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Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin

Rogier van der Weyden (Netherlandish, about 1400–1464)
about 1435–40

Medium/Technique Oil and tempera on panel
Dimensions 137.5 x 110.8 cm (54 1/8 x 43 5/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lee Higginson
Accession Number93.153
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
According to tradition, Saint Luke created the first portraits of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus from life, making him the patron saint of painters. Here, in one of the most important Renaissance paintings in North America, Rogier van der Weyden introduces an unprecedented sense of naturalism, grounding a sacred episode in everyday experience. X‑rays reveal that Rogier took great care in depicting Luke’s features; this saint may in fact be a self‑portrait. Although Rogier made this work long before the other paintings in our Dutch and Flemish galleries, he displays a skill at portraiture and the depiction of objects, the landscape, and architecture that foreshadows the work of his countrymen and women two centuries later.

ProvenanceAbout 1435/1440, possibly the Chapel of St. Catherine, Cathedral of St. Gudule, Brussels (original commission) [see note 1]. Between 1520 and 1574, probably given by Philip II of Spain (b. 1527 - d. 1598) to the Escorial, Madrid [see note 2]. By 1835, Don Infante Sebastián Gabriel Borbón y Braganza (b. 1811 - d. 1875), Madrid [see note 3]; 1837, confiscated from Braganza by Isabella II, Queen of Spain (b. 1830 - d. 1904) [see note 4]; by 1868, returned by the Queen of Spain to Sebastián Gabriel Borbón y Braganza [see note 5]; 1875, by descent to his son Pedro de Borbón y de Borbon, Duque de Dúrcal (b. 1862-d. 1892); April 5, 1889, Borbón y de Borbón sale, American Art Association, New York, lot 67, to Henry Lee Higginson (b. 1834 - d. 1919), Boston and his wife, Ida Agassiz Higginson (b. 1837 - d. 1935); 1893, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lee Higginson to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 30, 1893)

NOTES:
[1] See Dirk de Vos, Rogier van der Weyden: The Complete Works (Antwerp, 1999), cat. no. 8, pp. 203, 206, n. 14. The panel may have been installed in the chapel devoted to St. Catherine at the Cathedral of St. Gudule, where the city's guild of painters held their services and where the artist was buried. Alternatively, it may have been installed in their guildhouse. Luke was the patron saint of painters' guilds.

[2] See De Vos (as above, n. 1), pp. 200, 203-204. This was probably the painting seen by the artist Albrecht Dürer during his stay in Brussels in 1520, and it is probably the painting listed in the 1574 inventory of works of art Philip II placed in the Escorial.

[3] Inventory, Galería de Pinturas del Serenísimo Señor Ynfante Don Sebastian Gabriel, 1835, no. 102 (attributed to Lucas van Leyden). Archivo de Palacio, Sección Histórica, caja 123, as cited by Mercedes Agueda, "La colleción e pinturas del infante Don Sebastián Gabriel," Boletín del Museo del Prado, III, 8 (1982): 109.

[4] In 1837, Sebastián Gabriel Maria de Borbón y Braganza's possessions were confiscated for political reasons and the paintings were exhibited in the Museo de la Trinidad.

[5] The painting was returned to Braganza when he recognized Isabella II as the Queen of Spain. Exhibited, "Catalogue abrégé des tableaux exposés dans les salons de l'ancien asile de Pau, appartenant aux héritiers de feu Mgr. l'Infant don Sébastien [Gabriel] de Bourbon et Bragnace" (Pau, September, 1876), no. 641.

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