For Roughly Three Hundred Years, from About 1200 to 1500, Most European Paintings Were

For roughly three hundred years, from about 1200 to 1500, most European paintings were

devotional objects, commissioned to occupy sacred spaces in Christian churches and private

chapels. Born in 1419, Neri di Bicci came from a family of Florentine artists. His grandfather,

Lorenzo di Bicci, started the family painting workshop and passed the trade to his son, Bicci di Lorenzo.

The dynasty’s most prosperous period was under the direction of Neri, whose paintings were sought

by members of every level of society.

For roughly three hundred years, from about 1200 to 1500, most European paintings were devotional objects, commissioned to occupy sacred spaces in Christian churches and private chapels. Craftsmanship and artistic skill were appreciated, but the real value of a work of art resided in the holy image itself. With the expansion of the art market after around 1500, artistic opportunities increased, and many more secular subjects, including portraits, were commissioned to decorate the homes of the wealthy. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the nobility and upper classes joined and then replaced the Church as major patrons of artists. All of these developments are reflected in the European collection at the Seattle Art Museum.

The exhibition compares Neri’s techniques and materials with smaller devotional images from SAM’s Kress Collection. Renaissance Art in Focus also shows the technical methods that conservators and curators use to determine the history of each painting, including X-radiographs and high magnification. These techniques reveal information about how the artist painted and how the work of art has changed with the passage of time.

Joshua Reynolds (British (English), 1723-1792)
Lady Frances Warren (?) 1759

Oil on canvas
93-3/4 x 58-1/4 in. (238.1 x 147.8 cm)
Acquired in 1961
More than any other painter, Joshua Reynolds deserves credit for elevating the status of the artist in England and making possible the flowering of the British school in the eighteenth century. A man of serious intellect who had traveled extensively in Italy, he based his art on exhaustive study of Renaissance and Baroque masters and on the lessons of classical sculpture. In 1768 he was elected first president of the Royal Academy.
This painting, one of the earliest of his full-length portraits of women executed in the new "grand manner," and probably identifiable as the "Miss Warren" recorded in the artist's sitter books in January 1758 and May 1759, displays the faultless balance of volumes and voids that his study of sculpture had given him. The oversized antique urn and the languid, elegant figure in its Neoclassical costume appear stable and poised before the expanse of parkland that opens at the right. Such elegance quickly became the ideal of its age, and for the next thirty years Reynolds was the arbiter of style in Britain.
Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (Dutch, 1597-1665)
Interior of the Buurkerk, Utrecht 1645

Oil on panel
22-7/8 x 20 in. (58.1 x 50.8 cm)
Acquired in 1986
On view
Conservation Information
Pieter Saenredam's paintings of churches and edifices in Haarlem, Utrecht, and Amsterdam were appreciated in his own day as faithful renderings of familiar landmarks. Beyond their mathematical precision, however, it is their aesthetic qualities that elevate these paintings to the highest level as works of art. Interior of the Buurkerk, Utrecht, like his other comparable subjects, is not simply an accurate portrait of an individual church, but an image that captures the spirit of the structure as a place of worship, its light-flooded interior evoking a distinct quality of spirituality. The colors--cool whites and grays tinged with blue and pink--enhance the severe geometry of the unadorned Calvinist church. Such paintings have a special appeal to the modern eye as abstract statements about space, line, and color which find echoes in the work of Mondrian and twentieth-century formalism.
This rare and important painting is one of Saenredam's most original and successful compositions. Worldwide, no more than sixty are known to exist, and only five of these can be found in American museum collections. His paintings of churches throughout the northern Netherlands are based on meticulous perspectival drawings, or cartoons, derived from sketches and measurements taken in situ. The paintings themselves were executed in the studio, sometimes years later, as in the case of the Kimbell painting and the companion view of the same church interior, painted in 1644, preserved in the National Gallery, London. The chalk drawing that Saenredam made as the basis for the two compositions, now in the Municipal Archives of Utrecht, bears the date 16 August 1636.
When Interior of the Buurkerk, Utrecht was examined with infrared light, a careful linear underdrawing, characteristic of Saenredam's church interiors, was revealed. Saenredam achieved perspectival accuracy in this underdrawing with a vanishing point. Evidence of the pinhole he used for this purpose appears on the surface of the painting in the column at the right. The Kimbell panel and the related National Gallery painting appear to have been traced from opposite halves of the same chalk construction drawing, which is preserved in the Municipal Archives of Utrecht. It seems that the panels, which were painted a year apart, were never intended to be joined, since they have a very different tonality. The Kimbell's painting is cool and light, while the National Gallery's is warm.
The painting's wooden support has been preserved unaltered. An unusual feature is that it is pieced together from three planks of different widths, with their wood grains running in a horizontal direction. A more typical support for this size and shape would have been a single vertically grained panel. The edges of each piece of the Kimbell panel appear to have been roughly beveled before assembly and then slightly refined thereafter. The marks of the carpenter's tools can still be clearly seen on the reverse.

