Young Man Holding a Book

The Artist: Max J. Friedländer (1922, 1923, 1926, 1937, 1939, 1969) first grouped twenty-one stylistically associated works around a painting depicting the Pastoral Instruction in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (see fig. 1 above).[1] He named the artist the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule, as the Louvre painting shows in the background the Brussels church of Sainte Gudule—today the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula. Since that time, additional paintings have been added to the oeuvre, some of which show relatively accurate views of Brussels.[2]

This eponymous master has an idiosyncratic style—almost pre-mannerist—that embraces the poles of types from elegant figures to those verging on pure caricature. Their costumes commingle fashionable contemporary dress with exaggerated details of attire, especially the highly ornate headdresses of female figures. Characteristic of the master are animated gesturing hands that carry the expressive mood of the theme depicted; these hands are composed of extremely long fingers and thumbs (often at right angles to the palm of the hand) that seem almost disjointed.

Various suggestions have been made about the origins of the painter. Because some of his works are based on engravings by German artists, such as the Master ES, Martin Schongauer, Israel van Meckenem, and the Monogrammist AG,[3] and because Veronée-Verhaegen identified the cathedral of Cologne in the background of some of his paintings, the painter is thought to have come from the Rhineland.[4] Analogies have also been made with the Bartholomew Master.[5] Notable are distinctions in quality among the works that Friedlander and others have assigned to the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule, the Louvre name painting being exemplary of the peak of the production. Some scholars have assembled a few smaller groups beneath the umbrella name of the master.[6] Others have simply noted the likelihood that the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule directed a large workshop among whose members painted in his style and shared responsibilities for commissions with other workshops, including those of sculptors.[7] In particular, a connection has been made with the workshop of the Master of the Saint Barbara Legend (namely, Aert van den Bossche), who painted two panels that likely belonged to the same altarpiece as the Pastoral Instruction (Saint Augustine Sacrificing an Idol of the Manicheans) (Mauritshuis, The Hague); and Two Scenes of the Life of a Saint (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).[8] The master did not restrict his design efforts to paintings, but also worked in other media, including tapestry and banners.[9] As did other masters of the time in Brussels, this painter and his workshop produced works for export, which today are found still in situ in Stockholm and Lubeck, as well as throughout Flanders.

The Painting: As the panel edges of this diminutive and charming portrait of a man holding an open, heart-shaped book have been cut down, it is not immediately clear where he is situated in the space before a church interior. A very similar portrait in the National Gallery, London (fig. 2) shows a man behind an open, arched window in a park before a church, which could explain the vertical brown strip at the right of The Met portrait as also part of a window frame. The Met man is dressed in a green patterned doublet closed with purplish laces with gold or brass tips, beneath a black gown lined with white fleece. He wears a purplish hat with a golden button securing its flap, while the brim of a second hat can be seen slung over his left shoulder with its black cornet hanging down over his chest. Since the men represented in the London and New York panels are nearly identically dressed, and similarly posed, facing left, perhaps they were members of the same guild or confraternity (Bastelaer [1924] suggested the guild of archers, refuted by Davies 1954, p. 206), and this type of formal portrait identified their membership in a particular group. However, comparable attire is worn by a few of the men in the Louvre eponymous painting, the Pastoral Instruction (fig. 1), likely indicating that they are not depicted in uniform, but simply in contemporary stylish attire (Van Buren 2002).

Held open, as if for the viewer to read, is a heart-shaped book with a red cover and gilded edges, but the text is unintelligible. Attempts have been made to identify the book—whether a tome of love songs, a secular manuscript, or a devotional text.[10] Given the fact that the man in the London painting stands outside of the church of Our Lady of the Zavel (Notre-Dame du Sablon) and The Met’s portrait shows a background view of a priest raising the host before an altar in a church, the heart-shaped volumes are most likely prayer-books (Campbell 1998, pp. 349–50). The sentences in the heart-shaped book in The Met’s portrait start with a red or a blue initial and are probably the verses and responses of an office or liturgy (van Buren 2000, p. 219). Such a cordiform prayerbook exists; it is a fifteenth-century French book of hours in Latin in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Latin MS 10536; Jager 2000, pp. 126–27). Jager noted the visual link between the heart-shaped book in The Met’s portrait and the scene of the priest raising the host in the celebration of the Eucharist as possibly pointing “to heart-centered prayer and related devotional ideals.” Hamburger and Keller (2013, p. 30) augmented this idea, pointing out that until the seventeenth century the heart and not the head was considered the place of the soul. They argue that the sitter meditating with a heart-shaped book in hand is a visual example that God’s message had to be inscribed onto the human heart.

