#flemish_primitives

[italianoldmasters-jlvieites]

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470, oil on oak wood 29 x 22.50 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Petrus Christus (Flemish, Baarle-Hertog, 1420 - Bruges, 1473; fl.1444 to 1473). The Dry Tree, such a lovely name for a Confraternity to which Petrus belonged! It is thought to be one of the most exquisite portraits of the Northern Renaissance, and its influence –in the wake of van Eyck and van der Weyden’s works- was present during several decades in the European portraiture. An intriguing kind of face with even a misalignment of the sitter’s eyes. An exquisitely dressed sort of aristocratic woman is portrayed in Christus’ work. Dark background against which the woman positions herself in front of a wainscotted wall, an element (the wall) that makes the sitter be in the environment of a realistic interior (a kind of triangular space if we take as a point of the triangle her neckline). This clearly contrasted with the more elaborate and detailed backgrounds of van Eyck’s works (many pundits think that Petrus studied with Jean van Eyck, therefore, he was his master in his initial steps). Be this the case or not, our painter had a type of eclectic style which made him use pictorial elements or motifs which had already been seen in the works of artists such as van der Weyden, Campin or van Ouwater. He was the first Flemish artist to have the subject of his works in concrete spatial surroundings, which adds a great deal to the immediacy of their appearance and its realistic character. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites