart held by Saint Augustine: IHS

Wikidata ID

Q25929389

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