INGRID FALQUE

The ExeterMadonnaby Petrus Christus

Devotional Portrait and Spiritual Ascent in Early Netherlandish Painting

The image of the souls ascent to God is a commonplace of late medieval

spiritual literature. While in the early Middle Ages, the spiritual concerns inher-
ent in the ascent of the soul circulated only among monastic communities, these
interests were much more widespread in the later period. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, the theme of the spiritual ascent appears in many texts
intended not only for clerics but also for lay people, and in particular in the
writings of the major representatives of the Devotiomoderna, such as Gerard
Zerbolt of Zutphen. At this time, the image of the soul ascending to God was
also common in the visual arts, mostly in the form of the celestial ladder.1
Serving as true means of visualization, texts and images using this metaphor
helped the devotee to fix in his or her memory the several steps of the ascent
to God and to put them into practice by the acquisition of certain virtues. By
focusing on Petrus Christus Exeter Madonna, this article aims to show that
this motif is also alluded to in early Netherlandish painting, and that late medieval
devotional painting and literature shared a community of discourse.

THE EXETERMADONNA, THE DEVOTIONAL PORTRAIT TRADITION

AND THE STRUCTURING OF THE PICTORIAL SPACE

Dated to around 1450 and housed today in the Gemldegalerie in Berlin, the
Exeter Madonna shows a Carthusian monk in prayer, accompanied by
St Barbara, in front of the Virgin and Child (Fig. 1).2 The scene takes place
inside a quadrangular porch, which the devotee and his patron saint have just
entered from the left. Kneeling in prayer with St Barbara behind him, the
Carthusian monk is welcomed by Mary and her Son, who is blessing him.

1
On the literary and iconographical theme of the celestial ladder, see Christian Heck,
Lchellecleste.Unehistoiredelaquteduciel (Paris: 1999) and Walter Cahn, Ascending
and Descending from Heaven: Ladder Themes in Early Medieval Art, in SantoeDemoni
nellaltomedievooccidentale.SecoliV-XI(Spoleto: 1989), 697-724.
2
On this painting, see Max J. Friedlnder, EarlyNetherlandishPainting.1.ThevanEycks-
Petrus Christus (Leiden and Brussels: 1967), 61; Peter H. Schabacker, Petrus Christus
(Utrecht: 1974), cat. 8; Joel M. Upton, Petrus Christus. His Place in Fifteenth-Century
FlemishPainting (London and University Park: 1990), 14-18 and 72-73; Maryan W. Ainsworth
and Maximiliaan P. Martens (eds), Petrus Christus. Renaissance Master of Bruges (New
York: 1994), n 7; Klaus Niehr, Konservierte Erinnerung: Uber einen Raum bei Petrus
Christus, VonKunstundTemperament:FestschriftfrEberhardKonig, ed. Caroline Zhl
and Mara Hofmann (Turnhout: 2007), 195206.

OnsGeestelijkErf 86(3), 219-249. doi: 10.2143/OGE.86.3.3154602

Ons Geestelijk Erf. All rights reserved.
220 INGRID FALQUE

Figure 1. Petrus Christus, TheExeterMadonna, c. 1450, oil on panel, 19.5 x 14 cm,

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemldegalerie, Berlin, n inv. 523B (artwork in the
public domain)
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 221

A canopy hanging above the Virgin underlines her majesty. The position of the
monk and St Barbara at the entrance to the loggia with the saint positioned
on the threshold between the exterior and interior emphasizes their arrival
into this holy space. The path taken by the monk to arrive at this moment is
visible through the small section of landscape depicted behind the saint. The
three other openings set in the walls of the porch give a wide view onto a large
landscape depicted below. This landscape represents a busy city with a river
crossed by a bridge, together with a windmill, a square and many houses sur-
rounded by green fields and hills.3 Petrus Christus painting thus shows the
meeting between a devotee and the Virgin, in a setting that can be understood
as sacred and belonging to the realm of the Virgin. In this respect, the Exeter
Madonnais a traditional Flemish painting that includes a devotional portrait.4
The portrait integrated into a religious image came into existence at the
beginning of the Middle Ages and remained popular until at least the seven-
teenth century. However, it was during the fifteenth century that it really
became popular as a genre, especially in the Low Countries, with the formula
of the devotional portrait. Before the end of the fourteenth century, this kind of
image was mostly the preserve of kings and princes. Later, however, it became
popular amongst the lower echelons of society: noble men and women, the
wealthy bourgeoisie, clerics and members of religious communities wanted to
leave a trace not only of their piety but also of their presence on earth.5 In order
to do this, they commissioned religious paintings that included their own effigy.
By being portrayed in the image, these people were able to express their devo-
tion, to ask for the protection of a saint and, above all, to ensure their own

3
Joel Upton has suggested that this urban landscape was a view of Bruges seen from the
belfry (Upton, PetrusChristus, 18), but because of the small dimensions of the painting and
the lack of any recognizable monument, this cannot be verified.
4
This kind of effigy is generally called a donor portrait but the expression is erroneous,
or at least improper in some cases. Actually and strictly speaking, a donor is defined as the
person portrayed in a painting that s/he commissioned for a specific altar or a chapel funded
by him/her. In the special case of the ExeterMadonna, a work which is not an altarpiece, it
is difficult to speak of a donor portrait and it is thus more correct to use the term devo-
tional portrait, which refers to the pious nature of the figure. See Ingrid Falque, Miseen
mots et miseenimage de la progression spirituelle. Vers une nouvelle approche du portrait
dvotionnel dans la peinture flamande de la fin du Moyen ge, in Fictionsacre.Spiritu-
alitetesthtiquedurantlepremiergemoderne, eds. Ralph Dekoninck, Agns Guiderdoni
and Emilie Granjon (Leuven: 2013), 301.
5
In the course of my research on early Netherlandish devotional portraits, I have been able
to discover 732 paintings produced between 1400 and 1550 in the Low Countries that include
one or more portraits of people in prayer. Among these one can find single panels such as
the Exeter Madonna, but also triptychs, polyptychs and diptychs. Of these 732 paintings,
twenty-three works depict Carthusian monks or nuns and among these, nine individuals have
been identified. See Ingrid Falque, Portrait de dvot, pratiques religieuses et exprience
spirituelledanslapeinturedesanciensPays-Bas, PhD. Diss. (Universit de Lige: 2009);
Ingrid Falque, Devotional Portraiture and Spiritual Experience in Early Netherlandish
Painting, to be published by Brill in the series Brills Studies on Art, Art History, and
Intellectual History in 2017 with an online catalogue.
222 INGRID FALQUE

salvation (not only through the portrait itself but also through the prayers that
it would incite). In general, the motives of the portrait commissioners were
complex, oscillating between a true piety and a desire to express their wealth
and their prestige. It is for these reasons that there is such a profusion and
variety of early Netherlandish paintings that include devotional portraits.6
Since they combine both sacred and secular motifs, paintings that integrate
devotional portraits are singular works that require special attention. The inclu-
sion of portraits within a religious composition modifies the iconographical
content of the work according to the degree of intrusion of the devotee. For
example, in the ExeterMadonna, a simple depiction of the Virgin and Child
is turned into a meeting between the devotee and the Mother of God within the
sacred realm. However, if the attitude of the people portrayed in these paintings
is often the same they kneel, hands clasped in prayer or holding a book or a
rosary their place in the work can vary greatly in significance. Indeed, in the
case of triptychs and polyptychs, the portraits sometimes appear on the reverse
of the wings (the devotees are then physically and visually separated from the
object of their devotion depicted on the central panel). More frequently the
portraits appear on the inner wings, from where the devotees are able to see the
religious scene but are still physically separated from it by the frame. In several
cases, the devotees are depicted on the same panel as the sacred personae as
in the ExeterMadonna and, more rarely, in devotional diptychs.7 Moreover,

