Donor portrait

This 15th-centuryNativitybyRogier van der Weydenshows the fashionably dressed donor integrated into the main scene, the central panel of atriptych.

Adonor portraitorvotive portraitis a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family.Donor portraitusually refers to the portrait or portraits of donors alone, as a section of a larger work, whereasvotive portraitmay often refer to a whole work of art intended as anex-voto,including for example a Madonna, especially if the donor is very prominent. The terms are not used very consistently by art historians, as Angela Marisol Roberts points out,and may also be used for smaller religious subjects that were probably made to be retained by the commissioner rather than donated to a church.

Donor portraits are very common in religious works of art, especially paintings, of theMiddle AgesandRenaissance,the donor usually shown kneeling to one side, in the foreground of the image. Often, even late into the Renaissance, the donor portraits, especially when of a whole family, will be at a much smaller scale than the principal figures, in defiance oflinear perspective.By the mid-15th century donors began to be shown integrated into the main scene, as bystanders and even participants.

Placement

Male side panel ofHans Memling'sTriptych of Wilhelm Moreel;the father is supported by hispatron saint,with his five sons behind him. The central panel ishere.

The purpose of donor portraits was to memorialize the donor and his family, and especially to solicit prayers for them after their death.Gifts to the church of buildings,altarpieces,or large areas ofstained glasswere often accompanied by abequestor condition that masses for the donor be said in perpetuity, and portraits of the persons concerned were thought to encourage prayers on their behalf during these, and at other times. Displaying portraits in a public place was also an expression of social status; donor portraits overlapped withtomb monumentsin churches, the other main way of achieving these ends, although donor portraits had the advantage that the donor could see them displayed in his own lifetime.

Female side of Memling'sTriptych of Wilhelm Moreel,the mother, Barbara Van Hertsvelde is supported by herpatron saint,with her eleven daughters behind her.The central panel ishere.

Furthermore, donor portraits inEarly Netherlandish paintingsuggest that their additional purpose was to serve as role models for the praying beholder during his own emotional meditation and prayer – not in order to be imitated as ideal persons like the painted Saints but to serve as a mirror for the recipient to reflect on himself and his sinful status, ideally leading him to a knowledge of himself and God.To do so during prayer is in accord with late medieval concepts of prayer, fully developed by theModern Devotion.This process may be intensified if the praying beholder is the donor himself.

When a whole building was financed, a sculpture of the patron might be included on the facade or elsewhere in the building.Jan van Eyck'sRolin Madonnais a small painting where the donorNicolas Rolinshares the painting space equally with the Madonna and Child, but Rolin had given great sums to his parish church, where it was hung, which is represented by the church above his praying hands in the townscape behind him.

Sometimes, as in theGhent Altarpiece,the donors were shown on the closed view of an altarpiece with movable wings, or on both the side panels, as in thePortinari Altarpieceand the Memlings above, or just on one side, as in theMérode Altarpiece.If they are on different sides, the males are normally on the left for the viewer, the honorific right-hand placement within the picture space. In family groups the figures are usually divided by gender. Groups of members ofconfraternities,sometimes with their wives, are also found.Additional family members, from births or marriages, might be added later, and deaths might be recorded by the addition of small crosses held in the clasped hands.

At least in Northern Italy, as well as the grand altarpieces and frescos by leading masters that attract most art-historical attention, there was a more numerous group of small frescoes with a single saint and donor on side-walls, that were liable to be re-painted as soon as the number of candles lit before them fell off, or a wealthy donor needed the space for a large fresco-cycle, as portrayed in a 15th-century tale from Italy:

And going around with the master mason, examining which figures to leave and which to destroy, the priest spotted a Saint Anthony and said: 'Save this one.' Then he found a figure ofSaint Sanoand said: 'This one is to be gotten rid of, since as long as I have been the Priest here I have never seen anyone light a candle in front of it, nor has it ever seemed to me useful; therefore, mason, get rid of it.'

History

13th-century frescoes from Milan: Madonna and Child, Saint Ambrose, and the donor Bonamico Taverna)

Donor portraits have a continuous history fromlate antiquity,and the portrait in the 6th-century manuscript theVienna Dioscuridesmay well reflect a long-established classical tradition, just as the author portraits found in the same manuscript are believed to do. A painting in theCatacombs of Commodillaof 528 shows a thronedVirgin and Childflanked by two saints, with Turtura, a female donor, in front of the left hand saint, who has his hand on her shoulder; very similar compositions were being produced a millennium later.Another tradition which had pre-Christian precedent was royal or imperial images showing the ruler with a religious figure, usually Christ or the Virgin Mary in Christian examples, with the divine and royal figures shown communicating with each other in some way. Although none have survived, there is literary evidence of donor portraits in small chapels from theEarly Christianperiod,probably continuing the traditions of pagan temples.

