Portrait of a Carthusian

Signed on the lower edge of the trompe-l’oeil frame "Petrus Christus made me" and dated 1446, this remarkably life-like portrayal of a lay brother of the Carthusian Order is among the earliest independent portraits of the European Paintings Collection. Exquisitely rendered in astonishing detail, it closely follows the conventions of portraiture established by Christus’s renowned predecessor in Bruges, Jan van Eyck. Like Van Eyck, Christus posed the sitter in a three-quarter bust-length view, and directed his gaze toward the observer. Both artists made use of the trompe-l’oeil frame that serves as a fictive window through which the viewer and the sitter "communicate." But Christus improved on his predecessor’s model by heightening the illusion of space in two ways. Instead of the plain dark background previously favored, Christus placed the Carthusian against the corner space of a room with its own interior lighting, and he added a fly perched on the edge of the windowsill, seemingly ready to take flight either into or out of the implied space.

Countering the brilliant verisimilitude of the representation and the confident demeanor of the sitter, the fly is a symbol of death and decay, and reminds us of the transience of life. It has also been considered a talisman against evil, and thus would serve an apotropaic function for the pious Carthusian. At some point the sitter’s identity perhaps was lost, and the portrait was changed with the addition of a halo to indicate a saint. Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order who was canonized in the sixteenth century, may have been the figure intended by this alteration. As the incised arc and clumsily-painted halo altered Christus’s original intent and obscured the innovative spatial depth of the picture, it was removed. Two nineteenth-century copies of the portrait were made in Valencia and indicate that the painting must have found its way to Spain previous to that time.

[Maryan W. Ainsworth 2011]

Inscription: Signed and dated (bottom, on simulated frame): ·PETRVS·XPI·ME·FECIT·Ao·1446· (Petrus Christus made me in the year 1446)

Ramon de Oms (Ramon de la Cruz), Viceroy of Majorca (in 1911); Marqués de Dos Aguas, Valencia (by 1916–at least 1924); [Sulley and Co., London, by 1926–27]; [Knoedler, London and New York, 1927; sold for $80,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1927–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 20; 1943, no. 19)

Valencia. location unknown. "Exposición Nacional de Valencia, Seccion de Arte retrospectivo," 1910, no. 1076.

London. Burlington House. "Flemish & Belgian Art: 1300–1900," 1927, no. 16 (as "Portrait of a Carthusian[?]," lent anonymously).

New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Twelve Masterpieces of Painting," April 16–28, 1928, no. 1 (lent by Jules S. Bache).

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Flemish Primitives," 1929, no. 4 (as "Portrait of a Carthusian Saint").

Antwerp. location unknown. "L'art flamand ancien," 1930, no. 66.

New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Fifteenth Century Portraits," April 15–27, 1935, no. 2 (as "Portrait of Denys Le Chartreux," by Petrus Christus, lent by Jules S. Bache, Esq.).

Princeton University. "Exhibition of Belgian Medieval Art," June 17–23, 1937, no. 6 (as "Dionysius the Carthusian(?)," lent by The Jules Bache Foundation).

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 40.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 93 (as "Portrait of a Carthusian").

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 35).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Painter's Light," October 5–November 10, 1971, no. 1.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges," April 14–July 31, 1994, no. 5.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 21.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting," October 13, 2002–March 2, 2003, no. 24.

Ricardo Agrasot. "La civilización actual y las artes." Museum 1 (1911), ill. p. 14, as in the collection of Don Ramón de Oms, viceroy of Majorca.

Walter Cohen in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Ulrich Thieme. Vol. 8, Leipzig, 1913, p. 125.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, p. 21, pl. 3, calls it "Portrait of a Monk," the earliest work by Petrus Christus successfully carried out in the Van Eyck style; thinks the halo was probably a later addition.

Martin Conway. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, pp. 108–9.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 1, Die Van Eyck, Petrus Christus. Berlin, 1924, pp. 145–46, pl. 50, finds it similar to the portrait of Edward Grimston (National Gallery, London, on loan from the Earl of Verulam), painted in the same year, but in a printing error gives the date on our painting as 1466.

Willy Burger. Die Malerei in den Niederlanden 1400–1550. Munich, 1925, p. 36.

Louis Demonts. "L'Exposition d'art flamand à la Royal Academy de Londres." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 15 (1927), p. 260, ill.

