Mary of Burgundy Distributing Alms

Phoebus Focus XXXIX

Henri Leys, painter of many a scene that adorns the walls of the City on the Scheldt’s Town Hall and so highly acclaimed that he was made a baron. But that was then and this is now, and Baron Leys appears to have been somewhat forgotten by art history.

With this edition of Phoebus Focus, Prof. dr. Jan Dirk Baetens puts Henri Leys back on the map. And what better way to do this than with Mary of Burgundy Distributing Alms, the painting that was already considered a key piece in Leys’ time? Baetens analyses the work in minute detail and expertly positions it within the master’s oeuvre. The author effortlessly guides you through the world of the artist, from the nineteenth century to the Middle Ages and back again. But it doesn’t stop there: Leys’ composition invites us to look not only at the past but also at ourselves