Virgin and Child with St Anne ('Anna Selbdritt') with devotional portraits of the Van Beesd Van Heemskerck-Van Diemen family

General information
Original location Delft, Charterhouse Bartholomeusdal (inferred from text on predella, see remarks)
Current location Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, inv. no. GK 1526
Provenance See auction catalogue Lempertz 30, lot no. 1316, 1995/11/15
Artist Master of Frankfurt (central panel)
Master of Delft (wings) (based on stylistic features)
Date ca. 1509 (central panel)
ca. 1510-1520 (wings)
Material Panel
Dimensions 93,5 x 62 cm (central panel including predella)
75 x 33 cm (wings)
Visual elements
Short description Triptych, with on the central panel the Virgin and Child with St. Anne (Anna Selbdritt) in a landscape, combined with the Holy Trinity. On the inside of the left wing five kneeling male members of the van Beesd van Heemskerk family, with Dirk van Beesd van Heemskerk up front. Behind them stands St. John the Baptist and the background displays a cityscape. In the upper right and lower left corner are two coats of arms. On the inside of the right panel two kneeling female members of the family, with St. Mary Magdalene, in front of a cityscape. In the upper right corner a coat of arms. The outside of the wings show, when the triptych is closed, St. Jerome in the desert. The predella contains texts about three family members.
Coat of arms Left wing, top left: High gothic shield - In black [blue] a red langued and nailed silver lion (van Beesd van Heemskerk)
Left wing, bottom right: Semicircular shield - In black a golden Catharine wheel with a golden sword in bend over it
Right wing, top right: High gothic shield - Per pale I: in black [blue] a red langued and nailed silver lion; II: in black two silver halberds in saltire, gold shafted (Van Diemen)
Text On predella left: Anno xiiiic.86 was Dirick Dirrickz van Beest, anders genaemt van Heemskerck, te Iherusalem ende opt[en] berch Sijnay. En starf anno xvc.xlv de xien dach van november
On predella right: Anno xvc.xxxii den xii.den dach in julio starf Geertruyt Vranck van Dijrmens dochter, die huijsvrouwe van Dirick van Beest ofte Heemskerck
Lower edge of predella: Obiijt anno [...] 9 Mae frater Theo[dorus] Theodorici van Beest, monachus professus domus huius sepultus inter fratres suos
Depicted pilgrim (left panel, first from the right)
Personal information
Name Dirk Dirksz. van Beesd van Heemskerk
Social status / profession Town counselor of Delft (1506-1508, 1510); burgomaster of Delft (1509, 1511-1512, 1514-1516, 1520); head burgomaster of Delft (1522, 1525-1532); treasurer of Delft (1515, 1519, 1533)
Other known portraits Single portrait of Dirk van Beesd van Heemskerk (copy)
Pilgrimages
Year of pilgrimage to Jerusalem 1486
Attributes Jerusalem pilgrimage Palm
Other pilgrimages Sinai, monastery of St Catherine
Attributes other pilgrimages See coats of arms
Death
Date of death 11 November 1545
Location of grave Delft, Charterhouse Bartholomeusdal
Additional information related to this person
Personal remarks Dirk was mentioned as a fellow traveler by Georges Lengherand of Mons in his travel report of 1486 (see Lampen, p. 285).
Additional information
General remarks The central panel, from another artist than the wings, might have been bought at the yearly market in Delft, after which the wings were ordered to be made and added by a different local painter. This might have been done at the occasion of Dirk, the son of Dirk the Jerusalem pilgrim, entering the Charterhouse in Delft in 1517. The text on the lower edge of the predella mentions him being member of the Charterhouse, and he is displayed kneeling behind his father in a habit. In that case, the predella must have been added later, since it mentions the deaths of Dirk the father (1545), Dirk the son and mother Geertruid (1532). (See van Bueren)
Literature
  • Bueren, Truus van, Leven na de dood: gedenken in de late Middeleeuwen (Turnhout 1999), pp. 228-230
  • Friedländer, Max J., Early Netherlandish painting, 14 vols. (Leiden/Brussels 1967-1976), vol. X, p. 45
  • Hoogewerff, G.J., De Noord-Nederlandse schilderkunst, 5 vols. (The Hague 1936-1947), vol. II, pp. 388-392
  • Lampen, Willibrord, 'Hollandsche Jerusalemvaarders in vroegere eeuwen', Bijdragen voor de geschiedenis van het Bisdom van Haarlem 45 (1928), pp. 265-293
  • Pansters, K., Het geheim van de stilte. De besloten wereld van de Roermondse Kartuizers (Zwolle 2009), pp. 196-197
  • Scholtens, H.J.J., 'Het Sint Anna-altaar van de Delftsche kartuizers,' Haarlemsche bijdragen: bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis van het bisdom Haarlem 56 (1938), pp. 156-158
  • Zuidema, L., 'Weerspiegeling van twee leefwerelden. Het Delftse kartuizerklooster en het drieluik met de familie van Beesd,' Madoc 18 (2004), pp. 260-270
MeMO ID 504
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