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

Hans Memling

1485

oil

panel

From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago

Northern Renaissance Renaissance Renaissance Portrait

Dominant colour

About this work

This painting shows a man's portrait on one side and Saint Anthony of Padua on the other. The portrait is worn, but the saint's side is well-preserved. It was painted in a way that looks like sculpture, using shades of beige and gray. The artist used this to create a realistic image. Check out the work of artist Hans Memling.

The story of this work

Overview

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,…

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.

Exhibition history

Art Institute of Chicago, The Christmas Story in Art, 1938–39 (no cat.). Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Picture Frames, 1300–1900, 1986, no. 34.

Read the full account in the museum source.