A Donor Presented by a Saint

The Artist: For a biography of Dieric Bouts, see the Catalogue Entry for Virgin and Child (30.95.280).

The Painting: When this painting was shown at the “Toison d’Or” exhibition in Bruges in 1907 (see Exhibition History), it appeared as a small independent portrait (see fig. 1 above). After it entered The Met’s collection in 1932, the panel was studied with x-radiography (see Technical Notes). This revealed that the painting, in fact, is a fragment, for it showed that behind the man is a partial figure whose right hand touches the man’s back. The painting was cleaned in 1949 (Hochfield 1976), and the overpaint of the background was carefully removed, exposing vestiges of a standing figure wearing a plum-colored robe. The gesture of his right hand is common in early Netherlandish painting, indicating the presentation by a saint of a kneeling donor to holy figures, such as the Virgin and Child. The saint is probably John the Baptist, who is often represented with bare arms, as here, and wearing a red cloak with a rough camel-hair garment beneath. This discovery made clear that this is not an independent portrait, but instead a fragment of a larger work, quite possibly part of a single devotional panel or the left wing of a small triptych.

The unknown man is presented with a deeply earnest expression as if transfixed by the devotional image at his left on which he meditates. His hair is cut fashionably short in the style of the day. He wears a blue, fur-lined robe with a plum-colored undergarment; the black cornette of his chaperon is tossed over his right shoulder.

The Attribution and Date: At the Bruges “Toison d’Or” exhibition, the painting carried an attribution to Jan van Eyck, although its owner, Édouard Warneck, followed by Émile Durand-Gréville (1910), instead had proposed Jan’s elder brother, Hubert. The strong tradition of Eyckian naturalism evident in the portrait understandably accounts for these early attributions, which even resurfaced later on in terms of a “close follower” of Van Eyck (Wehle and Salinger 1947, Larsen 1960).

Alternatively, Max J. Friedländer placed this impressive likeness firmly within the oeuvre of Dieric Bouts (Friedländer 1916, 1925, 1928), and this was met with general agreement (see especially Conway 1921, Lugt 1926, Burroughs and Weale 1932, and further in References). Renewed scrutiny of the development of Bouts’s career, especially by Baldass (1932) and Schöne (1938) led these scholars to offer refinements on attributions, associating certain paintings with workshop assistants. Baldass linked The Met’s fragment to the so-called Master of the Pearl of Brabant, while Schöne (see also Périer-d’Ieteren 2006) ascribed the panel to the Master of the Betrayal of Christ and the Resurrection—both of whose name paintings are in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Further distancing the Friedsam fragment from Bouts’s works, Campbell (1981) and Bauman (1986) endorsed a connection with the paintings of a Bouts follower, the Haarlem painter Albert van Ouwater, specifically with his Raising of Lazarus (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, fig. 2).

With more recent technical examinations of the works of Dieric Bouts and Albert van Ouwater, it is now possible to firm up the question of attribution for this portrait.[1] Another portrait fragment in The Met collection is so close to the head of Saint Peter in Ouwater’s Raising of Lazarus that it must be by the same hand (see the online entry for The Met, 17.190.22). This makes it possible to compare the two portrait fragments, the one by Ouwater and the one currently under discussion (fig. 3). The Ouwater portrait shows a strikingly graphic approach to the physiognomy with sharply defined facial features, and deeply etched lines for the wrinkles of the brow, surrounding the eyes, the sagging jowls, and near the right ear. Heightened contrasts of light and dark emphasize the three-dimensionality of these facial features. In The Met's portrait this approach is muted, revealing a much more subtle treatment of the face and its modeling. Contours are softened, wrinkles are smoothed out, and a more delicate approach renders a sympathetic impression of the man’s psychological state (see Technical Notes).

