Bouts Dirk Madonna and Child

About childhood, adolescence and the first years of Dirk Bouts' creativity, almost nothing is known. Karel van Mander in his "Book of Artists" mentions that Bauts was born in Haarlem, lived and worked in Leuven. In 1447, he was first mentioned in the documents of the city of Leuven in connection with his marriage to the local townwoman Katerina van der Bruhchen, who brought him a solid dowry. After the marriage, he moved to Leuven. Dirk Bouts had four children. The sons of the artist, Dirk the Younger and Albert, also became painters and worked in his father's workshop. According to the documents of the time, Boats was a very wealthy resident of Leuven. He received the title of city artist in 1468. The artist, most likely, did not leave Leven until his death.
The influence of Rogier van der Weyden in the works of Dirk Bouts can be traced particularly clearly, from which some researchers suggest that Dirk was his pupil. In assessing the artist's work there are many different interpretations. Some works were attributed to other masters, and then they were returned to Boats. But there are documents of the artist confirmed by documents that allow to form an opinion on the main features of Dirk Bouts' creativity. One of them is the clear construction of a spatial perspective. Figures in his paintings are gothically elongated, and careful execution of details speaks of the artist's connection with the art of miniature painting. His works are elegant and devoid of drama, and the saints are inactive and prayerfully pious. The faces of the saints from the master have the features of specific people, apparently, the customers of his works. Based on the stylistic analysis of his work, the artist can be considered a group of artists who were also strongly influenced by Jan van Eyck.

Boats paintings, whose authorship is documented, include the triptych "The Sacrament of Communion" (1468, Leuven, St. Peter's) and two paintings originally intended for the town hall and illustrating the legend of Emperor Otto ("The Court of Emperor Otto III", Brussels The Corinth Museum of Fine Arts). Around these works can be placed numerous works, among which the closest in style are the "Martyrdom of St. Erasmus" (Leven, St. Peter's), performed for the same brotherhood as the "Sacrament of Communion"; "Man's portrait" (1462, London, National Gal.), In which one can find the severity of Brussels paintings. More dramatic both in the plot and in execution are the triptych "Descent from the Cross" (Granada, the Cathedral) and the pictures "Pieta" (Paris, Louvre) and "The State of the Casket" (London, National Gal.). All these works testify to the close acquaintance of the artist with the great creations of Rogier van der Weyden, in whom Boats borrowed a composition scheme, elongated forms and some pathetic. Other paintings of the master follow the lessons of van Eyck, for example "The Virgin with the Child" (London, National Gal.); the half-figure of Our Lady is represented here against the background of silk drapery, next to a window opening into a carefully painted landscape - a formula that has become very popular. A similar solution is characteristic for such compositions as "The Coronation of Mary" (Vienna, Collection of the Academy of Arts), "The Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus" (Brugge, Ts. Savior), "The Burning Bush" (Philadelphia, Art Museum) and especially "Esse Agnus Dei "(Munich, private collection). It should be mentioned and two altar doors "Paradise" and "Hell" (Lille, Museum of Fine Arts) and "Altar of the Life of Mary" (Madrid, Prado), considered the first of the famous works of Bouts. Many other pictures attributed to Boats are in private and state collections in Germany ("Detention", "Resurrection", Munich, Old Pinakothek), USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands. There are numerous replicas of Boats paintings, one repeating the composition of the "Mother of God with the Child" (London, National Gal.), Others reproduce the formula of a diptych with half-figures of Christ, crowned with a crown of thorns, and praying to Maria. These replicas testify to the success that Bouts used during his lifetime.