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Death and the Miser

This is a Flemish Masterpiece

Manufacturer

Jan Provoost

Period and date

16de eeuw
(circa 1515 - circa 1521)

These four panels were originally the panels of a triptych. The front and backs sides of the panels were separated before 1861 by sawing them lengthwise. It is assumed that the centre panel was lost. The unknown founders are depicted in the company of St Nicholas and Godelieve, kneeling in front of a prayer bench in the open air. Behind them, episodes from the lives of saints take place. St Godelieve can be recognized by her attribute: the cloth that was used to strangle her is tied around her neck. The two rear sides of the panels form a continuous scene. A moneychanger points to a line in an accounting register. Death lays down some tokens and points to the text held out to him by the money changer, presumably a promissory note. It is possibly that the man in the doorway with a raised finger is the artist.

MASTERPIECE

Jan Provoost was a prominent artist within the Bruges painters’ guild, and he regularly held the position of first and second supervisor, and was twice the guild’s dean. It is no surprise, then, that he met Albrecht Dürer twice during his journey through the Netherlands. We know from Dürer’s travelogue that he met Provoost in 1520, in Antwerp, and that they travelled together from Antwerp to Bruges in 1521, where Dürer stayed with Provoost for three days. The German artist drew the Bruges man on both occasions. Once in charcoal and once in silverpoint. Dürer’s "Portrait of a man" in chalk (The British Museum, London) bears great resemblance to the figure in the doorway in the Bruges painting, both in physiognomy and in the age of the person portrayed. For this reason, several scholars assume that this must be Jan Provoost. It is also striking that – although the painting has an elaborate underdrawing – the man in the doorway is not underdrawn. It is common for portraits in 16th-century paintings not to have been underdrawn, which further supports the hypothesis that this is very likely a portrait of Jan Provoost. Why Provoost wanted to portray himself on these panels, though, remains a mystery.



Details

Subjects
Opschrift
opschrift (onderaan): Icc Jan Lanckart kenne ontfan / hebben van Leunis pape / van hane [hans?] Roedrager in / offre misse [?] .x.Ib [?] wij [?] Daat / zoe est ghes [ghescreven?] ijc wel vernought / ben ic van deze / by my lane kart.
Dimension
geheel, height: 119.7 cm
geheel, width: 157.8 cm
met lijst, height: 133.5 cm
met lijst, width: 184.5 cm
met lijst, depth: 5.5 cm

Identification

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Verzameling
Category
Objectnaam
Materials
Inventory number
0000.GRO0218.I

Linked open data

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IIIF manifest
Copyright
Musea Brugge is committed to making its data available as usable open data. Images of works of art which are not subject to copyright restrictions are therefore published under the Creative Commons Zero licence. These may be used freely.

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Manufacturer

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Period and date

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Manufacturer

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Period and date

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The Miser

Manufacturer

Jan Provoost

Period and date

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(circa 1515 - circa 1521)
Death and the Miser

Manufacturer

Jan Provoost

Period and date

16de eeuw
(circa 1515 - circa 1521)
Death

Manufacturer

Jan Provoost

Period and date

16de eeuw
(circa 1515 - circa 1521)

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