Early Netherlandish painter Justus van Gent or Joos van Wassenhove (also known as Justus or Jodocus of Ghent, or Giusto da Guanto) (c. 1410–c. 1480) trained and worked in Flanders before moving to Italy to serve for the duke of Urbino.
Justus van Gent’s paintings
The artist is renowned for his early Netherlandish-style religious compositions as well as a number of notable male portraits that display the influence of early Italian Renaissance art.
About Joos van Wassenhove’s early years, hardly much is known. It is thought that the painter Joos van Wassenhove, who joined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1460 and became a freemaster in the Ghent painters’ guild in 1464, is the persona of the artist referred to by Vasari and Guicciardini as “Giusto da Guanto” (i.e. “Justus of Ghent”). He provided a reference for Hugo van der Goes, Sanders Bening, and Agnes van den Bossche to join the local painters’ guild while he was in Ghent. Van Wassenhove appears to have had a good reputation because he was paid in 1467–1468 to produce 40 coats of arms for the Pope. Around 1470, Van Wassenhove traveled to Rome.
Van Gent is known to have had a workshop in Urbino between 1473 and 1475. He was a court painter for duke Federico da Montefeltro, an important Italian Renaissance statesman and patron of the arts. He received the commission from Da Montefeltro to paint for the Communion of the Apostles between 1472 and 1474 for the Corpus Domini brotherhood in Urbino. Pictured alongside Caterino Zeno, a Persian ambassador to the court of Urbino, is a portrait of da Montefeltro (with his broken nose in profile).
Van Wassenhove took part in the adornment of the ducal homes in Gubbio and Urbino. This includes a request for a commission to create a series of portraits of “uomini famosi” (renowned men) for da Montefeltro’s study (Louvre Museum, Paris and Galleria Nazionale, Urbino). He passed away around 1480.
The monumental Crucifixion Altarpiece or Calvary Triptych (in the Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent) and the Devotion of the Kings are two works from the period before he departed for Italy that have been preserved. The latter picture may have been ordered for a convent in Spain’s region near Burgos. For this reason the picture was painted on canvas so it could be rolled up for easy transport. The stage-like space and arrangement of the main figures in two parallel diagonal lines seem to suggest an inspiration by theatre reenactments of the story of the Epiphany. Both these early paintings are characterized by monumentality.
Hugo van der Goes’ work is strongly influenced by the facial characteristics of the figures and their use of color. Before van Wassenhove departed for Rome, the two masters probably collaborated. Additionally, there is a connection to Dieric Bouts’ art.
