Dear Nancy,
The panel you describe sounds very interesting. It is, in fact, one
of a whole cluster of such works, which do not survive in great
numbers, as the practice of giving holy figures the features of
living (or recently deceased) persons was specifically targetted as
one of the abuses of imagery during the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation. In Rogier van der Weyden's Columba Altarpiece,
depicting the Adoration of the Magi, it is generally believed that
the youngest Magus carries the features of Duke Charles the Rash (or
Bold), and there are several examples from Florence, as well, notably
Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, in which the whole Medici clan
gets included, with Cosimo, I believe, represented actually kissing
the Christ Child's foot. Perhaps the cheekiest instance of this sort
to survive is Jean Fouquet's Melun Diptych, in which the Virgin Mary
is apparently modelled after the king's mistress, Agnes Sorel, and
looking for all the world like a 15th-century Playboy centrefold.
I've certainly never heard of the panel you describe, and would be
willing to bet that it does not survive, but it, too, seems to defy
all sense of decorum in a way that the 15th century seemed all to
capable of. Jean sans Peur died in 1419, and if the panel was
painted subsequent to this date, it is almost impossible that the
work did not hold a stridently political message, to the point of
impinging rather impiously on the purported subject of the panel.
Quite fascinating. Thanks for pointing it out.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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