Anonymous Painter Research Articles

A multimodal study of smalt preservation and degradation on the painting “Woman doing a Libation or Artemisia” from an anonymous painter of the Fontainebleau School

A multimodal study of smalt preservation and degradation on the painting “Woman doing a Libation or Artemisia” from an anonymous painter of the Fontainebleau School

МАСТЕРСКАЯ МАСТЕРА ЙЕНЫ: НОВЫЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ

The article analyzes three fragments of Attic red-figure pottery found during the excavations of the ancient Panticapaeum by the Bosporan Archaeological Expedition of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in 2021. One is the cup bottom on the low ring base showing a young man and a satyr in a tondo. The stylistic and compositional features allow us to attribute it to the Jena Painter, who was active between 400 and 380 BC. The second fragment belongs to a cup of a similar type: the image of two young men walking, one after the other is partially preserved in tondo; and the legs of two naked young men have survived on one of the outer sides. The painting of the tondo was most likely done by an anonymous painter of style B, and the decoration of the outer sides by the Q Painter. Finally, the third fragment is part of the cupskyphos, with two draped youths by the Painter of Kiel B 599. All three vessels were made in the same workshop, headed by the Jena Painter.

Many Amersfoort hands: Revisiting the making of Albert Eckhout’s Brazilian paintings (1641-1643)

Albert Eckhout’s twenty-one paintings, signed and dated 1641-1643, kept at the National Museum of Denmark, has stirred much speculation as to their making, meaning, and function. Eight impressive larger-than-life depictions of native Brazilian inhabitants and a huge dancing scene of the Tarairiu Indians were presented as gifts to the Danish King Frederik III (1609-1670) in 1654, together with twelve almost square still lifes of exotic fruits and vegetables from Brazil. The present was from the initiator of the paintings, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), the governor of the Dutch possessions in north-eastern Brazil. Following on the archival, historical and technical reports that have been presented over the years, a re-evaluation of the technical examinations combined with new comparative research points to a more complex genesis of the paintings. The canvases and ground layers suggest that the tall single-figure pieces were made in one batch, while the large dancing scene and the still-lifes were prepared in a small number of separate batches. Infrared imaging visualises different approaches in paint handling within the group of nine figure pieces. The working up of the final paint layer in the faces of the figures has been approached in two different ways, either opaquely or with semi-transparent layers in the shadow areas. Idiosyncratic manners of rendering the eyes complement these findings and reveal details hardly studied so far. The article concludes that the Tupi man, the Black man, and the Mulatto man are painted in a different and more transparent technique. Further, the manner of mixing black paint with white to render a nuanced whiteness of the eyes of the three figures, is not found in any of the other six paintings. These tall figures were painted by another hand than Eckhout, and most probably someone active in Jacob van Campen’s large Randenbroek workshop in Amersfoort. Here, together with the still anonymous painter, Eckhout completed the impressive series of large Brazilian figures and twelve still lifes around 1647-1650. This research exemplifies the seventeenth-century collaborative practice of working on larger commissions, yet all the works continue to demonstrate Eckhout’s legacy and how studies from his Brazilian sojourn were used by a larger community of artists in the Netherlands to satisfy the need for exotic images of the time.

A miraculous icon of virgin Hodegetria with twelve great feast scenes (third quarter of the fourteenth century) from Nessebur, Bulgaria

In this article a miraculous icon of the Virgin Hodegetria with twelve Great Feast (Dodekaorton) scenes (third quarter of the fourteenth c.) in the church of the Dormition of the Virgin in Nessebur (Mesembria) in Bulgaria is presented. The icon, which belongs to the category of inlaid icons, bears a silver revetment (eighteenth-nineteenth c.). The iconography, as well as the style and the technique of painting, seems closely related to the Palaeologan icons of the second and mainly the third quarter of the fourteenth century. This allows us to suppose that the main icon, as well as the framing icon, are works of anonymous painters, probably from a painting workshop of Constantinople or a local one, influenced or formed in the Byzantine capital.

