The Seven Works of Mercy (Master of Alkmaar)

The Seven Works of Mercy is a 1504 oil on panel painting by the Master of Alkmaar, consisting of seven panels, each showing one of the works of mercy.

The Seven Works of Mercy
series of 7 paintings mounted in a panel
ArtistMaster of Alkmaar 
Year1504
Mediumoil paint
Dimensions101 cm (40 in) × 55.5 cm (21.9 in)
LocationRijksmuseum, Netherlands
Accession No.SK-A-2815 
IdentifiersRKDimages ID: 20933

The paintings show the corporal works of mercy, with Jesus in the background viewing each, in this order: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, burying the dead, sheltering the traveler, comforting the sick, and ransoming the captive.

In the upper centre of the central panel the Last Judgement is depicted. According to the biblical sources (Mt 5:31-46), a decisive factor in the Last Judgement will be the moral question if the corporal works of mercy were practiced or not during lifetime. They rate as important acts of charity. Therefore, the conjunction of the Last Judgement and the works of mercy was very frequent in the pictorial tradition of Christian art, especially in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era.[1]

The picture series by the Master of Alkmaar was commissioned by the regents of the Holy Spirit almshouse in Alkmaar, before being moved to the church of St Lawrence in the town in 1574. The panel remained in St Lawrence until 24 June 1582.

It was then bought from the church of St Lawrence in July 1918 by its present owner, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. From 2004 to 2010, it was loaned to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

The paintings, bearing the stamp of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, are done in bright colors, and their figures are drawn in an exaggeratedly caricatured manner. It has been proposed that this artist is identical to Cornelis Buys I, the brother of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen; he is known to have been active in Alkmaar between 1490 and 1524. More recently, the name of Pieter Gerritsz, originally of Haarlem, has been proposed, he being in Alkmaar beginning in 1502. This artist, in 1518, was compensated for a painting of Saint Bavo in Haarlem, and his name can be found in records of the Egmond Abbey and of the church of Saint Lawrence in Alkmaar, over a period covering the years 1515 to 1529.

References
  1. Ralf van Bühren, Caravaggio’s ‘Seven Works of Mercy’ in Naples. The relevance of art history to cultural journalism, in Church, Communication and Culture 2 (2017), pp. 63-87. On 'The Seven Works of Mercy' by the Master of Alkmaar cf. pp. 69 (fig. 3) and 75.


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