Studies in Netherlandish Art and Cultural History, 2015
Wall-mounted memorials (or ‘epitaphs’) enjoyed great popularity across the Burgundian Netherlands... more Wall-mounted memorials (or ‘epitaphs’) enjoyed great popularity across the Burgundian Netherlands. Usually installed in churches above graves, they combine images with inscriptions and take the form of sculpted reliefs, brass plaques, or panel paintings. They preserved the memory of the dead and reminded the living to pray for their souls. On occasions, renowned artists like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden were closely involved in memorials’ creation.
In Pious Memories Douglas Brine examines the wall-mounted memorial as a distinct category of funerary monument and shows it to be a significant, if overlooked, aspect of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. The patronage, functions, and meanings of these objects are considered in the context of contemporary commemorative practices and the culture of memoria.
Taking Shape: Sculpture of the Low Countries, c.1400-1600, 2024
Late medieval brass lecterns constitute a significant category of Netherlandish sculpture and a r... more Late medieval brass lecterns constitute a significant category of Netherlandish sculpture and a rare survival of metal statuary. As furniture designed to support books, their function dictated their forms; nevertheless, lecterns were cast in the guises of birds, beasts, and even figural statues, and were sometimes also moveable. Lecterns’ functionality was multi-dimensional, and as well as serving those who read and sung from them, lecterns could also act as funerary monuments, reminding the living to pray for those they commemorate. Simultaneously, lecterns contributed to the adornment of ecclesiastical spaces, both through their symbolic, often Christological imagery and their golden lustre, which together with the other brass objects, heightened the sacred aura of the holiest part of the church.
The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s outpost for medieval art, houses an elaborate bra... more The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s outpost for medieval art, houses an elaborate brass eagle lectern made in the Netherlands in c. 1500. Purchased in 1968 from Oscott College, it had previously been in St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, a key site of the Gothic Revival in England. This article examines the Cloisters lectern’s sojourn in Victorian Britain, beginning with its arrival on the London art market and publication in Specimens of Ancient Furniture in the 1830s. The main focus is its subsequent association with the architect, designer and theorist A. W. N. Pugin, who designed and furnished St Chad’s as Britain’s first Catholic cathedral since the Reformation. The lectern helped to define the Catholic identity of Pugin’s vision of the revived Gothic style. It also influenced his own designs for metalwork, reflecting his keen interest in Netherlandish brass sculpture.
This article examines the monuments with which some of the most celebrated musicians and composer... more This article examines the monuments with which some of the most celebrated musicians and composers of the Burgundian Netherlands were commemorated. Perhaps best known is Guillaume Du Fay’s wall-mounted memorial; thanks to musicologists’ research, his sculpted tablet is also one of the best documented of its kind and thus can be situated within the context of the composer’s various provisions – musical and otherwise – to secure his posthumous commemoration. Du Fay’s memorial is considered in relation to selected artworks commemorating his contemporaries and successors, including Gilles Binchois, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez, and Marbrianus de Orto. These include not only tombs and memorial tablets but also panel paintings – like Hans Memling’s portrait of Gilles Joye – and, in one case, a brass reliquary coffer. Of particular concern are the ways in which these monuments reflect their patrons’ wealth, status, personal relationships and devotional priorities, as well as their identities as musicians and clerics.
In 1843, Augustus Pugin, the leading architect of the Gothic Revival in early Victorian Britain, ... more In 1843, Augustus Pugin, the leading architect of the Gothic Revival in early Victorian Britain, wrote of his plans to ‘work all day’ at the museum at Antwerp, ‘where I shall find the most Beautiful authorities’. The result of his visit was a series of drawings, now divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University, which record Florent van Ertborn’s collection of early Northern paintings, bequeathed in 1841 to what is now the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Pugin’s drawings of the Van Ertborn pictures attest to a keen interest in early Netherlandish painting, which is also reflected in his writings and in his own art collection.
