el san miguel y san francisco de juan de flandes

7/28/2019 El San Miguel y San Francisco de Juan de Flandes

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One of the most mysterious and persuasiveartists active at the turn of the fifteenth centuryin Spain was Juan de Flandes, whose work isnow represented in the Museum by a recentlyacquired painting of Saint Michael and SaintFrancis. Nothing is known of Juan de Flandesbefore his name appears in I496 when he wasappointed painter to the court of Isabella ofCastile, and it is his name alone that providessome documentation of his Netherlandish originand artistic heritage. Appointed painter to thecourt in I496, Juan de Flandes together withother northern European painters employed bythe Queen was working on a seriesof exquisitelyfinished, miniaturelike panels depicting forty-seven scenesfromthe lives of Christand Mary forher oratorior private royal chapel. Now largelydispersed (one may be seen at the Detroit Insti-tute of Arts), these paintings were probably firstassembledin the characteristicallySpanish formof the retablo, n altar in which many panels aregrouped in screenlikefashion into a single archi-tecturalstructure.Almostall ofJuan's subsequentpanel paintings were planned for such retablos,some of them incorporating sculpture. For thiscommission, which may have been his first inthis format, Juan reduced the size of the indi-vidual panels to an intimate scale recalling thatof manuscript illuminations. Indeed, the pre-cision and delicacy of the earliest works he is

SaintMichaelandSaintFrancis,by fuandeFlandes(active,Spain, 496-I5I9) . Height 6 H inchesMary WetmoreShivelyBequestFund, 1959

known to have executed in Spain suggest thathis initial training in the north had been that ofa manuscript illuminator. His years of appren-ticeship may have been spent in Ghent, a centerfor the sophisticated, introspective art so fre-quently reflected in his work. A masterpiece byone of the leading artistsfrom this area,Joos vanGent's Adoration of the Magi, executed at atime when Juan may himself have been activethere, came to the Museum with the Blumenthalcollection. A similarworld of aristocraticmelan-choly, peopled by doll-like figures poised in ele-gantly arrested motion, their drapery disposedin tubular folds, is portrayedbyJuan de Flandes.He continuesJoos van Gent's use of a restrainedpalette, his color characterized by gray-tingedpastel shades, enlivened by the sparing use ofsurprisinglyvivid, almost acid tonalities. Juan'scalculated fusion of the courtly with the naivestems from the general tendency toward a man-nered style that prevailed as the fifteenthcenturydrew to a close.It may well be that by traveling and, veryprobably, working his way through France enroute to Spain in the early I 4gos, Juan deFlandes absorbed the French taste for a moresculptural definition of the form than was thenpopular in his native school. When he arrivedin Spain at the end of the fifteenth century hebroughtwith him a fusion of French and Nether-landish stylistic currents. When he combinedthese with certain decorative trendslong popularin Spain, his art contributedto a new movement,paralleling the so-called International Styleformed at the end of the fourteenth century.

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J u a n d e FlandesS a i n t Michael a n d S a i n t Francis

by COLIN EISLER


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Frequently drawing upon the talents of foreign-ers to provide works of art, just as they looked tothem for geographical discoveries, the Spaniardshired many northern European and Italianartists and craftsmen to bring their skills toSpain, forming a somewhat provincial fusion ofvarying styles of contemporary European artcast in traditional Spanish forms like the elabo-rate retablo.Juan de Flandes's artistic career in Spainoffers several parallels to that of E1 Greco lessthan a century later. Both came to Spain withtheir art firmly rooted in foreign styles; bothmoved further and further away from the schoolsin which they were trained toward increasinglydramatic expressions of their own. Just as E1Greco rejected the art of his Venetian apprentice-ship in favor of a mystical, passionately austererevelation,Juan de Flandes gradually discardedhis heritage of Netherlandish realism for a moreabstract and emotional idiom. After workingunder royal patronage both artists withdrew tointellectual centers Juan de Flandes to Sala-manca and Palencia, E1 Greco to Toledo-where they remained until the end of their lives,leaving sons who followed their fathers' careersas painters.It has been suggested that the art of Juan deFlandes may be divided into three phases. Inthe first he contributed to Queen Isabella's re-tablobetween I496 and I504 works intimate inscale and still northern in their fidelity to theworld of appearances. His years as court painterterminated upon the Queen's death in I504. Inhis second period there is a marked increase inscale and a tendency toward simplification andmonumentality. This may best be observed inthe paintings ordered in I 509 for the greatretablof the cathedral at Palencia, his new home.Slightly later examples from the same period areeight panels painted for the church of SanLazaro in Palencia and now divided betweenthe Prado and the National Gallery in Washing-ton. In his third and final phase the character-istics of the preceding period are stressedalmostas an end in themselves. The works of this closingperiod show irrationally large, rather bizarrefigures expanding within a vacuumlike space,as may be seen in the Prado Visitation, also fromSan Lazaro, probably painted shortly before the

