Portrait of a Carthusian

Portrait of a Carthusian
Artist	Petrus Christus
Year	1446
Type	oil on wood
Dimensions	29.2 cm × 21.6 cm (11+1⁄2 in × 8+1⁄2 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession	49.7.19

Portrait of a Carthusian is a painting in oils on oak

It is regarded as a masterpiece of Early Netherlandish painting and, because of the fly painted towards the bottom of the painting, a prominent, early example of trompe-l'œil. In 2020, the painting became a meme after the subject was compared to a Northeast Philadelphia local.^[1]

Overview

The monk

Portrait of a Carthusian depicts a

The lighting scheme employed by Petrus Christus is also noteworthy. The Monk is bathed in intense light, setting his figure dramatically against the space that he occupies. While this strong, raking light is typical of contemporaries like Jan van Eyck, Christus’ addition of a second, opposing lighting source behind the monk marks this portrait as distinctive.^[2] The light on the left seems to be a reflection from within the room, yet the light bathing the monk seems to be coming from an external source, perhaps an unseen window. The result is that light comes from both in and outside the pictorial space, with the monk (particularly along the hood of his cloak) being the meeting point of the two.^[2] The monk is therefore framed by a two-source lighting structure, allowing Christus to employ a much fuller and richer spectrum of colors and shading than a single-source lighting structure would. This complex lighting scheme is the reason Portrait of a Carthusian appears fully 3-dimensional and realistic.

The fly and trompe-l'œil

Portrait of a Carthusian sports a

Me Fecit’ hinting that the fly might be the referent of ‘me’ rather than the painting.)

Halo and 1994 restoration

Portrait of a Carthusian featured a

industrialist Jules Bache in 1911. The team recommended that the halo be removed to make the painting more aesthetically authentic. Christus was one of the first Netherlandish painters to really play with the illusion of space and light. The addition of the halo, though, forced the viewer to look at the foreground and therefore framed the space in a way Christus never intended.^[6] Since the removal of the halo, the Met has gone on to delete other dubious halos from Christus works, most notably in Portrait of a Goldsmith.^[3]

References

1. ^ "This 15th century Carthusian monk looks exactly like a dude from Northeast Philly". Billy Penn. 29 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
2. ^
   ISBN 0-271-00672-2
   .
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Review: Petrus Christus. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art". The Burlington Magazine. 136 (1098): 639–641. 1994.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Steven Connor". www.stevenconnor.com.
5. ^ "Deception and Illusion: Five Centuries of Trompe L'Oeil Painting" (Press release). National Gallery of Art. 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2004.
6. ^ Ainsworth, Maryan W. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Painting – Essay – Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History – The Metropolitan Museum of Art". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Further reading

External videos
Smarthistory – Christus's Portrait of a Carthusian[1]

• Ainsworth, Maryan W., ed. Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Painting. April 20, 2009.
• Ainsworth, Maryan W., ed. Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
• Ainsworth, Maryan W. (1994). Petrus Christus: Renaissance master of Bruges. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  ISBN 978-0-87099-694-8
  .
• Upton, Joel (1990). Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
  ISBN 0-271-00672-2
  .
• Connor, Steven (April 15, 2009). "Flysight".
• "Review: Petrus Christus. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art". The Burlington Magazine. 136 (1098): 639–641. 1994.

1. ^ "Christus's Portrait of a Carthusian". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved December 21, 2012.