Taking the drawings as its starting point, this article examines Pugin’s engagement with early Netherlandish painting. It assesses the importance for him of such pictures – experienced both at first hand and through reproductions – and their impact on his impassioned revival of the Gothic style. Pugin’s enthusiasm for early Netherlandish art was fuelled by his Catholic faith and by his priorities as a designer in search of ‘authorities’ to inform his work, especially in stained glass and book illustration. His experience of the Van Ertborn pictures is placed in the context of other collections he knew that featured ‘Flemish Primitives’, including that of his patron, Lord Shrewsbury, and the influential Aders collection in London, from which he purchased some pieces. The article concludes with consideration of Pugin’s abiding impact on the study of early Netherlandish painting through his influence on W.H. James Weale, whose pioneering research forms the bedrock of modern scholarship in the field.
This special issue of Oud Holland offers new perspectives on the 'rediscovery' of early Netherlan... more This special issue of Oud Holland offers new perspectives on the 'rediscovery' of early Netherlandish art in the long nineteenth century. It probes the intersection of creative and scholarly practices that helped to establish the importance of this corpus of artwork, produced between about 1420 to 1550 in the Burgundian (and later Habsburg) Low Countries, and to secure its status as a cultural landmark and a distinct field of art historical inquiry. Investigating topics ranging from Karl Schnaase's pioneering writings, to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's influential designs, to James Ensor's radically unconventional imagery, the six essays in this volume explore specific cases in the appropriation, reception, interpretation, and promotion of early Netherlandish art – particularly painting – in a range of cultural practices and circumstances. Topics addressed include art criticism and exhibitions, architecture and design, painting and drawing, and the emergence of 'reproductive' photography.
The essays expand upon such foundational studies as Francis Haskell's History and its images (1993), which demonstrated how the surge of interest in the work of the Van Eyck brothers and their compatriots was inextricable from the evolving national identity and cultural politics of the modern nation-state of Belgium. While the Belgian context is central, several contributors enlarge the scope of inquiry with projects rooted in England and German-speaking regions, which forged strong intellectual and political ties with Belgium and engaged enthusiastically with its artistic heritage. Collectively, the essays advance new insights into the evolution of art history as a discipline, the complexity of artistic modernism(s) and revivalism(s); the role of nationalism and religion in nineteenth-century cultural life; and some of the myriad ways in which the artistic past and present inflect one another.
The small figure reflected in St George’s shield in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Canon Jo... more The small figure reflected in St George’s shield in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele (Bruges, Groeningemuseum) did not receive any scholarly attention until the mid-twentieth century. Taken to be the artist’s self-portrait, the reflection is usually seen as analogous to its counterpart in the Arnolfini Portrait despite significant differences between them. This essay investigates the particularity of Van Eyck’s self-representation in the Van der Paele Virgin in terms of its function and meaning. Through consideration of the surface on which the reflection is depicted, the saint with whom it is associated, and the setting in which the painting was located and experienced, it is argued that Van Eyck depicted himself in a highly self-conscious manner, closely linked both to his identity as a painter and to the desire, shared with his patron, for remembrance after death.
The British architect, designer, and theorist A.W.N. Pugin, champion of the Gothic Revival, was a... more The British architect, designer, and theorist A.W.N. Pugin, champion of the Gothic Revival, was an avid collector of medieval and Renaissance works of art. He was particularly fascinated by Albrecht Dürer and owned numerous examples of his work, the most important of which was a pair of double-sided panel paintings. These panels still exist, now divided between the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and are presently attributed to Dürer’s pupil Hans Schäufelein. This article examines the history of Pugin’s “Dürer” paintings and considers the evidence for their installation and display at The Grange, Pugin’s influential home in Ramsgate, which he designed and furnished in 1843-44.
Tournai is by no means alone amongst the cities of the Low Countries in having suffered repeated ... more Tournai is by no means alone amongst the cities of the Low Countries in having suffered repeated bouts of damage and destruction, but given its calamitous history it seems little short of miraculous that a group of 38 sculpted memorial tablets should survive from there. Dating from the last quarter of the fourteenth century to the end of the fifteenth century, these remarkable objects represent the earliest and most important examples of a type of funerary monument that was once fairly common throughout the northern and southern Netherlands. Although comparable memorials survive elsewhere, those at Tournai were the first to be rediscovered in the nineteenth century and are the most celebrated examples of the genre. In both their content and context, Tournai’s memorial reliefs have much to offer the art historian and constitute an important – if overlooked – chapter in the story of early Netherlandish art. This chapter discusses the exceptional nature of the surviving corpus and the various avenues of enquiry it presents, and re-assesses these objects in relation to the scholarship on art from the Burgundian Low Countries.
La sculpture gothique à Tournai: Splendeur, ruine, vestiges, 2018
This is the original English version of the essay, "An exceptional ensemble: the commemorative re... more This is the original English version of the essay, "An exceptional ensemble: the commemorative reliefs of Tournai," before it was translated, edited, and published as "Les reliefs votifs, un ensemble exceptionnel," in La sculpture gothique à Tournai: Splendeur, ruine, vestiges, edited by Ludovic Nys and Louis-Donat Casterman (Brussels: Fonds Mercator, 2018), 182-211, 314-15.
Jan van Eyck's van der Paele Virgin, commissioned to mark his patron's chaplaincies at St. Donati... more Jan van Eyck's van der Paele Virgin, commissioned to mark his patron's chaplaincies at St. Donatian's church, Bruges, can be situated within the visual culture of commemoration in the Netherlands, and specifically within the tradition of erecting a wall-mounted memorial to mark one's burial place or the site of a pious foundation. Scrutiny of written sources—both archival documents and the inscriptions on the picture's frame—together with comparisons with contemporary memorials clarify not only the circumstances of the painting's commission but also the question of its original setting and the precise nature of its memorializing function.
Rogier van der Weyden in Context. Papers presented at the 17th Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing & Technology in Painting, 2012
Wall-mounted memorials, or ‘epitaphs’, took the form of relief sculptures, sometimes with painted... more Wall-mounted memorials, or ‘epitaphs’, took the form of relief sculptures, sometimes with painted shutters, or panel paintings and were commonly installed above graves in churches in the Burgundian Netherlands. The participation of Rogier van der Weyden, his workshop, and his followers in their production is considered here using documentary and visual evidence. As certain extant sculpted memorials were heavily influenced by Rogier’s work, the role he and his workshop played in the design and polychromy of such monuments is discussed. Evidence for memorial paintings produced by Rogier and his workshop is also examined, together with the possible memorializing functions of other works by him, which were not necessarily made for sepulchral settings. Finally, the legacy of Rogier’s oeuvre in memorials produced after his death is assessed, focusing on the all’antica-style foundation memorial of Jacques de Croy in Cologne Cathedral, which features a Rogerian Virgin and Child at its centre.
The canon Jean de Libourc (d. 1470) had a sculpted relief memorial tablet installed above his gra... more The canon Jean de Libourc (d. 1470) had a sculpted relief memorial tablet installed above his grave in the collegiate church of Saint-Omer which featured, unusually, the image of the Mass of St Gregory and an accompanying inscription detailing a substantial indulgence that was available to its viewers. The tablet, recently attributed to the sculptor Jean Martin, can be shown to have been based on an extant contemporary Mass of St Gregory woodcut. The reasons for the choice of imagery of Libourc’s memorial, the significance of its original physical setting, and the effectiveness of the strategies it employs to attract the prayers of the living for the canon, are assessed.
immediations. The Courtauld Institute of Art Journal of Postgraduate Research, 2008
The article considers two sculpted wall memorials from the Burgundian Netherlands that can be clo... more The article considers two sculpted wall memorials from the Burgundian Netherlands that can be closely linked to the painter Rogier van der Weyden. The first was commissioned by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for the Franciscan convent church in Brussels in commemoration of two long-deceased Brabantine duchesses to whom he was distantly related. It was destroyed by the Calvinists but a series of payments of 1440 records the various craftsmen responsible for its creation, including Rogier van der Weyden, who polychromed the sculpture and painted the duke’s coats of arms on its wings. It is argued that the memorial should be seen in the context of Philip’s efforts to emphasize his legitimacy as ruler of Brabant. The second memorial, which also had wings, came from Saint-Nicolas church, Tournai, and commemorated the merchant Jehan du Sart (d.1456) and his wife. The memorial is based on a design derived from various Rogierian Nativity paintings and it is proposed that Rogier’s nephew, the painter Louis le Duc, who arrived in Tournai in 1453 having presumably trained with his uncle in Brussels, may have been responsible for the memorial’s design.
A monographic exhibition on the early Netherlandish painter Hugo van der Goes had been long overd... more A monographic exhibition on the early Netherlandish painter Hugo van der Goes had been long overdue, and so Hugo van der Goes: Between Pain and Bliss was a notable event.
Many readers will have shared my disappointment at having missed the exhibition Van Eyck: An Opti... more Many readers will have shared my disappointment at having missed the exhibition Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution, which opened at Ghent's Museum voor Schone Kunsten on February 1st, 2020, and was scheduled to end on April 30th, but closed early on March 12th due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2014 a fascinating exhibition, L’or des dinandiers: fondeurs et batteurs mosans au Moyen Âge, ... more In 2014 a fascinating exhibition, L’or des dinandiers: fondeurs et batteurs mosans au Moyen Âge, in Bouvignes, just over the river from Dinant, examined the Mosan dinanderie industry, displaying examples of the cupreous products for which the region was famed during the Middle Ages. A three-day symposium was held in conjunction with the exhibition, thirty-four papers from which are published in this handsome paperback.
Ittai Weinryb has written an absorbing and stimulating book about the multivalent meanings of bro... more Ittai Weinryb has written an absorbing and stimulating book about the multivalent meanings of bronze in the Middle Ages and how those meanings are expressed in items created through the lost-wax bronze casting technique.
Studies in Netherlandish Art and Cultural History, 2015
Wall-mounted memorials (or ‘epitaphs’) enjoyed great popularity across the Burgundian Netherlands... more Wall-mounted memorials (or ‘epitaphs’) enjoyed great popularity across the Burgundian Netherlands. Usually installed in churches above graves, they combine images with inscriptions and take the form of sculpted reliefs, brass plaques, or panel paintings. They preserved the memory of the dead and reminded the living to pray for their souls. On occasions, renowned artists like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden were closely involved in memorials’ creation.
In Pious Memories Douglas Brine examines the wall-mounted memorial as a distinct category of funerary monument and shows it to be a significant, if overlooked, aspect of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. The patronage, functions, and meanings of these objects are considered in the context of contemporary commemorative practices and the culture of memoria.
Taking Shape: Sculpture of the Low Countries, c.1400-1600, 2024
Late medieval brass lecterns constitute a significant category of Netherlandish sculpture and a r... more Late medieval brass lecterns constitute a significant category of Netherlandish sculpture and a rare survival of metal statuary. As furniture designed to support books, their function dictated their forms; nevertheless, lecterns were cast in the guises of birds, beasts, and even figural statues, and were sometimes also moveable. Lecterns’ functionality was multi-dimensional, and as well as serving those who read and sung from them, lecterns could also act as funerary monuments, reminding the living to pray for those they commemorate. Simultaneously, lecterns contributed to the adornment of ecclesiastical spaces, both through their symbolic, often Christological imagery and their golden lustre, which together with the other brass objects, heightened the sacred aura of the holiest part of the church.
The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s outpost for medieval art, houses an elaborate bra... more The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s outpost for medieval art, houses an elaborate brass eagle lectern made in the Netherlands in c. 1500. Purchased in 1968 from Oscott College, it had previously been in St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, a key site of the Gothic Revival in England. This article examines the Cloisters lectern’s sojourn in Victorian Britain, beginning with its arrival on the London art market and publication in Specimens of Ancient Furniture in the 1830s. The main focus is its subsequent association with the architect, designer and theorist A. W. N. Pugin, who designed and furnished St Chad’s as Britain’s first Catholic cathedral since the Reformation. The lectern helped to define the Catholic identity of Pugin’s vision of the revived Gothic style. It also influenced his own designs for metalwork, reflecting his keen interest in Netherlandish brass sculpture.
This article examines the monuments with which some of the most celebrated musicians and composer... more This article examines the monuments with which some of the most celebrated musicians and composers of the Burgundian Netherlands were commemorated. Perhaps best known is Guillaume Du Fay’s wall-mounted memorial; thanks to musicologists’ research, his sculpted tablet is also one of the best documented of its kind and thus can be situated within the context of the composer’s various provisions – musical and otherwise – to secure his posthumous commemoration. Du Fay’s memorial is considered in relation to selected artworks commemorating his contemporaries and successors, including Gilles Binchois, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez, and Marbrianus de Orto. These include not only tombs and memorial tablets but also panel paintings – like Hans Memling’s portrait of Gilles Joye – and, in one case, a brass reliquary coffer. Of particular concern are the ways in which these monuments reflect their patrons’ wealth, status, personal relationships and devotional priorities, as well as their identities as musicians and clerics.
In 1843, Augustus Pugin, the leading architect of the Gothic Revival in early Victorian Britain, ... more In 1843, Augustus Pugin, the leading architect of the Gothic Revival in early Victorian Britain, wrote of his plans to ‘work all day’ at the museum at Antwerp, ‘where I shall find the most Beautiful authorities’. The result of his visit was a series of drawings, now divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University, which record Florent van Ertborn’s collection of early Northern paintings, bequeathed in 1841 to what is now the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Pugin’s drawings of the Van Ertborn pictures attest to a keen interest in early Netherlandish painting, which is also reflected in his writings and in his own art collection.
Taking the drawings as its starting point, this article examines Pugin’s engagement with early Netherlandish painting. It assesses the importance for him of such pictures – experienced both at first hand and through reproductions – and their impact on his impassioned revival of the Gothic style. Pugin’s enthusiasm for early Netherlandish art was fuelled by his Catholic faith and by his priorities as a designer in search of ‘authorities’ to inform his work, especially in stained glass and book illustration. His experience of the Van Ertborn pictures is placed in the context of other collections he knew that featured ‘Flemish Primitives’, including that of his patron, Lord Shrewsbury, and the influential Aders collection in London, from which he purchased some pieces. The article concludes with consideration of Pugin’s abiding impact on the study of early Netherlandish painting through his influence on W.H. James Weale, whose pioneering research forms the bedrock of modern scholarship in the field.
This special issue of Oud Holland offers new perspectives on the 'rediscovery' of early Netherlan... more This special issue of Oud Holland offers new perspectives on the 'rediscovery' of early Netherlandish art in the long nineteenth century. It probes the intersection of creative and scholarly practices that helped to establish the importance of this corpus of artwork, produced between about 1420 to 1550 in the Burgundian (and later Habsburg) Low Countries, and to secure its status as a cultural landmark and a distinct field of art historical inquiry. Investigating topics ranging from Karl Schnaase's pioneering writings, to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's influential designs, to James Ensor's radically unconventional imagery, the six essays in this volume explore specific cases in the appropriation, reception, interpretation, and promotion of early Netherlandish art – particularly painting – in a range of cultural practices and circumstances. Topics addressed include art criticism and exhibitions, architecture and design, painting and drawing, and the emergence of 'reproductive' photography.
The essays expand upon such foundational studies as Francis Haskell's History and its images (1993), which demonstrated how the surge of interest in the work of the Van Eyck brothers and their compatriots was inextricable from the evolving national identity and cultural politics of the modern nation-state of Belgium. While the Belgian context is central, several contributors enlarge the scope of inquiry with projects rooted in England and German-speaking regions, which forged strong intellectual and political ties with Belgium and engaged enthusiastically with its artistic heritage. Collectively, the essays advance new insights into the evolution of art history as a discipline, the complexity of artistic modernism(s) and revivalism(s); the role of nationalism and religion in nineteenth-century cultural life; and some of the myriad ways in which the artistic past and present inflect one another.
The small figure reflected in St George’s shield in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Canon Jo... more The small figure reflected in St George’s shield in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele (Bruges, Groeningemuseum) did not receive any scholarly attention until the mid-twentieth century. Taken to be the artist’s self-portrait, the reflection is usually seen as analogous to its counterpart in the Arnolfini Portrait despite significant differences between them. This essay investigates the particularity of Van Eyck’s self-representation in the Van der Paele Virgin in terms of its function and meaning. Through consideration of the surface on which the reflection is depicted, the saint with whom it is associated, and the setting in which the painting was located and experienced, it is argued that Van Eyck depicted himself in a highly self-conscious manner, closely linked both to his identity as a painter and to the desire, shared with his patron, for remembrance after death.
