Object data
bronze
height 55.5 cm × width 20.5 cm × depth 13.5 cm
Borman workshop (attributed to), Renier van Thienen (I) (attributed to)
Advancing Female Weeper, from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465)
Brussels, c. 1475 - c. 1476
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the back, at the bottom, incised after casting and finishing: indistinguishable location mark
- number, on the back, at the top, in modern white paint: 10
Technical notes
Heavy indirect casts with remnants of a clay-based core and fragments of a thin iron armature wire inside all the figures. Cast from wax models (based on originals in wood?), with few traces of retouching. Smoothly polished surfaces with a natural dark brown patina. The backs of BK-AM-33-A, -C, -E, -F, -G, -H, -I and -J are largely left open. The location marks on the backs were incised after casting and finishing. The white paint of a later series of numbers ‘1’ to ‘10’ on the back of the figures contains a high percentage of zinc, indicating that they were added after circa 1850. These numbers correspond to the placement of the bronzes in the Amsterdam Prinsenhof between 1808 and 1887.
Alloy BK-AM-33-I leaded high zinc brass; copper with some impurities (Cu 71.56%; Sn 0.86%; Zn 19.43%; Pb 6.45%; Fe 0.85%; Ni 0.09%; Ag 0.1%; Sb 0.14%; As 0.06%; Co 0.05%).
Scientific examination and reports
- X-ray fluorescence spectrometry: R. van Langh, RMA, 2005
- X-ray fluorescence spectrometry: A. Pappot, RMA, 2014
Literature scientific examination and reports
R. van Langh in F. Scholten et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, p. 155, no. 2
Condition
The right hand, toe of the left shoe and a piece of the headdress are missing.
Provenance
Commissioned by Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), Brussels, as part of the tomb of her mother, Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465), 1475; installed in the Sint-Michielsabdij, Antwerp, 1476; ? dismantled during the iconoclast uprising, August 1566; ...; collection Jan de Vos, Amsterdam, before or in 1691; his son Pieter de Vos, Amsterdam, March 1691; from whom acquired by the City of Amsterdam, and installed in the ‘Thesaurie Ordinaris’ of the Town Hall (at Dam Square), Amsterdam, 1691; transferred to the Cabinet of Curiosities in the same building, April 1806; transferred to the Cabinet of Curiosities in the Town Hall (Prinsenhof), Amsterdam, 1808; transferred to the ‘Historische Tentoonstelling’ in the Oude Mannenhuis, Amsterdam, 1876; transferred to the Amsterdams Museum in the same building, 1877;1 on loan to the museum, since 1887
Object number: BK-AM-33-I
Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan Borman II (? Neerlinter c. 1460 - Brussels c. 1520) and the Borman workshop
The prominent Brussels sculptor Jan Borman, or Borreman(s), was rediscovered by the Leuven city archivist Van Even in 1876. The sculptor, described in a Brussels’ document drawn up in 1513 as the beste meester beeldsnijdere (best master sculptor) is part of an influential sculptors-dynasty, two members of which (his father Jan I and son Jan III) confusingly are likewise named ‘Jan’. In the 1930’s and 80’s the biographical and archival knowledge on the Borman-dynasty was greatly enhanced through efforts by De Borchgrave d’Altena and D’Hainaut-Zveny, and again updated in 2019 by Debaene and Dumortier.2
In 1479, the name of Jan Borman – also referred to as Jan II, or ‘the Great’ in distinguishing him from his father, Jan I (c. 1440-1502/3) – appears for the first time in the city register of Brussels in connection with his citizenship and entry into the sculptor’s guild. He therefore originated from elsewhere, with some strong indications pointing to Leuven, where his father – who lived in the nearby town of Neerlinter – is considered to have been active from about 1460 until his death.
While few details are known about his life, certain is that Jan II had a brother, Willem I, who might also have worked as a sculptor, and at least two sons, Pasquier (c. 1470-1537?) and Jan III (c. 1480-?), who both assisted in their father’s workshop and later entered the same guild, respectively in the years 1492 and 1499. Other Borman-family members who were probably active in the workshop are Maria Borman (d. 1545, Jan III’s wife or sister?) and Willem II (c. 1518?-before 1599, Pasquier’s son). Jan II was highly active in the cultural and social life of Brussels, serving as an administrator of the rhetorical chamber, a member of the Seven Sorrows Confraternity.3 Jan II was active until around 1516 and is likely to have died in or around 1520, as his name no longer appears in archival documents after this time.