This portrait is a different head type compared to the long, oval-shaped heads in Dieric Bouts’s independent male portrait of 1462 in the National Gallery, London, or the portrait fragment of around 1470 (The Met, 14.40.644). However, the current fragment, in fact, is quite close in its technique and handling to other works of Bouts, especially to some of the heads in his great masterpiece, the Holy Sacrament Altarpiece produced in 1464–67 for Saint Peter’s Church in Leuven.[2] In particular, the attendant with downcast eyes and folded hands, standing behind Saint Peter in the central panel of the altarpiece shares a strikingly similar approach to the physiognomy (fig. 4). Although the Friedsam portrait represents a square head shape, and different facial features, the modelling of the face is nonetheless quite comparable to one of the attendant figures in the Leuven altarpiece (fig. 5). The faces are lit from the left with the proper left side cast in shadow. The features of the face are clearly defined but softly modeled. Wrinkles at the brow are muted as they are around the mouth and chin in nearly exact locations. Highlights are placed on the bridges and tips of the noses, while shading to the right of the pouches under the eyes and beneath the lower lips and at the chin convey supple flesh. The ears of the two heads are distinctly alike in their formation as is the demarcation between the necks and the jaws of the heads where a slightly emerging beard is evident in each.

The underdrawing of The Met’s fragment was executed in a liquid medium with bold strokes delineating the contours of folds of the man’s garment (see Technical Notes and fig. 6). Finer, lighter strokes in the proper right sleeve provide parallel hatching at an angle to the more strongly marked folds, suggesting the volume of forms. At the right, oblique parallel hatching covers a broader area, denoting the side in shadow. These distinct characteristics of the underdrawing match those found in Bouts’s Holy Sacrament Altarpiece, specifically in the scenes of Elijah in the Desert and the Gathering of the Manna (Périer-d’Ieteren 2006, pp. 94–100, figs. 74, 80). A final detail also links this fragment with Bouts. The plum-colored robe of the saint behind the donor portrait is modeled on the paint surface with parallel hatching in a deeper-toned glaze. This is a typical feature of the painting technique of Bouts, his workshop, and his close followers. As Périer-d’Ieteren has noted, “the painter places small, dark, graphic accents in the glazes as a way of rendering the texture and shading of the fabric” (Périer-d’Ieteren 2006, p. 106). This portrait fragment is so close to Bouts’s approach to handling and execution in his paintings that it confidently can be attributed to him.

Given the stylistic connections with Bouts’s Holy Sacrament Altarpiece, including the costume and short haircut of the portraitlike figure at the far left in the Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek (on the upper left wing of the altarpiece),[3] this portrait fragment most likely dates to 1460–65. Peter Klein’s dendrochronology suggests a probable date of creation of the painting from 1439 on (see Technical Notes).

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2023

[1] I am most grateful to Stephan Kemperdick and Katrin Dyballa for sharing details of their study of Albert van Ouwater’s Raising of Lazarus for their forthcoming catalogue. See Katrin Dyballa and Stephan Kemperdick, Niederländische und französische Malerei 1400–1480. Wissenschaftlicher Bestandskatalog der Gemäldegalerie SMB, Petersberg 2023, no. 38.
[2] For an in-depth discussion of this altarpiece, see Micheline Comblen-Sonkes, Corpus of Fifteenth-Century Painting in the Southern Netherlands and the Principality of Liège: 18, The Collegiate Church of Saint Peter, Louvain, trans, John Cairns, 2 vols., Brussels 1996, vol. 1, pp. 1–84, vol. 2, pls. I-CLXXII; and Périer-d’Ieteren 2006, pp. 34-44, 273.
[3] Périer-d’Ieteren 2006, p. 112, fig. 100.

