and a third as wide. The bottom is a dusky gold: on the field, flowers, fruit, and every type of bird shine in whimsical designs. At the beginning of the chapters and prayers, one admires large historical scenes, whose subjects come from the Bible and the lives of saints. The richness of invention, grace, and the truth of the order, of the figures, outfits, and landscapes, give these miniatures, which bear the seal of Memling’s style, the utmost value. We do not know the name of the masters who helped him in this work, and we cannot say which paintings are exclusively from his hand. The most beautiful of all depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the painting, the mystical dove spills out of the divine light and perfection.[27]
Returning to Bruges, Memling worked for several years on a poem about Saint Ursula. He finished it in 1486. One must nonetheless state that this work did not absorb all of his time; in 1484 he bought and read, at the Saint Julien hospice, the admirable Saint Christopher, which the Bruges Museum now possesses.
Hans Memling, Saints John the Baptist and Lawrence (shutters of the Pagagnotti Triptych), c. 1480. Oil on oak panel, 57.5 × 17.1 cm. The National Gallery, London.
Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, Triptych of the Adoration of the Lamb known as the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432. Oil on wood panel, 350 × 461 cm. Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent.
Hans Memling, The Virgin and Child with Angels, after 1479. Oil on wood, 57.6 × 46.4 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
Hans Memling, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and a Donor, 1472. Oil on inlaid wood, 92.7 × 53.6 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Robert Campin, The Annunciation Triptych, c. 1425. Oil on wood, 64.5 × 117.8 cm (central panel: 64.1 × 63.2 cm; shutter: 64.5 × 27.3 cm). The Cloisters Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In 1487 Memling executed a work full of emotion, which bears the date of the year when it was painted. It is a simple portrait, but with an admirable expression of finesse and charm. We see, in the centre, a young beardless man with feminine features, in an architectural frame, in front of an open book. His hands are clasped as he prays to God in meditation. Beautiful wavy hair surrounds his calm and gentle figure. During this same year, Martin Van Newenhoven commissioned a diptych from Memling, now conserved at St John’s Hospital; on one of the shutters, the artist represents the Virgin seated, holding her Son: on the other, the donor. The image carries the following inscription: Hoc opus fieri fecit Martinus de Newenhoven anno Dni 1487, anno vero ætatis suæ XXIII. (Martin de Newenhoven had this work made in the year of the Lord 1487, he was twenty three years old). This diptych is an exceptional example of Memling’s talent, notably in his treatment of light. The light shadow and the particular clarity bring a true impression of space to the interior. The Virgin, with her clear and oval visage and wide forehead, is one of his happiest creations, while the donor is one of the most interesting portraits that he ever produced. The landscapes have an equally exquisite touch.
Martin, succeeding the Count of Croeser, was born on November 14, 1465; he was deputy mayor of the town of Bruges in 1492, superintendent in 1495, magistrate in 1497. He died, still young, on August 16, 1500. Memling was connected to his family for a long time. In 1479, he had already painted Anne de Nieuwenhove (the spelling of whose name varied greatly during the fifteenth century and during the Middle Ages). At the bottom of his portrait, one finds this inscription in incorrect Latin:
De Nieuvenhove, conjunx, domicella, Johannis et Michœlis, Obit, de Blasere nata Johanne, Anna, sub m. c. quater, Xocto, sed exipeiotam; octobris quinta. Pace quiescat. Âmen.
In order to construe these confused sentences, one must appeal to the learned paleographer, Vallet de Viriville, who translates them as below. They mean: Miss Anne, daughter of John Blasere, wife of John and Michael of Nieuvenhove, died October 5, 1479. Rest in peace. Amen.[28]
This woman, who married two men with the same family name, two parents without any doubt, probably gave birth to Martin de Nieuwenhove. She is depicted on the panel, kneeling, hands clasped, in front of Mary and her Son, to whom Saint Anne, her patron, who occupies the left portion of the painting, recommends her. A velvet robe, accented with fur, a green belt and black hat that surrounds a transparent veil, makes up her outfit. She resembles the Sambethe Sibyl, the oldest and weakest of Memling’s works owned by St John’s Hospital. Behind this pious woman, the city of Bruges is drawn in perspective: one can recognise the belfry, Notre Dame, and Saint Sauver’s church. Behind the Virgin and Saint Anne is a rich rug that often served as the background in paintings from the fourteenth century. The fabrics and tapestries are shining and treated with the greatest care: the faces were almost secondary to them.[29]
Robert Campin, The Annunciation (detail of the central panel of The Annunciation Triptych), c. 1425. Oil on wood panel, 64.1 × 63.2 cm. The Cloisters Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Melchior Broederlam, The Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple and the Flight into Egypt, 1394–1399. Tempera on wood panel, 167 × 125 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon.
III. Memling’s Old Age and Genius
Hans Memling, Portrait of an Old Man, c. 1475. Oil on wood, 26.4 × 19.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Memling had three children with his wife, first a boy, whom he called Hans, then a girl named Pétronille or Cornélie (because the diminutive Nielkin, which served to designate her on official documents, can signify one or the other), and a second son, baptised Nicholas. His first son was born in 1478, but we do not know when the other two children entered the world. And, what is worse, there is no information on the good or bad fortune of this small family, or which professions the two sons chose, or whom the three children could have married. Did Hans and Nicholas follow in their father’s footsteps, guided by that genius of Flanders and Germany? No text clarifies these questions, but what is certain, unfortunately, is that they lost their mother when they were still very young. The charming, gracious and modest woman, for whom Memling seemed to have an ardent love, whom he depicted constantly with a sort of naive idolatry, this young companion in his old age, died in September 1487. On the tenth of this month, Louis de Valkenaere and goldsmith Thierry Van den Gheere, chosen as the children’s tutors, brought to their classroom the account of goods left by their mother. It was half of each of the two houses on Pont-Flamand Street, more than half of another parcel of land on which there was a small house, and half of a small passage close by; finally, a sum of twelve livres, produced from the sale of furniture and given to the tutors from their father, with loans on the mortgages for half of the houses and lands.
And the master of the paintbrush, then sixty years old, continued alone in life. He painted himself with his wife on the same panel; around 1492 he traced his own image again, but this time without the amiable woman who had charmed ten years of his life. This portrait, as we have had the opportunity to say, was found in Venice in 1521, at the residence of Cardinal Grimani. Memling, however, was taking his last steps: several years later and the ground would collapse under his feet. In 1494 the noble and charming artist with such poetic vision, enveloping himself in nuances, bringing
“Le peintre de sainte Ursule, dit Nagler, aimait les bords du Rhin, et ses paysages en rappellent les sites. Ce fut dans ces régions qu’il trouva les types des personnages figurés sur la châsse. La ville de Cologne ellemême y est représentée deux fois d’une manière exacte avec quelques-uns de ses principaux monuments. Rien, au contraire, n’atteste la connaissance des anciens édifices de Rome.” (“The painter of Saint Ursula, says Nagler, loved the banks of the Rhine, and these landscapes evoke these places. It was in these regions that he found the types of people featured on the shrine. The city of Cologne itself is represented twice in a precise way with some of its principal monuments. Nothing, in fact, demonstrates knowledge of the ancient edifices of Rome.”)
Litterally: “L’année mil quatre fois cent, huit fois-dix, moins un iota” (“The year one thousand, four hundred and eighty, less an iota”) that is, less one unit.
This painting, which was owned by
