To the Maître de Moulins has also been attributed the somewhat
overrated _Magdalen with a Female Donor_ (No. 1005A), which was
formerly in the de Somzée collection at Brussels, and was, some time
after the Exhibition of French Primitives in 1904, bought from Messrs.
T. Agnew & Son for £5000. The supposed similarities that have been
noticed between this picture and the Moulins triptych on the one hand,
and Jehan Perréal’s authenticated design for the tomb of the Duke of
Brittany at Rennes on the other hand, are not sufficiently convincing
either to arrive at a definite conclusion as regards the authorship of
this _Magdalen_, or to establish the identity of the Maître de Moulins
with Jehan Perréal.
Of an even more problematic nature are the _Pietà_ (No. 998C, formerly
No. 998) and the _Calvary_ (No. 998A), of which it is only safe to
affirm that both were painted in France, the background showing in the
case of the former the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Seine,
the Louvre, and the Butte Montmartre; and in the latter an equally
distinguishable view of the Seine, the Louvre, and other buildings.
Both pictures appear to be the work of Flemish painters who were not
entirely uninfluenced by Italian art. This _Calvary_ is labelled
“_Retable du Parliament de Paris_,” and was formerly in the Palais de
Justice in Paris.
We need not dwell at any length upon the school of Douai, which should
be considered as a branch of the Flemish rather than a national French
school. Jean Bellegambe (_c._ 1470-1535) is its chief representative,
and presumably the author of the small wing of a triptych depicting the
figure of _St. Adrian_ (No. 13A) which was formerly catalogued as being
of the German school (No. 2739).