Joos van Wassenhove

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Triptych in Ghent
Albertus Magnus , around 1475, Urbino
Euclid of Megara , panel around 1474, Urbino

Joos van Wassenhove (also Justus van Gent ), Justus or Jodocus of Ghent , or Giusto da Guanto (* around 1410, † around 1480) was a Flemish painter who later worked in Italy.

Life

The city ​​archives of Ghent have been searched - unsuccessfully - for a reference to the history of the painter, whom the biographers Vasari and Guicciardini called Giusto da Guanto (Justus from Ghent). Flemish historians of the 16th century expanded Vasari's scant and unsubstantiated statements by declaring him a pupil of Hubert van Eyck . The registers of the Guild of St Luke in Gents contain six masters named Joos or Jodokus who worked in Ghent in the 15th century. However, no work by any of these masters has survived, and it is impossible to match their style with Giusto's.

Between 1465 and 1474 the painter created the Last Supper of the Apostles described by Vasari , which is now in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino . It was commissioned in the name of Federico da Montefeltro for the Brotherhood of Corpus Christi . Montefeltro is depicted as the companion of Caterino Zeno , who was then the Persian envoy on a mission at the court of Urbino. Based on this strange portrayal, it can be assumed that Giusto was far from being a pupil of the presumed Hubert Van Eycks, but must have studied with a later master, perhaps Dieric Bouts .

Giusto falls behind the better-known painters from Flanders in terms of composition and as a draftsman ; although his portraits are good, his typography lacks sophistication of character or expression. Technically he can be compared with Geertgen tot Sint Jans , whose most famous pictures are collected in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna . The Florentine bookseller Vespasian, who contributed a lot to the taste of Federico da Montefeltro, reports that the Duke of the Netherlands asked a skilled master to create a series of pictures of ancient personalities for a recently built library in the palace of Urbino. It has been suggested that Joos van Wassenhove was the author of these 28 portraits of famous men that are kept in the Louvre and the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.

However, there are distinct differences between these images and the Apostles' Last Supper . It is still possible that Giusto had softened his Flemish style after studying the masterpieces of Raphael and Melozzo da Forlì for a period of time , and thus acquired this mixed painting style of Flemish and Italian influences, which these portraits of notables express. If such an adaptation really did take place, it would indicate a certain admiration for the Flemish style, considering that Raphael not only valued these portraits but even recorded them in his sketchbook, which is now one of the jewels of the Venetian Accademia .

There is no reason to assume that Giusto da Guanto is identical to the painter Justus d'Allamagna , who created the Annunciation (1451) in the cloister of Santa Maria di Castello near Genoa . The drawing and coloring of this mural clearly indicate that Justus d'Allamagna came from southern Germany, while his namesake from Urbino was a native of the Netherlands.

Works

  • Adoration of the Magi
  • Calvary
  • Communion of the Apostles (currently in the Galleria Nazionale, Urbino)

literature

Web links

Commons : Justus van Gent  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wassenhove, Joos van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gent, Justus van; Justus; Ghent, Jodocus of; Guanto, Giusto there
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish painter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1410
DATE OF DEATH around 1480