Madonna mit Stifter (sog. Maelbeke-Madonna)

Die sogenannte Maelbeke-Madonna war ein berühmtes Gemälde Jan van Eycks (um 1390–1441), das sich einst in der Sint-Maartens-Kathedrale in Ypern befand. Das Original gilt seit dem 18. Jahrhundert als verschollen, ist jedoch durch zahlreiche Kopien sowie einen um oder kurz vor 1600 entstandenen Stich aus dem Umkreis der Gebrüder Wierix überliefert, welcher die Komposition seitenverkehrt und ohne die Stifterfigur zeigt.

Otto Benesch (1928) nahm noch an, dass diese vielfach Petrus Christus zugeschriebene Zeichnung den Zustand des bei Van Eycks Tod 1441 unfertigen Gemäldes dokumentiert, da der Stifter Nicolaes Maelbeke (gestorben 1445) ebenso wie in einer zweiten gezeichneten Kopie im Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (um 1450; Inv. Hz. 279) nur in seinen Konturlinien skizziert ist. Koreny/Zeman (2002) und Jones (2006) erklärten die unvollendeten Partien hingegen überzeugend mit dem spätmittelalterlichen Brauch des Kopierens vorbildhafter Bildlösungen, wonach sich der Zeichner bewusst auf die für ihn wichtigen Teile der Komposition, die Madonna mit Kind und die im Bildrahmen illusionistisch fortgesetzte Kirchenarchitektur, konzentrierte. Die Figur des Stifters war gleichsam flexibel adaptierbar und wurde etwa in einer späteren Gemäldekopie (um 1600 – 1625; Brügge, Groeningemuseum) durch deren damaligen Auftraggeber Pieter Wyts (gestorben 1629) ersetzt.

Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt. Meisterwerke der Albertina, hg. von K. A. Schröder und C. Metzger, Albertina, Wien, Ostfildern 2013, Abb. 2, S. 24.

The Burgundian Netherlands experienced a marked

cultural efflorescence during the reign of the art

enthusiast Duke Philip the Good (1396–1467) and

coinciding with the life of the Bruges painter Jan

van Eyck (1390/99–1441). Although the International

Style still predominated in European art in

1400, a new type of art, ars nova, emerged in the

Netherlands. In place of beautiful elegance and

stylization, a new realism appeared, featuring an

unprecedented fidelity to nature and a sensitive

observation of reality, down to its smallest details.

This period witnessed not only a milestone in

the historical development of panel painting (the

Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari [1511–1574] even

ascribed the invention of oil painting to Van Eyck),

but also an upsurge in the art of drawing. The latter

stemmed in part from the fact that paper began

to be produced in Europe around 1400, replacing

parchment, which was far more expensive. In the

fifteenth-century Netherlands, drawing still served

in the workshops primarily as preparatory material

for the production of painted panels, which were

largely religious in content. The majority of such

drawings were damaged during the production

process and thus not retained. Most of the sheets

that were conserved were works created for training

purposes, such as those serving the workshop as

ricordi: recollections of paintings that had been sold,

or replicas of celebrated compositions.

The so-called Maelbeke Madonna is one such copy.

The original work was a greatly admired painting

by Jan van Eyck that was once located in the choir

of the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Ypres. It depicts

the Madonna standing with the Christ Child

in her arms in a choir apse with a ribbed vault.

Nicolaes Maelbeke, the patron, kneels before her in

adoration. He became a canon of the cathedral in

1425 and was later provost of the chapter of Saint

Martin’s. Maelbeke most likely commissioned the

work from Van Eyck shortly before the artist’s death

in 1441. The painting was already regarded as lost

during the eighteenth century but has been handed

down in the form of several copies and variants.

Along with the drawing in the Albertina, an

additional drawing in Nuremberg,¹ an engraving,²

and a painting³ inspired by Van Eyck’s composition

have been preserved.⁴ The Van Eyck painting had

fascinated contemporaries, above all due to the rendering

of the church architecture, which continued

in a trompe l’oeil manner beyond the picture plane.

This drawing was produced using silverpoint,

a technique requiring considerable ability and

discipline. The paper must first be prepared so it

has a coarse, less slippery surface. Since the metal

oxidizes in the air, the lines initially are barely

visible, and since the instrument digs into the

prepared ground, erasure is not possible. Here,

the Madonna and Child as well as the surrounding

architecture are reproduced in extreme detail;

areas of light and shadow are carefully modeled

with fine, dense crosshatching. The kneeling donor

and the banderole in the hand of the Christ Child,

however, are schematically sketched in outline. The

artist also chose not to delineate the tile floor or the

landscape background. Although notably smaller

in format, the Nuremberg drawing is incomplete

in the same areas. As such, many scholars have

assumed that both drawings document the state of

the Van Eyck painting, which was left unfinished

at his death. However, at the time of the death and

burial of the patron, Maelbeke, by 1445 at the latest,

the painting had been completed by a member of

Van Eyck’s workshop. The areas of the two drawings

that remained equally unfinished could thus have

resulted from medieval workshop practice whereby

the draftsmen concentrated only on the aspects of

the composition that interested them.⁵ The figure

of the patron was adaptable and could be replaced

by a different individual where appropriate (as in

Triptych of Peter Wyts). Several of Van Eyck’s fellow

artists continued his workshop after his death,

finished his paintings, and created further works

based on such drawings. Among them was Petrus

Christus (1415/35–1475/76), to whom the sheet in

the Albertina has frequently been ascribed, since

motifs from Maelbeke Madonna appear in his Exeter

Madonna.⁶ Thus, such sheets provide not only

valuable documentation of originals that are lost

today, but also attest to the important role of drawings

in the transfer of themes and motifs among

Bruges artists’ workshops.

 

1. Unknown Netherlandish artist, after Jan van Eyck, Madonna

of Nicolaes van Maelbeke, c. 1445/50, silverpoint, traces of pen

and black ink, traces of stylus, on white prepared paper, 13.4 x

10.2 cm, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Hz. 279,

case 646; Valter 2016, 148–50, no. 62.

2. Circle of the Wierix brothers, Madonna with Child in a Church,

1575–85. The engraving depicts the Madonna laterally inverted

and frontal, while the position of the Christ Child is altered;

the space within the church has been expanded into a nave,

and there is no patron figure. A copy of this rare engraving is

in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

16.7 x 11.3 cm (sheet, trimmed), 53.601.18 (192). The Madonna of

Canon Franciscus de Mamez (1645), whereabouts unknown, was

probably based on this engraving; Jones 2006, 75, fig. 4.

3. Anonymous Netherlandish artist, Triptych of Peter Wyts,

c. 1600–1625 (middle section), first half of the 16th century

(wings), oil on panel, 172 x 99 cm (middle section), 172 x 41 cm

(wings), Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2007.GRO0001.I–0003.I.

4. Benesch O. 1928, 3, in no. 13, also refers to an anonymous

engraved reproduction of the Viennese drawing (“from the

early nineteenth century”); The Albertina Museum, Vienna,

DG85038, H/II/1/6.

5. Koreny 2002b, 61–62, no. 11; Jones 2006, 73, 76; Valter 2016,

148–50, no. 62.

6. Petrus Christus, Exeter Madonna, c. 1450, oil on panel,

19.5 x 14 cm, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 523b.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 1