Detail of an infrared photograph, in which the architecture’s underdrawing is visible; the parallel horizontal lines are the grain of the wooden panel

Pieter Saenredam, Nave of the Buurkerk, Utrecht, from North to South, 1636, Municipal Archives, Utrecht

Pieter Saenredam, Interior of the Buurkerk, Utrecht, 1644, National Gallery, London

Raking light photograph (upside down) of the reverse of Interior of the Buurkerk, Utrecht, showing the three pieces of wood that were joined to make the painting’s support
Flemish (or Franco-Flemish) (, late 15th century)
Portrait of Jacob Obrecht 1496

Oil on panel
20-1/4 x 14-1/4 in. (51.4 x 36.2 cm)
Acquired in 1993
On view
Conservation Information
The gold Gothic calligraphy on either side of the sitter's head announces the subject as Jacob Obrecht (c. 1458-1505), a renowned choirmaster, and northern Europe's outstanding composer at the close of the fifteenth century. Such was Obrecht's international standing that he was invited to Ferrara by Duke Ercole d'Este in August 1487; retiring there in 1500, Obrecht died from the plague in 1505.
Hands clasped in devotion, a fur almuce--the attribute of a canon--draped over his left wrist, Obrecht is portrayed in clerical dress: a cambric surplice--a loose white ecclesiastical vestment--over a brownish toga, whose dark green collar is folded back to reveal the black collar of a tightly laced vest. The oak panel is probably the left-hand side of a diptych, or the left-hand wing of a triptych; as such, it would have been attached to a facing panel on the right--whose whereabouts are unknown--showing the Madonna and child, or a similar devotional subject.
Its extraordinary technical virtuosity notwithstanding, the painting conveys the solemn, plainspoken humanity of the sitter with a directness and sympathy characteristic of the Franco-Flemish tradition. The robustness and naturalism of this painting have led some art historians to associate it with the work of Hans Memling (c. 1435-1494), the master of the school of Bruges who died two years before the date inscribed on the frame.
Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (Flemish, c. 1478-1532)
Henry III, Count of Nassau-Breda c. 1516-17
Oil on panel
22-5/8 x 18 in. (57.2 x 45.8 cm)
Acquired in 1979
On view
Jan Gossaert, also called Mabuse after the Netherlandish town where he was born, was one of the first artists to disseminate the Italian style in the Low Countries, an interest stimulated when he accompanied his patron, Philip of Burgundy, to Rome in 1508-9. Gossaert's skill in portraiture attracted the patronage of Emperor Charles V, King Christian II of Denmark, and Margaret of Austria.
The sitter of this portrait has been identified as Henry III, count of Nassau-Breda (1483-1538), an esteemed statesman and captain-general who wielded great political and military power in The Netherlands. He was a supporter of Philip of Burgundy and also served as friend and advisor to the emperors Maximilian and Charles V. Gossaert depicts the count wearing the pendant of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the elite chivalric order dedicated to the defense of the Church. The humanist pursuits of both sitter and artist are evident in the cameo carved in an antique manner adorning the hat.
The artist took great care in rendering the textures of the rug, fur collar, buttons, and gold-brocaded doublet, creating an image with an extraordinary jewel-like quality. The features of the sitter are finely painted (the underdrawing is visible around the lips, nose, and chin) and are bathed in a cool, even light--somewhat exaggerated by the transparency of the fleshtones, which originally would have appeared more opaque. The painted frame in the portrait and the shadow cast by the figure underscore the artist's preoccupation with illusionistic effects. The Flemish, sixteenth-century cassetta frame in which the work is exhibited repeats the geometric gold pattern of the sitter's costume.
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
The Duke of Buckingham 1625
Oil on panel
18-3/8 x 20-3/8 in. (46.6 x 51.7 cm)
Acquired in 1976
On view
Rubens was the undisputed master of early Baroque painting north of the Alps. From 1623 he was also a diplomat, a special position that brought him commissions from princely patrons, high-ranking statesmen, and noblemen. It was on a diplomatic mission to Paris in 1625 that Rubens met George Villiers, the rakish first duke of Buckingham and favorite of King Charles I. The occasion was Charles's marriage-by-proxy to Henrietta Maria, sister of the king of France. One of the chief collectors of his time, Buckingham commissioned an equestrian portrait of himself from Rubens, and the Kimbell modello is the study for the large painting formerly at Osterley Park (destroyed by fire in 1949). This modello reflects Rubens's animated style of the 1620s, exemplified in his magnificent cycle glorifying Marie de' Medici (Musée du Louvre, Paris), with its similar use of allegorical personifications for propaganda purposes.
