The Artist: For a biography of Rogier van der Weyden, see the
Catalogue Entry for
Francesco d’Este (20.100.43).
The Painting: This imposing polyptych features the Nativity at the center of a sequential narrative of the Infancy of Christ that once included seven scenes (fig. 1 reconstruction; for a slightly different reconstruction, see Baes-Dondeyne 1969). From left to right, they comprised the Annunciation, the Visitation, Christ Appearing to Emperor Augustus, the Nativity, the Annunciation to the Magi, the Circumcision (by tradition, eight days after Christ’s birth), and the Adoration of the Magi (twelve days after Christ’s birth). Fragmentary texts appear on banderoles in the scenes of Christ Appearing to the Emperor Augustus, but nothing remains on the banderole in the Annunciation to the Magi. Above, God the Father, surrounded by angels in the heavenly realm, raises his right hand in blessing over the birth of Christ below. When closed, the polyptych shows Adam and Eve being driven by an angel from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24), representing the original sin of humankind that would be assuaged by Christ’s Incarnation and sacrifice on the cross. Below were four panels with saints, including John the Baptist, a lost panel, Catherine of Alexandria, and John the Evangelist. When The Met acquired the altarpiece in 1949, two of the double-sided panels were missing:
the Annunciation (formerly Private collection, England), its reverse lost, and the
Circumcision with St. John the Evangelist on the reverse (Private Collection, Madrid). The central section of the polyptych, including the scenes of Christ Appearing to Emperor Augustus, the Nativity, and the Christ Child Appearing to the Magi, was modeled after the
Triptych of the Nativity (Middelburg Altarpiece) of the late 1440s by Rogier van der Weyden (Gemäldegalerie, SMB, Berlin, fig. 2), which is considered the first known instance where these three scenes were brought together. [1] Instead of representing the Infancy of Christ in an extended narrative, as in The Cloisters polyptych, the Berlin triptych forms "the arc from the Occident to the Orient, the themes of the wings [representing] the prophesy of the arrival of the savior of the world and his adoration by emperors and kings." [2]
The Cloisters Nativity takes place in the remains of a Romanesque building that serves as Christ’s birthplace and shelter for the ox and the donkey. The ox represents the New Testament or Christianity, while the donkey symbolizes the Old Testament or Judaism. [3] The ox lowers his head, looking on attentively at the Christ Child. The donkey, ignoring the blessed event, instead eats hay. The rudimentary perspective scheme of the shed converges toward a point in the background where the underdrawing shows that originally planned was a distant view of a roadway, flanked by buildings, and culminating at city gate (fig. 3). This was reconsidered in the painting where the Annunciation to the Shepherds, not pre-planned in the underdrawing, was simply added in a late paint stage. Accompanied by three adoring angels, the Virgin, with long flowing hair and dressed in pale blue, kneels in adoration before the Christ Child. This follows the description in the
Revelations of Saint Bridget of Sweden, who recorded her vision of the Nativity while on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem in 1372. [4] However, the most important element of her vision, the "great and ineffable light" emanating from the Christ Child that eclipsed the light of the candle held by Joseph, is planned in the underdrawing where Joseph shields a candle and its flame, but is changed in the painting where instead he joins his hands in prayer (fig. 3).
As in the Berlin
Nativity Triptych, at the left is Christ appearing to Emperor Augustus. This episode is related in the
Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (1228/29)—1298) in the section on the "Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ."[5] The emperor consulted the Tiburtine Sibyl about the plan of the Roman Senate to deify him. Her response was that one greater than Augustus would soon emerge, whom he must worship. At that moment there miraculously appeared a vision of the
ara coeli, the altar of heaven on which the Virgin and Christ Child are enthroned. A voice uttered: "this [woman] is the altar of heaven" (
haec est ara coeli), and Augustus swung his censer of incense in response. The Sibyl praised Christ as the future ruler, and the same day he was born in Bethlehem. Tradition has it that this event took place in the emperor’s bedroom, reimagined here as a Burgundian state room outfitted with a ceremonial bed. Befittingly, Augustus is dressed as a Burgundian duke, not a Roman emperor. Three senators at the left chat among themselves, while Augustus’s faithful dog rests nearby. This episode was considered as a prefiguration of the Annunciation to the Magi, seen to the right of the Nativity. As such, it linked the West to the East, and signaled the arrival of the Savior who would be venerated by kings and rulers of the world. The
