How does this artwork elucidate its Attribution?
The painting is not signed or dated by van Eyck. Curiously the panel bears an imitation of the "AD" signature associated with Albrecht Dürer to the top right, and was for a period dated 1492. These are later additions by an unknown hand for unknown reasons. The work was given its current attribution in the late 19th century and exhibited as such in Bruges in 1902. However, there were disagreements and often heated arguments among art historians in the early and mid-20th century over the authorship. Max J. Friedländer, like Georges Hulin de Loo, was convinced that it was a van Eyck; among other factors he saw a lot of similarity with the signed and dated London Léal Souvenir of c. 1432. Friedländer strongly and at length refuted claims by German art historian Karl Voll that the panel was completed in the 1490s by a follower. Although Voll later came to believe that work originated in the early 1430s, he remained convinced that it was not from the hand of van Eyck. His view was shared, some 30 years later, by Panofsky, who saw weakness in the portrait he believed irreconcilable with as skilled and accomplished a painter.Attribution to van Eyck is now broadly accepted since an infrared photography examination carried out during a 1991 restoration revealed an underdrawing and paint handling very similar to that found in confirmed, signed works by the artist.
panel Bruges in 1902 Léal Souvenir Georges Hulin de Loo Max J. Friedländer Karl Voll Albrecht Dürer infrared photography