Marten van Heemskerck, 'The Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist', about 1540
About the work
Overview
A youthful Saint John the Evangelist supports a grey-faced and anguished Virgin Mary. This is one of two shutters from a triptych (a painting made up of three sections), which presumably flanked an image of the suffering Christ.
The back is painted too, and shows a bishop holding an open book, standing above a shield with a coat of arms. Two keys hang from a cord on his left wrist. Aside from the shield beneath his feet, everything is rendered in tones of black, grey and white. The bishop’s identity remains uncertain, though he may be Saint Peter, to whom Christ metaphorically gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
The Virgin must have looked as if she was kneeling on the original frame, as did the donor in the other panel. The current frames are old but not original: they seem to have been replaced, for unknown reasons, while the shutters were still attached to the central panel.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist
- Artist
- Marten van Heemskerck
- Artist dates
- 1498 - 1574
- Part of the series
- Two Shutters from a Triptych
- Date made
- about 1540
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 125.7 × 47.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1986
- Inventory number
- NG6508.1
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 17th-century Dutch Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600’, London 2014; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2024Maarten van HeemskerckStedelijk Museum Alkmaar28 September 2024 - 19 January 2025
Bibliography
-
1988National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: January 1985 - December 1987, London 1988
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2014
L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600, 2 vols, London 2014
Frame
This panel is housed in an antique Dutch frame dating from the late sixteenth century to the 1630s. The double-sided frame is crafted from ebonised oak. The front features an intricate stepped moulding with two gilded fillets leading to a frieze. A narrow fillet at the sight edge is also gilt. On the reverse of the frame, there is a wide frieze with a gilt step moulding along the sight edge.
Notably, on the side of the frame is a recess, shaped for butterfly hinges. When Marten van Heemskerck’s The Donor and Saint Mary Magdalene was restored in 1987 and the frame was adjusted, it was agreed that this frame could not be the original frame for the painting.
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.
Images
About the series: Two Shutters from a Triptych
Overview
These two panels formed the shutters of an altarpiece and are painted on both sides. On the front left we see the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, and on the right, Saint Mary Magdalene and the donor. The reverses show two bishop saints and coats of arms (unidentified).
The central panel is lost. It was probably, although not certainly, a painting, showing the suffering Christ. If it was a painting, and was put into a frame at the same time as the present old, but not original, frame, its painted surface would have measured about 123.5 by 107.5 cm. Various suggestions have been made as to panels by Marten van Heemskerck which might fit the bill.
Works in the series
