Un triptyque brugeois de la Renaissance à Castrojeriz (Burgos) et l’influence de la Madone au chanoine Van der Paele en Castille

Abstract

One of Jan van Eyck’s most celebrated works, Virgin and Child with Canon Van der Paele (Bruges, Groeningemuseum, 1436) inspired a large number of copies between the late 15th and mid-17th centuries. These copies, which varied in their faithfulness to the original, generally took as their subject the central group formed by the Virgin and Child, and most of them seem to have been made in Bruges. This is certainly the case of the two 16thcentury triptychs discussed in this article, which remain housed in churches in the province of Burgos and clearly bear the imprint of the much-lauded work on which they are based. The first, which has links with Gerard David, can be found in the church of San Juan in Castrojeriz, and the second, close to Ambrosius Benson, in San Martín Obispo in Santa Cruz de Juarros. While the reference to Virgin and Child with Canon Van der Paele is obvious, it nevertheless appears to be the case that the authors of the two triptychs used an intermediate work as their model rather than the original painting. Furthermore, the author of the triptych held in Castrojeriz offered up a genuine critique of the composition, as imaginated by Van Eyck. Not only do the two works shed light on the practice of copying the works of the great masters in 16th century Bruges, they also reveal the interest aroused by such “retrospective” images in contemporary Castile.