Support: This painting on panel is a fragment of a larger painting: no original edges remain but clues in the painted image suggest that much of the composition is missing. Undoubtedly, the figure preserved only in his arm and middle, most likely that of John the Baptist (see Catalogue Entry), would have been painted in his entirety and the body of the donor—seemingly kneeling in front of the standing saint—would also have been fully included. At the far left, there is a sliver of bright red and then a small amount of light green paint above that. The bright red and green are not related to either figure and are positioned behind the plum-colored robe, thus must belong to the background, other objects, or—as is particularly likely for the bright red—the drapery of another figure. At the far right is another sliver of a light green paint that belongs to something positioned in front of the standing saint’s robe. Its shape recalls a drapery fold, pointing to yet another figure. The presence of at least three, possibly four, figures would make this a sizable panel, of which only a tiny fragment is preserved.

Evidence from the panel support also indicates that it was formerly significantly larger. A join located 11.3 cm from the left edge of the support, just to the right of the donor figure’s face, reveals that the original panel was constructed from at least two vertically oriented boards, thus much larger overall. The vertical orientation of the boards also suggests that the original panel was a vertical rectangle. The original panel now measures about 5 mm thick on average, but it is currently adhered to a 3 mm mahogany board and cradled, thus it was likely planed down somewhat prior to the work on the back. There are bevels on the reverse of the original panel, at the top and bottom edges only, now filled with narrow wood inserts. The bevels must have been related to the framing of the panel after it was cut away from the rest of the composition. Dendrochronological analysis of the original panel revealed an earliest possible creation date of 1433 and a more plausible date of 1439 onwards.[1] The wood is oak that originated in the Baltic/Polish region.

Preparation: The panel was prepared with a whitish ground, likely containing chalk. Examination with infrared reflectography revealed the presence of an underdrawing executed using a liquid medium (see fig. 6 above).[2] It appears that the artist planned out all of the important contour lines in his underdrawing, including the facial features and drapery, although the lines are sometimes difficult to see in the reflectogram where they were followed closely by the painted forms or, in places, because some lines are simply faint in appearance. The underdrawing can easily be distinguished where the painted composition introduced a change, as in the height of the sitter’s proper right shoulder, or where the artist added hatchmarks, lying across the torso and in the proper left sleeve. The appearance of the underdrawn lines varies in the reflectogram from relatively faint to quite bold, at the donor’s proper left shoulder, for example. In general, the underdrawing appears to be neat, the contour lines generally followed with paint, and the hatchmarks regularly spaced parallel lines.

Paint Layers: The painting was executed with great subtlety. The artist observed specific details closely and then translated his understanding of the human face into paint with impressive nuances. See, for example, how he created three-dimensionality in the wrinkles by not only limning the deep creases with light touches of brown paint but also suggesting how light would catch the folds of skin underneath and, most impressively, how the horizontal wrinkles of the forehead undulate ever so slightly as they traverse the man’s knitted brow. On an even smaller scale, he suggested the man’s pale, nearly colorless, eyelashes by dragging the still wet paint of the man’s eye lid down to create lashes (fig. 7) And through a complex buildup of paint, he rendered the fur collar naturalistically, with pale yellow transitioning smoothly around the edge to dark brown at the inner edge.

It appears that the flesh tones were built up primarily using warm glazes; the artist restricted his use of white to highlights, as can be seen in the x-radiograph (fig. 8). Interestingly, a light scattering of blue pigments is apparent in the flesh tones. The blue is not enough to truly impact the hue of the skin but lends a very subtly cool tone to the man’s skin in shaded regions, for example, at his temple or near the jawline.

When the painting entered The Met’s collection in 1932, the figure in the background was entirely obscured with overpaint, which had transformed the fragment into a standalone portrait (fig. 1). It was only when the painting was x-rayed and ultimately when the overpaint was removed, in 1949, that the original background was rediscovered. Fortunately, it was possible to remove the overpaint safely at that time, and the painting, including the background, remains impressively well preserved. Small islands of overpaint can be seen under magnification and show that the overpaint was a medium to dark gray.

