Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ...

opposite
23. In this detail ofJoos van
Cleve's Crucifixion Triptych
(fig. 22), the figure with one hand
on the cross and the other on the
head of the donor must be that
man's patron saint. He has previously
been mistakenly identified
as Joseph of Arimathea, but that
saint, dressed quite differently, supports
the head of Christ in the
Entombment scene in the background.
The figure in the foreground
must be Saint Paul because
of the attribute, a sword, that
lies at his feet-just as Saint
Catherine's wheel lies at her feet
in the left wing of the triptych.
Paul (Pauwel) was not a common
Christian name in Flanders during
the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, whereas in Italy "Paolo"
was in wide use. The altarpiece is
first recorded in a private collection
in Genoa, a city with which Antwerp
had close trade connections.
These factors and the inclusion of
two Italian saints in the right
wing suggest that he was an Italian
who had business in Antwerp.
24, 25. These portraits of
Barthelemy Alatruye and Marie
Pacy are sixteenth-century copies
of originals probably by Robert
Campin. Alatruye, who lived in
Lille, died in 1446 and his wife,
in 1452. The painted borders with
the repeated motto Bien faire
Daint (Deigned to do Well) probably
reflect the original paintings'
inscribed frames. The sitters would
have appeared to be resting their
hands upon the frames' lower
edges. Musees Royaux des Beaux-
Arts de Belgique, 'Brussels, on
deposit at the Musee des Beaux-
Arts, Tournai
Independent
Portraits
t the close of the fourteenth century, the
commissioning of independent painted
portraits was primarily a prerogative of
ruling noble families. These portraits were not
so much exercises in vanity as demonstrations
of position and power. Collectively they established
a visual record of family history
that supported dynastic succession. Individu-
ally they promoted in a propagandistic way
the cause of the potentate: often copied and
presumably widely distributed, such portraits
served to remind the viewer of the ruler's
power wherever they were displayed.
With the economic prosperity and widespread
affluence at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, it seems to have become
increasingly common for members of the
lesser nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie to
commission portraits in imitation of aristocratic
practice. Certainly the desire to foster a
sense of family history was a factor. Couples
often commissioned portrait diptychs that
celebrated their conjugal union, such as those
of Barthelemy Alatruye and his wife Marie
Pacy (figs. 24, 25), sixteenth-century copies of
originals painted probably by Robert Campin.
In the fifteenth century coats of arms were
commonly included on the frames (usually
lost) or on the panels' reverses. In these copies
the sitters' coats of arms are superimposed
against the background field at the upper left.
Flemish painters arrived empirically at the
three-quarter profile view, and it became the
standard format in the north. In contrast to
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