Portrait of a Donor (recto); Saint Anthony of Padua (verso)

Description

This panel and Virgin and Child once hinged together to form a diptych, with the Virgin and Child on the left and the portrait of a man facing her on the right. The condition of the portrait is very poor, while its reverse—featuring an image of Saint Anthony of Padua—is well preserved. It is painted in grisaille, a technique that mimics sculpture through monochromatic shades of beige and gray. This outer panel would have been visible when the diptych was closed and served as a transition point between the earthly setting outside the diptych into the sacred space within, painted in colorful, lavish detail. Visual cues like Anthony’s sandaled toe stepping on the edge of the frame and the reflection of two children—perhaps the donor’s—in the convex mirror behind the Virgin reinforce the paintings’ role as an intermediary meeting point reached through prayer.

Provenance

Linker, Bilbao, 1927 [Friedländer annotated a photograph now at the R.K.D., The Hague Linker / Bilbao / III 1928 / nach Restaur[ierung]]. Hugo Perls, Berlin, 1928 [according to Friedländer’s annotations to another photograph at the R.K.D., The Hague]; sold to Arthur Sachs, New York, 1929 [letter from Friedländer to Arthur Sachs, Mar. 16, 1951, and letter from Sachs to Waltraut van der Rohe, Mar. 2, 1957; both in curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute, 1953.

Portrait of a Donor (recto); Saint Anthony of Padua (verso)

Hans Memling

c. 1485

Accession Number

79777

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

Framed: 41.3 × 33.3 cm (16 5/16 × 13 1/8 in.)

Classification

painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Arthur Sachs