Dieric
Bouts the Elder at Artprice. To look at auction records, find
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Born
and trained in Haarlem, Dieric Bouts the Elder (also: Dirk, Dierick)
spent
most of his life in Leuven working for Flemish aristocrats. Little is
known
about his training and work. Even if not actually a pupil of Rogier
himself,
Bouts was profoundly affected by his work. He continued and developed
Rogier’s
style to an almost radical degree: his preference of vertical
compositions,
of types instead of individual, exquisite, thoroughly detailed
garments,
which conceal the body, looks like a return to the Gothic. Whether
Bouts
was the founder of this ‘gothic revival’, a characteristic of
Netherlandish
Northern Renaissance, or whether the painter was simply part of the
more
general trend sweeping over Europe after the middle of the century, is
hard to decide. Whatever the case, the stylistic features already
described
intensified after The Last SupperAltar
in Leuven (1464-1467) to the Justice panels in Brussels (begun 1468). The
Last Supper from Sankt Peter in Leuven forms the central panel
of a winged altarpiece commissioned by the confraternity of the Holy
Sacrament.
The painter was bound by contract to execute the work himself and
thereby
to follow the directions of two professors of theology.
In 1468, Bouts was commissioned to paint 4
panels
for the courtroom of the city of Leuven. By the time he died, however,
he had only finished one painting: The
Empress's
Ordeal by Fire in front of Emperor Otto III. (c.1470-1475).
The episode related in the panel concerns calumny. The Empress is
denouncing
the innocent Count, whom she attempted to seduce, to Otto III. She is
subjected
to an ordeal by fire, which proves to the Count’s innocence. The story
is derived from the Biblical tale of Potiphar’s wife, who tried to
seduce
Joseph in Egypt and who leveled false accusations at him when he
refused
her. Bouts may have taken his inspiration from Rogier van der Weyden,
who
painted similar subjects for the Town Hall in Brussels in 1436;
however,
these were destroyed in 1695.
In 1465, Bouts married Katharina van der Brugghen, the daughter of a
respectable
Leuven family. He remained based in Leuven enjoying an excellent
reputation
as a painter. He is last mentioned in records dated 17 April 1475.
It is frequently difficult to draw a clear line between his own work
and
that of his workshop, including his son Dieric Bouts the Younger. It is
therefore impossible to make a fair assessment of his art.
Note
Virgin and Child. The composition of
this exquisite painting derives from that of the Combrai Madonna, a
14th-century
Italian copy of a Byzantine icon, which thought to be a miraculous
image
painted by Saint Luke. This painting was so popular, that several
replicas
of it, one by Bouts himself, were fulfilled.
See: Dieric Bouts the Elder. Virgin
and Child.
