To celebrate its bicentenary, London’s National Gallery has purchased a curious altarpiece for $20 million that it was eyeing for decades. Titled The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels, the painting dates from 1500-10 – and the artist is unknown.
The acquisition was funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery of London and bought from a private collection in a sale brokered by Sotheby’s. The price represents a significant outlay for an unknown and unnamed artist, and reflects the quality, craftsmanship, and significance of the work.
It’s thought the artist was either French or Netherlandish (from the Low Countries). The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels was first documented in 1602 in Belgium, when it probably served as an altarpiece in a church in Ghent.
Emma Capron, curator of early Netherlandish and German paintings at the National Gallery, who is responsible for the acquisition, said in a statement that the artwork is “full of iconographical oddities.” The Virgin and Child are positioned in the center of the composition, which includes two saints, two playful angels, “a bawdy scene with a naughty child, and a magnificent slobbering,” the National Gallery said.
The dragon is particularly unique, with no other similar interpretation known to exist in Northern European art.
“This is a rare and exciting addition to the National Gallery’s superb collection of early Netherlandish paintings,” Capron said. “This altarpiece is the work of a talented and highly original but unknown artist, and I hope that ongoing research and the painting’s public display will help solve this conundrum in the future.”
It is painted on a Baltic oak panel, which artists from the Low Countries often used, while French artists preferred local oak. However, Saint Louis is depicted in the work, representing the French king Louis IX (1214-70), and his gown is embellished with the royal fleur-de-lis associated with the French monarchy.
In the past, experts have suggested that the likes of Aert Ortkens, Jean Hey, the Master of Saint Giles, Jan Gossaert, and followers of Hugo van der Goes may have painted the altarpiece.
“The overall sense of plasticity, monumentality, and the strong shadows recall the work of French painters like Jean Hey,” the National Gallery said. “On the other hand, the composition and versatile execution – alternating smoothly painted areas and minute details with more dynamic passages – pay homage to the Netherlandish tradition of Jan van Eyck.”
The painting was sold by a descendant from the family of Henry Blundell (1724-1810) and until recently was housed in Dorset on Lulworth Estate, where the related Weld family live. It’s believed the work had been purchased by Blundell by 1803 from the urban priory of Drongen (Tronchiennes) in Ghent in modern Belgium, according to the National Gallery. It’s speculated that it was commissioned for the priory’s church.
Alex Bell, Sotheby’s chairman emeritus of Old Master paintings, conducted negotiations with the National Gallery for the painting’s sale. “What makes Old Masters so great, is that you don’t have to know what an artwork is to know that you are looking at something special,” he told ARTnews. “In the case of this striking altarpiece, its inherent value lies in its extraordinary quality and its history – regardless of who the artist may have been. In fact, this mystery makes it all the more intriguing. It has been seen rarely over the course of the last half a century, and has until now not been reproduced anywhere in colour.”
The National Gallery’s director, Gabriele Finaldi, told The Art Newspaper that his predecessors had been keen on the Old Master work “for decades,” until it was finally bought earlier this year.
He said it was “very rare” to find an unattributed painting of such quality – and suggested that “it might have been painted by a highly talented artist early in his career or by someone who died young.”
After not being exhibited publicly for 60 years, The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels will go on show in the National Gallery’s Room 53 on May 10. This will coincide with the opening of the museum’s revamped main entrance, the Sainsbury Wing, which is part of a $100 M. refurbishment to mark the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary.
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