German and Netherlandish Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

93 artworks on view.

This painting shows several people in a columned structure outdoors. The structure includes thin white columns with intricate gold detailing, vaulted blue ceilings, and carved gray stone walls. Several small, gold, cherub-like figures are at the top of the structure in molded niches. In the center of the painting, a young child with shoulder-length, wavy, light brown hair is seated on a low ledge between the columns, gesturing with one hand outstretched and another near their chest. The child is barefoot and dressed in a dark blue gown, and they are surrounded by a group of older men. The men on either side are elaborately dressed, wearing a variety of turbans, hats, and hoods, along with colorful robes and tunics. Some of them hold books or scrolls and appear engaged in discussion, most of them looking towards the child. Behind the child, a man and a woman stand together, looking towards the group. The man has brown hair and a brown beard and wears a pink tunic with a pink cloak, and the woman wears a blue dress and cloak with a white cloth over her hair, her hands crossed over her chest. Behind them appears to be a pale pink castle with railings and towers, green leaves peeking out from behind it. The sky in the center is light gray, but at the top of the painting it is a rich blue.”

Christ among the Doctors [obverse]

Bernard van Orley

c. 1513

Oil on panel Accession ID 1952.5.47.a

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M41

Set in a church, nine men and one woman gather around a throne, on which sits a young boy in this vertical painting. All the people have pale or olive-toned skin. The boy has long, wavy brown hair framing an oval face with delicate features. He looks down in front of him as he holds the tips of his two pointer fingers to touch. His gold-edged, ocean-blue robe falls loosely to the floor over one bare foot. The throne is carved from parchment-white stone and it sits on a low platform set on three shallow steps. Behind the boy, a crimson-red cloth patterned with gold and edged with a moss-green border is held up with four ropes tied into a four-point canopy. Five bearded and cleanshaven men stand and sit in a close group to our left, in front of the throne. They all wear hats, including a turban, hoods, and caps, and long robes in red, green, and white. Two hold open books and each man looks in a different direction, either toward the child or toward the group of four men and one woman clustered to our right. At the center of that second group, the woman wears a white cloth covering her head and a teal-blue robe, and she holds her hands together in prayer. Upon closer inspection, one finds that the woman and child’s heads are surrounded by lines radiating out to create haloes. The other four men in the group to our right also wear jewel-toned robes, and all wear caps except for one man, who is bareheaded. The man closest to us holds his hands with fingertips touching, like the child. The floor between the groups, leading up to the throne, is inlaid with square and X-patterns in sky blue, rose pink, golden yellow, and off white. To either side of the throne and behind the groups of men, six columns support statues carved from white stone. The polished columns are marbled with brick red, pine green, and fawn brown. Two taller columns along the left and right edges of the painting support a pale gray stone arch, which is cut off by the top edge. The apse beyond the throne is decorated on the second level with stained glass set within gray stone walls. An arched opening in the wall to our right, above the woman, leads to a view of buildings with stepped rooflines.

Christ among the Doctors

Master of the Catholic Kings

c. 1495/1497

Oil on panel Accession ID 1952.5.43

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M38

A seated man wearing a long robe and a crown has a crucifix in his lap in this free-standing, cream-white, alabaster sculpture. In this view, the seated man’s body faces us, and his arms are broken off beyond the elbow. He has short, wavy hair and a trimmed beard. His almond-shaped eyes are blank, and his lips are closed. His robe is deeply pleated and hangs in a U shape between his knees. A bird in flight, facing downward, hovers at his throat over the head of the crucified man. That man’s extended arms are also partially broken, but he hangs with his head tilted down to our left. He has a halo behind his long hair, and his mouth drops open. He is nude except for a loincloth across his hips. The crowned man sits on a base with a shield on the front center, but this area is worn.

The Holy Trinity

English 14th Century, Spanish 14th Century

c. 1300/1350

Alabaster, with traces of polychromy Accession ID 1953.2.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M38

Two scenes showing monks wearing black hoods and robes take place on this vertical panel painting. The left half is framed by a white stone arch supported on a pillar, which runs down the middle of the composition. Under the arch, a clean-shaven man sits with his body angled to our right. A book is open on his lap, and he holds up his left hand, to our right. He braces a gold-tipped long staff with his other hand, and a gold halo frames his lined face. His hood is down, and he wears a tall, brimless black cap. He sits in a room with a wood floor, wood ceiling, and a bench under an open window on the far wall. The shutters are pulled back to show a continuation of the background landscape on the right half. There, one monk holds another, who is smaller in scale, around the chest as the latter floats or stands in a white body of water. The person in the water holds a bucket limply by his side and looks at us. The water winds back to low, green hills and a pink stone building with white trim along the right edge of the painting. A church with ivory-white walls and a slate-blue roof is situated slightly farther back, and it continues to be visible through the windows. The narrow strip of white sky in the top right corner of the painting is lined along the top edge with aquamarine blue.

