The Artist: For a biography of Jean Bellegambe, see the Catalogue Entry for
The Cellier Altarpiece (
32.100.102).
The Painting: Undoubtedly once the left wing of a triptych, this panel represents Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin, near Douai, in what was formerly Flanders but is now part of France. His coat of arms is painted against the side of his prie-dieu and appears above his elaborate miter trimmed with pearls, which rests on the floor. With hands raised in prayer, his abbot’s staff resting on his left shoulder, Coguin kneels before his devotional book. He appears to inhabit an open portico with a serene landscape viewed in the distance. Officially named Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Cocquin or Cockin (Coguin), he became abbot of Anchin in 1511 at the death of his uncle Guillaume Ostrel (Koopstra 2022, p. 31). An active patron of the arts, he commissioned the great
Anchin Polyptych of ca. 1511–20 (Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai; see fig. 1 above), which remains the benchmark of the oeuvre of Jean Bellegambe (for which see Koopstra 2022, pp. 31–37). In addition to this polyptych, Coguin also commissioned from Bellegambe the
Triptych of the Mystic Bath from the first quarter of the sixteenth century (Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille; fig. 2), a subject also known as the Fountain of Life.
The kneeling abbot is related to a painting in the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, that shows Saint Barbara in a niche (fig. 3; see Genaille 1976; Boëdec 2007, pp. 26–30; Descheemaeker 2007, 2011, pp. 46–47). The two panels share the same width, but the Saint Barbara is about twenty centimeters taller, indicating perhaps how much The Met panel has been cut down. In addition, the two paintings share a common provenance in the collection of Jules Gréau in Paris.[1] The Saint Barbara is in demi-grisaille with her hair and flesh lightly colored. Suspended from the top of the niche is Coguin’s coat of arms along with the coat of arms of a married woman of some relationship to him. While the portrait of Coguin formed the left interior wing of a triptych, the Saint Barbara was the right exterior wing. Koopstra suggested that the original triptych, the remainder of which has disappeared, was more likely commissioned by a member of Coguin’s family, possibly a woman named Barbara, than by the abbot himself (Koopstra 2022, p. 39).
The Attribution and Date: The primary support has been thinned and put down on another panel and cradled. During this process the original edges of the painting were altered to an unknown extent. The painting is badly abraded, and the decorative motifs on his staff and cope are largely lost. However, the physiognomy of the abbot closely resembles the image of Coguin on the left wing of
The Anchin Polyptych (Dehaisnes 1890), verifying not only his identity, but also the attribution, and quite likely the date of the wing to about 1511–20, which is the date of the polyptych.
Maryan W. Ainsworth 2023
[1] This is according to a handwritten note (Friedländer Archive, RKD, The Hague) on the reverse of a black and white photo of the painting, Friedländer saw the painting in the Gréau collection in February 1939. It was auctioned at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 25, 1939.
