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Hubert van Eyck’s red collar represents both a hunter’s bow and the stag’s antlers. Both Van Eck and Van der Goes are featured in a six-panel altarpiece known as the St Vincent Panels. The figure in red is Henry Beaufort and Rembrandt has matched himself to the prelate as a kind of cameo appearance drawing back the curtain to symbolise an act of revelation in a similar way the cardinal is revealing the precious relic wrapped in a green cloth. So well that he was able to recognise and accept the reasons for his affliction and record his ordeal and recovery in his latter paintings – the Adoration of the Shepherds being one of them. Hugo used a bill-hook or sickle to slash himself on the left side of his head and neck (which suggests he was right-handed). He lived in Ghent and would no doubt have studied the Ghent Altarpiece in detail.

And instead of Three Marys portrayed beside the tomb, Hugo has shown three Van Eyck brothers. The yellow stripe along the goose’s neck not only represents the lacing on the pillow but also symbolises the stitching applied on Hugo’s neck by the hand of the Prior. The insides of the folding panels show St Andrew presenting James III and his son, later James IV, and St Canute presenting Queen Margaret of Denmark. Hugo van der Goes - Portrait of a Man - WGA9655.jpg 780 × 930; 77 KB Hugo van der Goes 007.jpg 3,131 × 3,707; 1.72 MB Hugo van der Goes 007.png 3,087 × 3,666; 12.59 MB Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

His early life is very uncertain; his date of birth is variously given between about 1420 and 1440, possibly in Ghent although this is supposition. The man holding a book and standing at the right end of the line is Jean Wauquelin. It is said that when Stephen’s bones were reinterred, Lawrence’s relics miraculously moved to one side to accomodate those of Stephen’s – perhaps another reason why Lawrence is shown turned towards his neighbour. artists represented. The facial features of St Vincent are adapted from the Good and Bad Judge fresco in the old town hall of Monsaraz, where Van Eyck visited during his year-long diplomatic excursion to Portugal. He was reportedly was driven to despair by his failure to equal van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, and in 1481 he seems to have suffered a mental breakdown and attempted suicide. On the right is the Donor Panel from a set of four known as the Trinity Altarpiece. The man's deep concentration is wonderfully captured in his raised eyebrow and contracted muscles around the mouth.

Self-Portrait – George Jamesone | Great Scottish Art, Pingback: 1.

10, guided by opinions solicited in 1929 from Hulin de Loo and Friedländer, attributes the portrait to Hugo van der Goes before 1475; notes that the hands, window, and landscape, discovered during cleaning, are restored, and that recent x-rays show extensive damage in the hands and landscape. Could it have been in the hood, symbolic of the pelican’s pouch? Hugo van der Goes (active ca. (31.8 x 26.7 cm); painted surface 12 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. This small panel, cut down slightly at the top and bottom, was originally the right wing of a small altarpiece made of only two paintings, known as a diptych. This theme is also extended to translation in other senses – of words and languages –crypt to cryptic – visual to verbal, of shifts in power and authority, of inspiration, both human and divine. The circled depression in his hat is an analogy of Hugo’s state of mind. Be it Gonçalves or Van der Goes who had brush in hand, there is certainly a strong Flemish influence to be found in the St Vincent Panels.

Close inspection of his ear reveals it is shaped as the lower half of Christ’s body on the cross and the overlap of white hair represents his Spirit he offered to the Father. The three men standing at the top of the panel, depict the maxim in the order of: “hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil”. Is he blind? Its journey from Belgium to Scotland and its near destruction at the hands of the religious extremism that ran through much of Northern Europe both add to its story as the first great work of Scottish painting. 71–73, pl. Van der Goes has sourced the Ghent Altarpiece for his two versions of St Vincent, deacon and martyr. The portrait is housed at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. The right panel was probably produced c1477 while the left panel is undated but likely completed in the early 1470’s. The hand sign is the action of a cut across his throat. This page was last edited on 10 August 2016, at 01:33. What I hadn’t picked up on at the time was the the connection between the St Vincent Panels and The Good and Bad Judge freso at Monsaraz which portrays one of the judges with two heads. If they inspire you please support our work. This vision of the Trinity is according to Duncan Macmillan not typical of Flemish art in its absence of realism or everyday details, and probably was dictated by Bonkil. “In medieval Euope, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood by wounding her own breast when no other food was available.

Van der Goes is known both for his deep religious commitment, and for his realism, shown in the naturalistic detail of the Portinari altarpiece and the Death of the Virgin where rather than showing the disciples as characteristic types with conventional attributes, he depicts their individualised faces gathered at Mary’s deathbed and reacting to her passing. The cheek-to-cheek arrangement with the man on his right works in two ways: as a connection to his spiritual ‘father’ or director, Thomas Vessem, and also pointing to the source for the arrangement and narrative, the double-head relationship from the Monsaraz fresco of The Good and Bad Judge, where the devil and temptation lurk in the background. In my previous post I pointed out that Rogier van der Weyden’s ‘Joseph’ portrait was adapted from Jan van Eyck’s self-portrait – Man in a Red Turban. Rogier van der Weyden, a contemporary of Jan van Eyck, recorded this new place of rest in the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece. Hugo has depicted himself as the peacock, a symbol of pride, while Thomas Vessem represents the humble ‘desert father’, standing at the entrance of his cave – a ‘“little nook” – in Fra Angelico’s scene.

after Hugo van der Goes photogravure, published 1902 (1478-1480) NPG D42377

Brussels, 1931, pp. Learn more about this artwork. Even his cream-coloured cloak is matched. The two kneeling figures are similar in features. In a previous post I described how the three men to the left were probably related, Hugo’s father cheek-to-cheek with his son Hugo, and behind them Hugo’s half brother, Nicholas. Van der Goes has placed the coffin lid next to the figure of Robert Campin in the Friars Panel, while the upright coffin stands beside Hubert van Eyck in the Relic Panel. There are also two other reasons why he is depicted as a falcon, one which links to the Dieric Bouts’ Altarpiece of the Blessed Sacrament, and the other to the genus term for birds of prey (including the falcon), Falco, derived from the Latin falcis, a sickle, and referring to the claws of the bird. Two panels from two altarpieces, both possibly by the same artist – Hugo van der Goes! He was commissioned to produce the Ghent Altarpiece but after his death the work was offered and completed by his brother Jan. Another painting considered to be by Hubert is The Three Mary’s at the Tomb. This altarpiece was commissioned in the 1470s for Trinity Collegiate Church in Edinburgh but made in the Low Countries.

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Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. The central panel, which would probably have shown Jesus and Mary, was destroyed. There is evidence in Hugo’s painting of Death of the Virgin, to suggest this, and in Rembrandt’s etching and his painting of the Return of the Prodigal Son. It carries in its missing panel a sign of all that is lost, but its remaining panels show the ambition and openness of Renaissance Scotland. Another is brought to his knees. ( Log Out /  Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more. Portrait of a Man, ca. • More on Hugo’s Adoration of the Shepherds in a future post. I shall post a presentation on the iconography in this painting at another time, but for now I show one significant feature in the painting that points to Hugo cutting his neck. Notice as well the similarity in colours of the garments, and the extended ‘tail’ feature which is repeated in the crib detail.

All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the. So here’s how Hugo reveals his version of the incident– a kind of confession – and placing his account on record long before the Ofhuys chronicle report of what had happened. It also represents a swan’s neck and serves as a reference to the Rood Kloster which was located at Soingnes – pronounced Swanyay.