The Kimbell modello shows Buckingham as General of the Fleet. Beneath him to the left are Neptune, the god of the sea, and a sea nymph holding a string of pearls symbolizing the riches of the ocean that England claimed. Behind them, a fleet of ships sits at anchor, while above, Fame scatters flowers in homage. Elaborated in a full palette of colors to convey an impression of the rich effects that the artist intended to achieve in the final canvas, the modello possesses a clarity of form and fluidity of execution that make it one of the artist's finest oil sketches.
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Maidens c. 1615-20
Oil on panel
25-3/8 x 19-1/2 in. (64.5 x 49.5 cm)
Acquired in 1986
Peter Paul Rubens, the most acclaimed painter of the Baroque age, reigned as the leading altarpiece painter, decorator, and tapestry designer of the first half of the seventeenth century. An essential part of Rubens's working method was the creation of an oil sketch (modello) for his major compositions. These were usually painted on panels prepared with a light buff or gray ground, the general features of the compositions being loosely sketched with indications of local color. The subtle color harmony and vibrant brushwork make The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Maidens an outstanding example of the artist's oil sketch technique. This painting may have served as a model for a large altarpiece; another oil sketch for the same composition, with fewer figures and the action focused upon Saint Ursula, is preserved in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
The subject of this oil sketch was taken from the thirteenth-century Golden Legend. Ursula, a young princess from Brittany, was returning from a pilgrimage to Rome with her companions in faith (eleven thousand maidens) when they were massacred at Cologne by Huns. Rubens has shown the decisive moment of Ursula's story. The future saint looks ecstatically upward toward a vision of the Virgin and child and prepares to receive the palm of martyrdom from an angel just as a spear and sword are about to be thrust into her breast. The subject reflects the Catholic Church's emphasis on the piety, devotion, and faith of the early Christian martyrs as part of its own program of reform.
This painting of Christ Blessing is possibly identifiable as the "image of the Savior in the act of blessing" recorded in the church of Santo Stefano in Venice in the seventeenth century. The half-length figure of Christ is shown as the risen Savior, carrying the red staff of the banner of the Resurrection, the wounds of his suffering lightly visible. In spite of his hieratic frontality, a pose deriving from the Byzantine Pantocrator, Bellini's Christ is compassionate rather than judgmental: the figure is both human and divine. Christ's golden body suggests the perfection of physical form associated with ancient statuary of gods and athletes. The ideal beauty of his face also surpasses human beauty. Various motifs in the distant landscape allude to the Resurrection: the bird of prey perched on the barren branches of the tree is an image of death; the pair of rabbits signify regeneration; and the shepherd with his flock recalls John 10:14--"I am the good shepherd." The three robed figures at the right are Mary Magdalen; Mary, the mother of James; and Mary Salome, who, having visited the tomb of Christ at dawn on the day after the sabbath hurry to tell the disciples of the empty tomb (Mark 16:1-8). The distant bell tower denotes that salvation is found through Christ's sacrifice and the Church.
The softened, often poetic forms in the late work of Giovanni Bellini influenced the development of younger Venetian painters, especially Giorgione and Titian.
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Giovanni Bellini (Italian, c. 1430-1516)
Madonna and Child c. 1470-75
Tempera and oil on panel
32-1/2 x 23 in. (82.5 x 58.4 cm)
Acquired in 1971
Throughout his long career, Giovanni Bellini painted half-length Madonnas as private devotional images. Madonna and Child exhibits the linearity of Bellini's early style, when the art of his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, exerted its strongest influence. Mary stands in a shallow but clearly defined space behind a narrow marble parapet and in front of a brocade cloth of honor that connotes her role as Queen of Heaven. In her arms she holds the infant Savior, whose nature as the Word Incarnate is underscored by the open book resting on the parapet. The artist's name appears inscribed on an illusionistic cartellino below the marble ledge. The head of the Christ child is well preserved; other parts of the composition, especially the face of the Virgin, have suffered abrasion. A related version of this subject, from the church of Santa Maria dell'Orto, Venice, uses the same model but differs in a number of details.