The Dresden Triptych (or Virgin and Child with St. Michael and St. Catherine and a Donor, or Triptych of the Virgin and Child) is a very small hinged-triptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It consists of five individual panel paintings: a central inner panel, and two double-sided wings. It is signed and dated 1437, and in a permanent collection of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, with the panels still in their original frames. The only extant triptych attributed to van Eyck, and the only non-portrait signed with his personal motto, ALC IXH XAN ("I Do as I Can"),The words "As I Can" are a play on his name. Their spelling varies between examples, usually translated as Als ich can. See Dhanens (1980), 188, 385 the triptych can be placed at the midpoint of his known works. It echoes a number of the motifs of his earlier works while marking an advancement in his ability in handling depth of space, and establishes iconographic elements of Marian portraiture that were to become widespread by the latter half of the 15th century. Elisabeth Dhanens describes it as "the most charming, delicate and appealing work by Jan van Eyck that has survived".Dhanens (1980), 246
The paintings of the two outer wings become visible when the triptych is closed. They show the Virgin Mary and Archangel Gabriel in an Annunciation scene painted in grisaille, which because of their near-monochrome colouring give the impression that the figures are sculpted. The three inner panels are set in an ecclesiastical interior. In the central inner panel Mary is seated and holds the Christ Child on her lap. On the left hand wing Archangel Michael presents a kneeling donor, while on the right St. Catherine of Alexandria stands reading a prayer book. The interior panels are outlined with two layers of painted bronze frames, inscribed with mostly Latin lettering. The texts are drawn from a variety of sources, in the central frames from biblical descriptions of the assumption, while the inner wings are lined with fragments of prayers dedicated to saints Michael and Catherine.
The work may have been intended for private devotion, perhaps as a portable altarpiece for a migrant cleric. That the frames are so richly decorated with Latin inscriptions indicates the donor, whose identity is lost, was highly educated and cultured. Because of a lack of surviving documentary evidence on commissions of 15th century-Northern painting, the identities of donors are often established through evidence gathered by modern art historians. In this work, damaged coats of arms on the borders of the interior wings have been identified with the Giustiniani of Genoa – an influential albergo active from 1362 – who established trade links with Bruges as early as the mid-14th century.
Provenance and attribution The Dresden Triptych was probably in the possession of the Giustiniani family in the mid- to late-15th century. It is mentioned in a May 10, 1597 record of a purchase by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and was then sold with the Gonzaga Collection to Charles I of England in 1627. After Charles's fall and execution, the painting went to Paris and was owned by Eberhard Jabach, the Cologne-based banker and art dealer for Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin. A year after Jabach's death in 1695, it passed to the Elector of Saxony, and next appears in a 1754 inventory of the Dresden Collection, attributed to Albrecht Dürer, until the German historian Aloys Hirt in 1830 established it as a van Eyck. In the mid-19th century the Dresden catalogues first attribute it to Hubert van Eyck (d. 1426) and a few years later to Jan.
Van Eyck signed, dated and added his motto to the central panel, a fact only discovered when the frame was removed in the course of a mid-20th century restoration, and confirmed with the 1959 discovery of the signature which is placed along with the words IOHANNIS DE EYCK ME FECIT ET C[OM]PLEVIT ANNO D[OMINI] MCCCCXXXVII.ALC IXH XAN ("Jan Van Eyck Made And Completed Me In The Year 1437. As I Can"). The word "completed" (complevit) may suggest the completion date, but as master painters of the era typically had workshops to assist on major works, the wording can be seen as aggressively socially ambitious; perhaps an arrogant master painter indicating his workshop assistants had little material involvement in the panels, and that he was primarily responsible for its design and execution. This view is reinforced by the fact that it is the only non-portrait to contain van Eyck's motto, ALC IXH XAN. Until the discovery of the signature the piece was variously dated to an early piece from the 1420s to his later period in the late 1430s. Because the panels are so definitely attributed they are often used as a touchstone to date van Eyck's other works; there are a number of evident stylistic developments, including the type of stained glass windows and mouldings around the arcades, and his ability at handling perspective, which can be used to determine if other works at least pre-date the triptych.Harbison (1991), 152
The central panel has often been compared to his unsigned and undated Lucca Madonna of c. 1436. That work echoes the central panel of the Dresden triptych in a number of aspects, including the dark green canopy, the figuration and positioning of Mary, her heavily-folded dress, the orange and brown pigments of the floor, the geometric carpet and the wooden carvings. The Lucca Madonna is thought to be a portrait of the artist's much younger wife, Margaret.Harbison (1991), 97