The background view in The Met’s painting of the celebration of the Eucharist at a church altar is copied from the centerpiece of Rogier van der Weyden’s Altarpiece of the Sacraments (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). That view is thought to be based generally on the church of Sainte Gudule in Brussels, perhaps with elements taken from Tournai Cathedral.[11] If so, then the background of The Met’s portrait also may be intended to represent features of the locally identifiable Brussels church. Both the National Gallery and The Met portraits face toward the left, possibly to lost devotional images of a Virgin. Thus, each once probably comprised the right half of a diptych.

The Attribution and Date: Although at the time of the ground-breaking 1902 "Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien" in Bruges, Weale attributed The Met’s portrait (then lent by the duc d'Anhalt, Woerlitz) to Roger de la Pasture (Rogier van der Weyden), Benoit (1904, p. 276) recognized the portrait as by the same hand as the Pastoral Instruction (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Hymans (1921) made the link to another painting in the same group, the Clothing of the Naked (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). Soon thereafter, Friedländer (1923) included The Met’s portrait as well as the extremely similar one in the National Gallery (fig. 2) in a group of twenty-one paintings grouped around the Pastoral Instruction. Inasmuch as the London and New York portraits are based on the same compositional formula, the sitters are dressed similarly, and both hold open, heart-shaped books, there are significant differences in the style and technique of the portrait heads (compare figs. 3, 4). In The Met’s painting the man’s head is rather thinly painted in pale tones and executed with smoothly blended brushstrokes and very subtle modeling (see Technical Notes). The sculptural aspect of the head was achieved through the sinuous, curving contour line of the face at the left, the high cheekbones, and the long protruding nose. The sensitive expression of the man’s eyes and his slightly parted lips suggest a sympathetic personality about to speak. By contrast, the London head is more broadly painted with greater contrast in the flesh tones that appear to be built up more thickly. Unblended touches of whitish paint provide accents at the flesh around the eyes, on the bridge of the nose and its tip, and above the upper lip and far left corner of the mouth. Such broad, stark contrasts in light and dark also model the neck. By comparison with the Pastoral Instruction, the London portrait is close to several of the heads depicted there, while the subtlety and sensitivity of the New York portrait is unmatched, even if somewhat like the treatment of the female faces in the Louvre painting.

These differences of the two portraits in their painting technique belie the fact that that the preparatory underdrawing for each appears to be by the same hand (compare figs. 5, 6). Both show a facile, quickly drawn sketch in a liquid medium in which the broad outlines of the figures are confidently laid out, including the hands that show adjustments in the placement and articulation of the fingers holding the pages of the book. The system of lighting is indicated in the face and costume of the sitters by even parallel hatching and here and there by quick, zig-zag strokes at the sides of the hats or down the left sleeve of the London man. Similar too are the short, broken lines forming the nose, and the shifts from the underdrawn to the painted contours of the faces and chins (figs. 7, 8). In both paintings the design of the background evolved on the grounded panel, as decisions were made about the extent to which architecture and landscape would share the view. The Met panel seems to have initially had a plan for a window or door opening to the right, and instead of the church interior at the left, there were trees drawn with the continuous loop indication for the foliage, of the type found in the London panel underdrawing. The parallel hatching in the faces of the New York and London paintings is somewhat similar to that in the Louvre painting. However, there is also quite a lot of cross-hatching in the underdrawing of the latter in the head of the preaching man and in the costumes of several of the figures of a type not evident in either the New York or London painting (Lorentz and Comblen-Sonkes 2001, vol. III, pls. CLXXXV and CLXXXVI).

