Object data
oil on panel
support: height 35.5 cm × width 42.9 cm
Colijn de Coter
The Lamentation of Christ
Brussels, c. 1510 - c. 1515
Technical notes
The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks (23.2 and 19.8 cm), 0.5-1.3 cm thick. By cutting approx. 0.5 cm along all edges from the back of the panel a tongue was created to facilitate the attachment of the original engaged frame. At the right, left and bottom there is evidence of a previous attachment of the panel in the frame (holes in the lower side edge). Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1415. The panel could have been ready for use by 1426, but a date in or after 1440 is more likely. At the left, top and bottom, an unpainted edge of 0.5-0.8 cm and a well-preserved barbe are present, so the thin white ground was probably applied in the frame (painted surface: 34.1 x 42.1 cm). The underdrawing may have been applied in a wet medium, and is fairly difficult to make out with infrared reflectography. Barely any underdrawing was revealed in the faces of Mary Magdalen, Nicodemus and John. The underdrawn layout, which is mainly visible beneath the Virgin and Christ, consists of contour lines for the shapes of the heads and short hatchings for the shadows and volume (fig. a). Reserves were left for the figures. The paint layers are quite opaque. The eyes, tears, hair, hands and nails were accentuated with delicate dabs with the brush.
Scientific examination and reports
- X-radiography: RMA, nos. 1464-1465, 29 January 1974
- infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 253:8-35, 8 October 1979
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters, RKD/RMA, no. RKDG402, 11 May 2006
- condition report: I. Verslype / M. Leeflang [2], RMA, 6 July 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 4 September 2007
Condition
Fair. There is some discoloured retouching along the join. The dark blue garment of the Virgin has darkened, the green robe of St John now appears brown, and the red drops of blood on Christ’s forehead have became transparent. The thick varnish is discoloured.
Provenance
…; from the dealer E.L. van Gelder, The Hague, as Anonymous, 15th century, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. no. 172), 1875; transferred to the museum, as school of Rogier van der Weyden, 1885
Object number: SK-A-856
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Colijn de Coter (? c. 1455 - Brussels in or before 1538/39)
Colijn de Coter’s date of birth is placed around 1455 on the evidence of a document of 1479 in Brussels in which he is listed as a husband, painter and tenant of a house, so he must have reached the age of majority. A further document of 1483 states that ‘Colijn de Brusele’ was registered as a free master with the Antwerp Guild of St Luke and had decorated a vault in the chapel of the Brotherhood of St Luke in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Cathedral in Antwerp. The accounts of the Brussels Brotherhood of St Eloy show that three payments were made to De Coter between 1509 and 1511 for painting a tabernacle. It is not known whether he was also registered in Brussels as a free master, but on the basis of the commissions he is known to have received it seems likely that he was active in both Antwerp and Brussels. The predicate ‘van Brusele’ (of Brussels) in the Antwerp document suggests that he was based in Brussels, as does the signature on several of his works ‘Coliin [once spelled as Colyn] de Coter pingit me in Brabancia Bruselle [in one case spelled as Bruccelle]’. Documents place De Coter’s activities as a painter between 1479 and 1511, but the style of his surviving works give every indication that he had a longer career, possibly up to 1525. Although this is sometimes taken as a reason for putting his date of death around that year, his name appears in the accounts of the Brussels Brotherhood of St Eloy for 1538-39. It is clear from that document, which relates to interest on a house and again confirms that he was based in Brussels, that De Coter had just died, or had possibly done so a few years before. His date of death must therefore have been in or shortly before 1538/39.
De Coter’s oeuvre consists mainly of commissioned altarpieces, and is grouped around three signed paintings: St Luke Painting the Virgin of 1493,1 The Trinity Altarpiece2 and The Virgin Crowned by Angels.3 The attributed works are stylistically very diverse. On the one hand Colijn de Coter was eclectic and traditional, with the compositions dominated by a few monumental figures, and on the other hand he was decidedly innovative in his interest in correct perspective and in the simplification of his painting technique. Périer-D’Ieteren has divided De Coter’s oeuvre into five chronological groups on the basis of their underdrawings and technical features.
Although not a single document points to the existence of a workshop, scholars are convinced that he headed an important and influential one on the evidence of the diversity of styles and quality within the attributed oeuvre. In addition to paintings, De Coter may also have made cartoons for Brussels tapestries.
References
Cohen in Thieme/Becker VII, 1912, pp. 552-53; Friedländer IV, 1926, pp. 119-21, 146-49; Maquet-Tombu 1937; Pauwels in Brussels 1963, p. 88; ENP IV, 1969, pp. 65-67, 101; Hibbs Decoteau 1975, pp. 5-10; Périer-D’Ieteren 1985, pp. 9-11; Périer-D’Ieteren in Turner 1996, VIII, pp. 24-26; Périer-D’Ieteren in Saur XXI, 1999, pp. 504-05; Périer-D’Ieteren in Bücken/Steyaert 2013, pp. 323-25
(Micha Leeflang)
Entry
Colijn de Coter’s Lamentation shows five figures at half length. The Virgin is supporting Christ’s head, and behind her are the mourning John and Nicodemus, the latter identified as such by the crucifixion nails he is holding.4 In the top left corner is Mary Magdalen wearing an ornate headdress.