Sophie Scully 2023

[1] Wood identification and dendrochronological analysis completed by Dr. Peter Klein, Universität Hamburg, report dated May 13, 1997. The report can be found in the files of the Department of Paintings Conservation. “The youngest heartwood ring was formed out in the year 1422. Regarding the sapwood statistic of Eastern Europe an earliest felling date can be derived for the year 1431, more plausible is a felling date between 1435..1437….1441 + x. With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from 1433 upwards. Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and 2 years for seasoning, a creation is plausible from 1439 upwards.”
[2] Infrared reflectography was acquired with an OSIRIS InGaAs near-infrared camera fitted with a 6-element, 150 mm focal length f/5.6–f/45 lens; 900-1700 nm spectral response, February 2023.

[Édouard Warneck, Paris, by 1907–26; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 27, 1926, no. 2, as by Dirck Bouts, for Fr 900,000 to Kleinberger]; [Kleinberger, New York, 1926; sold to Friedsam]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1926–d. 1931)

Bruges. Maison du Gouverneur. "Exposition de la Toison d'Or à Bruges," June–October 1907, no. 179 (as Attributed to Jan van Eyck, lent by Édouard Warneck).

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Flemish Primitives," 1929, no. 13 (as Attributed to Bouts, lent by Michael Friedsam).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 4–November 23, 1947, unnumbered cat. (as by a Follower of Jan van Eyck).

Iowa City. State University of Iowa, School of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 9–March 31, 1948, unnumbered cat.

Bloomington. Indiana University. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 18–May 16, 1948, no catalogue.

Brussels. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "Dieric Bouts," 1957, no. 10 (as by Bouts).

Delft. Museum Prinsenhof. "Dieric Bouts," 1957–58, no. 10.

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. 24 (as Circle of Dieric Bouts, about 1460–65).

H. Kervyn de Lettenhove et al. Les chefs-d'oeuvre d'art ancien à l'exposition de la Toison d'or à Bruges en 1907. Brussels, 1908, p. 80, no. 179, pl. 37, find this picture stylistically closer to the Merode triptych in spite of its attribution to Jan van Eyck in the exhibition catalogue.

Emile Durand-Gréville. Hubert et Jean van Eyck. Brussels, 1910, pp. 117–19, ill. opp. p. 118, notes that the painting's owner has the courage to attribute it to Hubert van Eyck; supports this attribution and compares the sitter's costume to that of Jodocus Vijd in the Ghent Altarpiece; dates the panel shortly before 1426.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, pp. 39, 176, attributes it to Dieric Bouts.

Martin Conway. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, pp. 163–64, includes it in a group of early works by Dieric Bouts, painted before 1447.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 3, Dierick Bouts und Joos van Gent. Berlin, 1925, pp. 45, 107, no. 10, pl. 17, finds it a highly individual head, almost in the spirit of Jan van Eyck; places it fairly early in Bouts's career, noting that the haircut supports this.

Frits Lugt. Collection Warneck: Tableaux anciens et modernes. Galerie Georges Petit. May 27–28, 1926, p. 15, no. 2, ill., accepts Friedländer's [Refs. 1916 and 1925] attribution to Dieric Bouts.

Max J. Friedländer in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 145, as a masterpiece of Thierry Bouts in a wonderful state of preservation.

Franz Dülberg. Niederländische Malerei der Spätgotik und Renaissance. Potsdam, 1929, p. 71.

Belvedere 8 (1929), ill. opp. p. 464 (pl. 40), as by Dieric Bouts.

Sidney P. Noe. "Flemish Primitives in New York." American Magazine of Art 21 (January 1930), pp. 36–37, ill. p. 34.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), pp. 16–17, no. 15, ill., as by Dieric Bouts.

Ludwig von Baldass. "Die Entwicklung des Dirk Bouts." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 6 (1932), pp. 100, 104, 108–9, 114, fig. 95, considers it a work from Bouts's late period, although he finds it stylistically close to a group of pictures that Karl Voll (in Altniederländische Malerei, Leipzig, 1905) attributed to the "Master of the Pearl of Brabant" [an artist he saw as responsible for the Adoration triptych—known as The Pearl of Brabant—in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and other works usually given to Bouts's late career].

