Petrus Christus

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Portrait of a young girl

Petrus Christus, circa 1460

oil on wood, 29 × 22,5 cm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Petrus Christus (Baarle-Hertog, Antwerp, 1410/1420–Bruges, 1475/76) was a Flemish painter active in Bruges from 1444.

Christus was a student of and successor to Jan van Eyck, and his paintings have sometimes been confused with Van Eyck's. At the death of Van Eyck in 1441, he took over his master's workshop. For long only seen in his great master's light, the latest research brings out Christus in his own right as an independent painter. In addition, Christus' painting shows clear influences from, among others, Dirk Bouts, Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden.

It is still not known whether Christus visited Italy, and brought the style and technical accomplishments of the greatest Northern European painters directly to Antonello da Messina and other Italian artists, or whether his paintings were purchased by Italians. The composition of a Lamentation now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art so closely inspired a marble relief by Antonello Gagini in the cathedral at Palermo that it has been suggested that the picture may have been painted for an Italian client [link].

The reserved Portrait of a Young Girl (illustration, right) belongs among the masterworks of Flemish painting, marking a new development phase in Netherlandish portrait art. It no longer shows the sitter in front of an indefinite backgrond, but in a concrete space defined by the wall panels. The unknown woman radiates an aura of discretion and of nobility, and the picture has a both fascinating and unattainable effect. The exquisite clothing suggests that she might come from France.

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