Ambrosius Benson

Ambrosius Benson (* around 1495 in Lombardy; † around 1550 in Flanders ) was a painter of the late Middle Ages. Active in Bruges 1518-1550, where students of the Flemish painter Gerard David is his work in the transition of painting from the late Gothic to Renaissance.

Master of Segovia

Ambrosius Benson should be the same as the Master of Segovia, who created the unsigned and therefore not clearly attributable Kreuzigungstriptychon in the Cathedral of Segovia.

Style and school

Like his teacher paints Benson - whose original surname was probably Benzone or Bensoni - in the style of the Flemish masters of the Flemish Primitives, as he had developed to Jan van Eyck in Bruges. As usual in the tradition of his time did not provide Benson most of his works with a signature of his name; but that he nevertheless signed some works, shows the emergence of an artistic self- consciousness. Also in form and choice of subjects shows a turn of thinking, given the numerous religious works well on behalf of or for the Church, he worked in private devotional images as well as purely secular themes in the emerging upper middle class as, for example, shows his musical society. Like his portraits made ​​these private orders Benson to a respected and wealthy artists.

Reading woman and Sibylle

Interest is a motive Benson not only in professional circles, the representation of women be read as the holy women surrounding a Madonna or his reading Mary Magdalene. Like its representations of the visionary Sibylle in the image of the glorification of Mary, it may be interpreted as the environment of the time rather unusual yet open acknowledgment of the scholarship of women.

Works (selection)

  • The Virgin (Mary) and Child with St. Barbara and St. Catherine ( of Alexandria ), Paris, Musee du Louvre
  • Maria with the child Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Art Gallery, inventory no. 1787
  • Adoration of the Magi, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Paintings Gallery Inv.-Nr. GG_925
  • Rest on the Flight to Egypt, Bruges, Groeningemuseum
  • The Holy Family, Bruges, Groeningemuseum
  • Lamentation of Christ, San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum, Mildred Anna Williams Collection Inv. No. 1956.90
  • Reading Mary Magdalene, London, National Gallery Inv. No. NG655
  • The St. Anne with the Child Jesus and the Virgin Mary ( St. Anne ), Madrid, Prado Inv. No. PO1933

Examples secular works

  • Evening of music, Berlin, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Art 1, inventory no. 1992/1466
  • Portrait of Otho Stichoven, Bruges, Groeningemuseum
  • Double Portrait of Cornelis de Schepper and Elisabeth Donche, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales Inv. No 301.1994.a -b
  • Sibilla Persica, London, Victoria & Albert Museum CAI.106 (possibly working a successor )
Gothic art Integrated Authority File
55753
de