MASSYS, Quentin
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1465-1530
Quentin Massys, also spelled Matsys or Metsys, was born in Louvain, the son of a blacksmith. He is traditionally thought to have been trained in that craft by his father. Art in Louvain while Massys was growing up was dominated by Dirk Bouts. Massys became a member of the painters' guild in Antwerp in 1491 and died there in 1530. He represented a current of painting that flourished in Antwerp at this time of its sudden new prosperity. Erwin Panofsky (1953) described this trend, "archaism of around 1500," as "a prelude to, in fact a fact of, the Renaissance in Netherlandish painting," which prevailed in the southern Netherlands. The monumental Enthroned Madonna (Brussels), an early work by Massys, has features recalling both Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck. The central panel of Massys' imposing St. Anne Altarpiece, or the Holy Kinship (Brussels), which was commissioned for the church of St-Pierre in Louvain in 1507 and signed and dated 1509, has a prototype in the Holy Kinship of Geertgen tot Sint Jans. Even the physical types and costumes in Massys' version refer to Geertgen's. But Massys placed his rhythmically balanced figure groups in a domed, arcaded loggia that in architectural style appears to be reaching for a Renaissance vocabulary it cannot quite attain; certainly the architecture evokes a later period than that represented by the Gothic throne of the Enthroned Madonna. The calm and restraint of the St. Anne Altarpiece are replaced by heightened emotional expression in the next important painting by Massys that can be firmly dated, the Deposition triptych (Antwerp). This was commissioned in 1508 by the guild of joiners in Antwerp for their chapel in the Cathedral; Massys completed the composition in 1511. It was inspired by Rogier van der Weyden's great Deposition, which was in the church of St-Pierre in Louvain in Massys' time, and also quotes from Rogier's Entombment. Massys painted genre subjects, possibly with emblematic meaning, such as A Money Changer and His Wife, which belonged to a Netherlandish tradition that maintained its popularity right through the 17th century. In portraiture he made significant contributions. His pair of portraits of Erasmus and Petrus Aegidius, painted in 1517 for Sir Thomas More, set the pattern for representations of the scholar in his study.
ID: 63980 Virgin and Child 130 x 86 cm Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels The Virgin is seated in three-quarter profile on an imposing stone throne with Gothic ornamentation. Richly dressed in a dark red, fur-lined gown and a mantle bordered with pearl braiding, her head inclined in recollection, she holds the infant Jesus on her right arm. She appears to be meditating a passage in the book that Christ is thumbing. Their faces are surrounded by halos of golden rays. The Child, in a long white shirt, has seized the bookmark. Through an open window to the right of the throne we glimpse a building on the other side of a courtyard. The upper part of the window is decorated with a stained glass panel depicting St Catherine flanked by two escutcheons. A similar stained glass window to the left carries the figure of St Barbara. This painting, attributed to Quentin Massys, is part of the Madonna with Child group that the artist painted during his youth. The symmetrical composition, the hieratic presentation of the figures, the style of the Virgin's garments and the vigorous modelling of the draperies as well as the Gothic ornamentations all recall the tradition of the Flemish Primitives. The iconographic theme picks up the traditional image of Christ's incarnation. The Virgin in majesty is directly associated with the divine nature of her Son, the Word incarnate. Her meditative attitude and the red of her garments evoke the presentiment she had of her Child's destiny right from his birth. Massys' work refers back to earlier compositions that present Christ reading in the Virgin's arms. Two famous examples are Rogier van der Weyden's Madonna Duren (Madrid, Prado) and the Ince Hall Virgin attributed to a follower of Jan van Eyck (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria). With Massys we have the same monumental pose of the Virgin, with the niche-shaped throne similar to the one in Van der Weyden's painting. Even if the Brussels Madonna with Child shows how much the painter was part of the Flemish tradition, before coming under the influence of the Renaissance, it already contains the novel elements that were to make Massys the captivating and highly innovative artist whose talent would be fully revealed in his later works. With his exceptionally ample volumes, his supple shapes caressed by a strong, yet soft light, and the virtuoso translucency of his colouring technique, he carries the art of modelling forward to new heights. , Artist: MASSYS, Quentin , Virgin and Child , 1451-1500 , Flemish , painting , religious
