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European and American Art

Dutch and Flemish painting of the fifteenth century is the culmination of a medieval tradition emphasizing minute detail and attention to texture and surface rather than to structure and anatomy. The face of Hugo de Groot gives an immediate impression of reality, and only at second glance do we realize how tiny the arms and hands are in comparison to the face. The proportions could be called psychological rather than anatomical -- we focus on De Groot's face, and his arms and hands are at the periphery of our vision.

A Latin inscription on the back of this painting identifies the sitter as Hugo de Groot (1451 - 1509), a priest in the New Church in the city of Delft. It has been more difficult to identify the artist. It was formerly attributed to an artist from Delft known as the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines from his best-known painting. But no other portraits have been attributed to this master and it is hard to compare the rather mannered faces in his religious paintings with De Groot's sharply individual features. A recent attribution to the Master of the Legend of St. Catherine is much more convincing. The diminutive hands are a hallmark of this artist.