Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420 – 1475/1476) was a Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444.
Introduction
Christus was born in Baarle-Hertog, near Antwerp, Belgium. Long considered a student of and successor to Jan
van Eyck, his paintings have sometimes been confused with those of Van Eyck. At the death of Van Eyck in 1441, it was
reasoned, Christus took over his master's workshop. In fact, Christus purchased his Bruges citizenship in 1444, three years after
Van Eyck's death. Had he been an active pupil in Van Eyck's Bruges workshop in 1441, he would have received his citizenship
automatically after the customary period of one year and one day. In other words, Christus may be Van Eyck's successor in the
Bruges school, but he was by no means his pupil. In fact, recent research reveals that Christus, long seen only in his great
predecessor's light, was an independent painter whose work shows just as much influence from, among others, Dirk Bouts, Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden.
It is still unknown whether Christus visited Italy, and brought the style and technical
accomplishments of the greatest Northern European painters directly to Antonello da
Messina and other Italian artists, or whether his paintings were purchased by Italians. A document testifying to the
presence of a "Piero da Bruggia" (Petrus from Bruges?) in Milan may suggest that he visited that city at the same time as
Antonello, and the two artists may even have met. This might account for the remarkable similarities between the Portrait of a
Man attributed to Christus in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and many of Antonello's portraits, including the supposed
self-portrait in the National Gallery in London. It would also be a convenient means of explaining how Italian painters learned
about oil painting and how Northern painters learned about linear perspective. Antonello, along with Giovanni Bellini, was one of
the first Italian painters to use oil paint like his Netherlandish contemporaries. And Christus' Virgin and Child Enthroned
with Saints Francis and Jerome in Frankfurt, seemingly dated 1457 (the third digit is illegible), is the first known Northern
picture to demonstrate accurate linear perspective. The composition of a Lamentation now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art so closely inspired a marble relief by Antonello Gagini in the cathedral at Palermo that it has been
suggested that the picture may have been painted for an Italian client.[1]
A late work, the reserved Portrait of a Young Girl belongs
among the masterworks of Flemish painting, marking a new development in Netherlandish portraiture. It no longer shows the sitter
in front of a neutral background, but in a concrete space defined by the wall panels. Christus had already perfected this format
in his two portraits of 1446. The unknown woman, whose exquisite clothing suggests that she might come from France, radiates an
aura of discretion and of nobility, while appearing slightly unreal in the elegant stylization of her form.
Christus died in Bruges in 1475 or 1476. Hans Memling succeeded him as the next great painter in Bruges.
Signed and dated works
Christus produced at least six signed and dated works, which form the basis for any other attributions to him. These are: the
Portrait of Edward Grymeston (on loan to the National Gallery, London, 1446), the Portrait of a Carthusian
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1446), the so-called St. Eligius in His Shop (Metropolitan Museum of Art [Robert
Lehman Collection], New York, 1449), the Virgin Nursing the Child (now in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
Antwerp, 1449), the so-called "Berlin Altar Wings" with the Annunciation, Nativity, and Last Judgment (Gemaldegalerie,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1452), and the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Jerome and Francis (Stadelsches
Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1457?--the digits are not clear). In addition, a pair of panels in the Groeningemuseum in
Bruges (showing the Annunciation and Nativity) bears a date of 1452, but its authenticity is suspect.
Other works
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Jan de Vos (the "Exeter Madonna")
St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine (formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, destroyed during World War II)
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (UK)
Christ as the Man of Sorrows with Two Angels
Groeningemuseum, Bruges
St. Elizabeth Presenting Isabella of Portugal
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels
Lamentation (Pietà)
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest
Virgin and Child Standing in an Archway
Cleveland Museum of Art
St. John the Baptist in a Landscape (attributed)
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
St. Anthony Presenting a Donor
Museum, Dessau (formerly)
Crucifixion (destroyed during World War II)
Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover
Portrait of a Kneeling Canon (fragment)
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Holy Family in a Domestic Interior
National Gallery, London
Portrait of a Young Man
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Portrait of a Man
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Virgin and Child Enthroned on a Porch
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Virgin of the Dry Tree
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Lamentation (Pietà)
Head of Christ (on parchment)
"Friedsam Annunciation" (attributed; once considered to be by Hubert van Eyck)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Lamentation (Pietà)
Private Collection
Nativity
Timkin Museum of Art, San Diego
Death of the Virgin
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Nativity
Portrait of a Male Donor and Portrait of a Female Donor (wings of a triptych)
Notes
Further reading
External link
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