The Artist: For a biography of Joos van Cleve, see
32.100.57.
The Painting: The Christ Child, barely supported by Mary’s long fingers, leans against her proffered breast and gazes directly at the viewer. The Virgin holds a carnation in her left hand. A heavy white cloth, falling in elaborate folds frames her head while underneath, a sheer veil frames her delicate features. Joseph, somewhat removed from mother and son, glances up from his book. Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, he stands before a pastoral landscape. Directly in front of the viewer, to either side of Jesus’s feet, several objects rest on the stone ledge. At the left, an almost-empty glass vessel holds wine. Teetering on the edge of the parapet, a peeled slice of fruit rind threatens to fall forward, a device connecting the painting’s space to that of its audience. Just to the left of the rind a knife balances against the opened top of a sliced citrus fruit, the cut section of which sits adjacent.
Sixteenth-century painters such as Joos van Cleve often downplayed overt references to the divinity of the subjects, focusing instead on the human connections between mother, father and child. Nonetheless, certain elements within the picture present Christological symbolic meaning. For instance, the wine in the glass reminded viewers of Christ’s sacrifice and its use in the ceremony of the Eucharist, while carnations suggested the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary’s exposed breast can be interpreted as referring to her role as mediator for humankind as well as underscoring the human nature of her son. Furthermore, the citrus fruit, variously identified as a citron or lemon, has been thought to recall the weaning of the Christ Child, or, perhaps, a portent of the sting of Christ’s Passion.[1]
Attribution and Date: Painters of the early sixteenth century created devotional scenes like the Lehman picture on speculation with the confidence that they would sell on the open market. The Holy Family was a popular subject for the workshop of Joos van Cleve, as were paintings of
Saint Jerome and
The Infants John the Baptist and Christ Embracing. These compositions, based on a combination of workshop models, were altered to different degrees, creating pleasing variations on a theme. The participation of the master varied with the many versions of
The Holy Family, including the Lehman picture, where little evidence of his direct involvement is evident at all. The presence of journeymen and assistants in Joos’s workshop allowed for the production of serial images, some of high quality, which matched the master’s ‘brand’.[2] The Lehman example relates closely to several other works of the same subject produced by Joos’s workshop in the 1520s and 1530s. Most recently, Leeflang grouped the painting with nine others that show the Christ Child in a standing position.[3] Campbell groups the Lehman painting with other workshop versions influenced by the
Holy Family now in the Akademie, Vienna.[4] The slight discrepancies between pictures suggest not only the presence of multiple model drawings in the workshop, but also the availability of painted versions for inspiration, creating a prototype saturation, so to speak.
While the underdrawing of
The Holy Family does not reveal traces of mechanical transfer that would have indicated the direct use of a workshop model, the involvement of Joos van Cleve is unlikely at both the preparatory and paint stages. An assessment of not only the underdrawing style, which, uncharacteristically of Joos is rather precise in drawn contours, but also of the paint application, confirms this attribution.[5] A comparison with figures painted by Joos, such as his
Virgin and Child (Linsky collection,
1982.60.47), further illustrates this point. Whereas the Linsky Virgin and Child display translucent, subtly modeled flesh tones that of the Lehman figures is opaque, and relatively flatly described. The skin of mother and son appears similarly soft and luminous in another
Holy Family by Joos van Cleve (Friedsam collection,
32.100.57), again unlike the somewhat pasty effect observed in the Lehman painting.[6] However, despite the lack of personal involvement in the creation of the Lehman painting, Joos may nevertheless have signed off, as it were, on its final appearance, approving it as a picture that adequately reflected his workshop standards. Contemporary viewers would have understood
The Holy Family to be by Joos, if not in a physical/technical sense, certainly in spirit.
Nenagh Hathaway, 2019
[1] See Refs., Wolff, 1998, p. 102.
[2] Antwerp guild regulations stipulated that painters record pupils in their guild ledgers. However, journeymen (fully trained itinerant painters), could be taken on by masters without being recorded in guild documents. Although we know how many students Joos van Cleve had in his workshop over the course of his activity, we cannot fully ascertain the presence – or number – of journeymen. Leeflang notes the presence of three new pupils in Joos’s workshop in 1535 and 1536, and highlights the involvement of Joos’s son Cornelis, who trained with his father, in studio production. Joos had only one documented pupil between 1523 and 1535. See Refs., Leeflang, 2015, pp. 195-197.
