New York, NY -- The first major exhibition in 45 years devoted
to Jan Gossart (ca. 1478-1532)- one of the most innovative artists
of the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands—will be on view at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning October 6, 2010. Man,
Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance
will bring together the majority of Gossart's paintings, drawings,
and prints, and place them in the context of the influences on his
transformation from Late Gothic Mannerism to the new Renaissance
mode. Gossart was among the first northern artists to travel to Rome
to make copies after antique sculpture and monuments and to
introduce biblical and mythological subjects with erotic nude
figures into the mainstream of northern painting. Most often
credited with successfully assimilating Italian Renaissance style
into northern European art of the early 16th century, he is the
pivotal Old Master who redirected the course of early Flemish
painting from the legacy of its founder, Jan van Eyck, and charted
new territory that eventually led to the great age of Rubens.
The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst
Foundation, the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, Flanders House New
York, and the Society of Friends of Belgium in America.
Additional support is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith
Foundation, Hester Diamond, David Kowitz, the Samuel H. Kress
Foundation, and Joyce P. and Diego R. Visceglia.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, in association with The National Gallery, London.
It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts
and the Humanities.
Jan Gossart has not been the focus of a monographic exhibition since
1965 (in Rotterdam and Bruges) and has never before been the subject
of an exhibition in the United States. Man, Myth, and Sensual
Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance will be divided into
eight sections and will comprise approximately 145 works, including
50 of the artist's 63 known paintings, 35 drawings, and six prints
from U.S. and international collections. In order to consider
Gossart within his artistic milieu, other works on view will include
antique and Renaissance sculpture, paintings by contemporaries
Gerard David and Bernard van Orley, and prints and drawings by
artists such as Marcantonio Raimondi, Dirk Vellert, Lucas van
Leyden, Albrecht Dürer, and Jacopo de'Barbari. A number of works in
the exhibition have been borrowed from various curatorial
departments at the Metropolitan Museum, such as European Sculpture
and Decorative Arts, Drawings and Prints, the Lehman Collection, and
Greek and Roman Art.
Among the many highlights from Gossart's oeuvre in the exhibition
will be the Virgin and Child with Musical Angels and Saints
Catherine and Dorothy (Malvagna Triptych), an exquisite gem-like
altarpiece that is Gossart's only surviving intact triptych, on rare
loan from the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia in Palermo, Italy;
the stunning Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin from the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; the magnificent Deesis panel
on exceptional loan from the Prado; the Carondelet Diptych,,
considered one of the masterpieces of early Netherlandish
portraiture, from the Musée du Louvre; the Elderly Couple, an
astonishing study of old age painted on parchment from the National
Gallery in London; and Portrait of a Man (Jan Jacobsz. Snoeck?), a
remarkably well-preserved painting from the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., that represents the peak of Gossart's artistic
achievement.
About the Artist Gossart was born in Maubeuge, today in
Northern France, in about 1478. Mabuse is the Dutch name for
Maubeuge, and thus developed the sobriquet of the artist. Nothing is
known about where Jan Gossart or "Mabuse" trained as a painter, but
documents verify that he became a member of the painters' Guild in
Antwerp in 1503. From 1508-1509, Gossart traveled to Rome with the
important court diplomat Philip of Burgundy, who was an envoy to
Pope Julius II at the Vatican on behalf of Margaret of Austria,
Regent of the Netherlands. Influenced by the antique and modern
Italian art that he encountered on his sojourn in Rome, he became a
key adherent and promoter of the art of biblical and mythological
subjects represented by nude figures. For northern painters and
their patrons rooted in the traditional manner and themes of the
late Gothic period, the new style that Gossart brought back from
Rome must have appeared shockingly avant-garde; and for the
Humanists of the time, Gossart was perhaps the first truly
Renaissance painter or "Romanist" in the north.
Upon his return from Rome, Gossart settled in Middleburg, but
apparently also spent time in Bruges working with Gerard David (ca.
