Title

Miraflores Altarpiece

painter

Weyden, Rogier van der

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

Today the critics are unanimous in considering that the Miraflores Triptych is the work of Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1364), but until a few decades ago it was considered a copy of what was considered the original, a set that belonged to Isabella the Catholic and was sent to the Royal Chapel of Granada, where today two of the tables are preserved, which in turn are cut at the top, while in the Metropolitan Museum in New York is the table on the right. However, it has been demonstrated that this set in Berlin is the original and the one in Granada is a copy half a century later, made by the painter of Isabella the Catholic, Juan de Flandes.

It is documented that the king of Castile John II donated in 1445 to the Cartuja de Miraflores (Burgos) a triptych painted on oak wood with dimensions of 74.3 x 45 cm each panel, representing, from left to right, the Birth of Christ, the Pietà and the appearance of the risen Christ to his Mother. In the document of donation, now lost, copied by Antonio Ponz in 1783 (Viaje de España, XII), it was noted: "Hoc oratorium a Magistro Rogel, magno & famoso Flandresco, fuit depictum". To remove any doubt as to which work he was referring to, Ponz wrote that it was "un altarito con sus puertas", which is a change from the current arrangement of panels on a rigid support.

It is a fundamental work by Rogier van der Weyden, as it is the only one documented as his during the artist's lifetime. In a book kept in the Carthusian monastery at the end of the 18th century, it is stated that it was a gift from Pope Martin V to King of Castile. Although John II may have received the work as a gift, there is no basis for supposing that it came directly from the pope.

Since the middle of the 19th century, after Passavant's analysis, the triptych was considered a copy of an original by Van der Weyden, a conclusion that was reinforced when it became known that there was another triptych that repeated the scenes, which was originally in the Royal Chapel of Granada. In two articles, Manuel Gómez-Moreno and Wilhelm von Bode considered that this was the original by Rogier van der Weyden, while the one that belonged to the Cartuja de Miraflores was a copy. From this point on, most scholars of Flemish painting, among them Wauters, Friedlander or Panofsky assumed this thesis. It was not until 1981 that Rainald Grosshans proved that the attribution was wrong and that the original version is the Berlin one. X-rays and infrared concluded that the painting in the Royal Chapel was not by Van der Weyden, but the definitive proof was reached thanks to the dendrochronology carried out on the New York panel by Peter Klein and on the Granada panels by Josef Vinckier. These analyses determined that the three formed a set and were on an oak support felled shortly before they were made, in the mid-1490s. In addition, dendrochronology also showed that the triptych from Miraflores must have been made close to the date of the donation to the monastery.

The panels must have remained in the Cartuja de Miraflores until at least the end of the 18th century, to be transferred shortly after to the cathedral of Burgos, where they were repaired by General Darmagnac during the French invasion of Spain, who incorporated them into his booty. In 1835 the triptych was in London and the following year it was auctioned at Christie's along with other works from the Darmagnac collection. In 1842 it was acquired by King William II of Holland. After his death in 1850 it was auctioned in The Hague and bought by the Königliche Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, today Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, where it remains to this day.

Description

Triptych of oil painting on panel. Originally it must have been arranged as an altar in which the boards on the sides were fanned out, according to Antonio Ponz's account, but it is not easy to reconstruct how, as the three panels have the same dimensions. In a watercolor by Huib van Hove depicting the Interior of the Gothic Hall of the Kneuterdijk Palace in The Hague, from 1842 (The Hague, Koninlijke Verzamelingen), when it belonged to King William II of Holland, the triptych can be seen hanging with a frame that is not the present one, but which must have already been altered, since it does not seem that the side panels could be closed.

The iconography of the three panels is centered on scenes of Christ with his Mother. The one on the left shows the Nativity, incorporating the figure of an elderly St. Joseph; in the central one Mary weeps holding the dead Christ, flanked by St. John and Joseph of Arimathea; the one on the right is limited to the figures in the foreground: Christ and his Mother at the moment when the Risen One appears to the surprised Virgin, while in the background, in small size, he is seen next to the tomb and still further on the Three Marys.

The scenes take place in interiors with Gothic architecture, with backgrounds open to the landscape, except in the panel on the left, which limits the Nativity scene with a wide brocade cloth that only allows glimpses of the windows on the sides.

Locations

• ca. 1445 - XVIII^th c.

  monastery

  Miraflores Charterhouse, Burgos (Spain)

• XVIII^th c. - First quarter of the XIX^th c.

  cathedral

  Burgos Cathedral, Burgos (Spain)

• First quarter of the XIX^th c. - ca. 1834

  plunder

  Jean Barthélemy Darmagnac, Burdeos (France)

• ca. 1835 - ca. 1836

  auction house

  Christie's, London (United Kingdom)

• ca. 1836 - ca. 1842

  dealer/antiquarian

  Chrétien-Jean Nieuwenhuys, Brussels (Belgium) *

• ca. 1842 - ca. 1850

  palace

  Kneuterdijk Palace, La Haya (Netherlands)

• ca. 1851 - present

  museum

  Gemäldegalerie. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlín (Germany)