[3] The Lehman picture falls under Type C. See Refs., Leeflang, 2015, pp. 72-75. Scholarly consensus identifies the standing Christ Child as part of a later development of the
Holy Family theme, as envisaged by Joos’s studio. The presence of a drawn model, used to replicate the upright figure of Christ, was noted by Wolff, see Refs., Wolff, 1998, pp. 102-103.
[4] See Refs., Campbell, 2014, p. 229-230.
[5] Wolff describes the underdrawing in her entry of 1998. See Refs., Wolff, 1998, p. 100.
[6] Although the Lehman picture is in a rather poor state of preservation (see Wolff’s technical notes, Refs., Wolff, 1998, p. 100) compared to the Linsky and Friedsam paintings, its stylistic and technical qualities can still be compared to good effect.
References:Henri Kervyn de Lettenove et al.
Les chefs-d’oeuvre d’art ancient à l’exposition de la Toison d’Or à Bruges en 1907. Brussels, 1908, p. 118, no. 21, pl. 59
Ludwig von Baldass.
Joos van Cleve, Der Meister des Todes Mariä. Vienna, 1925, p. 21, under no. 32.
August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Philip Lehman."
Pantheon 5 (1930): p. 111.
Max J. Friedländer.
Die altniederländische Malerei. 14 vols. Berlin and Leiden, 1924-1937, vol. 9 (1931), p. 138, no. 66g.
Bob Jones University
The Bob Jones University Collection of Religious Pictures. Introduction by Alfred Scharf and Georges Marlier. 2 vols. Greenville, South Carolina, 1962, p. 250, under no. 138.
Max J. Friedländer et al.
Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 9, part 1, Joos van Cleve, Jan Provost, Joachim Patenier. New York, 1972, pp. 64-65, no. 66g, pl. 85.
Louis Dunand and Philippe Lemarchand.
Les compositions de Jules Romain intitulées les amours des dieux, gravées par Marc-Antoine Raimondi: Suite d’estampes présentée dans un ensemble d’oeuvres d’art restituant le climat d’humanisme de la Renaissance. Lausanne, 1977, p. 88, fig. 189.
Katharine Baetjer.
European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born in or before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1980, p. 99, ill. p. 356.
Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Underdrawings in the Paintings by Joos van Cleve at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." in
Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture: Colloque IV, 1981, edited by Roger van Schoute and D. Hollanders-Favart, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982, p. 165.
Lorne Campbell.
The Early Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen. Cambridge, 1985, p. 28, under no. 17.
John Oliver Hand. "Joos van Cleve’s
Holy Family."
Currier Museum of Art Bulletin, 1989, p. 24.
Katharine Baetjer.
European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, pp. 268, 269, ill.
From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, p. 407, ill.
Martha Wolff in
The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998, pp. 100-103, ill. p. 101.
Old Master Paintings. Sotheby's, New York. November 2, 2000, p. 16, (lot no. 11).
John Oliver Hand.
Joos van Cleve: The Complete Paintings. New Haven, 2004, p. 133 no. 33.7.
Martha Wolff in
Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Martha Wolff. New Haven, 2008, pp. 169–70 nn. 7–8, fig. 1.
Micha Leeflang in
Joos van Cleve, Leonardo des Nordens. Ed. Peter van den Brink et al. Exh. cat., Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen. Stuttgart, 2011, pp. 148, 153, fig. 127 (color).
Norbert Schneider.
Von Bosch zu Bruegel: Niederländische Malerei im Zeitalter von Humanismus und Reformation. Berlin, 2015, p. 251.
Lorne Campbell.
The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings with French Paintings before 1600. Vol. 2. London, 2014, p. 230, 233 note 31.
Micha Leeflang.
Joos van Cleve: A Sixteenth-Century Antwerp Artist and His Workshop. Turnhout, 2015, pp. 72–73, 167, 169, 184–85, fig. 4.2 (color).
