The Art Newspaper
National Gallery curator Emma Capron, along with “The Virgin and the Boy with the saints Luís and Margarida” (unknown author, c. 1500)
Who created this peculiar painting of a dragon to drool? No one knows-but a museum has just bought it for $ 20 million.
The National Gallery of London recently acquired an enigmatic work of art called “The virgin and the boy with São Luís and Santa MargaridaFor $ 20 million – about 17.6 million euros.
Painted about 1510 by an unknown artist, the mysterious altarpiece unusual detailsincluding a dragon to drool (which could be Satan) and an angel playing a hairstyle.
Despite the high price of painting, there is no consensus among experts on Who painted the altarpiecewhere it was ordered, or even which country was the artist. May be Dutch or French, read on the page dedicated to the work on the website of.
Last displayed in 1960, it is A mysterious paintingthat the National Gallery has been under the eye “for decades”, says Gabriele was finaldirector of the museum, to. The gallery acquired the painting earlier this year as part of the celebration of its bicentennial.
As First tracks on the origins of the altarpiece They come from the wooden panel in which it is painted. The gallery used derocronology to date the wood around 1483.
The wood is Baltic Oak, often used in the Netherlands – While the French artists of the time used wood of local origin, note a.
According to one from the National Gallery, the altarpiece was first documented in 1602, in the premonstratense abongy of Drongen, in Gante, Belgium,. The experts don’t know if this was the original place of the paintingbut part of your theme suggests that It could have been.
Consider THE PAINTING CHARACTERS: The Virgin, The Baby Jesus, Saint Daive, St. Louis, two Angels and a dragon. Although St. Louis is the French king Louis IX, he was venerated among the premonstrates for allowing the Catholic order to useLor-de-Lis-A symbol of French royalty“In your arms coat of arms.”
Another detail related to São Luís It helped art historians to further strengthen the date. While Dendrocronology sets an initial limit in 1483, the current design used by São Luís was modified in 1516, which means that the altarpiece was Probably painted before this date.
“A dating of about 1510 seems appropriate for stylistic reasons, ”says National Gallery in the statement. suggests that“ plasticity, monumentality ”and painting lighting are reminiscent of French painter Jean Heywhile their “versatile composition and execution” reveal artistic debts to two painters of the High Tradition: Jan van Eyck E Hugo van der Goes.
But beyond these stylistic similarities, “the virgin and the boy with São Luís and Santa Margarida” is a truly unique work. Emma Caproncurator of the museum responsible for the acquisition, describes the altarpiece as “extremely inventive” and “iconographic peculiarities“.
The virgin and the boy with the saints Luís and Margarida ”(unknown author, c. 1500)
Let’s start with the bizarre dragon, with a canine face, Very exaggerated prey and drool down.
Says the tradition that Satan, disguised as dragon swallowed Santa Margarida whole. Her stomach rejected her and there appears the saint in painting, kneeling in prayer, totally imprisonable by the event.
Next to Margarida, One of the two angels holds a song bookonce considered a hymn of English composer Walter Frye, but now identified as musical nonsense. The other angel Forest to your mouth“A sound hardly associated with heavenly harmony,” says the National Gallery in the statement.
Com Old Testament References hidden in the capitals of the columns, as well as solemn details, such as a Pintesylgo and The nails of the crucifixion scattered throughout the work, it is easy lose sight of the central piece of mysterious painting: the BOY JESUS AND THE VIRGIN “Wrapped in a flaming red of sports car,” as he writes.
These elements Mix humor and gravity in a rich and dynamic scene In a wooden panel about 1.20 meters high.
In the 1950s, art historian Denys Sutton described the altarpiece as “one of those deleitable objects that challenges ingenuity two scholars ”.
Decades later, the mysteries of the Virgin with the boy, the saints Luis and Margarida, and his bizarre dragon to drool, remain to unravel.
