The Morrison Triptych

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The Morrison Triptych

Artist Master of the Morrison Triptych Flemish (active Bruges and Antwerp), ca. 1500-1525

Dateabout 1500-1510

Dimensionswings: 43 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. (110.8 x 37.2 cm).
center panel: 38 3/8 x 23 3/4 in. (97.5 x 60.4 cm).

Mediumoil on wood panels

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1954.5A-C

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 16

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesWeale, W.H.J., "Netherlandish Art at the Guildhall," Burlington Magazine, vol. IX, June 1906, p. 191.

Voll, K., Memling: des Meisters Gemälde in 197 Abbildungen, Stuttgart, 1909, p. 139.

Friedländer, M. J., Zeits. fur bildende Kunst, Vol L, 1915, p. 12.

Conway, M, The Van Eycks and their Followers, NY, 1921, pp. 216, 317.

Baldass, L., Joos van Cleve, der Meister des Todes Mariä, Wien, 1925, plate 36.

Friedländer, Die Alt niederländische Malerei, Leiden, 1934, vol 6, p. 116; vol 7, pp. 80-82, plates LVI-LIX.

Gallo, G. Nieto, "El Retablo de San Juan Bautista en las Iglesia del Salvador de Valladolid, Quentin Metsys o Adriaen Skilleman?" Boletin del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueologia, Valladolid, V-VI, 1939-1940, p. 59.

Benesch, O., The Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, Cambridge (Mass.), 1945, p. 70.

Davies, M., Les Primitifs Flamands: the National Gallery, London, Antwerp, 1953, I, p. 5.

Valentiner, W.R., "Simon van Herlam, the Master of the Morrison Triptych," Gazette des Beauxs-Arts, XLV, Jan. 1955, pp. 7, 10.

Hutton, W., "The Morrison Triptych," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 159, Summer 1955.

Comstock, Helen, "Flemish Triptych for the Toledo Museum," Connoisseur, vol. 137, Feb. 1956, p. 73.

Wescher, P., "Beitrage zu Simon van Haarlem, dem Meister des Morrisons Triptychons," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, VII, 1965, pp. 175, 178, 180.

Phillipot, P., "Les grisailles et les degres de la realite de l'image dans la peinture flamande des XVe et XVIe siecles," Bulletin des Musees Royaux de Belgique, 1966, no. 4, p. 237, fig. 9.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr. (col.).

Agnew, Geoffrey, Agnew's 1817-1967, London, 1967, repr.

Wittmann, Otto, "Director's Choice," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 506, repr. fig. 1.

Davies, M., National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 3rd ed., London, 1968, p. 121.

Ostern, G. von der, Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands, 1500-1600, Harmondsworth, 1969, p. 146.

"Painting in Northern Europe 1450-1550," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 13, no. 2, Summer 1970, pp. 34, 35, det. repr. p. 27, det. repr. (col.) front cover.

Friedlander, M.J., Early Netherlandish Painting, (H. Pauwels, editor), New York, 1971, VIa, no. 9a; VII, pp. 41-42, no. 81, pp. 89-90, plates 69, 70, fig. 81.

Kimball Art Museum, Catalogue of the Collection 1972, Ft. Worth, 1972, p. 34.

The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 107-108, pl. 79a-c, color pl. II.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. (col.) pp. 22-23.

Farmer, John David, "Gerard David's Lamentation and an Anonymous St. Jerome," Museum Studies (Art Institute of Chicago), no. 8, 1976, pp. 53, 55, 56.

Schulze, Franz, "A Mission of Discovery," Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, April 1977, p. 66.

Hand, John Oliver, Joos van Cleve: the Early and Mature Paintings, Princeton (dissertation), 1978, p. 207.

Mund, Helene, "Approche d'une terminologie realtive a l'etude de la copie," Annales d'Histoire de l'Art et d'Archeologie, vol. V, 1983, p. 27, prepr. fig 7, p. 29.

Scaillierez, Cecile, Joos van Cleve au Louvre, Paris, 1991, pp. 18, 19, 20, 24, 105, no. 35 and no. 55, fig. 4 (verso of wings), fig. 15 (center panel).

Flemish Paintings in America, Antwerp, 1992, repr. p. 349.

Sander, Jochen, Niederländische Gemälde im Städel, 1400-1550, Mainz am Rhein, 1993, pp. 413, 419-420, no. 11.

Vos, Dirk de, Hans Memling: the Complete Works, Ghent, 1994, p. 398, 401, no. 20, fig. 189.

Philippot, Paul, La Peinture dans les anciens pays-bas: XV-XVI siecles, Paris, 1994, p. 111, fig. 106.

Raguin, Virginia Chieffo and Helen Jackson Zakin, Stained Glass Before 1700 in the Midwest States, London, Harvey Miller, 2001, vol. 2, p. 229.

Hand, John Oliver, Joos van Cleve: the Complete Paintings, New Haven, Yale, 2004, pp. 79, 154, fig. 77, p. 80.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 124-25, repr. (col.) (2 views).

Tucker, Mark, and Lloyd DeWitt, "The Guideing Illusions of the Morrison Triptych," in Push Me, Pull You: Physical and Spatial Interaction in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art, vol. 2, ed. Sarah Blick and Laura Gelfand, Boston, Brill, 2011, pp. 355-381, repr. (col.) fig. 12.1.

Jacobs, Lynn F., Opening Doors: The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012, pp.227, 233, repr. (det.) fig. 106 p. 229, repr. fig. 107, p. 230.

Jacobds, Lynn F., "Inside/Outside: Bosch's Tryptych of the Crucified Martyr (Wilgefortis Triptych)," pp. 138-155, repr. (col.) p. 144, fig. 4.

Nash, Susie ed., Late Medieval Panel Paintings II: Materials, Methods, Meanings,London, Sam Fogg, 2015, p. 331, repr. (col.) fig. 14, p. 330.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Early Netherlandish Pictures, 1892, no. 42.

London, Guildhall Gallery, 1906, no. 35.

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, a Memorial Volume, 1927, p. 28, no. 60 (as "attributed to Hans Memling"), repr. pl. XXXII.

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Morrison Triptych: a Visiting Masterpiece, 2003-2004 (special installation, not an exhibition).

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Out of Sight, June 18-Aug. 29, 2010 (no cat.).

Label TextThe Morrison Triptych, named for a former owner, Alfred Morrison (1821–1897), was made as an expression of—and a focus for—Christian devotion. The central image depicts the Virgin Mary seated on a low throne and flanked by two musical angels, the infant Jesus seated on her lap. The left-hand panel shows Saint John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus and the last biblical prophet. Saint John the Evangelist is on the right-hand panel. The two outer panels, or wings, are hinged, designed to close over the center panel. When the altarpiece was closed (which was most of the time), the images of the first sinners, Adam and Eve, standing against shadowy backgrounds (see illustration), confronted worshipers with their own sins. When the altarpiece was opened to reveal the bright, colorful interior, the Christian believer saw the possibility of redemption as represented by the Christ Child and the Virgin Mary—the new, sinless Adam and Eve. [image of closed exterior panels: Zen/Art/Western European/Painting/ “1954_5A closed without handle”]