The 6th-centurymosaicpanels in theBasilica of San VitaleinRavennaof the EmperorJustinian IandEmpress Theodorawith courtiers are not of the type showing the ruler receiving divine approval, but each show one of the imperial couple standing confidently with a group of attendants, looking out at the viewer. Their scale and composition are alone among large-scale survivals. Also in Ravenna, there is a small mosaic of Justinian, possibly originally ofTheoderic the Greatin theBasilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.In theEarly Middle Ages,a group of mosaic portraits inRomeof Popes who had commissioned the building or rebuilding of the churches containing them show standing figures holding models of the building, usually among a group of saints. Gradually these traditions worked their way down the social scale, especially inilluminated manuscripts,where they are often owner portraits, as the manuscripts were retained for use by the person commissioning them. For example, a chapel atMalsinSouth Tyrolhas twofrescodonor figures from before 881, one lay and the other of atonsuredcleric holding a model building.In subsequent centuries bishops, abbots and other clergy were the donors most commonly shown, other than royalty, and they remained prominently represented in later periods.

Donor portraits of noblemen and wealthy businessmen were becoming common in commissions by the 15th century, at the same time as the panel portrait was beginning to be commissioned by this class - though there are perhaps more donor portraits in larger works from churches surviving from before 1450 than panel portraits. A very common Netherlandish format from the mid-century was a smalldiptychwith a Madonna and Child, usually on the left wing, and a "donor" on the right - the donor being here an owner, as these were normally intended to be kept in the subject's home. In these the portrait may adopt a praying pose,or may pose more like the subject in a purely secular portrait.TheWilton DiptychofRichard II of Englandwas a forerunner of these. In some of these diptychs the portrait of the original owner has been over-painted with that of a later one.

A particular convention inilluminated manuscriptswas the "presentation portrait", where the manuscript began with a figure, often kneeling, presenting the manuscript to its owner, or sometimes the owner commissioning the book. The person presenting might be a courtier making a gift to his prince, but is often the author or the scribe, in which cases the recipient had actually paid for the manuscript.

Iconography of painted donor figures

CrucifixionbyAlbrecht Altdorfer,c. 1514, with a tiny donor couple among the feet of the main figures. Altdorfer was one of the last major artists to retain this convention.

During the Middle Ages the donor figures often were shown on a far smaller scale than the sacred figures; a change dated by Dirk Kocks to the 14th century, though earlier examples in manuscripts can be found.A later convention was for figures at about three-quarters of the size of the main ones. From the 15th centuryEarly Netherlandish painterslikeJan van Eyckintegrated, with varying degrees of subtlety, donor portraits into the space of the main scene of altarpieces, at the same scale as the main figures.

A comparable style can be found in Florentine painting from the same date, as inMasaccio'sHoly Trinity(1425–28) inSanta Maria Novellawhere, however, the donors are shown kneeling on a sill outside and below the main architectural setting.This innovation, however, did not appear in Venetian painting until the turn of the next century.Normally the main figures ignore the presence of the interlopers in narrative scenes, although bystanding saints may put a supportive hand on the shoulder in a side-panel. But in devotional subjects such as aMadonna and Child,which were more likely to have been intended for the donor's home, the main figures may look at or bless the donor, as in the Memling shown.

Before the 15th century a physical likeness may not have often been attempted, or achieved; the individuals depicted may in any case often not have been available to the artist, or even alive.By the mid-15th century this was no longer the case, and donors of whom other likenesses survive can often be seen to be carefully portrayed, although, as in the Memling above, daughters in particular often appear as standardized beauties in the style of the day.

Presentation of Christ,ca 1470. Standing alongside theHoly Family,the two fashionably dressed girls, and probably the young man on the right, are donor portraits.

In narrative scenes they began to be worked into the figures of the scene depicted, perhaps an innovation ofRogier van der Weyden,where they can often be distinguished by their expensive contemporary dress. In Florence, where there was already a tradition of including portraits of city notables in crowd scenes (mentioned byLeon Battista Alberti), theProcession of the MagibyBenozzo Gozzoli(1459–61), which admittedly was in the private chapel of thePalazzo Medici,is dominated by the glamorous procession containing more portraits of the Medici and their allies than can now be identified. By 1490, when the largeTornabuoni Chapelfresco cycle byDomenico Ghirlandaiowas completed, family members and political allies of the Tornabuoni populate several scenes in considerable numbers, in addition to conventional kneeling portraits ofGiovanni Tornabuoniand his wife.In an often-quoted passage,John Pope-Hennessycaricatured 16th-century Italian donors:

the vogue of the collective portrait grew and grew... status and portraiture became inextricably entwined, and there was almost nothing patrons would not do to intrude themselves in paintings; they would stone the women taken in adultery, they would clean up after martyrdoms, they would serve at the table at Emmaus or in the Pharisee's house. The elders in the story ofSuzannahwere some of the few figures respectable Venetians were unwilling to impersonate.... the only contingency they did not envisage was what actually occurred, that their faces would survive but their names go astray.

