First, a note about naming. The artist here presented as Jan Gossaert (c.1478–1532) was formerly known as Jan Mabuse, so designated after the Walloon town he came from — Maubeuge in Hainaut.
First, a note about naming. The artist here presented as Jan Gossaert (c.1478–1532) was formerly known as Jan Mabuse, so designated after the Walloon town he came from — Maubeuge in Hainaut. The Americans, meanwhile, miss out the e and spell his name Gossart, which makes the poor fellow sound even more like an underwear firm, though the word is itself more attractive-looking than its variant. So if you were wondering where this newly minted artist had sprung from, the likelihood is he was flying under different colours the last time you saw him.
The National Gallery has one of the best collections of his work in the world, but there hasn’t been an exhibition devoted to him for more than 45 years. How does this show, organised by the Metropolitan Museum in New York in collaboration with the NG, shape up as an introduction to a (largely) unfamiliar artist?
Don’t expect half-a-dozen galleries filled with Gossaerts in the NG’s dungeons off Trafalgar Square. This is a show of Gossaert in context, which means lots of work by his friends and rivals. In the middle of the first room is a late-15th- or early-16th-century bronze of the famous antique figure known as the Spinario, or ‘Boy with a thorn’. Gossaert made a rather lewd drawing of this sculpture, viewed from below and thus focusing on the nude boy’s genitals, rather than his wounded foot. This evocative crotch shot demonstrates two things: Gossaert’s presence in Rome, and his interest in sensuality. He was one of the first Northern artists to visit Rome to study the Antique at first hand, enabled to do so by the patronage of Philip of Burgundy with whom he travelled.
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