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Jan van Scorel's
Tambov/Berlin Diptych
Molly Faries, Indiana University
This presentation focused on Jan
van Scorel’s diptych with the
Madonna and Child in the
Tambosvskaja Kartinnaja Galereja in
Tambov, Russia, and the
Portrait of a Man in
Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie. Since this diptych
was not included in the exhibition,
the paper reviewed the technical
documents consulted and generated
before and during the Amsterdam “
Art Before Iconoclasm” show in
1986, the only time the two panels
have ever been exhibited together.
IR, IRR, X-ray, measurements, and
stereomicroscopic examination
confirmed that the two panels
formed a diptych. Not only was the
composition of the colors
(especially in the backgrounds) the
same in both paintings but IRR (in
particular the documentation of the
Madonna done in 2000 in Utrecht)
also revealed extensive
underdrawing and subtle
compositional changes that enhanced
the inter-relatedness of the
figures across space. Although
there are fewer changes in the
portrait, those in Mary and the
Christ child affect the space
precisely at the juncture of the
two panels.
The second part of the paper
discussed the feasibility of
identifying the donor of the
diptych as Simon van Sanen, one of
the Scorel’s important patrons
during his Haarlem period, 1527-30.
The endeavor is made possible by
the existence of a related portrait
in Frankfurt (possibly the same
person as the Berlin donor) and an
identified portrait of Simon in a
Haarlem portrait series of
Commanders of the Order of St.
John. As can be surmised from
technical study, the latter
portrait has to have been taken
from a specific model that was used
not only once but twice as
positions were shifted in the
series. Visually, the three
portraits definitely share some
features, and eventually, facial
recognition techniques might
determine the quantitative
probability of a match. Some
intitial comparative work has been
done using the 3-D modeling
program, Maya. Further comparisons
using Photoshop established that
the proportional relationship of
the features was the same in the
three presumed portraits of Simon
and that this differed in a random
selection of around twenty other
portraits. A convincing
identification of the portrait in
the Tambov-Berlin diptych as Simon
van Sanen would be significant,
since he was the donor of two other
key works by Scorel, the
Baptism of Christ
(Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum) and
Mary Magdalene (Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum).
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