Renaissance Children

[fig. 1] August Van den Eynde, The Court of Cambrai ca. 1500, 19th century, drawing, Mechelen City Archives

13

The Habsburg Children’s Household at the Court of Cambrai in Mechelen (1480–1530) Samuel Mareel

A Unicorn in Mourning ———

In January 1511, in front of the palace on the Coudenberg, the Brussels residence of the Dukes of Burgundy that has long since disappeared, stood a snow sculpture representing a virgin with a unicorn in her lap. There were as many as a hundred such ‘snowmen’ throughout the centre of Brussels. They referenced figures and stories drawn from the Bible, antiquity, folklore and history. The Miracle of 1511 was prompted by an exceptionally harsh winter. The event was commemorated by Jan Smeken, a local rhetorician, who wrote a lengthy ballad about it, which was afterwards printed. Smeken also offers an interpretation of the snow sculptures. For example, he claims that the virgin with unicorn on the Coudenberg had a somewhat different meaning from the traditional one of the incarnation of Christ in Mary’s virgin womb. According to Smeken, the snowmen imparted a political message. The virgin and the unicorn were on hunger strike and would remain so until the young Duke Charles, the future Charles V, returned to Brussels (‘Hertoghe Kaerle en soude te Bruesel wesen’) (v. 112).1 Historical sources confirm that the young Charles of Habsburg (1500–1558) was indeed not in Brussels in 1511 but in nearby Mechelen. He had gone to live there in October 1501 when he was not yet two years old, after his parents Philip the Handsome (1478–1506) and Joanna of Castile (1479–1555) had left for Spain.

Joanna’s parents, the Catholic Monarchs, had died, and Philip seized the opportunity to stake his claim to the Spanish crown. Three of Charles’ sisters, Eleanor (1498–1558), Isabella (1501–1526) and Mary (1505–1558), also lived in Mechelen.

Mechelen’s function as the residence of the youngest members of the House of Habsburg-Burgundy originated when, after the death of her husband, Margaret of York (1446–1503), the widow of Charles’ great-grandfather Charles the Bold (1433–1477), settled in the city on the river Dyle. After the sudden death of Margaret’s stepdaughter Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482), tensions ran high between

[fig. 1] Hans Holbein the Younger, Edward VI as a child, ca. 1538, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

59

Growing up in Opulence: The Material Culture Provided for Children Around 1500 Annemarieke Willemsen

The children at the Mechelen court grew up in opulence. To ensure that they could play and learn in safety and comfort, no expense or effort was spared. Their material environment and their possessions may have reflected their children’s status, but were at the same time practical for the adults looking after them, and attractive to the youngsters. The toys owned by these princes and princesses were luxurious versions of the dolls, knights, children’s weapons and spinning tops that most children played with at the time. Their study books and school supplies were equally expensive and personalised, because the children were being trained for an important role. But first it was vital to allow the children to grow up well-protected, in good health, and to keep them occupied and happy until they were old enough to take their place in the adult world. Just like children of ordinary families in Flemish cities around 1500.

Medieval childhood ———

In the Middle Ages, childhood was regarded as a clearly defined phase of life, with a specific set of traits — a stage that was unlike other ages. Visual sources show that childhood, called infantia and/or pueritia, was a phase of life characterised by play. The picture of a child playing represents the first or second phase in a depicted series of human age ranges. In depictions of the seven or ten ages of man, whether or not in the form of the steps of life, a hobbyhorse or spinning top is often a typical attribute of childhood. The brass funerary plate on the tomb of Tydeman Berck, made in Bruges shortly after 1521, depicts different stages of life, showing the child riding a hobbyhorse and spurring it on with a whip, accompanied by a speech scroll saying: ‘Vroescepe clene’, meaning ‘not much wisdom yet’.

