A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
History
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
National Gallery (Great Britain); Painting -- England -- London -- Catalogs
The saints in this picture are Augustine (with the heart transfixed
with an arrow), Ludger (Bishop of Münster, Apostle of Saxony), Hubert
(patron saint of the chase, see No. 783) and Maurice.
252. THE CONVERSION OF ST. HUBERT.
_The Meister von Werden. See under_ 250.
253. THE MASS OF ST. HUBERT.
_The Meister von Werden. See under_ 250.
For St. Hubert, see under 783. Here the saint, in his canonicals, is
represented bending before the altar; while an angel from heaven is,
according to the legend, descending with the stole.
254-261. FRAGMENTS OF AN ALTAR-PIECE.
_The Meister von Liesborn_ (German: about 1465).
The principal work of this master, whose name has not come
down to us, was a high altar-piece for a convent church of the
Benedictines at Liesborn, near Münster in Westphalia. This
work was cut in pieces and sold in 1807, when the convent was
suspended, and Napoleon established the modern kingdom of
Westphalia. Some of the pieces were afterwards lost, some were
obtained by different collectors, while others, which were
acquired by Herr Krüger of Minden, were purchased in 1854 by
the British Government. The sweet but feeble faces, with the
gold background, recall the earliest Lower Rhine School, of
which the Westphalian was an offshoot.
In 259--a Head of Christ on the Cross--we have a fragment of the centre
compartment of the altar-piece.
In 260 and 261 we have the saints who stood by the side of the Cross
(hence their melancholy expression). In 260 the saints are St. John,
St. Benedict, and St. Scholastica (the first Benedictine nun and the
sister of St. Benedict himself). In 261 the saints are Sts. Cosmas and
Damian (see under 594), and the Virgin.
In 254 and 255 we have other saints: in 254, St. Ambrose (see under
50), St. Exuperius (a Bishop of Toulouse), and St. Jerome (saying, as
it were, "Down, down" to his lion); in 255, St. Gregory, St. Hilary,
and St. Augustine.
On either side of the central groups in the altar-piece were
represented various sacred subjects. No. 256, represents the
Annunciation; No. 257, the Purification of the Virgin and the
Presentation of Christ in the Temple; No. 258, The Adoration of the
Magi.
262. THE CRUCIFIXION.
_School of the Meister von Liesborn. See under_ last pictures.
In the form of a predella or decoration of the base of the altar-piece.
In the centre is Christ on the Cross; on either side are four Saints;
on the left St. Scholastica, Mary Magdalen, St. Anne with the Virgin in
her arms, who holds the Infant Christ; and the Virgin. On the right St.
John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Benedict, and St. Agnes with the
Lamb. In the background is a representation of Jerusalem; here depicted
as a little Westphalian town.
264. A COUNT OF HAINAULT AND HIS PATRON SAINT.
_Unknown_ (Early Flemish).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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