10 - Attributed to the Master of LIESBORN, active in Westphalia in the second half of the 15th century

Attributed to the Master of LIESBORN, active in Westphalia in the second half of the 15th century The Arrest of Christ—The Crowning with Thorns—The Ascension—Pentecost -The Arrest of Christ: Oil and gold on oak panel, three panels 76 x 54 cm -The Crowning with Thorns: Oil and gold on oak panel, two panels, lined 75 x 53.5 cm -The Ascension: Oil and gold on oak panel, two panels 75 x 54 cm -Pentecost: Oil and gold on oak panel, two panels 75 x 53.5 cm Unframed The Arrest of Christ – The Crowning with Thorns – The Ascension – Pentecost, oil and gold on oak panel, attributed to the Master of Liesborn 29.92 x 21.25 in. 29.52 x 21.06 in. 29.52 x 21.25 in. 29.52 x 21.06 in. Provenance: Collection of the Château de Meillant (Centre-Val-de-Loire) since at least the second half of the 19th century; Collection of Aimery de Rochechouart, Marquis de Mortemart (1941–2024); Then passed down through the family; Private collection, France Commentary: The four exceptional panels we are presenting were located at the Château de Meillant in the Cher department (Centre-Val-de-Loire). Belonging to the Rochechouart de Mortemart family, the Château de Meillant has existed since the 11th century but has undergone various renovations over time (fig. 1). During the Renaissance, Charles II d’Amboise (1473–1511), a great art lover who had led the campaigns in Italy alongside King Louis XII, remodeled the medieval fortress into a pleasure residence. He added the Lion Tower, crowned with a bronze lion, and a chapel adorned with five stained-glass windows depicting the Passion of Christ (fig. 2). In the 19th century, the château returned to the Rochechouart de Mortemart family when Virginie de Sainte-Aldegonde married Casimir, the 11th Duke of Mortemart. In 1842, the couple restored the castle in the Neo-Gothic style,¹ reflecting the renewed interest in the medieval period among artists and collectors, as well as providing an ideal opportunity for old families to celebrate the exploits of their glorious ancestors. The probable arrival of our panels in Meillant during this period would illustrate the new owners’ taste for medieval art. Our four panels can be attributed to the corpus of the Master of Liesborn, a painter active in Westphalia during the second half of the 15th century. Much documentary evidence remains to be discovered regarding this Master of Liesborn, an anonymous artist whose conventional name derives from his most significant work, the high altarpiece he created around 1480 for the church of the Benedictine monastery in Liesborn, near Lippstadt.² To date, it has not been possible to identify this painter, although his works are considered the epitome of Westphalian panel painting from the late Gothic period.³ We assume that this painter’s workshop was located in Soest, fifty kilometers east of Dortmund, since most of the paintings attributed to the Master of Liesborn and his workshop were intended to adorn churches in the vicinity of Soest. Our panels, like other paintings attributed to the Master of Liesborn, are part of an ancient pictorial tradition, as evidenced by the continued use of a gold background adorned with punch-engraved motifs and a perspective that is still somewhat inaccurate. Like other painters active in the region during the same period—such as the Master of the Schöppingen Altarpiece—it is highly likely that the Master of Liesborn was familiar with the artistic output of the workshops of Rogier van der Weyden and the Master of Flémalle. Artists were mobile, and many of them undertook study and training trips to the Southern Netherlands. Furthermore, by the end of the 15th century, models circulated freely through engravings, giving artists access to a wide variety of sources. The career and body of work of the Master of Liesborn and his workshop still raise many fascinating questions that will likely very soon be the subject of a research program led by historians at the Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster (Westphalia)⁴. We hope that our panels will be viewed in a new light, which may shed light on their original presentation as part of a large polyptych on the theme of the Passion of Christ. Unlike altarpieces from the Low Countries, which consist of hinged panels decorated with a scene on each side, the polyptychs produced in this German region are designed around a very large central panel flanked by several large narrative scenes that recount the hi