Object data
oil on panel
support: height 39.8 cm × width 29.3 cm
sight size: height 39 cm × width 28.3 cm
frame: height 53.2 cm × width 42.3 cm
Jan Gossart
Portrait of Floris van Egmond
Wijk bij Duurstede, c. 1519
Inscriptions
- inscription, top right: L
- inscription, on the reverse: IM
Technical notes
The support consists of a single vertically grained oak panel and is 0.7-0.8 cm thick. It is slightly bevelled on all sides and has a concave warp. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1489. The panel could have been ready for use by 1500, but a date in or after 1514 is more likely. An off-white chalk and glue ground was applied on the back. This layer could be original. It was later covered with black paint, most of which has now disappeared. Both layers leave the edges of the support uncovered, indicating that they must have been applied when the panel was still in its original frame. A white ground on the front was also applied on the panel in its original frame. There are unpainted edges of approx. 0.5-0.8 cm and traces of a barbe on all sides (painted surface: 38.7 x approx. 28 cm). The entire ground is covered with an opaque, off-white priming. Light brown lines in a wet medium are visible to the naked eye in the transparent red areas and the hands. They may be part of the underdrawing. Although infrared reflectography revealed no underdrawing, it is possible that there is one, but that it was applied with a dark pigment that contained no carbon. The paint layers are generally built up in one or two thin layers, with occasionally a third one for details. The flesh tones are subtly modelled, and consist of a single opaque, pinkish mid-tone with the addition of brown glazes in shaded areas, and whitish lights. The decoration of the white gown was rendered with white hatched strokes over light grey, the shaded areas with transparent black over grey. The jerkin was modelled with a thin mixture of red lake and white paint; the now whitish lights are the result of fading. The bluish background has relieved brushstrokes of smalt and was originally glazed with a thin layer of red lake and therefore must have appeared purple. Large shapes were reserved. There are some slight adjustments in the contours (the fur collar and the hat were painted over the background). The neck of the shirt was initially round. The irises of the eyes seem to have been moved to the right or made smaller.
Scientific examination and reports
- paint samples: R. Hoppenbrouwers, Mauritshuis, nos. 841/1-3
- infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, 1979
- X-radiography: Mauritshuis, no. 841, 1979
- condition report: R. Hoppenbrouwers, Mauritshuis, 1994
- infrared reflectography: P. Noble, Mauritshuis, 1999
- condition report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 31 October 2005
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 22 February 2008
Literature scientific examination and reports
coll. cat. The Hague 2004b, pp. 103-06, no. 21, esp. p. 106
Condition
Fair. Most of the red glazes in the blue background are now lost, and the painting is abraded throughout. Discoloured retouching and pinpoint losses are visible in the face.
Conservation
- J. Goppelt, 1974 - 1975: retouched and revarnished
Provenance
? Commissioned by Floris van Egmond (1469-1539), Count of Buren and Leerdam, Lord of IJsselstein, St Maartensdijk, Kortgene, Kranendonk and Jaarsveld, Kasteel IJsselstein 1519; ? his son, Maximiliaan van Egmond (1508-48), Count of Buren; ? his daughter, Anna van Egmond (1533-58), Countess of Buren and Leerdam; ? her husband, Willem I, Prince of Orange (1533-84); estate inventory, Kasteel Buren, 1675/1712, in the great chamber, no. 13-2, (‘Graef Floris van Egmondt’);1 estate inventory, Huis Honselaarsdijk, 1707/19, in the cabinet on the ground floor, no. 151 (‘Portraiet van de grave van Bueren’), with pendant no. 152 (‘Gravinne van Bueren’);2 estate inventory, Huis Honselaarsdijk, 1755/58, in the cabinet on the ground floor, no. 287, with pendant, no. 288 (‘De portretten van de eerste graeffs en gravin van Buren, door Jan de Mabuze’);3 ? transferred from Huis Honselaarsdijk to the museum, c. 1798;4 first recorded in the museum, as an old portrait and without attribution, 1801;5 on loan to the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since 19486
Object number: SK-A-217
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan Gossart (Maubeuge c. 1478 - Antwerp or Middelburg 1532)
Jan (Jennin) Gossart was probably born in Maubeuge, Hainaut, in 1478. He married Margaretha Molders before 1515, and died shortly before 13 October 1532, when his widow received his annuity from Marquise Mencia de Mendoza.
