A great many medieval texts are still heaped unread in old European archives. In waiting for a time when interested scholars may have had the opportunity to work through this handwritten material more thoroughly, the history of e g medieval art has to be content with a rather scarce supply of documented information. A lot of more or less well-grounded hypotheses have since long been used to fill in for the missing facts. Some of them have in the art literature, when repeated enough times, even got the character of real facts, and are today presented as such by many well-known museums, in their catalogues, and before unknowing visitors. When I have read again and again about the so-called ´Cologne´ Master of the Life of the Virgin - about whom I am going to add some new information here - or about the ´Middle Rhenish´ Master of the Housebook - identified and discussed by me in three following articles - it has often happened that four well-known nonsense lines have come into my mind:

Neither of these two in the latter part of the fifteenth century very reputed artists seems to have been living at the pretended places, although they of course on their travels probably passed through the important city of Cologne more than once. These anonymous artists are in fact among the very well-known. With their real names they are since long famed for other essential parts of their rich œuvres. The Master of the Life of the Virgin (Meister des Marienlebens) has got his anonymous name from a big winged altarpiece depicting the Life of the Virgin in eight scenes, of which seven are preserved in Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the other one in National Gallery in London; the damaged reverse sides of the wings are today dispersed. The main reasons for scholars to pretend that this artist’s activity should have been based in Cologne seem to have been the fact that the altarpiece originally was placed in St Ursula in this city, and that it was donated by Johann von Hirtz, councillor of Cologne from 1440, several times burgomaster, deceased in 1481.

The portrait of Johann von Hirtz, together with his coat of arms in the left part of the painting of the Visitation, has made it possible to date the altarpiece to the first half of the 1460s. All parts of it show scenes with several figures, referring to religious legends as told in the Legenda aurea and in the Gospels. Although the rich details of dresses and landscapes are realistic, and most of the figures are painted with a sort of pronounced dignity, it is obvious that what we see is the work of an intellectual artist who in his very skilfully painted theatrical scenes has tried hard to offer the true believers a confirmation of their idealistic imaginations. Some of the actors, who seem to be less engaged or even simulating religiosity, could be the work of some assistant in a big atelier.

The character of this great master’s painting is clearly Netherlandish, presupposing at least thorough studies in this area. It has been guessed that he should have settled down in Cologne around 1460 and that he should have been a leading artist in this city during a period about which very little is documented. His origin has, however, never been identified and no known document verifies a stay in Cologne. His German nationality has been taken for granted to the extent that there has been found eine glückliche Angleichung an kölnische Traditionen in details of dresses reminding of Lochnersche Elemente (R Budde).

The Netherlandish character of the paintings of this pace-setting artist in the Rhineland metropolis (H M Schmidt) is normally thought to be a possible result of impressions from to Cologne imported works, e g Rogier van der Weyden’s triptych with the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple, once in St Columba, now in Alte Pinakothek in Munich, guessed to be a work from the 1450s. It has also been suggested that some imported work by Dieric Bouts might have been a formative inspiration.

To the Master of the Life of the Virgin has been attributed a big triptych showing in the central panel the Crucifixion and on the left-hand wing the Mocking of Christ and on the right-hand wing the Entombment, interpreted to be the artist’s earliest known work, maybe because it was donated by Nicolaus Cusanus to the St Nikolaus Hospital that this cardinal was building in his birth town Bernkastel-Kues, and the cardinal died in 1465. Cusanus is mentioned as a great admirer of the art of Rogier van der Weyden. It is therefore difficult to accept that he should not have turned himself to Van der Weyden for the execution of his probably most important commission. Although the style of these paintings has some likeness to the Life of the Virgin series, they are yet too different to be attributed to the same artist. Maybe they have been painted by some artist in Van der Weyden’s atelier after the death of this great master in 1464.

Among other works attributed to the Master of the Life of the Virgin is a Crucifixion, dated 1465-70, in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. A less likely attribution is the Triptych of Canon Gerhard ter Streegen de Monte in the same museum, in which the central panel with the Lamentation includes a portrait of the in 1480 deceased Cologne Canon Lambert ter Streegen, a professor at the university. The quality of these paintings points at a less skilful artist, maybe the so-called Master of the Legend of St Georg, who is guessed to have been an assistant in the atelier.

Several persons on the master’s paintings are as well characterized that they may be real portraits. A half-figure painting of the Virgin and Child, guessed to be from the first half of the 1470s (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), verifies his quality as portrait painter, and so does the Vision of St Bernhard, guessed to be from c. 1480 (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne). There is, however, no documented reason to interpret the artist as ´a popular portrait painter´ in Cologne, because only two portraits are known except the above-mentioned of the donator Hirtz, and none of these persons has up to now been identified.

One of these portraits is of a proud man in half-figure holding a pair of compasses, interpreted to be the Portrait of an Architect and thought to have been painted in the 1470s (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). It shows obviously a very prominent person, studied as intimately as if he should be a near friend. Even more interesting is the half-figure portrait of a man holding a book (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe), posing with the same cold and self-conscious expression in his face as the supposed architect. It is guessed to be later, from the 1480s, maybe because it in difference to the other portrait is painted against a light landscape background. He is by the book presented as a learned man. The intensity of his expression tells us that he must have been important in the life of the artist. In fact one has the impression that it even could be the question of a self-portrait. As we will see in the following this man’s characteristic features are to be found also in a fortunately preserved part of a big altarpiece, painted by un excellent artist who up to now has never been put in connection with the so-called Master of the Life of the Virgin.