6
As an introduction to the phenomenon of devotional portrait in early Netherlandish
painting, see: Barbara G. Lane, TheDevelopmentofMedievalDevotionalFigures, PhD Diss.
(University of Pennsylvania: 1970); Elisabeth Heller, Das altniederlndische Stifterbild
(Munich: 1976). On the social and funerary functions of these images, see Corine Schleif,
Hands that Appoint, Anoint and Ally: Late Medieval Donor Strategies for Appropriating
Approbation Through Painting, ArtHistory 16 (1993), 1-32; Laura D. Gelfand, Fifteenth-
Century Netherlandish Devotional Portrait Diptychs: Origins and Functions, PhD. Diss.
(Case Western Reserve University: 1994); Truus van Bueren (ed.), Leven na de dood.
Gedenken in de late Middeleeuwen (Turnhout: 1999-2000); Hugo van der Velden, The
Donors Image. Gerard Loyet and the Votive Portraits of Charles the Bold (Turnhout:
2000). The spiritual dimension and devotional functions of these paintings are at the core of
recent scholarship: Craig Harbison, Visions and Meditations in Early Flemish Painting,
Simiolus 15 (1985), 87-118; Reindert L. Falkenburg, The Household of the Soul: Conformity
in the MerodeTriptych, in EarlyNetherlandishPaintingattheCrossroads.ACriticalLook
atCurrentMethodologies, ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth (New Haven and London: 2001), 2-17;
Bret Rothstein, SightandSpiritualityinEarlyNetherlandishPainting (Cambridge, Mass.:
2005); Reindert L. Falkenburg, Hans Memlings Van Nieuwenhove Diptych: the Place of
Prayer in Early Netherlandish Devotional Painting, in Essays in Context. Unfolding the
Netherlandish Diptych, eds. John Oliver Hand and Ron Spronk (Cambridge, London and
New Haven: 2006), 92-109; Falque, Miseenmots et miseenimage; Ingrid Falque, See,
theBridegroomCometh;GoouttoMeetHim. On Spiritual Progress and Mystical Union in
Early Netherlandish Painting, in Imago Exegetica: Visual Images as Exegetical Instru-
ments, 1400-1700, eds. Walter S. Melion, Michel Weemans and James Clifton (Leiden:
2014), 361-385.
7
Based on the high number of triptychs (250) and polyptychs (19) surviving in their
entirety, as well as the large number of extant wings containing devotional portraits (169),
it would appear that the most frequent way of placing portraits in a religious painting was
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 223

the structuring of the pictorial space generally leads to a complex interplay of

differentiation, gradation or fusion between the sacred and secular zones of the
composition, between the sacred personae and the devotees.8 In order to under-
stand fully the meaning of these images, it is important to take into considera-
tion the nature of the space(s) in which the protagonists are depicted and how
they are represented. Indeed, as Jean-Claude Schmitt states: la construction
de lespace de limage et lagencement des figures entre elles ne sont jamais
neutres : ils expriment et produisent tout la fois une classification des valeurs,
des hirarchies, des choix idologiques.9
Netherlandish painters thus developed a range of often subtle pictorial
devices intended to integrate the devotees into the religious scene and to organize
the sacred and secular spheres of the image in a meaningful way. More pre-
cisely, in many paintings, the artists have recourse to several motifs, such as a
path linking the background to the foreground, or an open door or a fence,
which indicate the movement made by the people portrayed within the image.10
Such devices imply a dynamic dimension to the work and suggest the physical
and mental contribution of the devotees located in the space otherwise reserved
for the holy figure to which they are praying. The DiptychoftheVirginand
Child with St Anne and a Monk in Prayer with St Barbara attributed to the
anonymous Master of the Brunswick Diptych shows particularly well how the
devotees movement inside the image is expressed through pictorial devices

on the inner wings of triptychs or polyptychs. These numbers come from my personal data-
base to be published in Ingrid Falque, DevotionalPortraiture.
8
The issue of the structuring of pictorial space (in relation to the inclusion of devotional
portraits) and its meanings is at the core of current scholarship. See for instance Alfred
Acres, The Columba Altarpiece and the Time of the World, ArtBulletin 80 (1998), 422-
451; Falque, Miseenmots et miseenimage and Lynn F. Jacobs, OpeningDoors:The
EarlyNetherlandishTriptychReinterpreted (University Park: 2012), which focuses on trip-
tychs, that she defines as paintings with doors, according to fifteenth-century terminology
found in the archives.
9
Jean-Claude Schmitt, Lecorpsdesimages.EssaissurlaculturevisuelleauMoyenge
(Paris: 2002), 43.
10
Matthew Botvinick has stressed the importance of the path and of the organization of the
pictorial space in his study of the SeilernTriptychby the Master of Flemalle. In that study,
Botvinick interprets the work as a visual pilgrimage, by drawing parallels with the meditative
pilgrimages in spiritual literature of the time. See Matthew Botvinick, The Painting as
Pilgrimage: Traces of a Subtext in the Work of Campin and Contemporaries, ArtHistory
15:1 (March 1992), 1-18. If the hypothesis of a visual pilgrimage can easily be followed in
the case of paintings illustrating the life of Christ (especially the Passion), it is more difficult
to apply to paintings showing a devotee in prayer in front of the Virgin and Child or a saint
depicted outside a narrative context. Indeed, when the devotee appears in front of a hieratic
scene of this kind, the lack of contextual elements make it harder for the devotee to imagine
himself living the life of Christ as is described in the Holy Scriptures, any more than he can
imagine himself on a pilgrimage to a holy place. More generally, on mental pilgrimages, see
Kathryn M. Rudy, Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent. Imagining Jerusalem in the Late
MiddleAges (Turnhout: 2011).
 224
INGRID FALQUE

Figure 2. Master of the Brunswick Diptych, DiptychoftheVirginandChildwithStAnneanda

MonkinPrayerwithStBarbara, last quarter of the fifteenth century, oil on panel, 35 x 23 cm
(each wing), Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, n inv. 13 (artwork in the public domain)
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 225

(Fig. 2).11 The work depicts the meeting between St Anne, the Virgin and Child
and a Carthusian monk in an enclosed garden located in the courtyard of an
imposing house or monastery. Introduced by St Barbara, the devotee seems to
have just entered the small garden through the opening on the right. He is
kneeling on the floor, hands clasped in prayer. He is looking at the Virgin, who
is seated on the ground with her mother next to her. She holds her naked son
in her hands. The infant is looking at the monk and leans his arms towards him,
as if to testify to the intimacy between the sacred personae and the supplicant.
St Anne is seated on the low brick wall covered with grass and plants, which
encloses the garden. The space in which the protagonists of the scene are
depicted is thus the hortus conclusus, the sacred place par excellence, into
which the devotee has had the privilege of entering.
Deriving from the SongofSongs, the symbol of the enclosed garden is an
allegorical image that encountered huge success in medieval exegesis, where
the bridegroom of the Song was usually identified with Christ and the bride
with the Virgin. During the thirteenth century, thanks to the influence of Richard
of Saint-Victor and Honorius Augustodunensis,12 the enclosed garden also
begins to be perceived as a metaphor of the human soul spiritually united with
God. From this period onwards, in spiritual literature and then in the visual arts,
the soul is portrayed as a garden, in which the devotee must cultivate the virtues
symbolized by the different flowers and plants that s/he has to sow if s/he wants
to be able to meet the bridegroom and unite him/herself with Him.13 In late
medieval painting, the enclosed garden takes on a particular importance when
a devotee is depicted inside it, in prayer in front of the Virgin and Child: it
becomes the intimate place in which union with Christ takes place. This is
precisely the case in the Brunswick diptych: the garden is not only the space
of the Virgin, but also the symbol of the devotees soul in which union occurs.
The intimacy of the setting where the meeting between the young man and
Christ takes place is further reinforced by the situation of the garden in a court-
yard surrounded by an outer wall in which a door is set. Beyond the wall, one

11
Taking into account the presence of St Bavo (patron saint of Haarlem) and the Virgin of
the Visitation (the patron saint of the Charterhouse of Geertruidenberg), the Carthusian monk
depicted on this diptych might be Hendrik van Haarlem. Hendrik was prior of the Charter-
house of Amsterdam from 1484 to 1490 and of the Charterhouse of Geertruidenberg from
1490 to 1499. He died on 16 April 1506. On this painting see Max J. Friedlnder, Early
NetherlandishPainting,V. GeertgentotSintJansandJeromeBosch(Leiden: 1969), 16 and
Het geheim van de stilte. De besloten wereld van de Roermondse Kartuizers. Verschenen
tergelegenheidvandetentoonstellinginhetvoormaligekartuizerkloosterO.L.Vrouwvan
BethlehemteRoermond,MaartJuni2009, ed. Krijn Pansters (Zwolle: 2009), 53-55.
12
Reindert L. Falkenburg, The Fruit of Devotion. Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in
FlemishPaintingsoftheVirginandChild,1450-1550 (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: 1994),
19-20.
13
See Falkenburg, TheFruitofDevotion, 8-11 and 16-37; Falkenburg, The Household of
the Soul, 7-9. On this kind of metaphor in the visual arts, see also Jeffrey F. Hamburger,
Nuns as Artists. The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
1997).
226 INGRID FALQUE

Figure 3. Hans Memling,TriptychoftheVirginandChildwithaManinPrayer,

1480-1488, oil on panel, 69 x 47 cm (central panel), 63.5 x 18.8 cm (inner wings)
and 69.9 x 17.3 cm (outer wings), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
n inv. 939-943-994 (artwork in the public domain)

can guess a staircase leading down to a path and to the countryside to a typical
small Netherlandish village with church and houses depicted in the background
that is the secular world.
The work of the Master of the Brunswick Diptych thus contains several
motifs that energize the composition: the image juxtaposes the sacred sphere
of the enclosed garden and the earthly world of the background. Furthermore,
the place of the meeting between St Anne, the Virgin and the monk is doubly
sacred, because of the enclosed garden and the protection offered by the outer
wall. The distance between the town and the hortus conclusus is marked out
by the path, the open door granting access to the sacred realm and the opening
in the lower brick wall of the garden. This device underscores the route that
must be taken to access this sacred place, in which the devotee is already
arrived, immersed in a profound meditation in front of St Anne and the Virgin
and Child.
The Brunswick diptych is not an exception within the corpus of early Nether-
landish paintings containing devotional portraits. Very often, the composition
of the image brings together the sacred space in the foreground and the secular
world in the background and places an emphasis on the progression of the
people portrayed and their entrance into the sacred realm by a path or an open
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 227

Figure 4. Hans Memling, TheVirginofJacobFloreins, c. 1490, oil on panel, 130.3 x

160 cm, Muse du Louvre, Paris, n inv. RF 215 (artwork in the public domain)

door. In some paintings, this progression is expressed quite discreetly, as is the

case in a Triptych of the Virgin and Child with a Man in Prayer by Hans
Memling now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Fig. 3).14 Here,
the devotee and the Virgin appear together in a richly-decorated loggia, which,
due to the throne, the cloth of honour and the sculpted capitals is identifiable
as the Virgins sacred space. Mary is seated in the centre of the composition
and the man is kneeling in prayer at her right, with an angel, St John the Evan-
gelist and St John the Baptist as the witnesses to this event. In the background,
the loggia opens onto a large landscape in which one can see a town on the left
and a man crossing a bridge in the countryside on the right. The attention of
the viewer is focused on the sacred place of the Virgin, which the devout man
has the honour to be within, while the landscape representing the earthly world
relegated to the background reminds us where the devotee comes from.