Gossart enrolled as a free master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1503 under the name ‘Jennyn van Henegouwe’. The guild registers record the names of two pupils in 1505 and 1507: Hennin Mertens and Machiel int Swaenken. Between 1508 and 1524 he was in the service of Philip of Burgundy, the youngest bastard son of Philip the Good. The former’s biography of 1529 by Gerardus Geldenhauer contains information about the artist. In 1508-09, Gossart accompanied his patron on a diplomatic mission for Emperor Maximilian to Pope Julius II, who commissioned him to make drawings of Roman antiquities. After his return in July 1509, Gossart settled in Middelburg, where he is listed in the rolls of the local Brotherhood of Our Lady as ‘Janin de Waele’.
All that remains of the Gossart’s decorations for Philip’s castle of Souburg on Walcheren is the Neptune and Amphitrite of 1516.7 On 19 May 1517, Philip of Burgundy was appointed Bishop of Utrecht, and moved to his castle at Wijk bij Duurstede, where Gossart also worked. He was also in touch with the court of Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) in Mechelen, and received commissions from Jean Carondelet, Chancellor of Flanders,8 and Antonio Siciliano.9 He also painted an altarpiece with The Adoration of the Magi for the Benedictine abbey at Geraardsbergen.10 His most famous work was the altarpiece for the abbey church in Middelburg described by Van Mander, which was destroyed by fire in 1568.
After Philip of Burgundy’s death on 9 April 1524, Gossart returned to Middelburg where, according to Van Mander, he entered the service of Adolf of Burgundy (1489-1540), a half-brother of Philip’s, who was Admiral of Zeeland and later Marquis of Veere. Gossart also worked for the exiled King of Denmark, Christian II, whose children’s portraits he painted,11 as well as for Hendrik III of Nassau and his third wife, Mencia de Mendoza.
Ludovico Guicciardini described Jan Gossart as ‘the first Flemish artist to bring from Italy to the Netherlands the art of portraying historical and poetic subjects with nude figures’. He was one of the first northern artists to use classical and Renaissance models for his mythological scenes. So-called Antwerp Mannerism played a part in his early work, and he drew inspiration from earlier Netherlandish masters like Jan van Eyck. In addition to several religious and mythological paintings and drawings, he left a series of virtuoso portraits.
References
Geldenhauer 1529 (1901); Guicciardini 1567, p. 98; Van Mander 1604, fols. 225r-26r; Gossart 1902; Weiss 1913; Winkler in Thieme/Becker XIV, 1921, pp. 410-13; Friedländer VIII, 1930, pp. 9-77; Steppe 1965; Herzog 1968, pp. 1-17; ENP VIII, 1972, pp. 11-49; Miedema III, 1996, pp. 141-54; Folie in Turner 1996, XIII, pp. 22-29; Mensger 2002, pp. 17-21
(Vanessa Hoogland)
Entry
The subject of this portrait is Floris van Egmond (1469-1539), Count of Buren and Leerdam, Lord of IJsselstein, Sint Maartensdijk, Kortgene, Kranendonk and Jaarsveld, and from 1505 knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1515 he became Stadholder of Friesland, from 1518 Stadholder of Holland, Zeeland and West-Friesland, and in 1522 captain-general in the army of Emperor Charles V.12 He is shown half-length, turned three-quarters to the left against a plain blue background, with his left hand resting on the bottom of the frame. Over a shirt with a smockwork neckline he is wearing a low-cut jerkin with slashes arranged in rows revealing a gold brocade lining. On top of this he has a white damask gown with a broad, turned-back fur collar. On his head he has a serated bonnet with a slashed brim held together with gold aiglets. This was the fashion worn by the elite in the second decade of the 16th century.13 Around his neck he has a velvet ribbon with the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Since it was not permitted to wear the insignia on a ribbon instead of a chain before 1516, the painting must have been made after that date.14
Already in the Nationale Konst-Gallerij in 1800, this portrait is one of the museum’s earliest possessions. In the 1809 catalogue of the Koninklijk Museum it was described as a portrait of Philip of Burgundy, an identification that was maintained until Moes correctly established the identity of the sitter in 1903/04 on the basis of a portrait of Floris in the exhibition of Flemish Primitives in Bruges (fig. a).15 That portrait bears a close physiognomic resemblance to the man in the Rijksmuseum painting. Moes identified the letters ‘FE’ on the medallion on his hat as belonging to Floris van Egmond, the only knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece with those initials at the beginning of the 16th century.16 It is possible that the Amsterdam portrait passed to the House of Orange from the sitter’s granddaughter, Anna van Buren, who married William the Silent in 1551. A portrait of Floris van Egmond which may be identical with the present painting is described in the 18th-century inventories of Huis Honselaarsdijk.
