Juan de Flandes, 'Christ appearing to the Virgin', about 1499-1500

Christ appearing to the Virgin

Juan de Flandes

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin Mary in her chamber is greeted by Christ, risen from the dead. He is accompanied by the multitude who followed him out of limbo. This painting belonged to Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain, and was listed with 46 companion panels in an inventory in 1505. The panels – 27 survive in various collections – are all the same size, and most show scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin.

The episode shown here is not found in the Bible. The painter may have followed the account of this meeting between the Virgin and the risen Christ in the Vita Christi (‘Life of Christ’), a fifteenth-century Catalan devotional text written by an abbess, Sor Isabel de Villena. Sor Isabel was related to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

In-depth

This painting belonged to Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain, and was listed with 46 companion panels in an inventory of part of her estate in 1505. The panels – 27 survive in various collections – are all the same size and most show scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin. They were produced by Isabella’s court painters, Michael Sittow and Juan de Flandes.

The Virgin Mary, dressed in blue, here sits at the end of a large bed. An illuminated manuscript lies open at her feet, and in the front corner a grey and a white dove feed from the space left by a missing tile. The resurrected Christ, displaying the wounds of the Passion and carrying a golden cross on a long silvery staff, greets her. He is accompanied by the multitude he has brought out of limbo. Behind him are Adam and Eve while on his left is Saint John the Baptist. The elderly man and woman beside the bed are perhaps Mary’s parents. Scrolls – the medieval equivalent of speech bubbles – come from the mouths of Christ, Saint John and the Virgin. The words are Latin quotations from either the Bible or devotional literature.

The episode shown here is not found in the Bible. The painter may have followed the account of the meeting between the Virgin and the risen Christ in the Vita Christi (‘Life of Christ’), a fifteenth-century Catalan devotional text written by an abbess, Sor Isabel de Villena. Sor Isabel was related to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile and her book was dedicated to Isabella, who perhaps recommended it to whoever advised the artists.

Although there are stylistic and technical differences between the surviving panels – some, like this one, have underdrawing but some don't, some are darker in colour than others, and figures are on different scales in different panels – it seems likely that de Flandes did most of them after he arrived in Spain in around 1496. Although the paint surface is worn in places, particularly the inscriptions and the head of Saint John, the undamaged parts, such as Christ’s face and wounds, are painted with very great skill. The minute catchlights in the Virgin’s eyes even differ in colour.

It’s not clear exactly what the paintings were for. Isabella died at Medina del Campo in November 1504 and her executors were directed to sell most of her belongings to pay her legacies. In February 1505 the officials preparing the inventory of her estate listed 47 little panels in a cupboard at the castle of Toro. Isabella did not actually live at Toro; it seems that the panels were brought there, along with many of her possessions, merely to be valued and sold. They were not arranged in any logical order and although they form a fairly complete cycle, it is possible that one or more were missing: 47 is an awkward number and there is no image of the Resurrection. The panels were sold separately: Isabella’s daughter-in-law Margaret of Austria obtained 32 of them, and kept them in a wooden box before having two made into a diptych.

This painting had a gilded border, and traces of borders remain on others in the series. It is likely that all had similar borders which would have acted as frames. They probably were intended to be used singly or in small groups as aids to private devotion.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Christ appearing to the Virgin with the Redeemed of the Old Testament
Artist: Juan de Flandes
Artist dates: active from 1496; died 1519
Date made: about 1499-1500
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 21.2 × 15.4 cm
Inscription summary: Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1889
Inventory number: NG1280
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 15th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

The painting belonged to Isabella of Castile (1451–1504), Queen of Spain, and was listed, with forty-six companion panels, in an inventory of part of her estate taken on 25 February 1505 at the castle of Toro. It was next recorded in the possession of Henry Attwell (1834–1901), educationalist, translator and author of, among other books, The Italian Masters, with Special Reference to the Italian Pictures in the National Gallery London (1888). In the 1850s he taught at Leiden University but by 1859 he had settled at Barnes in Surrey. In 1889 he offered his picture, then attributed to Memling, to the National Gallery: it was purchased out of the Walker Fund.

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.

Exhibition history

2021

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist

Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum

18 July 2021 - 24 October 2021

The National Gallery (London)

20 November 2021 - 27 February 2022

Bibliography

1884

P. de Madrazo, Viaje artístico de tres siglos por las colecciones de cuadros de los reyes de España, Barcelona 1884
1887

C. Justi, 'Juan de Flandes. Ein niederländischer Hofmaler Isabella der Katholischen', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, VIII, 1887, pp. 157-69
1908

C. Justi, Miscellaneen aus Drei Jahrhunderten spanischen Kunstlebens, Berlin 1908
1931

H.I. Kay, 'Two Paintings by Juan de Flandes', The Burlington Magazine, LVIII/337, 1931, pp. 197-201
1950

Sánchez Cantón, Libros, tapices y cuadros que coleccionó Isabel la Católica, Madrid 1950
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1957

J.D. Breckenridge, '"Et Prima Vidit": The Iconography of the Appearance of Christ to His Mother', Art Bulletin, XXXIX/1, 1957, pp. 9-32
1970

M. Davies, The National Gallery, London, Les Primitifs flamands. I, Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pay-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle 11, Brussels 1970
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1986

J.O. Hand and M. Wolff, Early Netherlandish Painting, Washington 1986
1986

E. Bermejo and I. Vandevivere, Juan de Flandes, (exh. cat. Prado, February 1986 - 1 March 1986), Madrid 1986
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
1988

E. Bermejo and J. Portús, Juan de Flandes, Madrid 1988
1998

Campbell, Lorne, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings, London 1998
1998

L. Silver, 'Old-Time Religion: Bernart van Orley and the Devotional Tradition', Pantheon, LVI, 1998, pp. 75-84
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

D. Bomford et al., Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 October 2002 - 16 February 2003), London 2002
2004

C. Ishikawa, The Retablo de Isabel la Católica by Juan de Flandes and Michel Sittow, Turnhout 2004
2006

P.S. Maroto, Juan de Flandes, Salamanca 2006
2009

D. Carr, El Greco to Goya: Spanish Painting, London 2009

Frame

This gilded and polychromed poplar wood frame was made in Italy and dates from the late fifteenth century. The Gothic moulding, water-gilt with an ebonised surround, was altered to fit the dimensions of the painting in 2022.

Juan de Flandes’s Christ appearing to the Virgin once belonged to Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain, and was listed alongside 46 companion panels in an inventory of her estate in 1505. Originally, the painting had a gilded border, and traces of similar borders remain on other pieces in the series.

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.