Gerard David | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait inThe Virgin among the Virgins, 1509,[1]Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen | |
| Born | c. 1460 |
| Died | 13 August 1523 (aged 62–63) |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Early Netherlandish painting |
Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was anEarly Netherlandish painter andmanuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been theMeester gheraet van brugghe who became a master of the Antwerp guild in 1515. He was very successful in his lifetime and probably ran two workshops, in Antwerp and Bruges.[2] Like many painters of his period, his reputation diminished in the 17th century until he was rediscovered in the 19th century.
He was born inOudewater, now located in the province ofUtrecht. His year of birth is approximated as c. 1450–1460 on the basis that he looks to be around 50 years in the 1509 self-portrait found in hisVirgin among the Virgins.[3][4] He is believed to have spent time in Italy from 1470 to 1480, where he was influenced by theItalian Renaissance.[4] He formed his early style underAlbert van Oudewater inHaarlem, and moved to Bruges in 1483, where he joined theGuild of Saint Luke in 1484.[4][5]
Erwin Panofsky identifies David as a student ofGeertgen tot Sint Jans.[6] Upon the death ofHans Memling in 1494, David became Bruges' leading painter. He became dean of the guild in 1501,[7] and in 1496 marriedCornelia Cnoop, daughter of the dean of thegoldsmiths' guild.[8] David was one of the town's leading citizens.[9]
Ambrosius Benson served his apprenticeship with David. Around 1519 they had a dispute over a number of paintings and drawings which Benson had collected from other artists. David refused to return the materials because Benson owed him a large debt.[10] Benson sought legal recourse in court and after he won, David was condemned to a prison term.[11][12]
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He died on 13 August 1523 and was buried in theChurch of Our Lady in Bruges.[13]
David's surviving work mainly consists of religious scenes. They are characterised by an atmospheric, timeless, and almost dream like serenity, achieved through soft, warm and subtle colourisation, and masterful handling of light and shadow.[14] He is innovative in his recasting of traditional themes and in his approach to landscape, which was then only an emerging genre in northern European painting.[3] His ability with landscape can be seen in the detailed foliage of hisTriptych of the Baptism and the forest scene in the New YorkNativity.[14]
Many of the art historians of the early 20th century, includingErwin Panofsky andMax Jakob Friedländer saw him as a painter who did little but distill the style of others and painted in an archaic and unimaginative style. However today most view him as a master colourist, and a painter who according to theMetropolitan Museum of Art, worked in a "progressive, even enterprising, mode, casting off his late medieval heritage and proceeding with a certain purity of vision in an age of transition."[15]
In his early work David followed Haarlem artists such asDirk Bouts, Albert van Oudewater,[4] andGeertgen tot Sint Jans, though he had already given evidence of superior power as a colourist. To this early period belong theSt John of theRichard von Kaufmann collection in Berlin and theSalting'sSt Jerome. In Bruges he came directly under the influence of Memling, the master whom he followed most closely. It was from him that David acquired a solemnity of treatment, greater realism in the rendering of human form, and an orderly arrangement of figures.[16]
He visited Antwerp in 1515 and was impressed with the work ofQuentin Matsys,[3] who had introduced a greater vitality and intimacy in the conception of sacred themes. Together they worked to preserve the traditions of the Bruges school against influences of the Italian Renaissance.[4]
The works for which David is best known are thealtarpieces painted before his visit to Antwerp: theMarriage of St Catherine at the National Gallery, London; the triptych of theMadonna Enthroned and Saints of theBrignole-Sale collection inGenoa; theAnnunciation of the Sigmaringen collection; and above all, theMadonna with Angels and Saints (usually titledThe Virgin among the Virgins), which he donated to theCarmelite Nuns of Sion at Bruges,[17] and which is now in theRouen museum.[18][16]
Only a few of his works have remained in Bruges:The Judgment of Cambyses,The Flaying of Sisamnes and theBaptism of Christ in theGroeningemuseum, and theTransfiguration in the Church of Our Lady.[16]
The rest were scattered around the world, and to this may be due the oblivion into which his very name had fallen; this, and the fact that, some believed that for all the beauty and the soulfulness of his work, he had nothing innovative to add to the history of art.[15][16]
Even in his best work he had only given newer variations of the art of his predecessors and contemporaries. His rank among the masters was renewed, however, when a number of his paintings were assembled at the seminal 1902Gruuthusemuseum, Brugesexhibition of early Flemish painters.[16]
He also worked closely with the leadingmanuscript illuminators of the day, and seems to have been brought in to paint specific important miniatures himself, among them aVirgin among the Virgins in theMorgan Library, aVirgin and Child on a Crescent Moon in theRothschild Prayerbook,[19] and a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian in Vienna. Several of his drawings also survive, and elements from these appear in the works of other painters and illuminators for several decades after his death.[20]
Less known but also of high quality are the works of David found in Spanish public collections.The Prado Museum in Madrid owns a table "Rest on the flight into Egypt" resembling the one in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The Prado also holds another two Works by the painter, one of them only attributed.[21] Another one of the Spanish capital's Museums,The Thyssen-Bornemisza holds a "Crucifixión"[22] from 1475.
At the time of David's death, the glory of Bruges and its painters was on the wane: Antwerp had become the leader in art as well as in political and commercial importance. Of David's pupils in Bruges, onlyAdriaen Isenbrandt,[4]Albert Cornelis, andAmbrosius Benson achieved importance. Among other Flemish painters,Joachim Patinir,Jan Mabuse and theMaster of the Plump-Cheeked Madonnas were to some degree influenced by him.[16][23]
David's name had been completely forgotten when in 1866William Henry James Weale discovered documents about him in the archives of Bruges; these brought to light the main facts of the painter's life and led to the reconstruction of David's artistic personality,[4][15] beginning with the recognition of David's only documented work, theVirgin Among Virgins at Rouen.[24]
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![Madonna and Child with the Milk Soup, c. 1515. Oil on panel, 25 x 29 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium[25]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGerard_David_-_Madonna_and_Child_with_the_Milk_Soup_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Konody, Paul George (1911). "David, Gerard". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 861.
Media related toGerard David at Wikimedia Commons
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