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Vrancke Vrelant (ca.1486-1557) attributed
Flemish Renaissance (Bruges?)
PORTRAIT OF LEURENCE de VALENCIENNES
Vrancke Vrelant, judging from existing documents and from his surviving work, was one of a generation of Flemish painters who were caught between two worlds, that of their native Gothic tradition and that of the Renaissance. The better known Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (C.1478-c.1536), was one who attempted to synthesize the optics of Flemish realism and the structural, coloristic, and idealizing lessons of Italy. Vrelant was another.
We know that he was probably heir to to the reputation (if not, in fact, a blood relative) of Guillaume Vrelant . Guillaume Vralant , a native of Utrecht, is recorded as being active in Bruges at least as early as 1454, and soon was the head of a large atelier whose output was prolific during the next three decades. We know that Vrancke Vrelant, although mostly active in Bruges, traveled to Florence, Rome and Venice, picking up in his travels such influences as the blonde Raphaelesque coloration which we find in his portrait of Leurence. He was not, as we see, consistent from one painting to the next in his application of these values. The recently discovered companion piece to this painting, the "Portrait of Pieter Vassenhoove, Baron Loofthausen" , is executed in the dark and full value range of values from white to black of the earlier Flemish tradition. Baron Pieter’s portrait makes clear that, while visiting the German colony in Venice, Vrelant responded favorably to the painterly modes burgeoning in the ateliers of that city. A pyramidal structure of Renaissance pictorial three dimensional space did become lodged as an idee fixe in all his compositions.
For information regarding the subject of this painting, see the discussion of its companion piece, the "Portrait of Baron Pieter".
This painting remained for most of its life in the care of the family Vassenhoove/Loofthausen into which Leurence married shortly after her portrait was painted. It was reported there with its companion portrait of Pieter as late as 1939 when both Vralant paintings disappeared. This portrait of Leurence is assumed to be " the painting of a young woman by Vralant" recorded in the Allied War Claims Register as having been recovered from a Kesselring collection. At that time, it bore a label (since lost) bearing the name and address of the Galerie Wilhelm Moeller; Moeller was one of the dealers intimately connected with the notorious Nazi exchange of "degenerate" (modern-expressionist) paintings for cash, or for "approved", persistantly Northern Gothic paintings and sculptures appropriated from the collections of subject peoples. It is possible that Vassenhoove/Lofthausen properties were simply acquisitioned into the care of the Occupation. It is certain that no member of the Vassenhoove/Lofthausen family survived the war to reclaim these properties.
The provenance of the painting from 1939 on remains somewhat troubling and obscure.
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Leurence.jpg |
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