Portrait of Jean de Carondelet

Artist Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (Netherlandish, ca. 1478-1532)

Date1525-1530

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 16 15/16 × 13 3/4 inches (43.02 × 34.93 cm)
Framed: 24 × 20 inches (60.96 × 50.8 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number63-17

InscribedInscribed on stone frame in background: D. IO. CARONDELET ARCHIEPI PANORni PREPO. EC. S. DON. BRVGEN

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionAgainst dark brown ground, surrounded by architectural molding, dark at left, lighter gray at right bearing on three sides shaded capital letters--D. IO.CARONDELET/ ARCHIEPIPANORNI PREPO/ EC S CON BRVGEN--frontal half-length view of standing man, stern-faced, blue-eyed with bags, short gray hair at sides, head turned slightly to his right, wearing black biretta, black robe covered by filmy white surplice, lace-bordered at top and down from shoulders, gray fur with ermine border held over left forearm, holding with both hands toward left red-velvet-covered missal with two clasps, left forefinger inside, ring on middle left finger and another on right forefinger.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, January 8-March 5, 1927, no. 181

Drei Jahrhunderte vlamische Kunst, 1400-1700, Wiener Secession, Vienna, January 11-February 23, 1930, no. 69.

Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 5, 2010-January 17, 2011; Jan Gossaert’s Renaissance, The National Gallery, London, February 23-May 30, 2011, unnumbered.

Renaissanceportretten uit de Lage Landen, Palais de Beaux-arts, Brussels, February 5-May 17, 2015, no. 20.

Gallery Label

Like van Orley and Joos van Cleve, represented in adjacent works, Jan Gossart was strongly influenced by the Italian Renaissance. He traveled to Rome in the entourage of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, and the fruits of his study of Classical and Renaissance models are apparent in the strong modeling and commanding physical presence of this portrait. On the other hand, the carefully observed textures and detail, such as the fur on Jean de Carondelet's ermine cape and the folds of his semitransparent surplice, are typical of native Flemish realism. The sitter was president of the Burgundian Privy Council and archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, though he never resided there.

Provenance

Charles Baring-Wall (1795-1853), Norman Court, Salisbury, England, by 1853;

By descent to Sir Francis George Baring (1850-1929), Salisbury, England, by 1907;

Purchased at his sale, Ancient and Modern Pictures, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, May 4, 1907, lot 55, as by C. Amberger, Portrait of a Divine, by Colnaghi and Co., London, 1907-1909;

Purchased from Colnaghi by Baron Rudolf von Gutmann (1880-1966), Vienna, 1909-at least 1930 [1];

Unknown owner, Switzerland, August 3, 1946 [2];

With Walter Feilchenfeldt, Ascona, Switzerland, on joint account with Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolf Heinemann], New York, Frederic Mont, Inc., New York and Knoedler and Co., New York, Knoedler stock book 9, no. A3689, by June 16, 1947-November 11, 1947 [3];

Purchased from Feilchenfeldt, Pinakos, Mont and Knoedler by Richard N. Ryan (d. 1949), New York, November 11, 1947;

With Paul Drey Gallery, New York, 1954;

With Frederick Mont, Inc., New York, 1962-1963;

Purchased from Mont by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1963.

NOTES:

[1] Baron Rudolf von Gutmann lent this painting to the exhibition “Drei Jahrhunderte Vlämische Kunst 1400-1700,” held at the Wiener Secession, January 11-February 23, 1930. Gutmann, a Jewish industrialist, fled Austria on March 11, 1938 at the time of the Anschluss, travelling through Czechoslovakia and Switzerland before arriving in Canada December 14, 1940, where he and his wife settled. According to the List of Austrian Monuments created by the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (Roberts Commission), this painting was located at Schloss Perlhof, Gutmann’s home outside of Vienna in Gießhübl. Most of Gutmann’s collection at Schloss Perlhof was confiscated by the German National Socialist (Nazi) Gestapo in March 1938. This painting, however, was not included in the works from Gutmann’s collection inventoried by the Germans at their Neuen Berg repository at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (where most of the Gutmann collection was taken). In a note dated November 19, 1938, an employee named Otto Demus of the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz im Bundesministerium für Unterricht (Central Office for Monument Protection), who was asked to investigate missing artworks from the Gutmann collection on behalf of the Gestapo, describes the painting as missing from Gutmann’s Beethovenplatz 3 apartment, as well as his country houses Hagenbackhaus and Gießhübl. See Bundesdenkmalamt Österreich Archives, Vienna, Rudolf Gutmann Restitutionsmaterialen (Zl. 4051/Dsch./1938). One of the paintings Demus was searching for, a Schongauer, was sold to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. According to Anneliese Schallmeiner, Kommission für Provenienzforschung, Bundesdenkmalamt, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, April 28, 2016, Dr. Andrea Bambi of the Pinakothek verified that they have no record of the Gossaert in their files. Most of Gutmann’s collection was restituted to him (with the help of Austrian dealer Christian Nebehay) following the war in 1947, but this painting does not appear in Allied restitution records. Internal correspondence within the Office of Military Government for Germany (OMGUS) dated July 11, 1946, mentions that the location of the Gossaert painting was unknown. For full documentation, see NAMA curatorial files.

