Christ among the Doctors

c. 1495/1497

Master of the Catholic Kings

Artist, Spanish, active c. 1485/1500

Set in a church, nine men and one woman gather around a throne, on which sits a young boy in this vertical painting. All the people have pale or olive-toned skin. The boy has long, wavy brown hair framing an oval face with delicate features. He looks down in front of him as he holds the tips of his two pointer fingers to touch. His gold-edged, ocean-blue robe falls loosely to the floor over one bare foot. The throne is carved from parchment-white stone and it sits on a low platform set on three shallow steps. Behind the boy, a crimson-red cloth patterned with gold and edged with a moss-green border is held up with four ropes tied into a four-point canopy. Five bearded and cleanshaven men stand and sit in a close group to our left, in front of the throne. They all wear hats, including a turban, hoods, and caps, and long robes in red, green, and white. Two hold open books and each man looks in a different direction, either toward the child or toward the group of four men and one woman clustered to our right. At the center of that second group, the woman wears a white cloth covering her head and a teal-blue robe, and she holds her hands together in prayer. Upon closer inspection, one finds that the woman and child’s heads are surrounded by lines radiating out to create haloes. The other four men in the group to our right also wear jewel-toned robes, and all wear caps except for one man, who is bareheaded. The man closest to us holds his hands with fingertips touching, like the child. The floor between the groups, leading up to the throne, is inlaid with square and X-patterns in sky blue, rose pink, golden yellow, and off white. To either side of the throne and behind the groups of men, six columns support statues carved from white stone. The polished columns are marbled with brick red, pine green, and fawn brown. Two taller columns along the left and right edges of the painting support a pale gray stone arch, which is cut off by the top edge. The apse beyond the throne is decorated on the second level with stained glass set within gray stone walls. An arched opening in the wall to our right, above the woman, leads to a view of buildings with stepped rooflines.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 38

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (original painted surface): 136.2 x 93 cm (53 5/8 x 36 5/8 in.)
    overall (with addition at bottom): 155.2 x 93 cm (61 1/8 x 36 5/8 in.)
    framed: 183.5 x 128.9 x 12.1 cm (72 1/4 x 50 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.43

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly commissioned for a convent or church in Valladolid, Spain.[1] Before 1919, José María de Palacio, Conde de las Almenas, Madrid;[2] sold 28 March 1919 to (Frank Partridge and Sons, Ltd., London).[3] Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite [1867-1948], New York, by 1933;[4] possibly purchased by (French & Co., New York).[5] purchased 1941 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The probable patronage of the Catholic Kings has led Van der Put and subsequent commentators to posit that the altarpiece was commissioned for a church or convent in Valladolid. Albert van der Put, typescript, c. 1922, in NGA curatorial files. The painting has qualities characteristic of Spanish paintings in northern Castile during the reign of the Catholic Kings. Among cities in the region, Valladolid was the one most favored by the monarchs, who occasionally held court there. The theory that the panels were intended for an institution in Valladolid is plausible, but cannot be regarded as certain. Even if the paintings were created in northern Castile, they could have been commissioned for an institution in another part of Spain.
[2] This painting is shown hanging on a wall of the Madrid residence of the Conde de las Almenas in a photograph in Arthur Byne and Mildred Shapley, Spanish Interiors and Furniture, 2 vols. (New York, 1922), 2: pl. 109.
[3] Frank Partridge, memorandum, 1924, in the files of the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.
[4] Chandler R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting (Cambridge, Mass., 1933), v. IV, pt. II, 418.
[5] From Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford, 1977), 178 and provenance card, NGA curatorial files; however in her 26 August 1988 letter, Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index indicates that these panels do not appear in the French & Co. stock books, which are now at the Getty. Robert Samuels, Jr., a representative of French & Co., searched the French & Co. records still kept at the New York office, but also was unable to find any references to the two panels.
[6] Provenance card, NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/501.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • Exhibition of Spanish Painting, The Brooklyn Museum, 1937, no. 7.

1937

  • Spanish Paintings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1937, no cat.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951, 178, no. 78.

Bibliography

1913

  • Mayer, August L. Geschichte der spanischen Malerei. Leipzig, 1922: 145 (also Spanish ed. Madrid, 1942: 166).

1933

  • Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1930-1966: 4, pt. 2:418-428.

1937

  • Clifford, Henry. "Great Spanish Painters: A Timely Show." Art News 35 (17 April, 1937): 9.

1952

  • Brans, J. V. L. Isabel la católica y el arte hispanoflamenco. Madrid, 1952: 130-132.

1958

  • Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 274, no. 2274.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 262, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 86.

1966

  • Gudiol y Ricart, José. "El Pintor Diego de la Cruz." Goya. 70 (1966): 208-217.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 75, repro.

  • Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Brueghel. New York, 1968: 254.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 224, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 177-178, 181, fig. 182.

1982

  • Abrams, Richard I. and Warner A. Hutchinson. An Illustrated Life of Jesus, From the National Gallery of Art Collection. Nashville, 1982: 42-43. color repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 142, no. 143, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 256, repro.

1988

  • Wheeler, Marion, ed. His Face--Images of Christ in Art, New York, 1988: 126, no. 26, color repro.

1990

  • Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 101-104, color repro. 103.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 70-71, no. 52, color repro.

Inscriptions

on Mary's mantle (in relief, deciphered with infrared reflectography): ENIHSO IOEEPRS IMO[?]SSIEE OE OEI

Wikidata ID

Q20174640

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