The Early Haarlem School of Painting, Part III: The Problem of Geertgen tot Sint Jans and Jan Mostaert

* This study forms an addendum to my previous articles, “The Early Haarlem School of Painting,” Art Bulletin, XLII, 1960, 39–55, 13–32. I am much indebted to Michael Thierry de Bye Dólleman of Heemstede for his valuable help with the documentation in this article.

Abstract

One of the most controversial works for scholarship of the Early Haarlem School of painting is the Tree of Jesse in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (No. 950, A₂) which at present carries an ascription to Geertgen tot Sint Jans (Figs. 1, 3). Long before the panel was acquired by the Rijksmuseum, when it was in the collection of Count Stroganoff in Rome, Jacob Burckhardt attributed it to Geertgen.¹ But his attribution was contested by later scholars including Max Friedländer, G. J. Hoogewerff, Friederich Winkler, and, more recently, K. G. Boon, all of whom ascribed the painting to Geertgen's successor in Haarlem, Jan Mostaert, as one of his earliest works.² The painting, a masterpiece of early Dutch art by any standard, is thus a crucial work in the task of sorting out the paintings that form the tradition of Geertgen's art in Haarlem and especially in recovering the early style of Jan Mostaert should the painting, indeed, be by his hand. The problems concerning the attribution of the panel will be discussed presently, but for the moment the more general issues posed concerning the relationships between the two painters, both highly praised by Van Mander in Het Schilder-boeck, will be reviewed. The first question to be asked is obvious. Just what do we know about them?