Title

The Virgin between Saint James and Saint Dominic, called by Jacques Florins

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

Monogram of the Floreins family on the carpet at the foot of the throne.

Object history

A work by Memling, the first verified information we have about the painting comes from Ludovic Vitet in 1860. He saw the painting in Bordeaux, in the collection of Count Duchâtel (1803-1867), who had acquired it five years earlier from the collection of the Napoleonic general Darmagnac (1766-1855). The widowed Countess Duchâtel donated it to the Louvre in 1878, where it has remained ever since.

Lorentz (1995) published a report taken from an "Inventory of the jewels of the parish of San Román" in Burgos, referring to the years 1749-1785, declaring the existence of a large panel in the sacristy of the church of San Román: "A large painting of Our Lady in the middle of the sacristy with its curtain." This church, now only an archaeological vestige after being razed during the French invasion, enjoyed the patronage of the Quintanadueñas family, and in 1553 Gómez de Quintanadueñas made a will ordering that he be buried in the chapel of San Andrés de San Román, where his two wives were buried. This relationship between the family and the church may have led Jacques Floriens' widow, or one of his children, to send the panel to Burgos, and it could be the one mentioned in the mid-18th century. However, this information should be taken with caution, as it is strange that neither Ponz, in Viaje de España, nor Bosarte, in his Viage artístico á varios pueblos de España, Segovia, Valladolid y Burgos, who were in Burgos before the destruction of the church, fail to mention such a notable work, of which they seem to have had no knowledge.

Nevertheless, we know for certain that the panel belonged to General Darmagnac, governor of Castile, who plundered important works of art from Burgos, including Rogier van der Weyden's Miraflores Triptych from the Miraflores Charterhouse, now in Berlin. Darmagnac kept the panel in his possession until his death in 1855, when it passed into the hands of the Count of Duchâtel and later arrived at the Louvre after being donated by the widowed countess.

Description

The Musée du Louvre's collections include a panel that is unquestionably attributed to Hans Memling (c. 1435-1494), a painter of German origin who settled in Bruges. The panel depicts the Virgin Mary with the Child on her lap, flanked by Saint James and Saint Dominic, with the patron, Jacques Florence (Jacob Floriens in Dutch), and his wife, a Spanish woman from the Quintanadueñas family, originally from Burgos, kneeling at their feet. Entrepreneurial merchants, the Quitanadueñas family settled in Bruges, and a woman from the family appears to have married Jacques Floreins, with whom she had no fewer than six sons and twelve daughters, who are depicted praying behind their parents in the painting.

Considerable in size (130 x 160 cm), it is painted in oil on wood and most likely originally had two wings that would have made it a triptych. Ludovic Vitet saw the painting in 1860 and did not hesitate to attribute it to Memling (Hemling at the time), drawing a direct comparison with the very similar image of the Virgin and Child in the Triptych of the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine (Bruges, Hans Memlingmuseum, Sint Janshospitaal). This work is signed and dated on the frame (1479). Stylistically, there also seems to be no doubt about its authorship. But there is more. Memling was commissioned by Jan Floreins, Jacob's older brother, to create a triptych, also preserved in Bruges in the same museum, which depicts the Adoration of the Magi on the central panel and includes the donor kneeling. This work is also signed and dated (1479) on the frame.

Given this background, it has been determined that the Louvre panel was commissioned by his brother Jacques somewhat later. Jacques, a member of the Bruges spice merchants' guild, died, like many others, as a victim of the plague epidemic that ravaged the city in 1488. The painting must have been started somewhat earlier, around 1485, but it was probably not completed until after the patron's death because his wife is dressed as a widow.

In this sacred conversation, the inclusion of St. James is due to his being the patron saint of the patron—Jacques/Jacob—however, the appearance of St. Dominic is not easy to justify, although it has been attributed to the fact that one of the daughters professed as a Dominican nun, and is thus represented.

Memling considerably increased the size of the central panel of Jan Floreins' Triptych, perhaps forced to do so in order to include Jacques' eighteen children in the painting, but it does not exceed the dimensions of the Triptych of the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, with which it shares many similarities in the arrangement of the figures, the space, the canopy of the throne, and especially in the representation of the Virgin and Child.

Locations

• Early XVI^th c. - 1814

  province

  Burgos, Burgos (Spain)

• 1814 - 1855

  plunder

  Jean-Barthélemy Darmagnac, Burdeos (France)

• post. 1855 - 1867

  private collection

  Tanneguy Duchâtel, Duchâtel Count, Paris (France) *

• 1867 - 1878

  private collection

  Eglé Rosalie Paulée, Duchâtel Countess, Paris (France) *

• 1878 - present

  museum

  Louvre Museum, Paris (France)