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Title:Virgin and Child
Artist:Master of the Mansi Magdalen (Netherlandish, active first quarter 16th century)
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:19 1/8 x 15 1/4 in. (48.6 x 38.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of William H. Herriman, 1920
Object Number:21.134.2
[Carles Sedelmeyer, Paris, before or in1898; cat. 1898, no. 82]; Edmond Huybrechts, Antwerp (until 1902; his estate sale, Le Roy, Antwerp, May 12–15, 1902, no. 27, as by Quentin Massys, for Fr. 27, 500); William Herriman, Rome (1902–21)
Bruges. Palais du Gouvernement. "Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien," June 15–September 15, 1902, no. 372 (as by Quentin Massys, lent by M. Herriman, Rome).
Lexington, Va. Washington and Lee University. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Exhibit," October 30, 1950–January 15, 1951, no. 9.
Athens, Ga. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. February 15–April 5, 1951, no catalogue?
Georges H. de Loo Palais du Gouvernement, Bruges. Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles: catalogue critique précédé d'une introduction sur l'identité de certains maîtres anonymes. Ghent, 1902, p. 103, no. 372, calls this painting the work of an unknown artist active between 1515 and 1525; rejects its attribution to Quentin Massys or to one of his immediate pupils; notes that the composition recalls those of Massys, but the drawing, color and landscape are completely different in character.
J. Whitby. "The Huybrechts Collection Recently Sold at Antwerp." Connoisseur 4 (1902), p. 15, ill., publishes it as by Quentin Massys.
Max J. Friedländer. "Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 26 (1903), p. 156, ascribes it to a noteworthy follower of Quentin Massys, in close touch with his works.
Max J. Friedländer. "Der Meister der Mansi-Magdalena." Jahrbuch der Königlich Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 36 (1915), pp. 10, 12, no. 9, fig. 4, ascribes a group of pictures, including the present work, to the Master of the Mansi Magdalen, an artist he names after a painting of the Magdalen in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, formerly in the Mansi collection, Lucca [now Gemäldegalerie, Berlin]; describes the Berlin painting as notable for its frontality, monotone brown pallette, and the relationship between the figure and landscape; comments on the closely related figure and landscape in our picture, noting that the mountain is like a crown behind the head of the Virgin
.
Martin Conway. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, pp. 329–30, pl. 16, fig. 2, ascribes it to the Master of the Mansi Magdalen, close to Quentin Massys; comments that "the design is a modification of the type of the Virgin Kissing the Child to which Bouts gave currency".
H[arry]. B. W[ehle]. "Bequests of Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (December 1921), p. 263, ascribes it to a follower of Quentin Massys, comparing it with the latter's "Madonna Enthroned" in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin [now Gemäldegalerie, Berlin].
Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 7, Quentin Massys. Berlin, 1929, pp. 91, 131, no. 94, pl. 65, comments on the "sombre mood and powerful effect of the landscape background, divided up horizontally, in the manner of Patenier"; notes that "the figure is conceived and elaborated in Quentin's spirit, but rather awkwardly forced into relief form".
Grete Ring. "Additions to the work of Jan Provost and Quentin Massys—II." Burlington Magazine 80 (1942), p. 72, compares it with a Virgin ascribed to Massys in the Hôtel de Tessé, Le Mans.
Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 114–15, ill., as by the Master of the Mansi Magdalen.
Ernest Lotthé. La pensée chrétienne dans la peinture flamande et hollandaise. Lille, 1947, vol. 1, pp. 123–24; vol. 2, p. 330, no. 270.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 65.
Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, p. 87.
Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 7, Quentin Massys. New York, 1971, pp. 46, 71, no. 94, pl. 78.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 266, ill.
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, p. 406, ill.
Note from old front card: "Received as School of Quentin Massys and formerly exhibited by the Museum as such."
Juan de Flandes (Netherlandish, active by 1496–died 1519 Palencia)
ca. 1497
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