| Maker(s): | Bruyn, Bartholomaeus, the elder
| | Culture: | German (1493 - 1555)
| | Title: | The Coronation of the Virgin
| | Date Made: | 1515
| | Type: | Painting
| | Materials: | oil on wood, painted on both sides
| | Place Made: | Germany
| | Measurements: | open: 34 3/4 in x 49 3/4 in x 1 3/4 in; 88.265 cm x 126.365 cm x 4.445 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | unsigned, undated, painted on coat of arms: 1515
| | Accession Number: | SC 2006.1
| | Credit Line: | Purchased with the Hillyer-Tryon-Mather Fund; the Beatrice O. Chace, class of 1928, Fund; the Dorothy C. Miller, class of 1925, Fund; the Madeleine H. Russell, class of 1937, Fund; the Janet Wright Ketcham, class of 1953, Fund; the Margaret Walker Purinton Fund; the Carol Ramsay Chandler Fund; the fund in honor of Charles Chetham; the Katherine S. Pearce, class of 1915, Fund; and the Eva W. Nair Fund
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Currently on view |
Label Text:
Altarpieces of this modest size were usually placed in private chapels. The Bruyn altarpiece was commissioned by Peter von Clapis, a lawyer and professor at the University of Cologne. On the brink of the German Reformation, observant Catholics of means would commission works with sacred subjects of their choosing. They often requested that their own portraits be included: Clapis and his wife are shown kneeling in the central panel at the feet of the Virgin Mary.
The central scene portrayed here is the Coronation of the Virgin, which is drawn from the Apocrypha, a group of Christian texts not found in the Bible. The side panels depict Saint Ivo, the patron saint of lawyers, and Saint Anne, the mother of Mary. When the side panels are closed, the figures of Mary and the Angel Gabriel painted on their exterior form a scene of the Annunciation, when Mary was informed that she would give birth to Jesus.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2006.1 |
