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Albrecht Bouts in the Brukenthal Collection: A New Attribution for a Unique Self-‘Memento Mori’ Portrait

par Henderiks, Valentine
Référence Acta Mvsei Brvkenthal, XI, page (175-187)
Publication Publié, 2016-09-24

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

In 2011, during an interdisciplinary excursion in Transylvania, I recognized the self-portrait of an aged Albrecht Bouts (Leuven 1451/55-1549) in a painting from the Brukenthal collection in Sibiu. Prior to the publication of my monograph on the master, I added a reproduction of the painting as an epilogue to the book, but without any in-depth study. The painting shows a Portrait of a man with a skull and was attributed by Max J. Friedlander in 1937 to the Master of the Saint Augustine Legend. More recently, Jan de Maere (2007-2009) attributed the work to the circle of Michel Sittow. However, from a stylistic and morphological point of view, the face of the man in the painting is clearly that of Dirk Bouts' youngest son, Albrecht. Indeed the face shows astonishing similarities with the Albrecht Bouts self portrait on the right wing of the autographed triptych of the Assumption of the Virgin in Brussels, even if several years separate the two paintings. In 2012, I had the opportunity to examine the Sibiu panel, exhibited in the Villa Vauban in Luxembourg, and to make scientific investigations with my colleagues from the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. Both the painting technique and the results of the X-radiography and infrared reflectography confirm the Albrecht Bouts attribution. The stylistic comparisons and the technological examinations of the Sibiu painting confirm the hypothesis of a late self portrait of the master, which would be therefore the only known Flemish painting from the first half of the sixteenth century representing the self portrait of a painter as a memento mori.