14
On this painting, see Friedlnder, EarlyNetherlandishPainting, VI, n 9; Dirk De Vos,
HansMemling.Luvrecomplet(Antwerp: 1994), n 53 and Barbara Lane, HansMemling:
MasterPainterinFifteenth-CenturyBruges (Turnhout: 2009), n 70.
228 INGRID FALQUE

If in Memlings triptych, the progression of the devotee is implicit and expressed

in terms of opposition between the sacred foreground and the secular back-
ground, some other works express this progression in a more explicit way in
other works. The VirginofJacobFloreins, again by Hans Memling, is a fine
example of this phenomenon (Fig. 4).15 The Virgin is enthroned in the middle
of the composition, with her Child on her knees. St James and St Dominic are
standing at her side and are presenting a family kneeling before her in prayer.16
Following the heraldic tradition, the men take their place on the viewers left
(the Virgins right, which is the place of honour) and the women on the right.17
The scene takes place in an atypical architectural setting, namely the nave of a
church open at the sides, through which the family have entered the church.
The back of the nave resembles a choir separated from it by a stone rood
screen. This imaginary architecture and the throne on which the Virgin is seated
underline the sacred character of the place, while the lateral openings allow us
to catch sight of an earthly landscape. A seigniorial castle appears on the left
and a farm on the right. As in the work by the Master of the Brunswick Diptych,
the secular zone of the background, in which the earthly activity prevails, is
linked to the sacred sphere by two paths behind the groups of devotees. These
paths underscore the fact that the family has left its secular, everyday world
and has taken the path leading to the sacred realm. The progress of the devotees
and their goal meeting Christ are at the heart of the images meaning.
From these examples, we can easily see that the organization of sacred and
secular spaces plays a crucial role in images with devotional portraits. Indeed,
the devices analysed here allow the artists to offer a kind of spiritual topo-
graphy, in which the devotees are depicted as moving towards union with
God, thereby showing their spiritual progress. This phenomenon can also be
observed in other paintings produced by Petrus Christus, as the spatial con-
struction of the Triptych of the Virgin and Child with a Couple in Prayer
now divided between the National Gallery of Washington and the Stdels-
ches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt testifies (fig. 5).18 In this work, the couple and
the sacred personae are located in a domestic interior. On the background,

15
On this painting, see Friedlnder, EarlyNetherlandishPainting, VI, n 66; Dirk De Vos,
Hans Memling, n 86; Micheline Comblen-Sonkes and Philippe Lorentz, Corpus de la
peinture des anciens Pays-Bas mridionaux et de la Principaut de Lige au quinzime
sicle,17.MuseduLouvre,Paris,II (Brussels: 1995), 238-262.
16
Thanks to a possible trademark painted on the rug, the father has been identified by James
Weale, HansMemlinc (London: 1901), 50-52 (who unfortunately does not cite his sources)
as Jacob Floreins, a spice merchant trading in Bruges, who married a Spanish woman from
the Quintanaduea family. Due to the lack of evidence, this identification has been contested
by Dirk De Vos, Hans Memling, 310. Taking into account the usual rigour of Weales
archivistic research, Comblen-Sonkes and Lorentz, Corpus, 250-252 agree with his identi-
fication and provide more information about the Quintanaduea family.
17
On this traditional position of the portraits, see Hugo van der Velden, Diptych Altarpiece
and the Principle of Dextrality, in EssaysinContext.UnfoldingtheNetherlandishDiptych,
Cambridge, eds. John Oliver Hand and Ron Spronk (Cambridge, London and New Haven:
2006), 124-155.
18
Ainsworth, PetrusChristus, n 12.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 229

Figure 5. Petrus Christus,TriptychoftheVirginandChildwithaCoupleinPrayer,

c. 1450, oil on panel, 46.7 x 44.6 cm (centre panel), 42 x 21.2 cm (left wing) and
41.8 x 21.6 cm (right wing), Frankfurt, Stdelsches Kunstinstitut, inv. nr. 920 (centre
panel) and Washington, National Gallery, inv. nr. 1961.9.10-11 (wings)

one can see a landscape and courtyard with a door. Petrus

Christus Exeter Madonnais composed with a similar spatial
construction, which brings together the sacred and earthly
spheres: the monk and his patron saint are located within the
space of the Virgin in the foreground, while the background
depicts an urban landscape. As stated previously, the path
taken by the Carthusian monk to reach this loggia is under-
scored by the section of landscape visible behind St Barbara,
showing the monks progression (fig. 6). This small strip of the
composition shows a vertical alignment of different motifs: the
heart of the city depicted in the background with many houses
and a fountain (that is the secular world and its activity), a
road, a small circular path in a garden and finally the entrance
to the loggia where the monk is kneeling. We can detect a dif-
ference between Christus painting and the other examples
mentioned above. The compositional strategy used by Christus
confers to the image and the monks progression a strong sense
of upward movement. Indeed, the contrast between the secular
and the sacred worlds is reinforced by the fact that the over-
hanging porch in which the protagonists are located is clearly
depicted above the secular landscape from which the Carthu-
sian monk has come. Furthermore, the small strip of the com-
position on the left and the position of the monk at the entrance
Figure 6. of the porch indicate the place where he came from; this also
Detail of underlines his upward movement from the secular up to the
Fig. 1 celestial world. This upward movement between these two
230 INGRID FALQUE

spheres serves to evoke the theme of the ascension to God, a key theme in
devotional literature dedicated to spiritual progression. Taking into account
the importance of this theme within Carthusian spirituality, this comes as no
surprise.

THE IMAGE OF THE ASCENT IN THE SPIRITUAL LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The theme of the spiritual ascent found its way into some of the most famous
Carthusian texts of the Middle Ages. This is notably the case with Guigo de
Pontes De contemplatione ( 1297) and with the Scala claustralium by
Guigo II (prior of the Grande Chartreuse from 1174 to 1180), with the latter
having been preserved in more than hundred manuscripts and considered as
a classic of spirituality.19 Writing on spiritual progress, Guigo II uses the
image of a ladder with four rungs namely those of lectio, meditation, ora-
tio and contemplatio that must be climbed in order to attain union with
God. The image of the ladder comes from a tradition established by Origen
and which flourished during the whole Middle Ages.20
Indeed, the vast production of late medieval religious literature (both in Latin
and in the vernacular) dedicated to the inner life and spiritual evolution, com-
prises many texts that make frequent use of the notion of ascension to offer a
stimulating and structured description of the quest for the union with God.21
Numerous authors have thus drawn on the image of the ladder deriving from
the biblical passage of Jacobs dream at Bethel (Genesis 28: 10-22) in which
each rung symbolizes a virtue to be acquired or a behaviour to adopt for anyone
hoping to attain perfection and thus to return to his pre-sinful state. Interest-
ingly for the topic at hand here, several authors have also used the image of the
ascents that the devotee must accomplish in his/her heart in order to express
this spiritual evolution.
The literary history of the ascent theme begins in the first centuries of the
Christian era. Origen ( 254), in particular, paves the way for the long-lasting