In Italy donors, or owners, were rarely depicted as the major religious figures, but in the courts of Northern Europe there are several examples of this in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, mostly in small panels not for public viewing.The most notorious of these is the portrayal as theVirgin lactans(or just post-lactans) ofAgnès Sorel(died 1450), the mistress ofCharles VII of France,in a panel byJean Fouquet.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Theresa",Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Donor portraits in works for churches, and over-prominentheraldry,were disapproved of by clerical interpreters of the vague decrees on art of theCouncil of Trent,such as SaintCharles Borromeo,but survived well into the Baroque period, and developed a secular equivalent inhistory painting,although here it was often the principal figures who were given the features of the commissioner. A very late example of the old Netherlandish format of the triptych with the donors on the wing panels isRubens'Rockox Triptychof 1613–15, once in a church over the tombstone of the donors and now in theRoyal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.The central panel shows theIncredulity of Thomas( "Doubting Thomas" ) and the work as a whole is ambiguous as to whether the donors are represented as occupying the same space as the sacred scene, with different indications in both directions.

A further secular development was theportrait historié,where groups of portrait sitters posed as historical or mythological figures. One of the most famous and striking groups of Baroque donor portraits are those of the male members of theCornarofamily, who sit in boxes as if at the theatre to either side of the sculpted altarpiece ofGian Lorenzo Bernini'sEcstasy of St Theresa(1652). These were derived fromfrescoesbyPellegrino Tibaldia century early, which use the same conceit.

Although donor portraits have been relatively little studied as a distinct genre, there has been more interest in recent years, and a debate over their relationship, in Italy, to the rise of individualism with the Early Renaissance, and also over the changes in their iconography after theBlack Deathof the mid-14th century.

Gallery

• 
  Pope Honorius I(died 638), mosaic inSant'Agnese fuori le Murain Rome, carrying a model of the church he built.
• 
  6th-century donor portrait ofAnicia Juliana,the Byzantine princess who commissioned the illuminated manuscript known as theVienna Dioscurides.
• 
  12th-century mural with donor portrait of KingCanute VI of DenmarkinStehag Church,Sweden.
• 
  Stained-glass window depictingBeatrice of Falkenburg(died 1277) as benefactress to the Franciscans, is the earliest surviving stained-glass donor portrait (Burrell Collection).
• 
  Small donor with enthroned Madonna and Child, ca 1335
• 
  Giovanni di Paolo'sCrucifixionwith donor Jacopo di Bartolomeo, named in the inscription and with his coat of arms at left
• 
  Master of Vyšší Brod,aBohemianmaster, ca. 1350, with donor portrait ofCharles IV, Holy Roman Emperorholding a miniature church, as he had presumably paid for the whole building the painting was intended for.
• 
  Hans Memling; the Madonna looks benevolently at the donor, who is presented by SaintAnthony the Great,and blessed by the Christ-child
• 
  Geertgen tot Sint Jans,Raising of Lazarus,with five kneeling donor portraits (and perhaps the donor's dog). The very small girl was perhaps an infant death or a later addition to the family and the painting
• 
  Andrea Mantegna'sMadonna della Vittoria(c. 1496), withFrancesco II Gonzaga.
• 
  Rubens,Rockox Triptych,1613–15
• 
  Aprosperous glassmakerand his family, 1596. The five children holding crosses had died; the two in black-trimmed white garments apparently before the painting was done, on the others the crosses were probably added later.

References

• Campbell, Lorne,Renaissance Portraits, European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries,p. 151, 1990, Yale,ISBN0-300-04675-8
• Dodwell, C.R.;The Pictorial arts of the West, 800–1200,1993, Yale UP,ISBN0-300-06493-4
• "Handbook".Art in the Christian World, 300–1500; A Handbook of Styles and Forms,by Yves Christe and others, Faber and Faber, 1982,ISBN0-571-11941-7
• Jacobs, Lynn F., "Rubens and the Northern Past: The Michielsen Triptych and the Thresholds of Modernity",The Art Bulletin,Vol. 91, No. 3 (September 2009), pp. 302–24, JSTOR40645509
• King, Catherine.Renaissance Women Patrons,Manchester University Press, 1998,ISBN0-7190-5289-0.Donor portraits are discussed on pp. 129–144
• Penny, Nicholas,National Gallery Catalogues (new series):The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I,2004, National Gallery Publications Ltd,ISBN1-85709-908-7
• Roberts, Angela Marisol;Donor Portraits in Late Medieval Venice c.1280–1413,PhD thesis, 2007, Queens University, Canada (Large File)
• Johanna Scheel,Das altniederländische Stifterbild. Emotionsstrategien des Sehens und der Selbsterkenntnis,Gebr. Mann, Berlin, 2013,ISBN978-3-7861-2695-9
• Shearman, John.Mannerism,1967, Pelican, London,ISBN0-14-020808-9

Further reading

• Dirk Kocks,Die Stifterdarstellung in der italienischen Malerei des 13.-15. Jahrhunderts(The Donor Portrait in Italian Painting of the 13th to 15th centuries), Cologne, 1971
• John Pope-Hennessy;The Portrait in Renaissance Art,London, 1966
• Johanna Scheel,Das altniederländische Stifterbild. Emotionsstrategien des Sehens und der Selbsterkenntnis,Berlin, 2013