The master of the view of Saint Gudula

In 1921, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium acquired a Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, which was given to the Master of the View of Saint Gudula and forms part of a larger ensemble. Recently, three other fragments have entered the museum collections. The paintings on the reverse of these newly acquired fragments demonstrate they were part of an altarpiece that depicted the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple and The Visitation, with Saint Ursula and Saint Simon Stock Receiving the Scapular from the Hands of the Virgin Mary.

The present publication examines these altarpiece panels in the context of the production of the Master of the View of Saint Gudula and, more generally, his relationship with the Carmelites. The iconographic study will reveal how the artist appropriated Rogier van der Weyden’s immensely popular models and how he fulfilled the demands of his patrons. Several essays report on the results of the research and analyses undertaken during the restoration of the various fragments, a proposed reconstruction of the original altarpiece, and a study of the Master’s painterly technique. This Cahier thereby offers a new perspective on the work of the Master of the View of Saint Gudula, who was one of the most productive painters in the capital of the Dukes of Burgundy, and to whom to date no major publication has been dedicated.