19
On the theme of spiritual ascent in Guigo de Pontes De contemplatione, see Philippe
Dupont, Lascension mystique chez Guigues du Pont, in Kartusermystikund-mystiker.
DritterinternationalerKongressberdieKartusergeschichteund-spiritualitt, ed. James
Hogg (Salzburg: 1981), 47-80. On Guigo II and his works, see Guigues II le Chartreux,
Lettre sur la vie contemplative (lchelle des moines). Douze meditations. Introduction et
texte critique par Edmund Colledge et James Walsh, traduction par un chartreux (Paris:
2001).
20
Guigues II le Chartreux, Lettre surlaviecontemplative, 33.
21
By way of introduction to medieval notions of spiritual and meditative processes, see the
following articles of the Dictionnairedespiritualitasctiqueetmystique.Doctrineethis-
toire(hereafter abbreviated as DS): Pierre Pourrat, commenants, in DS t. 2, vol. 1 (1953),
col. 1143-1156; Hein Blommestijn, Progrs-progressants, in DS t. 12, vol. 2 (1986), col.
2383-2405; Andr Solignac, Voies, in DS t. 16 (1994), col. 1200-1215. See also Jeffrey
Hamburger, NunsasArtists, 102-127.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 231

institution of a medieval theory on the spiritual ascent of the soul in his

Homily XXVIIonNumbers, as this passage shows:
After this, let us now strive to go forward and to ascend one by one each of the
steps of faith and the virtues. If we dwell in them for such a long time until we
come to perfection, we will be said to have made a stage at each of the steps of
the virtues until when we reach the height of our instruction and the summit of
our progress, the promised inheritance is fulfilled.22

Among medieval theologians who envisage the spiritual progress as a gradual

and structured evolution, St Bonaventura ( 1274) occupies perhaps the most
important and influential position.23 In the Franciscan doctors oeuvre, the
gradual organization of the inner life finds its most accomplished expression in
the De triplici via, and in the Itinerarium mentis in Deum. This latter work
deals with how the human soul can leave behind the perceptible world, move
towards contemplation and experience union with God. Here, Bonaventuras
discourse is decidedly mystical: it is not so much a matter of describing the
acquisition of virtues as one of describing the souls journey towards God.
Bonaventura describes three stages of the souls journey, with each stage being
a twin step; the construction of the work is thus based on six ascending levels.24
For its part, the Detriplicivia introduces the central notion of the triple (or
threefold) way (purgation, illumination and union), which gives structure to
the souls activities and builds it according to Gods image.25 Bonaventura
intimates how this goal may be achieved:
In order to obtain peace, truth and charity it is therefore necessary to elevate
oneself through three degrees, using the threefold way: first the purgative way
which consists of staying away from sin; second, the illumination way which
consists of the imitation of Christ; and the unitive way in which the bridegroom
is received.26

Still in the thirteenth century, David of Augsburg ( 1272) uses the metaphor
of the ascent for more ascetic purposes in his Deexteriorisetinteriorishominis
compositione. The last book of this impressive work offers a description of

22
Origen,HomiliesonNumbers, trans. Thomas P. Scheck and Christopher A. Hall (Wesmont:
2009), 171.
23
On this subject, see Jacques Guy Bougerol, Introduction  saint Bonaventure (Paris:
1988).
24
The ItinerariummentisinDeum has been translated into English in Saint Bonaventura,
TheMindsRoadtoGod, trans Georges Boas (New York: 1953). On the theme of ascension
in the Itinerarium, see among others Bernard McGinn, Ascension and Introversion in the
Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, in S. Bonaventura. 1274-1974. Volumen commemorativum
anniseptiescentenariiamorteS.BonaventuraDoctorisSeraphicicuraetstudioCommis-
sionis Internationalis Bonaventurianae, ed. Jacques Guy Bougerol, vol. 3 (Rome : 1973),
535-552.
25
Ephrem Longpr, Bonaventure, in DS, t. 1 (1937), col. 1792.
26
Detriplicivia, c. 3, n. 1 (VIII, 12). Cited after Bougerol, IntroductionSaintBonaven-
ture, 245 (my translation).
232 INGRID FALQUE

mans progress to Wisdom by means of seven stages. The theologian explains

the different temptations that man can encounter and the means of combating
them. He also offers a presentation of the virtues that need to be acquired and
a series of spiritual exercises that the devotee can practise.27 This work exerted
a decisive influence on the writers of the Devotio moderna, with whom the
Carthusians cultivated links.28
The late fourteenth century is a decisive turning point in the literary history
of the theme of the spiritual ascent, and more precisely in its circulation outside
monastic circles. Treatises written in the vernacular by authors such as Jean
Gerson (1363-1429) attest particularly well to this phenomenon. Gerson notably
employs the image of the mountain that one must climb to reach God in his
Montaignedecontemplation.29 This image is also employed by the author of
the Neunfelsenbuch (Book of the Nine Cliffs), a text written in Strasbourg
in the second half of the fourteenth century and generally attributed to Rulman
Merswin.30 Furthermore, at this time, the theme of the spiritual ascent was
spreading amongst the lay elite. For example, it was particularly appreciated
by Bonne of Luxembourg and her son, Duke Jean de Berry.31 Both possessed
a manuscript containing a brief spiritual treatise written in French that, as
Christian Heck has shown, is a paraphrase of an extract from Bonaventuras
Detriplicivia.32 The late fourteenth century is also the high point of the Devotio
modernamovement. Amongst the founders of this religious movement recom-
mending a renewal of spiritual life, Florent Radewijns (ca. 1350-1400)33 and

27
See Andr Rayez, David dAugsbourg, DS, t. 3 (1957), col. 43-44. See also Heck,
Lchellecleste, 126-127.
28
On the relationship between the Carthusians and the Devotiomoderna, see for instance
Willem Lourdaux, Enkele beschouwingen over de betrekkingen tussen Kartuizers en
Moderne devotie, in Handelingen van het XXVe Vlaams filologen-congres (Antwerp:
1963), 416-423 and Otto Grndler, DevotioModernaAtqueAntiqua. The Modern Devotion
and Carthusian Spirituality, in TheSpiritualityofWesternChristendom,vol.2:TheRoots
oftheModernChristianTradition, ed. E. Rozanne Elder (Kalamazoo: 1984), 27-45.
29
For an introduction to Jean Gerson, see Palmon Glorieux, JeanGerson, uvrescom-
pltes,1,Introductiongnrale (Paris: 1960) and Brian Patrick McGuire, JeanGersonand
theLastMedievalReformation (University Park : 2005).
30
On this text, see Bernard McGinn, TheHarvestofMysticisminMedievalGermany(1300-
1500). Vol. IV of the Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism (New
York: 2005), 423-426.
31
See Christian Heck, Liconographie de lascension spirituelle et la dvotion des lacs:
le Trne de charit dans le PsautierdeBonnedeLuxembourg et les PetitesHeuresduduc
deBerry, Revuedelart 110 (1995), 9-22 and Heck, Lchellecleste, 134-136.
32
These manuscripts are the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg (New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, The Cloisters, inv. n 69.88) and the PetitesHeuresduducdeBerry (Paris,
Bibliothque Nationale de France, ms latin 18014). In both cases, the Bonaventurian text is
accompanied by an illumination depicting Salomons throne with the six stages of charity
leading to God.
33
In hisTractatulusdevotus, Florent Radewijns offers a practical introduction to spiritual
life strongly influenced by Bonaventuras Detriplicivia. Primarily destined for the Brothers
of the Common Life, Radewijnss text presents a gradual progression in which the upward
dynamic is implicit. For a recent edition of this text, see Florent Radewijns, Petit manuel
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 233

Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen (1367-1398), in particular, take a specific interest

in the theme of the spiritual ascent.
Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen wrote two influential works dedicated to spiritual
progress: the Tractatusdevotusdereformacioneviriumanimae (which circu-
lated especially among houses of the Devotiomoderna) and the Despiritualibus
ascensionibus (which enjoyed a wider circulation).34 Both of these texts were
read by Carthusians, as we will see later on. Although they deal with the same
subject, the two texts adopt distinctly different structures: whereas, in Derefor-
macione, Gerard Zerbolt opts for a systematic conception based on the reforma-
tion of the three powers of the soul (namely the will, the memory and the
intellect)35, in Deascensionibus, he uses a processo-performative36 structure,
which is constituted by a succession of steps leading to spiritual perfection and
to love and vision of God. The personal and psychological approach adopted
by Zerbolt in these books makes them treatises suitable not only for a religious
or intellectual elite, but also for a larger audience interested in the spiritual life.
Indeed, the wide circulation of Despiritualibusascensionibus suggests that its
colourful language was much appreciated by an educated lay audience.37
The De spiritualibus ascensionibus is particularly important here, for the
structure of the text is not founded on the image of the rungs of a ladder (as it

