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Conserving the Past for the Future

A Conservation Tour

The Mass of Saint Gregory: Examining a Painting Using Infrared Reflectography


The Mass of Saint Gregory
Hans Baldung Grien (German, 1484/85-1545)
The Mass of Saint Gregory, 1511
Oil on panel, 89.2 x 125 cm
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1952.112

Related Works

The two most closely related works are the wings to the CMA's central panel. The one on the right, St. John on Patmos is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The left wing, Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Originally, they were conceived of as a small triptych with stationary wings. This is clear from the panel in New York, which maintains its original wooden support and is neither painted nor decorated on the reverse. Examination of underdrawing in all three paintings is possible with the use of infrared equipment. It is clear from the similarity in the underdrawing that these pieces are indeed related. In addition, the gilded halos in the Washington and Cleveland paintings are strikingly similar. The artist also made a woodcut of a simplified version for the series Hortulus animae, now at the Bayerische Staatbibliothek, Handschriftenabteling, Munich.
Left side of triptych
Hans Baldung Grien, Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist, c. 1511.
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Photograph © 2001 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Right panel of triptych
Hans Baldung Grien, Saint John on Patmos, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
image
Hans Baldung Grien, Saint Gregory from Hortulus animae, Bayerische Staatbibliothek, Handschriftenabteling, Munich



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