The Attribution and Date: Georges Hulin de Loo (1926) was the first to publish this portrait, noting its stylistic similarities to works by both Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden, although he ultimately favored the latter attribution. A later copy on copper in the Pinacoteca Civico “Tosio-Martinengo,” Brescia, shows the portrait in its uncropped state with only slightly larger dimensions (see fig. Although the panel has been trimmed on all sides (see Technical Notes), it cannot be by much. The uniformly dark background and tight cropping of the portrait project the figure toward the viewer. His thinning grey hair, furrowed brow, crow’s feet at his eyes, white stubble of his beard, and sagging flesh at his neck document the signs of advanced age.

The man’s luxurious dark-purple robe trimmed with fur indicates his wealthy status, but there are no clues about his profession or any other aspects of his life. This panel presumably was the right half of a diptych, the lost part of which may have been an image of a Virgin and Child. Added to these is the sympathetic portrayal of an old man, who expresses a sense of deep concentration, as he raises his hands in prayer toward the object of his devotion at the left. The history of lost intermediaries, traces uncovered by contemporary conservatory methods and the reexamination of workshop practices is only just beginning.The Painting: One of the highlights of The Met’s early Netherlandish painting collection is the wide range and depth of its portraiture, featuring notable examples of elderly men by artists such as Hans Memling ( 14.40.648), Hugo van der Goes and his circle ( 2010.118, 22.60.53), the Master of Egmond ( 32.100.122), and Marten van Heemskerck ( 71.36). Instead of evaluating processes of transmission by reflecting their innovational impact we propose to concentrate more on the process itself. By offering a critical reading of our history of notion and concept, the paper aims to sensibilize for an unbiased view on processes of copying, repetition and tradition building. In this context, the role of model and pattern books should be renegotiated as is also for the illuminators methods of work. Starting from an example of a motif’s multiple repitition in more than a dozen Flemish books of hours over the period of five decades, it calls into question popular patterns of explanation, such as the economization of production, but propose to rethink our understanding of how and traditions were re-invented in manuscript painting. This paper seeks to give a spotlighted insight on the state of research of transmissions of artistic patterns in late medieval manuscript illumination.

Meister by Stephan Kemperdick