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Inscription

upper right on angel's banderole: GLOR / ...INECELSIS DEO ED... / ...

Provenance

Altarpiece of the "capilla mayor (main chapel)", church of San Lázaro, Palencia, commissioned c. 1508, until c. 1945.[1] Arcadio Torres Martín, Palencia, 1950-1951.[2] Acquired c. 1952 by (Frederick Mont, New York);[3] purchased 11 February1953 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The commission was made by Don Sancho de Castilla. See Jan V.L. Brans, "Juan de Flandes, pintor de la Reina y de Castilla," Clavileño 4, no. 21 (1953): 32 for the state of San Lázaro and the cessation of services there shortly after September 1945.

[2] In 1950 and 1951, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann saw six panels from the San Lázaro altarpiece--The Annunciation and The Nativity and the four panels now in the Prado--in the house of Sr. Torres Martín in Palencia; this information was given in conversations with Martha Wolff of 3 February 1984 and 24 July 1984.

[3] In 1952 all four panels now in the Gallery (1961.9.22-.25) were with Frederick Mont in New York; see letter of 28 October 1952 from Chandler R. Post to Mont in NGA curatorial files. Mont refers to having bought the pictures in Spain in a letter dated 16 April 1953 to Wilhelm Valentiner (Valentiner Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: microfilm reel no. 2143; copies in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2253).

Technical Summary

The panel is made up of four vertical members. The unpainted edges have been trimmed slightly at the sides and have been cut off at top and bottom where edging strips about .5 cm wide have been added. The painting was cleaned in 1952. In 1953/1954, the panel was cradled and the painting cleaned and restored in the same manner as 1961.9.22. The ground is prepared with the same fibrous material used in the Annunciation. Infrared reflectography reveals a brush underdrawing employing evenly spaced hatching strokes in several areas, including the body of the Christ Child, the hands of the Virgin, and the ox and ass. There are some changes in the painted contours of the Christ Child and the Virgin's hair. A split along one of the joins running upward through the Christ Child's ear and the manger has been filled and inpainted. Apart from this split, some small, localized losses, and some abrasion in the lower left portion of the Virgin's mantle, the painting is in excellent condition.

Bibliography
1887
Justi, Carl. "Juan de Flandes, ein niederländischer Hofmaler Isabella der Katholischen." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 8 (1887): 167.
1907
Winkler, [Friedrich]. "Juan de Flandes." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950:19(1926):279.
1908
Justi, Carl. Miscellaneen aus drei Jahrhunderten spanischen Kunstlebens. 2 vols. Berlin, 1908: 1:324.
1909
Mayer, August L. "Studien zur Quattrocento-malerei in Nordwestkastilien." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 32 (1909): 519.
1913
Mayer, August L. Geschichte Malerei der Spanischen. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1913: 1:149.
1917
Moreno Villa, José. "Un pintor de la reina católica." Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones 25 (1917): 281.
1932
H[ulin] de L[oo], [Georges]. Trésor de l'art flamand du moyen âge au XVIIIe siècle. Mémorial de l'exposition d'art flamand ancien à Anvers. 1930. 2 vols. Paris, 1932: 1:51.
1933
Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1930-1966: 4, part 1:45, 50.
1950
Revilla Vielva, Ramón. "Retablo Mayor de la Santa Iglesia Catedral de Palencia." Publicaciones de la Institución "Tello Téllez de Meneses" no. 5 (1950): 98.
1952
Brans, Jan V. L. Isabel la Católica y el arte Hispano-Flamenco. Madrid, 1952: 96-98, pl. 43.
1952
Museo del Prado. Catálogo. Madrid (and later editions), 1952: 204.
1953
Brans, Jan V. L. "Juan de Flandes, pintor de la Reina y de Castilla." Clavileño 4, no. 21 (1953): 29, 32.
1954
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. "Las adquisiciones del Museo del Prado en los años 1952 y 1953." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 27 (1954): 5.
1955
Gudiol Ricart, José. Pintura Gótica. In Ars Hispaniae. 22 vols. Madrid, 1955: 9:259-260.
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: 108-111, no. 40, repro.
1956
Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 643, color repro. 648.
1957
Gudiol, José. "Oeuvres inédites de Jean de Flandres." Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Antwerp, 1957: 116, 118.
1958
Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 148, nos. 761, 762.
1958
Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1958: 12, part 2:615, 618, 620, 622-625, figs. 262, 263.
1959
Brans, Jan V. L. Vlaamse schilders in dienst der Koningen van Spanje. Louvain, 1959: 55.
1959
Eisler, Colin. "Juan de Flandes's Saint Michael and Saint Francis." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin n.s. 18 (1959): 130.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 265, repro.
1959
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. The Prado. New York, 1959: 138.
1960
Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 14, color repro.
1962
Bermejo, Elisa. Juan de Flandes. Madrid, 1962: 28-31, 44, pls. 36-39.
1962
Puyvelde, Leo van. La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel. Paris, 1962: 353.
1963
Sammlung Heinz Kisters. Aldeutsche und altniederländische Gemälde. Exh. cat. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 1963: 14-15, under no. 76.
1964
Anzelewsky, Fedja. "Der Meister der Lübecker Bibel von 1494." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 27 (1964): 57.
1965
Held, Julius S. "The Bearing of the Cross Hitherto Attributed to Juan de Flandes." The Art Quarterly 38 (1965): 31.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 71.
1967
Vandevivere, Ignace. Primitifs flamands. Corpus. La cathédrale de Palencia et l'église paroissiale de Cervera de Pisuerga. Brussels, 1967: 44-47.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 62, repro.
1969
Osten, Gert von der, and Horst Vey. Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands 1500 to 1600. Harmondsworth, 1969: 142.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 182, 184, repro. 183, 185.
1976
Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "Birth and Naming of St. John the Baptist Attributed to Juan de Flandes: A Newly Discovered Panel from a Hypothetical Altarpiece." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63 (1976): 127, fig. 21.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 187, fig. 188.
1978
Rogers, Millard F., Jr. Spainish Paintings in the Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati, 1978: 12.
1979
De Coo, Josef, and Nicole Reynaud. "Origen del retablo de San Juan Bautista atribuido a Juan de Flandes." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 52 (1979): 140-141, figs. 7, 9.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. Washington, 1984: 138, no. 137, color repro., as A Donor and His Wife.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 211, repro.
1986
Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 125-133, repro. 127.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 58, no. 43, color repro.
2011
Weniger, Matthias. Sittow, Morros, Juan de Flandes: Drei Maler aus dem Norden am Hof Isabellas der Katholischen. Kiel, 2011: 250-253, 254, no. 12.2, fig. 174, 177.
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