The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-oak panel painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within an apparition of saints. The Virgin Mary is enthroned at the centre of the semicircular space, which most likely represents a church interior, with the Christ Child on her lap. St. Donatian stands to her right, Saint George—the donor's name saint—to her left. The panel was commissioned by van der Paele as an altarpiece. He was then a wealthy clergyman from Bruges, but elderly and gravely ill, and intended the work as his memorial.
The saints are identifiable from Latin inscriptions lining the borders of the imitation bronze frame, which is original. Van der Paele is identifiable from historical records. He is dressed in the finery of a medieval canon, including white surplice, as he piously reads from a book of hours. He is presented to Mary by Saint George, his name saint, who holds aloft his metal helmet in respect. Saint Donatian, dressed in brightly coloured vestments, stands to the left. The panel is noted for the finery of clothing, including exquisite representations of furs, silks and brocades, and the elaborate and detailed religious iconography. The Virgin's throne is decorated with carved representations of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, prefigurations of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, and scenes from the Old Testament. The painting is lined with a series of inscriptions which comment on the saints, and include van Eyck's signature.
The van der Paele panel is widely considered one of van Eyck's most fully realised and ambitious works, and has been described as a "masterpiece of masterpieces".Van Der Elst (1944), 65
Commission
Joris van der Paele is identifiable both from his resemblance and by the paternal and maternal coat of arms at the corners of each frame.Brine (2015), 184 He was born in Bruges around 1370, and spent his early career as a papal scribe in Rome before returning to his native city in 1425 as a wealthy man.Borchert (2008), 56 He was appointed to a canonry of St. Donatian's collegiate church, a position which gave him income from the various parishes under his remit.Lane (1990), 1, 5
An illness around 1431Lane (1990), 1 left van der Paele unable to fulfil the functions of his office, and led him to reflect upon his position as canon and on his mortality. In response he endowed a chaplaincy to the church and commissioned this work from van Eyck. The artist was at the height of his fame and in high demand, and this, along with the large size of the panel, meant that the commission took a lot longer to complete than was initially envisioned; two completion dates can be found on the frame, implying that the earlier date was aspirational and missed.Brine (2015), 186
In return for the bequest, the church granted the canon a requiem mass, a daily mass and three votive masses a week, meant to intercede with the divine on his behalf. A second chaplaincy in 1443Rothstein (2005), 211 centred on prayers for his family, and guaranteed that after his death, the requiem mass would end with readings of the Miserere mei and De profundis.van Oosterwijk, Anne. "Madonna with Canon Joris Van der Paele". Vlaamse kunstcollectie. Retrieved 18 August 2012
Van der Paele may have kept the panel in his private chambers or as a church altar.Dhanens (1980), 212 He donated it to the church either in 1436 or on his death in 1443; it remained there until the church was demolished in 1779. Most likely the work was situated in the nave as an accompaniment to an altar for Saints Peter and Paul and used for memorial masses for van der Paele and his family. It was installed on the main altar after the Iconoclasm of 1566.
An inscription on the lower imitation frame refers to der Paele's benefaction: "Joris van der Paele, canon of this church, had this work made by painter Jan van Eyck. And he founded two chaplaincies here in the choir of the Lord. 1434. He only completed it in 1436, however."Borchert (2011), 146
Description
The painting is set in a rounded church with ambulatories.Dhanens (1980), 215 Mary occupies the area where the altarpiece would usually be positioned.Smith (2004), 225 The panel has a sculptural look; the throne, windows, arches and hanging canvases borrow from the conventions of Romanesque architecture. The painting is, after the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, van Eyck's second largest extant painting, and the only one in a horizontal framing. The Virgin and Child is characterised by its innovative use of illusionism and complex spatial composition. It retains its original oak frame,Verougstraete (2015), 412 which contains several Latin inscriptions, including van Eyck's signature, the date of completion, the donor's name, and texts related to St. George and St. Donatian.Verougstraete (2015), 101 The upper border contains phrases from the Book of Wisdom, comparing Mary to an "unspotted mirror".
The figures, the minutely detailed clothes, and the architecture of the room and windows are depicted with a high degree of realism. Van Eyck's mastery at handling oil can be seen in the differing breadths of brush strokes. The precision of the detail achieved is especially noticeable in the rendering of threads of St. Donatian's blue and golden embroidered cope and mitre, in the weave of the oriental carpet, and in the stubble and veins on van der Paele's aging face.Huerta (2003), 41
Figures
As with van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, the panel creates an intimate setting between the donor and Virgin. This is emphasised by the donor's physical proximity to the Virgin which, according to art historian Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "mentally and pictorially [breaches] the barriers between heaven and earth" and implies the "patrons are visually immortalized as meriting the Virgin and Child's personal attention."Smith (2004), 228 The intimacy is further enhanced by small details such as the overlap between the donor and Saint George, who casts a shadow on van der PaeleRothstein (2005), 53 and seems to have accidentally stepped on his surplice as he leans forward to introduce the canon to the Virgin.