His most important work is the St George Altar, completed in 1493 for the Great Guild of the Crossbow for their chapel of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Ginderbuiten in Leuven. Although he produced at least two other altarpieces for the cities of Leuven and Turnhout, only the St George Altar has survived, since 1813 preserved at the Art and History Museum in Brussels.4 Remarkably, the altar has been signed, thus clearly conveying a self-awareness of his ability and status as an artist. In fact, the Borman family placed their signature on a number of their carved altarpieces – also those in Herentals (signed by Pasquier) and in Güstrow (signed by Jan III) – a practice that was highly exceptional for Netherlandish sculptors at this time. The Borman workshop created several altarpieces for the German, Scandinavian and Spanish export markets and at least one altarpiece is known to have found its way to Italy (Mondovi).5
In 1511, Jan Borman II was asked to provide the wooden models for life-size bronze statues, to be cast by Renier van Thienen I (active c. 1465-d. 1498), that were destined for the balustrade enclosing the forecourt (Baliënhof) of the Coudenberg Ducal Palace in Brussels after designs by the court painter Jan van Roome (active 1498-1521). Jan II had previously collaborated with Van Thienen on the tomb of Mary of Burgundy in Bruges in circa 1490-98. On stylistic grounds, Borman likely also carved the wooden models for Isabella of Burgundy’s tomb in Antwerp, of which ten surviving bronze weepers are today preserved in the Rijksmuseum (BK-AM-33). The Borman style was highly influential in the first decades of the sixteenth century and the family workshop was continued until the late 1540’s.
In 2019, the Museum M in Leuven organized an exhibition on the Borman dynasty. In the accompanying catalogue, Lefftz and Debaene attempted to define the creative identity and artistic development of individual family members, resulting in a fundamental reordering and major expansion of the oeuvre.6 In many cases based on presumption and stylistic arguments, their findings led to substantial shifts. Sculptures previously linked to the most renowned member of the Borman family, Jan II, as well as other anonymous Leuven masters, including the Master of the Arenberg Lamentation, the Master of Piétrebais and the Master of Christ on the Cold Stone, were now reassigned to an oeuvre of approximately sixty pieces ascribed to father Jan I, a sculptor to whom in fact no surviving sculptures can be attributed unequivocally. In Lefftz and Debaene’s vision, the Borman style originated in Jan I’s workshop in Leuven, where Jan II first acquired his skills before moving on to Brussels. Grandson Pasquier was linked to works such as the alabaster statuettes on the tomb monuments of Margaret of Bourbon, her husband and mother-in-law in the Monastère royale de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse, while Jan III and Maria were chiefly typecast as conservative and inferior sculptors, merely capable of repeating previously devised formulas. In light of the stylistic cohesion of a majority of the works, however, attributions to individual artistic personalities within the Borman workshop prove perilous when founded solely on stylistic criteria. Moreover, a close collaboration between family members, apprentices and assistants undoubtedly existed in the workshop, with larger commissions even involving working associations with other studios, as was common practice at this time. On the other hand, a number of the attributed sculptures display only a minimal stylistic agreement with the Borman family’s core works, suggesting little more than an origin in the same artistic circle.
Marie Mundigler and Bieke van der Mark, 2024
References
J. de Borchgrave d’Altena, Le retable de Saint Georges de Jan Borman, Brussels 1947; M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019; E. van Even, ‘L’auteur du retable de 1493 du Musée de la Porte de Hal à Bruxelles’, Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie 16 (1877), pp. 581-98; E. van Even, ‘Maître Jean Borman, le grand sculpteur belge de la fin du XVe siècle’, Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie 23 (1884), pp. 397-426; B. D’Hainault-Zveny, ‘La dynastie Borreman (XVe-XVIe s.). Crayon généalogique et analyse comparative des personnalités artistiques’, Annales d’histoire de l’art et d’archeologie V (1983), pp. 47-66; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 40-45; H. Nieuwdorp, ‘Einige Bemerkungen zu den Bormanns, ihren Werkstätten und der Zusammenarbeit’, in C. Périer-D’Ieteren et al., Der Passions-Altar der Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Güstrow. Historische und Technologische Studie, Brussels 2014, pp. 169-73; E. Pegues, ‘Jan Borreman’s Wooden Models for Bronze Sculpture: A Documentary Reconstruction’, Artibus et Historiae 76 (2017), pp. 181-204; F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, pp. 46-48; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 4, Leipzig 1910, pp. 364-65
Renier van Thienen I (active in Brussels c. 1465-d. 1498)
Renier van Thienen (or Reynier/ Reynere/ Rogier van Tienen/ van Naenhoven) is known to us through documents from the city of Brussels, where he was the main bronze founder of the Burgundian court. The Van Thienens were an artistic family, with both his father or brother Jan van Naenhoven being a bronze caster as well as his own son, also called Renier (II).
Van Thienen I is documented as a bronze founder from 1465 onward, placing his estimated birthdate around 1430. His name suggests he was born in Tienen (present-day Belgium), though no archival verification exists. He is cited as holding various posts in the Brussels city government, acting in the role of tax collector, member of the Wijde Raad (City Council) in 1476 and 1491, and even burgomaster in 1485 and 1490. Together with his position at court, Renier van Thienen must have been an influential and important man, both politically and as an artist.
In 1473, Van Thienen married Julienne de Beer, with whom he begot several children. Of his three sons, his namesake Renier was the eldest, who also followed in his father’s footsteps as a bronze founder. Van Thienen is certain to have died prior to June 1498, as a document from this time lists his wife as a widow.
Only a few of Van Thienen’s commissioned works have survived, others are only known through archival documents. His earliest known work, a lost lectern for the Sint-Jacob-op-de-Koudenbergkerk in Brussels, dates from 1465. In 1468 Van Thienen was commissioned to cast 54 copper knobs for the carriage of the Duchess of Burgundy. In subsequent years, he is also known to have cast lighting fixtures for the local Sint-Goedelekerk and the Rekenkamer (Chamber of Accounts). From circa 1482 through 1484, he was commissioned to cast paschal candelabra for the churches of Sint-Leonardus in Zoutleeuw, the Sint-Pieterskerk in Leuven and Averbode Abbey. Only the one at Zoutleeuw has survived to the present day. Three supporting lions of this imposing structure are preserved in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, as well as a brass statuette of St Leonard which stood atop a lost arched candelabrum Van Thienen had cast for the same church somewhat earlier.7
Van Thienen was also in charge of the commission of the monumental tomb of Mary of Burgundy in 1488-98. On this project, he collaborated with the sculptor Jan II Borman (who provided the models), the goldsmiths Pieter de Backere and Lieven van Lathem and the painter Jacques van Lathem, among others. That Van Thienen was entrusted with this prestigious project suggests he had previous experience with tomb sculpture. In all probability, he was also responsible for casting the bronze tomb of Mary’s mother, Isabella of Burgundy, which dates from 1475-76. Surviving to this day are the monument’s effigy (Antwerp Cathedral) and ten weepers (Rijksmuseum, inv. no. BK-AM-33).
Marie Mundigler, 2024
References
C. Engelen, Zoutleeuw. Jan Mertens en de laatgotiek. Confrontatie met Jan Borreman, Leuven 1993; J.W. Frederiks, ‘Enkele beschouwingen naar aanleiding van het gietwerk van Reinier van Thienen’, Oud Holland 60 (1943), pp. 118-28; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 40-45; E. Pegues, ‘Jan Borreman’s Wooden Models for Bronze Sculpture: A Documentary Reconstruction’, Artibus et Historiae 76 (2017), pp. 181-204; M. de Ruette et al., ‘Technologische Studie van gegoten Koperwerk: Het werk van Renier van Thienen en de Restauratie van de Paaskandelaar van Zoutleeuw 1483’, Bulletin van het Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium 24-25 (1992-1993), pp. 171-210; F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, pp. 46-48; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 33, Leipzig 1939, p. 31
Entry
This is one of ten mourning figures – pleurants or weepers – which come from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, the second wife of Charles the Bold (BK-AM-33-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, -F, -G, -H, -I and -J). Eleven years after Isabella’s death, her daughter, Mary of Burgundy, commissioned this monument and had it installed in the former Sint-Michielsabdij in Antwerp, where Isabella had died. The tomb was severely damaged during the Iconoclasm of 1566, and it was probably then that all twenty-four weepers were stolen. Ten of this group of statuettes have survived; they have been in Amsterdam since the seventeenth century and in the museum’s collection since 1887. Isabella’s bronze effigy, or gisant, also survived the Iconoclasm. This statue, with the original black marble lid of the tomb, is held in Antwerp Cathedral (fig. a).
