_Mabuse_ (Flemish: about 1470-1541). _See 656._
This famous picture was acquired for the National Gallery from
Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, in 1911, for £42,776.[262] The picture
was painted in about the year 1500 for the Abbey of Grammont in East
Flanders. In 1600 it was bought for 2000 florins by the Archduke
Albert to decorate the high altar of the Court Chapel in Brussels. A
story which is recorded of it in those days is a tribute to its bright
attractiveness. During Lent it used to be concealed by the hanging in
front of it of a picture of the Crucifixion as less likely to interfere
with the penitential thoughts proper to the season. In the 18th century
the picture passed into the collection of Prince Charles of Lorraine,
Governor-General of the Netherlands, and thence into that of the
fifth Earl of Carlisle. For more than a century it remained at Castle
Howard, and many connoisseurs who saw it there wrote of it as one of
the chief art-treasures of Great Britain. "I do not think," wrote W.
Bürger (Thoré), "that there is anywhere else a picture by Mabuse so
brilliant, so well preserved, so _capital_ as the Adoration of the
Kings, belonging to the Earl of Carlisle." "For variety of character,
glow of colour, and finished execution, quite unsurpassed," said Mrs.
Jameson of it.
The pride of the artist himself in his work is shown by the fact that
he has signed his name upon it in two places--_i.e._ on the head-dress
of Balthasar, the black king, and on the metal collar of his attendant.
The signature Jennin Gossart (diminutive, Little John), was that under
which Mabuse was inscribed as a member of the Guild of St. Luke at
Antwerp. In the history of Flemish art the picture is of interest as
one of the last works painted before the "Italianising" influence
became marked. It is one of the finest specimens of Mabuse's first
period (see under 656); but it will be noticed that the architecture of
the ruin is no longer Gothic, but already shows the influence of the
Renaissance. The picture is after 400 years in perfect preservation.
It has an artistic unity, for the parts are subordinated to the
whole; but it is full of incident, which adds not a little to its
attractiveness and curious interest.
The Adoration of the Magi affords a remarkable instance of the way
in which the Bible text, first expounded by Church legends, was then
embroidered by the painters; and this example of "evolution in art"
may be studied very fully in the National Gallery, which contains
pictures of the subject painted in various schools and at various
periods. The starting-point of the whole development is the second
chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel where it is related that "wise men came
from the East to Jerusalem"; that a star guided them to Bethlehem; and
that "when they were come into the house, they saw the young child
with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they
had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts--gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh." Legend set itself to work on this narrative.
The Wise Men, it was decided, were three in number; and the Psalmist's
prediction--"the Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring
presents, the Kings of Sheba and Saba shall offer gifts"--showed that
the Magi were kings. Later writers identified their realms as Tarsus,
Saba, and Nubia; whence one of the kings is commonly represented as a
Moor or Nubian. Their names also became known--Gaspar, Melchior, and
Balthasar. Further developments of the legend--how their remains were
discovered by the Empress Helena at Constantinople, and taken by Milan
to Cologne--do not here concern us; it will be seen that by the time
art was ready to take up the story, the painters had much material
around which to let their fancy play.
The earlier painters in each school treated the story simply. Then as
technical resources increased, and artistic effect rather than mere
religious instruction became the motive, the theme was ever more and
more expanded, until it became the most gorgeously rendered of all
the Gospel scenes. Many readers will remember the severe and simple
treatment of the subject by Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua;
with which may be compared in our gallery Orcagna's small picture
(574). If the visitor after looking at that will turn to the splendid
pageant (1033), with its seventy figures, by Botticelli (or Filippino
Lippi), he will see at a glance how the theme became embroidered and
enlarged. The picture by Fra Angelico (582) represents an intermediate
stage. A similar contrast may be noted in the Flemish room. The
picture attributed to David (1079) is simple, earnest, and homely;
far less gorgeous and various than the Mabuse. The fact is that, in
the more elaborate pictures of the subject, it was taken as an excuse
or occasion for displaying whatever elements of pomp or circumstance
appealed to the individual artist. Thus Peruzzi (167 and 218)
elaborates the architecture and the horses, and introduces portraits.
The Tuscans made out of the subject a Florentine pageant. Mabuse's
picture is interesting, amongst other reasons, as a kind of epitome
of the arts and crafts of his time. Note, for instance, the cups and
chalices in which the kings bring their presents; their jewelled robes
and head-dresses; and, for a minor detail, the pretty bag worn by the
Black King's page: it might well be copied for a lady's reticule to-day.
No less remarkable than the variety of treatment in pictures of the
Magi is the large measure of uniformity of type which may be found
in them all. A few remarks on these common elements, which were for
the most part symbolic, will serve the double purpose of directing
attention to further details in Mabuse's picture and of connecting it
with other examples in the Gallery. The _scene_ of the drama is in
the earliest pictures a stable or a shed; in the later, it is almost
invariably the ruins of a temple or other ancient building--a symbol of
the triumph of Christianity over paganism. The ox and the ass will be
noticed among the ruins here, and the shepherds are seen approaching.
The idea is to mark the event as a manifestation alike to the Jews
(the shepherds) and to the Gentiles (the Magi). Angels hover above,
singing the "Gloria in Excelsis," and the composition is crowned by
the Star with the Dove. The _background_ almost invariably includes a
mountainous landscape, through which the retinue of the kings may be
discerned winding its way--a reminder that they journeyed from a far
country. This is a feature, indicated sufficiently by Mabuse, which
may be seen more emphasised in the picture by Foppa (729). The _Kings_
are nearly always shown as old, middle-aged, and young respectively,
and one of them is black: when the Gentiles were called to salvation,
all ages, continents, and races were included. In Mabuse's picture the
equality of the races is emphasised in a further way; the Black King,
conspicuous on the left, has his train borne by a white page. The
eldest of the kings offers a vase of gold, out of which Christ has
taken a piece, which He holds in His hand. The king uncovers his head.
"To most mediæval painters the Adoration envisages itself essentially
as an act of feudal homage." Conspicuous in the foreground are two
_dogs_. "The one on the right," says the Official Catalogue, "is
similar to a dog by Albert Dürer in his engraving of St. Eustace, that
on the left is reversed from a print by Martin Schongauer." The dog is
often thus included in the "Adoration"; as, for instance, in one of
the earliest (Orcagna, 574) and in one of the latest (Peruzzi, 218) of
our versions; and everybody will have noticed how frequently in other
religious pictures also the dog is introduced. "This custom of putting
either the dog, or some inferior animal, to be either in contrast, or
modest companionship, with the nobleness of human form and thought,
is," says Ruskin, "a piece of what may be called mental comparative
anatomy, which has its beginning very far back in art" (_Eagle's
Nest_, ch. 8; see also _Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. chs. 3, 6).
The place of _Joseph_ in the scene differs a good deal in different
pictures, for the early legends varied. Orcagna (574) shows him
receiving one of the presents from the hands of the Child: he plays, as
it were, the part of royal treasurer or chamberlain. Dosso Dossi (640)
shows him kneeling in the background. In the present picture he stands,
in a red dress, under an archway, listening devoutly to the heavenly
harmony. All the _figures_ in Mabuse's picture (there are some thirty)
will repay examination. The Virgin's expression is well given; and, as
a study in contrasts, the reverent figures behind the kneeling king may
be compared with the man on the extreme left who, catching hold of a
pillar, is leaning out in curiosity to see the sights. There is much
other detail which might be described--the plants, for instance, in the
foreground and on the ruins; but enough has been said to indicate the
wealth and variety of interest which is to be found in this picture.