Portrait of A Young Girl (Christus, Berlin) - Dating

Dating

The painting was dated c 1446 by art historian Wolfgang Schöne in the 1930s, based mainly on stylistic issues.

During the early 20th century the dating and chronology of works attributed to Christus underwent sharp debate and opinion changed a number of times. Max Friedlander proposed a number of dates and an ordering of works in the 1957 volume of his "Early Netherlandish painting", but many of his assumptions were discounted by Otto Pächt just a few years later.

In 1953 Erwin Panofsky disgregarded Schöne's dating as "more than twenty years too early". In his view, the lady's dress resembles Burgundian high fashion of the late 1460s to mid 1470s, and drew comparison the hennin worn by Maria Portinari in a c 1470 portrait by Hans Memling, and her gown to that worn by a lady in an illumination from the c 1470s Froissart of Louis of Gruuthuse of Bruges. Charles Sterling, placing the work as c 1465, points out that the hennin in the Berlin panel is of a different type to that in the New York painting. The New York headdress is far more extended, and seems to be of a style prevalent a few years after, and moreover lacks the draped and hanging veil.

Sterling notes that the panel has far more depth of field and more intricate detailing of light than any other work attributed to Christus. On this basis he believes that the work can be confidently assumed as excuted later in the artist's career.