pour le dvot moderne. Tractatulus devotus, trans. Sr Francis Joseph Legrand (Turnhout:
1999).
34
Forty manuscripts of Dereformacione have been preserved. Most of them were written
in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, that is during the same period as the production
of Christus painting. The manuscripts mostly come from houses of the Devotiomoderna or
have a Carthusian, Benedictine or Cistercian origin. See Grard Zerbolt, Manuel de la
rformeintrieure.Tractatusdevotusdereformacioneviriumanime, trans. Sr Francis Joseph
Legrand (Turnhout: 2001), 43-59. A hundred and twenty-five manuscripts (complete or
partial versions) of Despiritualibus are known (including nineteen Middle Dutch or Middle
German translations). Many of these manuscripts come from charterhouses. See Grard
Zerbolt, La monte du cur. De spiritualibus ascensionibus, trans. Sr Francis Joseph
Legrand (Turnhout: 2006), 41-56.
35
Grard Zerbolt, Lamonteducur, 20.
36
Grard Zerbolt, Lamonteducur, 22.
37
Grard Zerbolt, Manueldelarformeintrieure, 38-39. It is often stated that Derefor-
macione was written prior to De spiritualibus ascensionibus because the second work is
better constructed and because it includes a reference to an earlier text generally identified
as Dereformacione. See Joannes van Rooij, GerardZerboltvanZutphen:levenengeschrif-
ten (Nijmegen, Utrecht and Antwerp: 1936), 95. This hypothesis has been taken up by
G. H. Gerrits, Inter timorem and spem.AStudyoftheTheologicalThoughtofGerardZerbolt
ofZutphen(1367-1398) (Leiden: 1986), 17 and more recently by Jos van Aelst in Grard
Zerbolt, Manueldelarformeintrieure, 38. These authors claim that an extract of chapter
27 of Despiritualibus is referred to in a previous tract, which they identify as Dereforma-
cione. Nonetheless, according to Nikolaus Staubach in Legrand, GrardZerbolt. Lamonte
duCur, 18, this mention is more likely an allusion to the content of the book itself rather
than to another text. Consequently it is not possible to say which of the books was written
first. Furthermore, it seems that Zerbolt deliberately conceived his books as two versions of
the same theme, by taking inspiration from David of Augsburgs Deexteriorisetinterioris
hominiscompositione. See Staubach in Grard Zerbolt, LamonteduCur, 22.
234 INGRID FALQUE

is most often the case) but on that of the ascent, and visualization plays an
important role in the process. Zerbolts colourful language is thus available to
the readers imagination, who must realize his sinful state and prepare ascents
in his heart (igiturdebesincordedisponereascensiones). This means practising
meditation and spiritual exercises in order to attain everlasting beatitude. From
the very first pages, the author asserts the didactic function of his work and
tries to show his readers a way to ascend towards God:
Here are proposed to you, as you set yourself for your ascent, five points found
in these prophetic words, brief and in reverse order but full of meaning. First,
where you ought to ascend, that is, the place which the Lord has appointed.
This we should rightly understand as the state of natural rectitude in which the
Lord once created and placed you. Set your heart, then, to ascend to that place
from which you earlier willed to descend. Second, the place whence you ought
to begin your ascent, a place called the valley of tears. That valley should
be construed as the overthrowing and impoverishment of your natural dignity.
At the bottom now, you ought to return and ascend the mount from which you
fell.38

As a true statement on devout life, the Despiritualibusascensionibus appears

as a guide, punctuated according to a scheme of three ascents that are a
response to three descents, which have plunged mankind into its current
state. The aim of this visual structure, based on ascents that the reader has to
perform, is to help him/her to attain spiritual perfection.39 It is important to
stress that scholars usually insist on the purely ascetic nature of this book, as
is the case for most of the major texts produced by the Devotiomoderna.40
Accordingly, the goal of the contemplative process (and more precisely the

38
Hec tibi quinque disponenti ascendere, ordine quamvis retrogrado, in verbis propheticis
brevibus verbis sed plenitudine sensus, proponuntur. Primum enim, tibi proponitur quod
debes ascendere in locum videlicet quem dominus posuit, quem non incongrue possumus
intelligere statum naturalis tue rectudinis, in quo te idem Dominus quondam posuit and
creavit, ut videlicet in illum locum ascensiones in corde disponas, unde prius descensiones
disposuisti. Secundo, tibi proponitur locus a quo egredi debeas per ascensum cum dicitur in
valle lacrimarum. Que quidem vallis congrue accipitur, deiectio and destitucio tue naturalis
dignitatis, in qua velut in basso constitutus, rursum ad montem unde cecidisti debes ascen-
dendo redire. Grard Zerbolt, Lamonteducur, 98-101. English translation by John Van
Engen, DevotioModerna.BasicWritings (New York: 1988), 245-246.
39
The three descents are Adams Fall, the impurity of the heart caused by worldly tempta-
tions, and deadly sin, all of which plunged mankind into the region of dissimilarity. The
three ascents designed to counter these falls are penance, purity of the heart, and the
struggle against vices. The chapters dedicated to the third ascent comprise a booklet on the
meditation of the Passion of our Lord. See Jos van Aelst, Bitter as Myrrh. Gerard Zerbolts
Meditation on the Passion of Christ, in Kirchenreform von unten. Gerhard Zerbolt von
Zutphen und die Brder vom gemeinsamen Leben. Tradition  Reform  Innovation, ed.
Nikolaus Staubach (Frankfurt and Berlin: 2004), 306-323.
40
Gerrits, Inter timorem and spem, 251; Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 26; and more
generally Regnerus R. Post, The Modern Devotion. Confrontation with Reformation and
Humanism (Leiden: 1968).
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 235

union with God) would be of little significance for Gerard Zerbolt. Admit-
tedly, this text is teeming with moral considerations, but it does not prevent
the author from clearly evoking union with God, notably by using a vocabu-
lary that is reminiscent of the mysticism of Jan van Ruusbroec.41 Thus, when
he deals with the effects of the third ascent, Zerbolt writes: through such
gazing, clinging, and transforming of the mind, a man begins to become in
a certain sense one spirit with God, to go beyond himself, to gaze upon the
very truth, and thus to grow accustomed to union and adherence.42 It would
thus be wrong to consider the De spiritualibus ascensionibus as an exclu-
sively moralizing work. In fact, it offers its audience the possibility of under-
standing and acquiring spiritual perfection in this world and thus of attaining
union with God.43 Seen from this angle, this treatise is a true basis for med-
itative practices leading to mystical union. The logic structuring Zerbolts
discourse is clearly that of ascending, evident in the three steps describing
spiritual evolution. Thus, passages expressing spiritual progress in terms of
ascent and elevation are extremely numerous, even in the booklet on the
Meditations on the Passion inserted into the chapters dedicated to the third
ascent. There, Gerard Zerbolt uses the imagery of the mountain of myrrh
(symbol of bitterness) that the devout must climb.44 It is also important to
note that in this treatise, Zerbolt is firmly positive, as one of the very first
sentence testifies: I know, O man, that you wish to make your ascent and
ardently desire to reach the heights. For you are a noble and rational creature
endowed with a capacious soul, and you have therefore a natural desire for
ascent and the heights.45 Zerbolts book thus appears as a support, a spir-
itual guide intended to help the reader attain purity of heart and a vision of
God. As we will see below, texts are not the only tools that help the devotee
to progress spiritually speaking. Images such as the Exeter Madonna also
play a crucial role, even in a Carthusian context.

41
The books produced by the Devotio moderna are mainly understood as examples of
edification literature. However, they clearly possess a mystical dimension according to
which they must be studied. On this, see Rudolf Th. M. van Dijk, Ascensiones in corde
disponere. Spirituelle Umformung bei Gerhard Zerbolt von Zutphen, in Staubach,Kirchen-
reformvonunten, 302. On the links between the Devotiomoderna and the mystical tradition,
see Guido de Baere, De Middelnederlandse mystieke literatuur en de Moderne Devotie,
Trajecta 6 (1997), 3-18.
42
Et per huiusmodi mentis intuitum and adhesionem and transformacionem, incipit quo-
dammodo homo unus spiritus cum Deo fieri and extra seipsum transgredi, and ipsam veri-
tatem intueri, and ad unionem and adhesionem habilitari. Grard Zerbolt, La monte du
cur, 208-209. English translation by Van Engen, DevotioModerna, 275.
43
See van Dijk, Ascensionesincordedisponere, 292.
44
See van Aelst, Bitter as Myrrh.
45
Novi, homo, quod ascensionum sis cupidus quodque exaltacionem vehementer concu-
piscis. Racionalis enim ac nobilis creatura es, and magni cuiusdam animi, ideoque altitu-
dinem and ascensum naturali appandis desiderio. Grard Zerbolt, La monte du cur,
98-100. English translation by Van Engen, DevotioModerna, 245.
236 INGRID FALQUE

THE EXETERMADONNA, A MISE EN IMAGE OF THE SPIRITUAL ASCENT

IN A CARTHUSIAN CONTEXT

As we have seen, the metaphor of the spiritual ascent was very popular in late
medieval religious literature. More specifically, it enjoyed great success in texts
written and/or read by Carthusians, as was notably the case with Zerbolts
treatises.46 Taking this into account, the pictorial devices of the ExeterMadonna
emphasized previously merit further investigation. The composition of the
picture with the earthly world below and the sacred realm above linked by
an opening in the wall strongly suggests that the monk had to climb, to
ascend, in order to reach the entrance of the sacred place and thus to meet the
Virgin and the Child. In order to appreciate the underlying meaning of the
painting, it is necessary to focus on the identity of the monk portrayed, as well
as on the visual and intellectual context he was living in.
The Carthusian monk depicted in the ExeterMadonna has been identified
as Jan Vos, who also appears kneeling in prayer in Jan van EycksVirginand
Child with St Barbara, St Elisabeth and Jan Vos (Fig. 7). Now held in the
Frick Collection in New York, this painting is usually dated to around 1441
and is considered as a work begun by Jan van Eyck and finished by members
of his workshop after his death.47 In 1938, H. J. J. Scholtens discovered sev-
eral archival documents that reveal the monks identity and the circumstances
of the commission: on 3 September 1443, the bishop of Bruges, Martinus de
Mayo consecrated three altarpieces one of them being the aforementioned
Eyckian painting offered to the Charterhouse of Bruges (also known as
Genadedal or Val-de-Grce) by Jan Vos, who was at this time the prior of
the monastery.48 During his visit, the bishop attached indulgences to these
paintings, on the condition that they stay within the Order.49

