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A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius

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A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius

Petrus Christus  (Netherlandish, Baarle-Hertog (Baerle-Duc), active by 1444–died 1475/76 Bruges)

Date:
1449
Culture:
Netherlandish
Medium:
Oil on oak panel
Dimensions:
Overall 39 3/8 x 33 3/4 in. (100.1 x 85.8 cm); painted surface 38 5/8 x 33 1/2 in. (98 x 85.2 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number:
1975.1.110

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 953

  • Description

    Justly celebrated as one of the most famous masterpieces of Northern Renaissance art, this work shows a goldsmith in a tiny shop outfitted with the finely wrought civic, secular, and ecclesiastic wares of his trade, displayed on the shelves at the right. Commissioned by the goldsmith's guild of Bruges, the painting is a virtual advertisement of its services. The main figure may be Saint Eligius, patron saint of goldsmiths, as traditionally believed, or a realistic depiction—perhaps even a portrait—of an actual goldsmith in fifteenth-century Bruges.



    Standing in the goldsmith's shop is an aristocratic young couple in sumptuous garb buying a wedding ring that is being weighed on a small handheld scale. An elaborately displayed sash or girdle, a further reference to matrimony, extends over the open ledge of the shop into the space of the viewer. The convex mirror at the right, which reflects the market square beyond the counter, is an even bolder illusionistic device linking the pictorial space to that of the viewer. Seen in the mirror are two dandified male figures, one of whom holds a falcon.

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Inscription: Signed and dated in white paint (bottom): m petr[vs] xpi me· ·fecit·ao 1449· (Master Petrus Christus made me in the year 1449) [with the artist's emblem, which resembles a clock escapement combined with a heart]

  • Provenance

    A. Merli, Bremen, Germany; his sale, Frankfurt am Main, September 11, 1815, lot 144; [Silberberg]; Gerhard Seibel, Elberfeld (lent by him to the Central-Museum zu Düsseldorf); Salomon Oppenheim the younger (d. 1828), Cologne, by 1825; by descent to his grandson, Albert, Freiherr von Oppenheim (d. 1912), Cologne; his sale, Rudolf Lepke, Berlin, March 19, 1918, lot 6; Busch, Mainz; [Y. Perdoux, Paris]; acquired by Philip Lehman from Perdoux in 1920.

  • See also
    Who
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
    MetPublications
150000100

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