The story of the descent from the cross followed by the Lamentation is told by Matthew (7:37-61), Mark (15:42-47), Luke (23:50-56) and John (19:38-42), but only John mentions Nicodemus’s presence at the Lamentation.5 The personalised features of Nicodemus might indicate that this is the man who commissioned the painting.6
The intimate and confrontational nature of the scene is enhanced by the fact that the figures are half lengths and that Christ’s body lies across the picture. This manner of depiction, with its emphasis on both intense sorrow and blood-stained suffering, is an extension of the late medieval tradition.7 The modest size and intimacy of the scene seem to confirm that the painting was used for private devotion.
The composition may have been inspired by paintings of the same subject with large half-length figures by Hugo van der Goes.8 The work of Rogier van der Weyden, including paintings of the descent from the cross in Strasbourg and Bruges, also appear to have had a great influence on Colijn de Coter.9 Both artists’ compositions were very popular and were copied many times.10 The relationship between the Rijksmuseum painting and the left panel of Hans Memling’s Deposition from the Cross in Granada is also striking.11
De Coter depicted the Deposition and the Lamentation on several occasions. There is at least one, fairly precise workshop copy of the present painting.12 It is also closely related in composition, style and underdrawing (fig. a) to a larger painting with The Entombment in Maastricht (fig. b and fig. c) and to the so-called Bernatsky Triptych in Madison.13
The Lamentation was described as a work ‘in the school of Rogier van der Weyden’ in the museum’s collection catalogue of 1887.14 Although it was catalogued as a Colijn de Coter in 1934,15 it was attributed to Cornelis Engelbrechtsz by Hoogewerff in 1939 and by Pelinck about ten years later.16 This was rejected in 1965 by Ringbom, who returned it to Colijn de Coter on the evidence of its style and composition. That attribution has been widely accepted ever since. Périer-D’Ieteren confirmed it in 1985 on the basis of its underdrawing and a comparison of that with paintings signed by the artist, among them the Trinity Altarpiece in Paris.17
Although the Amsterdam panel has many points of technical similarity to The Entombment in Maastricht (fig. b), the former was worked up with slightly more fluent brushwork. It is likely that both were executed around the same time, but it is unclear which was painted first.18 Maquet-Tombu assumed that the Amsterdam painting was executed around 1510, shortly after the Maastricht panel, but Ringbom suggested the opposite.19 Hibbs Decoteau suspected that both were made a little later, around 1510-15, and that the Maastricht work and the Bernatsky Triptych were derived from the painting in Amsterdam.20 Périer-D’Ieteren, finally, dated both the Maastricht and Amsterdam works c. 1504-10.21 As things stand at present, on the evidence of the underdrawing and technical aspects, it seems likely that the Amsterdam work was executed around 1510-15, shortly after the Trinity Altarpiece.
(Micha Leeflang)
Literature
Friedländer IV, 1926, p. 148, no. 104; Douwes 1932, pp. 174-84; Maquet-Tombu 1937, pp. 44-46, 95; Hoogewerff III, 1939, p. 338 (as Cornelis Engebrechtsz); De Mesquita 1941, p. 145; Pelinck 1948, p. 43 (as Cornelis Engebrechtsz); Ringbom 1965, pp. 139-40; ENP IV, 1969, p. 84, no. 104; Hibbs Decoteau 1975, pp. 223-29, 254; Périer-D’Ieteren 1985, pp. 98-101, 148; Van Wegen 2005, p. 32-33
Collection catalogues
1887, p. 190, no. 1628 (as school of Rogier van der Weyden); 1903, p. 29 no. 340 (as Anonymous, second half 15th century); 1934, p. 25, no. 340 (as attributed to De Coter); 1976, p. 178, no. A 856
Citation
M. Leeflang, 2010, 'Colijn de Coter, The Lamentation of Christ, Brussels, c. 1510 - c. 1515', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8180
(accessed 28 April 2024 17:48:20).Figures
fig. a Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of SK-A-856, showing the head of the Virgin (© Stichting RKD)
fig. a Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of SK-A-856, showing the head of the Virgin (© Stichting RKD)
fig. b Colijn de Coter, The Entombment, c. 1510-15. Oil on panel, 89 x 76.5 cm. Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum (on loan from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands)
fig. c Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of the Maastricht painting (fig. b), showing the head of the Virgin (© Stichting RKD)
fig. b Colijn de Coter, The Entombment, c. 1510-15. Oil on panel, 89 x 76.5 cm. Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum (on loan from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands)