Saint Hubert
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Small oil painting, a fragment, of Saint Hubert against a patterned gold background of flowers and suns. The Saint is shown in half-length turned diagonally to the left. He wears a rich brocade and ermine-trimmed robe; a heavy gold chain of large links; and a round fur hat. He holds a bow in his right hand and three arrows in his left. He has a halo. He stands before a ledge.
Alice purchased this painting as a portrait of Saint Hubert and a couple of weeks later in 1907, she paid for the gilt wood frame. It is likely that it was originally a predella panel (lower panel of an altarpiece) and would have been one of a number of depictions of saints. In Alice’s posthumous 1922 inventory the painting was in the Smoking Room but listed as Saint Sebastian. Due to his dress and the way he holds the bow and arrows, it is more likely to be St. Hubert who was the first Bishop of Liège and became the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers.
This is one of the few Spanish works recorded in Alice’s, and indeed Waddesdon's, collection, and may be from the large workshop of Jaume Huguet, the leading painter in Barcelona in the 15th century. He made works for parish churches, trade guilds and the nobility, with distinctive textured gilt backgrounds, as seen in this painting with the flower and sun patterns in the background are rendered in raised and modelled gesso.
Jaime Huguet made works for parish churches, trade guilds and the nobility. He employed a large workshop and trained many apprentices, the artist of this painter may have been part of this group. By the early years of the 16th-century, his style of painting fell out of fashion.
The rich brocade and fur-trimmed coat, the heavy chain and the fur hat all reference the Saint's noblity, he was allegedly the son of a Duke of Aquitaine, and became a member of the Austrian court.
Phillippa Plock, 2012 and Nandipa Mabere, 2022
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
596 x 419
550 x 386 - sight
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Provenance
- Acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922) from Durlacher Bros for £300, on 29 July 1907; inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); accepted by The Treasury Solicitor in lieu of taxes on the Estate of Mr James de Rothschild in 1963; given to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1990.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Waddesdon Manor, 1990
Bibliography
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 328-329, cat. no. 165, ill.; as follower of Huguet, dated 1480-1500
Subjects
- Decorative Motifs & Patterns/Flower Motifs
- Figures/Male
- Religion/Biblical Figures & Saints/Saint Sebastian
- Objects/Armour & Weaponry/Bow & Arrow
- Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Fur
- Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Jewellery
- Objects/Visual Arts/Needlework and Embroidery
- Objects/Religious & Ceremonial/Halo or Glory
- Decorative Motifs & Patterns/Geometric Patterns
- Decorative Motifs & Patterns/Sun, Moon or Star Motifs