The British architect, designer, and theorist A.W.N. Pugin, champion of the Gothic Revival, was a... more The British architect, designer, and theorist A.W.N. Pugin, champion of the Gothic Revival, was an avid collector of medieval and Renaissance works of art. He was particularly fascinated by Albrecht Dürer and owned numerous examples of his work, the most important of which was a pair of double-sided panel paintings. These panels still exist, now divided between the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and are presently attributed to Dürer’s pupil Hans Schäufelein. This article examines the history of Pugin’s “Dürer” paintings and considers the evidence for their installation and display at The Grange, Pugin’s influential home in Ramsgate, which he designed and furnished in 1843-44.
Tournai is by no means alone amongst the cities of the Low Countries in having suffered repeated ... more Tournai is by no means alone amongst the cities of the Low Countries in having suffered repeated bouts of damage and destruction, but given its calamitous history it seems little short of miraculous that a group of 38 sculpted memorial tablets should survive from there. Dating from the last quarter of the fourteenth century to the end of the fifteenth century, these remarkable objects represent the earliest and most important examples of a type of funerary monument that was once fairly common throughout the northern and southern Netherlands. Although comparable memorials survive elsewhere, those at Tournai were the first to be rediscovered in the nineteenth century and are the most celebrated examples of the genre. In both their content and context, Tournai’s memorial reliefs have much to offer the art historian and constitute an important – if overlooked – chapter in the story of early Netherlandish art. This chapter discusses the exceptional nature of the surviving corpus and the various avenues of enquiry it presents, and re-assesses these objects in relation to the scholarship on art from the Burgundian Low Countries.
La sculpture gothique à Tournai: Splendeur, ruine, vestiges, 2018
This is the original English version of the essay, "An exceptional ensemble: the commemorative re... more This is the original English version of the essay, "An exceptional ensemble: the commemorative reliefs of Tournai," before it was translated, edited, and published as "Les reliefs votifs, un ensemble exceptionnel," in La sculpture gothique à Tournai: Splendeur, ruine, vestiges, edited by Ludovic Nys and Louis-Donat Casterman (Brussels: Fonds Mercator, 2018), 182-211, 314-15.
Jan van Eyck's van der Paele Virgin, commissioned to mark his patron's chaplaincies at St. Donati... more Jan van Eyck's van der Paele Virgin, commissioned to mark his patron's chaplaincies at St. Donatian's church, Bruges, can be situated within the visual culture of commemoration in the Netherlands, and specifically within the tradition of erecting a wall-mounted memorial to mark one's burial place or the site of a pious foundation. Scrutiny of written sources—both archival documents and the inscriptions on the picture's frame—together with comparisons with contemporary memorials clarify not only the circumstances of the painting's commission but also the question of its original setting and the precise nature of its memorializing function.
Rogier van der Weyden in Context. Papers presented at the 17th Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing & Technology in Painting, 2012
Wall-mounted memorials, or ‘epitaphs’, took the form of relief sculptures, sometimes with painted... more Wall-mounted memorials, or ‘epitaphs’, took the form of relief sculptures, sometimes with painted shutters, or panel paintings and were commonly installed above graves in churches in the Burgundian Netherlands. The participation of Rogier van der Weyden, his workshop, and his followers in their production is considered here using documentary and visual evidence. As certain extant sculpted memorials were heavily influenced by Rogier’s work, the role he and his workshop played in the design and polychromy of such monuments is discussed. Evidence for memorial paintings produced by Rogier and his workshop is also examined, together with the possible memorializing functions of other works by him, which were not necessarily made for sepulchral settings. Finally, the legacy of Rogier’s oeuvre in memorials produced after his death is assessed, focusing on the all’antica-style foundation memorial of Jacques de Croy in Cologne Cathedral, which features a Rogerian Virgin and Child at its centre.
