Saint Luke painting the Virgin
Saint Luke painting the Virgin (German and Dutch: Lukas-Madonna) is a devotional subject in art showing
History
Though not included in the canonic pictorial of
Early versions
The earliest known version of this theme in Byzantine art is a 13th-century miniature in a Greek psalter preserved in the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. The theme appears in Western art in the second half of the 14th century (miniature in the Evangeliary of Johannes von Troppau, now in Vienna) and will be frequently represented in Italian and Early Netherlandish art of the 15th century. Rogier van der Weyden's version is the earliest known in Early Netherlandish painting. It is in Boston and copies of which are in Bruges, where it was originally painted, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and the Hermitage.[2]
-
Derick Baegert, circa 1470
-
Hugo van der Goes, 1490s
-
Master of the Holy Blood, 1510s
Self-portrait
Traditionally, the donor of the painting to the chapel is the Guild of Saint Luke, which often appointed its best painter for the job. If the painting never found its way into a church, it was hung in the Guildhall.[3] This painter then painted a self-portrait, although in some cases St. Luke is accompanied by a helper or admirer, and sometimes this is the self-portrait.
Iconography
The attributes in such paintings tell a story about the art of painting through the centuries. In the Rogier van der Weyden and El Greco versions, the painter seems to be making a miniature on his own, while in other versions the painter is shown at his easel, using a maulstick, with the flesh tones present on a palette for the incarnation of the scene. Often a worker is seen mixing paint in the background. Though typically the subject of the painting is shown twice, once in the flesh and once on the easel, sometimes it seems as though Maria and Jesus are too holy to be shown incarnate, which is possibly the case with the painting by El Greco, since the painter's face seems paler than the subject.
See also
References
- ^ See Michele Bacci, Il pennello dell'Evangelista. Storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san Luca, Pisa: Gisem-Ets, 1998.
- ISBN 90-5629-417-2
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Further reading
- C. Henze, Lukas der Muttergottesmaler, Louvain, 1948.
- G. Kraut,Lukas malt die Madonna, Worms: Werner, 1986.
- J.O. Schaefer, Saint Luke as Painter: From Saint to Artisan to Artist, in X. Barral i Altet (ed.), Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen Âge, Paris: Flammarion, 1986, vol. I, 413-427.
- Michele Bacci, Il pennello dell'Evangelista. Storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san Luca, Pisa: Gisem-Ets, 1998.
- Michele Bacci, 'With the Paintbrush of the Evangelist Luke’, in M. Vassilaki (ed.), Mother of God. Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art, exhibition catalogue (Athens, Benaki Museum, 20 October 2000 - 20 January 2001), Athens-Milan: Skira, 2000, pp. 79–89.
- Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art (University of Chicago Press, 1997), ch. 4.