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VII.—Remarks on the fifteenth-century Diptych of the Chevalier Philip Hinckaert, Chastelain de Tervueren, in Brabant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

The diptych I exhibit before our Society belongs to our Fellow Mr. Walter Metcalfe, who bought it some twenty years back at Phillipps's sale rooms in Bond Street. After hanging the diptych up in the hall of his house in the country, Mr. Metcalfe gave the picture to a parish church in Essex; but it was not admired, and a new organ, with smart pipes, was erected in front of it. Mr. Metcalfe, therefore, at my suggestion, asked to have the diptych returned to him. After some delay, and certain forms gone through, this request was complied with.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1887

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References

page 73 note a Didron, , Annales Archéologiques, tome xxi. pp. 241251.Google Scholar

page 73 note b Bryan and Stanley, Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 1858, p. 906.

page 73 note c Giessenburg, De Ridderschap Van Veluwe, 1859.

page 73 note d In the church of St. Giles Cripplegate, London, one of the verger's staffs is surmounted by the figure of a cripple who uses a leg-cradle even more like that in the diptych than the example given in Fairholt's, Costume in England, London, 1860, p. 160Google Scholar.

page 74 note a Butkin, , Trophées du Duché de Brabant, La Haye, 1724–6, vol. i. p. 662Google Scholar.

page 74 note b Tome i. p. 313.

page 74 note c There is also another view of the Casteel van Tervueren, with the following account, in Les délices des Pays-Bas, Paris, 1786, tome i. p. 190Google Scholar.

Tervuren, ancien château, bâti par les Dues de Brabant, dans la Foret de Soigne, est à, deux lieues et demie de Bruxelles: on voyoit à I'entrée une salle d'une grandeur immense, et d'une largeur extraordinaire, dont on admiroit la charpente qui étoit à découvert. Il est assez difficile de savoir à quoi cette salle étoit employée. Le bâtiment du Château n'avoit rien d'ailleurs de fort remarquable; mais le pare en étoit fort agréable, par les embellissements que le Due Charles de Lorraine y avoit fait faire. Tout fut démoli en 1784.”

page 74 note d II n'y a qu'un pas de Saventhem à Tervueren, oú se trouvait autrefois un des châteaux les plus aimés des dues de Brabant. Il n'en reste plus que le pare et une chapelle dédiée a Saint Hubert par les Archiducs Albert et Isabelle. Le château a été remplacé, sous le gouvernement des Pays-Ban, par un élégant pavilion que la nation a fait construire pour le prince héréditaire et qui, cédé à léétat beige, après le traité de 1839, est aujourd'hui assigné à I'héritier présomptif du trône. Guide-hen, La Belgique pittoresque, 1858, deuxième partie, p. 62.

See also Johnston, Keith, General Gazetteer, London, 1860, p. 1197Google Scholar; and Fullartoii, Gazetteer of the World, vol. vii. p. 67.

page 75 note a For examples of these covers see Becker und Hefner: Kunstwerke und Geräthsch aften, 1863, 3 Band, p. 56;

Fairholt, , Costume in England, 1860, p. 219Google Scholar;

Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, 1843, vol. ii. plate 86, part of a room from a picture by John Schozeel, and plate 78, Saint Agnes;

Bock, , Geschichte der liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters. Bonn, 1866Google Scholar, Taf. xxxi.

Laborde, , Glossaire Français du Moyen Age (Paris, 1872, p. 211Google Scholar), where there is the following note:— “Chemises a Livres. Enveloppes et sacs dans lesquels on enfermait les livres pour préserver leurs riches reliures. On disait aussi couverture et chemisette. Le luxe aidant, ces chemises devinrent elles-mèmes très-riches.

1360. Pour cendal à doubler la couverture du Messel du Roy.

— Pour la façson de deux envelopes pour le Roy. (Gomptes royaux.)

1463. Pour faire une chemisectes aux petites heures du Roy. (Gomptes royaux).

1492. Ung petit messel, couvert de cuir rouge, garni d'une chemisette de chevrotin rouge, Inventaire de Nostre Dame).

page 76 note a Hall's Chronicle, second year of King Henry VIII. fol. ix.

page 76 note b Sacred and Legendary Art, fourth edition, 1863, vol. i. p. 242.Google Scholar

page 76 note c Our Fellow Mr. Edmund Waterton, in his very interesting book Pietas Mariana Britannica (London 1879)Google Scholar, says: “Anglo-Saxons and Normans, both alike, applied to the Blessed Virgin the title of Our Ladye, and this title is a precious inheritance from our Catholic forefathers and is applied exclusively to the Blessed Virgin. The same cannot be said for the word Madonna, as Polo Capello calls Lucrezia Borgia Madonna Lucrezia, and the Fioretti of St. Francis speak of Madonna Giacomo. Indeed it would be difficult to mention a nation, except Ireland, which has not adopted this pleasing form of addressing our Ladye. So we find

δɛσποίνα ἡμῶν, in Greek.

Domina Nostra, in Latin.

Nostra Donna, in Italian.

Nuestra Señora, in Spanish.

Notre Dame, in French.

and in Germany and the Low Countries Our Ladye is called, Unsere Hebe Frau, onze Lieve Vrouwe, our dear Ladye.” It is also to be noted that in The Book of Common Prayer, in the table of Proper Lessons for Holy-days, the words Annunciation of our Lady occur.

page 77 note a This Chevalier Gerrelin alias Hinckaert, on whom this notable miracle was worked, married Margaret de Malines, daughter of Jenniken de Malines, bastard son of John, duke of Brabant; and the arms of Brabant, viz.: gable, a lion rampant Or, are quartered by Philip Hinckaert in his achievement in this diptych.

page 79 note a In the exhibition of works by The Old Masters at the Royal Academy in 1886, in a picture (No. 210 in the catalogue) lent by Lord Heytesbury of The Descent from the Cross, attributed to the Master of Cologne, the dead body of the Saviour, the figure of St. John on the right, the Magdalene on the left, and the rocky landscape, one and all lead to the conclusion that the sinister panel of Mr. Walter Metcalfe's diptych was painted by the same hand as Lord Heytesbury's picture. The pose of the Magdalene is the same, St. John has the same red hair and red mantle and robe, and the figure of Our Lord's body, with the green crown of thorns, as well as the colouring, recall the one picture when standing before the other.