artist's death, which occurred in I5I9 when hiswife is listed as being widowed.In the Museum's newly acquired panel, let-tering in blue and red identifies the occupants ofthe niches as "Sant Miguel" and "Sant Fran-cisco." Their names are written on representa-tions of small pieces of vellum painted as thoughtacked on the golden wall. The two figures standin their golden niches like momentarily ani-mated statuettes: the calm, gentle Saint Michaelalmost reluctantly thrusts his cruciform lancethrough the muzzle of a capricious dragon at hisfeet, while Saint Francis, revealing the signs ofthe stigmata, is openmouthed, as though singingone of his beautiful canticles to Brother Sun.Armed only with a jeweled processional crossand a fanciful, gem-studded parade shield, SaintMichael wears the pale blue alb in which he isusually shown as the weigher of souls, ratherthan the body armor customarily buckled on forhis combat with the devil. His festive, disarmingappearance here stresses the purely ceremonialnature of the combat.The crimson of the border surrounding thepolished steel face of Saint Michael's shield isrepeated at the top of his richly polychromedwings and in the claws of the dragon. This care-fully contrived color distribution is paralleled bythe graceful complementary curves of the arch-angel and the dragon, the whole creating anextraordinarilydecorative balance of color andcontour. Saint Michael's richly colored wingsand lance project beyond the bounds of thearchway above, while the dragon's tail and clawsextend below, reaching across toward the ad-

. .Jacent nlc ze.The austere, ascetic representation of SaintFrancis presents a perfect foil for the extravagantdepiction of his neighbor. He is barefoot, withthe gray habit of his order slashed and his handsraised, revealing the five wounds of Christ. A1-though shown in a moment of ecstasy, his handsstill maintain a gesture of that courtly eleganceso characteristic of Juan de Flandes. Placed en-tirely within the niche, Francis's outstretchedhands and widespread feet define the limits ofhis space.

Our artist's approach to the presentation ofform resembles that of the sculptors who werehis contemporaries. Like them he worked over

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the accidents and irregularities of surface tobring out the clarified form within. Our panelis reminiscent of the Netherlandish practice ofgrisaille painting in which the artist uses grayedtones to present figuresin mock-sculpturalform,thus contrasting his ability to represent the artof the sculptor with his ability to re-create theappearance of life itself.The intricate realism of the view of battle-ments mirrored on the burnished convex steelface of Saint Michael's shield (page I32) iS aliteral reflection of Juan's Netherlandish herit-age; it was a favorite pictorial device of Jan vanEyck and his followers. The reflected fortressmay perhaps allude to Saint Michael's role asmilitant protector of the children of the Lord.Juan's Christ Before Pilate, a panel of the Pa-lencia cathedral retablo,rdered in I509, showsa shield identical in form to the one here.Our painting measures38 by 33 inches and ison a heavy wooden panel. The back is coatedwith a protective layer of hemp-reinforcedgesso.

At the timethe panel was in the Cookcollectionit still retainedsome lateradditions o the sur-face, probably he work of a restorer t the endof the nineteenth entury.A curvedcapitalhadbeen painted on the top of the wall surfacedividing he niches,convertinghis narrowareainto a column,and a false edgehad beencreatedby extending he floorof each niche out beyondthe newly created column down the pictureplane to a line immediatelyabove the inscrip-tions. Paintedon to give the panel a false im-pressionof "completeness,"hese additionshadbeen removedbeforethe painting came to theMuseum.Directlybeneath he areanow coveredby itsmodern arvedgilt frame hesurface f thepanelis bordered n all foursidesby a narrowband ofblue paint,which was probably irst ntended obe coveredby an elaboratearchitecturalmold-ing. The blueborders t the top and at the left,like the wood on which they are painted, areoriginal.Thoseat the bottomand the rightand

Adorationf the Magi, by Joos van Gent(active 460-I480).Height43 inchesBequest of George Blumenthal, 1941

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theirsupporting trips,however,are recent ad-ditions, suggestingthat our panel was in allprobability awn away from, or is the survivorof, a largergroupingof scenesandimages.Theback of the panel is reinforced y heavy battensresernbling and-hewn wo-by-fours.These aresecured o the panel by hand-forged ailswhichwere hammereddownthrough he front of thepanel before t was coveredby the artistwith apreparatoryayer of gesso.As thesebattensarealso cut oS sharply at the right, they aSordadditional vidence hat the paneloriginallybe-longed to a largercomplex. Perhaps t formedtheupper eft sectionof a paintedseriesof saintsin niches,bordering he narrative cenesor thesculpturediguresof a retablo.Nothing is known of the Museum's SaintMichaeland Saint Francisbefore t was lent bythe Cookcollection o an exhibitionat the Bur-lington Fine Arts Club in I908 as a workof theearly Spanishor Portuguese chools.In I9I3,when shown at the GraftonGalleries, t was

