Hans Memling by Alfred Michiels

Author:Alfred Michiels [Michiels, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783107612
Publisher: Parkstone International

Hans Memling, The Seven Joys of the Virgin, 1480.

Oil on wood, 81.3 x 189.2 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Works kept outside of Belgium

Fate is more cruel to painters than to any other kind of artist: their works are separated from them, carried far away, subjected to all the dangers and uncertainties of transport, the whims of chance, and the caprices of bad taste, folly and ignorance. We have just studied the talent of Memling in the city where he lived, worked the most, and died; now we will move on to the left bank of the Seine, the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and the Louvre, then to Munich, Turin and Vienna, and who knows where else? We must take a tour of Europe if we want to analyse all of his paintings, for fate, the master of this world, has dispersed them like fallen leaves.

For a while the Louvre has possessed an admirable and perfectly preserved ex-voto (an offering given to fulfil a vow), which was brought back from Spain by Count d’Armagnac during the French invasion and donated to the museum by Countess Duchâtel, a former Interior Minister. It is entitled The Virgin and Child between Saint James and Saint Dominic presenting the Donors and their Family (or The Virgin of Jacques Floreins). In this painting, a father, a mother and their eighteen children, all reproduced with extreme care, are kneeling before the Virgin in a very simple Gothic church. Behind the Virgin we see the gallery above the west door, where in modern times the organ would be placed. The Virgin wears a blue dress adorned with diamonds and pearls, over which undulates a full red coat that spreads out onto the ground. Her somewhat pale copper-blonde hair is held tightly around her head by a cord embroidered with pearls and falls freely over her shoulders. She has the appearance of a beautiful Flemish woman, with white skin and thin eyebrows that fall short of the outside corners of her eyes. She holds an open book, whose pages the Infant Jesus inadvertently folds by pushing them with his hand. The Virgin holds her child by passing her right hand around in front of him. This open hand, pressed against the body of her child, is a marvel of form and delicate execution. Who would not share her solicitude for this charming child whose chubby feet rest on her knees? He is naked like innocence, genius and love. He wins our affection with the sparse blond hair that crowns his pretty face, and a smiling and lovable mouth.

Behind the donor stands Saint James of Compostela, and behind his wife is her patron saint Bernard. The former, who is taking off his hat out of respect for the Virgin, has an extraordinarily realistic and handsome face. Long hair, a bit disorderly, falls over his forehead and shoulders, and an elegant beard darkens his chin. Saint Bernard is portrayed with a similar mixture of elegance and realism, for the Flemish painters of the eleventh century did not confuse the observation and love of nature with the commonplace.

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