The presence of the twenty-four weepers on Isabella’s tomb, be they mourning family members or ancestors of the deceased, establishes the monument in the rich funerary tradition of the Burgundies. The weepers are an essential aspect of the dynastic iconography of Burgundian memorial art in the fifteenth century that would culminate in the grandiose Habsburg mausoleum for Emperor Maximilian I (Innsbruck, Hofkirche). Strictly speaking, the term ‘weeper’ for these small statues is often incorrect, because the family members portrayed were intended to express dynastic awareness, not grief for the deceased. It is consequently more appropriate to describe these monumental tombs as ‘tombs of kinship’,8 for in fact the weepers represent a sort of figurative, non-heraldic family tree of the deceased. This is also true of the statues on Isabella’s monument.
Isabella’s effigy portrays her in eternal prayer, awaiting the Resurrection, with two small dogs at her feet symbolizing fidelity. Although quite traditional in its iconography, technically and stylistically the figure marks a high point in late medieval bronze sculpture. The effigy was cast in various parts and displays the inevitable seams and casting flaws, but they have been carefully rectified. The balance between stylization and realism has been successfully struck: Isabella’s face and figure conform to a stylized courtly ideal type; the many details – the crown, necklace, buckles and other elements of the dress, the dogs’ coats and collars – lend the image an almost self-evident presence.
The form and iconography of Isabella’s sepulchre derive directly from two earlier, lost Burgundian tombs, each of which also had twenty-four weepers around them and effigies on top. Seventeenth-century drawings and engravings (fig. b) show that most of Isabella’s statues are mirror-image copies of the weepers on the lost tombs of Joanna of Brabant (Brussels, 1457-58) and of Louis of Mâle, his wife and daughter (Lille, 1454-55).9 These two monuments were commissioned by Philip the Good, and Rogier van der Weyden was closely involved in their creation.
Although no documents about the commissioning and execution of Isabella’s tomb are known to exist, surviving accounts for older Burgundian monuments provide a good impression of the scope and cost of such a project. At least three eminent artists were involved in making Joanna of Brabant’s tomb: the sculptor Jean Delemer carved the wooden models for the figures, the brass-founder Jacob de Gérines cast them in bronze and Rogier van der Weyden provided the polychromy for the escutcheons below the weepers. Because the weepers on Isabella’s tomb were mirror-image copies of most of the bronze figures on the Brussels tomb, it was assumed until recently that Van der Weyden, Delemer and De Gérines had also made Isabella’s monument. This is not possible, however, since around 1476 Delemer would have been in his seventies – if he was still alive, his date of death is unknown – while De Gérines and Van der Weyden both died in 1464.10 Precisely because Isabella’s weepers were mirror-image versions of the lost figures on the tombs in Brussels and Lille, we know that the old wooden models Delemer supplied for the tomb in Brussels cannot possibly have been reused. It is much more likely that a new team set to work, taking the Brussels weepers as their examples, but reversing them to give them their own character. Nevertheless, the figures are still very close stylistically to the work of Delemer and De Gérines, and the influence of painted or drawn designs by Van der Weyden is unmistakable in the poses and in the linear and often elongated treatment of the folds. One of the female weepers (shown here) is actually a direct sculptural derivative of a painted St Catherine attributed to Van der Weyden in Vienna.11 With its elegant draperies, Isabella’s tomb effigy is still firmly in the ‘Tournai-Brussels’ pictorial tradition.
The most obvious candidate for the bronze casting on Isabella’s tomb is the Brussels bronze-founder Renier van Thienen I, who succeeded De Gérines, on his death, as supplier to the Burgundian court. Van Thienen was also responsible for the bronze work on the tomb of Isabella’s daughter Mary in the period from 1488 to 1498. Archival documents affirm that the Brussels woodcarver Jan Borman II, the goldsmiths Pieter de Backere, Lieven van Lathem and the painter Jacques van Lathem, among others, also worked on this monument. The fact that Van Thienen, as the project’s leader, was entrusted with the overall construction of Mary’s tomb makes it likely that he already had the necessary credentials for a highly prestigious job of this kind. This experience he had probably gained by creating the tomb of Isabella in the previous decade.
On stylistic grounds, it is likely that the carver Jan Borman II was also the one who supplied the wooden models to Van Thienen for Isabella’s effigy and weepers. Van Thienen frequently worked with members of the Borman family. Although Jan Borman is first documented in 1479, when he enrolled in the Brussels guild of artists, the distinct predilection for detailed and varied dress argues in his favour. These traits are unmistakable in the St George Altar he made for the Great Guild of the Crossbow in Leuven (Art and History Museum, Brussels), his masterpiece. A statuette of Mary Magdalene also housed in the Art and History Museum in Brussels and attributed to him on stylistic grounds looks as though she might just have stepped out of the set of weepers. This wooden figurine has a great deal in common with the female figures from Isabella’s tomb: the delicate features, the slim fingers, the slender body with its narrow waist, the graceful pose, the drapery of the garments and the size.
Recently, however, the Brussels Mary Magdalene was arguably described as a work by the father of Jan Borman II, the art historically elusive Jan I.12 Also posited was the father’s collaboration on the St George Altar, a confirmed commission by Jan II from 1490-93.13 Because a number of the female figures in this altarpiece are closely akin to the Magdalene, they too were attributed to Borman senior. They deemed the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon to be also more likely the collaborative product of father and son Borman versus Jan II alone. Such a scenario would potentially explain how Jan II managed to secure the commission for this monumental tomb around 1475, despite his being fairly young of age and not yet registered with the Brussels guild. It implies that, at this time, the son was still working under his father’s aegis in Neerlinter or Leuven.14 Jan II’s first documented presence in Brussels occurs in 1479, the year in which he possibly acquired official burgher status in connection with his marriage to a woman in that city.15 Until a clearer picture of Jan I’s work has been established, however, particularly in relation to that of his son’s, the sketched scenario remains little more than a tempting hypothesis.
It might be possible to identify the original placement of the Amsterdam weepers on Isabella’s tomb from the location marks scratched into the bronze at the back of the figures. The numbering system of dashes and crosses used is very similar to the marks that medieval stonemasons used to indicate the position of a block of stone or piece of sculpture. Should it prove possible to establish the original sequence of the statuettes from these marks, we might perhaps be able to answer the long-running question as to who the weepers are. To date only two of the figures have been identified: Emperor Louis of Bavaria (BK-AM-33-A) and Albert of Bavaria (BK-AM-33-B).16
Frits Scholten, 2024
This entry is a revised version of Scholten in L. Campbell et al., Rogier van der Weyden 1400-1464: Master of Passions, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2009, no. 17
Literature
O. Bernstorf and J. Soenske, Niederländische Kunst in Stadthagen. Schaumburger Studien, vol. 6, Bückeburg 1964, pp. 23-8; Jaarverslag Nederlandse Rijksmusea 1979, p. 26; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 10, with earlier literature; D. Kaczmarzyk, Rzezba europejska od XV od XX wieku: katalog zbiorow-Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, coll. cat. Warsaw (Muzeum Nardowe) 1978, p. 59; A. Schneckenburger-Broschek, ‘Ein Niederländer als schwäbisches Genie: Neues zum Ulmer Chorgestühl’, Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstgeschichte 40 (1986), pp. 40-68, esp. pp. 54-64; A.M. Roberts, ‘The Chronology and Political Significance of the Tomb of Mary of Burgundy’, The Art Bulletin 71 (1989), pp. 376-400; J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, nos. 20a-b; H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht. Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 62, 72, fig. 67 and H. Vreeken in ibid., nos. 21-30; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 3; S. Grieten and J. Bungeneers (eds.), De Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal van Antwerpen. Kunstpatrimonium van het Ancien Régime. Inventaris van het kunstpatrimonium van de provincie Antwerpen, vol. 3, Antwerp 1996, no. 204; A. McGee Morganstern, Gothic Tombs of Kinship in France, the Low Countries, and England, Pennsylvania 2000, pp. 140-49; P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, p. 42; Steenbeek in B. Natter and K. Zandvliet (eds.), De historische sensatie. Het Rijksmuseum geschiedenisboek, Amsterdam 2005, pp. 20-23; Scholten in F. Scholten et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 2; Scholten in E. Mira and A. Delva (eds.), A la búsqueda del Toison de oro. La Europa de los príncipes, la Europa de las ciudades, exh. cat. Valencia (Almudín & Museo de la Ciudad) 2007, no. 74; F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007; S. Marti et al., Karl der Kühne (1433-1477). Kunst, Krieg und Hofkultur, exh. cat. Bern (Historisches Museum)/Bruges (Groeningemuseum) 2008-09, no. 34; Scholten in L. Campbell et al., Rogier van der Weyden 1400-1464: Master of Passions, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2009, no. 17; B. Fransen, Rogier van der Weyden and Stone Sculpture in Brussels, London/Turnhout 2013, pp. 76, 98, 152-53, figs. 72, 137, 138a-c; Scholten in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 17; M. Unger and S. van Leeuwen, Jewellery Matters, Amsterdam 2017, p. 77; M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 66, 69, 175 and no. 30
Citation
F. Scholten, 2024, 'attributed to Borman werkplaats and attributed to Renier van (I) Thienen, Advancing Female Weeper, from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465), Brussels, c. 1475 - c. 1476', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24250
(accessed 28 March 2025 17:57:14).Figures
Image with id "sALEL" not found, published, or embeddable.