Golden Legend again is the source for the Annunciation to the Magi. [6] In the background the Magi are seen bathing in a river, symbolically cleansing themselves before ascending the mountain from which they would experience the Annunciation. "On the day of Christ’s birth, while they were there, a star came to them, above the mountain; it had the shape of a most beautiful child over whose head a cross gleamed. The child addressed the wise men saying, ‘Go to the land of Judah as fast as you can, and you will find there the newborn king whom you seek.’ And they set out immediately." The explanatory banderoles in The Cloisters polyptych were also planned in the Berlin
Nativity Triptych (Grosshans 1982). In the Berlin paintings, the banderoles without the text are evident in the underdrawing, and the saying emanating from the Sibyl’s mouth – [
HIC PUE]R MAIOR TE EST E[T] [I]DEO [IPSU]M [ADOR]A (this son is greater than you) – was actually painted but subsequently painted out, only visible now in raking light. [7] Likewise, in the Berlin
Nativity, during the painting process the Virgin had a banderole with a text (partially visible in raking light) that also was painted out but remains unreadable. The underdrawn banderole in the right wing never received a painted text. [8] The banderoles in The Met painting centerpiece in the scenes of the emperor Augustus were underdrawn. However, the partly abraded brown painted inscriptions are not original and it cannot be determined whether these later inscriptions reproduced traces of earlier texts, now only visible in microscopic examination (see Technical Notes). [9] In any event, the partly abraded brown inscription on the banderole of the Tiburtine Sibyl read: Cor
Contritum non despicies […]. From Psalm 50:19, the entire passage is:
Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus; cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies (The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise). Formerly more visible on the banderole of the Virgin and Child is the text from John 2:5:
Quodcumque dixerit vobis facite . J […] (Whatsoever he shall say to you, do!). Seemingly, there was originally a banderole text emanating from the Christ Child in the scene of the Annunciation to the Magi, but it is now entirely abraded. The banderoles emanating from the Tiburtine Sibyl and the Virgin and Child are associated respectively with the final psalm sung at the service of tenebrae and with texts read for the second Sunday after Epiphany. It is not possible to say whether or not the nonoriginal brown text reproduced original text or introduced something entirely new. However, the current fragmentary texts indicate how the polyptych was employed for liturgy and prompted responses from those participating in such services. That is to say, instead of offering the words spoken by the protagonists in the scene, as in the case of the Berlin
Nativity Triptych, the texts in The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych indicate the experience of participants worshipping before the images.
Several scenes in The Cloisters polyptych derive from other Rogerian compositions, known mostly from copies and versions after Rogier’s designs. The lost
Annunciation is a version of the
Annunciation in Rogier’s Columba Altarpiece of ca. 1455 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), which is known also in variants by followers (for example, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; Museo del Prado, Madrid, in reverse). The
Visitation is related to a design by Rogier van der Weyden in copies in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin (ca. 1435-40, the centerpiece of the triptych in the Musée du Louvre and the wings in the Galleria Sabauda) and of ca. 1450 in the Museum der Bildenden Künst, Leipzig. The figure of Saint John the Baptist on the exterior of the altarpiece is close to the same saint on the left wing of the
Werl Altarpiece (Museo del Prado, Madrid), attributed both to Robert Campin and to the Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (Sprinson de Jésus 1998). The figures of Adam and Eve are closest to those on the outside wings of the
Last Judgment Triptych by another Rogier follower, an artist close to the Master of the Prado Redemption (ca. 1450-60, central panel, Ayuntamiento de Valencia; wings, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia). [10]
The provenance of the polyptych goes back only to the middle of the nineteenth century, to a convent in Segovia, Spain (see Provenance and Passavant 1843). This raises the possibility that the polyptych was originally produced for export. However, there are unfortunately no indications anywhere in the polyptych of patronage, ownership, or intended location. Even the saints depicted – John the Baptist, a missing saint, Catherine of Alexandria, and John the Evangelist – were at the time so popular that they provide no clue about the commission. However, the sheer size of the altarpiece and – if the fragmentary banderole texts did in fact reproduce the original – the clues about the liturgical use of the work could well support its primary destination as a convent.