A Miracle of Saint Benedict

French 15th Century

c. 1480

Oil on oak Accession ID 1952.5.45

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M41

About a dozen men and women gather around three men hanging from wooden crosses, all against a deep landscape beneath a shiny gold sky in this horizontal painting. All the people we can see have pale or tanned skin. The men on the crosses wear only white loincloths, and a gold halo encircles the head of the man in the middle, Jesus. Jesus hangs with his hands and feet nailed to the cross, and a man on the ground has pierced his right side with a lance. Blood drips down his face from a ring of thorns. Four winged angels, small in scale to the rest of the people, catch the blood pouring from the nails in his hands and feet, and the wound on his side in golden chalices. The crosses to either side angle in toward Jesus, and the men are tied to them with their arms hooked backward over the crosspiece. Their legs are tied to the vertical beam of the cross, and they bleed from wounds on their thighs. Near the head of the man to our left, an angel hovers and holds up a miniature man, like a doll. The man on the cross to our right turns his head away from the demon holding out another miniature man. Across the bottom of the composition, the people in the crowd wear garments in ginger brown, cranberry and burgundy red, and olive green. Three women, two young men, and a man on horseback are tightly clustered on the ground in the left half. The woman closest to us, Mary, wears a marine-blue gown and a white head covering. She is partly slumped to one side, supported by a woman on her left, to our right, and a young man standing just behind her. The third woman kneels on Mary’s other side, near the lower left corner of the composition, with her hands clasped together. Behind the women, the horse and its elderly, bearded rider and the cleanshaven man piercing Jesus’s side with a spear both look up at Jesus. The rider touches his left eye with the index finger of that hand, and short, red rays emanate from his eyelid. Near the back end of the horse, a man holds a bucket and a long pole supporting a sponge in a U-shaped crook at the top. A cluster of eight men are gathered in the lower right half. Two are on horseback, and the rider closest to us wears peanut-brown armor and helmet. He holds a tall staff with a red pennant bearing the letters “SPQR.” Beyond the crosses, pale green hills topped with trees and bushes lead back to a town skyline painted in shades of baby and teal blue. Scenes with people, tiny in scale, are scattered across the city and landscape. There, a crowd greeting a man entering the city on a donkey is seen in the distance to our left. A group lowers a man from a cross on a hill to our right, and a man hangs from a tree along the right edge of the composition. The gold sky fills the top quarter of the scene.

Calvary

Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Münster

c. 1470/1480

Oil on panel Accession ID 2001.70.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M35

Shown from the waist up, a young woman holds a baby up against her chest in this vertical painting. They both face us and have pale skin. The woman holds the baby against the right side of her chest, to our left, and she tips her slender, oval face toward him. She looks out at us with hazel eyes under thin, arched brows. She has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and a pale pink, bow mouth. The neckline and the cuffs of her garnet-red gown peek out from beneath a dark, spruce-blue, gold-edged mantle that covers her head and wraps around her body. One forearm rests along a surface marbled in red, brown, and tan. With her other hand, she supports the chest of the baby, who wears a long, white robe. The sleeves and hemline are pushed up to reveal his pudgy arms and the leg we can see. The infant has wavy, reddish-brown hair, delicate features, and large, green eyes under faint brows. His head also tilts to our left, and he gazes off in that direction. His exposed left leg, on our right, dangles over the woman’s arm, his toe nearly brushing the tabletop. His other leg is tucked within the folds of her robe. The long fingers of her free hand curl around the child’s hidden leg. The pair are warmly lit from the upper left and set against a dark, earth-brown background.

Madonna and Child

Giovanni Bellini

c. 1480/1485

Oil on panel Accession ID 1939.1.352

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M35

Shown from the waist up, a woman holds a nude infant in this vertical painting. Both have pale, peach-toned skin with brown eyes, faint eyebrows, and delicate features. The woman’s full, pink lips are closed, and she has a pointed chin. Her wavy, reddish-blond hair is parted in the middle and falls behind her shoulders. She wears a dark blue robe with a narrow gold border draped over her head and around her shoulders and body. She looks down at the child, to our right, which she holds in both long-fingered hands on a white cloth. The baby’s head is covered with a fine fuzz. He looks off to the left and grips the white cloth with the hand closer to the woman. His other hand rests on his round belly. The woman’s right hand wraps across one tiny leg, and the other foot stretches out over that wrist. The background is dark brown, and cracking on the painting’s surface is visible throughout.

Madonna and Child

Dirck Bouts

c. 1465

Oil on panel Accession ID 1986.67.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M39

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.