The dramatic differences in the treatment of the portrait heads in the New York and London paintings are also evident in the figures of the Pastoral Instruction, which span from the sensitively treated, softly modeled female faces to the broadly painted, caricature-like, almost grotesque visages of some of the male heads (fig. 9). In an effort to attribute both the New York and London portraits to the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule, these differences have been explained as the poles of the artist’s style and representative of the “broad stylistic range” exhibited in the master’s name painting (Bauman 1986, p. 40). This characterization of the broad range in style and technique of the works attributed to the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule has led to the assumption that the name is associated with a group of painters in the same workshop or possibly a group of artists in various connected workshops who worked in a generally similar style (Steyaert 2013, p. 307). If this is correct, then the underdrawings in the London and New York paintings are likely to be by the same hand, while the painting of the portraits could have been carried out by two different artists within the same workshop.

Based on the dress of the figures in the background of the New York and London paintings, Campbell suggests about 1480 for the London portrait and the late 1470s The Met’s portrait, due to the fashionably dressed acolyte in the background (Campbell 1998, p. 351).

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2022

[1] On the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule, see also M.-N. Snoy, Le Maître de la Vue de Sainte-Gudule, Masters Thesis, Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL, 1966; Hélène Dubois, Le Maître de la Vue de Sainte-Gudule, Contribution à l’étude de son oeuvre, Masters Thesis, ULB, Brussels, 1988; Nathalie Toussaint in Brigitte de Patoul and Roger van Schoute, eds., Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994, pp. 539–43; Steyaert 2013, pp. 294–317.
[2] Steyaert 2013, pp. 308–9.
[3] H. Dubois, “Sources d’inspiration du Maître à la Vue de Sainte-Gudule et de son atelier,” Annales d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie, XI (1989), pp. 39–52.
[4] Nicole Veronee-Verhaegen, “À retrouver: un ‘Saint Sébastien’ par le Maître de la Vue de Sainte-Gudule,” Bulletin Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.Miscellanea Henri Pauwels, 38–40, 1–3 (1989–91), pp. 175–86.
[5] Stephan Kemperdick and Matthias Weniger, “Der Bartholomäusmeister—Herkunft und Anfänge seines Stils,” in Genie ohne Namen: Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars, exh. cat., R. Budde and R. Krischel, eds., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2001, pp. 37–38.
[6] Catheline Périer-d-Ieteren, “Les volets peints du retable de la Vie de la Vierge conserve à Rouen,” Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, 1996, pp. 9–35; and Didier Martens, “En marge de deux récents catalogues: peintures flamandes en quête d’auteur au Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille,” Annales de la Société Royale d’Archéologie de Bruxelles, 68 (2007), pp. 118, 120–21.
[7] Steyaert 2013, pp. 295–96.
[8] Steyaert 2013, pp. 260–61, no. 57.
[9] Steyaert 2013, pp. 303, 317, nos. 73, 81.
[10] For various opinions on the heart-shaped book, see Porcher and Droz 1933, p. 109; Van de Castyne 1935, pp. 326–27; Davies 1954, p. 206; Harbison 1991, pp. 146–47 (related to the Sacred Heart of Jesus); Jager 1996, pp. 18–22; Campbell 1997; Campbell 1998, pp. 349–50; Van Buren 2000, pp. 218–21; Jager 2000, pp. 120-36; Hamburger 2013, p. 30.
[11] Lorne Campbell and Griet Steyaert in Rogier van der Weyden 1400–1464, Master of Passions, Lorne Campbell and Jan van der Stock, eds., exh. cat. M/Leuven (September 20–December 6, 2009), Zwolle, 2009, p. 531.

Support: The support was constructed from a single piece of vertically grained wood, estimated to be oak. The panel has been thinned to 1/16 inch and, at some point before 1927, the edges were crudely trimmed by an unknown amount and the lower left and right corners damaged.[1] Comparison with the very similar composition also attributed to the Master of the View of Sainte Gudule in the National Gallery London, Portrait of a Young Man (NG 2612; see fig. 2 above), which measures 22.8 x 14 cm, suggests that The Met’s panel was only trimmed by a small amount. An additional one centimeter or so at the perimeter would allow space for a window surround to frame the sitter as in the London picture, of which the oddly truncated brick wall at the right seems to be a remnant.

Before the painting entered the Museum’s collection in 1950, thin wooden strips, skillfully crafted to mimic the grain of the original wood panel, were added to the edges to enlarge the panel slightly and repair the lower corners. The current restoration integrates these additions into the composition, although they can be located in the x-radiograph (fig. 10) and infrared reflectogram (fig. 6). A round hole about 4 mm in diameter was punched into the top center of the panel at some point, likely as a means of hanging the panel. Now restored by a wooden insert, gesso and retouching, the hole is evident in the 1927 photograph and the x-radiograph.