"Friedsam Bequest to be Exhibited Next November." Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13, prints Bryson Burroughs's survey of the Friedsam paintings.

Wolfgang Schöne. Dieric Bouts und seine Schule. Berlin, 1938, pp. 39–41, 170, no. 53, pl. 59, rejects the attribution to Bouts and ascribes it to the painter responsible for the Betrayal of Christ and Resurrection in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich; compares the head with that of the man in the spiked helmet, just above Saint Peter, in the Betrayal; dates the Munich panels between 1455 and 1465 and places our portrait in the same period, or (in his catalogue entry) about 1460.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 16–17, ill., attribute it to a follower of Jan van Eyck from the middle of the fifteenth century, observing that the sitter is not "inward-looking" in the manner of Bouts's subjects; date this picture between 1430 and 1450 on the basis of his costume and haircut; note that x-rays reveal the hand of a patron saint resting on the sitter's shoulder, evidence that the portrait was cut from a larger panel.

J. Francotte. Dieric Bouts: Zijn Kunst—zijn laatste Avondmaal. Louvain, 1951, pp. 51, 183, pl. 30, as by Bouts, dates it about 1460.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 34.

Dieric Bouts. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts. Brussels, [1957?], pp. 40–41, no. 10, ill., as by Bouts; notes that there are surviving portraits that postdate 1450 in which men wear their hair cut above the ears.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 34–35, 108, attributes it to an anonymous fifteenth-century follower of the Van Eycks.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 3, Dieric Bouts and Joos van Gent. New York, 1968, pp. 28, 60–61, 87 n. 32, no. 10, pl. 19, as by Bouts; suggests a relatively early date.

Sylvia Hochfield. "Conservation: The Need is Urgent." Art News 75 (February 1976), p. 26, ill., illustrates the picture before and after the 1949 cleaning, when the background figure was revealed.

Colin Eisler. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Vol. 4, European Schools Excluding Italian. London, 1977, p. 54.

Lorne Campbell. Unpublished text for MMA Bulletin. 1981, suggests that the presenting saint is John the Baptist; notes that the style shows some similarity to Albert van Ouwater's "Raising of Lazarus" in the Berlin Museum [Staatliche Museen, Berlin] and suggests that it may be from his circle, possibly executed about 1450.

Guy Bauman. "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425–1525." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43 (Spring 1986), p. 16, ill. (color), rejects Friedländer's [see Refs. 1916, 1925] attribution to Dieric Bouts; notes stylistic similarities to Ouwater's "Raising of Lazarus," and ascribes the portrait to a "very gifted follower of Ouwater in Bouts's circle, probably before 1450".

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. 152, gives 1437 as the estimated felling date for the tree from which this panel was cut.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 244, ill.

James Snyder in The Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 4, New York, 1996, p. 593, ascribes it to Dieric Bouts.

Peter Klein. Letter. May 13, 1997, suggests 1447 upward as a probable date of creation.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "A Meeting of Sacred and Secular Worlds." 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. 156–57, no. 24, ill. (color), catalogues it as "Circle of Dieric Bouts" and dates it about 1460–65 on the basis of the man's costume; notes that an attribution to the young Bouts should not be ruled out, although his heads are usually more elongated; calls the patron saint probably John the Baptist.

Catheline Périer-d'Ieteren. Dieric Bouts: The Complete Works. Brussels, 2006, pp. 194, 201–2, 205–6, 343, no. A6, ill. p. 343 and fig. 189 (color), includes it in a group of five works, including the Adoration triptych in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, that she attributes to Bouts and the Master of the Munich Betrayal [see Schöne 1938].

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Hugo van der Goes and Portraiture." The Primacy of the Image in Northern European Art, 1400–1700: Essays in Honor of Larry Silver. Ed. Debra Taylor Cashion et al. Leiden, 2017, p. 29.