Ludwig Baldass. "Die Niederländer des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts auf der Ausstellung flämischer Kunst in London." Belvedere 11 (September 1927), p. 82.

Roger Fry. "Flemish Art at Burlington House: I—The Primitives." Burlington Magazine 1 (1927), p. 62, pl. 3A.

Roger Fry. Flemish Art: A Critical Survey. New York, 1927, p. 23, fig. 11.

Tancred Borenius in Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Flemish & Belgian Art: A Memorial Volume. Ed. Martin Conway. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1927, p. 10, no. 16, pl. 12, as "Portrait of a Carthusian Saint".

Mary Logan Berenson. Letter to Duveen Bros. March 4, 1927, states that B. B. [Bernard Berenson] is "very much upset at not being able to follow Dr. Friedländer . . . but that fine 'Petrus Christus' portrait is certainly not Italian, whatever else it may be".

Friedrich Winkler. "Die flämisch-belgische Ausstellung in London." Der Kunstwanderer (February 1927), p. 221.

Malcolm Vaughan. "Paintings by Petrus Christus in America (part 1)." International Studio 89 (January 1928), pp. 29–31, ill.

Tancred Borenius. "A Loan Exhibition in New York." Apollo 7 (1928), pp. 212–13, ill.

A. H. "Review of Knoedler exhibition." Pantheon 1 (May 1928), p. 270, ill.

Franz Dülberg. Niederländische Malerei der Spätgotik und Renaissance. Potsdam, 1929, p. 31.

Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 4.

Belvedere 8 (1929), ill. opp. p. 465 (pl. 41).

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill., as "Dionysius the Carthusian(?)"; gives short biography of Dionysius (Denys van Leeuwen, 1402–1471).

Esther Singleton. Old World Masters in New World Collections. New York, 1929, pp. 169–72, ill.

August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), p. 542.

Sidney P. Noe. "Flemish Primitives in New York." American Magazine of Art 21 (January 1930), p. 34.

Royal Cortissoz. "The Jules S. Bache Collection." American Magazine of Art 21 (May 1930), p. 258, ill. p. 246.

A. H. Cornette. La Peinture à l'Exposition d'Art flamand ancien à Anvers. Exh. cat., location unknown, Antwerp. Brussels, 1930, p. 5, pl. 3, as "Portrait de Denys le Chartreux".

H. Fritsch Estrangin. "The Great Exhibition of Flemish Art at Antwerp." American Magazine of Art 21 (1930), p. 565.

Paul Lambotte. "The Belgian Centenary: The 'Centennale' at Brussels and the Exhibition of Flemish Art at Antwerp." Apollo 12 (1930), p. 18, ill. p. 16.

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Thirty-Five Portraits from American Collections." Art News 29, no. 33 (May 16, 1931), p. 4, ill.

Pierre Bautier in location unknown, Antwerp. Trésor de l'art flamand du moyen age au XVIIIme siècle: Mémorial de l'exposition d'art flamand ancien à Anvers 1930. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, pp. 33–34, 104–5, no. 66, pl. 3, fig. 4, as "Portrait de Denis le Chartreux".

Arthur Cornette in location unknown, Antwerp. Trésor de l'art flamand du moyen age au XVIIIme siècle: Mémorial de l'exposition d'art flamand ancien à Anvers 1930. Paris, 1932, p. 19.

Hans Tietze. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935, p. 333, pl. 124 [English ed., "Masterpieces of European Painting in America," New York, 1939, p. 317, pl. 124], lists it incorrectly as dated 1466.

Erwin Panofsky. "The Friedsam Annunciation and the Problem of the Ghent Altarpiece." Art Bulletin 17 (December 1935), pp. 433–34 n. 4.

J[acques]. Lavalleye in "De vlaamsche schilderkunst tot ongeveer 1480." Geschiedenis van de vlaamsche kunst. Ed. Stan Leurs. Antwerp, 1936, p. 183.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 14, Pieter Bruegel und Nachträge zu den früheren Bänden. Leiden, 1937, p. 79, corrects the date to 1446.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 20, ill., as "Dionysius the Carthusian(?)".

Alan Burroughs. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938, pp. 249–50, rejects the date 1446, observing that it is "strangely added in a different pigment" and finding the style not appropriate to this date.

