Feature: Exhibition - Jan Goessart’s Renaissance at the National Gallery until May 30

Published: 3 March, 2011
by JOHN EVANS

True revelations from up north

A SOPHISTICATED artistic pioneer and “pivotal Old Master,” yet one who is little known by a larger public.

The National’s view of Jan Gossaert (active 1503 died 1532) is of an innovative painter who played a vital role in “…bridging the gap between the northern and southern Renaissance and paving the way for Low Country artists of the future.”

Their exhibition certainly illustrates his versatility, but also the difficulties in pinning him down. Relatively little is known about him and despite his acknowledged importance, this is the first major UK show dedicated to him in over 45 years and is supported by the Flemish government.

Born about 1478 in Maubeuge, Hainault, he is first thought to be listed in the Antwerp painters’ guild in 1503, though names he used varied, including the adopted “Mabuse” from the town and Jan of Hainault (Hennegouwe) from the province.

What is certain is that he was admired by contemporaries and enjoyed the early patronage of Philip of Burgundy, with whom he travelled to Rome, arriving at the beginning of 1509. At the time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel and Raphael had been called in by Pope Julius II to do a spot of decorating in his Vatican apartments.

Art experts have long debated exactly what influence this experience had on Gossaert’s work but Giorgio – The Lives of the Artists – Vasari (1511-74), marked him as the first to carry the “true method” of depicting nude figures and mythologies from Italy to northern Europe.

The show features over 90 pieces across six rooms and includes seven by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), who admired the Flemish painter’s expertise if not his imaginative flair. Gossaert, in turn, can be seen to have followed the pose of Dürer’s Jesus in his 1527 The Mocking of Christ.

Highlights include the National’s own The Adoration of the Kings, 1510-20 featuring one of western art’s earliest depictions of a black figure (as Balthazar), as well as putti and classical architectural detail! From the Royal Collection there is Gossaert’s Adam and Eve of 1520, alongside earlier versions in oils and pen and ink, of the same subject. From Vienna there is Saint Luke Painting the Virgin 1520-22. And from Boston, Mary Magdalene, of 1525-30.

Voluptuous, erotic, nudes much admired and often commissioned as gifts, are given a room to themselves. Some here were painted for an unrepentant and worldly Philip, still a patron, but now also bishop of Utrecht. Gossaert’s Venus of about 1521, on loan from a Rovigo seminary is a startling example of such work.

The artist’s magnificent portraits here show a great ability to evoke a particular mood. In addition to the straightforward unnamed gentlemen there is An Elderly Couple of about 1520 which powerfully covers all that its title implies.

His virtuosity is also shown in his use of illusionistic devices. Of note is the Portrait of Henry III of Nassau, with its frame within a frame. Henry was yet another patron, but Gossaert also worked for Christian II of Denmark, Margaret of Austria, Adolph of Burgundy and the emperor Charles V.

Yet of all the elements in the National’s show, it’s perhaps where a whole host of “Virgin and Child” works are gathered that his own true revelations come about; beautiful, varied and innovative.

There are a dozen or so in all (with related “Holy Family” pieces), from Chicago, the Prado, Cleveland and the Hague, to Washington and Virginia. To complement these there is also the Portrait of a Benedictine Monk, 1526, on loan from the Louvre, alone worthy of the entrance fee.

• Jan Goessart’s Renaissance is at the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery until May 30. £10, conces­sions available. Booking 0844 847 2409. www.nationalgallery.org.uk