Portrait of Jan Gerritsz van Egmond van de Nijenburg (?-1523)

after 1507

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 42.4 cm × width 32.8 cm
depth 3 cm
painted surface: height 35.5 cm × width 26.2 cm

Inscriptions

coat of arms, top centre: divided vertically, 1, six red chevrons on a gold field; 2, a gold cross on a black field charged with a silver inescutcheon containing a red cross, in the first quarter a mermaid of a natural colour with a silver tail looking out at the viewer with a mirror in her left hand and a comb in her right hand

Technical notes

The support and frame are integrated. The panel is a vertically grained oak plank, 0.8-1.0 cm thick, on which the frame was attached with dowels. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring of the panel was formed in 1493. It could have been ready for use by 1504, but a date in or after 1518 is more likely. The white ground, visible at the reserves, was applied on both the panel and the frame, and appears to be smooth. The original connection of the ground between the frame and the panel is preserved (painted surface: 35.5 x 26.2 cm). Although infrared reflectography revealed no underdrawing, it did show different forms left in reserve for the decoration of the architectural frame. The paint layers are relatively thin and the face was painted wet in wet. The figure and his hand were reserved. The contours of the hat were painted over the blue sky. The coat of arms was partially painted on top of the background. Although some impasto was used for the architectural decoration and the pomander in the sitter’s right hand, the painting technique can be characterised as linear with details and contour lines applied in dark brown. Gilding in the coat of arms was applied with pigmented oil mordant.

Scientific examination and reports

X-radiography: RMA, no. 570, 1 April 1952
infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 931:26-37a, 17 March 1986
condition report: I. Verslype, RMA, 1 March 2006
infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG378, 12 April 2006
dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 17 August 2006

Condition

Good. There is some raised paint in the direction of the grain, minor retouching, and the varnish is discoloured.

Conservation

H.H. Mertens, 1969: complete restoration
H.H. Mertens, 1969
H.H. Mertens, 1969

Original framing

The painting has an engaged, arched moulding frame with a tenia, an ovolo, a fillet and an asymmetrical ogee (fig. d), and a sill with a bevelled sight edge (fig. e). The mouldings are attached with dowels and probably glued onto the panel. Earlier gilding is visible on the profiles through a black paint layer.

Provenance

…; private collection, England;¹ …; the dealer Douwes, Amsterdam, 1927;² …; collection Eduard August Veltman (1878-1965), Bloemendaal and Bussum, 1934;³ from whom, fl. 23,000, to the museum, 1952

Object number: SK-A-3838

The artist

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (Oostzaan c. 1472/77 - Amsterdam 1528/33), workshop of

Van Mander states that Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen was born in Oostzaan, a small village north of Amsterdam, and that he was already an experienced painter with teenage children when Jan van Scorel entered his workshop around 1512. Going by Van Mander’s information that Jacob’s son Dirck died in 1567 at around 70 years of age, meaning that he was born c. 1497, it is assumed that Jacob was born between 1472 and 1477. There is no information about his parents, nor when he moved to Amsterdam or by whom he was trained. Nor is it known when Jacob married his wife Anna. They had four children, at least two of whom were trained by their father: Cornelis Jacobsz, about whom there is no further information, and Dirck Jacobsz, who was best known as a portrait painter. Also according to Van Mander, Jacob Cornelisz’s brother was Cornelis Buys I, who was active as a painter in Alkmaar. The earliest mention of Jacob Cornelisz in Amsterdam is an archival document from 1500 that shows that he bought a house in the Kalverstraat. Since his wife is recorded as a widow on 18 October 1533, and his second house was sold in his absence in the autumn of 1532, it is accepted that he died before the first date, and possibly before the second. In 1526, 1527 and 1528, Egmond Abbey paid him for work on a large retable, so his date of death can be placed somewhere between 1528 and 1533.

Several of the paintings and the bulk of the drawings by Jacob Cornelisz bear his initials I (for Iacob) and A (referring to the city where he worked) and his monogram, which consists of a V and an upside-down W, the latter probably an allusion to the surname War or Warre that he sometimes used.

Most of the 200-odd woodcuts after designs by Jacob Cornelisz are dated between 1507 and 1522, making it easy to follow his development. Only 6 of the 30 or so paintings attributed to him have the monogram, but a good number are dated. The earliest ones with dates are two of 1507 that are attributed to him: the Noli me tangere in Kassel,⁴ and The Crucifixion in a private collection.⁵ His last known, securely attributed painting dates from 1526 (SK-A-668).

In addition to paintings on canvas and panel and woodcuts there are designs for stained-glass windows and copes, and ceiling paintings. Jacob’s painted oeuvre mostly consists of religious works: large altarpieces, smaller panels for private devotion, and several which appear to have been made for the open market. There are also a few autonomous portraits that are attributed to him. Jacob’s earliest works are craftsman-like and executed in a very laborious technique, looking more as if they were drawn with paint than painted. The choice of subject is traditional. It was only in his later work, undoubtedly influenced by Jan van Scorel, that he transcended the craftsman-like in technique, style and iconography. His large output indicates that he had a sizable workshop with several assistants, including Jan van Scorel and his sons Cornelis Jacobsz and Dirck Jacobsz, and possibly his grandsons Cornelis Anthonisz and Jacob Dirksz as well.