Wolfgang Schöne. Dieric Bouts und seine Schule. Berlin, 1938, p. 56, no. 4, lists it with the works of Christus, but with a note that he has not seen the painting.

Regina Shoolman and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America. Philadelphia, 1942, p. 396, pl. 353.

Harry B. Wehle. "The Bache Collection on Loan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (June 1943), pp. 288–89, ill.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 19, ill.

Roberta M. Fansler and Margaret R. Scherer. Painting in Flanders. New York, 1945, pp. 8–9, ill.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 17–19, ill., catalogue it as "Portrait of a Carthusian," observing that the grounds for identifying it with Dionysius are not convincing.

Letter to Margaretta Salinger. November 22, 1950, notes in connection with the halo that Dionysius was never considered a saint or formally canonized, and suggests that the artist may have portrayed the founder of the order, Saint Bruno, "under the guise of a suitable model".

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 266, no. 93, colorpl. 93.

J. V. L. Brans. Isabel la Católica y el arte hispano-flamenco. Madrid, 1952, p. 42.

Germain Bazin. "Petrus Christus et les rapports entre l'Italie et la Flandre au milieu du XVe siècle." Revue des arts 4 (December 1952), pp. 199, 202 n. 38, p. 203 n. 40, p. 208, sees the influence of Antonello in this portrait; notes that it and three other paintings by Christus are, or were at one time, in Spanish collections, suggesting that the artist may have visited Spain; gives date incorrectly as 1466.

Erwin Panofsky. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Cambridge, Mass., 1953, vol. 1, pp. 188, 310, 312, 488–89 n. 5 (to p. 310); vol. 2, pl. 252, fig. 405, for "stylistic reasons" considers the halo probably not original, and suggests that if it is authentic the sitter was cast in the role of Saint Bruno; discusses the possible significance of the fly and observes that the illusionistic use of such an insect can be traced back to classical antiquity.

Leo van Puyvelde. La peinture flamande au siècle des van Eyck. Paris, 1953, pp. 187–88.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 2, ill. p. 12.

Julius S. Held. "Erwin Panofsky, 'Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origin[s] and Character'." Art Bulletin. Vol. 37, September 1955, p. 229.

Josua Bruyn. Van Eyck problemen. Utrecht, 1957, p. 7 n. 4 (continued from p. 6), p. 101.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 41, 110, fig. 5, as the presumed portrait of "Moine Denis".

R. H. Wilenski. Flemish Painters, 1430–1830. New York, 1960, vol. 1, pp. 12, 25; vol. 2, pl. 31.

H. J. J. Scholtens. "Petrus Christus en zijn portret van een kartuizer." Oud-Holland 75 (1960), pp. 59–72, states that the hair and beard identify the sitter as a Carthusian lay brother not a monk, probably a member of the Dal van Graciën monastery outside Bruges; comments that, as no Carthusian lay brothers became saints, the halo is probably a later addition, possibly to give the portrait a more pious appearance but not to transform it into a portrait of Saint Bruno; observes that the fly was added to enliven the composition and as a symbol of evil and uncleanness.

John Rowlands. "A Man of Sorrows by Petrus Christus." Burlington Magazine 104 (October 1962), p. 420.

Jacqueline Folie. "Les oeuvres authentifiées des primitifs flamands." Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique Bulletin 6 (1963), p. 204, fig. 13.

André Pigler. "La mouche peinte: Un talisman." Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts no. 24 (1964), pp. 47, 51, fig. 34, observes that the fly on the wall in this picture seems to be the earliest example of a trompe l'oeil insect, and suggests that such painted flies served as talismans.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 1, The van Eycks—Petrus Christus. New York, 1967, pp. 82, 95, 104, 110 n. 52, pl. 74.

Charles D. Cuttler. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. New York, 1968, pp. 130–31, fig. 152.

Edwin Hall. "Cardinal Albergati, St. Jerome and the Detroit Van Eyck." Art Quarterly 31, no. 1 (1968), p. 32 n. 19.

Lola B. Gellman. "The 'Death of the Virgin' by Petrus Christus: An Altar-piece Reconstructed." Burlington Magazine 112 (March 1970), p. 148 n. 12.

Lola B. Malkis Gellman. "Petrus Christus." PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1970, pp. 9, 40, 49, 51, 53, 64, 67, 74–81, 86, 91, 271–72, 312 nn. 16–17, p. 313 nn. 18–19, p. 314 n. 26, pp. 380–82, 512, no. 2, fig. 6.