[2] In a letter to Walter Feilchenfeldt dated August 3, 1946, dealer Rudolf Heinemann described this painting as the ‘RvGutmann picture’ and asked Feilchenfeldt to look at the painting (which was in Switzerland) and make an offer. It is unclear whether Heinemann had possession or ownership of the painting at the time. With thanks to Walter Feilchenfeldt, the dealer’s son, for sharing this information from his personal archive with the Nelson-Atkins. His email to MacKenzie Mallon dated July 2, 2023, is in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[3] The entry for this painting in Knoedler’s stock book 9 indicates Knoedler received this painting May 21, 1947. According to Walter Feilchenfeldt, the dealer’s son, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, November 1, 2015, NAMA curatorial files, a letter from the senior Feilchenfeldt to Dr. Grete Ring, Paul Cassirer, Ltd., London, dated June 16, 1947 from Ascona, Switzerland, indicates each of the four dealers owned a quarter share.

Published References

Paul Lambotte, L'Art Flamand (Bruges: Desclée de Brouwer, 1890), 49.

Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures: The Property of Francis Baring, Esq., of Norman Court, Salisbury (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 4, 1907), 10, as by C. Amberger.

W. Roberts, "Mabuse Portraits of Carondelet,” The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors 18 (May-August 1907), 179-80, 181, (repro.).

“Sales,” Art Journal (August 1907), 241.

Max J. Friedlander, “Bernaert van Orley: III. Orleys Tätigkeit zwischen 1521 und 1525,“ Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 30 (1909): 102, 103, (repro.).

William Henry James Weale, "Notes on Various Works of Art: Portraits of Archbishop John Carondelet," The Burlington Magazine 16, no. 82, (March 1910): 342, (repro.).

Grete Ring, Beiträge zur Geschichte niederländischer Bildnismalerei im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1913), 21, 147.

Ernst Weisz, Jan Gossart gen. Mabuse, sein Leben und seine Werke (Parchim, Germany: Hermann Freises 1913), no. 61, pp. 90-91, 122, (repro.).

Martin Conway, The Van Eycks and Their Followers (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1921), 376-77.

Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds., Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 14 (Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, 1921), 412.

Achille Ségard, Jean Gossart dit Mabuse (Brussels: G. van Oest,, 1923), no. 45, pp. 114-17, 183.

Martin Conway, ed., Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art: A Memorial Volume, exh. cat. (London: Country Life, Ltd. and the Anglo-Belgian Union, 1927), xviii, 78, (repro.).

Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300-1900, 4^th ed., exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1927), 74, 82.

Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300-1900: Illustrated Souvenir, exh. cat. (London: Country Life Ltd. and the Anglo–Belgian Union, 1927), 62, (repro.).

Flemish and Belgian Art: 1300-1900, exh. cat (London: The Apollo Press, 1927), 48, 157.

Drei Jahrhunderte vlämische Kunst, 1400-1700; CX. Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Kunstler Wiener Secession, exh. cat. (Vienna: A. Holzhausens Nfg., 1930), 35, (repro.).

Gustav Gluck, "Drei Jahrhunderte vlämischer Kunst: Ausstellung in der Wiener 'Sezession‘ I. Teil,“ Belvedere 9, no. 3 (January-June 1930): 80, (repro.).