A court for children and for art ◆ 81

82 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 5]

Maste r of the Mech el en Guil d of Sa in t Geo rge Portraits of Eleanor, Charles V and Isabella of Austria as Children 1502 Oil on panel, three panels of 36.5 × 18 cm each with frame Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, 4452

The portraits in this triptych represent the oldest children of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile: Eleanor, Charles and Isabella. At the bottom of the frames, the children are identified with an inscription: ‘Madame leonora En laige de iiii ans’, ‘Duc Charles En laige de deux ans et demi’, ‘Madame Ysabiau en laige de ung ã et iii mois’: so four years, [almost] two and a half years and one year and three months respectively. With this, the painting must have been produced between August and November 1502. These are the earliest portraits we know of Eleanor, Charles and Isabella.

Each of the three children is depicted with an attribute: Eleanor has a violet, Charles has the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Isabella has a doll. The coats of arms above their heads suggest that these are dynastic portraits.

They depict the coats of arms of Austria, Brabant, and the old and new Burgundy, with the Habsburg lion as the escutcheon. Charles’ coat of arms is

surrounded by the chain of the Golden Fleece, which he also wears around his neck, and above the coat of arms is the Archduke’s hat. One half of the girls’ diamond-shaped shields remains empty, awaiting the coat of arms of their future husbands.

The diamond-shaped shield for unmarried women became popular in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Portraits of this kind were sometimes used in marriage negotiations to show off the likeness of the prospective bride.

These portraits were probably commissioned by the children’s parents, Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, or by Margaret of York. Philip and Joanna were in Spain in 1502 to receive fealty from the powerful Cortes (the Spanish Parliament) of Toledo as heirs to the kingdom of Castile. The children lived in Mechelen at that time, under the guardianship of Margaret of York. In addition to these paintings, a more recent diptych has been attributed to the Master of the Mechelen Guild of St George, depicting the six children of Philip and Joanna. Unfortunately, that painting was stolen in 1982, and has been lost.

These portraits of Eleanor, Charles and Isabella are mentioned in the inventory of the collection of Margaret of Austria in 1516 (‘Ung petit tableaul à trois feuillets du roy et de Madame Lyéonor et Ysabaul, ses soeurs, quand ils estoient bien josnes’).

However, they cannot be found in a later inventory of 1524.

An English copy of this work was produced in 1506, the so-called Stoneleigh Triptych of the Children of the King of Spain (private collection, fig. 1). This painting was part of the collection of the English King Henry VIII. [jvwk & sm] Literature / Exhibitions: Scharf 1869, pp. 245–257; Kaines Smith 1949, pp. 92–98; Périer-D’Ieteren 1973–1974; Vienna 1976, No. 19; Campbell 1985, p. xxi and Fig. 9; Innsbruck 1992, No. 204; Utrecht / ’s-Hertogenbosch 1993, no. 19; Soly 1999, pp. 28–29; Bonn 2000, No. 34; Haarlem / Antwerp 2000–2001, p. 90, Fig. 3a; Vienna 2002, No. 6; Mechelen 2005, pp. 117, 119 and fig. 18, Rowaert 2015–2016.

[fig. 1] The Children of Philip the Handsome (The Stoneleigh Triptych), 1506, oil on panel, private collection

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84 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 6]

Ha ns Ma l er (attributed to)

Portrait of Mary of Hungary 1520 Oil on vellum stretched on panel, 48.5 × 36 cm London, Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, LDSAL 340; Scharf XXVI

This portrait of Mary of Hungary (1505–1558), attributed to the painter Hans Maler from Schwaz near Innsbruck, is a pendant to another portrait of Anna of Hungary. They were made before 23 July 1520, since that was the day on which Anna would turn seventeen, and is still depicted as sixteen in the painting. The two ladies lived in the Hofburg in Innsbruck from the end of March 1517 to the beginning of May 1521, awaiting their marriage to Louis of Hungary and Ferdinand of Austria respectively. The painting bears the inscription: ‘Mary Regina. 1520.

Anno Etatis. 14.’ The title ‘Regina’ was not honoured until 11 December 1521, when Louis and Mary were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in Stuhlweissenburg (Székesfehérvár).

