Circle of Conrat Meit

Description

This standing figure is carved in full-round out of walnut. It shows traces of the original polychrome. The Holy Virgin is depicted with long loose-hanging hair, wearing a wide and heavy robe. The robe, with traces of blue polychrome , is carved in high relief, especially in the lower-right side of the sculpture. The robe, adorned with a tasselled clasp, is opened on the Virgin’s chest, revealing her bear bosom and uncovering her long undergarment, which has traces of red polychrome. The inside of the robe shows a white lining featuring black stylized ermine-spots (1). In her arms, the Virgin holds the Holy Child, supporting his upper body with her left hand and his lower body with her right hand. She offers the child her left breast; the child has one of his hands placed on the other. The Christ Child – whose face is only half visible – is depicted as an unconscious infant, supporting the remarkable naturalism of this scene. Furthermore it allows most attention to be drawn to the Virgin’s serene face.

Date and localisation

Remarkable are the high quality and detail of the sculpture. Note, for instance, the natural elegance of the composition and the refined detail in the hair of the Child or the carefully carved nails on the fingers of the Virgin. Very notable too are the Virgin’s highly realistic facial characteristics. By depicting her with a broad nose and a double chin, the artist evidently allowed realism to prevail over the idealization of the figure. As such, the sculpture demonstrates clear influences of the realism introduced in Netherlandish art by the sculptor Conrat Meit (Worms, 1470/1485 - Antwerp, 1550/1551) (2). In 1512 he entered the service of Archduchess Margaret of Austria (Brussels, 1480 – Malines, 1530), Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, to become her court sculptor in Malines, which he remained until her death in 1530. Meit was a major proponent of the Renaissance in the Low Lands, noted for his fusion of German realism and Italian idealism. Since the body proportions, physiognomic traits and hairstyle (3) of the Virgin do not resemble Meit’s figurative inventions and the material is apparently foreign to his works, the present sculpture cannot be attributed to Meit or his workshop. However, Burk believes that this sculpture should be placed in the orbit of Renaissance sculpture executed in the Habsburg Netherlands around the time that Meit created his marble Madonna and Child, now in the Cathedral of Sts. Michel and Gudula in Brussels (4), thus placing the present sculpture in the 1530s. This makes it very plausible to locate this sculpture to the Southern Netherlands, possibly Malines of perhaps Antwerp (5).

Identification and iconography

Ichnographically, this sculpture belongs to the ‘Virgo Lactans’ or ‘Madonna Lactans’-type (translatable into English as ‘The Virgin of the Milk’, known in Italian as the ‘Madonna del Latte’), in which the Virgin is depicted breastfeeding the Holy Infant. The Virgo Lactans-type is one of the earliest depictions – if not the earliest depiction – of Mary, as it can be found adorning the walls of the Priscilla Catacombs in Rome (ca. 250). The Virgo Lactans was a highly popular depiction of the Tuscan school during the Medieval and Renaissance period. The Virgo Lactans style of depiction started disappearing in the later-Renaissance. Theologically, the Virgo Lactans emphasizes the Virgin’s role as the Holy Mother, not only of Christ, but of the whole of humanity.

As mentioned above, art historically the group clearly stands in the South Netherlandish tradition of the early sixteenth century. Influences of paintings form that period and region can clearly be traced in the present sculpture. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the theme of the Virgin with the reclining Child at her bare breast was popularised by Rogier van der Weyden (Doornik, 1399/1400 — Brussels, 1464). The prototype of this model is his Virgin and Child in Tournai (6). This composition was very influential. There exist at least 30 versions of this composition, of which the earliest known examples are assumed to date from around 1500. But especially the influence of the Virgo Lactans-type created by Bernard van Orley (Brussel, ca. 1487 to 1491 – 1541) can be traced in the present sculpture’s composition (7). It is interesting that Bernard van Orley was court painter to Margaret of Austria between 1518 and 1527 and thus became the head of an important and influential workshop in Malines. Later on, he was active in both Antwerp and Brussels. Though evidently aware of, if not directly influenced by Meit and Orley, the composition of the present group appears to be an autonomous invention by a very accomplished, yet anonymous South Netherlandish artist.

Notes

(1) Ermine is a stylized heraldic fur, representing the winter coat of the stoat (white with a black tail), referring to official royal garments. It traditionally follows a representation of three dots arranged in triangle, with a tail extending downward and flaring out.
(2) For further reading on Conrat Meit see: Eikelmann, R. (2006). Conrat Meit. Bildhauer der Renaissance. München: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum
(3) Meit´s typical late-Gothic ’Korkenzieher-Locken’ are notably different from the flat hair-layer of the Virgin in the present sculpture.
(4) Cathedral of Sts. Michel and Gudula, Brussels; inv. no. 75.103., Institut royal du patrimoine artistique, IRPA / KIK, Bruxelles. Meit’s marble Madonna and Child can be identified with the ‘Notre-Dame de Lorette’ made for the tomb of Prince Philibert de Chalon at Lons-le-Saunier between 1531 and 1534. See: Burk, J. (2009). Conrat Meit: Margaret of Austria´s court sculptor in Malines and Brou. In: Brou, un monument européen à l'aube de la Renaissance. Brou, a European Monument in the Early Renaissance. Centre des monuments nationaux
(5) After the death of Margaret of Austria, Meit was active in Antwerp, becoming a member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1534. See Burk, 2009
(6) Vos, D. de (1971). De Madonna-en-Kindtypologie bij Rogier van der Weyden en enkele minder gekende Flemalleske voorlopers. In: Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen: Jahrbuch der Preußischen Kunstsammlungen XIII, p. 126, pp. 129-30, p. 140
(7) Friedlander, M.J. (1972). Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. VIII. Leiden p. 107, no 125, plate 109