Madonna and Child

Jan Gossaert

c. 1532

Oil on panel Accession ID 1981.87.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M41

A wooden, T-shaped cross, with a man nailed to its crossbeam, is raised so it stands vertically as men and women look on against a grassy, hilly landscape in this horizonal painting. The painting is made up of three parts: a vertical rectangular panel at the center and a tall, narrow rectangular panel to each side. The people all have pale, ruddy, or tanned skin. The cross is being pushed up from behind by two men with poles and pulled up on the front side by three men pulling on two ropes. The man on the cross, Jesus, is nude except for a white cloth across his hips. Blood trickles from nails holding his hands in place, the single nail driven through both feet, and a ring of thorns across his forehead. His long brown hair hangs down over his shoulder, and he has a full, trimmed beard. His red-rimmed eyes slope downward as he looks down to the crowd below. His mouth is closed. The people in the crowd at the base of the cross wear dresses, robes, and turbans in shades of ruby red, grass green, lapis blue, pale yellow, carnation pink, and bright white. Three men push and pull on the base of the cross, driving it into a hole dug in the dirt ground. Eleven men and one child look on from our left, some with gaping mouths. One of the two men pulling on one of the ropes to our right wears tattered blue clothing, and his toes poke out of the shoe we can see. The other man there is barefoot and has a prominent hooked, red nose and a pointed beard. A red cowl covers his head over a tunic striped with lemon yellow and brown. An inscription on that man’s sleeve reads, “OHAIR.” Two men stand in the lower left corner of this panel. One looks at the cross and the other looks out at us, while pointing up to Jesus. Two human skulls and other bones litter the ground around the cross. Two more wooden crosses and some rope lie on the ground near us. Two dogs romp together nearby, next to a coat of arms showing a crowned man wearing a red robe and holding two pointed staffs. In the panel to our left, a woman wearing an azure-blue robe, Mary, interlaces her fingers and flips her hands palm-down, as she looks at the ground. Another woman in front of her kneels and holds her interlaced hands up by her face, elbows high. A woman and a cleanshaven man stand near Mary, and to our left, a woman wearing emerald green holds a cloth with Jesus’s face on it. Four more men and women look on, the women crying. In the panel to our right, a man in a red robe and a man wearing armor sit on horses. The armored man gestures up at Jesus. Two more men sit on horses behind this pair, and six stand among and in front of the group. Two men sit, one with his hands tied behind his back, near the lower right corner of this panel. The bound man is bald and looks down. The man behind him has a brown beard and hair, and looks up at Jesus. Across all three panels, the scene takes place on a smooth, dirt ground. Grassy hills rise beyond the cross to higher peaks in the left and right panels. Paths or roads wind into the distance to a town on the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition. Hazy in the distance, a city wall encloses steeples and buildings, and a bridge spans a body of water leading up to the city. Gray clouds begin to tumble across the sky from our right. The sky is nearly white along the horizon and deepens to watery blue along the top edges of the panels.

The Raising of the Cross [center, left, and right panels]

Master of the Starck Triptych

c. 1480/1490

Oil on panel Accession ID 1997.100.1.a

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M35

This painting shows a man standing, his body and head slightly turned to the right. He has fair skin, arched eyebrows, round green eyes, a long nose, thin pink lips, a long brown beard, and a thin brown mustache. He wears a black flat-topped cap and a dark robe with puffed sleeves and lacy white details around the cuffs and neck. A gold ring with a green stone is on his left forefinger. He stands next to a wide window with a yellow sill, and in the background there is a landscape with dark green trees, green fields, a rustic house, and a faint person standing next to a horse, all under a blue sky.

A Member of the Fröschl Family

Hans Mielich

c. 1539/1540

Oil on panel Accession ID 1984.66.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M35

Portrait of a Lady

German 16th Century

1532

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1942.16.3

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M35

Against a landscape, a pale-skinned man walking hunched over as he carries a large bundle like pillows wrapped in a blanket on his back nearly fills this vertical painting. Close to us, the man walks to our right with his head down and his eyes closed or downcast under straight, furrowed brows. He has a wide, prominent nose, a brown beard, and close-cropped hair. With muscled forearms arms raised overhead, he clutches the forest-green cloth tied around the bundle, which has cloth with dark green stripes against cream white. The man wears a red, waist-length tunic over an ankle-length, bright white garment, which splits up the side to show his muscular legs and bare feet. He strides across a moss-green rock. On the far side of the rock on which he stands, to our left, a sand-brown path curves away from us to the wide, arched opening of a building. The structure has gray walls, possibly stone, with goldenrod-yellow paneling around the second story, and a red roof. At the arched opening, a couple dozen people, tiny in scale, gather around a person who stands and gestures with arm extended over a second person lying on a cloth. The four corners of the cloth are suspended by four ropes, barely visible, where the cloth had been lowered to the ground from above, presumably from the four people on the roof. The people in the crowd wear robes in mustard yellow, navy blue, plum purple, dark red, and white. Another building and a stone tower rise beyond the structure. To our right, the land dips down to the horizon line, which comes about a quarter of the way up the painting. People walk along the distant path that passes in front of a house at the foot of a steel-blue, rocky outcropping. A leafy tree grows where the road bends out of sight, and bands of white clouds stretch across the pale, muted turquoise sky.

The Healing of the Paralytic

Netherlandish 16th Century

c. 1560/1590

Oil on panel Accession ID 1943.7.7

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M41