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The Reliquary of St. Gertrude at Nivelles Author(s): J. Lestocquoy Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 77, No. 452 (Nov., 1940), pp. 162-164Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/868257Accessed: 21-03-2015 20:34 UTC

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The Export Trade of Furniture to Colonial America

than can be imported. As by this kind of dealing the Poor will be enabled to cloath themselves, as it were, from the Hands of the Manufacturers ; and it is evident no Profit can possibly arise to the Seller, it is hoped that kind Providence, or the Public will put all such generous Traders in some way of living with the Expence . . .

Plate. There is very little to tell about the English plate

as the records make no mention of the articles

exported. In many cases the weight of the silver is given when the price per ounce ranges between 6/- and 7/-.

This sketch of the English export trade to America from 1697 to 1767 is unfortunately all too slight and it leaves numerous gaps to be filled. The news- paper advertisements on the whole suggest a larger volume of imporiation of English cabinet-ware than the records appear to indicate. With further research into this interesting subject both these sources of information should be found more or less to agree. SCf. The Arts and Crafts in New Tork [1938).

SHORTER NOTICES THE RELIQUARY OF ST. GERTRUDE AT NIVELLES. By J. Lestocquoy.

The reliquary of St. Gertrude which is preserved in the collegiate church at Nivelles (Belgium) deserves a detailed study : it is one of the most outstanding works of the goldsmith's art in the thirteenth century ; at the same time it is among the best preserved, and we know its date (1272-1298) as well as the namet of the draughts- man and the goldsmiths who made it. I doubt whether we have such detailed knowledge of any other specimen of medieval goldsmith's work.

I shall not here attempt a complete study, but will only indicate three points which seem to throw some new light on this admirable work already so fully studied by Von Falke and others.

It can be proved that its principal author was an artist belonging to a dynasty of goldsmiths renowned and established at Arras during several centuries. It can then be shown how the influence of the Paris school on the Artois is particularly noticeable in the Nivelles reliquary, mainly in the four applied enamels, which are probably by the goldsmith Guillaume Jullien who usually worked for Philippe le Bel. But it can also be proved that it bears the indisputable stamp of Rheims, the influence of which can be traced in other works whose origin is found in the entourage of the court of the Counts of Artois.

It has long been known that a monk from Anchin made the design for the reliquary and that it was executed by Colard de Douai and Jacques or Jakemon de Nivelles.1 Though the personality of the monkish draughtsman remains obscure, the origin of Colard de Douai can be traced. He belonged to a family who, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, regularly supplied the Comtes d'Artdis with goldsmith's work. They owned considerable properties at Arras. At the end of the thirteenth century Robert d'Artois bought 63 livres' worth of jewels from Jean de Douai, goldsmith of Arras; Marie de Douai sold hanaps to the Comtesse Mahaut ; Jacques de Douai made for the same countess a reliquary of the Holy Thorn which must have closely resembled the one preserved'in the treasure of Rheims ; it is obvious that this family had a certain standing, which is confirmed by the number of houses belonging to them at Arras.2

As to Colard or Nicolas de Douai, he had already achieved a masterpiece in his Abbaye d'Anchin. A chronicle of the sixteenth century describes a retable which was finished in 1262 and made of silver gilt. It showed the twelve apostles in niches, the Virgin and the Trinity in the centre. The whole retable was covered with more than three hundred precious stones which had been brought from the east. The reliquary at Nivelles shows exactly such a display of saints in an arcade and an abundance ofjewels and antique intaglios.3 It is not surprising that the fame of the masterpiece of Anchin induced those who wished to provide a worthy reliquary for St. Gertrude to address themselves to Anchin.

Anchin (near Douai) was one of the principal abbeys of the diocese of Arras, where the Bishop of Arras continuously exercised his privileges.4 The son of a well-to-do and respected family of Arras would have been at home here. One can also understand that the art favoured at Arras and at Hesdin under the osten- tatious rule of the Comtesse Mahaut, who merely followed the example of her predecessors, was the same as that practised at the abbey of Anchin.