The canon Jean de Libourc (d. 1470) had a sculpted relief memorial tablet installed above his gra... more The canon Jean de Libourc (d. 1470) had a sculpted relief memorial tablet installed above his grave in the collegiate church of Saint-Omer which featured, unusually, the image of the Mass of St Gregory and an accompanying inscription detailing a substantial indulgence that was available to its viewers. The tablet, recently attributed to the sculptor Jean Martin, can be shown to have been based on an extant contemporary Mass of St Gregory woodcut. The reasons for the choice of imagery of Libourc’s memorial, the significance of its original physical setting, and the effectiveness of the strategies it employs to attract the prayers of the living for the canon, are assessed.
immediations. The Courtauld Institute of Art Journal of Postgraduate Research, 2008
The article considers two sculpted wall memorials from the Burgundian Netherlands that can be clo... more The article considers two sculpted wall memorials from the Burgundian Netherlands that can be closely linked to the painter Rogier van der Weyden. The first was commissioned by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for the Franciscan convent church in Brussels in commemoration of two long-deceased Brabantine duchesses to whom he was distantly related. It was destroyed by the Calvinists but a series of payments of 1440 records the various craftsmen responsible for its creation, including Rogier van der Weyden, who polychromed the sculpture and painted the duke’s coats of arms on its wings. It is argued that the memorial should be seen in the context of Philip’s efforts to emphasize his legitimacy as ruler of Brabant. The second memorial, which also had wings, came from Saint-Nicolas church, Tournai, and commemorated the merchant Jehan du Sart (d.1456) and his wife. The memorial is based on a design derived from various Rogierian Nativity paintings and it is proposed that Rogier’s nephew, the painter Louis le Duc, who arrived in Tournai in 1453 having presumably trained with his uncle in Brussels, may have been responsible for the memorial’s design.
A monographic exhibition on the early Netherlandish painter Hugo van der Goes had been long overd... more A monographic exhibition on the early Netherlandish painter Hugo van der Goes had been long overdue, and so Hugo van der Goes: Between Pain and Bliss was a notable event.
Many readers will have shared my disappointment at having missed the exhibition Van Eyck: An Opti... more Many readers will have shared my disappointment at having missed the exhibition Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution, which opened at Ghent's Museum voor Schone Kunsten on February 1st, 2020, and was scheduled to end on April 30th, but closed early on March 12th due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2014 a fascinating exhibition, L’or des dinandiers: fondeurs et batteurs mosans au Moyen Âge, ... more In 2014 a fascinating exhibition, L’or des dinandiers: fondeurs et batteurs mosans au Moyen Âge, in Bouvignes, just over the river from Dinant, examined the Mosan dinanderie industry, displaying examples of the cupreous products for which the region was famed during the Middle Ages. A three-day symposium was held in conjunction with the exhibition, thirty-four papers from which are published in this handsome paperback.
Ittai Weinryb has written an absorbing and stimulating book about the multivalent meanings of bro... more Ittai Weinryb has written an absorbing and stimulating book about the multivalent meanings of bronze in the Middle Ages and how those meanings are expressed in items created through the lost-wax bronze casting technique.
This welcome publication consists of fourteen essays on various aspects of medieval Northern Neth... more This welcome publication consists of fourteen essays on various aspects of medieval Northern Netherlandish art and its historiography.
One of the most common types of ecclesiastical furniture from the Burgundian Netherlands that sur... more One of the most common types of ecclesiastical furniture from the Burgundian Netherlands that survive today is the brass eagle-lectern. Many remain in churches and continue to function much as originally intended, as supports for the books used during services. Indeed, there is perhaps no other medieval artwork still in active use that exists in such numbers as the brass lectern. Most extant examples feature eagles clutching dragons in their talons, but there is clear evidence that lecterns also took the form of pelicans, griffins, or standing figures of angels, saints, or even Moses. This paper considers Netherlandish brass lecterns, in their various guises, from various perspectives – as metal sculptures, as liturgical fixtures, and as vehicles for private commemoration – and argues that they constitute a significant, if overlooked, category of early Netherlandish art. https://courtauld.ac.uk/event/eagles-dragons-griffins-and-angels-netherlandish-brass-lecterns-in-context
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Books by Douglas Brine
In Pious Memories Douglas Brine examines the wall-mounted memorial as a distinct category of funerary monument and shows it to be a significant, if overlooked, aspect of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. The patronage, functions, and meanings of these objects are considered in the context of contemporary commemorative practices and the culture of memoria.