УКРАЇНСЬКІ ІКОНИ КІНЦЯ XV — ПОЧАТКУ XХ ст. ЗІ ЗБІРКИ «СТУДІОН» У КОЛЕКЦІЇ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО МУЗЕЮ У ЛЬВОВІ імені АНДРЕЯ ШЕПТИЦЬКОГО

The article deals with a number of icons belonging to the «Studion» Museum at the Monastery of Studyts fathers in Lviv, founded in 1909 on the initiative of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi and transferred to the National Museum in Lviv in 1939 and 1945. The most important monuments of this collection, which are essential for the study of various aspects of Ukrainian icons, in particular, iconography, creative heritage of masters, painting centers, formation and peculiarities of the iconostasis, etc. are analyzed. It emphasizes the importance of individual works and their complexes for the reproduction of artistic processes that took place in the sacral painting of the end of the XVI — the first half of the XVI centuries. In particular, it concerns the theme of the image of the Virgin in the Ukrainian icon. It is also about the activities of individual painters and painting centers, among which is the creativity of an anonymous painter with a pronounced creative style of writing, which worked for the church of St. Paraskeva in the village Novycia in Lemkivshchyna. For the first time, it is pointed the necessity to study and systematize the iconic heritage of the church in Novycia, from which the monuments from different periods are originated; most of them belonged to «Studion». The question is posed of a comprehensive study of the iconography of Lemkivshchyna, for which the works of this collection will be important. It is emphasized the importance of another painting direction related to the painting center, which was active in the XVII century in the city of Sudova Vyshnia, from which the complex of icons from the iconostasis of the Church of Archangel Michael in the village Dobra is still little studied. The latest research on the attribution of a number of works is presented. The significance of the collection for more comprehensive coverage of the features of the Ukrainian icon at different stages of its history is revealed. A number of new monuments are being introduced. Keywords: icon, master, «Studion», tradition, research.

AN ANONYMOUS PAINTER IN THE 1680S IN WESTERN LEMKIVSHCHYNA. CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS STYLE

The purpose of the article is to characterise the style of the creator of the icons from Maciejowa and Krolowa Ruska from the 1680s housed in the Regional Museum in Nowy Sacz (southern Poland) and to ascribe other surviving works in western Lemkivshchyna to his workshop. The research was conducted using the method of stylistic and comparative analysis, and, to a lesser degree, iconographic analysis. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the picturesque style of the Western Lemkoshine of the XVII century, which belonged to anonymous authors, was researched.Conclusions. As a result of research conducted in this manner, it was possible to ascribe over 40 icons to this anonymous painter, exhibited in the Regional Museum in Nowy Sacz, the Parish Museum in Grybow, the Orthodox church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Berest and Saint Demetrius in Bogusza.

"The giant Hans Kraus" (1553): a Renaissance acromegaly by anonymous painter.

The Wunderkammer of Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck was one of the first cabinets of curiosities, created in the sixteenth century. Among the many curiosities, the cabinet includes an anonymous Renaissance painting called "Der Riese Hans Kraus" (The giant Hans Kraus). The details suggest us that it could be a representation of an individual affected by acromegaly.

Sobre tres tablas pintadas del siglo XVI

Se dan a conocer tres tablas inéditas de pintura del siglo XVI que pertenecieron al museo del Colegio Capuchinos de Lecároz (Navarra). Representan la Lapidación de San Esteban, San Julián y Santa Basilisa haciendo la limosna y santo obispo bendiciendo los campos. Sus dimensiones aproximadamente iguales hacen pensar que las tres tablas formaron parte de un retablo. Tanto por su iconografía como por su colorido manierista pueden considerarse como pinturas propias de la Contrarreforma de hacia 1590, lo que se hace evidente en la Lapidación de San Esteban que copia una estampa grabada de Ecclesiae Militantes Triunphi (Roma, 1585) que recoge la iconografía jesuítica de la Contrarreforma dedicada a los primeros mártires del cristianismo a los que se relaciona con la doctrina teológica del Concilio de Trento. El grabado se debe a Giovanni Battista Cavallieri.

