About 1490 Memlinc must have painted the admirable _Virgin and Child,
with Donors_ (No. 2026), which was commissioned by James Floreins, a
member of the Bruges Merchant Grocers’ Guild, but subsequently found
its way to Spain, whence it was taken to France by General d’Armagnac.
The Donor, who is kneeling on the left, in front of his seven sons,
is presented by St. James the Great, the same office being performed
by St. Dominic for Floreins’s wife and her twelve daughters, on
the opposite side. The scene is laid in a Romanesque church, with
openings at either side, through which glimpses of the landscape
beyond are obtained. The characterisation of all the faces, which
bear a strong family likeness, is as admirable as the painting of the
noble architecture. Remarkable, too, is the effect of perfect symmetry
obtained in the arrangement of the two unequal groups through the
simple device of placing the Virgin and Child more towards the less
crowded side, although the canopy is in the exact middle of the panel.
This altarpiece is certainly one of the most important works by Memlinc
that are to be found outside Belgium.
The two little panels, _St. John the Baptist_ (No. 2024), and _St. Mary
Magdalene_ (No. 2025), both standing in a landscape with small scenes
from their respective legends, formed originally, with two further
panels representing St. Christopher and St. Stephen, the shutters of a
triptych. The centre part had disappeared before the wings, carefully
sawn through the thickness of the panels so, as to separate the obverse
from the reverse, came into the possession of Lucien Bonaparte, and
afterwards of William II. of Holland. The two Saints now at the Louvre
were purchased in 1851 for £469.
In 1908 the Louvre obtained, at the high price of £8000, the _Portrait
of an Old Lady_ (Plate XVII.), to which attention was first drawn
at the Bruges Exhibition in 1902, when it was shown by M. Nardus,
from whom it passed into the hands of M. Kleinberger. Both the Paris
portrait, which is drawn with exquisite precision but has apparently
suffered from over-cleaning, and its companion, the portrait of this
anonymous lady’s husband at the Berlin Museum, were until 1884 in the
Meazzu collection in Milan.
The triptych (No. 2028) with (_a_) _The Resurrection_, (_b_) _The
Ascension_, and (_c_) _The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian_, which was
bought at Turin in 1860 for £540, and is officially considered to be
of doubtful authenticity, is included by Mr. Weale in his catalogue of
Memlinc’s works.