The Weston Altarpiece
size for an upper shutter of the Weston Altarpiece and that the subject matter is in keeping with the theme of the Life of the Virgin.68 However, the Rovigo panel’s location and lack of provenance are problematic for Zdanov’s argument, especially considering the high percentage of losses of works of this type.69 Given the large number of this type of altarpiece that were made, the Rovigo panel could have been part of a different example, possibly one exported directly to Italy from the same workshop in Brussels. The connection of the altarpiece to Weston is based on the two painted shields on the interior Christ panel and the former inscription on the Virgin panel. The shield to the right, which incorporates an anchor, is more likely to be the arms of an office rather than of a family.70 It resembles one of Weston’s seals, on which his name is inscribed (Fig.17). The shield and seal allude to Weston’s post of turcopolier (responsible for the defence of the coast, including by ship), which he held while stationed with the Order at its headquarters in Rhodes.71 Both the arms on the left of the Christ panel and Weston’s seal contain five bezants, as do those of the Weston family.72 As mentioned, the crosses at the top are heraldically impossible in terms of colour. It is therefore probable that they would originally have been the white cross of the Order on a red background to the left with the red cross of St George of England on a white background to the right. Albeit rarely, lead white, the predominant white pigment used by fifteenth-century Northern European painters, can blacken if in contact with hydrogen sulphide, especially if the shield was left unvarnished or little or no oil was used in the binding process.73 The fact that the white has blackened in Weston’s shield but not elsewhere in the same panel increases the likelihood that the shields were added after the date of original painting, possibly using a different technique. Weston probably originally had his patronage displayed more prominently in the two escutcheons that existed on the exterior Baptist panel, of which only the heavily restored one to the right is now visible. These were discovered on the removal of several layers of overpaint and so are believed to have been contemporary. As previously stated, the original colours of the visible shield were red, black and gold.74 These are the same colours as Weston’s arms of office on the Christ panel. The suggestion that they are arms of Kendal or Docwra can be dismissed, as their arms contain no gold.75 Winged altarpieces were predominantly seen in the closed position, since they were opened only for specific events in the church calendar or for important visitors.76 It would be logical, therefore, for Weston to display his identifiers on the exterior Baptist panel, St John the Baptist being both the Order’s patron saint and of any form of triptychs or polyptychs, and p.77 for only seven such portraits appearing on the panels of carved altarpieces like the Weston Altarpiece, all but one of these being on inner panels; Jacobs, op. cit. (note 45), p.38. 66 Zdanov, op. cit. (note 9), pp.531–34. 67 Ibid., p.533. For the flowers, see C. Fisher: Flowers of the Renaissance, London 2011, p.70. The present author is indebted to Celia Fisher for confirming that these flowers are dianthus, email corespondence, 30th April 2018. 68 See D’Hainaut-Zveny, op. cit. (note 45), p.217 for a Meeting at the Golden Gate being the subject of an exterior painted panel of de Coter’s Strängnas III; and ibid., pp.161, 218 and 219 for a similar subject within the wooden caisse. 69 In L. Collobi Ragghianti: exh. cat. Dipinti fiamminghi in Italia 1420-1570, Bologna (Musei d’Italia –Meraviglie d’Italia) 1990, p.107; and A.
Romanagnolo: La Pinacoteca dell/ Accademia dei Concordi, Rovigo 1981, p.263. The painting is first recorded in 1818, when it was owned by a Francesco Casilini in Italy. Zdanov, op. cit. (note 9), p.533 cites infra-red reflectography undertaken by Maddalena Bellavitis, which revealed underdrawing on the Rovigo panel: see M. Bellavatis: Telle depente forestiere: quadri nordici nel Veneto, le fonti e la tecnica, Padua 2010, pp.493–97. Without similar analysis of the Clerkenwell panels the underdrawing does not assist in linking the Rovigo panel with them. 70 I am grateful to Peter O’Donoghue, York Herald, The College of Arms, London for this observation in a conversation on 24th April 2018. 71 E. King: The Seals of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, London 1932, p.109. For the role of the turcopolier, see O’Malley, op. cit. (note 6), pp.42–43
17. Cast of original of a seal of John Weston. c.19th century. Wax and plaster, diameter 3.7 cm. (The Museum of the Order of St John, London).
Weston’s name saint.77 It can therefore be argued that Weston’s arms of office were on the right of the Baptist panel and the overpainted shield on the left was that of his family. It is possible that Weston later had his escutcheons added to the Christ panel to proclaim his patronage when the altarpiece was open. Inscriptions were sometimes used to identify donors. However, since Weston’s arms were painted on the Baptist panel, and possibly on the Christ panel too, it is not obvious why he would require an identifying inscription on the Virgin panel or why a succeeding prior would have added one. The inscription was painted skilfully in the Gothic script textualis, identifiable by, among other things, the fact that the ‘s’ in ‘Weston’ and ‘f ’ in ‘of ’ stood on the baseline.78 In formal terms the inscription was in keeping with fifteenth and sixteenth-century usage: the presence of a round ‘r’ after the ‘o’ and ‘p’, for example, accords with scribal practice. Although the script was formally consistent with late medieval examples, its size and placement on the panel were not, raising the question of who added it and 304–13; and A. Mifsud: Knights Hospitallers of the Venerable Tongue of England in Malta, Valetta 1914, pp.87–94. For examples of Weston’s seaborne campaigns, see ibid., p.144. 72 ‘Seal matrix of John Weston, prior of St Johns’, Antiquaries Journal 17 (1937), p.321; and J. Burke: The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, London 1884, pp.162 and 1095. Weston’s nephew, William, had arms similar to Prior John Weston. John Weston of Stafford, Prior John Weston’s second cousin, had arms ermine on a chief, azure, five bezants. 73 R. Guttens, H. Kühn and W. Chase: ‘Lead white’, in A. Roy, ed.: Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics, Washington 1993, II, pp.71–72; S. Lussier and G. Smith: ‘A review of the phenomenon of lead white
darkening and its conversion treatment’, Reviews in Conservation 8 (2007), p.48. In a telephone conversation of 19th November 2019 Marika Spring, Head of Science at the National Gallery, London, confirmed that this is unusual but possible. 74 Abrahams, op. cit. (note 15), p.1. 75 See Burke, op. cit. (note 72), pp.289 and 558. 76 Jacobs, op. cit. (note 45), pp.17–18; and K. Woods: ‘Thèmes iconographiques et sources’, in B. D’Hainaut-Zveny, op. cit. (note 45), p.79. 77 For discussion of St John the Baptist becoming patron saint of the Order, see J. Riley-Smith: The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus c.1050–1310, London 1967, pp.32–35. 78 A. Derolez: The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books: From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century, Cambridge 2003, p.9.
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