listed as "Early Spanish School, circa I 480."Emile Bertaux, who was the first to attribute thepainting correctly, described it in I9I4 as a re-cent purchase of Sir Frederick Cook, whosefather founded the remarkably comprehensivecollection at Doughty House. Unusually rich inSpanish paintings, this gallery included severalworks bought by Sir Francis Cook either inSpain or in Portugal, where he held the title ofVisconde de Monserrate. Bertaux's attributionwas accepted in the third volume of Maurice W.Brockwell'scatalogue of the Cook pictures pub-lished in I9I5, where our painting is illustratedand recorded.After it entered the Cook collection the panelwas studied by ProfessorChandlerRathfon Post,who suggested the possibility that the image ofSaint Michael was perhaps partially inspiredby Schongauer's engraving of the same subject.Pointing to the gilded arcades as an indicationof Juan's adoption of Spanish taste, ProfessorPost related the panel on the grounds of subjectmatter to the same artist's painting for the OldCathedral of Salamanca. Another author hassuggested that Saint Michael and Saint Francismight have formed part of the retablon QueenIsabella's oratorio,asing this suggestion on thenotion that the panel was small in size - he de-scribes it as a tablita.t is, however, much largerthan the forty-seven panels which formed theQueen's retablo,nd the painting was certainlyexecuted at a considerably later date.Judging from its style, our Saint Michael andSaint Francis stems from the artist's middleperiod, and was probably executed during theyears between the completion of his retabloorthe Old Cathedral of Salamanca (opposite) andthe commencement of that for the cathedralin Palencia.The Old Cathedral retablorecently restoredand now in the Museo Diocesano) was originallyplaced in a niche housing the tomb of DiegoRodriguez. An adjacent niche dated I504 pro-vides the year in which the Old Cathedral re-tablowas painted, according to E. Haverkamp-Begemann, as both niches were constructed atthe same time. A sculptural representation ofSaint Michael appearsat the top of the archwayframing the retablond the tomb. A second statueof the same saint is placed within the dated ad-

Detail of Saint Michael's hield, rom ourpanel


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Old Cathedraletablo,Salamanca, yJuan de Flandes Museo Diocesano, Salamancajacent niche. The archangel is shown again atthe center of the retablo ainted by Juan deFlandes above the tomb, in a position similar tothat of the sculptured figure in the next niche.Thus three images of Saint Michael are associ-ated with the Rodriguez tomb.The retabloepresentsMichael below a stormy

sky, fully armedand combatinga large dragon,while the kneelingSaint Francis receives thestigmata n an open landscapeat the right. OurSaint Michaeland SaintFrancismay have beenpainted at about the same time as the Old Ca-thedralretablo,o whichit is very close in style.The same reflections f fortificationswhich ap-133


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pear on the shield of our Saint Michael aremirrored on the shield and armor of the arch-angel painted above Rodriguezs tomb. The dif-ferences in the characterization of the samesaints may be attributed to their differing func-tionswithin the largerworksforwhich they wereplanned. In the Museum's panel the far morerestrainedactivity of both saints,confinedwithingolden niches, suggeststhat they bordereda cen-tral series of narrative subjects. Our panel mayhave been located immediately above the lower-most pictorial register of a retablo, orming theleft section of a series of saints standing in agilded arcade.In I505 Juan de Flandes was commissionedto work on the important retabloor the chapelof the University of Salamanca. Plans for itsmanufacture, incorporating much polychromedsculpture as well as painting, had been drawnup several years earlier. Felipe de Borgona andJuan de Ypres were at work on its sculptureandpolychromy, while a third artist of northernEuropeanorigin,Juan de Borgona,was to paintthe panels. By I505 it had become clear thatJuan de Borgona was too much occupied withother commissions to come to Salamanca, anda committee was appointed to search for themost accomplished artist available to executethe necessarypaintings. The committee selectedJuan de Flandes, whose art may well have al-ready been known in Salamanca if his OldCathedral retablomay be dated about I 504.Diego Rodriguez, who had the preceding yearchosen the same artist for the decorations of hisfuturerestingplace, was a member of this group.His contract specified that within a year Juanwas to paint eight scenes (ystorias) nd three im-agenes,or representations of sacred figures. InI507 a new contract stated that he was to paintten images for the banco,he lowermost register,of the retablo.Of these, only the Mary Magdalen,the Apollonia, and a fragment of a third havesurvived. Dr. Haverkamp-Begemann has sug-gestedthat the Museum'spanel may have formedone part of this retabloor the chapel of the Uni-versity of Salamanca. The rounded tops of thepanels containing the two female saints (page

