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Family members and political allies: the portrait collection of Margaret of Austria

Art Bulletin, The, June, 1995 by Dagmar Eichberger, Lisa Beaven

Among the early sixteenth-century collections in the Netherlands the art collection of Margaret of Austria was exceptional in terms of its size and quality.(1) It included paintings such as the Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck and the Passion cycle by Juan de Flandes, as well as contemporary works such as the Metamorphosis of Hermaphrodite and Salamacis by Jan Gossaert. While individually these works have frequently been the subject of thorough investigation, the collection as a whole has not hitherto received much attention.(2)

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This paper sets out to investigate one section of the collection, the portraits which Margaret of Austria kept in the more public areas of her palace in Mechelen (Malines), the Premiere Chambre and the library.(3) The Premiere Chambre emerges from this investigation as a dynastic portrait gallery with a distinctly political agenda, its display of pictures carefully shaped and constructed by Margaret of Austria to reinforce the importance of the Burgundian-Hapsburg family and their allies. The display in the library differs in certain aspects from that of the official portrait gallery. Portraits in this room were represented in a variety of media, most notably painting and sculpture, and formed part of a diverse collection which included ethnographic material. In 1523-24 painted portraits were hung together with religious images and battle scenes. Although the sitters in these portraits did not form a homogenous group, the manuscripts and genealogical charts in the library provide a key to the reading of the portraits in both public areas of the palace.

Archduchess Margaret of Austria [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED], daughter of Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, was born on January 10, 1480, and died on November 30, 1530, in Mechelen. The time frame covered by this paper is the period between 1507 and 1530, when she lived in Mechelen as regent of the Netherlands and acted as foster-mother to the children of her brother Philip the Handsome.

Soon after the death of her second husband the archduchess answered her father's call to become regent of the Netherlands and decided to establish herself permanently in Mechelen, which formed part of her personal power base.(4) The court she created in this town fulfilled an important political function within the Burgundian Hapsburg empire. She was an active patron of the arts, collecting and maintaining a large number of artworks as well as retaining several artists at her court. She employed sculptors and architects such as Conrad Meit and Loys Van Boghem to undertake individual commissions, among them her main architectural project, the church of St.-Nicolas at Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse.(5) She also fostered literature and music, making a major impact in the sphere of courtly patronage in Northern Europe.(6) These wide-ranging interests were reflected in her extensive collection of books and illuminated manuscripts, which she kept in a richly decorated library,(7) visited by Erasmus of Rotterdam and others.

The Collection

The collection of Margaret of Austria ranged in scope from jewelry, paintings, sculpture, liturgical objects, and precious gold and silver plate to corals, gems, and ethnographic objects from the New World. Like her Burgundian ancestors she also had a large collection of tapestry sets,(8) some of the most lavish of which were given to her by her first mother-in-law, Queen Isabella of Castile, during her stay at the Spanish court. Also listed in the inventories are several scientific instruments, furniture, chess sets, and medals. No clear distinction is made between "art" and "nonart" objects; instead they are listed according to the distribution of objects throughout the various rooms within the palace. From this it appears that most of Margaret's collection was integrated into her living quarters rather than being kept in a separate, purpose-built space.(9)

The two main categories to emerge from an analysis of the art in her collection are religious objects and secular portraiture, both represented in a wide variety of media. Her large collection of paintings consisted almost exclusively of these two categories with only a few mythological or historical paintings.(10) By 1523-24 Margaret of Austria owned in total eighty portraits, not counting the six devotional diptychs and triptychs which also included likenesses of herself and her close family.(11) If these religious images and the later portraits by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen are included, her collection of portraiture came close to one hundred items.(12) It is apparent from a comparison with other Netherlandish collections such as that of Philip of Cleve, who owned thirty-three portraits, that this was one of the strengths of her collection.(13)

The unusually rich set, of inventories and court accounts that exist make it possible to reconstruct the nature and growth of Margaret's collection from 1493 to the time of her death in 1530. Most of our information concerning the portraits derives from two key inventories of 1516 and 1523-24. While they overlap to a certain degree, a number of the paintings, sculptures, and other objects listed in 1516 do not reappear in the later inventory.(14) The two inventories frequently provide complementary information on the same object, almost suggesting that they were written by two different groups of court officials, who noted down different aspects of the same work when preparing the inventory. The fragmentary inventory of 1516 is more specific in regard to artists' names, storage, and maintenance of specific objects. The 1523-24 document is more informative as far as the location and display of items are concerned, and individual entries are more descriptive.(15) For example, a portrait of Charles the Bold by Rogier van der Weyden is described in 1516 as "Ung tableau de chief du duc Charles, ayeul de Madame. Fait par la main de Rogier."(16) In 1523, the same painting is described: "Item, un aultre tableau de la pourtraiture de Monseigneur le duc Charles de Bourgogne, habille de noir, pourtant la Thoison d'or pendant a une chayne, et ung rolet en sa main dextre, ayant le chiefz nuz."(17) One of the major strengths of the 1523-24 inventory is the emphasis placed on the distribution of items throughout the various rooms of the palace. Apart from the small number of portraits and other paintings added later to the original list of artifacts and household items, all objects can be located with a high degree of certainty. In fact, the location of the various items within the palace has been of the utmost importance in establishing the purpose and function of each specific room and consequently of the paintings and sculptures therein.

Family members and political allies: the portrait collection of Margaret of Austria

Art Bulletin, The, June, 1995 by Dagmar Eichberger, Lisa Beaven

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