Two Armenian Bibles with Arabic Influences of miniature painting (Gregor Tatevatsi 1346-1410)

About a century ago, Armenian illuminated manuscripts attracted the attention of scholars and lovers of art. Since that time intensive studies of medieval Armenian art had been conducted a unique historical panorama of the art of illumination, embracing more than thirteen centuries has been given.The heritage of a number of miniature schools and their outstanding representatives has been studied; the significance of medieval Armenian painting in the history of world art has been revealed. Although, most of them illuminated, many have not yet been published. Among the best examples of medieval Armenian illumination are those of the following two manuscripts, where the researcher published (28 miniatures) from the Gospel of folios paper in Matenadaran of Mashtots, for the first time: 13th, dated (1297) and (1378), the miniatures were executed by Grigor Tatevatsi and his pupil in (1378), and15th, dated in the end of 14th century and beginning of 15th century, the scribe is Grigor Tatevatsi and the anonymous painter of Syuniq. The research deals two Armenian bibles with Arab Influences by Grigor Tatevatsi (1346–1410), it begins with an introduction for Armenia with a focus on Syuniq which produced the two manuscripts, and includes three sections:1st. Study of Armenian miniatures with a focus on Grigor Tatevatsi school, where the proportion of miniature paintings, his pupil or anonymous painter of Syuniq.2nd. Analytical study.3ed. The influences of the Arabic miniature painting.

The Study of Stages and Operations Involved in the Preservation and Restoration of two XIX-th Century Icons, on Wooden Support

Abstract The paper presents the stages and the operations involved in the preservation and restoration of two icons on wooden support, from the XIX-th century, which are part of the heritage of the ”Sfinții Arhangheli Mihail and Gavriil” church, from Galați. The two icon have inventory numbers as part of the collection as followed: 112 for the first icon and 113 for the second one. Both icons have the same theme, ”The Grieving Mother from Rohia” and are made by anonymous painters in egg tempera, on lime wooden support, without ground. Being part of the same collection, they were deposited in the same place and as a direct consequence, they suffer from similar deteriorations and degradations that affect both the support and the painting layer. Both panels are attacked by xylophagous insects and the painting layer has detachments, gaps, cracks, clogged dirt and a cracked and degraded varnish layer. Ten samples taken from the already detached areas were analyzed by optical microscope, SEM-EDX and micro-FTIR. Based on the chemical elements identified in the EDX spectrums, the pigments used to create the painting layer are: ultramarine natural blue Na8-10Al6Si6O24S2-4, carbon black, earth green, K[(Al,FeIII),(FeII,Mg)](AlSi3,Si4)O10(OH)2, ocher (FeO), burned or natural umber Fe2O3· H2O + MnO2·n H2O+ Al2O3, lead white (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2) and yellow iron oxide (Fe2O3·4H2O). It was also determined that the gold leaf usually used in byzantine icons was replaced in the case of both icons: the icon number 112 has silver leaf covered with varnish, while the halo of the icon number 113 was created with yellow metallic pigments (realgar or orpigment).The pigments were also identified by determining specific peaks in micro-FTIR spectrums. For natural ultramarine blue the peaks between 628 - 724 cm-1 were assigned; the peaks in the interval 795 - 887 cm-1 confirm the presence of carbonates (calcium and lead based). The earth green pigment (aluminum - silicates) had the peaks between 1464 - 1599, while the carbon black pigment was confirmed by the peaks in the interval 921 - 1060 cm-1. After the pigments and the materials used by the author were identified, the restoration process begun with the following stages: consolidation of the painting layer (fish glue 8% and japanese paper), stopping the xylophagous attack (encapsulation with nitrogen), consolidation of the wood supports (colophon and wax, 1:1), cleaning the painting layer (ethylic alcohol and distilled water, 1:1), filling the gaps and reintegrating the fillings in tratteggio, all followed by the process of varnishing the two icons.

Assessment of cleaning effectiveness for new ecological systems on ancient tempera icon by complementary microscopy techniques.

The study presents an old icon painted in egg tempera on lime wood, with a poor conservation condition and clogged dirt deposits. The icon is attributed to an anonymous painter of XIXth century and to the neo-classical style of painting. The painting layer was done with only a hand full of pigments, earth colors that were often used in painting the icons from XVIIth to XIXth century in Eastern Europe, that have Byzantine influences. Taking into consideration the nature and the structure of the materials from the upper layers of the painting, affected by deposits of dirt over time, a series of cleaning recipes were studied, using the so called cleaning tests with compatible mixtures of different juices and infusion from indigenes plants, that were freshly done and odorless. A low alkaline 95% ethyl alcohol solution, combined with a few drops of ammoniac 25%, was used as a reference system, due to its compatibility with the greasy deposits found on the polychrome layer and on the wood. The cleaning capacity of the new systems used, in comparison with the standard solution, was analyzed through modern analytical methods of evaluating the degree of cleaning, more exactly by means of visible and UV reflectography, CIE L*a*b* colorimetry by reflection assisted by SEM-EDX and IR spectroscopy.

