Triptych with the Crucifixion (centre panel), St Peter and a Male Donor (inner left wing), St James and a Female Donor (inner right wing), St Christopher and the Christ Child on the Road of Life (outer wings)

The support of the centre panel and its frame consists of two vertically grained oak planks (20.2 and 13.2 cm). The panel itself is approx. 0.5 cm thick and the frame approx. 3.8 cm thick. The wings and their frames were probably carved from single vertically grained oak planks (16.8 and 16.5 cm respectively) with a thickness of approx. 2.3 cm for the frames, and approx. 0.5 cm for the painted panels. The white ground must have been applied to the frame and the panels at the same time. The paint layer is rather thin, allowing the ground to show through. The painted surface of the middle panel measures 36.3 x 30.1 cm, that of the left wing 32 x 10 cm, and that of the right wing 31.8 x 9.7 cm. The total painted surface of the outer wings is 37.6 x 30.1 cm. Infrared reflectography revealed a rapid, sketchy underdrawing on all panels of the triptych which was executed with a dry material, probably black chalk (fig. a, fig. b). The main elements of the composition were indicated with very loose lines which are occasionally angular in the drapery folds. The lines of the parallel hatchings used to denote the shaded passages are sometimes quite widely spaced. The hatchings mark broad areas of shadow in the clothing, such as that of St James on the right wing and of St Christopher on the outer wings, and of the soldier seated on the ground in the centre panel. There is barely any underdrawing visible in the middleground, whereas there is again a very rapid and spontaneous drawing in the landscapes. The parallel hatchings beneath the landscape on the outer wings take the form of loose, rounded zigzag shapes. There are sketchy framing lines around the painted surface of the outer wings which overlap the paint layer by several millimetres. The figures were reserved. The drawn design was followed quite closely in the paint. There are a few modifications, but none of them affect the composition as such. The paint was applied in thin layers to create a smooth surface in which the foreground figures were carefully elaborated. The decoration of the costumes of the principal figures is highly detailed. Highlights were used in the details and the trees, and mordant gilding for the brocade and the halo. The army of soldiers in the centre panel and the horde of devils on the outer wings were sketchily laid down with brown paint, after which the horsemen were picked out with light highlights. The artist’s fingerprints are visible in the plume of smoke rising from the massed devils.

Fair. The paint layer on the left plank of the centre panel is less well preserved than that of the other panels. The painting is quite abraded and has a pronounced craquelure pattern.

The paintings of the inner triptych are mounted in integral moulding frames. A cross-section of the profile on the central frame shows a tenia, a bead, a fillet, and originally a cove and a jump (the jump was rounded off when the gilding was removed) (fig. e). A cross-section of the profile of the frames surrounding the wings shows a tenia and a reverse ogee (![fig. f][fig. f]). Whereas the sills at the bottom of the wings have a wide bevelled sight edge (![fig. g][fig. g]), the central frame has a simple, square sill (fig. h). The mouldings have been completely stripped. There is a broad, unpainted margin around the panels of the outer wings where there were originally engaged mouldings. There are three dowels in the integral sill of the central frame which may be the remains of an original forward extension. This would explain why the frames surrounding the wings are shorter than the central frame.

…; sale, Frédéric Spitzer (1815-90, Paris), Paris (P. Chevallier), 17 April 1893 sqq., no. 3314, as German school, frs. 2,050, to the dealer Durand-Ruel, Paris;¹¹Copy RMA. from whom, fl. 1,033, to the museum, July 1893; on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2004-10

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1598

This triptych with Mount Calvary and donors is a rare example of a small altarpiece for private devotion from the first half of the 16th century that is still in its original state. Unlike many others of the period, the painted panels and the original, although leached frame still form a single unit. When the triptych is opened, the centre panel shows Calvary with Christ on the cross flanked by the two crucified thieves (Matthew 27:33-56; Mark 15:22-41; Luke 23:33-49; John 19:17-37). The scene contains several motifs not described in the Bible, such as the man drawing a knife during an argument among the soldiers throwing dice for Christ’s cloak, and the swooning Virgin being supported by John and Mary Magdalen.³³Kirschbaum II, 1970, col. 623. The landscape extends onto the wings, where the kneeling donors are accompanied by their patron saints: St Peter with the man and St James the Greater with the woman. Two angels in the sky above them carry as yet unidentified coats of arms.

