Retable of the Crucifixion
Jacques de Baerze, Melchior Broederlam, 1391 — 1399
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Deeply impressed by the fine and innovative carving of Jacques de Baerze, Duke Philip the Bold ordered this carved wooden altarpiece in 1390 for the abbey church in the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon. In 1393, Melchior Broederlam from Ypres was commissioned to gild the altarpiece and paint the wings. It is the only work that we can attribute to him with confidence. The collaboration between De Baerze and Broederlam led to one of the earliest surviving testimonies to the existence of sculpted retables with painted panels. Moreover, the quality of carving, painting, and polychrome is of a particularly high standard. The realistically executed details, the rendering of materials, the play of light, and the suggestion of space are astonishing and innovative, presaging the work of great masters such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, who would create a sensation in the early fifteenth century.
— Anne van Oosterwijk, Director of Collection, Musea Brugge
Object details
Retable of the Crucifixion 1391-1399
Oil on panel, painted and gilded wood | 167 x 502 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Jacques de Baerze
active before 1384 – after 1399
Melchior Broederlam
Ypres ca. 1355 – ca. 1411 Ypres
Gallery