The artistic situation of Arras easily explains the two influences which are so evident in the Nivelles reliquary : those of Paris and Rheims. All the members of the court of Artois went constantly to Paris; there was close contact with the artists of the brilliant royal court of France. Mahy d'Arras, goldsmith and citizen of Paris, was in.the service of the counts of Artois, like Jean d'Arras, who was also established in Paris. These as well as the goldsmiths who remained at Arras bought pieces of cast or chased metal, and enamels which, as easily as jewels, could be mounted in these monumental works. There are two proofs of this in the Nivelles reliquary. The roofs of the aisles [PLATE B] are decorated with an alternation of applied motives made of cast metal; the artists must have bought quantities of these to complete their decorative scheme. The motives are of two kinds : lilies and the towers of Castille. We are thus faced with the arms of the court of France which one would naturally meet at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, but the presence of which at Nivelles can only be explained by the way the goldsmith procured them.

1 DEHAISNES : Documents . .. concernant l'histoire -de l'Art dans la Flandre, l'Artois et le Hainaut. Lille [I886], p.. 2 DEHAISNES: op. Cit., pp. 122, 153, 154, i6;61 the present author compiled these texts and others from the archives of Arras

in " Colard de Douai, orfbvre d'Arras et la chisse de Sainte Gertrude A Nivelles," Bulletin de la socilti archiologique de Nivelles [19391].

a See the description, taken from a manuscript in the library of Douai, in ESCALIER: L'Abbaye d'Anchin. 1

Ibid., passim.

163

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A-RELIQUARr OF ST. GERTRUDE. EXECUTED BY COLARD DE DOUAI AND JACQUES DE NIVELLES. 1272-98. FRONT SHOWING THE VIRGIN AND CHILD AND THE ROSE WINDOW. SILVER REPOUSSE DECORATED WITH JEWELS, ANTIQUE INTAGLIOS AND ENAMELS. (COLLEGIATE CHURCH, NIVELLES)

B-SIDE VIEW SHOWING FOUR STATUES (ST. GERTRUDE ON THE EXTREME RIGHT) AND ROOF WITH CAST METAL ORNAMENTS

C-VIEW OF THE OPPOSITE SIDE (ST. AGNES ON THE LEFT)

SHORTER NOTICE: THE RELIQUARY OF ST. GERTRUDE AT NIVELLES

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Shorter Notices

The second link with Paris is of an even more curious and extremely rare kind. It consists of four magnificent applied enamels, translucent on a gold ground, which are among the most beautiful of this incomparable variety. Camille Enlart has studied these enamels, but those of Nivelles remained unknown to him. The most remarkable specimens known are on the reliquary of the Holy Blood of Boulogne-sur-Mer (probably a gift of Philippe le Bel in I3o8),5 extremely precious enamels, the only ones found worthy of decorating the reliquary bust of Saint Louis destined for the Sainte-Chapelle. About twenty examples are now known, mostly isolated fragments which are separated from the work they once adorned.6 In Belgium there are two small plaques at Tournai, on the Virgin of The Adoration of the Magi (reliquary of Nicolas de Verdun), and on the Byzantine cross in the treasury of the cathedral. In view of the close connections between Tournai and Arras the arrival of these enamels at Arras can easily be explained.7 The four medallions on the Nivelles reliquary are particularly beautiful: the design is very neat, the ground a translucent green, the decoration, following the custom, in white, blue and pink. According to Camille Enlart's hypothesis, these enamels are the works of Master Guillaume Jullien. It is in any case certain that they came from France, and it must even be stated that Guillaume Jullien was in touch with the Douai family, as they are mentioned side by side in the accounts of the court of Artois.

Though Paris furnished material contributions, the spiritual influence, and the form seem to have come from Rheims. It is still difficult to realize what the art of Rheims was really like and what distribution it enjoyed. The sculptor of the disquieting St. Joseph of Rheims seems to be the author of the Vierge Dorne of Amiens, and the angels of Humbert (Pas-de-Calais)8 have something in common with these strangely smiling statues. Actually we know little of the origin of this art which received its full development at Rheims. Arras and Rheims had numerous relations, political, religious and, as we have demonstrated elsewhere,9 artistic connections. Since a certain number of works originating from Arras in the thirteenth century show affinities with the art of Rheims, it is not surprising to find traces even of a direct participation in a goldsmith's work which is a very cathedral of silver. The monk

