Maerten de Vos (1532-1603)
Penitent Mary Magdalene, second half of the 16th century
Oil on panel
Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici, Palazzo Ducale on a long-term loan from a private collection

The jar of ointment on the right, the skull and the long hair that falls over her body identify the protagonist with Mary Magdalene. The composition takes up the famous Penitent Magdalene painted by Titian between 1530 and 1535. The reference to the Titian model suggests that de Vos saw the original during his stay in Venice in the 1550s. It is also likely that he knew the printed works created by the Dutch engraver Cornelis Cort. The comparison with Titian highlights Maerten de Vos’s updating of sixteenth-century Italian art, with particular attention to Venetian works.

Quentin Metsys (ca. 1465-1530)
Christ Mocked, ca. 1529
Oil on panel

The depicted episode takes up the passage from the Gospel of John in which Christ, after his capture, is presented to the crowd with the words “Ecce homo” or “Behold the Man!”. The painting captures the moment in which the body of Christ, already emaciated and suffering, is offered by his tormentors to the crowd. Behind him, a man with aggressive and violent features holds the rope that binds his hands. To the left of Jesus is Pontius Pilate, richly dressed: with the gesture of his hands he intends to communicate his non-involvement in the facts, but his gaze betrays the doubt of having condemned an innocent man. Documented in Venice already in the late sixteenth century, as evidenced by the numerous derivations, including a copy preserved today in Museo Correr and a mosaic by Antonio Zuccato dated 1587, this work was noticed in 1581 by Francesco Sansovino, who remembers it on the altar of the small church of Palazzo Ducale.

Hieronymus Bosch (follower of)
Apocalyptic Vision, third quarter of the 16th century
Oil on panel

The panel depicts an apocalyptic vision, generally identified as a depiction of hell. The theme was very dear to the followers and imitators of Hieronymus Bosch, a highly renowned Dutch painter active between the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century. The set of these curious and at times cruel scenes directly recall some of the models used by the Flemish master in his works. What stands out is the attention to detail, a typically Flemish feature that was appreciated by numerous Venetian collectors of the time, interested in creating universal encyclopedic collections.

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Maerten de Vos (1532-1603)
St. John in Patmos with a Donor and a Saint, second half of the 16th century
Oil on panel
Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici, Palazzo Ducale on a long-term loan from a private collection
© Photo: KIK-IRPA

The work brings together the two doors of an altar, of which the central part is missing. On the left the donor appears praying in the company of Saint James the Greater, while on the right Saint John the Evangelist is depicted on the Greek island of Patmos intent on transcribing in his Apocalypse the vision just appeared to him in heaven. The landscape in the background, which unites the two scenes as if to suggest that they take place in the same place but at different times, summarizes the typical Nordic features of attention to detail and use of the sfumato technique.

Frans Floris attrib. (1519/20-1570) and Lambert Lombard? (1505/06-1566)
Adoration of the Shepherds, Circumcision, Adoration of the Magi, first half of the 16th century
Oil on panel
Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici, Palazzo Ducale on a long-term loan from a private collection
© Photo: KIK-IRPA

The triptych presents three episodes relating to the childhood of Jesus: in the central compartment the Adoration of the Shepherds, while in the side sections the Circumcision and the Adoration of the Magi. The style of the triptych offers a vigorous approach, with a combination of attention to detail, typically Flemish, and a descriptive character that looks to the Roman Renaissance works by Michelangelo and Raphael. At the current state of research, the attribution oscillates between two Flemish painters: Lambert Lombard and his pupil Frans Floris. After a trip to Italy in 1537, Lombard established the first Art Academy in Northern Europe in Liège (Belgium), his hometown. Among the students was Frans Floris, who stopped in Florence and Rome on his trip to Italy: upon returning to his homeland, he became an established painter.

After the rediscovery of a text by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata (AD 120–after 180), which describes The Calumny – a lost painting by Apelles, the famous court painter of Alexander the Great – Renaissance artists, including Sandro Botticelli and Raphael, began to create their own versions of the theme. This allegorical rendering of all aspects of slander offers ample opportunity for a display of artistic prowess, which is enhanced by the dimensions of De Vos’s work. In the lost painting, Apelles depicted an episode of his life in an allegorical key: at the court of King Ptolemy he had been unjustly accused of having participated in a palace conspiracy, only to be later freed from blame. In his work, De Vos depicts King Ptolemy with donkey ears. Behind him, Ignorance and Suspicion appear as bad advisors, while Slander drags a little girl by the hair, a representation of Naivety, accompanied by Envy, Deception and Betrayal. On the left, with clear reference to the positive ending of the story, appear Repentance and the Truth revealed by Time.