Preparation: The panel was prepared with a whitish ground layer estimated to be chalk and glue. Infrared reflectography (IRR) revealed the presence of a detailed underdrawing, executed in a liquid medium.[2] Most striking is the distinct hatching in the sitter’s face, modeling the planes of his face with parallel, emphatic hatchmarks, often leaving pools of paint or ink at the ends of the strokes. The handling of the underdrawing appears quite similar to that observed in the National Gallery portrait, particularly the sharp hatching in the faces (see Catalogue Entry and figs. 5 and 7 for further comparison).[3]

The artist made several alterations to his underdrawn design when working it up in paint. He revised the position of the man’s fingers and the contours and proportions of his face slightly: the right eye was initially drawn at a higher position and the angle of the nose was shifted. Several alterations to the background are also apparent in the reflectogram including an angled rectangle to the right of the man that may represent a window or an open door. Parallel vertical lines are present at the upper right as well as the outline of a small tree at the left, neither of which correspond to the painted composition.

Paint Layers: The painting was meticulously executed, with fine brushstrokes in the architecture and the sitter’s costume. Minute brushstrokes, occasionally with some impasto, were used to describe details with impressive economy. The green in the landscape at right, which appears to have been finished with a copper-containing glaze, has also been carried into the upper windows of the church at the right, seemingly representing the reflection of the landscape in the glass.

The artist made only a few alterations during the course of painting. He adjusted the contours of the sitter’s hair slightly, as can be seen in the x-radiograph. The blue sky extends underneath the upper portion of the buildings at the upper right; possibly indicating a late addition to the background.

A round ornament in the hat and the cut edges of the book are gilded. Near the edges of the composition, a few fragments of gold leaf are evident beneath the paint layers, especially at the right side. A similar phenomenon has been noted in the London portrait, possibly evidence that an engaged frame was gilded before the painting was completed.[4]

The paint layer is in good condition overall although the paint of the fleshtones has become increasingly translucent with age rendering the underdrawing somewhat visible even in normal light.

Sophie Scully 2022

[1] A photograph in the curatorial files of the European Paintings Department, dated 1927 and inscribed by Max Friedlander, shows the panel in this trimmed state.
[2] Indigo Systems Merlin InGaAs near infrared camera with a StingRay macro lens customized for the wavelengths covered by the camera, 0.9 to 1.7 microns.
[3] David Bomford, ed., Art in the Making: Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings, London, 2002, p. 108.
[4] Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools London, 1998, p. 346.

Leopold Friedrich Franz, Herzog von Anhalt, gothisches Haus, Wörlitz (d. 1817; acquired from "an aged painter at Lille"); Herzogen von Anhalt, gothisches Haus, Wörlitz, and Schloß, Dessau (until at least 1926); [Knoedler, New York, by 1928; sold to Harkness]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, New York (1928–his d. 1940); Mrs. Edward S. (Mary Stillman) Harkness, New York (1940–d. 1950)

Bruges. Palais du Gouvernement. "Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien," June 15–September 15, 1902, no. 143 (as by Roger de la Pasture, lent by the duc d'Anhalt, Woerlitz).

Exposition universelle et internationale de Bruxelles. "Cinq siècles d'art," May 24–October 13, 1935, no. 59 (lent by a private collection).

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. 34.

Brussels. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. "L'héritage de Rogier van der Weyden: La peinture à Bruxelles 1450–1520," October 12, 2013–January 26, 2014, no. 75.

G. Parthey. Deutscher Bildersaal. Vol. 1, A–K. Berlin, 1863, p. 416, lists as in gothisches Haus, Wörlitz, a "Männliches Bildniss in dunkler knapper Kleidung" [portrait of a man with a dark page or squire's costume, or a dark, close-fitting costume] by "Eyck, van; unbestimmt welcher" [ie. an undeterminable member of the van Eyck family (Jan, Hubert, or Margaret, all of whom he ascribes pictures to)] (possibly our picture).

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, pp. 36–37, as by an unknown artist, about 1480–90; observes that it seems to be a product of Flemish Wallon or of "Hainaut (?)," which appears to be confirmed by an inscription on its reverse stating that it was purchased in Lille.

