1014 - Meister mit dem Papagei

Meister mit dem Papagei Master of the Parrot Our Lady with Child Oil on panel. 37 x 28 cm. Provenance German private collection. Literature Cf. M. J. Friedländer: Der Meister mit dem Papagei, in: Phoebus, II (1948/49), pp. 49–54. - Cf. H. Mund: Le Maître de la Madone Clemens et son atelier: Nouveau regard sur la peinture dans quelques ateliers anversois au premier tiers du XVI e siècle, in: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, LXXVIII (2017), pp. 41–71. Against a dark ground, the Virgin is shown as a half-length figure holding the naked Christ Child. She supports the Child with her left arm while offering him her breast with her right hand. His blond hair surrounds his head like a luminous halo. The fur-trimmed blue garment and gold-embroidered red mantle worn by the Virgin stand out strikingly against the black ground. The finely modelled faces and the gentle gesture lend the composition a strong sense of presence. Stylistically, the painting is closely related to the so-called Master of the Parrot and his Antwerp workshop circle, named by Max J. Friedländer after the slightly distinctive parrots that appear in numerous works attributed to him (op. cit., pp. 49–54). Hélène Mund understands this master as a workshop collective comprising works by different hands (op. cit., pp. 41–71). The painting is particularly close to the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (fig. 1, inv. no. 44.2009.1.2), especially in the depiction of the Christ Child, whose facial features, hair, eyes, and finely modelled physiognomy display striking similarities. We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for confirming this attribution on the basis of a digital photograph. For comparative illustrations, see the printed catalogue as well as the PDF version.