The portraits were probably commissioned by Emperor Maximilian I of Austria as a gift to the future partners. These may be the first paintings that Hans Maler made of Mary and Anna. He made many portraits of the Habsburgs. Six of Anna, and five of Ferdinand, have been preserved. The Veste Coburg collection (Bavaria) also holds a portrait of Mary that is similarly attributed to Hans Maler (inv. no. M 425). The artist from the Ulm area settled in Schwaz around 1515. The nearby court in Innsbruck offered him ample employment, as did the Fugger banking family which, because of their silver mining operations, had trading offices there.

Mary is depicted in a red dress with wide sleeves.

The cuffs are made of gold brocade. A hair net holds her hair in place. She wears an opulent hat, trimmed with pearls, rubies and gold thread, in the same shade as the gown. The hat was gifted to Mary by her grandfather Maximilian I in 1517.

Completing her ensemble, she wears around her

neck a simple gold chain and a black cord from which hangs a pendant in the form of a teardropshaped pearl. A similar piece of jewellery is pinned to her hat. The portrait is one of the few images of Mary in court costume. The Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. no. 3564) houses a painting by Hans Krell, depicting Mary as a nineteen-year-old.

An almost identical painting is located in Obbach über Schweinfurt.

Mary was born in Brussels on 15 September 1505 as the third daughter of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile. She never knew her parents.

Until her departure for Vienna in May 1514, Mary lived in the sheltered environment of her aunt, Margaret of Austria, together with her brother Charles and her sisters Eleanor and Isabella.

She saw her future husband, nine-year-old Louis, for the first time on 19 July 1515, at the Congress of Vienna. However, she had to wait until 13 January 1522 before the marriage could be celebrated in Buda.

Mary enjoys only a few happy years with Louis in Hungary and Bohemia. In 1526 she is widowed, and from then on, insists on always being portrayed in widow’s robes, just like her

[fig. 1] Attributed to Hans Maler, Portrait of Anna of Hungary, 1520, oil on panel, private collection

A Court for Children and for Art The story of mechelen as a centre of education for the house of Habsburg-Burgundy takes place almost entirely in the Court of Cambrai, a building on the northeast edge of the city. It is named after its first owner, John of Burgundy, Bishop of Cambrai. Margaret of York moved there in 1477, and in 1486 the city bought the building from her to give it as a residence to the then eight-year-old Philip the Handsome. Three consecutive generations of Burgundian-Habsburg princes and princesses would live and be raised there: Philip and his sister Margaret; from 1501 the children of Philip and Joanna of Castile: Eleanor (°1498), Charles (°1500), Isabella (°1501) and Mary (°1505). From 1518 Ferdinand (°1503), who was born and raised in Spain, also lived there for some time.

After Isabella’s death in 1526, her children with Christian II, king of Denmark and Norway were also brought to Mechelen, and they spent several years at the Court of Cambrai. The children were served by a large court under the supervision of a ‘gouverneur’.

Almost all the Burgundian-Habsburg children who lived in the Court of Cambrai were painted during their stay in Mechelen. These portraits were mainly commissioned by Margaret of York and Margaret of Austria who, from the Court of Savoy, on the other side of the street, oversaw the children’s education. The court arranged for portraits to be made by prominent painters associated with the Burgundian-Habsburg court, such as the Master of the Mechelen Guild of St George, Pieter van Coninxloo, the Master of the Magdalene Legend and Jan Gossart.

The surviving children’s portraits offer a unique overview of the evolution of early childhood portraiture between the end of the fifteenth and the first decades of the sixteenth century. [sm]

I

Education The royal children in Mechelen enjoyed an exceptionally high level of education. Their upbringing focused mainly on the prominent social position that the children would assume in society. A balance was sought between physical, intellectual and moral education. The first was completely in line with the courtly chivalric culture of the Burgundian court: horse riding, tournaments, and of course falconry and other forms of hunting. The other aspects were profoundly influenced by the humanistic ideals that were beginning to emerge. Leading humanists such as Adriaen van Utrecht and Desiderius Erasmus played a decisive role (locally or remotely) in the children’s education. The famous Librije of the Burgundian dukes was kept in the Court of Cambrai and used in the education of the children. Music and dancing were also part of the curriculum and the youngsters were also encouraged to indulge in imaginative play.

The culture in the Court of Cambrai was decidedly international.

