Virgin and Child

Artist Hayne de Bruxelles (Netherlandish, active 1454/1455 - 1459)

Date1454/1455

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/2 x 14 3/16 inches (62.23 x 36.04 cm)
Framed: 34 5/16 x 18 9/16 x 3 5/16 inches (87.15 x 47.15 x 8.41 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-149

SignedNone

InscribedInscribed upper right: DI / IHS / XRS Inscribed lower left, along the lowest fold of the embroidered hem fo the Virgin's cloak: "Ave Maria" Inscribed below the figures: "Maria mater graci[a]e mater misericordi[a]e / Tu nos ab hoste protege et hora mortis suscipe / O mater dei memento mei" (the last line of this inscription includes two heraldic devices, at the beginning and end of the line, respectively).

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionThree-quarter-length figure of Mary wearing red robe and cap over which is blue mantle; holding child wrapped in pink cloth. "Christ" in Greek letters on gold background, right. Latin inscription beneath figures, in red letters on gold (three lines) and coat-of-arms of Roxel de Medawy (Roussel de Medavy) family.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition retrospective, Musée d'Art, Rouen, 1884, no. 349, no cat.

Exposition des primitifs français au Palais du Louvre (Pavillon de Marsan) et à la Bibliothèque Nationale, Palais du Louvre and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, April 12-July 14, 1904, no. 349.

Masterwork of the Month, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 28, 1949-January 12, 1950, no cat.

Flemish Madonna at Philbrook, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 1959, no cat.

Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261- 1557), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 23-July 4, 2004, no. 350.

Gallery Label

This Virgin and Child was inspired by the so-called Cambrai Madonna, a painting thought to have been painted by Saint Luke and therefore revered as a cult image with miraculous powers. It was brought from Italy in 1451 and installed in the Cathedral of Cambrai, in Northern France.

This is one of many versions of this composition painted by Hayne de Bruxelles for Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, and presented as gifts to encourage support for a crusade against the Turks. The motherly tenderness of the Virgin towards the child reflects demands for direct emotional experience in religious art of the time.

Provenance

Gaston Le Breton (1845-1920), Rouen, by 1920;

His posthumous sale, Dessins et tableaux anciens et modernes, objets d’art de haute curiosité et d’ameublement composant la première partie de Collections de feu M. Gaston Le Breton, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 6-8, 1921, lot 13, as by École Primitive [1];

With Findlay Art Galleries, Kansas City, 1923;

Albert R. Jones (1874-1957), Kansas City, Missouri, 1923 [2];

Purchased from Jones by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.

NOTES:

[1] A copy of the sale catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York, has a handwritten notation in the margin opposite the entry on this picture: “Wildenstein 9,000.” According to Joseph Baillio, Wildenstein and Co., in conversation with Patricia Fidler, Research Associate, December 18, 1990, note in NAMA curatorial files, the painting does not appear in the Wildenstein inventories. The notation may have been an error.

[2] A notation in the NAMA curatorial files indicates the painting was owned by “De Mautauson” before it was acquired by Jones, but this information has not been confirmed.

Published References

Léon Emmanuel Simon Joseph de Laborde. Les ducs de Bourgogne: Études sur les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XV^e siècle et plus particulièrement dans les pays-bas et le duché de Bourgogne, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Paris: Plon Freres, 1849), LIX.

P. Mantz, "Exposition retrospective de Rouen," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 30 (September 1884): 200-02, 209, (repro.), as French artist, c. 1370.

M. L. Roger-Milès, Le Moyen Age (Paris: J. Rouam and Cie, 1893), 117, (repro.), print after the painting, as French artist, fourteenth century.

H. Bouchot et al., Exposition des primitifs français au Palais du Louvre (Pavillon de Marsan) et à la Bibliothèque Nationale, exh. cat. (Paris: Palais du Louvre and Bibliothèque Nationale, 1904), 134, as by École Française around 1430.

Catalogue des dessins et tableaux anciens et modernes, objets d'art de haute curiosité et d’ameublement composant la première partie de Collections de feu M. Gaston Le Breton (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1921), unpaginated, as École Primitive, late fourteenth century.

"A. R. Jones Buys Picture of Unknown Artist,'' Kansas City Star (May 27, 1923): unpaginated, as unknown painter.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 40-41, 136, (repro.), as by anonymous French artist, fifteenth century.