A comparative study of wall painting materials and techniques used in fifteenth century Austria by Frederich of Villach and his followers

One of the most important artistic circles in the first half of the fifteenth-century in Austria was the so-called ‘Older Villach's workshop’, founded by Frederic of Villach, a painter who was considered a master of fresco technique. A technical study was made of a number of wall painting cycles by the workshop of Frederic of Villach, first, to gain a broader knowledge of the painting techniques employed, and second, to allow comparison with a further group of wall paintings in Slovenia, which are stylistically related to this workshop and have been studied previously. Of special interest were artworks attributed to Frederic's son Johannes of Ljubljana and a number of other anonymous painters that show important similarities to Frederic's works. Samples of plasters and pigments were analysed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. An important difference in the composition of plasters was discovered between the selected artistic groups. The palette used comprised predominantly earth and other mineral pigments. The construction of the paintings from incisions and preparatory drawings to the final modelling is basically similar and shows workshop connections. The principal painting technique was a fresco. The results contribute to a wider knowledge concerning the materials and techniques employed in gothic wall paintings in the Alpine region and offer new information that can be used to inform the future conservation of these selected wall paintings.

Painting the Painter

French cartoonist and filmmaker Joann Sfar has often used the comics medium to reflect on visual representation. His latest bande dessinée, Chagall en Russie ['Chagall in Russia'] (2010-2011), continues some of the meta-pictural elements previously found in his Pascin (2000-2002), which already featured Chagall in several episodes, as well as his acclaimed series, The Rabbi's Cat, where Sfar introduced the character of an anonymous Russian painter, whose biography and artistic stance seemingly referred to that of Marc Chagall. Although Chagall en Russie explicitly refers to the real-life Franco-Russian modernist painter, it is certainly not a standard biographical exercise. By offering a synthetic and often symbolic version of personal and historical events experienced by Chagall, Sfar takes certain liberties with the painter's life story as it was outlined by the artist (in My Life, his 1922 autobiography) and by many biographers and art historians. Sfar does not seek an authentic depiction of his subject's verifiable life journey, but rather views it through a metaphorical narrative, which is itself inspired by Chagall's artistic universe and raises questions about the figurative possibilities of comics.

Two Byzantine Albanian icons: a non-destructive archaeometric study

The present work is part of a project aimed at studying the pigments and painting techniques used by Albanian iconographers to produce Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons dating from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries; the state of conservation of these icons was also explored. Inorganic pigments are identified by means of X-ray fluorescence, reflectance spectrophotometry and UV fluorescence analysis. These analysis techniques were performed to discriminate between pigments on the basis of their typical features. Moreover, the study of the optical properties of paintings is of fundamental importance for correct restoration. This work enabled us to recognise the palette used in two artworks by anonymous painters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Only three small samples were taken from the edge and the back of the wooden tables in order to achieve information on preparatory layers. Twelve to fourteen non-destructive measurements were made to characterise the palette used by the two anonymous painters.

The Revolving Planets and the Revolving Clocks: Circulating Mechanical Objects in the Mediterranean