Ludwig Von Baldass, "Drei Jahrhunderte flämische Malerei," Pantheon 5 (March 1930): 26, 133.

Max J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. 9, Jan Gossart, Bernart van Orley (Berlin: Cassirer, 1931), 59, 151, (repro.).

"Toledo: A Mabuse Given to the Museum,” Art News 34 (April 11, 1936): 14-15, (repro.).

Gerard Brom, "Vernieuwing van onze Schilderkunst in de vroege Renaissance," Gentsche Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis 7 (1941): 13.

Albert Charles Sewter, "A Portrait by Quentin Massys at the Barber Institute, Birmingham,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 36 (April 1948): 213-14, (repro.).

Max J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting: From Van Eyck to Bruegel, ed. Fritz Grossman, trans. Marguerite Kay (London: Phaidon, 1956), 101.

Millard Meiss, ed., De Artibus Opuscula, XL: Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky, vol. 1 (New York: New York University Press, 1961): 458, 462.

Leo van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel (Paris: Elsevier, 1962), 314.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1963," Art Quarterly 26, no. 3 (Autumn 1963): 353, 357, (repro.).

Robert K. Sanford, "Flemish Portrait Acquired by Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star (November 17, 1963): unpaginated, (repro.).

Donald Judd, "Kansas City Report;' Arts Magazine 37, no. 3 (December 1963): 24-25, (repro.).

Bob Haak, "Het portret van Erard de la Marck door Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, no. 1 (1963): 17-18, (repro.).

S. Bergmans et al., Le siècle de Bruegel: La peinture en Belgique au XVIe siècle, 2nd ed., exh. cat. (Brussels: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1963), 100.

Henri Pauwels, Hans R. Hoetink, Sadja J. Herzog Jean Gossaert genaamd Mabuse, exh. cat. (Eindhoven: Lecturis, 1965), 98, 104, 145-46.

"Checklist of Acquisitions,” Bulletin (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 4, no. 8 (December 1967): 17-18, (repro.).

Robert S. Townsend and Ross E. Taggart, Man and the Arts (Kansas City, Missouri: Kansas City Life Insurance Co., 1967), 2-3, (repro.).

Sadja Jacob Herzog, "Jan Gossart, Called Mabuse (ca. 1478-1532): A Study of His Chronology with a Catalogue of His Works,” (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1968): 1: 128-30, 191n5-6; 2: no. 18, pp. 247-48, 251, 477; 3: unpaginated, (repro.).

Henri F. Pauwels, "Jan Gossaert en Van Eyck,“ Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Bulletin 19 (1968): 7.

Max J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 8 (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1972), 38, 91, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 98, 257, (repro.).

Jane B. Friedman, “An Iconological Examination of the Half-length Devotional Portrait Diptych in the Netherlands, 1460-1530,” (Ph.D. diss., University of California-Los Angeles, 1977): 72-73, 135-39, 190, 234, (repro.).

Catalogue of Paintings: 13th-18th Century, trans. Linda B. Parshall, 2^nd rev. ed. (Berlin-Dahem: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1978), 187.

The Toledo Museum of Art: European Paintings (Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 1978), 65.

Maryan Wynn Ainsworth and Molly Faries, "Northern Renaissance Paintings: The Discovery of Invention,” The Bulletin of The Saint Louis Art Museum 18, no. 1 (Summer 1986), 11n10.

Angelica Dülberg, Privatporträts. Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1990), 181-82, (repro.).

Chuck Hill, “Notes from the Past,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (May 1991): 4, (repro.).

Nicholas Hall, ed., Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi, New York (New York: Colnaghi, 1992), 129.

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933-1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 87.

Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 129, 151, (repro.).

Ariane Mensger, Jan Gossaert: Die Niederländische Kunst zu Beginn der Neuzeit (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 2002), 49-50.

Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 12, 13, 29, 166, 167, 227-38, 270, 274, (repro.).

Maryan W. Ainsworth, Stijn Alsteens, and Nadine M. Orenstein Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance: The Complete Works, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 22, 83-85, 86, 85n63, 170, 243, 305, (repro.), as possibly by Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen.

Till Borchert and Koenraad Jonckheere, Renaissanceportretten uit de Lage Landen (Hannibal: Bozar Books, 2015), 76, 128-129, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.