The Attribution and Date: The relatively meager quality of this polyptych compared to the works of Rogier van der Weyden has never suggested to scholars that it is by the hand of Rogier himself (see References). [11] Rather, given the close association of the compositions and figural motifs with Rogier’s work, the question has been whether this polyptych was produced employing drawings and patterns widely circulated beyond the confines of Rogier’s studio, or whether it was made by a member or members of Rogier’s workshop. In support of the former supposition are extant drawings of individual motifs and full compositions that recorded Rogier’s works. These were used during the artist’s lifetime and long after his death in 1464. Among the most prominent of these drawings are several by Rogier himself and a group of sheets formerly associated with Vrancke van der Stockt, now known as the Master of the Prado Redemption. [12] As Lorne Campbell and Stephan Kemperdick have shown, Rogier had a lively workshop that produced versions and copies of his compositions, tailor-made in response to the requests of individual patrons. [13] Among the artists most closely associated with this output, who are thought to have been in Rogier’s workshop for a period of time, are the Master of the Prado Redemption, the Master of the Saint Catherine Legend, and a group of assistants with provisional names associated with individual works. [14]
Discussed above is the relationship of the various elements of The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych with Rogier’s extant works. The centerpiece of the polyptych is derived from but not an exact copy of the Berlin
Nativity Triptych. Rather, the artist appears to have mastered a rearrangement of motifs to suit the different format and thematic focus of the altarpiece. The figures of the Tiburtine Sibyl, the Virgin, and two of the three Magi are so close in pose – although different in costume details – that they likely are based on workshop models. [15] The
Annunciation and the
Visitation, however, appear to be copies of Roger’s paintings, known in panels from his workshop. This is possibly the case as well for the
Circumcision and the
Adoration of the Magi, although such precedents have not survived. These connections already denote a close relationship of The Cloisters polyptych with Rogier’s workshop for simultaneous access to a number of workshop models as well as to paintings during their various stages of production. Cited above is Grosshans’ (1982) discovery that the painter(s) of The Cloisters Nativity polyptych reproduced the banderoles in the scenes of
Christ Appearing to Emperor Augustus and the
Annunciation to the Magi based on the underdrawing of these same features in the
Middelburg Altarpiece. The Technical Notes mention other small details as well, such as the pose of the Christ Child, the hands of the Virgin, and the pose of the Child in the
Annunciation to the Magi, which follow the underdrawing of the Berlin triptych but not the ultimate painted composition. This would suggest familiarity with the Berlin triptych during its production stages in the workshop. Furthermore, the underdrawing of the architecture in the
Visitation of The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych reveals that it was copied after the buildings in the Leipzig
Visitation, dated ca. 1450 and attributed to the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (figs. 4, 5 and 6-8), even though it was changed in the painted layers to a different configuration of buildings.
Added to these observations is the style of the underdrawing in The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych (see Technical Notes and complete zoomable IRR). As has been noted elsewhere in Rogier’s works, there are characteristically two stages of underdrawing: one providing the layout in brush with hook-ended strokes of the essential compositional elements, and a second one of rigid parallel- and some cross-hatching that indicates the shading of areas. [16] This style of underdrawing can be clearly seen in the Berlin
Nativity Triptych of the late 1440s, the Brussels Lamentation of ca. 1441, or The Hague
Lamentation of ca. 1460-64 (figs. 9 and 10). [17] Although the underdrawing of The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych appears to be by more than one hand (the underdrawing in the
Visitation and in a few places in the central panel as well shows extremely tight parallel- and cross-hatching), the majority of it follows the general style of the works of Rogier and his close followers of the late 1440s-60. Compared to the underdrawings in Rogier’s paintings, The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych reveals greater attention to large areas of shading and less to creating the volumes of forms. Another unusual feature found in all of the panels except for the
Visitation is a pigmented priming layer (see Technical Notes). Not as yet widely observed in Rogier’s works, it has been found in the
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece of ca. 1440-45 (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp) by Rogier and his workshop. [18]
These comparisons between The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych and the works issuing from Rogier and his workshop from the 1440s to ca.1460 point to authorship of the former by an artist or artists closely related to Rogier’s workshop. Although some have suggested that this artist may be related to the Master of the Prado Redemption, that master’s painting technique is more refined and his underdrawing style not comparable to that of The Cloisters paintings. [19] The relatively broad brushwork evident in The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych and some figures with faces bordering on caricature departs from the generally more refined and sophisticated handling and execution of works coming out of Rogier’s workshop. Quite possibly the artist(s) of The Cloisters
Nativity Polyptych was a journeyman who was associated with Rogier’s studio for a given period of time around 1450-60, when he could take full advantage of the many workshop patterns available in the studio and the commissions that were being produced around that time. Peter Klein’s dendrochronology results allow for the suggestion that the polyptych was made in Rogier’s studio any time after 1451 (see Technical Notes).
Maryan W. Ainsworth 2023
[1] See Katrin Dyballa and Sandra Stelzig in Katrin Dyballa and Stephan Kemperdick (Ed.),
Niederländische und französische Malerei 1400-1480, wissenschaftlicher Bestandskatalog der Gemäldegalerie SMB, Petersberg 2023 cat. no. 535.
[2] Dyballa in Dyballa and Kemperdick 2023, cat. no. 535. See also Blum 1969, pp. 19, 21; Grosshans 1982, p. 167.
[3] Erwin Panofsky,
Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origins and Character, 2 vols., vol. 1, New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London, 1971, pp. 277-78.
[4]
Revelations of St. Bridget, on the life and passion of Our Lord, and the life of His Blessed Mother by Saint Birgitta of Sweden, 1303-1373, New York, D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1862, pp. 37-38.
[5] Jacobus de Voragine,
The Golden Legend, Readings on the Saints, translated by William Granger Ryan, vol. 1, Princeton, 1993, p. 40.