fig. a Gisant of Isabella of Bourbon, 1476. Bronze, h. c. 80 cm. Antwerp, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal. Photo: Paul Hermans
Image with id "RRDKD" not found, published, or embeddable.
fig. b Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, engraving in Gerard Block, Le Grand Theatre Sacré du Duché de Brabant, The Hague 1734. Amsterdam, Allard Pierson, Uiversity of Amsterdam, Special Collections, OTM: OF 06-98
Footnotes
- 1 Provenance reconstructed in H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht. Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75 and H. Vreeken in ibid., nos. 21-30.
- 2 M. Debaene, ‘A Survey of Archiveal Sources’, in M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 47-53; C. Dumortier, ‘A Sculptor’s Family of Leuven in Brussels and Antwerp: Some New Information about the Bormans’, in ibid., pp. 57-61.
- 3 E.S. Thelen (ed.), The Seven Sorrows Confraternity of Brussels: Drama, Ceremony, and Art Patronage (16th-17th centuries), Turnhout 2015, pp. 94-102.
- 4 Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 362.
- 5 M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, nos. 107, 111, 112, 171-86, 225-27, 236-39, 241, 242, 262 and 264.
- 6 M. Debaene ‘The Death and Rise of the Leuven Late Gothic Sculpture Centre’, in M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 62-63; M. Lefftz, ‘The creative identity of the Bormans: A stylistic approach’ in ibid., pp. 65-99; M. Lefftz and M. Debaene, ‘Summary Catalogue of the Borman Dynasty and Workshop’, in ibid. pp. 178-293.
- 7 Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. KB 63.
- 8 A. McGee Morganstern, Gothic Tombs of Kinship in France, the Low Countries, and England, Pennsylvania 2000.
- 9 F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, figs. 14-15, 20, 22, 24.
- 10 De Gérines must not be confused with a man who shared his name, a priest and notary who appears in records in 1490. This ‘Jacobus Gerynes alias Coperslaghere’ was appointed pastor of Wommelgem (near Antwerp) in 1462, see State Archives of Belgium, Antwerp, St Michael’s Abbey Archive, Nieuw cartularium 8, fols. 160v-162v. He was also a priest in the bishopric of Cambrai and imperial and papal public notary. In this latter capacity, on 21 September 1490, in the choir of the Hertoginnedal Convent of the Dominican Sisters in Oudergem (near Brussels), he drew up the deed in which Pierre Maes, priest and pastor of the Sint-Clemenskerk in Watermaal, took his vows as a monk of the abbey; A. Uyttebrouck and A. Graffart, Inventaire des archives du prieuré de Val-Duchesse à Auderghem (Inventaire analytique des archives ecclésiastiques du Brabant), vol. 2 (Établissements religieux), Brussels 1979, no. 362 (State Archives of Belgium, Anderlecht, Brabant Church Archive, 20.414, no. 199). With thanks to Michel Oosterbosch, State Archives of Belgium, Brussels. According to A. Pinchart, Jacques de Gerines. Batteur de cuivre du XVe siècle, et ses oeuvres, Brussels 1866, pp. 8-9, this ‘coperslaghere’ (coppersmith) was a son of the brass-founder De Gérines. This son died on 13 August 1496.
- 11 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 955, see L. Campbell et al., Rogier van der Weyden 1400-1464. Master of Passions, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2009, no. 58b.
- 12 M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, London 2019, no. 27.
- 13 M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, no. 54.
- 14 M. Lefftz, ‘The creative identity of the Bormans. A stylistic approach’, in M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 65-99, esp. pp. 66, 69. Also to be considered is the possibility – likewise hypothetical – that Jan Borman II was trained in Jean Delemer’s studio, see F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, p. 48.
- 15 M. Debaene (ed.), ¬Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, p. 48.
- 16 J. Leeuwenberg, ‘De tien bronzen ‘plorannen’ in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, hun herkomst en de voorbeelden waaraan zij zijn ontleend’, Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis 13 (1951), pp. 13-57; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Nogmaals de Amsterdamse gravenbeeldjes’, Oud Holland 73 (1958), pp. 156-60, esp. p. 159.