For the church of the Saint-Bertin monastery in Saint-Omer in northern France Guillaume Fillastre, the learned councillor of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, commissioned the creation of a superb and unusually expensive altarpiece, dedicated in 1459, of which some parts have been preserved painted in the style we know as typical for the Master of the Life of the Virgin and of such a surprisingly high quality that we here obviously see one of the artist’s masterpieces. Fillastre was appointed abbot of Saint-Bertin in 1447 but was not installed until in 1451. He ended his clerical career as Bishop of Tournai in 1460, after Jean Chevrot, and was a successful Burgundian diplomat. He is thought to have been born c. 1400. He was very much favoured by Philip of Burgundy, who in 1461 appointed him chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, after Jean Germain.

The altarpiece that he commissioned for the main altar of the church of Saint-Bertin shows him as unusually interested in great and magnificent art. It is described as adorned with an infinitude of precious stones which he had made in Valenciennes. The central parts of it in gilded silver sculpture were destroyed at the end of the eighteenth century. Preserved today are, however, two large painted panels (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) and two small ones (National Gallery, London).

By most scholars this altarpiece is thought to have been executed by Simon Marmion, one of the famous artists of his times, even compared to Jan van Eyck and Jean Fouquet. In J Lemaire’s poem La couronne margaritique from 1509 he is called the prince d’enluminure. In current dictionaries he is mentioned to have been born in Amiens (or maybe in Valenciennes) between 1420 and 1430. Jean Molinet, who like the artist lived in Valenciennes, precised, however, the year to 1429 in an epitaph. He is first mentioned in 1440, assisting his father, and the following year as working in Amiens. In 1489 the artist died in Valenciennes. He had then been established in Valenciennes at least since 1458. He seems to have executed very different kinds of artistic work, from illuminations in books to important altarpieces. Several members of the Marmion family are also mentioned to have been artists, e g his father, a brother and a sister.

Marmion was known as an excellent ouvrier. The big altarpiece in the Saint-Bertin monastery, with its central sculptured part decorated with precious stones, is documented as a work by an ouvrier, and is obviously a main work by Marmion. He was probably as so many other of the most talented artists still in the fifteenth century, among them probably e g Jan van Eyck, Jean Fouquet and Rogier van der Weyden, originally educated in a goldsmith’s workshop. An education as goldsmith meant often the learning of a broad spectrum of artistic work, including e g illumination and many kinds of decorative skills, sometimes even architecture. The fifteenth century was, however, a turning point against a more specialized education in painting. In the history of art it has confused some scholars that Rogier van der Weyden chose to add a specialized education in painting in the famous atelier of Robert Campin, although he obviously already was fully educated as goldsmith.

Cologne with its many churches was probably a place from which the Marmion atelier received commissions. Such a supposition is strengthened by the fact that the likenesses between the series of paintings of the Life of the Virgin and the preserved paintings from the Saint-Bertin Altar are as obvious that a reasonable conclusion must be that the anonymous so-called ´Cologne´ Master of the Life of the Virgin in fact has to be identified with the great painter Marmion. In both these series of paintings we find the same serene atmosphere and the same type of very serious persons arranged in horizontal groups, often in rich landscapes graduated as subtle that it well motivates Marmion’s reputation as a pioneer in the painting of atmospheric effects.

Already in 1454 Marmion was well-known enough to be one of the many qualified artists who were called to Lille by Philip of Burgundy for the execution of scenery and other decorations for the celebration of the brilliant Feast of the Pheasant. Maybe it was in this connection that he met Fillastre and was commissioned to execute the big altarpiece for the Saint-Bertin monastery. The in Berlin preserved wing, illustrating episodes of the life of St Bertin, has all the qualities of a work by an excellent artist in his most creative young years, before he - as maybe in the series of paintings of the Life of the Virgin - had became used to take help from assistants.

It is possible that a systematic examination of similarities between works by Marmion and the paintings that have been attributed to the Master of the Life of the Virgin would make it nearly certain that it is the question of the same artist. There is e g a great likeness between the here before mentioned portrait in Karlsruhe of a man holding a book, attributed to the Master of the Life of the Virgin, and a person standing as if important behind the two who make the agreement of building the monastery on one of the Saint-Bertin paintings. It seemes reasonable to conclude that it in both these cases could be the question of portraits of Guillaume Fillastre. But as it must be him that we see in the first of the series of paintings in Saint-Bertin, dressed as a bishop, together with coat of arms, we have to look for another person. That these paintings could be self-portraits is in a way supported by the fact that Marmion by L Guicciardini in his Descrittione de’Paesi Bassi (Antwerp 1581) is mentioned as eccellentissimo pittore e gran litterato, which might explain why the man on the portrait in Karlsruhe is holding a book.

A portrait of a very determind-looking man (Courtauld Institute Galleries, London), also holding a book, may show a rather young Fillastre. It is guessed that it should have been painted in the 1440s or 1450s by a follower of Robert Campin, which may be correct presumed that this follower is meant to be Rogier van der Weyden. An identification of the portrayed with Fillastre is supported by the painting on the reverse of a branch of holly with pointed leaves and the painted words Je be he que mord, meaning ´I have that which bites´, a self-characterizing motto that would suit well for a man who merited himself as a harsh diplomat in the service of Philip the Good.

A further strong argument for the supposition that the so-called Master of the Life of the Virgin might be identical with Simon Marmion is the fact, that the here earlier mentioned painting of a Virgin and Child (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, there attributed to the anonymous master) has a very convincing likeness to the painting of the same motif by Marmion that is preserved in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Copyright © 2001-2007 Knut Andersson. All rights reserved.