In 1574 the Ottoman Sultan Murad III invited TaqI al-Din Muhammad Ibn-Ma'araf to build an observatory in Istanbul. Using his exceptional knowledge in the mechanical arts, TaqI al-Din constructed instruments and built mechanical clocks that he used in his observations of the comet of 1577. Such astronomical and mechanical activity was documented, in 1580, by an anonymous painter who illustrated some miniatures in a manuscript titled Shahinshahnama. In the same decade, European astronomers, such as Tycho Brahe, built instruments and promoted a mechanical worldview of the celestial bodies. Although the scientific cultures coexisted for years, current historiography tends to present them as developing along separate linear paths. Yet, if we examine closely the peculiarities in one of the miniatures, we extract clues about a possible connection between TaqI al-Din's and the European mechanical culture.Astronomers played many roles within the court, where they relieved the anxieties of the rulers they served and helped provide those same rulers with displays of power and influence. During wars, times of crises or natural disaster, they were summoned to lengthy and usually tense meetings in which they looked for guidance from the stars. They also attended solemn receptions when ambassadors from far-flung nations brought with them gifts of scientific objects and books. More than any other early modern scientific figures, they operated within cross-cultural networks and were aware of adjacent cultures.1 Traditional historiography, however, tends to view them through a narrow cultural lens and cuts them off from those adjoining cultures.2In the historiography of Islamic TaqI al-Din emerges as a purely Islamic astronomer. Scholars have desired to show that even up to the seventeenth century, natural philosophy in Islam was still viable, and so they have looked toward TaqI al-Din as the last representative of its 'golden age'. They framed TaqI al-Din's achievements as an internal scientific product of an Islamic culture, operating without regard to Europe's astronomy and mechanical worldview.3 However, they gave little attention to the sources of TaqI al-Din's cutting-edge mechanical skills. As this paper argues, such mechanical skills were acquired via European sources and were incorporated into the ways he observed celestial bodies. The observations materialized into a new science, as he put it, which introduced to the Islamic world the European mechanical worldview of the universe. Moreover, TaqI al-Din not only presented the celestial mechanics as wheels of a machine, but more importantly he carried on his Hermetic belief that just as the artisan manipulates the laws of nature with the machine, so can the mechanic-astronomer manipulate the cosmic order with Hermeticism.SCIENTIFIC OBJECTS AS CLUESIn looking for clues to Taql al-Din's awareness of the rising, mechanical worldview in Europe we pay close attention not only to scientific writings but also to those that are non-scientific. Despite the fact that most of his writings are technical scientific texts, the titles of works, introductions, paintings, and other writers' texts (not necessarily in natural philosophy) give us access to the cultural crossroad where Taql al-Din was situated and where the margins of his surrounding cultural fields overlapped. There are more than a dozen scientific writings found in various libraries and archives in Istanbul that document his intellectual interest; their subjects vary from astronomical models for the planets to observational data of the comet of 1577, to manuscripts of mechanics with instructions how to build automata like clocks and watermills. However, there is also a piece of cultural writing, a manuscript of poetry titled Shahinshahnama (Book of the king of kings), which contains clues about the context within which he worked. The work was composed in 1580 by a Persian poet named 'Ala' al-Din al-Mansur. …

Nieinwazyjna metoda identyfikacji pigmentów in situ – badania przenośnym spektroskopem XRF obrazów olejnych Józefa Pankiewicza

The elementary composition of selected pigments in 39 oil paintings by Jozef Pankiewicz, dating back to the years 1888 –1938, has been determined with the use of a portable XRF - spectrometer built in the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences in Gdańsk. The analysis was preceded by tests on samples of modern paints. To compare with the tests results obtained on the paint layers from paintings also the samples of pure historical paints from Jan Matejko palette from 1888 have been tested as well as paints form tubes preserved in a cassette of anonymous painter, sated back to early 20th century. The detection range of the spectrometer covers the elements of the atomic number 50 > Z > 18. A high-energy source of excitation has been employed (IS601.5, Italstructures) producing a collimated beam of 4 mm diameter and a detector (AXAS, Ketek) of high energetic resolution (FWHM <= 155 eV for the MnKα line) and high sensitivity, which allowed for detecting even trace amounts of elements in paint layer. Basing on the measurements the average volume of the lines of elements present in particular pigments has been established, as well as the factors infl uencing their value. Detection of the elements: Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Cu, As, Co, Fe, Hg, Sr, Ba, Sn, Sb, Ti, Ca, Se, Mn in the paint layer of paintings allowed to identify led-, zinc- and titanium-white, ochre, chrome -, strontium-, zinc, Neapolitan and cadmium-yellow, vermilion, cadmium- and iron-red, cerulean- and Prussian blue, cobalt-violet, emerald-, Schweinfurter and vermilion-green, green earth, sienna, umber, iron-, bone and cobalt-black. Apart from the above the composition of primings, extenders added to paints and in cases where it was not based on light elements – the base of organic red. Some pigments turned out to be dating ones (the fi rst use of cobalt-violet – 1908, of cadmium-red – 1919, titanium-white – ca. 1938). The advantages of this method, in relation with the methods of determining the elementary composition of paints used so far are: complete non-invasiveness, testing in situ, high sensibility (of energetic resolution), introducing a quasiquantitative analysis next to the qualitative one, easiness of use and short time of measurements. Besides, this technique allows also for obtaining information on the elementary composition of lower strata, depending on the permeability of upper ones.