When the triptych is closed the outer wings show a unified scene of St Christopher with the Christ Child in his arms and mounted on a horse. Behind them a horde of devils and demons are fleeing in fright from St Christopher and the Child. A mounted St Christopher is a variant of the more traditional scene of the saint wading across a river with the Christ Child on his shoulders. In northern Europe this image merged with that of the Christian knight in the late 15th century.⁴⁴Kirschbaum III, 1971, cols. 554-56; Kirschbaum II, 1970, cols. 267-26. According to Beitz, the altered iconography of St Christopher was partly due to Erasmus’s criticism of the veneration of the saint in his Enchiridion militis Christiani of 1503.⁵⁵Beitz 1922, pp. 21-23.

Examination with infrared reflectography revealed an extensive underdrawing, probably in a dry medium, under all the parts of the triptych (fig. a, fig. b). The lively nature of the scene in the underdrawing has been toned down here and there in the painted surface. For instance, the contorted pose of the thief on Christ’s left was even more complex in the underdrawing, with his left arm clamped around the arm of the cross, while his dangling right hand originally pointed stiffly upwards. In addition, the underdrawn fluttering ribbons around the coats of arms were not painted in, nor was the feathered plumage on St Christopher’s horse on the outside of the wings.

There has been a lot of speculation about the maker of this painstakingly executed work. On the evidence of a print after a panel with St Christopher (fig. c) stating that it was painted by J. Cock, Friedländer attributed several works, including the Rijksmuseum triptych, to Jan Wellens de Cock.⁶⁶Friedländer 1918; followed by Winkler 1924 and Wescher 1925. On the basis of stylistic similarities to Leiden paintings from the early decades of the 16th century, the triptych was also attributed to Lucas Cornelisz named De Cock, one of Engebrechtsz’s sons.⁷⁷Beets 1936, p. 58; Hoogewerff III, 1939, p. 374. Gibson, too, believed that the paintings attributed to Jan Wellens de Cock originated in the studio or immediate circle of Engebrechtsz. In the subdivision he made within this group, the Amsterdam triptych was assigned to the Master of the Vienna Lamentation.⁸⁸Gibson 1969a, pp. 188-90. However, its figures are more closely related to those in the paintings that are attributed to the Master of the Vienna Dismissal of Hagar.⁹⁹Filedt Kok 1998. There are also stylistic similarities to The Carrying of the Cross in New Haven (fig. d), to the background figures in The Calvary (SK-A-4921), and to the landscape in a Triptych with the Crucifixion from Engebrechtsz’s workshop.¹⁰¹⁰Basel, Kunstmuseum; illustrated in ENP X, 1973, no. 73, pl. 63. Gibson suggested that the landscape in the latter triptych was by an assistant of Cornelis Engebrechtsz’s who came from Antwerp, which could explain the similarities in style between Antwerp and Leiden.¹¹¹¹Gibson 1969a, pp. 188-94; Filedt Kok 1996, pp. 350-53. The stylistic relationship with the later work of Cornelis Engebrechtsz makes it likely that the paintings mentioned above were executed in the 1520s, but there is no solid evidence to support this. Nor could the as yet unidentified coats of arms in the Amsterdam triptych help localise the donors.
MB

Dülberg 1899a, p. 76 (as Cornelis Engelbrechtsz); Friedländer 1915, p. 88 (as Jan de Cock); Friedländer 1918, pp. 70-71 (as Jan de Cock); Wescher 1925, pp. 147-50 (as Jan de Cock); Friedländer XI, 1933, pp. 63, 126, no. 112 (as Jan de Cock); Beets 1936, pp. 58-60 (as attributed to Lucas Cornelisz named De Cock); Baldass 1937, pp. 125-27 (as Jan de Cock); Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 374-77 (as Lucas Cornelisz named De Cock); Gibson 1969a, pp. 188-90, 195-96, 255-56, no. 65 (as Master of the Vienna Lamentation); ENP XI, 1973, pp. 39, 78, no. 112 (as Jan de Cock); Filedt Kok 1996, p. 351; Yao-Fen You in Antwerp 2005, pp. 219-21, no. 93

1903, p. 6, no. 47 (as Dutch school, beginning of the 16th century); 1934, p. 7, no. 47 (as Dutch school, beginning of the 16th century); 1960, p. 72, no. 699 B1 (as Jan Wellens de Cock); 1976, p. 170, no. A 1598 (as attributed to Jan Wellens de Cock)

M. Balm, 2010, 'attributed to Pseudo Jan Wellens de Cock, Triptych with the Crucifixion (centre panel), St Peter and a Male Donor (inner left wing), St James and a Female Donor (inner right wing), St Christopher and the Christ Child on the Road of Life (outer wings), Leiden, c. 1525', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8148