Note 207 — Chapter VII · (XXI.)

Hans Memling. ‘No Flemish painter of note,’ remark Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Early Flemish Painters, p. 256, ‘produced pictures more attractive to the Italians than Memling.’ The Portinari, for whom Memling worked, were Florentine merchants who had a house at Bruges, the commercial connection of which with Tuscany was very close. In his Notes on Flemish Painters at the end of the Lives, Vasari says that the subject of ‘a small picture in the possession of the Duke’ which is probably the one here mentioned, was ‘The Passion of Christ.’ If this be the case, it cannot be the beautiful little Memling now in the Uffizi, No. 703, for the subject of this is ‘The Virgin and Child.’ It might possibly however be the panel of ‘The Seven Griefs,’ a Passion picture in the Museum at Turin. On the other hand, Passavant thought the Turin panel was the ‘Careggi’ picture that Vasari goes on to mention. See Note on p. 268 of Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s work.