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Papers by Douglas Brine
Taking the drawings as its starting point, this article examines Pugin’s engagement with early Netherlandish painting. It assesses the importance for him of such pictures – experienced both at first hand and through reproductions – and their impact on his impassioned revival of the Gothic style. Pugin’s enthusiasm for early Netherlandish art was fuelled by his Catholic faith and by his priorities as a designer in search of ‘authorities’ to inform his work, especially in stained glass and book illustration. His experience of the Van Ertborn pictures is placed in the context of other collections he knew that featured ‘Flemish Primitives’, including that of his patron, Lord Shrewsbury, and the influential Aders collection in London, from which he purchased some pieces. The article concludes with consideration of Pugin’s abiding impact on the study of early Netherlandish painting through his influence on W.H. James Weale, whose pioneering research forms the bedrock of modern scholarship in the field.
The essays expand upon such foundational studies as Francis Haskell's History and its images (1993), which demonstrated how the surge of interest in the work of the Van Eyck brothers and their compatriots was inextricable from the evolving national identity and cultural politics of the modern nation-state of Belgium. While the Belgian context is central, several contributors enlarge the scope of inquiry with projects rooted in England and German-speaking regions, which forged strong intellectual and political ties with Belgium and engaged enthusiastically with its artistic heritage. Collectively, the essays advance new insights into the evolution of art history as a discipline, the complexity of artistic modernism(s) and revivalism(s); the role of nationalism and religion in nineteenth-century cultural life; and some of the myriad ways in which the artistic past and present inflect one another.
Book Reviews by Douglas Brine
https://hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/hugo-van-der-goes-between-pain-and-bliss/
https://hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/van-eyck/
In Pious Memories Douglas Brine examines the wall-mounted memorial as a distinct category of funerary monument and shows it to be a significant, if overlooked, aspect of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art. The patronage, functions, and meanings of these objects are considered in the context of contemporary commemorative practices and the culture of memoria.
http://www.brill.com/products/book/pious-memories
Taking the drawings as its starting point, this article examines Pugin’s engagement with early Netherlandish painting. It assesses the importance for him of such pictures – experienced both at first hand and through reproductions – and their impact on his impassioned revival of the Gothic style. Pugin’s enthusiasm for early Netherlandish art was fuelled by his Catholic faith and by his priorities as a designer in search of ‘authorities’ to inform his work, especially in stained glass and book illustration. His experience of the Van Ertborn pictures is placed in the context of other collections he knew that featured ‘Flemish Primitives’, including that of his patron, Lord Shrewsbury, and the influential Aders collection in London, from which he purchased some pieces. The article concludes with consideration of Pugin’s abiding impact on the study of early Netherlandish painting through his influence on W.H. James Weale, whose pioneering research forms the bedrock of modern scholarship in the field.
The essays expand upon such foundational studies as Francis Haskell's History and its images (1993), which demonstrated how the surge of interest in the work of the Van Eyck brothers and their compatriots was inextricable from the evolving national identity and cultural politics of the modern nation-state of Belgium. While the Belgian context is central, several contributors enlarge the scope of inquiry with projects rooted in England and German-speaking regions, which forged strong intellectual and political ties with Belgium and engaged enthusiastically with its artistic heritage. Collectively, the essays advance new insights into the evolution of art history as a discipline, the complexity of artistic modernism(s) and revivalism(s); the role of nationalism and religion in nineteenth-century cultural life; and some of the myriad ways in which the artistic past and present inflect one another.
https://hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/hugo-van-der-goes-between-pain-and-bliss/
https://hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/van-eyck/
https://courtauld.ac.uk/event/eagles-dragons-griffins-and-angels-netherlandish-brass-lecterns-in-context