Musical instruments in Hans Memling's paintings
2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: 35; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/em/cam087
ISSN1741-7260
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval European History and Architecture
ResumoHans Memling (sometimes spelled Memlinc) was born as Hans Momilingen (his father came from Mömlingen), probably at Seligenstadt near Frankfurt-am-Rhein, between 1430 and 1450/51, in which year his father died. He is thought to have studied with Rogier van der Weyde, who died in the summer of 1464, and the first positive place and date we have for Memling's life is six months later, 30 January 1465, when he was granted citizenship of the Flemish town of Bruges. He spent the rest of his life there, dying in 1494.1 The Memlingmuseum in the Sint-Janshospitaal in that town preserves a number of his works.2 His best known and most comprehensive painting to show musical instruments is the Christ as Salvator Mundi now in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. This great tripartite work is also known as the Nájera Panels, and will be referred to as ‘Antwerp’ in this article.3 It was commissioned for the Abbey Santa María la Real of Nájera in the kingdom of Castile, and portrayed principally the Assumption of the Virgin: the Nájera Panels, the only part to have survived, formed the upper element of three vertical bays. The central panel shows Christ looking down and blessing his mother, with three angels on each side of him, each trio singing from a heavy book, somewhat smaller in format than those large sheets of music we often see. The two wings portray angels playing instruments, five on each side, on the left wing (as we look at the triptych) from the outer edge inwards, towards Christ: psaltery, tromba marina, lute, folded trumpet and treble shawm (illus.1), and on the right wing, again from the outer edge inwards: fiddle, harp, portative organ, folded trumpet and straight trumpet (illus.2).
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