Lot 1506 Dα

This panel, probably slightly trimmed at the edges, shows a multi-figured representation of the Coronation of the Virgin in an unusual iconography. The panel, hitherto unknown to scholars, may be attributed to the workshop of the Wesel painter Jan Baegert and is thought to have been created between 1510 and 1520.
Six angels on the left and nine on the right hold a broad green brocade cloth in a sky of blue. Below, a group of three angels hover in the centre, to the right and left of them more angels still: a heavenly choir to festively accompany the Coronation of the Virgin in heaven. Below, the painter depicts the central theme of the composition, the Coronation of the Virgin, immediately after Her arrival in heaven following the Ascension. Once again, two angels hold a brocade cloth, now of brown which frames the scene. Very unusual is the present iconography of the Holy Trinity represented by three men of the same age, dressed in red choir robes, without their usual crowns. Above Mary, wrapped in a long dark blue robe, God the Holy Father is enthroned. He has handed over the sceptre and celestial globe to the two angels behind him, so that they have to hold the heavy cloth with one hand only. With both hands God the Holy Father holds the crown with which he will crown Mary as Queen of Heaven. On the right sits Christ, who like the other two men, wears a red choir robe over a white alb and dalmatica of brown brocade, but which differs from the other two figures in that it has precious embroidered borders and a pectoral. In front of the group of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin kneels, dressed in a blue mantle over a blue dress that spreads out on the floor with many folds. Her free-hanging golden-brown hair is held together at the forehead by a ribbon of hair adorned with pearls which falls freely over her shoulder in strands; her hands are folded in prayer. In the lower part of the picture, the brown brocade cloth is visible in its full width. Here too, two angels accompany the heavenly scene.
The stylistic features of the painting point to the workshop of the Wesel painter Jan Baegert. Born around 1465 and trained in the studio of his father Derick, he ran a productive workshop in the town of Wesel between about 1492 and 1530. He was a highly esteemed painter who received his commissions from Westphalia but also from the churches in the Lower Rhine region. His works can be found in Münster, Liesborn, Cappenberg and on the Lower Rhine in Xanten and Kalkar. Formerly known by the notname Master of Cappenberg after a triptych in the monastery church of Cappenberg, he was identified as Jan Baegert around 1950. Two other Coronation of the Virgin from his workshop are known: one from the cycle of eight scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Passion of Christ in the Stadtmuseum Münster, the other from the wings of the former high altar in Liesborn, now in the National Gallery, London. Both follow a different iconographic scheme: the scene does not take place in heaven but in an interior and the Trinity consists of two male figures and the Dove of the Holy Spirit.
Characteristic of Jan Baegert's style are his preference for precious brocades, the very linearly worked out hair and a free colouring. The typically oval shape of the angels' faces is repeated again and again. The painting was probably created during the artist's mature period, between 1510 and 1515. In his later works, especially in architecture, the first forms of the early Renaissance appear.
We would like to thank Dr Guido de Werd for this catalogue contribution.