Maximilian of Austria, who lived mainly at the Habsburg court in Innsbruck, had a hand in almost all important decisions concerning the children. Margaret of York was English, Margaret of Austria spent part of her youth at the French court in Amboise. Several foreign children also stayed in Mechelen, such as the Milanese prince Massimiliano Sforza and the English diplomat’s daughter Anne Boleyn. The children were taught in French, but were also trained in Dutch, German, Spanish and Latin.

The Court of Cambrai derived its political significance largely from the presence of Philip the Handsome and Charles V. Yet most of the Burgundian-Habsburg royals raised in Mechelen were girls. They too received a well-rounded, comprehensive and varied upbringing. The children’s education was also supervised by two women, Margaret of York and Margaret of Austria. [SM]

III

142 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 35]

Toy Jousting Figures ca. 1505 Austria, probably Mühlau near Innsbruck Bronze Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunstkammer, inv. KK 81 and KK 92

This pair of jousting figures is the only one of its kind from the late-Middle Ages to have survived intact. The two identical figures are no higher than eleven centimetres and each consists of a knight and horse mounted onto a base plate with four movable wheels. The original lances and two of the four thigh protectors attached to the figures have been lost. Knight and horse are cast separately, allowing the knight to tilt backwards and be unhorsed when struck by his opponent’s lance.

One of the illustrations in the Weißkunig (cat. 28), one of Emperor Maximilian I’s sensationalised autobiographically-inspired chivalric novels from the 1510s, shows how these toys were used. On a table, two boys push the horses together by hand.

One has aimed his lance well, and is unseating his opponent’s knight. The pieces now housed in Vienna could also be moved in other ways: the eyes on the base plates were probably used to thread a ribbon through or to hook with a rod used to pull or push the base plate.

The armour and weapons of the two knights in Vienna are equipped for a specific type of tournament. The boys who owned these items, who presumably treasured them as prized possessions and proudly showed them off only to their closest friends, would probably have known exactly which kind of jousting they represented. The knights of the Vienna pieces are armed for a form of jousting known as the Anzogenrennen, a variant of ‘run’ (‘run’ and ‘thrust’ were the two basic forms of jousting tournaments).

The Anzogenrennen was one of the most widespread tournament forms in the German area.

The name refers to the way that the shield was bolted onto the breastplate of the knight’s armour.

In other variants of jousting such as Schweifrennen,

also called Scharfrennen, the shield was only loosely mounted to the breastplate so that it could / had to be catapulted into the air when hit in the right spot. During the Anzogenrennen the energy of the lance couldn’t be diverted in this fashion because the shield was loosely mounted, which often resulted in spectacular falls. This made it the ideal kind of jousting to be re-enacted in miniature, sitting at a table with toy knights.

Jousting toys like these provided the sons of the nobility with a playful way to try to master the basic rules and tricks of jousting. While seated at home at a table, they took their first steps towards their future baptism by fire on the adult jousting field, the spectacle of late-medieval knighthood. [sk] Literature: Thomas & Gamber 1976, p. 171; New York 2019, p. 156, no. 71/72 (Adam B. Brandow).

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162 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 44]

Gi lli s Cl aeis s en s (? ) Child with a Rattle after 1491 Oil on panel, 34.4 × 24.3 cm London, The Society of Antiquaries of London, Scharf XLI; LDSAL 301

The portrait shows a three-quarter view of a figure of a child standing against a neutral, dark background. The contrasting, off-white splendid gown the child is wearing stands out and piques the viewer’s interest immediately. Its solid fabric is embroidered with pearl-like beads and black stitching. The child is wearing a delicate, transparent apron around the waist. On its neck, a neat white collar with an open-weave finish is fastened, made from the same fabric as the cuffs. Under a skin-tight bonnet, brown soft hair shines through. Since boys and girls wore similar clothes up to a certain age, the sex of the child cannot be reliably identified.

