592 - A carved oak figure from a Flagellation scene

A carved oak figure from a Flagellation scene Figure from an altarpiece, shown from the back, standing in a striding pose on a sloping plinth; the reverse flattened. Both hands reattached; the upper hand, preserved in fragmentary form, is probably original; the rod is missing; minor losses to the plinth. Height 41.8 cm. Jan Borman I (?), Jan Borman II, attributed, around 1490 - 1520. The attribution is based on an identical figure in the scene of the Flagellation of Saint George in the altarpiece now in the possession of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels. The conception of this exceptional figure, both in its pose and in its finely worked details, can with great confidence be attributed to Jan I Borman. Viewed frontally, the face is not discernible; rather, the detail of the missing shoe catches the eye. The tilting cross-shaped outline and the facial features emphasise the base character with which the damned man, the torturer, was commonly depicted in this period. Jan Borman the Elder is documented as a sculptor in Brussels between 1479 and 1520. His most famous work is the Saint George Altarpiece, which he presumably completed together with his son Jan II Borman in 1493. Jan II Borman, born around 1460, is better documented in the archives. He was recorded as a member of the Brussels Guild of Sculptors in 1479, and from 1487 he held a leading position there for two years. The previous year, he completed work on the altarpiece in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal in Antwerp. In 1511, he was commissioned to produce wooden models and other sculptures for the tombs of the Duke and Duchess of Brabant. Several other works in Leuven, as well as in Sweden, are attributed to him. His last known altarpiece is probably the one in Güstrow. Following its completion in 1522, there is no further documentary evidence of his work, leading to the assumption that he died around this time. The late medieval Borman dynasty of sculptors ran a busy workshop in Brussels, receiving commissions from religious institutions as well as from citizens and princes. Their works are masterfully executed and rank among the most significant sculptural creations of the period between the Flemish Late Gothic and the early Renaissance. Provenance In a private collection in Belgium since 1994.