References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 207r-v; Brulliot I, 1832, no. 19; Cohen in Thieme/Becker VII, 1912, pp. 428-30; Steinbart 1922, pp. 2-8; Steinbart 1929, pp. 1-48; Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 96-111; Steinbart 1937; Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 72-143; Bruyn 1966, pp. 149, 160, 161; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 53-64; Van Eeghen 1986, pp. 95-132; Carroll 1987; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 284-93; Carroll in Turner 1996, VII, pp. 868-70; Beaujean in Saur XXI, 1999, pp. 235-38; Meuwissen 2006, pp. 55-81

(Daantje Meuwissen)

Entry

This is a portrait of the Alkmaar burgomaster Jan Gerritsz van Egmond van de Nijenburg (?-1523). He is wearing a black gown trimmed with brown fur, and a black bonnet. In his right hand he holds a gold pomander - a perforated ball containing aromatic substances. The background landscape may be of the area around Nieuwburg, a castle north-east of Alkmaar built by Count Floris V (1254-96), of which Jan Gerritsz was bailiff,⁶ castellan and steward. He held various public offices between 1485 and 1520, as burgomaster, civic magistrate and sheriff.⁷ In 1483 he married Judith (also called Josina or Joost) Jacobsdr Heereman van Oegstgeest (?-1507), the daughter of a prominent citizen of Leiden.⁸ They had 17 children, one of whom, Judoca (also called Joos) van Egmond van de Nijenburg (dates unknown), married the Alkmaar burgomaster Augustijn van Teijlingen (?-1533). The latter couple were portrayed by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen in a Triptych with the Virgin and Child,⁹ and possibly in two pendant portraits of c. 1525.¹⁰

In 1520, Jan Gerritsz endowed a chantry at the altar of St Andrew in a chapel of Alkmaar’s Laurenskerk. He had a triptych with a Descent from the Cross installed in the chapel that contains the portraits of himself and his children.¹¹ This may be the ‘outstanding piece’ by Jacob Cornelisz with the Deposition and portraits ‘[concerning] the Van der Nyeborgh family’ which Karel van Mander later saw ‘at the widow Van Sonneveldt’s in Alkmaar’, who was related to the Van Nijenburg family.¹² Jan Gerritsz and his wife are buried in the crypt beneath the chapel. There are several coats of arms on the ribs of the vault of the chapel and on the capstone of the entrance which correspond to the painted arms of alliance in the Amsterdam portrait. It was on the basis of this evidence that Belonje was able to identify the sitter in 1955, who until then had gone under the name of Diederik Alewijn proposed by Hoogewerff.¹³ The heraldic left half of the coat can indeed refer to the Alewijn family.¹⁴

There are four other versions of this portrait: in Paris (fig. a), St Petersburg (fig. b), Berlin (fig. c), and at an unknown location.¹⁵ They are all panels that differ little from each other, apart from the border decoration, the coat of arms and the position of the hand. It is not known which version is the prototype. The Amsterdam painting is the only one with filigree decoration in the form of imitation goldwork suggested by pale yellow highlights. The other versions have imitation woodcarving. The pomander in Jan Gerritsz’s right hand is being held up on display in the Amsterdam panel, while in the other versions it is pointing more in the direction of the man’s nose.

In the Louvre painting, the left-hand side of the coat of arms (1: Van Egmond) is differenced with a line of illegitimacy which can also be seen on the coats of arms on the groin vaults in the Laurenskerk in Alkmaar. This differencing probably indicates that the sitter was descended from a legitimised branch of the house of Egmond.¹⁶ Belonje suggested that the line could have been painted out on the Amsterdam panel, but examination with the stereomicroscope and infrared reflectography does not support this.¹⁷ For some unknown reason, the mermaid in the first quarter of the shield in Amsterdam and Paris is missing in all the other versions.

Hoogewerff attributed the Amsterdam portrait to Jacob Cornelisz on the evidence of the painstaking, firm application of paint, whereas Carroll assigned the border decoration and the landscape background to an assistant. It is true that the painstaking touch mentioned by Hoogewerff is characteristic of Jacob Cornelisz, but it looks a little hackneyed, which confirms that this is a production-line piece and points to the hand of a workshop assistant.

Opinions differ over the dating of the paintings. Friedländer placed them around 1516,¹⁸ Hoogewerff felt that they must have been painted before 1510 at the latest, on the evidence of the sitter’s apparent age,¹⁹ while Belonje estimated the date as c. 1515, and certainly after 1507, because he believed that the ring on Jan Gerritsz’s middle finger came from his wife, who died in February 1507.²⁰ The ring, though, is part of the pomander, which was usually carried on a short chain attached to a ring that was slipped onto one of the fingers. Carroll proposed a date of c. 1518 on the evidence of the plasticity in the face, which corresponds to the portraits in the Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi of 1517 (SK-A-4706).²¹ Carroll’s argument is convincing, and is supported by the dendrochronology, which gives the most likely date as 1518 or later.

(Daantje Meuwissen)

Literature

Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 110, 198 (as 'Portrait of a gentleman'; Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 418-19 (as 'Portrait of Diederik Alewijn'); Belonje 1955, pp. 39-76; Belonje 1956, pp. 28-34; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 60, 119, no. 293 (as 'Portrait of a gentleman'); Carroll 1987, pp. 272-74, no. 33; Mai 1993, p. 14, no. 6; Cox 2005, p. 35

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Collection catalogues

1952, p. 13, no. 27; 1960, p. 75, no. 722 A3; 1976, p. 177, no. A 3838

Citation

D. Meuwissen, 2010, 'workshop of Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Portrait of Jan Gerritsz van Egmond van de Nijenburg (?-1523), after 1507 - c. ', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8171

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