Workshop of The Master of the Holy Blood Active in Bruges during the 1st quarter of the 16th Century

Mr. W.E. Duits, 77 Grosvenor Street, London, by February 1927;
Sale, Brussels, Fievez, 18-19 December 1928, lot 65 (as Maître du Saint Sang);
Acquired by the family of the present owners circa 1969-70.

Advertisement in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 287, February 1927 (as The Master of St. Sang);
M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leyden and Brussels 1973, vol. IXb, p. 118, no. 193a, reproduced plate 195 (as the Master of St Sang; present location unknown).

The Master of the Holy Blood (or the Master of St. Sang) is named after the artist's eponymous work in the Chapel of St. Sang, Bruges. This nomenclature was coined by Friedländer (see Literature), who noted the artist’s dependence on the work of Quentin Metsys, and suggested that he received his training in Antwerp before moving to Bruges, where much of his work was produced.

The present work is a workshop replica, with minor variations, of the artist’s seminal work, Altarpiece of the Lamentation, in the Chapel of St. Sang, Bruges (reproduced in op. cit., plate 194, no. 193). The central panel however is inspired by the Saint John Altarpiece, painted by Quentin Metsys circa 1508-11 and now in the Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp (see L. Silver, The Paintings of Quinten Massys, Oxford 1984, pp. 204-05, reproduced plate 20). The pose of the Christ figure and the overall mise-en-scène is conceived along similar lines to Metsys’ original, although numerous changes have been made to both the poses and in some cases the positioning of the figures.