Zsuzsa Urbach. "Charles D. Cuttler, Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel, 1968." Acta Historiae Artium 17 (1971), pp. 136–37.

Charles Sterling. "Observations on Petrus Christus." Art Bulletin 53 (March 1971), pp. 18–19, fig. 32.

Joel M. Upton. "Petrus Christus." PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa., 1972, pp. 56, 74–77, 80–81, 105, 109, 122 nn. 32, 34, 37, pp. 327, 332, 336, 363–67, 370–71, 376, no. 20, fig. 20.

Gustav Künstler. "Vom entstehen des Einzelbildnisses und seiner frühen Entwicklung in der flämischen Malerei." Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 27 (1974), pp. 50–55, fig. 20, feels that the role of the halo in the composition suggests that it may be original; supports the identification of the sitter with Dionysius; believes that the fly represents the devil.

Peter H. Schabacker. Petrus Christus. Utrecht, 1974, pp. 23–25, 33, 43, 48, 73, 81–83, 128, 130, no. 3, fig. 3, repeats Scholtens's [see Ref. 1960] observations about the identity of the sitter and agrees that the halo is probably a later addition; suggests that the sitter was one of the converses at the monastery of Genadedal near Bruges; calls it the only known formal portrait of a monk prior to Gossart's Benedictine monk of 1526 (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

V. Denis. La peinture flamande 15e–16e–17e siècles. Brussels, 1976, p. 47, notes that the halo seems to be a later addtion.

Colin Eisler. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Vol. 4, European Schools Excluding Italian. London, 1977, pp. 51–53.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 188, 199, 205, fig. 363.

Elisa Bermejo. La pintura de los primitivos flamencos en España. Vol. 1, Madrid, 1980, pp. 36, 69–70, observes that a miniature copy of this portrait by the Valencian painter Rafael Montesinos (1843–1872) is preserved in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao.

Lorne Campbell. Unpublished text for MMA Bulletin. 1981.

Ann Tzeutschler Lurie. "A Newly Discovered Eyckian 'St. John the Baptist in a Landscape'." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67 (April 1981), pp. 95–96, fig. 21.

Penny Howell Jolly. "Rogier van der Weyden's Escorial and Philadelphia 'Crucifixions' and Their Relation to Fra Angelico at San Marco." Oud-Holland 95, no. 3 (1981), p. 125 n. 35.

James Snyder. Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575. New York, 1985, p. 151, fig. 150.

Guy Bauman. "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425–1525." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43 (Spring 1986), pp. 6–7, 11, 36–38, 42, 44, 51, 53, 58, figs. 6 (color detail) and 28 (color overall), due to the "intimate quality" of the portrait, suspects that the sitter was a close friend or relative of the artist and that the portrait was not commissioned but made for presentation.

Shirley Neilsen Blum in "The Open Window: A Renaissance View." The Window in Twentieth-century Art. Exh. cat., Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase. Purchase, N.Y., 1986, pp. 11–12, fig. 5, regards the trompe l'oeil fly as not yet fully explained, yet a means of dissolving the barrier between real and illusionistic space.

Introduction by James Snyder in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Renaissance in the North. New York, 1987, pp. 10, 27, colorpl. 5.

Peter Klein. Letter. March 21, 1989, reports on the results of his dendrochronological study of this painting and suggests a probable date of creation of "from 1440 upwards".

Joel M. Upton. Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting. University Park, Pa., 1990, pp. 22–30, 32, 42, 45, 57, 65, 67, 72, 78, 81, 111, fig. 15.

Maximiliaan P. J. Martens. "New Information on Petrus Christus's Biography and the Patronage of his Brussels 'Lamentation'." Simiolus 20, no. 1 (1990/1991), p. 6 n. 7.

Shirley Neilsen Blum, Selected by Guy C. Bauman, and Walter A. Liedtke in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, pp. 54–56, no. 9, ill. (color).

Christopher S. Wood. "Book Reviews: . . . Joel M. Upton, 'Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting . . .'." Art Bulletin 75 (March 1993), p. 176.

Hans Belting and Christiane Kruse. Die Erfindung des Gemäldes: Das erste Jahrhundert der niederländischen Malerei. Munich, 1994, pp. 50, 196, no. 124, colorpl. 124, fig. 23 (detail).