St. Donatian
St. Donatian is positioned to the left of the Virgin, the more significant position in heraldic terms, and reflective of his status as dedicatee of the cathedral the painting was made for, and of the city of Bruges. He wears a cope and mitre, vestments found in contemporary inventories of the church. His blue and gold brocade cope is embroidered with images of St. Paul and St. Peter. The colouring of his vestments is very similar to those of the Archangel in van Eyck's Dresden Triptych of 1437.Friedländer (1967), 62
Donatian stands in front of a set of windows that are just outside the pictorial space.Carter (1954), 61 He holds a jewelled processional cross in his left hand,Harbison (1997), 60 and a wheel containing five lit tapered candles in his right. The wheel is his usual attribute, and refers to an incident when he nearly drowned after being flung into the Tiber, but was saved after Pope Dionysius threw him a carriage wheel he was able to use as a float.Van Der Elst (1944), 66
Virgin and Child
The panel is one of the earliest known northern European sacra conversazione (the Virgin and Child shown with a group of saints in a relatively informal grouping) paintings.Pächt (1999), 82 The Virgin sits on an elevated throne, situated beneath a minutely detailed and extravagantly decorated brocade baldachin containing white rose patterns, symbolising her purity.Harbison (1997), 59 Given the church setting, Mary occupies the area where the altarpiece would usually be. The steps leading to the throne are covered with an oriental carpet. Her idealised facial type (and that of St. George) is very similar to the Virgin in van Eyck's Washington Annunciation.Friedländer, 64
Although the Madonna's throne is in the mid-ground, her head is level with the standing figures in the foreground, who are closer in perspective. The apse in which she sits adds to the illusion of depth and is an expanded area for her throne. A similar approach can be seen in the later Dresden Triptych, but that work contains a better handling of spatial depth; Mary's throne is moved back, and the donors and saints are relegated to wing panels. The figures in Canon van der Paele are within a more confined space, are somewhat cramped, but far more monumental.Pächt (1999), 83
The Child has curly blond hair and sits on a white cloth, animated and upright, at the side of the Virgin's lap. Like Mary, his body is shown frontally, his head in three quarters view.Pächt (1999), 84 He reaches for what seems to be a parrot perched on her lap. At some point the Child's nudity was covered up; this overpaint was removed during a late 20th-century restoration.Friedländer (1967), 42 He is intended to represent both the host and Eucharist, common allusions in Early Netherlandish art and reflecting that the panel was intended for the celebration of Mass.
St. George
St. George stands in lavishly decorated armour, and appears relaxed and nonchalant, raising his helmet and left hand to introduce van der Paele.Borchert (2008), 58 The saint was the donor's name saint and St. Donatian's Cathedral was built () to house a relic of one of his arm bones.McDonald, (2002), 14 George's armour is similar to that of St. Michael in van Eyck's Dresden Triptych, while his steel shield resembles those in the Knights of Christ panel of the Ghent altarpiece.
Art historian Max Jakob Friedländer notes how St. George seems hesitant and unsure of himself in such a solemn and reserved setting. He has a very young face, and seems barely in his teens, with a gawky face, which according to Friedländer "forms a strange contrast to the aged, ponderous canon". George is unsteady on his feet, and appears to struggle with having to raise his helmet while simultaneously presenting the donor, and "this seems to embarrass him".Friedländer (1967), 42-43 George is the only figure whose feet are exposed. The uncertain manner in which he gestures to the Virgin gives the impression of a shy and uncertain nature; and he raises his helmet in a hesitant manner. Friedländer observes that George's head is slightly inclined, his face "twisted into an empty smile".Friedländer (1967), 43
The Virgin and Child can be seen in the reflection of George's helmet. Van Eyck alludes to his own artistry by including his self portrait as a reflection on the knight's shield. The artist depicts himself standing at his easel, in a manner that strongly resembles the self-portrait reflected in the mirror in his Arnolfini Portrait.
In both that works he shows himself wearing a red turban similar to that seen in the 1433 possible self-portrait Portrait of a Man.Huerta (2003), 23Ridderbos et al. (2005), 68
Joris van der Paele
The painting marks a departure from conventional and contemporary European epitaphs by placing the saints and mortal donor within the same pictorial space.Borcher (2008), 53 Van der Paele kneels to the right of the Virgin and Child and seems a somewhat distracted and absent-minded figure. This is intentional, an indication that he is, in the words of art historian Bret Rothstein, "disconnected from the perceptible world", and fully absorbed in the spiritual realm. This notion is reinforced by his glasses which, although they imply education, wealth and learning, also allude to fallibility of the human, earthly senses.Rothstein (2005), 50 In keeping with the conventions of late medieval art, van der Paele does not look directly at any of the heavenly figures, but stares into the middle distance, observing social and spiritual decorum.Rothstein (2005), 51