46
See note 34.
47
See Frank Biebel, The Virgin and Child with Saints and a Carthusian Donor by Jan van
Eyck and Petrus Christus, Art Quarterly 17 (1954), 423-425; Friedlnder, EarlyNether-
landish Painting. I, 61-62; Schabacker, Petrus Christus, n 23; Upton, Petrus Christus,
11-18 and Ainsworth, PetrusChristus, n 2.
48
H. J. J. Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H.MaagdmetdenKartuizeren de ExeterMadonna
te Berlijn, OudHolland 55 (1938), 49-62. These archival documents were first published
in L. van Hasselt, Het necrologium van het karthuizerklooster Nieuwlicht of Bloemendaal
buiten Utrecht, BijdragenenMededeelingenvanhetHistorischGenootschapgevestigdte
Utrecht 9 (1886), 126-392. They describe the two other paintings: the first depicted the
Virgin and Child and the second the risen Christ and the Virgin and Child.
49
Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H.Maagd, 53. See also H. J. J. Scholtens, De priors van
het kartuizerklooster Nieuwlicht bij Utrecht, Archiefvoordegeschiedenisvanhetaarts-
bisdom Utrecht 53 (1929), 330. On the Charterhouse of Nieuwlicht, see James Hogg and
Gerhard Schlegel (eds), Monasticoncartusiense, vol. 3 (Salzburg: 2005), 191-194 and Johan
P. Gumbert, Die Utrechter Kartuser und ihre Bcher im frhen fnfzehnten Jahrhundert
(Leiden: 1974), 23-41.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 237

Figure 7. Jan van Eyck (and workshop), TheVirginofJanVos, ca. 1441, oil on
panel, 47.4 x 61.3 cm, The Frick Collection, New York, n inv. 54.1.161 (artwork in
the public domain).

At first a member of the Teutonic order, Jan Vos spent the most of his life in
the order of St Bruno.50 On 19 August 1431, he is mentioned as procuratorof
the Utrecht house of the Teutonic order. He then entered the Charterhouse of
Nieuwlicht, in the neighbourhood of Utrecht, where he lived for a few years as
a brother before being appointed prior of the Charterhouse of Genadedal in
Bruges, replacing the former prior Gerard van Hamone in 1441.51 At the very
beginning of his stay in the Flemish city, Jan Vos commissioned from Van
Eyck the painting now held in the Frick Collection for the church of the char-
terhouse. In 1450, Jan Vos returned to Nieuwlicht, where he also became prior.
Leaving Bruges, he took the Eyckian painting with him and placed it in the
church of his new monastery, on the altar dedicated to St Barbara, which was

50
Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H.Maagd,52. See also Ainsworth, PetrusChristus, 72.
51
On the Charterhouse of Genadedal, see Jean-Pierre Esther, Jan De Grauwe and Vivian
Desmet, HetkarthuizerkloosterbinnenBrugge.Verledenentoekomst (Bruges: 1980); Jan
de Grauwe, Chartreuse du Val-de-Grce Bruges, in Monasticonbelge, 4. Province de
la Flandre occidentale(Lige: 1978), 1191-1230 and Hogg and Schlegel, Monasticoncar-
tusiense, 108-116.
238 INGRID FALQUE

founded in 1446.52 Jan Vos held the title of prior of Nieuwlicht until 1458, and
he died in 1462.53
While in Bruges, Jan Vos thus commissioned not one, but two paintings that
included a portrait of himself in prayer. The two works share the same patron,
a similar iconography and the same type of composition: as in Christus work,
the Eyckian painting shows the prior kneeling in prayer in front of the Virgin
and Child, this time with St Barbara and St Elizabeth. The scene takes place in
a loggia located above an urban landscape displayed in the background.
Nevertheless, in this case, no entrance or passage between the secular world
and the sacred sphere is depicted. The fact that Jan Vos commissioned both
paintings in Bruges has led some scholars to assert that Petrus Christuss work,
which is dated to around 1450, was intended to replace the Eyckian altarpiece
in the church of Genadedal after the departure of Jan Vos for Nieuwlicht.54 This
hypothesis seems, however, unlikely considering the very small size of the
Exeter Madonna (20 x 14 cm). Altarpieces were generally bigger, even for
small private chapels.55 The size of Petrus Christus picture makes it more
likely that it was a painting intended for private devotion, which could be easily
transported and used in different circumstances. Given that Jan Vos would have
been unlikely to leave a private, devotional painting containing his own portrait
in Bruges, we can reasonably assume that he took the two paintings with him
to Nieuwlicht, one being destined for the St Barbara altar and the other for his
personal use in his cell.
A fifteenth-century patron commissioning two paintings with a portrait of
himself in prayer is not that common. We know of only a few of these, including
those of Nicolas Rolin, Willem Moreel, Tommaso Portinari and two abbots of
the Cistercian abbey of Ter Duinen in Koksijde.56 It is thus even more curious

52
Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H.Maagd, 51.
53
See Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H. Maagd, 53; H.J.J. Scholtens, De priors van het
kartuizerklooster Nieuwlicht, 302.
54
Scholtens, Jan van Eycks H.Maagd,61-62.
55
Following Upton, PetrusChristus, 16 and Ainsworth, PetrusChristus, 104.
56
Jan Crabbe and Tommaso Portinari are depicted in three paintings: the first appears in
the TriptychofJanCrabbe by Hans Memling (Vicence, Museo Civico, n inv. A.297 for
the central panel; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library for the inner wings and Bruges,
Groeningemuseum, n inv. 01254-1255 for the outer wings). He is also depicted in the first
panel of the series of the genealogy of the dukes of Burgundy and the abbots of Ter Duinen,
in which he appears in the company of Mary of Burgundy and the Pieter Vaillant (Bruges,
Groot Seminarie) and in a TriptychoftheVirginandChild, in which his portrait has been
overpainted (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, n inv. 939-943-994). Portinari appears in
the famous PortinariTriptychof Hugo van der Goes (Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, n inv.
1525), in a double portrait with his wife by Hans Memling, which must be the wings of a
triptych (New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, n inv. 14.40.626-627) and in Mem-
lings PanoramaofthePassion(Turin, Galleria Sabauda, n inv. 8). Nicolas Rolin commis-
sioned the famous VirginoftheChancelorRolin by Jan van Eyck (Paris, Muse du Louvre,
n inv. 1271)and Rogier van der Weydens BeauneAltarpiece (Beaune, Htel-Dieu). Willem
Moreel appears in Memlings double portrait of him and his wife (Brussels, Muses
Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, n inv. 1451-52) and in the TriptychMoreel(Bruges,
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 239

that Jan Vos, a Carthusian monk, commissioned not one, but two religious
paintings that included his own image. Indeed, the Carthusians are well known
for their strict way of life and their negative appraisal of images. Founded in
1084 by St Bruno, the Carthusian order extols solitude, silence and simplicity
as the only ways to cultivate a perfect contemplative life.57 The monks lived a
life of seclusion, spending most of the time alone in their cells, praying reading
and copying books. Decorations in the church were supposed to be avoided, as
were any other curious or luxurious objects in the monastery. As Guigo I, the
fifth prior of the Grande Chartreuse (1109-1136) states in his Consuetudines
a text that can be considered as the rule of the order we do not have
any ornaments of gold or silver in the church, with the exception of the chalice
and the reed by which the blood of the Savior is taken, nor do we have
hangings or carpets.58 Despite such assertions (regularly repeated in further
statutes of the order), charterhouses readily displayed images and works of art,
especially during the late Middle Ages. As Yvette Carbonell-Lamothe states,
les chartreuses ont t du 14me au 17me sicle des lieux dlection pour des
formes artistiques de toute sorte, crations architecturales, picturales et mme
sculpturales, avec des raffinements de qualit.59 So, what did the visual
environment of Jan Vos in Bruges and Utrecht look like?
Although we do not have much information about the works of art and
ornaments held in the Charterhouse of Genadedal in the fifteenth century, the
situation in Utrecht is better known.60 Many donations of stained-glass win-
dows, liturgical objects, church ornaments and works of art to the Utrecht

Groeningemuseum, n inv. O.91.I), while Christiaan de Hondt, appears in a diptych of the

