Cardinal Henry Beaufort and the 'Albergati' Portrait

8/10/2019 Cardinal Henry Beaufort and the 'Albergati' Portrait

1/19

Cardinal Henry Beaufort and the 'Albergati' PortraitAuthor(s): Malcolm ValeSource: The English Historical Review, Vol. 105, No. 415 (Apr., 1990), pp. 337-354Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/570845.

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Notes and Documents

CardinalHenry

Beaufort

and the

'Albergati'Portrait

IN I904 W.

H.

J.

Weale identified

a famous

portrait,

attributed to

Jan

van

Eyck,

for the

first

time. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches

Museum, Vienna,

and Weale described

it

as

follows:

it is a portraitof a fine old ecclesiastic .. Bareheaded, e wears a loose

crimsonrobe edged

at

the neck and

arm

openings

with

white

fur ... the

person's

head is turnedto

the

right,

his

vigorous

and

closely-shaven ace,

seen

in

three-quarter rofile

with

light

falling directly upon it,

is full of

expression.

There

is

quite

a charm about

the little brownish

eyes

which

seem to be looking out

from beneath he eyebrows

with

a

keen

scrutinising

glance,while a pleasantplayful

smilehoversabout

he mouth.1

Seeplate)

Weale

went on to

identify

the

sitter as

Niccolo

Albergati,

Cardinal-

priest of the church of Santa Croce

in

Jerusalem at Rome,

born

in

I375,

created Cardinal by Pope Martin V in

I426,

and who died in

I443.2

Weale's identification

rested

upon documentary evidence,

but

this was not contemporary

with

the painting.

It had first been

published

in I 883, when an edition of the inventory

of Archduke Leopold William

of

Austria's picture collection,

dated

I4

July I659,

was

printed

in the

Viennese

Jahrbuch

der Kunstsammlungen

des

allerh6chsten Kaiser-

hauses.

Among

the 88o

Flemish,

Dutch and German

paintings

owned

by

this voracious

seventeenth-century collector,

there was listed

acertainportraitn oil-paintupon woodof the Cardinal f (the)Holy Cross

(des Cardinalsvon Santa Cruce) n a half-greenand half-gilded rame,

2

spans high

and

i

span 6 fingers broad.

Originalby Jan van Eyck, who

first

discovered ilpaint.3

Weale's

contribution to the identification and dating of the painting

followed a

period

of

uncertainty

and confusion

-

in

the i86o catalogue

of

the Belvedere (where it was then hung) the portrait had been des-

cribed

as a

representation

of

Jodocus

Vijdt, donor of the Ghent altar-

piece, at a more advanced age,4 and

in

I898

doubts were still being

i.

W. H.

J.

Weale,

'Portraits

by John

van

Eyck

in

the Vienna

Gallery',

Burlington

Magazine,

v(

904),

I 90.

2.

Ibid., pp. I9

I-2;

also W. H.

J.

Weale

&

M.

Brockwell,

The Van

Eycks

and

their

Art

(London,

I9I2),

pp.

I03-7.

3. A.

Berger

(ed.), 'Inventar

der

Kunstsammlung

des

Erzherzogs

Leopold

Wilhelm von

Oester-

reich. Nach

der

Originalhandschrift

...',

Jahrbuch der

Kunstsammlungen

des

allerhochsten Kaiser-

hauses,

i,

II

(I883),

p.

cxxi.

4.

Weale,

art.

cit.,

p.

I03.

EHR Apr go

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3/19

338

CARDINAL HENRY

BEAUFORT

April

The

'Albergati'

Portrait

(Photo:

Kunsthistorisches

Museum,

Vienna)

cast

upon

the

correctness

of the

ascription.'

But

the

I907

catalogue

listed

it

as a

portrait

of

the 'Cardinal

of

St Cross' and

accepted

Weale's

identification

of

the sitter

as

Albergati.2

Weale's

work,

which

followed

hard

upon

the

great

exhibition

of

Early

Flemish

paintings

held at

Bruges

in

I902,3

has

left

a firm

imprint upon

Van

Eyck

as well

as

Memling

i.

Ibid.,

p.

IQ4;

J.

Kaemmerer,

Hubert

undjan

van

Eyck

(Bielefeld,

Leipzig,

I898),

p.

172.

2.

Katalog der

Gemildegalerie

(Wien,

i

963),

ii.

55-6,

no.

i

6o.

3. See W.

H. J.

Weale

(ed.),

Exposition

des

primitifsflamands et

d'art

ancien:

Bruges, Iere

section:

Tableaux

(Bruges,

1902),

passim; for

the impact of

the

exhibition,

see

J.

Huizinga,

'My

Path to

History',

in

Dutch

Civilisation in

the

Seventeenth

century and

Other

Essays, ed.

P. Geyl

&

F.

W.

Hugenholtz

(London,

1968),

pp.

266-7.

EHR Apr

go



4/19

I990

AND

THE

'ALBERGATI' PORTRAIT

339

scholarship, and it

is

perhaps

time for a review of

some of his

attributions

and

interpretations.

There is a second representation of the Vienna portrait's sitter in

a

well-known

silverpoint

drawing,

now in

the

Kupferstichkabinett

at

Dresden, to

which the artist

has added

colouring

notes

in

Nether-

landish.

1

These tell us

nothing

about the

identity

of

the

sitter,

and

are

similar in kind to

the

colouring

indications

added

by

Holbein to

his drawings

of Tudor

courtiers.2

This

Van

Eyck

drawing

entered

the

Dresden collection

before

I765,

and

in

the

I896

catalogue

of

Old

Master

drawings there it was described as a

'portrait

of an

aged man',

although the

possibility

of its identification with

the

'Cardinal of

Santa

Cruce' was also suggested.3 Since then, despite some art-historians'

doubts, both the

Vienna

portrait

and the Dresden

drawing

have

been

normally

accepted as

representing

the same

man,

and Weale's

article

in

the

Burlington

Magazine

for

I904

has been the

foundation

upon

which

all

subsequent work

has been built.

A

major exception

to

this

rule

of

art-historical

unanimity

was,

nevertheless,

made in

I955

by

Professor

Roberto Weiss in the

pages

of

the

Burlington

Magazine.4

Arguing

from

contemporary (and

near-contemporary)

biographies

of

Albergati,

to

which

I

shall

shortly

return,

he

concluded that

the sitter

was not, and could not be, CardinalAlbergati. He suggestedanalterna-

tive

candidate who

has not to

my

knowledge

commanded

any

support.

The

question

had

now been

reopened, however, and in

I963 the

Dutch

art-historian

Bruyn published an

essay

on

'Two

portraits

of

cardinals

by Jan

van Eyck' in

which he

proposed yet another

candidate.5 We

are

thus

presented with

a

major

work of

fifteenth-century

portraiture,

in

which the

hand of Jan

van Eyck is

clearly

visible;

but

there has

not yet

been an

attempt

to solve

the

problem of its

identification by

reviewing

as

full a

range

of

contemporary and

later

evidence

as possible.

I cannot claim to have solved thatproblem, and

would not wish

to give

the false

impression that

proof of

identification

is a matter

for

dogma-

tism.

Yet the

questions

which one

may

justifiably ask

about this

paint-

ing, and

its

associated

drawing, may

lead to a

reconsideration

of its

place

in

J

an

van Eyck's

development

as a

portraitist

and in

the sequence

of

his

works. If

my

speculations

are

not

entirely

rejected, we

may

be

able to

add

one more

Englishman to the

list of

those who

are

known

i.

K. Woermann, Handzeichnungen Alter Meisterim KoniglichenKupferstichkabinetzu Dresden

(Munich,

1896), p.

i & pl.

I.

2.

For

a

transcription of

the

colouring

notes,

see

A.

Ampe, 'Taal en

Herkomst

van

Jan van

Eyck',

Wetenschappelijke

Tijdingen

(1971),

p. 83.

Weale's

transcription in

art. cit.

(I904),

pp.

19 1-2

is

incomplete

and

apparently

inaccurate.

For

Holbein's

colouring

indications see

C.

Glaser, Hans

Holbein,

Zeichnungen

(Basel,

1924),

pls. 64,

68.

3.

Woermann,

op. cit.,

pp.

1,

Xi.

4.

R.

Weiss,

'Jan

van

Eyck's

Albergati

portrait',

Burlington

Magazine,

xcvii

(I9S), 145-7.

S.

J.

Bruyn,

'Twee

Kardinaalsportretten

in het

werk

van Jan

van

Eyck',

Album

Discipulorum

J.

G.

van

Gelder

(Utrecht,

1963),

pp.

17-30. His

article s

dismissed in

the

Katalog der

Gemaldegalerie,

ii.

56.

EHR

Apr

go



5/19

340

CARDINAL

HENRY

BEAUFORT

April

to have been portrayed by early Flemish painters.

Edward Grimston,

esquire, sat

to

Petrus Christus

in

I446,1

and

Sir

John Donne's triptych

of C.

480

has already been the subject of a scholarly inquiry which

led to a reappraisal of the complete

corpus

of

Memling's work.2 They

may have been preceded by

an

Englishman

who,

like

them,

was fre-

quently about his master's (and his own)

business

in

the

Burgundian

Low Countries.

The so-called 'Albergati' portrait

is

normallyplaced early

in the chro-

nological sequence

of

Jan

van

Eyck's surviving

portraits.

Between the

representations of the two donors

on the

outer

panels

of the Ghent

altar-piece, completed by 6 May 1432,3

and the

portrait

of the

painter's

wife Margaret, finished on

17

June

1439,4

nine identified portraits

by Jan

van

Eyck

survive. Some

of

these,

for

example

the

two

panels

associated with

Nicholas

Rolin

(c.I435)

and

Canon

George

van

der

Paele (anuary

I436),

are donor

portraits,

not those

of

independent

sitters, but there has

been

little

dispute

among

art-historians

about

the position of 'Albergati'

in this

corpus.

It

is,

wrote Baldass

in

I952,

'the earliest

independent portrait by Jan

van

Eyck';

it is associated

with

the

'only known draft

sketch

for a

painting'

by

the

artist;

and

it represents 'one of the last Netherlandish examples

of a type evolved

during the fourteenth century'.5 The emphasis upon an early date

and

a

preliminary drawing

is

noteworthy.

Contingent knowledge

of

the proposed sitter's career has perhaps had

the

effect

of

unconsciously

swaying Baldass' stylistic judgement

a

little.

It is

known that Cardinal

Niccolo

Albergati

was

at

Ghent, negotiating

for

an

Anglo-French

peace,

on

3 and4 November

143 i,

and that between

8

and

i i

December

of

that year he was at Bruges.6 Baldass

and

Millard Meiss both agreed

that the Dresden drawing

must

therefore

date from

I43 i, one year

beforethe completion of the Ghent altarpiece,and that it forms a necess-

ary stage

in

the production

of

the

Vienna

portrait.7

Albergati's short

visits to Ghent and Bruges

-

the centres

of

Jan van Eyck's activities

-

made the

taking

of

a sketch

imperative,

and

it

was from the colouring

notes on

the Dresden drawing that Jan painted

the final portrait, proba-

bly after May

1432.

Yet the making

of

a preliminary drawing was

not

an exceptional practice among fifteenth-century

portraitists, occa-

sioned by brief personal contact with the sitter. Jean Fouquet's sketch

i. See M. J.

Friedlander,

From Van

Eyck

to

Brueghel

(London,

i956),

pl.

2S; P. H. Schabacker,

Petrus Christus

(Utrecht, 1974), pp.

83-5.

2. K. B.

McFarlane, Hans Memling

(Oxford,

1

97

1),

pp-

'-'i.

3. See E. Dhanens, The

Ghent Altarpiece (London,

1973),

pp. 26-3

1.

4. Bruges, Groeninge Museum; see

A. Janssens de

Bisthoven & R. A. Parmentier (eds.),

Les

PrimitifsFlamands, Bruges (Antwerp,

I

9

i),

pp.

3

-5.

S.

L.

Baldass,

Jan

van

Eyck (London, 1952),

p.

69.

6.

Weale,

art.

cit., (1904),

p.

I9I.

7. Baldass, op. cit., p. 69; M. Meiss 'Nicholas

Albergati

and the Chronology of Jan van Eyck's

portraits',

Burlington Magazine,

xciv

(1952),

I37.

EHR

Apr

go



6/19

I990

AND THE


34I

of Guillaume

Jouvenel des Ursins

(Berlin),

which

preceded

his

Louvre

portrait of the

Chancellor

of

France,1 suggests

that the habit

was

not confined to the representationof travellingcardinals, busily engaged

in their

work of diplomatic mediation.

If

Baldass' and Meiss' arguments

for an

early

date

for

the

'Albergati'

portrait are

accepted,

this would mean

that it

precedes

the

so-called

Timotheos picture (National

Gallery),

dated on

its original

frame to

iO

October

I432.2

Stylistically, however, the

'Albergati' portrait

seems

to

represent

an advance

upon

the Timotheos. In terms of

psycho-

logical

intensity

and sheer

painterly technique,

there

seems little

to

rule

out

a

laterdate of

I436

or

even

I439.

The

portrait

would therefore

driftbetween

I43i

and

I439

if

it

were not for the knownfactsabout

Albergati's diplomatic activity.

In

I435

he

presided,

with

the Cardinal

of

Cyprus,

at

the

great congress

of

Arras,

and there

is,

of

course,

no reason

why Jan

van

Eyck

should not

have

painted

him on

that

occasion.3 He was never in

Bruges during

that

year,

but

this

would

not prevent the artist from

taking

his likeness

during

his residence

at

Arras. But once

it

is cut

adrift

from

the historical

mooring provided

by Albergati's career,

the

portrait

floats

unsatisfactorily

in

the dated

corpusof

Jan

van

Eyck's

work.

Have

we therefore any need

to doubt the

current identification of

the Vienna

portrait's subject as

the

Cardinal-priest

of

St Cross? If the

facts of

Albergati's diplomatic

career have tended to

over-influence

art-historians

in

their dating, attribution and choice of

subject,

can

other

facts

be brought

into

play which might carry

equal,

if

not

greater,

conviction?

First,

the

objections

raised

by

Professor Weiss to

received

views of the

picture

must

be considered.

These derive

almost

entirely

from

one type of source

-

the

writings

of

Albergati's

contemporaries

about his mode of life. There is a uniform emphasis in their accounts

upon

his

austerity,

and

Poggio, Jacopo Zeno, Vespasiano da Bisticci

and

St

Antoninus

of

Florence

agreed

that this

Cardinal had no truck

with

worldly pomp and show.4 Poggio's funerary

oration upon the

Cardinal of St

Cross tells us that 'nulla

pompa,

nulli

fastus, nullae

opes

impedimento fuere quo minus se per omnem

vitam purum

i.

See 0. Pacht,

'Jean

Fouquet: a study

of

his

Style', Journal

of

the

Warburgand

Courtauld

Institutes, iv

(1940-i),

85-Io2; G. Ring, A Century of FrenchPainting, 1400-1500 (London,

1949),

pls.

71, 72.

For

Rogier van

der Weyden's

probable

use of

drawings in

his working

practice

as

a

portraitist,

see L. Campbell,

'Portrait art in

the work of

Rogier

van der

Weyden',

Rogier van

der Weyden.

Roger de

le Pasture,

Exhibition

Catalogue

(Brussels,

I979),

p.

62.

2.

See M. Davies,

National

Gallery

Catalogues.

Early Netherlandish

School

(London, 1968),

pp.

54-5.

3.

J. G.

Dickinson,

The

Congressof Arras 1435.

A

Study

in

Medieval

Diplomacy

(Oxford,

1955),

pp.

78-84,

11

2-13.

4.

See

Poggii

Florentini

Opera (Basel, I

5

38),

pp.

261-9;

Acta

Sanctorum,Maii, ii

(Antwerp, i68o),

469-77 (Zeno);

Vespasiano

da Bisticci, Vite di

Uomini

Illustre del

Secolo

xv, ed. P.

d'Ancona

&

E.

Aeschlimann

(Milan, 1951),

pp.

75-7,

transl.

as

Princes, Popes

and

Prelates.

The

Vespasiano

Memoirs, (ed. New

York, 1963),

pp.

I23-5;

cf Weiss,

art. cit., pp.

145-6.

EHR

Apr

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7/19

342

CARDINAL HENRY

BEAUFORT

April

immaculatumque preberet'. He had entered religion as a Carthusian,

and it was his strict observance of that order's rule, even after his

elevation to the bishopric of Bologna and thence to the Sacred College,

that so impressed his contemporaries. Jacopo Zeno asserted that

'Carthusiae

regulam

etiam ad

extremum

inviolate

servavit . .

.',

and

Vespasiano took up the

theme

in

his

Lives

of

Famous

Men, writing

that 'he had long been

a monk of the

Certosa

and had never broken

any of its rules'.2 He was

'of the most

saintly

life and

costume; wearing

always

the

Carthusian habit,

with a cloak

(cappa) just

as

the brothers

do,

down to

the

ground;

he

always slept

on a straw

palliasse, fully

dressed,

as do

the

brothers,

and

never ate meat either in health

or

sickness'.3 If Vespasiano was right (and he derived his information

from

Albergati's secretary,

the future

Pope

Nicholas

V)

then the

figure

in

Van

Eyck's portrait,

dressed

in a

fine red

robe

edged

with

white

fur,

is

unlikely

to be

the

austere Carthusian

Cardinal. He could

not

have worn that dress without infringing

the

rule

of

his

order.

The

Statuta

Nova

confirmed

by

the

Carthusian

Chapter

General in

I368

laid down that the monks were to wear habits

of

'thick,

coarse

country

cloth',

and

were

forbidden

garments

trimmed

with

fur. 'We

prohibit

the furs of foxes and

all

wild animals

(bestis silvestribus)

and

tunics

of

fustian or buckram', declared

one article of

the

statutes,

and the

use of

tapestries

and 'curious

pictures' (picture curiose)

was also for-

bidden.4

To

what use would the ascetic

Albergati

have

put

a

portrait

of

himself, even granting

that he

actually

commissioned one?

His

biographers

take

pains

to tell their readers that the

Cardinal's

external

appearance

reflected his

inner

purity

and

rigour

of

life. He

never wore linen

clothing,

wrote

Poggio,

but used

habitually

to

endure

a

hair-shirt,

even

during

his

many

and severe illnesses.5

Vespasiano

tells the story, repeated in the Acta Sanctorum,of his refusal to drink

a

prescribed beaker of he-goat's blood

as a

remedy

for

the stone, from

which

he

suffered

after the

Council

of

Florence-Ferrara

n

1438.6 His

refusal

was prompted by his strict observance of a Carthusian vow

never to eat meat, and because he knew that there was in any case

no cure for

his complaint.

He

was gravely

ill

during the Arras negotia-

tions of

I435,

and when the stone was removed from his body during

an

autopsy it was found to be 'as big as a goose's egg'.7 It was cherished

as

a

relic

by

the Florentine

Charterhouse where Albergati was buried

i. Poggii...

Opera,

p.

265.

2. Acta

Sanctorum,

Maii,

ii.

476;

Vespasiano,

op.

cit., p.77;

see also

P.

de

Toth,

II

beato Cardinale

Nicolo Albergati e

i

suoi

tempil,

1375-1444 (2 vols., Viterbo,

I934),

pp.

18-64

for

Albergati's

life

as a

Carthusian.

3.

Vespasiano, op. cit.,

p.

75.

4.

Statuta ordinis Cartusiensis

a

domino

Hugoni

priore

Cartusieedita

(Basel,

i

5

IO),

fr. r

4.

S.

Poggii...

Opera,

p.

268.

6.

Vespasiano, op.

cit., p. 77;

Acta

Sanctorum,

Mail,

ii.

488.

7. Ibid., p. 489;

Vespasiano,

op.

cit.,

p.

77.

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8/19

I990

AND

THE 'ALBERGATI' PORTRAIT

343

in I443,

and Vespasiano

claimed to have held it in his own hand.'

Albergati's

tomb

there is

unfortunately

of no

help

in the identification

of the Vienna portrait for it carries no effigy, and is a characteristically

plain marble slab inset

with a

cardinal's

hat and

a

cross.

An

inscription

recalls the salient points

of his career

-

his election

to the see of

Bologna,

'petente populo Bononiensi',

his

legations,

and his

singular way

of

life.2 The only

near-contemporary

work of

art

which

may

record

his features

is a

polyptych by

the brothers

Vivarini,

which

was commis-

sioned

after his death

by Albergati's secretary

in

I450

when he

had

become

Pope

Nicholas

V.3

It was

intended as a

memorial

to the

Cardinal,

and was set

up

in the

Charterhouse

of his native

Bologna.

On one panel of the altarpiece a figure dressed in a Carthusian habit

beneath his

episcopal cope appears,

and this has been identified as

Albergati.4

The rather emaciated

face of this

figure

bears

no

resemb-

lance to the face

in the Vienna

portrait.

Yet its dress would be

quite

consistent with what is

known of

Albergati's

external

appearance.

Such

evidence as

we

possess seems, then,

to

militate

consistently

against Weale's assertion of I904, which

has

received

the

support of

art-historians

from Friedlinder

to

Panofsky.

If

Albergati

did commis-

sion

the Vienna

portrait

at some time

during

his

diplomatic

missions

to France and the Burgundian lands between October

I43

i

and Sep-

tember

I435,

this act might be thought somewhat out of

character.

An

alternative

explanation might

be

proposed. The portrait could have

been ordered

by

someone

else,

either for

subsequent presentation

to

the

Cardinal,

or as a memorial to

Albergati's piety, or to his

diplomatic

achievement

-

or to both. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy,

might

have

wished to commemorate the Cardinal's mediation between

France

and

Burgundy

at

Arras

in

I435. He, or one of

his

entourage,

might

have

commissioned the portrait, and this explanation was favoured

by

Weale.5

He

proposed

a

date

in

I43I,

however,

at

the

time of

Albergati's first diplomatic mission to Flanders. The Duke, he

argued,

sent

letters

to

the Flemish towns ordering them to receive the Cardinal

with the

honours due to him, and referred to the municipal

archives

of

Ghent

and Lille as a source. Weale then speculated, quite

without

warrant, that 'one of the letters sent to Bruges was probably

addressed

to

Jan

van

Eyck bidding him paint a portrait of the Cardinal'.6

It

is, moreover, rather difficult to see why Philip the Good should

have

wanted Albergati's portrait in

I43I

or

I432

because, as even the Cardi-

nal's most fervent admirers had to admit, the negotiations of

those

I. Ibid., p.

77.

2.

P. de Toth, op.

cit.,

ii. 492, & pI.

facing p. 496 for Albergati's

tomb.

3. Ibid., pp.

479-81 &

pl.

facing p.

480. For another reproduction of the

Vivarini

polyptych

see Weiss, art. cit.,

p. 146.

4. Ibid., p. 146,

n.II.

S.

Weale,

art.

cit.

(1904),

p.

191.

6. Ibid p. 191.

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10/19

I990 AND

THE

'ALBERGATI PORTRAIT

345

to wear the collar and pendant

of

the order

every day.1 Subsequent

portraits

of

members

of the order

depict

them

wearing

that

insignia,

whereas the Vienna portrait shows no trace whatever of a collar of

flints-and-steels

with

the

fleece as

a

pendant.2

It is

thus

fairly

unlikely

that

Guillaume

III

de Vienne could

have been

painted

by Jan

van

Eyck

before

I430,

and

very

unlikely

that he should have been

shown,

collar-

less,

after his election

to the order.

In

any

case,

it

appears

from

docu-

mentary

sources

that

he

was

normally

known as

the

'seigneur

de

St

Georges'

rather than 'de

Ste

Croix'.3

We must therefore treat

this

hypothesis

with

very great

caution.

If

Cardinal Niccolo

Albergati

is

not

the

subject

of

this

portrait,

then

who is? The qualifications to be held by any candidate for this distinc-

tion can

be briefly rehearsed.

He must

be

a man

aged

between about

55

and

65

who had the

opportunity (or

opportunities)

to

be

painted

by Jan

van

Eyck

as an

independent sitter,

not

as a

donor,

between

I432 and the painter's death in

I44I.

His

mode

of

life and known

manner of

dress

must

not

rule out his

appearance

clothed, by choice,

in

fine red cloth

edged

with

fur, and,

if

possible, his representation

in the

portrait

must not clash with other records of

his features.

The

candidate

put

forward

by

Bruyn

in

I963

was

Henry

Beaufort

(also

born in

I375),

Cardinal-priest

of St

Eusebius,

and

Cardinal-bishop

of

Winchester.4

Bruyn's reasoning

was based

upon

one

source,

but

there

are other

sources

which

might

be

brought to bear on the

problem.

As

we have seen, a central prop of the argument

for Albergati

was

the

documentary evidence for his visits to Ghent

and Bruges in

November and December

I43I.5 Yet

in an

article

published in

I955,

Jean

Duverger presented evidence

(without comment) from the

munici-

pal accounts of

Bruges

for

the

reception

of

Cardinal Beaufort in

the

town.6

There are entries in the accounts for February

I432

which

record

gifts of herbs,

spices and candles to 'the Cardinal of

England'

and

which refer to the payment of expenses

incurred by one of

the

town's

councillors who

entertained the

Cardinal in his house, from

I. See

C. A.

J.

Armstrong,

'Had

the

Burgundian

government

a

policy

for

the

nobility?',

in

J. S.

Bromley & E.

H.

Kossman

(eds.),

Britain

and

the

Netherlands,

ii

(1962),

25;

the

statutes

are

described

by

Reiffenberg,

op. cit., pp.xxxi-xxxii.

For

a

text, see

Bibliotheque

Royale,

Brussels,

MS 11.6288, fos.

1-14.

2.

See

L.

Campbell, 'Rogier

van der

Weyden's

portrait

of

a

knight of

the

Golden Fleece:

the

identity of

the

sitter',

Bulletin

des Musees

Royaux

des

Beaux-Arts de

Belgique, xxi

(1972),

7-16.

3.

See,

e.g., H.

Vander

Linden, Itineraires de

Philippe

le

Bon,

duc de

Bourgogne,

et de

Charles,

comte de

Charolais (1419-67)

(Brussels,

1940), p.

117 for Guillaume

de

Vienne,

called

'monsieur

de

St

Georges'

on

i6

Feb. 1434;

also

AOGV, Reg.I, fo.6'

('seigneur de St

Georges');

fo.27'

('Messire

Guillaume de

Vienne, seigneur de

St

George et de

Sainte

Croix').

4.

Bruyn,

art. cit.,

pp. 17-19.

The

most recent study

of

Beaufort's career

s G. L.

Harriss,

Cardinal

Beaufort

(Oxford,

1988).

S.

See

supra,

p.

340,

Weale,

art.

cit.

(1904),

p.

191

6.

J.

Duverger, 'Brugse

Schilders

ten

tijde van Jan

van

Eyck',

Miscellanea

Erwin

Panofsky

(Brus-

sels,

I

.)

P-

iS.

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11/19

346

CARDINAL HENRY BEAUFORT

April

which a procession through the town was viewed.' This is a valuable

source

of

information for Beaufort's movements on the Continent after

he had officiated at the French coronation of Henry VI at Paris on

i

6

December

I43 I.

His stay

at

Bruges

was

short,

for from

mid-February

to

mid-May

I432

he

was

at

Ghent,

where

on 6

May

he acted as

sponsor

(or godfather)

for the

infant

Josse,

first-born son of

Philip

the Good

and

Isabella of Portugal, at baptism.2

The Duke was at

Dijon

on

that

day, but

a

substantial part

of his court was at Ghent to witness

the

ceremony.3 They may

also have witnessed

a

second event that

took place on exactly the

same

day (6 May I432)

in

the church

of

St

John

-

the

unveiling

and dedication

of the Ghent

altarpiece.4

If

Beaufort saw the Van Eycks' work at that time, he might well have

wished for his own portrait to be painted by Jan,

and there

is,

of

course, a

possibility

that the Dresden

drawing might

have

resulted

from that occasion.

The

portrait could

have been intended as a

gift

to his Burgundian hosts,

or

even

to

his godson.

But there were

many

other

opportunities

which

presented

themselves

on

which

he

could

have been drawn and painted by Jan

van

Eyck. He is known to have

been

in

Bruges from

8 to

i0 March

and on

23

March

I428;

on

7 January

I430

for

Philip

the Good's

marriage celebrations;

and

he

spent April

and May

I433

entirely in the Low Countries.5 His diplomatic missions

of

August-September

I435

to Arras and

of

August-September I439

to

Oye

and

Gravelines,

whence

maritime

Flanders

was

easily accessible,

are well-known.6 There were

in

fact

many

more

occasions

in his

career

than in

that of Cardinal Albergati

when

he might have been

portrayed

by

a

Flemish artist.

Our knowledge

of

Henry

Beaufort's mode of life would

not immedia-

tely disqualify

him

as

a

candidate

for

a Van Eyck portrait.

Poggio, elo-

quent upon Albergati's rigour, had first-hand experienceof Beaufort's

splendour.

He visited

England

in

I429 and,

wrote

Vespasiano, 'had

many

marvellous tales to tell about the wealth of

that

land, especially

concerning

the old

Cardinal

who had directed the

government of

the

i. Ibid., p. i

i

i,

citing

Algemeen Rijksarchief, Brussel,

Rekenkamer reg. 32486,

fo.63',

69'(munici-

pal

accounts for Bruges,

2

Sept.

I43

I-I Sept.

I432).

2. Monstrelet,

Chronique, ed. L. Douet

d'Arcq,

v

(Societe

de

i'Histoire de

France,

Paris,

I86i),

49-50:

'En ce

Temps,

le xivt

'our d'avril, la duchesse de

Bourgongne

s'accoucha

d'un filz en la

ville de Gand, le quel fut leve par le cardinal de Wincestre, Anglois, et les comtes de St Pol et

de

Ligney, freres ..

.'. See

Harriss, op. cit.,

P.

2

I

6.

3. Vander

Linden, op. cit., p. Ioo.

4.

Dhanens, op. Cit.,

p.

48.

S.

Vander Linden, op. cit.,

pp.

62,

68. For

Beaufort's movements in

the Low

Countries between

March

I427 and

May

I433,

see L. B.

Radford, Henry

Beaufort (London,

I908),

pp.

I47-5 I, i65-7,

I93-2I7; G. A. Holmes,

'Cardinal Beaufort and

the crusade against

the Hussites',

ante, lxxxviii

(973),

722,

726-8;

Harriss,

op.

cit.,

pp.

I9I-2I7, 225-9.

6.

See Dickinson, op. cit.,

pp.34-40;

N.

H. Nicolas (ed.),

Proceedings and

Ordinances of the

Privy

Council

(London,

I834-7), v.

335-87;

C. T.

Allmand, 'The Anglo-French

negotiations of

I439',

Bulletin of

the Institute

of

Historical

Research,

xl

(I967),

I-33;

Harriss, op. cit., pp.

247-52,

296-305.

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12/19

I990 AND THE

'ALBERGATI

PORTRAIT

347

kingdom for

many years'.1

His

gold

and silver

plate

was

immensely

valuable and

the Italian merchant

banker

Antonio

dei

Pazzi was

said

to have seen two rooms hung with the richest cloth, one stacked with

Beaufort's silver

vessels,

the other with his

gold

and

silver-gilt plate.

The

tour of this Aladdin's cave ended

with a

viewing

of a

'sumptuous

chamber'

containing

seven chests full of

plate

and

jewels.2

It

would

be

tedious to dwell further

upon

Beaufort's

wealth

-

that

subject

has

already been taken

in hand

by

others.3 For our

purposes,

the

travel-

lers' tales of fabulous wealth can

only point

a

contrast. We are

clearly

at the

other end

of the

ecclesiastical

spectrum

from that in

which Alber-

gati moved.

Henry

Beaufort was

accompanied

to the

congress

of

Arras

in August and early September

I435

by an entourage of soo persons;

Albergati

arrived as

Cardinal-legate

of the Roman

church with a mere

so

in

his retinue.4 The

Venetian chronicler

Antonio

Morosini com-

mented in

February

I

43

I

on the

tiny

following

with

which

Albergati

travelled on his

journey

to arbitrate

Anglo-French

differences.5 Cardi-

nal Henry

Beaufort

may

have achieved

a

certain

tranquillity

during

his last

years, but

he

could

hardly

be

singled

out as

an

exponent

of

apostolic

poverty

and

humility.

He was

perhaps

unusual

among

his

contemporaries,

however,

because there is

a

contemporary

record of

his sense of

humour. On

IOJuly

I439, during

the

Anglo-French

nego-

tiations at

Oye, near

Calais,

rival

prophecies by

a

holy

hermit

and

by

St

Bridget

of

Sweden

were

cited across the

conference chamber.

Beaufort,

perhaps exasperated

by the

proceedings,

then

did

something

which

tends to be rather rare in

medieval

diplomatic documents

-

he

made a joke.

He said

that 'a marriagebetween

the hermit

and St Bridget

would

be a

very good

thing', alluding

perhaps to the

saint's own advo-

cacy

of a

marriage

alliance between

England and

France.6

Weale's

remarkabout the 'pleasant playful smile'7 which he thought he could

see

hovering

about the

mouth

in

the Vienna

portrait and Dresden

draw-

ing might be

taken into

account here.

Beaufort's sudden

flash of humour

would sit

rather

uncomfortably upon the lips

of

CardinalAlbergati.

Yet

Professor

Weiss'

most fundamental

objection to

the identification

with

Albergati was

knowledge not of his

wit (or lack of it)

but of

his

dress.

There is,

moreover, a

certain amount of

evidence

for the

costume

worn

by Cardinal

Beaufort on those

public

occasions in which

he

participated. The

Chronicles

of London record

that at

Beaufort's

i.

Vespasiano, op.

Cit.,

p.

292.

2.

Ibid., pp.

29I-2.

3.

See,

for

example, K. B.

McFarlane,

'At the

Deathbed of

Cardinal

Beaufort',

in R.

W.

Hunt,

W.

A. Pantin

& R.

W.

Southern

(eds.),

Essays in

Medieval

History

presented

to F. M.

Powicke

(Oxford, 1948),

pp.

405-28.

4.

Dickinson, op.

cit.,

pp. 103-4.

S.

Antonio

Morosini,

Chronique, ed. G.

Lefevre-Pontalis, iii

(Paris,

1901), 344-7.

6. See

C. T.

Allmand,

'Documents

relating to the

Anglo-French

negotiations of

1439',

Camden

Miscellany,

xxiv

(London,

1972), ii6.

7.

Weale, art. cit.

(1904), p.

I90.

EHRAprgo



13/19

348

CARDINAL HENRY

BEAUFORT April

receipt of his red hat at Calais on 25

March

I427,

'ther

was putte

upon the bisshop a

cardynall(s) habyte of skarlette

furredwith puredd'

(Julius BII

version).1

Another version (Cleopatra CIV) tells us that

'when

the

bysshope

hadde don the masse and

whas

unrevessed, their

was

don upon hym an abite

in maner of a

ffrerys coope

of

ffyne

scarlett

ffurred with

puryd'.2

The Brut

repeats

this

description

word for

word,

but adds that the

cope

was 'furrid

with

purid

werke'.3

A

garment

trimmed or edged with 'puryd' was one in which the fur was so cut

down that

only

one

colour

(e.g.

white or

grey)

remained.4

On another

occasion of public

ceremony,

Beaufort entered

London on

i

September

I428

wearing, according to Amundesham's Annales

.. .

Sancti

Albani,

a 'cope of crimson velvet called 'crymesyne' with sleeves which covered

the palfrey on which he

rode

from

the

ears

to the

crupper, and a hood

like

a scholastic cape

(capae scholasticae)

furred with

miniver'.5

Yet

the

most interesting

description

of Beaufort's

attire is given

by

William

Gregory, later mayor of London, in his

account

of the

coronation

of the

seven-year-old

Henry

VI

at

Westminster on

6

November

I429.6

Beaufort had

returned from his anti-Hussite

crusading

activities for

the occasion, and on

the very same

day,

declared the

Brut,

'came

fro

byonde

the

see to his coronacion and

feste'.7

Gregory

described

the

order of

procession

from the

Abbey

to

Westminster Hall, led

by

the

new knights of the

Bath and the other

lords: 'thenne came the chancelor

with

hys crosse

bareheddyd;

and

aftyr hym

came the

cardenelle with

hys

crosse

in

hys abyte lyke a chanon yn a

garment

of

rede

chamelett,

furryd wythe whyte

menyver

...

.'8

The

cloth known

as

'chamelett'

or

'camelot'

in

the fifteenth

century

was

a

wool-based

serge or repp,

which had a smooth nap or pile and was not

considered to be

a coarse

or

inferior material.9 It

would not be unlike the cloth in

which

the

subject of the Vienna portrait is dressed. The cappa clausa

-

a cloak

or

cape

sewn

up

in front for

common outdoor use

-

which is there

represented, would

correspond with

Gregory's account

-

indeed, it

is

even

furred with white

miniver.

A

garment which

bears such close

similarities to

those described

by

the witnesses of

ceremonies in which

Beaufort took part

may lend some

support to what is no more than

i. C. L.

Kingsford

(ed.),

Chronicles of

London

(Oxford,

I9?5),

p.

95.

2.

Ibid., p. 131.

3.

F. W. D. Bries (ed.), The Brut or the Chroniclesof England, ii (London, Early English Text

Society, I908),

434.

4.

M[iddle] E[nglish]

D[ictionary]

(Oxford,

1974),

p.

489;

S[horter]

O[xford]

E[nglish]

Dfictionary]

(Oxford,

1970),

ii.

I622:

'pured'. Beaufort is known

to have

received

a

livery

of 'a fur

of

pured

menyver' as

chaplain to

the Garter

(Hants

Record

Office,

Bishop's Reg. 12,

fo.

SSv).

S. SeeJ.

Amundesham, Annales . ..

SanctiAlbani

(London,

Rolls

Series, I870-I),

pp. 26,

28.

6.

J.

Gairdner

(ed.),

Historical Collections

of

a

Citizen

of

London in

the

Fifteenth

Century (Camden

Society,

London, I876),

p.

i65.

7. The Brut,

p.

437;

Radford, op.

cit., p. 176.

8.

Historical

Collections ...

of London,

p.

i

68.

9. See

SOED, i.

254:

'Camlet';

F. Piponnier,

Costume et Vie

Sociale. La

cour

dAnjou,

xive-xve

siecle

(Paris/The

Hague,

1970),

p.

38I: 'Camelot,

Chamelot'; MED, p.

I II:

'Chamlit'.

EHRAprgo



14/19

I990

AND THE


349

a

conjecture. That a man

such as he should have

chosen to

be

portrayed

in

such a

manner is

no cause for

surprise.1

What is cause for a certain surprise is the lack of any distinguishing

insignia or

emblem,

especially

of an

heraldic

kind,

on

the Vienna

por-

trait.

Beaufort's arms (or

anyone

else's for

that

matter)

are nowhere

to

be

found,

and

there is

no

reference to a red

hat. The

picture

may

not, however,

be

complete

as it

stands

today.

Although X-ray

pho-

tography

has not

revealed

any

under-painting,

there is

evidence of

eigh-

teenth-century

over-painting

towards the

edges,

and it is

known that

the four

corners of the

picture

were sawn off

C.

I

720

but

restored before

I783.2 This means that its

original

frame

must have

perished

at

some

time before

I720.

Now the inventory of Leopold William's collection

indicates the

dimensions of

the

painting

as it was in

i659.

If

the late

nineteenth-century

editor of that

document was

right

in

his calculation

of

equivalents, the Vienna

portrait has been

cut down

since

i659

by

about 7

cm.

in

height

and

about

io

cm.

in

width.3 The

original

panel

might then

have

included

a

coat-of-arms or

some other

distinguishing

device. That

we can never

know. Nor can the

portrait be

fruitfully

compared

with

other

surviving

pictorial

representations

of Cardinal

Beaufort. Such books

as are left from his

library

contain

no

illuminated

likenesses of him either

as a donor or

recipient.4 His

effigy upon

his tomb in

Winchester cathedral is of little

help,

because it is a

seven-

teenth-century

replacement of the

original

destroyed

during

the

Civil

War. The

earliest

illustration that I

have

yet

found is an

engraving

'delineated from

the

original

in

i665',

and

the

only portion

of

the

fifteenth-century

inscription

which has

survived

Puritan

desecration

carries

the

appropriate

words:

'I

should tremble

did I

not know

thy

mercies

. The

effigy is a

figure

of a

Cardinal in

late

seventeenth-

century style, and from it a stained-glasshead of Beaufort in the buttery

windows of

Queen's

College,

Oxford

is clearly

derived.6

This is not

medieval

glass, and

forms

part of a

window

given in the

seventeenth

century

by

a

post-Restoration

Provost. But

there are

two other

contem-

porary (or

near-contemporary) sources

for the

Cardinal's

features: the

I. E.

Bishop,

Liturgica

Historica

(Oxford, I9I8),

p.

266.

2. See

Baldass, op.

cit., p.

280; Katalog

der

Gemaldegalerie,

ii.

S.

3.

'Inventar ...

Leopold

Wilhelm

von

Oesterreich',

pp.

lxxxv,

cxxi,

no.

I09.

4.

See New College, Oxford, MS B

34;

Bodleian Library, MS Bodley,

II7;

cf G. Voigt, Die

Wiederbelebung

des

classischen

Alterthums,

ii

(Berlin, I896),

254.

A

search

of his

surviving

register

as

Bishop of

Winchester

(Hants.

Record

Office,

Bishop's Reg.

12)

produced no

information about

Beaufort's

books

or

any

paintings

in his

possession. His

will,

printed

by J.

Nichols, A

Collection

of

Royal

Wills

(London, 1780),

pp.

321-4I, refers

to

'ymaginibus

meis' of

the Virgin

and the

angel

Gabriel, 2

missals

and a

breviary (p.

324).

I

have not

found

any

reference to

paintings

commissioned

by

Beaufort.

S.

F.

Sandford, A

Genealogical

History

of the

Kings and

Queens

of

England

and

Monarchs of

Great

Britain

(London,

1707),

pp.

261-2

and

plate.

6.

See R.

N.

Quirk,

'The

Tomb

of

Cardinal

Beaufort',

Winchester

Cathedral

Record, xxiii

(I954),

6-I0;

Royal

Commission

on

Historic

Monuments,

England,

An

Inventory

of the

Historical

Monu-

ments in

the

City of

Oxford

(London,

1939),

p.

99.

Sandford,

op.

cit.,

p.

260.

EHRAprgo



15/19

350

CARDINAL HENRY BEAUFORT April

statue set into a niche on the tower of the

Hospital of St Cross at

Winchester,

and the corbel-like bust

of a

Cardinal discovered among

the remains of his episcopal palace of Bishop's Waltham.1

Beaufort's association with the 'house of noble poverty' dedicated

to

St Cross

at

Winchester

is

very

well-documented.

Founded

by Henry

of Blois

in

II36,

it

was

virtually

re-founded

and

re-built

by

Beaufort

between I

420

and

his death on

I

I April

I

447.2

Building

works

appar-

ently began

with the

chimneys

of the brothers' houses and ended

with

Beaufort's tower, hall and chapel. On the

north

side of the

tower,

a niche houses a statue of the Cardinal, kneeling, wearing

his red

hat,

which is said to be contemporary

with the

building

itself.

Although

no building or fabric accounts survive, it seems reasonable to assume

that the statue was intended for the niche, that it was

in

position by

I446-7 and that the empty

niches

to its left contained

sculptures

of

the Virgin, and, perhaps,

of

Henry

of Blois.3

Unfortunately,

the face

of

Beaufort's statue is so badly damaged

and eroded

through exposure

to the elements

that all one

can say

about

it is that the

residual heavy

features would not

conflict

with those recorded

by Jan

van

Eyck's

Vienna portrait. Beyond that,

one cannot

at

present go.

But the evi-

dence from

Bishop's

Waltham

is better

preserved

and

accordingly

more

helpful.

Beaufort was

engaged

in major

building

works there between

I427

and

I447,

beginning

a new

programme

of work

in

I437.

The

bust of a

Cardinal

found

among

the remains of the

palace may

have

been

a

corbel

to

support

a

vaulting

rib

in

the

chapel

or

gatehouse.

It shows

a

figure wearing a be-tasselled

red

hat,

with one hand

placed

on its

left

breast.

The features of the

effigy,

with its broad

face, slightly pro-

truding lower lip and sharply arched eyebrows

would also not conflict

with the physiognomy of the sitter

in the Vienna portrait. It is difficult

to assign it a precise date. But the evidence suggests a date eitherwithin

Beaufort's

lifetime,

or at a later

stage

of

the fifteenth century, perhaps

during

a

further

campaign

of

works at

Bishop's

Waltham in the

I490S.4

Yet this

inquiry, unsatisfactory so far, does

not

end there. The seven-

teenth

century may

have been

responsible

for the destruction of Beau-

fort's tomb-effigy but it also saw the production of a record of the

Vienna

portrait

as it

was when it entered

the

collection

of the

Archduke

i. See W. T.

Warren, St

Cross

Hospital

near Winchester:

ts History and

Buildings (Winchester/

London,

I899),

p. i8, and pl. facing p. i8; Harriss, op. cit.,

p.

369, n.

75-

I

am grateful to Dr

J. N. Hare for furtherinformation on the

Bishop's Waltham sculpture.

2. See W.

Dugdale, Monasticon, vi,

II

(London, I830),

pp.

721-4; Victoria

County History,

Hants

and Isle of Wight (London, 1903), ii- I95-6; V.

66-7. Beaufort was exhorted

by

a

Carthusian

monk

of Sheen to

console and aid the poor 'dum

tempus

habetur et

in

potestate

vestra sunt

remedia ...

ut redimere possetur peccata vestra ... ': (MS

Bodley

II 7, fo.

i

8'). Also

G.

Belfield, 'Cardinal Beau-

fort's almshouse of

noble poverty at St

Cross, Winchester,'

Proc.

Hants.

Field

Club and Arch.

Soc., xxxviii

(I982),

79-91.

3.

Radford, op. cit., p. 293.

I

am indebted to

Mrs

Barbara

CarpenterTurner, Honorary Archivist

of St

Cross

Hospital, for information concerning the muniments of the

Hospital.

4. See

Harriss, op. cit.,

pp.

368-9 and Plate ii. The

building history

of

the episcopal palace will

be fully

discussed by Dr J. N. Hare in a forthcoming work.

EHRAprgo



16/19

I990

AND THE


35I

Leopold William of

Austria. Few of the

scholars who have

so far

studied

the

painting

have yet

exploited evidence

for the

post-fifteenth-century

history of the work and its 'fortune' before

i659.

Its inclusion, promi-

nently

displayed,

in

David Teniers the

Younger's picture

of a

Gallery

or

Cabinet

d'Amateur

(London,

Seilern

Collection),

helps

to

confirm

the date

and manner of its

entry

into the

archducal

collection.1

This

can

now be

established as

S

April

I648,

according

to an

annotation

by

the

Antwerp

art

collector

and dealer

Peeter

Stevens

in

his

copy

of

Carel van

Mander's

Schilder-Boek

(i6

i8).2

Stevens

wrote:

Also in

PeeterStevens'

possession,

a fine

portrait

by Jan

van

Eyck

dated

1438

and representinghe cardinalof SantaCroce,who at thattime was

sent

by the

Pope

to

Bruges

to

make

peace

between Duke

Philip

and

the

Dauphin

of

France n thematter f

his father's eath.

This s now

the

property

of

Archduke

Leopold,

who

purchased

t

on

S AprilI

648.3

If the

portrait was

indeed dated

I438,

it

was most

unlikely

to

be a

representation

of

'the

Cardinal of Santa

Croce'

because

Albergati was

at no

time at

Bruges,

or

anywhere

else

in

the Low

Countries,

during

that

year.

But

Stevens' statement that

he sold the

picture

to the

Arch-

duke in

I648

is a

valuable

addition to the

corpus

of

evidence

relating

to its

subsequent

history. Teniers'

Gallery or

Cabinet

d'Amateur

pic-

ture

may indeed

represent

its

purchase,

possibly by

Teniers

himself

(as

Leopold

William's

picture curator from

I647

onwards) in

Peeter

Stevens'

Constkamer

in

April

I648.4

Stevens

was

probably the

source

for

the

identification of

the Vienna

portrait in

the

i659

inventory of

Leopold William's

collection

and he is

therefore

our

earliest

authority

for

the

sitter's

identity.

But his

erroneous

dating

of

Albergati's diploma-

tic

activity

and his

substitution of

Bruges

for Arras

as its

location

arouses

suspicion. He may simply be retailing an existing tradition (or myth)

which had

attached itself

to

the

picture,

possibly

stemming from

a

misreading

of an

inscription on

its

original

frame.

If the

recorded

date

was

I438 then

there

would be

much firmer

grounds

for

iden-

tifying the

sitter as

Cardinal

Beaufort

rather than

Cardinal

Albergati.

Beaufort

was at

Gravelines

and

Calais in

December

I43 8.5

The

evidence of

Stevens'

annotation

must

therefore

be treated

with

great

i.

See J.

Denuce, De

Antwerpsche

'Konstkamers'

Inventarissen

van

Kunstverzamelingen

te

Antwerpen in

de

W6en

17'

Eeuwen,

ii

(Antwerp,

1932), pl.

I3;

S.

Speth-Holterhoff,

Les

Peintres

Flamandsde

Cabinets

dAmateurs

au xvii

siecle

(Brussels,

1957),

pp.

129-30.

2.

See J.

Briels,

'Amator

Pictoriae

Artis.

De

Antwerpse

Kunstverzamelaar

Peeter

Stevens

(i590-i668)

en zijn

Constkamer',

Jaarboek van

het

Koninklijk Museum

voor

Schone

Kunsten,

Antwerp

(I980),

pp.

137-226,

esp.

pp. i8o-6, 21

1.

3.

Translated

in

E.

Dhanens,

HubertandJan

van

Eyck

(New

York,

i985),

pp.

286-7.

4.

Speth-Holterhoff,

op.

cit.,

pp.

132-4;

Denuce,

op. cit.,

i.

3-8.

For a

reproduction

of

Teniers'

picture,

see

Dhanens,

op.

cit.,

fig.

177,

captioned as

'Peeter

Stevens'

'constkamer'

at

Antwerp'.

S.

Harriss,

op.

cit., pp.

286,

296.

EHR

Apr

go



17/19

352 CARDINAL

HENRY

BEAUFORT April

caution and the view that the

Vienna portrait's

identification as

Albergati 'can

no

longer be disputed' seems

premature and over-

confident.'

On the other

hand,

the

descriptions

of

I648

and

i659

which

refer

to the sitter as 'the

Cardinal

of

St

Cross' continue to furnish the

evidence

upon which

all

arguments

seeking

to rule out other

identifications

ulti-

mately rest. Henry Beaufort never bore the

title

of

Cardinal-priest

of Santa

Croce

in

Jerusalem

at

Rome.

Yet a

possible explanation

of

the

association of

this title with the

picture

may

lie in the

story

of

yet

another

fifteenth-century

painting

of a Cardinal.

The attribution of a

panel

of

StJerome

in his

Study,

now

at

Detroit,

dated

I442,

has been the subject of dispute.2 Is this by Jan van Eyck

or Petrus Christus? Professor

Panofsky argued

that the

picture

was

begun by

Van

Eyck

before

his

death

in

I44I

and was

completed

by

the far less gifted Petrus Christus.3

Be

that as it

may,

an address

inscribed on a

letter,

which lies on the Saint's

desk, runs as follows:

'Reverendissimo in Christo

patri

et

domino,

domino

Jeronimo,

tituli

Sancte Crucis inJherusalem

presbytero

cardinali'.