In its right hand, the child holds a metal rattle on a chain, a frequently depicted toy in children’s portraiture. It was used to distract and calm children when teething, but they were believed to possess protective powers against evil and illness and death as well. The bird held in the child’s other hand is probably a sparrow. Animals are also a frequent feature in children’s portraiture. They are sometimes embedded with symbolical meaning, but often also presented ‘only’ as a pet. The luxurious and lavish dress and the rattle, a common toy for noble children, indicate that the sitter was a member of aristocratic, and perhaps even royal circles. In 1847, although he regarded the portrait to be of a later date, Albert Way noted that it was believed to show the Burgundian duke, Charles the Bold (1433–1477).

The date of execution of this work is not certain.

As dendrochronological analysis shows, the tree from which the panel for the painting was made was felled after 1491, which takes this year as the earliest possible year of execution. Painters sometimes used older panels, which might have been the case with this portrait. The style of the painting also points

[fig. 1] Gillis Claeissens, Christine of Denmark, ca. 1568–72, oil on panel, 36 x 26.5 cm, © The Weiss Gallery, London

towards a later date. Similar rattles with the characteristic curved teething bit, as the one in our portrait, appear in many European portraits of children in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

It has been suggested that the panel is the work of a sixteenth-century Flemish artist, referred to as ‘The Monogrammist G.E.C.’ (active 1560–1575), to whom a portrait of Christina of Denmark (1521–1590) is attributed, now in the Weiss Gallery in London. Similarities can be seen in the position of the sitters with their left arm slightly turned forward, and similarly executed, distinctive big brown eyes and treatment of the hair and hairline. In 2015, the Monogrammist G.E.C. was identified as the painter of portraits and altarpieces who came from a family of artists based in Bruges, Gillis Egidius Claeissens (1536/37–1605). When comparing the portrait with other works from the painter’s oeuvre, certain common features indeed can be seen; besides the strikingly similar treatment of eyes and hair, depiction of hands with black or dark contours and highly glowing nails are also alike. [md] Literature: Way 1847, p. 47; Scharf 1865, pp. 30–31; Nathan 1902, p. 46; Allen 1971, pp. 331–332; Franklin-Nurse-Tudor-Craig, 2015, cat. no. 22, pp. 152–157.

fragility ◆ 163

184 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 53]

Jan Van Beer s Charles V as a Child 1879 Oil on canvas, 143 × 151 × 3 cm KMSKA, inv. 2326

Slouched somewhat listlessly in an oversized armchair, bolstered by a velvet pillow, feet resting on another richly embroidered cushion, his left arm lifeless on the back of a dog, gazing at the viewer with a gloomy, even somewhat sad expression, is how Jan Van Beers portrays the young Charles V. The child exudes little energy or zest for life. The dog, with its front paw raised, looks at the child with an expression akin to love. The faithful beast radiates more life than the boy. A closed book lies carelessly on the floor. Judging by the position of the ribbon bookmark, the book is being read.

By the child? As part of his education? The worn corners of the binding imply that the book has already been used intensively. A faded tapestry and a green-velvet curtain close off the back wall.

Depictions of Emperor Charles were not unusual in the nineteenth century. They fit into the romantic zeitgeist and contributed to the glorification of national history. However, this work is not characteristic of that Romantic movement. It is clearly not intended to present the future patriotic hero with much seriousness and conviction. It is not a lofty event, not an important moment in the life of the later, great statesman, but a scene plucked from the child’s daily life. A very atypical representation.

What was Van Beers attempting to achieve with this painting? Did he want to make the viewer consider the destiny lying in wait for the child? Was he aiming for a psychological portrait of the young Charles? Or, with this choice of subject was he trying to capitalise on the trend of painting historical scenes, while still doing his own thing with them?

Regardless, art critics thought Van Beers’ work was odd to say the least. On seeing the work presented at the Paris Salon of 1880, the reviewer of the Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant. Algemeen Handelsblad

commented: ‘Jan van Beers, well known in Holland, remains a remarkable artist. His Charles Quint as a child is so strange and peculiar, yet painted with such technical finesse that one has to admire it malgré-soi.’

In his own day, Van Beers was described as a flamboyant character who craved publicity and was not afraid of scandal. Or, as the Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant. Algemeen Handelsblad wrote in 1880, the year in which the painting Charles V as a Child made its first public appearance: ‘Van Beers clearly needs to cause a sensation, to hear everyone cry out with astonishment: how is it possible for someone to paint in a style so entirely different?’