El Pseudo-Hiepes es Bernardo Polo

Nearly fifteen years ago, the author proposed the name Pseudo-Hiepes to refer to a then anonymous painter whom certain Italian art historians had called the Master of the Lombard Fruit Bowl. At the time, he argued for an Aragonese origin in the later part of the century. A signed work has finally been discovered and is published here. The artist was indeed from Zaragoza, and his name is Bernardo Polo.

Scenes of the Passion of Christ by an anonymous Haarlem painter from around 1470-75

Summary The Esztergom panel of Christ on the Cold Stone surrounded by the Instruments of the Passion, is analysed here in the context of woodcuts from the cercle of the Haarlem painter Jacob Bellaert, and dated between 1465–1470.

Poverty, illness, prayer--thoughts on contemplating the votive painting of St. Notburga

A votive painting in the chapel of St. Donatus in Pavlovec (northern Croatia) from the 18th century depicts St Notburga of Eben with two paupers, a shepherd and an invalid. Although generally venerated as patron-saint of peasants and maids, Notburga seems to have captured the imagination of the anonymous painter as the helper of the poor and underprivileged. The vicious circle of poverty and disease is evoked by this painting, as well as the popular belief in divine assistance by supplication to patron saints.

Un disciple tardif de Rogier de la Pasture: Maître Johannes (alias Johannes Hoesacker?)

AbstractThe triptych which has hung above the main altar of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception at Maria-ter-Heide (Brasschaat, near Antwerp) since the nineteenth century unfolds a highly unusual iconographical programme. The representation on the central panel is a 'Holy Kinship' with Saint Anne; the left and right shutters show a 'Tree of Jesse', and the 'Kinship of Effra and Ismeria' respectively. This unusual combination of themes, and the coat of arms of the abbey at Tongerlo on the staff of the kneeling donor on the left shutter, enable us to identify the triptych from an old description, predating 1615, of the art treasures in the abbey at Tongerlo. As early as 1888 canon Van Spilbeek was able to demonstrate on the basis of two entries in the abbey's ledgers that the retable was made around 1513-1515. It was commissioned by the then abbot of Tongerlo, Antonius Tsgrooten. The painter's name appears on both bills of payment of 1513-1515. He was called Johannes, and he was married to Marie Hoesacker. His apparent lack of a surname might intimate that he was a foundling. Hitherto, the triptych in Maria-ter-Heide was the only known work by 'Johannes'. The author suggests that he also painted the monumental triptych with scenes from the lives of Christ and Mary which has been on loan to the museum at Àvila since 1971 from the Provincial Council. In 1968 Karel G. Boon attributed this work to an anonymous North-Netherlandish painter. According to Boon the same artist painted two wings with John the Baptist and Saint Agnes (Paris, private collection) and a 'Baptism of Christ' (Madrid, private collection). 'Johannes' could be the maker of these three works. What is more, the painter of the triptych in Maria-ter-Heide could be credited with two retable wings which have been in the Museo de Santa Cruz in Toledo since the 19608. Their subjects are 'Saint Andrew with Saint Francis' and 'Saint James with Saint Antony of Padua'; on the back of these panels is a 'Visitation'. Judging by the numerous figures he borrowed from Rogier van der Weyden, 'Johannes' seems to have been fascinated by the great Brussels master. His interest in Van der Weyden's art and the fact that he worked for the abbot of Tongerlo suggest that he was active in Brabant. The Dutch elements which Boon claimed to recognise on the Àvila triptych are quite inconspicuous, proving how dangerous it is to determine an artist's provenance solely on the basis of aesthetic impressions. The iconographic programme on the triptychs in Maria-ter-Heide and Avila and the retable wings in Toledo is highly unusual. This indicates that they were not made for the open market on the painter's own initiative, but were ordered specially. Perhaps 'Johannes' ability to convert such iconographic programmes into pictures was one of the reasons for his success a success which, in view of the presence of two of his works in Castile, assumes an international dimension.