Maryan W. Ainsworth. Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 15, 28–30, 32, 49–53, 89, 92–96, 100, 154, 168–69, 178–79, 186, 189–90, no. 5, figs. 14, 62, 63 (detail of inscription; infrared reflectogram of overall and detail), ill. p. 92 (color), observes that this work and the portrait of Edward Grimston (National Gallery, London, on loan from the Earl of Verulam) "originated from one pattern of head shape and size"; notes that the date 1446 could have been inscribed on the original frame, then added to the inscription after that frame was removed.

Peter Klein in Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Dendrochronological Analysis of Panels Attributed to Petrus Christus." Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, p. 215, gives estimated felling date as 1430, and presumed date including ten years storage time as 1440.

John Oliver Hand. "Petrus Christus at the Metropolitan." Apollo 140 (October 1994), p. 50, fig. 2.

Joel M. Upton in Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps. n.p., 1994, p. 366, ill. (color).

Roger Kimball. "'Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . . ." New Criterion 12, no. 9 (May 1994), pp. 55–56.

Paul Jeromack. "New Light on Old Masters." Art & Antiques 17, no. 5 (1994), ill. p. 77 (color, overall and detail).

Peter Klein. "Dendrochronological Findings of the Van Eyck–Christus–Bouts Group." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, p. 153.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Afterthoughts and Challenges to Modern-Day Connoisseurship." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, p. 205.

Joel M. Upton. "PETRVS.XPI.ME.FECIT: The Transformation of a Legacy." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, pp. 53, 56–57, 60, fig. 1.

Stephanie Buck. "Petrus Christus's Berlin Wings and the Metropolitan Museum's Eyckian Diptych." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, pp. 78, 82 n. 61.

Colin Eisler and Thomas Kren. "Discussion." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, p. 98.

Molly Faries. "Discussion." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, p. 143.

Joe Fronek. "Painting Techniques, and Their Effects and Changes in the Los Angeles 'Portrait of a Man' by Christus." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, p. 176.

Hubert von Sonnenburg. "Discussion." Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 1995, pp. 183–86.

Marta Renger. "Petrus Christus. A Renaissance Artist in Bruges." Kunstchronik 48, no. 3 (March 1995), pp. 98, 100, ill.

Jos Koldeweij. "Book Reviews: Maryan Ainsworth with contributions by Maximiliaan P. J. Martens, 'Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges'." Simiolus 23, no. 4 (1995), p. 273.

Joel M. Upton in The Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 7, New York, 1996, p. 239, ill.

Otto Pächt. Early Netherlandish Painting from Rogier van der Weyden to Gerard David. Ed. Monika Rosenauer. London, 1997, pp. 78–79, ill.

Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Chuck Close: Sought or Imposed, Limits Can Take Flight." New York Times (July 25, 1997), p. C23.

J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer. "Some Technical Observations on the Turin and Philadelphia Versions of 'Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata'." Jan van Eyck: Two Paintings of "Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata". Philadelphia, 1997, pp. 56, 62 n. 24.

Della Clason Sperling in From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 19, 28, 71, 74, 96, 139–40, 143, 148–49, no. 21, ill. (color).

Martha Wolff in The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998, pp. 62, 71–72 n. 2, p. 73 n. 28.

Hugo van der Velden. "Defrocking St Eloy: Petrus Christus's 'Vocational Portrait of a Goldsmith'." Simiolus 26, no. 4 (1998), pp. 249–50, 253, fig. 8.

John Oliver Hand. "New York. From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Burlington Magazine 140 (December 1998), p. 855.

Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, p. 240 [text similar to Kimmelman 1997].

Francisco Fernández Pardo et al., ed. Las tablas flamencas en la ruta Jacobea. Exh. cat., Claustro de la Iglesia de Palacio, Logroño. San Sebastián, Spain, 1999, p. 201.

Cyriel Stroo et al. The Flemish Primitives II: Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Vol. 2, The Dirk Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes Groups. Brussels, 1999, p. 164 n. 70.

Roland Krischel in Genie ohne Namen: Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars. Ed. Rainer Budde and Roland Krischel. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 2001, p. 364.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Commentary: An Integrated Approach." Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads: A Critical Look at Current Methodologies. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 2001, p. 115.

