The Visitation

Daret is mentioned for the first time in 1418 as being present in the house of the painter Robert Campin in Tournai. Here, he received his artistic training, and was registered officially as an apprentice in 1427 together with Rogier van der Weyden; he acquired the status of master craftsman in 1432.
Daret’s achievements were recognised early on, as shown by his receipt of the commission for decorative work for the marriage festival of Philip the Good in Lille (1454) and the festivities to mark the marriage between Charles the Bold and Margaret of York, which took place in Bruges in 1468. In the years 1434/35, 1441, and 1452, Daret worked for the Abbey of Saint Vaast in Arras. The small number of his pictures that have survived date from the initial years of his activity as an artist for the cloister. His existing oeuvre consists of altogether four paintings, which originally formed the outer sides of the wings of an altarpiece Daret painted in 1434/35 for the Chapel of Saint Mary in the monastery church of Saint Vaast in Arras. The commissioning client was Jean du Clercq (born 1376), who was the monastery’s abbot from 1428 until 1462. The altarpiece was set up in the monastery in July of 1435.
This work excited the admiration of the participants in the Congress of Arras, then taking place. The central shrine of the altarpiece displayed the Coronation of the Virgin framed by statues of the twelve apostles. The shrine had two wings on each side of the central shrine. Their inner sides displayed gold lilies on an azure blue ground. When the altarpiece was closed, the outer sides of the wings with paintings by Daret formed a program devoted to the Mother of God. It began with a scene showing the Annunciation to Mary, once mounted on the small upper sections of the wings. Displayed below this, beginning from the left and in chronological sequence, were the Visitation (Gemäldegalerie), the Birth of Christ (Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection), the Adoration of the Magi (Gemäldegalerie, fig.
left), and the Presentation in the Temple (Paris, Musée du Petit Palais).
The Visitation follows the narrative of the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:39–56), and shows an encounter between Mary and Elisabeth, the wife of Zacharias and the mother of John the Baptist. Kneeling in the left foreground is the donor, Jean du Clercq, who serves as a devout witness to the event. His coat of arms hangs behind him from a tree. Rainald Grosshans | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting – Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019