The Virgin and Child Enthroned

Massys, who was born in Leuven as the son of a blacksmith, and – according to legend – learned this craft himself, clearly received a thorough artistic training. It allowed Massys, who lived in Antwerp beginning in 1491 as an independent master, to vie with that city’s artists, the so-called Antwerp Mannerists. Massys arrived at a highly individual artistic language that combines the 15th century tradition and the art of the Italian High Renaissance, and in particular the influence of Leonardo da
Vinci, into a harmonious unity. The major commissions awarded to him by the guilds and fraternities of this wealthy merchant town document his ascent to the status of Antwerp’s leading master. In 1517, Erasmus had himself portrayed by Massys together with his friend Petrus Aegidius, and sent the resulting double-portrait to their common friend Thomas More as a memento. In his letter of thanks, the great statesman and humanist More refers to Massys as the renovator of the old art. This praise tellingly characterises his singular status at the turning point of a new era.
The Berlin Virgin Enthroned, which dates from the artist’s final creative period, is one of the most beautiful works by Massys on this theme – a recurrent one in his oeuvre. The mother of God is depicted as a full figure, not much less than life-sized. She sits on a stone throne whose sides are decorated with polished red marble columns. The back of the throne is formed by an arch with Gothic tracery whose contour coincides with the upper terminus of the semi-circular panel. Mary wears a blue gown with sleeves in pink and bluish-grey shot fabric and a luminous red cloak that falls in soft folds across the steps of the throne and all the way down to the floor, which is laid with multi-coloured tiles. The Virgin’s head is covered with a translucent veil that follows across her shoulders and also enfolds the child on her lap.
The motif of the kiss, which endows the ordinarily solemn and imposing images of the Madonna with a hint of intimacy, is derived from the art of the circle of Leonardo da Vinci. Also testifying to an awareness of Leonardo’s art and its influence is the treatment of the faces, with its barely noticeable transitions between light and shadow. In the handling of the landscape and the sumptuous still-life that is spread out on the small table before the throne, Massys reveals his profound debt to the meticulous realism of Netherlandish art. The broad views of the landscape on both sides of the throne evince the influence of the landscape painter Joachim Patinir, for whose landscapes Massys occasionally supplied figures.
Suggestive of the deeper significance of this image of the Madonna is the fenced garden with the rose hedge and fountain situated behind the throne. It invokes the image of the hortus conclusus found in Solomon’s Song of Songs, and symbolizes the virginity and immaculateness of the Mother of God. Laden with symbolic significance as well is the still-life in the foreground. Associated with the bright red cherries is the blood of the Lord that was shed on the Cross, while the apple is interpretable as an emblem of the original sin that is redeemed by Christ. The bread and wine allude to the sacrificial victim, who experiences his perpetual regeneration through the mass. Rainald Grosshans | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting – Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019