Joos van Cleve  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Madonna and Child (16th century) by Joos van Cleve

Flower (16th century) by Joos van Cleve from Madonna and Child

Lucrezia[1] (1520/25, Kunsthistorisches Museum) by Joos van Cleve

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Joos ( also Joost ) van Cleve ( van Beke ) (ca. 1480/90, Cleves - 1540/41, Antwerp), was a Netherlandish painter who was active in Antwerp from 1511 to 1540. He died between November 1540 and April 1541.

He was one of twenty van Cleefs who painted in Antwerp, but whether the well-known Henry, Martin, and William (the younger) were kin of his cannot be determined. Of his father, William (the elder), we know only that he was a member of he Antwerp Academy, which body Joos joined.

He is the father of the painter Cornelis (Sotte Cleef) van Cleve (1520-c.1569).

He is known primarily for his religious and portrait painting. Among his best known works are portraits of Francis I and Eleonora of Austria, King and Queen of France. He collaborated with Joachim Patinir on some works.

He is also known for integrating Northern and Southern modes of painting, as wells as using certain aspects of his compositions repeatedly, to please the growing art market.

Such is one of his two similar paintings of Madonna and Child which appear both with and without a red passionflower sprouting from a carnation held by the Madonna. Examination of the history of the New World flower shows that the painter never could have seen such a flower during his lifetime.

A recent examination of the painting at the Cincinnati Art Museum reveals that a 'mystery painter' added the passionflower perhaps a hundred years after van Cleve died. The design of the flowering parts held symbolism of the crucifixion and the discovery of passion flowers was reported as miraculous to the pope in the early 17th Century by clergy returning from the New World. This story of the fabrication of the van Cleve flower remains a mystery.See the article by Michael E. Abrams of Florida A&M University, who uncovered the anomaly, at his website http://www.flwildflowers.com

List of Works

• Saint Jerome in Penitence (1516-1518)
• The Annunciation (1525)
• The Lamentation (1525)
• The Infants Christ and St. John the Baptist Embracing (1525)
• Eleonora of Austria, Queen of France 1530
• Francis I , King of France 1534, San Francisco
• Isabelle of Portugal, Wife of Charles Quint
• Henry VIII of England 1536
• Virgin Mary by Joos van Cleve[2]
• Master of the Death of the Virgin (usually identified with Joos van Cleve)[3]

Bibliography

• P. Rombouts et T. van Lerius, Les Liggeren (...), Anvers-La Haye, 1864-1876, I, passim et II, p. 303.
• A. Siret, in B.N., IV, 1873.
• G. Hulin de Loo, Conjecture touchant le Sotte van Cleve. Jan (Joès) van Ghinderick alias van Cleve, in Petite Rev. illustrée de l'Art et de l'Archéol. en Flandre, 1903, 12-13, pp. 87-91 et 15-16, pp. 115-118.
• V. van der Haeghen, La Corporation des Peintres et des Sculpteurs de Gand, Bruxelles, 1906, passim.