W. H. James Weale. "The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the Bruges Exhibition of 1902, Article III." Burlington Magazine 1 (April 1903), p. 217, ill., believes this portrait should be attributed to an unknown master, perhaps of Valenciennes.

Max J. Friedländer. "Die Brüsseler Tafelmalerei gegen den Ausgang des 15. Jahrhunderts." Belgische Kunstdenkmäler. Ed. Paul Clemen. Munich, 1923, vol. 1, pp. 318–20, ill., ascribes a group of works, including the "Pastoral Sermon" (Louvre, Paris), this portrait, and a very similar one in the National Gallery, London—in which the sitter also holds a heart-shaped book—to a single artist, whom he dubs the Master of Sainte Gudule, presumably active in Brussels, and named for the views of the Brussels church of Sainte Gudule that often appear in the background of his pictures; notes that the young men in the London and New York portraits wear uniforms similar to those worn by the elegantly dressed young men in the Louvre picture; observes that the rood screen and altar in our panel are similar to these elements in the Sacrament altarpiece in the Antwerp museum [Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten] by Rogier van der Weyden, the city painter of Brussels.

Friedrich Winkler. Die altniederländische Malerei: Die Malerei in Belgien und Holland von 1400–1600. Berlin, 1924, p. 371, as by an artist from the circle of Rogier during his lifetime.

René van Bastelaer. "Note sur quelques peintures du maître anonyme dit 'de Sainte-Gudule'." Bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts 6 (1924), pp. 16–18, 22–25, suggests that this portrait and the one in London follow a required formula and were part of a more extensive gallery of dignitaries of the guild of archers; based on the ornament on the hats of the two subjects, suggests they were winners of the annual archery meet; identifies the church in the background of the London portrait as Notre Dame du Sablon and believes these men served as administrators there; observes that the church in the background of our portrait resembles the church of Sainte Gudule and remarks that the church of the Sablon was required to share with the church of Sainte Gudule any offerings made at its altar during the sacrament of the Eucharist; identifies the different sites in Brussels represented in the background of each portrait as the meeting-place for each sitter's specific militia; concludes that our sitter was a crossbowman of Saint-Georges, Master of the church of the Sablon for the archers' guild, and the particular member whose honor it was to deliver Eucharistic offerings to the church of Sainte Gudule.

"Dans une 'note sur quelques peintures du maître inconnu dit de Sainte Gudule' . . ." Académie Royale d'Archéologie de Belgique Bulletin 1 (1924), pp. 93–94.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 4, Hugo van der Goes. Berlin, 1926, p. 142, no. 77.

Charles R. Beard. "A Problem Solved: A Portrait of Louis XI." Connoisseur 87 (May 1931), p. 276, identifies the sitter in the National Gallery portrait as Louis XI, noting that when it was in the sale of Horace Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill it was described as a "very curious original Portrait of Luis XI. with his Prayer Book, illuminated, in the shape of a heart" and attributed to Quentin Massys; attributes the London picture to the French school, accepts the identification of the church in its background as Notre Dame de Sablon in Brussels and concludes that if this picture, like the "variant at Dessau which is by another hand" represents Louis, it must belong to the years 1456–58, "when Louis was living on the charity of his 'Bel Oncle,' Philip, Duke of Burgundy, at Genappe, not far from Brussels"; finds the costume, age of sitter, and style of the hair consistent with such a date.

J. Porcher and E. Droz. Le chansonnier de Jean de Montchenu. Paris, 1933, p. 109, publish a heart-shaped song book from the second half of the 15th century (collection of Henri de Rothschild), made for Jean de Montchenu; mentions the London portrait in this context and refers to ours as a replica representing the same sitter; observes that this sitter evidently belonged to a specific confraternity, and that although Notre Dame du Sablon was the seat of the crossbowmen's guild, this organization appears to have had a different uniform.

"'Marriage of the Virgin' Painted by the Master of St. Gudule." Connoisseur 92 (July–December 1933), p. 40, claims that the Western facade of the church of Sainte Gudule, with its twin towers, can be seen in the background of this portrait.

