Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book celebrates the reunion, for the first time in twenty-four years and only the second time in their history, of two masterpieces of early Netherlandish painting commissioned by the Carthusian monk Jan Vos during his tenure as prior of the Charterhouse of Bruges in the 1440s: the Frick Collection's Virgin and Child with St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth, and Jan Vos (commissioned from Jan van Eyck and completed by his workshop) and the Gemldegalerie's Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Jan Vos (painted by Petrus Christus). These works are examined with a selection of objects that place them in the rich Carthusian context for which they were created.
Drawing on a recent campaign of technical examination and new archival research, this lavishly illustrated, scholarly volume explores the works' creation, patronage, function, and reception, offering a focused look at devotional and artistic practices in Bruges during the mid-fifteenth century. This is a significant contribution to the body of published knowledge of the role played by images in shaping monastic life and funerary strategies in late medieval Europe.