Geertgen tot
Sint Jans
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Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c. 1465 – c. 1495), also known as Gerrit
Gerritsz, Geertgen van Haarlem or Gerrit van Haarlem, was an Early
Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy
Roman Empire. His life is not well documented. He was born around
1465, possibly in Leiden. He was probably a pupil of Albert van
Ouwater and lived for many years in the monastery of the Knights of
Saint John in Haarlem. He died, probably still in his twenties,
around the year 1495, in Haarlem, where he was buried in the
monastery.
He painted with oil
paint on wood panels. His paintings depict scenes derived from the
New Testament and belong to the early Dutch School. Some of his
paintings were destroyed during the Reformation. Around twelve
paintings are attributed to him. Among his works are Lamentation of
Christ (c. 1484), The Holy Kinship (c.1485–1496), John the Baptist
in the Wilderness (c. 1490), and The Nativity at Night (date
unknown).
In 1604, Karel van
Mander described him with a quotation, attributed to Albrecht Dürer:
"Truly, he was a painter in his Mother's womb.", saying Geertgen was
predestined to become a painter. He is considered to be one of the
most important 15th century painters from Holland.
Geertgen tot Sint
Jans is also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, or
Gerrit Gerritsz.[citation needed] Alternative spellings of his first
name are Gheertgen, Geerrit, and Gheerrit, where G(h)eertgen is the
diminutive form of G(h)eerrit.
Presumably, he was
born in Leiden, then in the Burgundian Netherlands in the Holy Roman
Empire, around the year 1465. The assignment of Leiden as his birth
place is traceable to a 17th century print by Jacob van Matham.
There is no known archival evidence for this claim by Jacob van
Matham. The modern acceptance of Leiden as Geertgen's birth place is
roughly traceable to Johann Kessler's dissertation of 1930.
Probably, Geertgen
was a pupil of Albert van Ouwater, who was one of the first oil
painters in the northern Low Countries. Both painters lived in the
city of Haarlem. Geertgen was attached to the monastery of the
Knights of Saint John, for whom he painted an altarpiece. Although
Geertgen was not a member of the Order of Saint John, his last name
"tot Sint Jans" was derived from the order's name and means "unto
Saint John".
Geertgen died in
Haarlem, then the Habsburg Netherlands in the Holy Roman Empire,
around the year 1495, when he was approximately 28 years old. He was
buried in the monastery of the Knights of Saint John. Modern
scholars have attempted to calculate the artist's death date with
the information from The Painting-Book (Middle Dutch: Het
Schilder-Boeck) by Karel van Mander, published in 1604. There are
some archival traces that suggest he may in fact have lived into the
16th century.
According to Van
Mander, Geertgen was a student of Albert Van Ouwater. He also
records the creation of one of his most famous paintings, The Legend
of the Relics of St. John the Baptist, part of a larger triptych for
an altar of the Knights of St. John at Haarlem. It was destroyed
during the siege of Haarlem in 1573, but parts were saved. The
remaining section, in fact, appears to be two pieces sawn out of the
same wing.
The scenes that
have survived show more than one episode of a story in a picture and
are of biblical scenes. As is typical of the art of the time it was
done primarily on oak panels with oil paints made by mixing pigments
with drying oil. This allowed the painter to build up layers of
paint to provide different visual effects.
The number of works
attributed to him (varying between 12 and 16) is under dispute among
scholars who discuss the artist (Kessler, Boon, Snyder, Chatelet,
Fiero, and Koch).
His paintings are
in the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the
Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna.
