Provenance:
• Christie’s Londres, Old Master Paintings, 5 décembre 1969, lot n°144;
• Private collection
Sold to the Budapest Museum
This landscape with Saint Christopher forms part of a...
read moreProvenance:
• Christie’s Londres, Old Master Paintings, 5 décembre 1969, lot n°144;
• Private collection
Sold to the Budapest Museum
This landscape with Saint Christopher forms part of a composition with two distinct sections that Joachim Patinir applies with outstanding skill. The more shaded area is a leafy embankment while the other zone offers a depiction of Saint Christopher in accordance with the legend.
The popular version of the story of Christopher found in the Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints describes him as a Cananite of enormous stature who refused to work in the service of the most powerful figure in the land. Devoting himself instead to serving Jesus, and guided by a hermit, he took it upon himself to help the weak and the needy across a river. One night, he carried a little child who grew heavier with each step the giant took. The child revealed that he was in fact Christ and told the Saint that he had carried the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. As a sign, Christ had Christopher plant his staff in the ground and the next day it had grown into a palm-tree bearing fruit. In Greek, the name Christopher means “bearer of Christ”. The inscription that corresponds to him is as follows: “Chrisofori sancti speciem quicumque tuetur illo namque die nullo langore tenetur”- “He who thinks of the figure of Saint Christopher shall come to no harm”.
In this painting, Saint Christopher is shown entering the water, and on the opposite bank, the hermit stands near a chapel holding a lantern.
The art of Joachim Patinir shows great refinement in its chromatic range. In the foreground, the landscape remains dominated by earth tones. The greens of the middle ground leads the eye into the luminous blue distance with its golden and rosy reflections. Patinir creates an illusion of depth through multiple techniques.
This painting depicts only a small slice of the world yet it encompasses in a single vision the mountains, seas forests and plains.
The ever realistic detail blends into an imaginary vision that still belongs to the tradition of cosmic landscapes.
This work can be compared to the painting exhibited at the Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, showing a landscape with Saint Christopher.
This composition is a perfect example of the exquisite handiwork of Joachim Patinir, who was one of the most remarkable landscape painters of the sixteenth century.
Circa 1480 Bouvignes - Antwerp 1524
Joachim Patiniir, who may be considered as the very first Flemisch landscape painter was accepted as a Master of the Antwerp Guild in 1515. Although it has...
read moreCirca 1480 Bouvignes - Antwerp 1524
Joachim Patiniir, who may be considered as the very first Flemisch landscape painter was accepted as a Master of the Antwerp Guild in 1515. Although it has not been clearly established that Patinir was the pupil of Gerard David in Bruges, it is however certain that the Masters worked together, in particular on the decoration on the entry into Antwerp of Archduke Charles. Albrecht Dürer, who stayed in Antwerp from 1530, and Quentin Metsys became close friends with Patenier whose work they admired.
Patinir would borrow certain iconographical formulas from Bosch and certain artistic features, such as that highly charateristic way of his of placing the horizon very high in a landscape seen in a plunging perspective. However, this upturning of value which Bosch performed “by accident”, Patenier wished to do so on purpose. Owing to this, he is the genuine initator of the genre of the autonomous landscape in wich the religious scenes depicted are mere pretexts.
While ignoring the Italian lesson, he imposed his methods, pure colors and new vision to a whole generation of painters such as J. van Cleve, C. Massys, H. Met de Bles, J.W. de Cock, M. Cock, L. Gassel and L. van Valckenborch. Even after the XVI century, all the great landscape painters, wheter they be Flemish, Italian or French were directly inspired by his work, right up to Poussin and Le Lorrain.