[6] De Voragine 1993, p. 80. See also the
Speculum Humanae Salvationis, trans. Jean Miélot (1448), ed., J. Lutz and P. Perdrizet, Mulhouse, 1907-09, I, pt. 2, ch. ix, p. 128, as in Blum 1969, p. 19.
[7] Rainald Grosshans 1982, pp. 162, 177 n. 29; Dyballa in Dyballa and Kemperdick 2023, cat. no. 535.
[8] See Dyballa in Dyballa and Kemperdick 2023, cat. no. 535.
[9] My sincere thanks to Linda Müller,former MMA Slifka Fellow, who researched the texts once more legible on The Cloisters Nativity Triptych and their meaning.
[10] See Carmen Garrido and Jaime García-Maíquez in
El nacimiento de una pintura: De lo visible a lo invisible, exh. cat., Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, July-October 2010, cat. No. 5, pp. 108-19.
[11] For Stephan Kemperdick, the quality of the polyptych is not good enough even to have issued from Rogier’s workshop (Stephan Kemperdick,
Rogier van der Weyden 1399/1400-1464, Cologne, 1999, p. 20.
[12] The literature on these drawings is vast. See especially Fritz Koreny,
Early Netherlandish Drawings from Jan van Eyck to Hieronymous Bosch, exh. cat., Rubenshuis, Antwerp, June 14-August 18, 2002, cat. nos. 15-28, pp. 77-122. See also Bart Fransen and Stefaan Hautekeete, "The R Drawings Re-examined," in Lorne Campbell and Jan van der Stock,
Rogier van der Weyden 1400-1464, Master of Passions, exh. cat., M Museum, Leuven, September 20-December 6, 2009, Leuven, 2009, pp. 419-20, cat. nos. 48-54, pp. 421-36.
[13] See Lorne Campbell, "The Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden," in Campbell and van der Stockt, 2009, pp. 104-28; and Stephan Kemperdick, "Rogier van der Weyden’s Workshop around 1440," in
Rogier van der Weyden in Context, Papers Presented at the Seventeenth Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting held in Leuven, 22-24 October, 2009, eds. Lorne Campbell, Jan van der Stockt, Catherine Reynolds, Lieve Watteeuw, Paris, Leuven, Walpole, Mass., 2012, pp. 57-77.
[14] See Griet Steyaert, "Pieter van der Weyden et l‘atelier de Rogier van der Weyden après sa mort," in
L’Héritage de Rogier van der Weyden, La Peinture à Bruxelles 1450-1520, exh. cat., eds. Véronique Bücken and Griet Steyaert, eds. Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 2013, pp. 97-101.
[15] Most of these workshop model drawings, copied after Roger’s compositions, have not survived. However, for the eldest and middle-aged Magi in The Cloisters Nativity Polyptych, see Koreny 2002, cat. no. 18, pp. 88-89; and Micheline Sonkes,
Dessins du XVe Siècle: Groupe van der Weyden, Brussels, 1969, B9, pp. 54-55, plate VIII.
[16] For Rogier’s underdrawing style, see J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer, J. Dijkstra, and R. Van Schoute,
Underdrawings in Paintings of The Rogier van der Weyden and Master of Flémalle Groups in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 41, 1990, Zwolle 1992, pp. 17-37, and 137-315. Many of these paintings have since been restudied with the results published by the museums where they reside.
[17] My sincere thanks to Stephan Kemperdick and Katrin Dyballa, Véronique Bücken, and Carol Pottasch for sharing the underdrawing documentation with me. For further on The Hague
Lamentation, see
‘Alla Maniera’: Technical Art History and the Meaning of Style in 15th to 17th Century Painting. Papers presented at the Twenty-second Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting held online, 28-30 March 2022, ed. Anne Dubois, Paris-Leuven-Bristol, Peeters, 2023, forthcoming.
[18] Griet Steyaert,
"The Seven Sacraments Some Technical Aspects Observed during the Restoration," in Campbell and Van der Stockt 2012, pp. 118-35, esp. p. 122-23.
[19] This connection was suggested independently by Linda Müller (MMA Slifka Fellow 2015-16) and by Erik Eising in an email to the author of 9/15/2020. For the key paintings of the Master of the Prado Redemption group and their underdrawings, see Carmen Garrido et al., "Le dessin sous-jacent du Triptych de la Rédemption de Vrancke van der Stockt (Madrid, Musée du Prado)," in
The Quest for the Original, Symposium XVI (Bruges, September 21-13, 2006), ed. Hélène Verougstraete and Colombe Janssens de Bisthoven, Leuven-Paris-Walpole, Mass., 2009, pp. 34-41; and Garrido and García-Maíquez in
El Nacimiento 2010, pp. 98-107 and 108-19.