John Oliver Hand in Sybille Ebert-Schifferer. Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting. Exh. cat., National Gallery. Washington, 2002, pp. 164–65, 373, no. 24, ill. (color).

Georg Zeman with the collaboration of Fritz Koreny in Early Netherlandish Drawings from Jan van Eyck to Hieronymus Bosch. Ed. Fritz Koreny. Exh. cat., Rubenshuis. Antwerp, 2002, pp. 64, 66, notes that a similar ledge, over which the tail feathers of a falcon reach, appears in Christus's drawing, "Portrait of a Nobleman with a Falcon" (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt).

José Gómez Frechina in Pintura europea del Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia. Exh. cat., Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia. Valencia, 2002, pp.108, 263.

José Gómez Frechina in Museu de Belles Arts de València: Obra selecta. Valencia, 2004, p. 102.

Paula Nuttall. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400–1500. New Haven, 2004, p. 288 nn. 80, 85.

Boudewijn Bakker Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Landschap en Wereldbeeld: Van Van Eyck tot Rembrandt. Bossum, The Netherlands, 2004, pp. 119–20, 406 n. 240, figs. 26–26a (overall and detail), believes this may be a portrait of Dionysius the Carthusian, although this cannot be confirmed; adds that the fly could be a memento mori, as human mortality and the belief that the end was near played an important part in the Carthusian environment; notes that Dionysius mentions insects, not the fly in particular, as an example of the great care and love of God in every detail of creation, including the small and the ugly and that, Dionysius saw mankind, like the fly, as just a small part of God's creation.

Lorne Campbell in Memling's Portraits. Ed. Till-Holger Borchert. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Ghent, 2005, p. 62, ill. fig 51 (color).

Till-Holger Borchert. Memling's Portraits. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Ghent, 2005, p. 163.

Burton L. Dunbar. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450–1600. Kansas City, Mo., 2005, p. 166.

Till-Holger Borchert. "Collecting Early Netherlandish Paintings in Europe and the United States." Early Netherlandish Paintings: Rediscovery, Reception and Research. Ed. Bernhard Ridderbos et al. English ed. Amsterdam, 2005, p. 215 [Dutch ed., "'Om iets te weten van de oude meesters'. De Vlaamse Primitieven—herontdekking, waardering en onderzoek," Nijmegen, 1995].

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Paintings." Metropolitan Museum Journal 40 (2005), pp. 51–52, 64 n. 4, figs. 1–2.

Pierre Rosenberg. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006, p. 34, ill.

Peter Klein. "Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych: Dendrochronological Analyses." Essays in Context: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych. Ed. John Oliver Hand and Ron Spronk. Cambridge, Mass., 2006, p. 219 [published in conjunction with the 2006 exh. cat., "Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych"].

Ingrid Alexander-Skipnes. "Northern Realisim and Carthusian Devotion: Bergognone's Christ Carrying the Cross for the Certosa of Pavia." Cultural Exchange Between the Low Countries and Italy (1400–1600). Ed. Ingrid Alexander-Skipnes. Turnhout, Belgium, 2007, p. 152, fig. 11.

Barbara G. Lane. Hans Memling: Master Painter in Fifteenth-Century Bruges. London, 2009, pp. 80, 83, 90 nn. 11–12, p. 319, fig. 66.

Stephan Kemperdick in Van Eyck to Dürer: Early Netherlandish Painting & Central Europe, 1430–1530. Exh. cat., Groeningemuseum, Bruges. Tielt, Belgium, 2010, p. 384.

Barbara G. Lane in Memling: Rinascimento fiammingo. Ed. Till-Holger Borchert. Exh. cat., Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome. Milan, 2014, pp. 28, 31, 36 n. 51, fig. 10 (color).

Diane Wolfthal and Cathy Metzger. Los Angeles Museums. Brussels, 2014, p. 103 n. 26.

Lorne Campbell and José Juan Pérez Preciado in Rogier van der Weyden and the Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. Ed. Lorne Campbell. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2015, p. 109, under no. 6.

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, pp. 140–41, 268–69, no. 130, ill. pp. 108, 140 (color).

The halo was removed by Hubert von Sonnenburg in June 1992. He noted that examination under magnification clearly showed that an incision was made with a compass in order to make the halo; its center point damaged the paint layers at the sitter's right temple.

John Brealey (1978) feels that the off-center placement of the date indicates that it was surely an afterthought, possibly Christus' own.