Madonna of the Dry Tree is a small oil-on-oak panel painting, dated c. 1462–1465, by Early Netherlandish painterPetrus Christus. Unusually innovative and dramatic for its time, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child as she stands on a disembodied dead tree trunk, surrounded by the circular briars of a crown of thorns. The painting is thought to derive its source in the Book of Ezekiel, with the dry tree a symbol of the withered Tree of Knowledgein the Garden of Eden brought to life again with the Virgin and the birth of Christ. The 15 golden "A"s hanging from the branches of the tree represent the first letter of the Angelic Salutation, the Ave Maria. The Baby Jesus is presented as holding an orb crowned with a cross. The iconography is drawn from the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Dry Treein Bruges, which both Christus and his wife, Gaudicine, were members of.
Description
Mary is dressed in a long red robe with a green lining, the folds deeply cut in an almost sculptural manner. Her robe closely resembles that of the Madonna in Christus's Exeter Madonna of c. 1444, leading to speculation that the work is from an earlier period than the assumed 1462–1465. Unusually for a Madonna of the time, her face is largely unidealised, the features less soft or rounded, and her expression less presupposing than in his later Madonnas or even secular female portraits. The representation of Christ seems derived from Rogier van der Weyden, especially in the playfulness and amiability of Christ's facial expression, although given that Christus might not have had access to the older master's work, the influence may be second-hand, through the panels of Hans Memling. The panel is highly illustionistic, perhaps on par with the older painter's Durán Madonna. Christus employs trompe-l'œil techniques in a number of passages, creating a three-dimensional effect that adds to the strangeness and disembodied atmosphere. These can be most notably seen in the Virgin's hand as it lies below the child's toes, in the orb held in his hands, and in the golden letters hanging from the tree briars. X-radiograph reveals little preparatory underdrawing outside of a series of ruled lines used to situate elements within the overall design. Maryan Ainsworth notes that this is typical of Christus's smaller panels, some which – including this work – could be considered miniatures, and compares it to the techniques used in contemporary illuminated manuscripts.
Art historian Grete Ring sourced the iconography to the Bruges confraternity of "Our Lady of the Dry Tree". Christus joined the "Confraternity of Our Lady of the Dry Tree" sometime around 1462–63. Both confraternities were patronized by members of the upper echelon of Burgundian society; Philip the Good's wife Isabella of Portugal, as well as most of the leading Burgundian nobles, upper-class families and foreign traders of Bruges, such as the Portrait of Maria Portinari. Christus joined – for the same reason Gerard David would some years later – to attract wealthy patrons. Philip the Good is believed to have established the confraternity after a successful battle against the French. Beforehand, he is said to have prayed to an image of the Virgin carved on a dry tree. Although the confraternity already existed, the story reveals the veneration images of the Virgin carved on trees. The tradition of suspending or carving a Marian image from a tree originated as early as the fifth century, blending pagan and Christian worship. The trees with their venerated images were commonly found, and were often recognized as landscape markers. Our Lady of the Oak and Our Lady of the Cherry are other in the same tradition. First documented in 1396, although probably established earlier, the members of Confraternity of the Dry Tree met at the Bruges Franciscan friary in a private chapel with its own altar. Its popularity waned after 1515; the friary was destroyed in 1578. By 1821 the organization was dissolved.
Iconography
The painting has an unusual iconography. Ainsworth writes it is unprecedented in Netherlandish painting. The imagery seems to be derived from Ezekiel 17:24: "…and all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish". The formation can be read as a somewhat bitter representation of the "Tree of Knowledge", but wilted and thorn-ridden, presumably because of original sin, and which will only return to life with the coming of Christ. The Tree of Life received a green graft from the Tree of Knowledge, wrote medieval philosopher Guillaume de Deguileville in his Le Pèlerinage de l'Âme, metaphorically reflected in the birth of the Virgin to a barren mother. The 15 letter A's hanging from the tree are generally seen as abbreviations for Ave, or Ave Maria. Their number may to be an allusion to the 150 "Hail Marys" recited in then-contemporary versions of the rosary, although this form of devotion did not become popular until 1475, some ten years after Christus' panel. Two other interpretations for the A's have been put forth. One is that they symbolize arbor or arbore, as other similar devotional works show the trees in an arbor. Hugo van der Velden suggests the possibility that the piece might have been commissioned by a member of the confraternity, Anselme Adornes, whose interest in devotional work is evidenced by his possession of van Eyck's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata.
Influences and provenance
The panel influenced Peter Claeyssens the Younger's 1620 triptych Our Lady of the Dry Tree, which drew from the same sources and is equally dark in tone and theme, but lacks the dramatic impact of Christus' panel. The painting was first recorded in a private collection in Belgium before 1919. It was acquired by the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid in 1965.