Was appearing ‘so entirely different’ the effect Van Beers was also after with Charles V as a Child?

This painting was also his last historical piece.

From then on, he turned to more mundane, accessible, even somewhat banal subjects, such as portraits and genre scenes, which appealed to the Parisian beau-monde, and which showcased the eccentric painter’s vision. From 1880 on, Van Beers’ style was so detailed and realistic that contemporary art connoisseurs openly accused him of resorting to photography, claiming that he painted a picture over a photograph and presented the work as an actual, original painting.

Charles V as a Child leans towards this stylistic approach — the virtuoso technique and photographic style that we also see in Van Beers’ portraits of contemporaries. The composition of the piece also reinforces a connection with contemporary photography. The pose recalls post-mortem photographs of deceased children, a popular genre in photography at the time: the little corpse, dressed in finery and often propped up in a chair positioned in a cramped corner. Was Van Beers aware of that similarity? More than a depiction of a historical figure in a historically accurate setting, this painting is a contemporary children’s portrait overlaid with an historical veneer. [bs] Literature: Tu. 1880, p. 2; De Mont 1901, pp. 71–86; Ghent 1999b, pp. 122–129; Huvenne et al. 2003, p. 150; Great 2005; Lier 2016; Monteyne 2016, pp. 23–27.

young belgians ◆ 185

192 ◆ renaissance children

[cat. 57]

Je an-Léon Huen s The Children of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile 1954 watercolour, 137 × 87 mm Musée Royal de Mariemont, LP20 B 0001/3

Between 1949 and 1961 illustrator Jean-Léon Huens depicted the history of Belgium in six albums with 534 prints. The albums were published by Uitgeverij Historia, which Huens had co-founded with his brother Etienne. The prints cover all major events and important historical figures, from the caveman to Baudouin of Belgium. The beautifully executed, brightly coloured and expressive prints could be collected with Historia Publishers ‘loyalty points’, printed on the packaging of numerous products from the neighbourhood store, and then pasted into the albums of ’s Lands Glorie. The images were accompanied by flowery captions by the historian and Catholic clergyman Jean Schoonjans (1897–1976), who drew his inspiration for this from

the strongly Belgianist nineteenth-century historian Henri Pirenne (1862–1935). The drawings in the last two albums are not the work of Huens, but of Auguste Vanderkelen (1915–1991). The albums were released in both Dutch and French, in line with the decidedly Belgian ethos at the heart of the project.

Huens often based his prints upon paintings by old masters. This was the case, amongst other things, for this image of the six children of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile. Huens was inspired for their portraits by a diptych that is said to have been painted around 1506 by the Master of the Guild of St George in Mechelen. In the last century, it was still in the Museo de Santa Cruz in Toledo, but it was stolen in 1982 during an exhibition in Madrid and has been missing ever since.

The left panel of the lost diptych shows the boys Ferdinand, born in Spain in 1503, and Charles, born in Ghent in 1500. The right panel shows the girls: Eleanor, Isabella and Mary, all born in Brussels, respectively in 1498, 1501 and 1505, and Catherine, born in Spain in 1507. They rest on richly decorated cushions. Above their heads we see crowns and coats of arms, on the left panel surrounded by the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece. On the left the shields refer to the various possessions of the boys, on the right to the noble descent of the girls: France, the Netherlands, Burgundy and Austria. The diptych served as a promotional piece for possible marriage negotiations. Huens has radically adapted the composition: he removed the texts and coats of arms and rearranged the composition by placing the girls together in front and the boys behind. Yet the original work is still clearly recognisable.

In 2015, ’s Lands Glorie was reissued in full in one volume by Lannoo Publishers. [jvwk] Literature: Cauchies, Docquier & Federinov 2015; Huens & Vanderkelen 2015.

[fig. 1] Master of the Mechelen Guild of St George, The Children of Philip the Handsome of Habsburg and Joanna of Castile, ca. 1506, oil on panel, Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo

young belgians ◆ 193