Description The work measures including the frames. Given this miniaturist scale, the triptych probably functioned as a portable devotional piece, or altare portabile. Members of the upper-classes and nobility acquired these through papal dispensation, to use during travel and typically during pilgrimage. Van Eyck's patron and employer Philip the Good owned at least one portable triptych of which fragments survive.Luber (1998), 30
The three inner panels comprise a typical sacra conversazione, a form established in Italy in the latter half of the 14th century with a patron saint presenting the donor, usually kneeling, to an enthroned "Deity or Mother of God".Pächt (1999), 81 John Ward believes the rich and complex iconography and symbolic meaning van Eyck employed in his religious panels served to highlight the co-existence the artist saw between the spiritual and material worlds. In his earlier paintings, subtle iconographical features – referred to as disguised symbolism – are typically woven into the work, as "relatively small, in the background, or in the shadow [details]".Ward (1994), 11 These elements include the apparition of the Virgin before the donor, whose panel contains carvings that seem to be reflective of events of his life. In his religious panels after 1436, van Eyck's reliance on iconographical or symbolic elements is greatly reduced. Ward speculates the reduced size of the work or the wishes of the commissioner influenced this choice, or he "decided that he had exhausted the most interesting possibilities and ... much of his carefully planned symbolism went unappreciated by patrons or by viewers."Ward (1994), 13 According to Jacobs, the work reflects a system of symbolism in so far as heavenly and earthly objects are juxtaposed. This is most evident in the disparity between the monochromatic exterior and vivid inner panels.Jacobs (2012), 80
Frames
The triptych retains its original frames, which are both ornate and serve to protect the piece from the effects of light and smoke during travel and when in situ.Nash (2008), 239 The inner frames have recessed mouldings and are carved with gilded inscriptions, and the top corners of the two wing panels each bear a carved set of coat of arms. The lettering and phrases in Latin serve a dual purpose. They are decorative, similar to margins in medieval manuscripts, and set the context for the imagery; van Eyck would have expected the viewer to contemplate text and imagery in unison.Smith (2004), 146 Writing about Early Netherlandish triptychs, Jacobs says the inscriptions serve to distinguish and separate between the worldly and spiritual spheres, with the panels showing earthly images while the inscriptions on the frames act as reminder of heavenly influence. The letterings reinforce the duality between the earthly and heavenly, with St. Catherine's a reminder of ascetic piety while the figure herself is depicted in sumptuous garments and jewels.Jacobs (2012), 83
The inscriptions on the central panel are fragments from the Book of Wisdom (7:26 and 7:29), and Ecclesiastes (24: 23–24).Dhanens (1980), 385The lettering on that panel reads: HEC EST SPECIOSIOR SOLE ET SUPER OMNEM DISPOSTITIONEM STELLARUM LUCI COMPARATA INVENITUR PRIOR. CANDOR EST ENIM LUCIS AETERNAE ET SPECULUM SINE MACULA DEI MAIESTATIS ECT. EGO QUASI VITIS FRUCTIVICAVI SUAVITATEM ODORIS ET FLORES MEI FRUCTIS HONORIS ET HONESTATIS. ECO MATER PULCHARAE DILECTIONIS ET TIMORIS ET MAGNITUDINES ET SANCTAE SPEI ("She is more beautiful than the sun and above the whole order of the stars. Being compared with the light of day, she is found to excel. For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the flawless mirror of God's majesty. As a vine I have brought forth a pleasant fragrance, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and probity. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of greatness, and of holy hope"). see Dhanens (1980), 385; Heath (2008), 110 Those on the wing panels are taken from texts referring directly to the two saints.
Inner panels
Virgin and Child In the central panel, the Virgin and Child are enthroned in a church nave within a columned basilica running on either side.Heath (2008), 106 The columns are painted using a variety of dark red, orange and grey pigments, a colour scheme which Peter Heath describes as lending to a "sense of airy silence".Heath (2008), 107 The throne is positioned on a dais, before a lavishly detailed oriental carpet lying on a similarly geometrically designed tiled floor. The arms of the canopied throne and the arches to either side contain carved or sculptured figures, including tiny representations of Isaac, and David and Goliath,Dhanens (1980), 248 although art historian Antje Maria Neuner reads this carving as showing Jephthah sacrificing his daughter. Mary wears a richly embroidered and as is typical for van Eyck, voluminous red robe, which effectively serves as a cloth of honour.Purtle, Carol J. Review of "The Marian Paintings of Jan van Eyck", by Goodgal, Dana. Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 36, No. 4, Winter, 1983. 590–594 The robe is placed over a blue square-cut underdress edged with a jewelled border. In van Eyck's Marian paintings, he almost always clothes her in red writes Pächt, which makes her seem to dominate the space. The Christ Child is naked and holds towards the donor a banderole adorned with a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew (11:29), DISCITE A ME, QUIA MITIS SUM ET HUMILIS CORDE ("Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart").