Master of Frankfurt

(Antwerp circa 1460–1515/25)
The Holy Family attended by Saints and Angels,
oil on panel, 56 x 44.5 cm, framed
We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for confirming the authorship on the basis of photographs.

This Netherlandish painter was active in Antwerp between 1490 and 1520. The date of his birth in 1460 has been established on the basis of an inscription on the frame of the Self-Portrait with the Artist’s Wife (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, inv. no. 5096), in which the artist recorded the date of execution and his age at that date. The Master of Frankfurt received two commissions from the city of Frankfurt am Main, The Holy Kinship (Historisches Museum, Frankfurt, inv. nos. B259-264, B2011.4) of 1505, painted for the Dominican church, and The Crucifixion (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt/Main, inv. no. 715) of circa 1506, commissioned by the Humbracht family, one of the leading patrician families in the city. The Master of Frankfurt was previously considered to be a German painter until Friedländer defined his style as falling within the Flemish tradition. The latest studies on the artist have attempted to identify him as Hendrik van Wueluwe, a master active in Antwerp between 1483 and 1533, the year of his death. According to surviving documents Van Wueluwe was a prestigious artist who was dean of the painters’ guild on six occasions and had a workshop with various apprentices. He may have been born in Woluwe, the city where Hugo van der Goes spent the last years of his life.

Around fifty works have been given to the Master of Frankfurt. His traditional, conservative style reveals the marked influence of fifteenth century Netherlandish painting, in particular that of Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin and Hugo van der Goes, whose compositions and figures he borrowed from time to time for the open market and for developing, around 1500 in Antwerp, a new artistic style alongside his contemporary Quentin Massys. The Master was particularly prolific and the nature of his output is in keeping with what we know of the art market in early sixteenth-century Antwerp. Some of the Master’s works like the Passion Triptych in Zarogoza (Alma Mater Museum) and the present painting are inspired by Dürer’s woodcuts showing the direct impact and high esteem of that artist’s inventions throughout Europe. His finest works are a group of small panels executed between 1510 and 1520, most of them portraits or depictions of the Virgin and Child. No work by the artist or document relating to him is known after 1525.

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

The painting is carried out on two oak wood boards placed vertically, their junction runs along the central axis of the work. The back is now cradled.

IR reflectography shows an interesting underdrawing and some small changes. The corrections are both of a pictorial nature, to modify the painting already made; and of a graphic nature, to change the execution of the painting with respect to the underdrawing. Evidence in the case of the latter is discernible in the heads of the figures, that have been slightly altered, indicating that the drawing, though quite carefully done, was not the fixed final choice for the painter. Indeed, several alterations can be seen including: in the head of the first angel on the right, who was originally more vertical; the face of the angel with the book, which was originally drawn slightly larger; the nose of the Madonna was considered too short; Her open eyes were originally looking out towards the harp-playing angel, rather than focusing on the book; the eyes of the man, perhaps St. Joseph, standing in the background behind the Christ Child were originally spaced further apart, before being corrected to coincide more or less with those of John the Baptist; and elsewhere.

The underdrawing, rendered in black ink with a quite thin brush, was initially done without any preparatory graphic traces, which later needed to be corrected, particularly in the eyes positions and in the symmetry and proportions of the heads.

The Master of Frankfurt usually employed a brush, rather than a dry medium like charcoal or black chalk, which he used to draw the folds in the drapery with straight lines, and spaced parallel marks for some areas of shadow. Regarding the small pictorial corrections, one can see that: the tree on the right was originally painted with a more dense canopy, then reduced to diminish its impact against the sky; the left mountain profile was positioned lowered; the unfolded wing on the right of the central background angel was painted a little longer and the feathers, or alulae, were open. Also of note is the rich outline and the relatively segmented drawing of the cherubs holding the coats-of-arms along the bottom of the picture. The putto on the right had a band of fabric that covered his hips and chest.

The palette used, examined by means of non-invasive spectroscopies, include azurite in all the blue areas, more or less mixed with lead white; in the greens verdigris – mixed in the lights with lead-based yellow – is used; vermillion in the brighter reds, glazed with a red lake; a coccid-derived red lake like in the Virgin’s cloak. The flesh tones are generally obtained mixing lead white with particles of vermillion.
Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo