Hans Memling’s Triptych of Jan Crabbe is reunited in Landmark Exhibition at the Morgan this autumn
Portrait of a Man, ca. 1470, Oil on panel. © The Frick Collection.
Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece
Exhibition at the Morgan
02.09.2016 – 08.01.2017
New York, NY, July 18, 2016 — Completed around 1470 in Bruges, Hans Memling’s extraordinary Triptych of Jan Crabbe was dismantled centuries ago and the parts were scattered. The inner wings from the altarpiece are among the finest paintings owned by the Morgan Library & Museum, where they have long been on permanent view in museum founder Pierpont Morgan’s study. Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece, opening on September 2, reunites the Morgan panels with the other elements of the famous triptych: the central panel from the Musei Civici in Vicenza, Italy, and the outer wings from the Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Belgium.
Morgan acquired the triptych’s inner wings in 1907. They were part of an altarpiece commissioned by Jan Crabbe, Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Ten Duinen, near Bruges, Belgium. On the central panel, Memling depicted the crucifixion of Christ, with the Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Mary Magdalene to the left of the cross. Kneeling to the right of the cross is Jan Crabbe, accompanied by his name-saint St. John the Baptist and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian order. The two inner wings depict members of the patron’s family: his mother Anna Willemzoon with St. Anne on the left, and his much younger half-brother Willem de Winter with St. William on the right. The outer wings, originally visible only when the panels are closed, feature an Annunciation scene with the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. It is not known precisely when or why the work was dismantled, though it was not unusual for composite pieces such as triptychs to suffer this fate.
Human Faces
The Triptych of Jan Crabbeis a fine demonstration of Memling’s extraordinary ability to capture the essence of the human face. In particular, the left panel portrait of Anna Willemzoon is one of the most frank and extraordinary depictions of old age from the Renaissance. Indeed, in later years, Memling’s portraiture would come to revolutionize the genre across Europe. Similarly transformative, the Annunciation scene features Gabriel and the Virgin Mary clad in white drapery and set on pedestals in nicheslike sculptures, but with rosy flesh tones in their heads and hands, making them one of the earliest examples of the technique of demi-grisaille in Flemish painting.
This exhibition—on view through January 8, 2017—is the first to explore the reconstructed masterpiece in context. The altarpiece will be surrounded by other paintings by Memling and his contemporaries, by a choice selection of illuminated manuscripts from Bruges, and by a group of Early Netherlandish drawings. Aside from the triptych fragments from Italy and Belgium, loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and a private collection will complement a range of works from the Morgan’s own holdings.
“It is always meaningful—and moving—to see a great work of art made whole again,” says Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “The Crabbe triptych is a masterpiece of the first order and shows a relatively young Memling demonstrating many of the characteristic elements of his work—crystalline realism, spatial sophistication, and the ability to capture the humanity and individuality of his subjects. We are delighted to offer visitors the opportunity to see this work in its full glory for the first time in the U.S. and to explore the artistic milieu in which it was created.”
SOURCE:
Press Release: Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece
CATALOGUE:
Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece
Ed. by John Marciari, with essays by Maryan W. Ainsworth, Till-Holger Borchert, Noël Geirnaert, John Marciari, Gianluca Poldi and Giovanni C.F. Villa, and Ilona van Tuinen.
Published in collaboration by: Bruges: The Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands, Musea Brugge and New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, in Association with Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2016.
READ MORE:
Opening Doors: The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted
By Lynn F. Jacobs
Penn State University Press, 2012
ISBN-10: 0271048409
ISBN-13: 978-0271048406
FEATURED PHOTO:
Hans Memling (Flemish, ca. 1440–1494), The Triptych of Jan Crabbe, ca. 1467-70. Oil on panel. Cent
er panel: Image courtesy of Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza. Left and righ
t panels: © The Morgan Library & Museum, Photography by Graham S. Haber.
The Triptych of Jan Crabbe (closed), Annunciation Panels, ca. 1470. Oil on panel Musea Brugge © www.lukasweb.be – Art in Flanders vzw. Photography by Hugo Maertens.