Master of 1499 (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, n inv. 255-256) and
in a copy of a VirginandChild by Memling (Paris, Petit Palais).
57
For an introduction to the Carthusian order and its history, see Peter Nissen, De
kartuizerorde: een eenwenoud getuigenis van stille concentratie, in Het geheim van de
stilte.DebeslotenwereldvandeRoermondseKartuizers.Verschenentergelegenheidvan
detentoonstellinginhetvoormaligekartuizerkloosterO.L.VrouwvanBethlehemteRoer-
mond,MaartJuni2009, ed. Krijn Pansters (Zwolle: 2009), 12-21. On the relationship of
the order to art in the late Middle Ages, see Jessica Brantley, Reading in the Wilderness.
PrivateDevotionandPublicPerformanceinLateMedievalEngland (Chicago and London:
2007), 27-77; Sherry Lindquist, Agency, Visuality and Society at the Chartreuse de
Champmol (Aldershot: 2008), Liesbeth Zuidema, De functie van kunst in de Nederlandse
kartuizerskloosters, in Pansters, Het geheim van de stilte, 48-61 and Liesbeth Zuidema,
Verbeeldingenontbeelding.EenonderzoeknaardefunctievankunstinNederlandsekar-
tuizerkloosters(1450-1550), PhD Diss. (Leiden: 2010).
58
Ornamenta aurea vel argentea, preter calicem et calamum quo sanguis domini sumitur,
in ecclesia non habemus, pallia tapetiaque reliquimus. Guigo I, Consuetudines, 40.I. Quoted
and translated by Brantley, ReadingintheWilderness, 59.
59
Yvette Carbonell-Lamothe, Conclusions, in Leschartreuxetlart.XIVe-XVIIIesicle.
ActesduXecolloqueinternationaldhistoireetdespiritualitcartusiennes(Villeneuve-ls-
Avignon,15-18septembre1988), eds. Alain Girard and Daniel Le Blvec (Paris: 1989), 395.
60
Research on Carthusian patronage in the Low Countries still needs to be undertaken.
Regarding Genadedal, unpublished and unstudied archives mentioned in Jan de Grauwe,
Chartreuse du Val-de-Grce, 1192-1194 should reveal some interesting information. Hogg
and Schlegel, Monasticon cartusiense, 111-112 mentions the existence of several tomb
240 INGRID FALQUE

Figure 8. Anonymous master from Utrecht, TriptychoftheLastSupper, 1520-1521,

oil on panel, 149.5 cm x 96.5 cm (central panel) and 149.5 cm x 39 cm (wings),
Centraal Museum, Utrecht, n inv. 31199 (artwork in the public domain).

charterhouses are recorded for this period.61 Alongside the paintings brought
by Jan Vos, another work from the monastery has been preserved. Dated
between February 1520 and February 1521 and attributed to an anonymous
master active in Utrecht, this TriptychoftheLastSupper depicts on its wings
three Carthusian monks and a nun kneeling in prayer (Fig. 8). Although of a
later date, this work is interesting, as it gives us an idea of the kind of works
of art that were located in charterhouses. Furthermore, the historical context
surrounding the commissioning of this triptych is well known: the three monks
have been identified as Jacob and Vincent Pauw and Pieter Sas; the woman on
the right is Digna Sas, their aunt.62 Ghijsbert Pauw, the father of Jacob and
Vincent, was a rich benefactor of the charterhouse. He notably donated a large

monuments and floor slabs dating from the fourteenth century, as well as some early modern
paintings, but without offering further information.
61
See Rolf de Weijert, Gift-Giving Practices in the Utrecht Charterhouse. Donating to be
Remembered?, in Living Memoria. Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Memorial
Culture in Honour of Truus van Bueren, eds. Rolf de Weijert, Kim Ragetli, Arnoud-Jan
Bijsterveld and Jeannette van Arenthals (Hilversum: 2011), 160-162.
62
The monks are all nephews of Digna: Pieter was prior of Nieuwlicht between 1525 and
1540; Vincent had first been a monk in Nieuwlicht before moving to the Charterhouse of
Zonnenberg; Jacob is recorded in the Utrecht Charterhouse as a novice in February 1520,
before being professed in February 1521. Since he is depicted as a novice, the triptych can
be dated between 1520 and 1521. See Raymond van Luttervelt, Twee utrechtse primitieven
(Johannes van Huemen?), Oud Holland 62 (1947), 107-122; H.J.J. Scholtens, Kunst-
werken in het Utrechtse kartuizerklooster. Nogmaals: De kloosterkerk van Nieuwlicht en
het drieluik van de H. H. Martelaren (1521), OudHolland 67 (1952), 157-166 and Henri
Defoer, The Triptych of the Pauw-Sas Family from the Utrecht Charterhouse, in Living
Memoria, 321-332.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 241

amount of money to the monastery when his son Jacob was professed. Ghijsbert
Pauw died in 1521 and was buried in the church of Nieuwlicht, near the Holy
martyrs altar. Funded by the persons portrayed on the wings, the triptych was
most surely destined for this altar, where it functioned as a memorial piece. The
presence on the triptych of Digna Sas who came from outside the monastery
and the historical information collected highlight a common phenomenon of
late medieval charterhouses: the aristocratic patronage of these princely
charterhouses, with the Charterhouse of Champmol (founded in 1383 by the
duke and duchess of Burgundy Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders) being
one of the most famous examples.63 Indeed, in the late Middle Ages, charter-
houses were frequently built in the neighbourhood of big cities and depended
largely on the donations of wealthy benefactors. In exchange for this financial
support, these benefactors expected the Carthusians who were then consid-
ered as a spiritual elite to pray for the salvation of their souls. As Sherry
Lindquist states:
The Carthusians conservatism and solitary vocation argued for a spiritual advan-
tage for the wealthiest patrons able to subsidize the greatest numbers of Carthusian
prayers. If the mendicants held a special attraction for the urban middle classes,
the Carthusians distinctly appealed to the highest nobility by their elitism and
exclusivity.64

Departing from the Carthusian ideal of solitude, these practices implied inter-
actions between the monks and the outside world and are generally considered
as the main cause of the presence of works of art within charterhouses. First,
the introduction of donated works of art was mainly restricted to the conventual
parts of the monastery, but they rapidly reached the monks cells, as patrons
regularly donated books and small images as gifts.65 For a long time, scholars
assumed that the presence of images in Carthusian monasteries could first and
foremost be explained by the influence of benefactors. However, a few years

63
I borrow this expression (chartreuses princires) from Alain Girard, Le dcor en
chartreuse : la place de la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-ls-Avignon dans le dveloppement de
limage, in LedcordesglisesenFrancemridionale(XIIIe-miXVesicle), Cahiers de
Fanjeaux 28 (Toulouse: 1993), 372. Among the early examples of this phenomenon, one
can think of the Charterhouses of Paris (founded in 1257 by Louis, king of France) and of
Villeneuve-ls-Avignon (founded by Pope Innocent VI in 1353).
64
Lindquist, Agency, Visuality and Society, 190. For the specific case of Utrecht, see de
Weijert, Gift-Giving Practices. The Carthusians were known as an order never reformed
because never deformed, as stated by their motto.
65
See Brantley,ReadingintheWilderness, 64 and 350 (n. 156). The most famous examples
of such images donated for monks cells are the twenty-six paintings commissioned by Philip
the Bold for the cells of Champmol. Jean de Beaumetz and his workshop produced the images
between 1389 and 1395. Only two of them featuring a Carthusian praying before the Christ
on the cross have survived (Paris, Muse du Louvre, n inv. R.F.1967-3 and Cleveland,
Cleveland Museum of Art, n inv. 1964.454). See Charles Sterling, uvres retrouves de Jean
de Beaumetz, peintre de Philippe le Hardi, Bulletin des Muses royaux des Beaux-Arts de
Belgique 4 (1955), 57-81 and Lindquist, Agency,VisualityandSociety, 53.
242 INGRID FALQUE

ago, this assumption was revised and the involvement of the monks in the
visual programme of their charterhouses is now increasingly being taken into
consideration.66
Depicting Carthusians in prayer, the Triptych of the Last Supper and the
ExeterMadonna are witnesses of the active role played by the monks when
it comes to the commissioning and use of visual images within the charter-
house. For that matter, the different statutes of the order written during the
Middle Ages and other Carthusian texts sometimes present ambivalent
remarks about art in the charterhouses.67 In his Deorigineetveritateperfectae
religionis(c. 1313), Guillaume dIvre (also known as Guillelmus de Ypore-
gia) delivers crucial information on the private visual environment of the
monks. According to dIvre, Carthusians were allowed to have one crucifix
and one image of the Virgin (or of another saint) in the oratory of their cell.
He also states that:
The Carthusians in their cells do not refuse nor reject devotional pictures, but
accept and seek them freely and eagerly because they excite devotion and imag-
ination, and augment devotional ideas.68

Here we find an obvious and crucial justification of the use of devotional

imagery by Carthusian monks: such images can be used by the monks within
the privacy of their own cell, because of their affective and meditative power.
As its small dimensions indicate, the Exeter Madonna was most certainly an
image of this type, conceived as a support for Jan Vos private meditation,
performed in his cell or his oratory.

