Peter Christ

Portrait of a young lady , around 1470, ev. Lady Talbot, Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

Portrait of a Cathaeus , 1446. Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York

Madonna and Child (so-called Carthusian Madonna) , around 1450. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Nativity , 1460s. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Petrus Christus (* around 1410 / 1420 in Baarle ; † 1475/76 in Bruges ) was a Flemish painter who is 1444 in Bruges in the tradition of Jan van Eyck presented.

Live and act

Petrus Christ acquired citizenship in Bruges in 1444 and opened his own workshop there as a painter and achieved a high social reputation by the 1460s at the latest. According to recent research, he died in Bruges between September 2, 1475 and December 19, 1476.

Petrus Christ was shaped by the art of Jan van Eyck , whose style he combined with influences from Rogier van der Weyden and Robert Campin . But today he is no longer counted among Van Eyck's direct pupils. It is also rather unlikely that after Van Eyck's death in 1441 he took over and continued to run his workshop. In any case, he painted based on his style, so that his works were often attributed to the older artist in the past. In this way, Christ exerted significant influence on other masters of the Bruges painting school around the middle of the 15th century, such as Dierick Bouts and Geertgen tot sint Jans . Together with Hans Memling , he shaped painting in the important art center Bruges for a long time.

It is not clear whether Christ traveled to Italy and conveyed stylistic elements and technical achievements of the Northern European painters directly to Antonello da Messina and other Italian artists, as is often assumed. It is known, however, that his paintings were appreciated and bought by Italians. In his work there are again motifs and artistic concepts originating from Italy, such as the consistent application of linear perspective. Christ ' Mary with the Child with Saints Francis and Jerome from 1457 in Frankfurt is one of the earliest known paintings from the Netherlands that use a strict linear perspective with a vanishing point. A document attesting to the presence of a “Piero da Bruggia” (Peter from Bruges?) In Milan suggests that he visited this city at the same time as Antonello.

He is less valued than Van Eyck in his religious paintings; his portraits, on the other hand, which are characterized by static sobriety, achieve a strong physical effect by concentrating on a few, particularly sharp-edged facial details and are full of character and life. The background of the portraits is reduced, but concrete-spatial and no longer undefined. Petrus Christ was one of the first Flemish painters to be intensively involved in portraiture. One of his main works is the portrait of a young lady that hangs in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin today .

Only six of his works can be safely assigned with a signature ( Petrus XRI ), the other images have been indexed.

Works

National Gallery of London

• Portrait of a Young Man , 1460 wood, 35.5 × 26.3 cm

Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City

• Portrait of a Carthusian , 1446 Oil on panel, 29.2 × 21.6 cm
• Goldsmith in his shop, possibly St Eligius , 1449, on wood, 98 × 85 cm
• Lamentation , around 1450, oil on panel
• Head of Christ , around 1445, oil on parchment, 14.9 × 10.8 cm

State Museums, Berlin

• Annunciation and Birth , 1452, wood, 134 × 56 cm
• Last Judgment , wood, 134 × 56 cm
• Madonna and Child , oil on panel
• Portrait of a young lady , possibly Lady Talbot, ca.1450, wood, 28 × 21 cm

National Gallery of Art Washington DC

• The birth , around 1450/60
• Portrait of a Benefactor , around 1455
• Portrait of a Benefactress , around 1455

Städel , Frankfurt am Main

• Portrait of a man with a falcon , mid-15th century, silver pen, 19 × 14.4 cm
• Madonna with Child and Saints Jerome and Francis , dated 14 [...] 7 (probably 1457), mixed media on oak wood, 46.7 × 44.6 cm. Early application of the one-point perspective.

Different museums

• Portrait of Edward Grimston , 1446, oil on panel, 33.6 × 24.7 cm, Baron von Verulam Collection, London
• Isabel of Portugal with St. Elizabeth , 1457–1460, oak panel, 59 × 33 cm, Groeningemuseum , Bruges
• Nativity , 1452, wood, 85.5 × 54.8 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
• Death of the Virgin , 1460–1467 Wood, 171.1 x 138.4 cm, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, California
• The Lamentation approx. 1455–1460, oil on panel, 100.5 × 192 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
• The Suffering Christ , 1444–1446, Wood, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

gallery

• 

  St. Eligius in his workshop , 1449. Metropolitan Museum of Art

• 

  Birth of Christ , 1452. Picture gallery

• 

  Mary with the Christ Child , 1460–65. Museo del Prado , Madrid

• 

  Maria , around 1462–65. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum , Madrid

• 

  Last Judgment , 1452. Picture gallery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maximilian J. Martens: Petrus Christ. A Cultural Biography. In: Ainsworth: Peter Christ. New York, pp. 15-23, here p. 19.
2. ↑ Maximilian J. Martens: Petrus Christ. A Cultural Biography. In: Ainsworth: Peter Christ. New York 1994, pp. 15-23.
3. ↑ Online catalog
4. ↑ Ainsworth: Peter Christ. New York 1994, p. 43.

literature

• Maryan Wynn Ainsworth: Peter Christ. Renaissance Master of Bruges . Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York 1994, ISBN 0-87099-694-0 (catalog for the exhibition of the same name, New York, April 14 - July 31, 1994). Internet access
• Ursula Panhans-Bühler: Eclecticism and Originality in the Work of Peter Christ . Holzhausen Verlag, Vienna 1978. (Viennese art historical research; 5)
• Burkhard Richter: Investigations into the work of Peter Christ . Dissertation, University of Heidelberg 1974.
• Peter H. Schabacker: Petrus Christ . Dekker & Gumbert, Utrecht 1974.
• Joel M. Upton: Peter Christ. His place in fifteenth century Flemish painting . Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1990, ISBN 0-271-00672-2 .

Web links

Commons : Petrus Christus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Peter Christ at Zeno.org .