Gerard David, 'Canon Bernardijn Salviati and Three Saints', after 1501
About the work
Overview
A thin-faced man kneels in prayer, surrounded by three saints. This is Bernardijn Salviati, illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant, and canon of the Collegiate Church of Saint Donatian in Bruges. The saints are, from left to right: Martin of Tours, with the beggar he gave his cloak to on the road behind him; Bernardijn’s name saint, the Franciscan Bernardino of Siena, in a grey habit; and Donatian, patron of Bernardijn’s church.
The panel, which originally had an arched top, was almost certainly part of a diptych (a painting in two parts) commissioned for the chapel of Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene at Saint Donatian’s, which Bernardijn was given permission to restore in January 1501. The other panel probably showed the Crucifixion (Staatliche Museen, Berlin). On the back of our panel is a ruined picture apparently showing the resurrected Christ at an open window.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Canon Bernardijn Salviati and Three Saints
- Artist
- Gerard David
- Artist dates
- active 1484; died 1523
- Date made
- after 1501
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 103.4 × 94.3 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by William Benoni White, 1878
- Inventory number
- NG1045
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 19th-century Italian Frame
Provenance
The panel was probably painted for the Collegiate Church of St Donatian in Bruges, which became a cathedral in 1560 and which was demolished in 1799–1800. First recorded in a list of ‘rare and interesting pictures’ made in or shortly after 1777, it was then in the sacristy and was described as ‘an antique piece representing two bishops, a friar and a canon; it too is believed to have been painted by Jan van Eyck’. Exactly why and when it left the church have not been established but it would appear to have passed to a collector who placed his mark, HL, on the reverse. Taken to England in 1792, it caught the attention of Horace Walpole, who recommended it to his friend Thomas Barrett (1743?–1803) of Lee Priory at Ickham near Canterbury. Barrett bought it ‘at a high price’. It was then attributed to Gossaert (Mabuse). In a letter of 14 May 1792 Walpole asked Barrett ‘if the Mabeuse is safely arrived at Lee, and fits his destined stall in the library’. Barrett had had Lee Priory rebuilt in the Gothic style by the architect James Wyatt. In a letter of 17 October 1794 to Mary Berry, Walpole regretted that Barrett ‘will not force Mr Wyat to place the Mabeuse over the chimney’. For a while it appears to have hung elsewhere in the library. Barrett bequeathed Lee Priory to his great-nephew Thomas Barrett Brydges (born 1789), who took the name Barrett; he died in 1834. By 1817, NG 1045 was in the Tower Room. The house and collection passed to the last owner’s brother John William Egerton Brydges (1791–1858), after whose death the collection was sold at Christie’s on 28 May 1859. NG 1045 was lot 154 and was bought by the dealer William Benoni White, who lived in London and in Hastings and who died in 1878. In his will, dated 8 May 1877, he bequeathed to the Trustees of the National Gallery ‘my oil colour painting of Four Bishops’. The bequest was received in 1878.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools’, London 1998; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1731J.F. Foppens and J. Beernaerts, Compendium chronologicum episcoporum brugensium, Bruges 1731
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1794Acta sanctorum, octobris, Tongerlo 1794
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1801J. Britton and E.W. Brayley, The Beauties of England and Wales, 19 vols, London 1801
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1817T.B. Brydges, List of Pictures at the Seat of T. B. Brydges Barrett, Esq.: At Lee Priory, in the County of Kent, n.p. 1817
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1825J.P. Neale, The Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, London 1825
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1861J. Gailliard, Inscriptions funéraires et monumentales de la Flandre occidentale avec des données historiques et généalogiques: Arrondissements de Bruges, Bruges 1861
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1866W.H.J. Weale, 'Gerard David II: Sa vie et ses œuvres authentiques', Gazette des beaux-arts, XXI, 1866, pp. 489-501
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1866W.H.J. Weale, 'Le couvent des sœurs Notre-Dame dit de Sion à Bruges', Le Beffroi, III, 1866, pp. 334-70
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1875L. Gilliodts-van Severen, Coutumes des pays et comté de Flandre. Quartier de Bruges. Coutume de la ville de Bruges, Brussels 1875
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1881National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery: Foreign Schools, London 1881
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1892H. Dussart, Fragments inédits de Romboudt de Doppere, Bruges 1892