66
In this regard, Lindquists work on the Charterhouse of Champmol is exemplary. She
showed that the complex and luxurious art produced for Champmol conveys not only the
wishes and expectations of the duke of Burgundy, but that it also represented a way for the
Carthusians to establish their ideology, their reputation and their identity. She also demon-
strated that the monks directly intervened in the development of the artistic programme of
the charterhouse. See Lindquist, Agency,VisualityandSociety. See also Brantley, Reading
intheWilderness, 65. Some case studies have also been published, especially regarding the
works of art created by Rogier van der Weyden for the Charterhouse of Scheut: Penny Jolly,
Rogier Van Der Weydens Escorial and Philadelphia Crucifixions and their Relation to Fra
Angelico at San Marco, OudHolland 95 (1981), 113-26; Anne D. Hedeman, Roger Van
Der Weydens Escorial Crucifixion and Carthusian Devotional Practices, in The Sacred
ImageEastandWest, eds. Leslie Brubaker and Robert Ousterhouse (Urbana: 1995), 191-
203 and Elliott D. Wise, Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Ruusbroec: Reading,
Rending, and Re-Fashioning the Twice-dyed Veil of Blood in the Escorial Crucifixion,
in Imago Exegetica: Visual Images as Exegetical Instruments, 1400-1700, eds. Walter
S. Melion,Michel Weemans and James Clifton (Leiden: 2014), 886-907.
67
See Brantley, ReadingintheWilderness, 59 for some examples.
68
Cartusienses in cellis suis, sicut praedictum est, devotas picturas non renuunt nec recu-
sant, sed ad excitationem devotionis et imaginationis, et augmentum devotae conceptionis,
easdem libenter et affetuose recipiunt et requirunt. Quoted and translated by Brantley,
ReadingintheWilderness, 69 and 352 n. 177. On this treatise, see James Hogg, Guillelmus
de Yporegia: Deorigineetveritateperfectereligionis, Analectacartusiana 82:2 (1980),
84-118.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 243

Devotional imagery was not the only tool used by the monks in their con-
templative practices; books also played a fundamental role. Following Guigos
Consuetudines, each monk was allowed to keep two books in his cell, which
were presented as food for the soul.69 As Jessica Brantley states, Carthusian
books serve as instruments of the spiritual imagination for Carthusian hermits;
they structure the experiences of individual contemplation that are the aim and
purpose of the order.70 It thus appears that late medieval Carthusians had
recourse to both texts and images through which to enrich their spiritual life.
This fact is significant for the understanding of how books and paintings func-
tioned in a Carthusian context. In this respect, the Charterhouse of Nieuwlicht
where Jan Vos spent several years before moving to Bruges where he com-
missioned the ExeterMadonna and then returned is particularly interesting
since the most important part of its library has been preserved (now at the
Utrecht University Library) and is well known: in 1974, J. P. Gumbert pub-
lished an in-depth study on the content of the library in the fifteenth century.71
This research revealed that during the first half of the fifteenth century, the
Carthusians of Nieuwlicht copied and acquired a large number of manuscripts
containing treatises dedicated to prayer and contemplation. As far as mystical
works are concerned, this charterhouse is known to have owned a manuscript
comprising the Pseudo-Dionysius Mysticaltheology and its glosses by Thomas
Gallus (Utrecht, University Library, ms. 79), Hugh of Balmas Detriplicivia
(also known as ViaSionlugent, Utrecht, UL, ms. 343), several texts of Bernard
of Clairvaux (Utrecht, UL, mss. B155, B158, B159, B160, B162) and a copy
of Geert Grotes Latin translation of Jan van Ruusbroecs Geestelijkbrulocht
(Utrecht, UL, ms. 282). The Carthusians of Nieuwlicht also owned an interesting
volume comprising an incomplete version of Bonaventuras De Triplici Via
(discussed above) and several texts issued from the Devotiomoderna: Florent
Radewijns Libellus Omnes inquit artes, Geert Grotes Epistula scripta
cuidamnovicioinord.Cartus.,and a letter from Jan van Schoonhoven entitled
Epistula missa in Eemstein prima (Wolfenbttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek,
Ms. 68.15 Aug. 8). This manuscript reminds us of the interest the Carthusians
had in the texts produced by the Devotiomoderna, and the library of Nieuwlicht
also housed several other texts written by authors of the movement. Especially
interesting are the mss 313 and 314 of the Utrecht University Library, for they
contain Dereformacioneviriumanimae and Despiritualibusascensionibusof
Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen.72

69
For an introduction to the relationship of Carthusians to books, see Brantley, Readingin
theWilderness, 46-57.
70
Brantley, ReadingintheWilderness, 54.
71
Gumbert, DieUtrechterKartuser. On Carthusian libraries and the production of books,
see also Erik Kwakkel, Die dietsche boeke die ons toebehoeren:dekartuizersvanHerneen
de productie van Middelnederlandse handschriften in de regio Brussel (1350 - 1400)
(Leuven: 2002) and more generally, on late medieval monastic libraries in the Low Countries,
see Karl Stooker and Theo Verbeij, Collecties op orde: middelnederlandse handschriften
uitkloostersensemi-religieuzegemeenschappenindeNederlanden (Leuven: 1997).
72
On these manuscripts, see Gumbert, DieUtrechterKartuser, 319-343.
244 INGRID FALQUE

Together with the works of Bonaventura and Hugh of Balma, Gerard

Zerbolts treatises indicate that the Nieuwlicht monks were particularly con-
cerned with the progress of the inner life and with the theme of the spiritual
ascent. During the years he spent as a brother in Nieuwlicht in the 1430s and
then later after his return from Bruges, Jan Vos had direct and regular access
to these books available in the library. He was able to take them to his cell in
order to feed his soul. It thus comes as no surprise that once in Bruges, Jan
Vos commissioned a devotional painting that presents a clear emphasis on the
ascent, thanks to the pictorial devices described above. These visual strategies
indeed take on a particular dimension hen confronted to the readings of the
Carthusian monks of Nieuwlicht: in the light of the numerous devotional tracts
dealing with the theme of the spiritual ascent kept in the library of the charter-
house, the pictorial devices of the Exeter Madonna become particularly reso-
nant. It is indeed tempting to draw parallels between these texts and the painting,
both of them being instruments for Jan Vos meditative practices in his cell,
and thus to understand Petrus Christus painting as a visual expression of the
idea of the souls ascent to God which was so cherished by Gerard Zerbolt of
Zutphen and many other spiritual writers whose works were available in the
library of Jan Vos charterhouse. The scene can truly be understood as an image
of the spiritual ascent of the Carthusian. As a religious man, Jan Vos would
have received an education that would explain the spiritual content of the painting
he commissioned, but there is more at stake here: he was living in an environ-
ment specifically open to interest in such ideas; this environment no doubt
aroused his spiritual concerns, which find a visual expression in the Exeter
Madonna he commissioned to Petrus Christus. As Falkenburg has already
underlined, in late medieval meditative practices, text and image complement
each other in their ability to encourage prayer and meditation.73 Together with
the books Jan Vos was able to take to his cell, this devotional painting was a
tool for his meditative practices as a Carthusian monk.
Petrus Christuss work visually represents the spiritual progress of Jan Vos
and thus can be considered, in the same way as Zerbolt of Zutphens tracts, as
a support and a visualization of the spiritual perfection that Jan Vos was willing
to strive to attain. More specifically, the painting gives a concrete expression
to this will; it even materializes it: do the Virgin and her Son not welcome the
prior into the celestial palace? Thanks to the biographical and contextual infor-
mation linked to the Exeter Madonna, it clearly appears that this image bore
special devotional meanings in the eyes of its patron. On a more general level,
this image also attests that paintings including devotional portraits were closely
linked to the spiritual interests of their owners and were able to play an active
role in their devotional life, as a tool and a mise en image of their spiritual
progression toward God.

73
See Falkenburg, The Household of the Soul.
 THE EXETER MADONNA BY PETRUS CHRISTUS 245

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SUMMARY

Depicting the Carthusian monk Jan Vos (successively prior of the Charterhouses of
Bruges and Utrecht) kneeling in prayer in front of the Virgin and Child, Petrus Christus
ExeterMadonnais a small painting probably destined to private devotional practices
of its owner. This work is particularly interesting for it perfectly illustrates how the
structuring of the pictorial space endows paintings that include devotional portraits with
a dynamic dimension and how this dimension plays an essential role in the spiritual
meaning and function of such images. The aim of this article is to show that by bring-
ing together the worldly sphere below in the background and the sacred space in the
foreground, where the Virgin welcomes the devotee, the ExeterMadonnacan be under-
stood as a visualization of the spiritual ascent of Jan Vos. To this end, the visual struc-
ture of the painting is closely analysed, before being compared with devotional texts
dealing with the theme of the spiritual ascent (such asDespiritualibusascensionibus
of Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen), which Jan Vos knew well. Secondly, this devotional
painting is re-placed within its context, namely the Charterhouses of Utrecht and Bruges
and Carthusian spirituality in order to demonstrate that together with books, such
images played a crucial role in the meditative practices of Carthusian monks.

Addressoftheauthor: Universit de Namur, Dpartement dHistoire, 61, rue de Bruxelles,

B5000 Namur (ingrid.falque@unamur.be)