Oda Van de Castyne. "Autour de 'L'instruction pastorale' du Louvre (A propos de l'exposition d'art ancien à Bruxelles)." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 5 (October–December 1935), pp. 326–27, ill., believes the painting of the "Pastoral Sermon" (Louvre, Paris) represents a scene from the Legend of Saint Augustine; based on the costume and hair style of our sitter, which are similar to those of the young men shown in the Louvre work, suggests that he is a clerk of the chapter of Sainte Gudule, an aspiring canon, and a spiritual descendent of Saint Augustine; the heart-shaped book, he hypothesizes, would refer to this saint's attribute, a heart surmounted by a flame, and thus to the sitter's attachment to Augustinian doctrine; views the scene in the background of our portrait as an indication of its subject's role as a canon in celebrating mass; mentions the London portrait as "a replica or an original variant"; believes both portraits were executed on the occasion of a distinction or a canonical promotion and that they have a common origin, if not the same author, as the "Pastoral Sermon".

Pl. Lefèvre. "Mélanges: À propos de 'L'instruction pastorale' du Louvre." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 6 (October–December 1936), p. 359, rejects Van de Castyne's [Ref. 1935] association of a cult of Saint Augustine with the church of Sainte Gudule in Brussels, observing that not a single chapel in the church was dedicated to the Saint; also rejects the notion that this church was entitled to deduct any offerings made at the altar of Notre Dame du Sablon; in general, finds Van de Castyne's thesis very fragile.

Charles Sterling. La peinture française: Les peintres du moyen age. Paris, 1942, p. 63, rejects the attribution of the National Gallery portrait to the French school and the identification of its sitter as Louis XI; attributes it to the Master of Sainte Gudule and mentions our panel as a variant.

Martin Davies. National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School. London, 1945, pp. 75–76, calls our portrait "hardly a version, but . . . related" to the one in London.

Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 37, Leipzig, 1950, p. 130.

Martin Davies. The National Gallery, London [Les primitifs flamands. 1. Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle, 3]. Vol. 2, Antwerp, 1954, pp. 206–6, believes the present work and the London portrait represent different sitters; rejects Van Bastelaer's [Ref. 1924] identification of the subjects as members of the archers' guild, observing that according to A. Wauters [Les Serments de Bruxelles, in Revue de Bruxelles, April 1841, p. 43] the costume of this guild in 1412/15 was scarlet with green piping and included a scarlet hat with plumes; also rejects Van de Castyne's [Ref. 1935] claim that the heart-shaped book refers to Saint Augustine as well as her theory connecting the London portrait and the church of Sainte Gudule in Brussels in different ways with Saint Augustine and Notre Dame du Sablon; calls the London picture "possibly, but not probably, the right wing of a diptych".

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.

Colin Eisler. "Erik Larsen, Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York, 1960." Art Bulletin 46 (March 1964), p. 103, refers to this painting as in an excellent state of preservation, representing "the happiest aspect of the School of Brussels in the second half of the fifteenth century".

Lorne Campbell. Unpublished notes. 1981, observes that it is not certain whether the sitter holds a prayer book or a volume of romantic verse; states that "the priest, his attendant and the interior of the choir are freely copied from Rogier van der Weyden's altarpiece of the 'Seven Sacraments' [Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp]".

Guy Bauman. "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425–1525." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43 (Spring 1986), pp. 40–41, ill. (color), states that infrared examination reveals in both this portrait and the related work in London, "extensive and highly individual underdrawings that accord precisely and indicate that the portraits were, at least, designed by the same artist"; observes that the Master of Sainte Gudule was capable of broad stylistic range and that "it seems appropriate to regard the New York and London portraits as illustrative of the poles of that range"; also notes that "the similarity of costumes may be explained by the rules of dress for one or another particular guild to which both men belonged"; suggests the heart-shaped books may indicate a romantic context for these portraits, but notes that a prayer book might just as well have a heart shape—indicative of passionate devotion—and the Eucharistic scene in the background of our portrait supports the latter interpretation .

Craig Harbison. Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism. London, 1991, pp. 146–47, 210 n.15, ill., suggests that the heart-shaped books in the London and New York portraits may refer to the sitters' devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Introduction by 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, p. 352, no. 343, ill.

Nicole Veronée-Verhaegen. Les primitifs flamands et leur temps. Ed. Brigitte de Patoul and Roger van Schoute. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994, p. 229.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 256, ill.