of Anchin obviously knew the cathedral of Rheims. We have an absolute proof of this: over the porch which covers the statue of the Virgin and Child there is a gable decorated with a large rose window, and this window is an exact copy of the great rose of Rheims [PLATE A]. It is a copy faithful in every detail. It can therefore be no cause for surprise that this miniature cathedral is populated with elegantly curved, smiling angels ? All this points to Rheims as a probable place of origin, but Rheims is not the sole possibility. The provenance of the famous Louvre angels is unknown, and the Pas-de-Calais possesses several, as already mentioned. Apart from this, documents in the archives ascribe numerous wooden angels by local artists to this period.1' Surely there were other works of this kind. It has been noticed already that the Virgin with the Child at Nivelles closely resembles the Virgin of Walcourt,"' that some other figures at Nivelles (particularly the St. Peter) recall the beautiful St. Blaise at Namur cathedral. There is, however, an undefinable difference which distinguishes these works and the most beautiful parts of the Nivelles reliquary form pure copies of the statues of Rheims. The famous St. Gertrude [PLATE B], the no less beautiful St. Agnes [PLATE C] which is draped with surprising elegance, cannot easily be compared with any other works, except perhaps with the exceptional funeral head at the Arras Museum.

It can thus be said that the art of Paris, the art of Rheims and the art of Arras mingle harmoniously in the Nivelles reliquary.

" Enlart quotes, apart from the reliquary of Boulogne, enamels from the altar-cloth of the Sainte-Chapelle (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris), two small plaques in the Louvre, two in the former Martin- Le-Roy collection, three in the Rijksmuseum, two at Tournai (cathedral treasury), some fragments in the treasury of Conques, and one hanap ornament (All Souls College, Oxford) as fragments of these enamels. Cf. ENLART : " L'Emaillerie cloisonn e a Paris sous Philippe le Bel, et le maitre Guillaume Julien," Monuments Piot, XXIX [I927-I928] ; since then M. Verlet has discovered some on the imperial stole at Vienna (Schatzkammer, Vienna), cf., Bulletin des Antiquaires de France [1936], p. 98 ; recently Mme. Lefranois-Pillons found some on a statue at Salins in the Jura, cf., Gazette des Beaux-Arts [Novembre 1938].

There are no intact examples but the Boulogne reliquary, the Oxford hanap, the Salins statue, and the Nivelles reliquary.

7 It is surprising to find these enamels mentioned as Byzantine in the sumptuous volume of the Ars Belgica series.

8 These angels figured at the Exposition des Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art frangais, Paris [1937], No. 972.

* See the communication by the present writer at the Congres de la F6deration historique et archbologique de Belgique, Namur, 1938, and his study " Sculptures et orfbvreries du XIIIe au XVIe siecle conserv6es en Artois," Bulletin de la Commission des Monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais [1938].

10 For these documents, cf., RICHARD : Mahaut, Comtesse d'Artois et de Bourgogne, Arras [18871, p. 306 sq.

xx Cf., COURTOY and SCHMITZ : Mimorial de l'Exposition des trisors d'art d Namur, 1930; also CTE. DE BORCHGRAVE D'ALTENA: Le folklore brabanpon, Nivelles [1926] ; by the same author, " Le tr6sor et le mobilier de l'Fglise Saint Materne h Walcourt," Bulletin de la socilti d'archlologie de Bruxelles [May-October, 1938]. Some works which can be compared with the reliquary can be found in FAISON : The Art Bulletin [1935], pp. 163-183.

AN UNKNOWN PORTRAIT BY EL GRECO.

By A. L. Mayer. The most vigorous and impressive portrait of a man

which I here illustrate [PLATE A] has hitherto been completely unknown to the art world, although it was acquired in Paris rather more than fifty years ago as a work of El Greco, on the advice of such a fine critic a the late Don Aureliano de Beruete, the Spanish painter and author of the famous monograph on Velasquez. Unfortunately I have been unable to trace the former history of the picture which is still in a private collection in Paris.'

The picture is in a relatively good state of preservation, but restorations are to be seen, especially in the collar. It was painted, in my opinion, shortly before Domenico Theotokopuli went to Spain, or shortly after his arrival in Madrid, where he went first, before settling in Toledo. It may be regarded as a precursor of the famous portrait of The Caballero with his Hand on his Breast in the Prado, not merely on account of the nearly frontal gaze ; but it is nearest to the portrait of Vincentio Anastagi in the Frick Collection in New York. The technique, as well as the costume and especially the collar, indicate a

1 The catalogue of the collection of King Louis Philippe (Notice des Tableaux de la Galerie Espagnole .. ., Paris [1838]) mentions under nr. 303 a Portrait du Comte de Tilly (o.41 by 0.33 m.) as " Ecole de Velazquez." It may be that this picture is identical with the portrait discussed here.

I64

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