The attribution to Lucas van Leyden made in the 1809 catalogue of the Koninklijk Museum was first rejected in 1887 by Bredius, who assigned the painting to Jan Gossart. Bredius’s attribution has never been doubted. The meticulous rendering of fabrics and details, and the modelling of the face with light and shade, are typical features of Gossart’s portraiture. The vertical format of the panel, with Floris tightly enclosed by the frame, the plain background and the use of thin paint layers are characteristic of the artist’s early portraits. The absence of a marbled background, a device that Gossart used on many occasions after 1517, suggested to Herzog that the painting should be dated c. 1516.17 However, it is more likely that Floris van Egmond only met Jan Gossart for the first time in 1517. In May of that year, Gossart’s patron, Philip of Burgundy, moved his court to his castle at Wijk bij Duurstede, where his neighbour Floris van Egmond became a frequent visitor.18 The ‘L’ to the right of Floris’s head was regarded in the past as a possibly forged monogram of Lucas van Leyden, but since the letter has the same craquelure pattern as the underlying paint layer, it must be an early, and possibly original addition. It has also been suggested that the letter refers to Floris van Egmond’s age of 50, which would mean that the painting was made in or around 1519.19 Although that date is possible on stylistic grounds, it is doubtful whether one can interpret the small and not very conspicuous letter ‘L’ as a statement of age.
(Vanessa Hoogland)
Literature
Bruges 1902, p. 68, no. 161; Friedländer VIII, 1930, p. 160, no. 54; Von der Osten 1961, p. 465; Bruges-Rotterdam 1965, p. 129, no. 17; Bruyn 1965, p. 467; Wescher 1966, p. 157; Tóth-Ubbens in coll. cat. The Hague 1968, pp. 23-24, no. 84; Herzog 1968, pp. 240-41, no. 15; ENP VIII, 1972, p. 98, no. 54; Sterk 1980, p. 125; Broos in coll. cat. The Hague 1987, pp. 150-56, no. 28; Kruijsen 2002, pp. 44-45; Broos in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, pp. 103-06, no. 21, with earlier literature
Collection catalogues
1809, p. 42, no. 175 (as Lucas van Leyden, ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’); 1843, p. 37, no. 180 (‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 17, no. 162 (as Lucas van Leyden, ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’; fl. 1,000); 1858, p. 82, no. 179 (as Lucas van Leyden, ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’); 1880, pp. 185-86, no. 198 (as Lucas van Leyden, ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’); 1887, p. 51, no. 403 (as ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’); 1903, p. 166, no. 1498 (as ‘Portrait of Philip of Burgundy’ ?); 1934, p. 172, no. 1498; 1976, p. 245, no. A 217
Citation
V. Hoogland, 2010, 'Jan Gossart, Portrait of Floris van Egmond, Wijk bij Duurstede, c. 1519', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6711
(accessed 27 December 2024 12:28:49).