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1895W.H.J. Weale, Gerard David: Painter and Illuminator, London 1895
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1905S. Reinach, Répertoire de peintres du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance (1250-1580), 4 vols, Paris 1905
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1905H. Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 15, ed. P. Toynbee, London 1905
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1924M.J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, 14 vols, Berlin 1924
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1929F. Dülberg, Niederländische Malerei der Spätgotik und Renaissance, Berlin 1929
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1937H. Walpole, Horace Walpole Correspondence, ed. W.S. Lewis, 48 vols, New Haven 1937
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1938R.A. Parmentier, Indices op de Brugsche Poorterboeken, 2 vols, Bruges 1938
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1940Decembris propylaeum, Brussels 1940
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1941E. Viviani della Robbia, 'Italiani nel mondo, un mercnate a Bruges nel sec. XV', Illustrazione toscana e dell'Etruria, IX, 1941, pp. 8-15
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1945Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, London 1945
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1946J. Wils, Matricule de l'université de Louvain, Brussels 1946
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1952H. Honour, 'A House of the Gothic Revival', Country Life, CXI, 1952, pp. 1665-6
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1953M. Davies, The National Gallery, London, Les Primitifs flamands. I, Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pay-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle 3, 2 vols, Antwerp 1953
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1955Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1955
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1962R. Aprile, Bibliotheca sanctorum, Rome 1962
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1962R. Doehaerd, Études anversoises: Documents sur le commerce international à Anvers, 1488–1514, Paris 1962
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1962R.H. Goodsall, 'Lee Priory and the Brydges Circle', Archaeologia Cantiana, LXXVII, 1962, pp. 1-26
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1963R. de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494, Harvard Studies in Business History 21, Cambridge MA 1963
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1963A. Viaene, 'Een Brugs vademecum voor de Rome- en Jeruzalemvaarder samengesteld door Rombout de Doppere 1491', Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis / Annales de la Société d'Emulation de Bruges, C, 1963, pp. 301-22
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1967M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, eds N. Veronée-Verhaegen and H. Pauwels, trans. H. Norden, 14 vols, Leiden 1967
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1968C.D. Cuttler, Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, New York 1968
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1975D.G. Scillia, Gerard David and Manuscript Illumination in the Lowlands, Phd Thesis, Case Western Reserve University 1975
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1976E. Heller, Das altniederländische Stiferbild, Tuduv Studien, Reihe Kulturwisenschaftend, Phd Thesis, Munich 1976
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1976V. Vermeersch, Grafmonumenten te Brugge Vor 1578, Bruges 1976
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1981A. Dewitte, 'Juweleninventarissen van de Brugse collegiale Sint-Donaas (1409-1538)', in M. Smeyers (ed.), Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de kunst der Nederlanden opgedragen aan Prof. Em. Dr J.K. Steppe, Louvain 1981, pp. 29-44
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1985P. Hurtubise, Une famille-temoin: Les Salviati, Studi e testi 309, Vatican City 1985
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1986R. Genaille, 'Le paysage flamand et wallon au XVIe siècle', Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, 1986
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1987Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Netherlandish School, 3rd edn, London 1987
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1987D. de Vos, 'Gerard David', in Nationaal biografisch woordenboek, Brussels 1987, vol. 12
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1994R. Strohm, 'Music, Ritual and Painting in Fifteenth-Century Bruges', in D. de Vos (ed.), Hans Memling: Essays, Bruges 1994, pp. 30-44
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1998Campbell, Lorne, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings, London 1998
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2005J. Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575, ed. L. Silver, New Jersey 2005
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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