Jacques Dupont, "Hayne de Bruxelles et la copie de 'Notre-Dame de Graces de Cambrai,'' L'Amour de l'Art 16, no. 10 (December 1935): 363-64, 366, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 40, 42, 167, (repro.), as School of North France, fifteenth century.

Charlton Fortune, Notes on Art for Catholics Based on the Collection of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Paterson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild Press,1944), 42, 45-46, (repro.), as by School of North France.

Richard Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, sec. 3, vol. 5 (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1947), 56n2.

Paul Rolland, "La Madone Italo-Byzantine de Frasnes-lez-Buissenal," Revue Belge d’Archeologie et d'Histoire de l'Art 17 (1947-48): 102-04, (repro.), as by Petrus Christus.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 57, (repro.), as by School of North France, fifteenth century.

C. Thelliez, La marveilleuse image de Notre-Dame de Grâce de Cambrai: Cinq siècles d'histoire (Cambrai: H. Mallez and Cie, 1951), 14.

Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953), 297, 419n5, 481n4, (repro.).

"Rheinische Aussteller auf der Münchener Messe," Die Weltkunst 27, no. 22 (November 15, 1957): 19, (repro.).

J. Lavalleye, Collections d’Espagne: Les Primitifs Flamands, II. Repertoire des peintures flamandes des quinzieme et seizieme siecles 2 (1958): 20, mentioned, but unattributed.

Philbrook Art Center Calendar of Events (Tulsa, Oklahoma) (December 1959): unpaginated.

Maurice de Vinna, "Flemish Madonna at Philbrook," Tulsa World (December 6, 1959): 9, (repro.).

P. Strieder, "Holbein d. Ä. und die deutschen Wiederholungen des Gnadenbildes von Santa Maria del Popolo," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 22, no. 3 (1959): 254.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 79, 260, (repro.).

Catherine Perier-d'Ieteren, "Une copie de Notre-Dame de Grâce de Cambrai aux Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique à Bruxelles,'' Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique Bulletin, nos. 3-4 (1968): 114n8-11, as by Petrus Christus.

Karl Kolb, Elëusa: 2000 Jahre Madonnenbild (Regensburg, Germany: Institutum Marianum, 1968), 44, 128, (repro.).

Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden ([Milan]: Electa Editrice, [1972]), 214.

J. M. Upton, “Petrus Christus” (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1972), 43n13.

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), 96, 257, (repro.).

Burkhard Richter, "Untersuchungen zum Werk des Petrus Christus” (Ph.D. diss., Universität Heidelberg, 1974), 156, 402-03n79.

P. H. Schabacker, Petrus Christus (Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker and Gumbert, 1974), 128.

Guy Bauman, "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425-1525,'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43, no. 4 (Spring 1986): 6-7, (repro.), as closer to a copy after Petrus Christus than to Hayne de Bruxelles.

Joel M. Upton, Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990), 53n7.

Guy C. Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, eds., Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1992), 69, (repro.).

Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, Facsimile in Early Netherlandish Painting: Dieric Bouts's ‘Virgin and Child’, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993), 7, (repro.).

Didier Martens, "La mise au gout du jour d’oeuvres médiévales flamandes aux 17 et 18 siécles," Recherches Poiétiques 96, no. 3 (1995): 50-51.

Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker, eds., The Sacred Image: East and West ((Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1995), 143n10-12.

Maurits Smeyers,ed., Dirk Bouts (ca. 1410-1475) een Vlaams primitief te Leuven, exh. cat. (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 1998), 231-32, 245n7, (repro.).

El arte en Cataluña y Los Reinos Hispanos en tiempos de Carlos I, exh. cat. ([Madrid]: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 2000), 176, (repro.).

Erwin Panofsky, Altniederländische Malerei (Cologne: DuMont, 2001), 1:308, 463n233; 2:314, (repro.).

Christian Heck, ed., L'art flamand et hollandais: Le siècle des Primitifs, 1380-1520 (Paris: Citadelles and Mazenod, 2003), 343- 44, (repro.).

C. Morton, "The Notre Dame de Grâce de Cambrai: Its Origins, Veneration, Dissemination, and Influence on Early Netherlandish Painting" (M.A. thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 2003), 17-24, 40, (repro.), as fifteenth century Flemish, but not Hayne de Bruxelles.

Helen C. Evans, ed., Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), 553, 584-86, (repro.).

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), 10, 19-20, 29, 109-20, 121, 278, (repro.).

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