Unknown Man
after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1550 - 1599
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
317 x 248 mm (12 1/2 x 9 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246453
Caption
One half of an early copy of an original pair of portraits by the Antwerp painter Quinten Metsys. For the other portrait in the pair see Unknown Woman with a Dog, Polesden Lacey, National Trust, 1246454. The gold chains about the necks of both sitters (presumably a married couple) are emblems of honour, raising them above the usual middling status of Metsys’s sitters. Pride in a commission from elevated sitters may have prompted the artist to take the unusual step of signing his name on the document held by the man – a detail faithfully reproduced in this copy. Scientific analysis reveals that the panels on which these pictures are painted were cut from trees felled in the middle of the 16th century, a little after the death of Metsys.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Unknown Man, after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530), 16th century. A head-and-houlders portrait of a middle-aged man, turned to the right, gazing to the right, wearing a black cloak over a brown doublet, with gold chain and black cap; in his left hand, held close to his right, is a piece of paper on which the artist's signature appears. Green background, with cast shadow, possibly in shadow box. Signed upside-down, on the note held in his hand: "q [ma]tsys" . The 'm' and the 'a' are both uncertain; the first 's' is long; the two last letters have been strengthened.
Provenance
Supposedly Lord Braye (1849 - 1928), bought by Colnaghi from Arthur Tooth & Sons, 1934, with this provenance; soon afterwards acquired by Mrs Greville; The bequest of Margaret (Anderson) McEwan, The Hon. Mrs Ronald - later Dame Margaret - Henry Fulke Greville, DBE (1863-1942) from probate records linked with the donation of the property to the National Trust in 1943. This item found on the record for Polesden Lacey pictures, drawings etc., stored in the cellar, page 160.
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Q. Matsys (signed, upside down)
Makers and roles
after Quinten Metsys (Louvain 1466 - Antwerp 1530) , artist
References
Friedländer 1937: Max J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische malerei, 14 vols., Berlin and Leiden, 1924-37; trans. Early Netherlandish Painting, New York, 1967-76, Vol. XIV, p. 109 Bosque 1975 A. de Bosque, Quentin Metsys, Brussels, 1975, p.232, under cat.nos. 292 and 293 Silver 1984 Larry Silver, The Paintings of Quintin Massys, with Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford, 1984, pp.234-35, under cat.no.55