Detail showingarchitecturaldditions emoved e-fore thepanelcame o theMuseum134


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--rs ->S- a . -N- --> X .< Of all the saints,Michael s probablyhe oneK . ;a * - - - t * - militantarchangels identifiedn DanielXII-I as

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the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailednot, neither was their place found any more inheaven. And the great dragon was cast out, thatold serpent, called the Devil and Satan, whichdeceiveth the whole world: he was cast out intothe earth, and his angels were cast out with him."While Michael is represented as looking downto earth, where he defeats the devil, Francis looksup toward heaven, the source of his dramaticallydisplayed stigmata. Although far less frequentlyportrayed than the archangel, Saint Francis wasmuch venerated in Spain, where he was thoughtto have made a pilgrimage to the shrine of SaintJames at Compostela between the years I2I3and I 2 I 6. In the GoldenLegend, thirteenth-century compendium of the lives of the saints,Castile, where our painting was executed, islisted as the firstcenter outside Italy distinguishedby the miraculous worship of Saint Francis.Juan de Flandes's saints represent oppositepoles of Christian faith Michael the heavenly

avengerand angelic protectorof the knightsofChrist, Francis the impulsivelyhuman mysticin love with God's creation.Although solatedby the accidents f time fromthe largeensemblein which they must originallyhave been, thesefigurespresentan unusuallyeloquentevocationof the art and faith of early sixteenth-centuryCastile,uniting he spiritof militantCatholicism,in whose name the Moors had recently beenexpelled and the New World discoveredandconquered,with the contemplative,passionatemysticismof Saint Francis, both so character-istic of Spain.

The writer s very much ndebted o ProfessorChandlerRathfonPost, Don Manuel and CarmenGomez-Moreno,and ElisaBermejo or their generousanswers o questions.Murray Pease's examination of the panel yielded valu-able information.For placing an unpublished study ofJuan de Flandesat the writer'sdisposal,warmest thanksto Dr. Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann.

Saints Apolloniaand Mary Magdalen (after restoration), y jruan de Flandes,painted or the Salama


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D O C U ME N T A T I O NThe panelhas been exhibitedat theBurlingtonFine ArtsClub in I908, No. I, as early Spanish,or perhapsPortu-guese, school. It was also shown at the GraftonGalleriesin I9I3, Cat. No. I6, as "Early Spanish School, circaI 480.

REFERENCES TO OUR PANELE. Bertaux, 'L'Expositionespagnolea Londres,"GazettedesBcaux-Arts,VI, I 9 I4, p. 252.J. Moreno Villa, "Un pintor de la Reina Catolica,"Boletin e a Sociedad spanola cExcursioncs,XXV,9I 7,

p. 276.Max J. Friedlander,"Juan de Flandes,"Cicerone, XII,I 930, p. 2-ChandlerRathfon Post, Historyof SpanishPainting, V,Cambridge,I933, p. 4I. For an important appendixsee XII, Part2, Cambridge, 958, pp. 6I5-630.Maurice W. Brockwell, A Catalogac3f hc paintingsatDoughtyHousc, tc., III, London, I9I5.

F. J. Sanchez-Canton,"E1 Retablo de la Reina Cato-lica," ArchivoEspanolde Arte y Arqueologia,I, I930,p. I I3.

BIOGJRAPHICAL REFERENCESM. R. Zarco del Valle, "Documentos ineditos para lahistoria de las bellas artes en Espana," Coleccionedocumcntosne'ditosara a historia cEspana or os SenorcsMarqucs e MiraforesyDon MiguelSalva,LV, Madrid,I 870, pp. 332-334-Manuel Gomez-Moreno,"La Capilla de la Universidadde Salamanca,"Boletinde la Sociedad astcllana eEx-cursioncs, I, I9I3-I4, pp. 32I-329.F. J. Sanchez-Canton,"Un pintorde la Reina Catolica,"ArchivoEspanoldc Artey Arqucologia, I, I 930, pp.97 I 33-Ramon Revilla Vielva, "Retablo Mayor de la SantaIglesia Catedral de Palencia," "Publicacioncs"c laInstitucionTello Tellezdc Menescs," , Palencia, I 950,p. 9I -I 00.Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Juan de Flandes y losReyes Catolicos,"Archivospanol c Artc,XXV, I952,pp. 237-247-Jesus San Martin Payo, "E1Retablo Mayor de la Cate-dral de Palencia, nuevosdatos," "Publicacioncs"c laInstitucion Tello Te'llez cMcncscs," , Palencia, I 953,PP- 275-3I2.Jose Gudiol, 'iOeuvres inedites de Jean de Flandes,"Miscellancarof.D. Roggen, ntwerp, 957, pp. I I 3-I I9.

el san miguel y san francisco de juan de flandes

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