Eric Jager. "The Book of the Heart: Reading and Writing the Medieval Subject." Speculum 71 (January 1996), pp. 18–22, ill., sees the heart-shaped books in the London and New York portraits as a reflection of 15th-century devotional ideals and practices, including the emergence at this time of prayer with the heart, or silent prayer, as opposed to spoken prayer.

Lorne Campbell. Letter to Mary Sprinson de Jesús. August 28, 1997, refers to this portrait and the replica in London as examples of praying men who wear hats, believes the heart-shaped books they hold are devotional texts, and observes that there is a heart-shaped Book of Hours similar to them in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Use of Amiens, late 15th century.

Mary Sprinson de Jesús 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. 71, 178–81, no. 34, ill. (color), dates it about 1480; believes the MMA and London panels were produced by two different hands in the workshop, noting that it is difficult to say which panel is more likely to be by the Master himself; believes both sitters hold prayer books.

Lorne Campbell. National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools. London, 1998, pp. 346, 349–52, ill., compares a heart-shaped Book of Hours of about 1500 (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat. 10536) with the books held by the sitters in the London and New York portraits; notes that "the numerous initials and divisions in the text [of the NG portrait] suggest a devotional rather than a secular manuscript," and that the inclusion in the background of our painting of a priest elevating a Host would support such an identification; calls our portrait, of a different sitter, "closely related" to the London panel, but on the basis of costume dates ours to the late 1470s and the one in London probably from the early 1480s.

Eric Jager. The Book of the Heart. Chicago, 2000, pp. 121–36, 196 n. 1, p. 197, fig. 9, believes that the celebration of Mass in the background indicates the focus of the sitter's worship, the "remembrance of Christ's Passion".

Philippe Lorentz and Micheline Comblen-Sonkes. Musée du Louvre, Paris. III [Les primitifs flamandes, I: Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège au quinzième siècle, vol. 19]. Brussels, 2001, text vol., pp. 243, 246, 249.

Anne Hagopian van Buren. "Eric Jager, 'The Book of the Heart.' . . . 2000." Studies in Iconography 23 (2002), pp. 218–21, 224 n. 7, notes that the text of the book in our portrait looks more like the verses and responses of an office or liturgy than the continuous text of a Passion narrative; believes "the two sitters' doublets, jerkins, and gowns (and the similar garments of three men in the 'Pastoral Sermon') are not a uniform, but simply the current fashionable dress"; finds it likely that both panels were originally the wings of a diptych that included an object of devotion on the left wing; supports the view that different painters were responsible for the two portraits and that they represent different subjects; thinks the correspondence of the date of the Montchenu song book (about 1480) and the probable date of execution of these panels suggest that the heart-shaped book had recently been invented and had become something of a fad.

Lorne Campbell in Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings. Ed. David Bomford. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 2002, p. 106, fig. 185, mentions our portrait in relation to the panel in London; identifies the artist as "Master of the View of St Gudula".

Bodo Brinkmann. "'Quelque chose d'un peu sauvage': Ein ungewöhnliches Interieur für den Bruder eines Holbein-Kunden." Hans Holbein und der Wandel in der Kunst des frühen 16. Jahrhunderts. Ed. Bodo Brinkmann and Wolfgang Schmid. Turnhout, Belgium, 2005, pp. 264–65 n. 21.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Hildegard Elisabeth Keller. "Bilder in der Kirche, im Herzen oder gar nirgends? Überlegungen zu Periodisierungen am Beispiel des Bilderstreits in der Frühen Neuzeit." Die Aktualität der Vormoderne: Epochenentwürfe zwischen Alterität und Kontinuität. Ed. Klaus Ridder and Steffen Patzold. Berlin, 2013, p. 30, fig. 5, note that until the seventeenth centuy, the heart was considered the place of the soul; cite this work as an example of the belief that God's message had to be inscribed on the human heart.

Griet Steyaert in L'héritage de Rogier van der Weyden: La peinture à Bruxelles 1450–1520. Ed. Brigitte de Patoul and Beatrijs Wolters van der Wey. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. Tielt, 2013, pp. 295, 304–7, 311, no. 75, ill. (color) and fig. 202 (infrared reflectogram).

Catheline Périer-d'Ieteren in L'héritage de Rogier van der Weyden: La peinture à Bruxelles 1450–1520. Ed. Brigitte de Patoul and Beatrijs Wolters van der Wey. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. Tielt, 2013, pp. 75–76.