MASTER OF THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN OF GHENT | SAINT JOSEPH

The eponymous painting by the so-called Master of the Adulterous Woman of Ghent, an artist from the circle of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, is the Christ and the adulterous woman in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent.(1) In the present painting, the artist represents Saint Joseph in a nearly identical manner to the same figure in his Nativity, formerly in the Robert Finck collection, Brussels.(2) These two corresponding figures look downwards with a bald, circular head, curved nose, and pointy beard. Their faces connect stylistically to that of the figure conversing at far right in the eponymous painting in Ghent.

We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for suggesting the attribution on the basis of photographs.

1. G. Marlier, Le Renaissance flamande: Pierre Coecke D'Alost, Brussels 1966, p. 406, reproduced fig. 360.

2. Ibid. Fig. 361.