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The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 1
The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 2

Under UV lighting, an inscription is revealed on the back of the painting. In faded Latin it identifies the sitter as Gilles Joye.

The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 3

Detail of folded hands

The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 4

Detail of ring

The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 5

Detail of coat of arms

The Canon Gilles Joye Slider Image 6

Detail of right side of frame

Hans Memling

South Netherlandish, 1430/40–1494

The Canon Gilles Joye

1472

According to inscriptions on this painting’s frame, Gilles Joye, a priest and composer, was 47 years old when Memling painted his portrait. The artist favored realism over flattery, recording wrinkles around the sitter’s eyes and on his neck. Joye’s coat of arms can be seen on his ring and again on the frame. Despite the priest’s pious demeanor, church records suggest a more colorful personality—he was reprimanded for brawling, using offensive language, and living with a woman.

Medium tempera with oil on panel in original painted frame
Dimensions 14 13/16 x 11 7/16 in. (37.6 x 29.1 cm) Frame: 21 7/8 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/16 in. (55.6 x 47 x 5.2 cm)
Object Number 1955.943
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Hans Memling, The Canon Gilles Joye, 1472, tempera with oil on panel in original painted frame. Clark Art Institute, 1955.943

Select Bibliography

Laura D. Gelfand. "Devotion, Imitation, and Social Aspirations: Fifteenth-century Bruges and a Memling School Madonna and Child," in Cleveland Studies in the History of Art. Vol. 5. 2000:pp. 6-19. Borchert, Till-Holger. Memling's Portrait. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, February 15- May 15, 2005; Groeningemuseum, Bruges, June 7- September 4, 2005; The Frick Collection, New York, October 12- December 31, 2005. Ludion Ghent-Amsterdam. 2005. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Eight: 15th and 16th Century Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1957. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium.. Hans Memling. Aug. 12-Nov. 15, 1994. Exh.cat. by Dirck De Vos. Helen Comstock.. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection.". 139.. Connoisseur.. Dec. 1957.. Frans van Molle. Identification d'un portrait de Gilles Joye attribué à Memling. Brussels. 1960. Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. Colin Eisler.. Les Primitifs Flamands I Corpus de la Peinture des Anciens Pay-Bas Meridianaux au Quinzième Siècle.. Brussels: Centre National de Recherches Primitifs Flamands.. 1961.. E. Werner.. "Berichte-Amerika.". vol. 19.. Pantheon.. 1961.. Robert Wangermée.. "Musique de cour et musique bourgeois--La Chanson." La Musique Flamande dans la Société des XV et XVI.. Brussels: Editions Arcade.. 1965.:English ed. 1968). Nino Pirotta.. "Music and Cultural Tendencies in 15th-Century Italy.". vol. 19, no. 2.. Journal of the American Musicological Society.. 1966.. Maria Corti.. L'Opera Completa di Memling.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1969.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Max J. Friedländer.. Early Netherlandish Painting.. Leyden: A. J. Sijthoff.. 1971.. K. B. McFarlane.. Hans Memling.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.. 1971.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists. New York: Abbeville Press, 1979. Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Faison, S. Lane, Jr. The Art Museums of New England: Massachusetts. Vol. 2. Revised edition of Faison, Guide to the Art Museums of New England, 1958. Godine Guide 3. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. . The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: MacMillan Publishers. 1980. Ludwig Finscher.. Die Musik des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft Herausgegeben von Carl Dahlhaus, band 3, 1.. Laaber-Verlag.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Liedtke, Walter, and Guy Ballman. Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Flandria Extra Muros. Antwerp: Mercator Fonds. 1992. Held, Julius S. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection, Part I: Paintings." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 504–9. Fendrich, Laurie. "The Lie of the Portrait" The Chronicle Review. Section B. Chronicle of Higher Education. 11/11/2005. Marshall, Traute M. Art Museums Plus: Cultural Excursions in New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2009. Polley, Robert L., ed. Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums. Text by Harold E. Haydon. New York: Putnam's, 1967.

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