View in a Forest, Outer Left Wing of a Triptych, Gerard David, c. 1505 - c. 1515

This panel and its companion, SK-A-3135 or fig. b, show two parts of a single landscape devoid of human figures. The left panel (SK-A-3134) has a view of a deserted building in a forest, with a reclining ass and a great tit on a bush in the foreground, while an ox and an ass wade in a shallow pool on the right panel. They are the outer wings of a triptych, the centre panel of which, a Nativity, and the inner wings with donors and saints are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. a). The outer and inner wings were separated between 1930 and 1932, probably because it was thought at the time that the View in a Forest was not autograph.12 The View in a Forest is often said to be the first autonomous Netherlandish landscape painting, but in fact it is part of a larger work of art with a religious subject. Generations of art historians have puzzled over the meaning of the scene. Friedländer, for example, suggested that the landscape originally included the figures of Adam and Eve but that they had been overpainted.13 However, not a trace of human figures has been found on the panels, even after the most recent conservation treatment.14 Cleven pointed out that certain elements, such as the forest and the ass, might allude to the rest on the flight into Egypt, which would certainly tie in with the scene on the centre panel, for the flight follows the birth of Christ.15 Härting believed that the iconography of the entire triptych is based on chapter 39 of the book of Job, which details God’s dominion over the animal kingdom. According to this theory, the altarpiece illustrates the following questions: ‘Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?’ (Job 39:5), and ‘Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?’ (Job 39:9).16 The ox and the ass are out in the wilderness in the View in a Forest, and it is not yet clear whom they are serving, but the questions are answered when the wings are opened to reveal the centre panel, where both are kneeling before the Christ Child and recognise God’s dominion alone.17 Buijsen draws attention to parallels between the View in a Forest and Isaiah 32:12-20, in which there is mention of ‘a forest’ and ‘the ox and the ass’. Just as this prophecy foretells the coming of Christ after a period of great adversity, so the View in a Forest on the outer wings of the triptych is a harbinger of The Nativity on the centre panel.18 The various interpretations are based on the plausible assumption that the View in a Forest has to be interpreted in relation to and as an introduction to the Nativity, but its precise connotation is still uncertain. As far as is known there is no other triptych with a similar scene on the outer wings. It may have been requested by the patrons, who are so far unidentified. They selected an artist who was very skilled in depicting nature. By painting the small details like the leaves on the trees very painstakingly and true to life David created a realistic and convincing scene. The types of tree can actually be identified: from left to right an oak, a white walnut and a beech. Many of the aquatic plants around the pool are also recognisable, such as the yellow iris and the plantain.19 The doubts about the authorship of the View in a Forest raised in the 1920s were due to the fact that the building had been badly overpainted.20 That overpaint was removed during conservation carried out before the panels were sold to the museum in 1932 and replaced with a new one which integrated the building more convincingly in the scene. Since then there has been no doubt about the attribution to Gerard David. Although only a few original traces of the house survive, it could be reconstructed with the aid of a Rest on the Flight into Egypt of c. 1525 attributed to Ambrosius Benson in Genoa.21 That painting has a similar landscape, and the result of X-ray examination suggests that both works derive from a common model.22 It is agreed that the Amsterdam panels date from later in David’s career. Landscape was already playing an important part in his altarpiece with The Baptism of Christ, which is dated 1502-08.23 View in a Forest is regarded as a milestone in David’s rendering of landscape, and this, together with the well-articulated spatial effect of the scenes on the inside of the triptych, has led to the panels being dated c. 1505-15.24 (Vanessa Hoogland)