1455-1523), the city's leading painter. The nature of this
collaboration has not been previously recognized, but the technical
examination of several of the paintings recently undertaken for this
exhibition has helped to clarify the specific relationship between
Gossart and David. Gossart also produced large- and small-scale
works of mythological themes with thinly veiled erotic content (a
number of which will be on view) at the request of his patron,
Philip of Burgundy. The impact of the lessons he learned in Rome as
well as a friendship with the court sculptor, Conrad Meit, led
Gossart to pursue an increasingly sculptural exploration of the
human body in his works and the relationship of figures to each
other.
Gossart's extraordinary technique and execution, as well as his
novel approach to both traditional and new themes in his art, made
for a particularly successful career. He received commissions from
some of the most noted patrons of his day, including Philip of
Burgundy, Margaret of Austria, Christian II of Denmark, and Henry of
Nassau and his wife Mencía de Mendoza.
Exhibition Overview
Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's
Renaissance will be divided into eight sections and will trace the
main areas of Gossart's achievements. The first section will be
devoted to his earliest work as a key proponent of Antwerp
Mannerism, represented chiefly by his drawings. Section two will
feature the 1508-1509 trip to Rome and will exhibit Gossart's
surviving drawings of antique sculpture and monuments that he made
at the request of Philip of Burgundy.
Section three will highlight Gossart's Bruges period and his
collaboration with Gerard David, the leading painter there at the
time. Section four will introduce the humanist court of Gossart's
chief patron, Philip of Burgundy, and Philip's interest in
mythological themes presented in a highly sensuous manner in such
works as Hercules and Deianira, Venus, and Venus and Cupid.
Section five follows the developing erotic nature of his art as well
as Gossart's further assimilation of Italian Renaissance style in
themes of both the Virgin and Child and Adam and Eve. Section six
presents Gossart's often poignant expression of themes associated
with the Passion of Christ, and demonstrates with the Deesis and the
so-called Salamanca Triptych wings that Gossart worked
simultaneously in the Late High Gothic and the Italian Renaissance
style, according to the stipulations of various commissions. Section
seven will feature drawings, many of which have never been seen
together, that show Gossart's designs for a variety of media,
including paintings, prints, metalwork, tomb sculpture, and stained
glass. The final section of the exhibition will be devoted to
portraiture. Gossart's close study of physiognomy and his
extraordinary technique and execution in paint set him apart from
his contemporaries in this genre. Portraits dating from Gossart's
earliest to his latest period will demonstrate his efforts to
achieve unrivaled verisimilitude in representations of his
contemporaries, creating personages that appear physically to emerge
from the confines of their frames.
Technical Research
Some of the most important contributions to the exhibition and
catalogue will include technical examinations of Gossart's paintings
that curator Maryan Ainsworth has undertaken in collaboration with
colleagues at many museums over the last three years. These methods
of examination include infrared reflectography, x-radiography,
pigment analysis, and microscope examination.
This research has resulted in a far more precise evaluation of
questions of attribution and dating, and of versions and copies. It
also provides a clearer understanding of Gossart's working
procedures, a closer study of the relationship between Gossart's
surviving drawings on paper and the underdrawings on his panel
paintings, and of the evolution of style in his works. This
unprecedented research on Gossart has resulted in a re-evaluation of
the artist's evolution in technique as he aimed to produce new and
different visual effects in his paintings. A video presentation
accompanying the exhibition will highlight some of these findings.
Curatorial Credits
The exhibition is conceived and organized by Maryan Ainsworth,
Curator in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of European
Paintings. After its presentation at the Metropolitan Museum, a
smaller version of the exhibition will be mounted at The National
Gallery in London from February 23 through May 30, 2011.
Catalogue and Related Programs
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue
edited by Maryan Ainsworth. This will provide a new catalogue
raisonné on the artist with contributions by Ainsworth, Stijn
Alsteens, and Nadine Orenstein of the Metropolitan Museum, Lorne
Campbell of the National Gallery, London, Stephanie Schrader of the
J. Paul Getty Museum, Matt Kavaler of the University of Toronto, and
Peter Klein of the University of Hamburg. It will be published by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press and will be
available in the Museum's bookshops (hardcover, $75.00).
The catalogue is made possible by the Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh
Publications Fund and the Roswell L. Gilpatric Publications Fund.
Additional support is provided by the Doris Duke Fund for
Publications