Although

the histori-

cal

Jerome

was

not,

and could not have

been,

a

Cardinal,

Dominican

legend awarded

him a red hat but

either attributed no title to

him,

or gavehim that of St Anastasia.

4

He is nowhere known as the

Cardinal

of St

Cross.

Why

then should the artist

of

the

Detroit

panel so entitle

him on the

letter which

lies

before

him?

Panofsky suggested

that

the

picture

was

commissioned

by

Albergati,

and made

much of the

appear-

ance of a

painting

of St

Jerome,

attributed to

Jan van Eyck, in

the

Medici

Collection

in

I492.5

The

inventory

of

that

collection, made

at

Lorenzo's death, refers to 'a small

Flemish

painting

of

St Jerome

in his study,

with a small

cupboard containing books in

perspective,

and a lion at his feet, a work of Master John of Bruges, done in oil

with a

cover'.6

It

is impossible to

tell whether

this was the Detroit

panel.

That it

should be found in an Italian

collection in the late

fifteenth

century

does not

necessarily

connect

it

with Albergati

-

the

Medici

I.

Dhanens, op.

cit., p. 284;

Briels, art.

cit., pp. i8o-i.

2. E. Panofsky,

'A letter to St

Jerome: a note on

the

relationship

between

Petrus Christus

&

Jan

van

Eyck', in Studies in

Art and

Literature

... .for Belle da

Costa

Greene, ed. D.

Miner

(Princeton,

1954), pp. 102-8.

3.

Ibid.,

p. 103; cf.

Ingvar

Bergstrom,

'Medicina, Fons et

Scrinium. A Study in

Van

Eyckian

Symbolism and its

Influence in Italian

Art',

Konsthistorick

Tidshrift,xxvi (1957),

1-20;

E. C. Hall,

'Cardinal

Albergati,

St Jerome

and

the

Detroit

Van

Eyck', Art

Quarterly,

xxxi

(1968), 2-34; idem,

'More

about the Detroit

Van

Eyck:

the

astrolabe,

the

Congress of

Arras and

Cardinal

Albergati',

ibid.,

xxxiv

(I971),

I80-201.

4.

Panofsky, art. cit.,

pp.

i06-7; see also P.

Monceaux, St Jerome.

The

Early Years

(London,

1933),

pp.v-vi; and, most

recently, J. N. D.

Kelly,

Jerome, His Life,

Writings, and

Controversies

(London,

1975),

pp.

83,

334-

S.

Panofsky, art. cit.,

pp.

I07-8; Bergstrom,

art.

cit.,

pp.

2-3.

For

the Medici

inventory

of

1492

see E.

Muntz, Les collectionsdes

Medicis au

xV'

siecle

(Paris/London,

i888), pp. 58-95.

6.

Ibid.,

p.

78.

EHRAprgo



18/19

I990

AND

THE 'ALBERGATI PORTRAIT

353

bank,

after

all,

had a branch

at

Bruges.1

A

Netherlandish MS

illumina-

tion

of

C.I455,

closely derived

from the

painting,

may

mean that

it

was still in the Low Countries at that time.2 Panofsky's notion that

the

picture

is a

'witty compliment'

to

Albergati, greeting

him as a

'lineal successor

of St Jerome'

imposes

a certain

strain on one's

credu-

lity.3 The only examples

of a

near-contemporary

Cardinal

represented

as St Jerome

that

I

have

discovered

so far are two

panels,

dated

I

525

and

I527,

painted

by

Lucas Cranach

the Elder.4

Here,

Cardinal

Albrecht

of Brandenburg,

Archbishop

of

Mainz,

sits in his

study

sur-

rounded by

the apparatus

of

scholarship.

Given the

paucity

of fifteenth-

century

evidence

for this

iconographical

tradition,

one must

clearly

view Panofsky's theory with caution. Professor Weiss suggested that

the

artist

of the Detroit panel simply gave

his

Jerome

'the

only

Cardi-

nal's title

that

he

knew'.5

If

Petrus Christus

or

van

Eyck

were hard

up for a

formal title to

give

St

Jerome,

then

they might

be

forgiven

for

awarding

him

that

held by Albergati.

But this

certainly

need not

imply the

automatic identification

of

Jerome

with the CarthusianCardi-

nal of

St Cross.

It was well-known

that

Jerome

had

lived at Rome

between

382

and

385

as

secretary

to

Pope

Damasus L.6 The titular

church of Santa Croce

in

Gerusalemme,

at

Rome,

which

a

Flemish

artistof the

I430S

and

40S

would perhapshaveknown as a result of

Albergati's

missions as

papal

legate, provided

a

sound and authentic

enough address

for aletterto StJerome.

A

fifteenth-century

manuscript

illumination

in

the Walters

Art Gallery

shows Augustine (who was

thought to

have corresponded

with

Jerome)

in his study, addressing

a letter to

'Jheronimo

presbytero'.7

If

the

letter

in

the

Detroit panel

is derived from this kind

of

iconographical

tradition, the artist simply

needed a Roman titular church

for his Jerome.

There was one to hand

in Albergati's well-known title.

An

alternative explanation

for the association

of the title 'von Santa

Cruce'

with

Jan

van

Eyck's

Vienna

portrait

might be proposed. Pro-

fessor

Weiss posited the existence

of an original frame for the

portrait

which

may

have borne an inscription including

the words

'de Sancta

i. For Flemish

paintings in

Italy in the fifteenth century

see A.

Warburg, 'Flandrische Kunst

und

Florentinische

Fruhrenaissance.

Studien' and

'Flandrische und Florentinische

Kunst im

Kreise

des Lorenzo

Medici um 1480', Gesammelte

Schriften,

i

(Leipzig/Berlin,

1932),

i85-206,

207-12;

L. Campbell, 'The Art Market in the Southern Netherlands in the fifteenth century', Burlington

Magazine,

cxviii (

976), 189, 197.

2.

Walters Art Gallery,

Baltimore, MS 721, fo.277v;

Panofsky, art. cit., p. 102

and fig.

5i.

3.

Ibid., p.

107.

4.

Hessisches Landesmuseum,

Darmstadt.

See

F.

Back, Verzeichnis der

Gemalde

(Darmstadt,

1914), pp-

53-4, no.

71.

Also F.

Thone, Lucas

Cranach der Altere

(K6nigstein im Taunus,

I965),

pl.

6i; and for a representation

of Albrecht of

Brandenburg as St Jerome

in a landscape

see W.

Schade, Die

Materfamilie Cranach (Dresden,

1974),

pl.

142,

p.

84.

S.

Weiss,

art.

cit.,

p.

147.

6.

See Kelly, op.

cit., pp.

82-4,

333-4;J. Steinmann, St

jerome

(London,

i'pg),

pp. I I

I-i

5.

7.

Walters Art

Gallery, MS 304,

fo. 59; Panofsky, art. cit., p.

io6, fig.

So.

EHRAprgo



19/19

354

CARDINAL HENRY

BEAUFORT

April

Cruce'.'

If we are going

to

move into the

world of hypothetical

picture-frames,

then an

association

with St

Cross might evoke

rather

different resonances in English ears. An inscription, or simply an oral

tradition,

which

referred to the

sitter as

a founder

of the hospital

of

St Cross might

equally

well

be

proposed.

Although

no conclusive

evidence

has yet been

discovered

to

substantiate

Beaufort's

claim,

Albergati seems

by contrast

an

even less likely

candidate. There

is

no direct

contemporary

evidence

to support

him;

he has a title,

associated

with

the

picture

in the seventeenth

century,

behind him;

but little else.

If

the face which

looks out

from

Jan

van

Eyck's portrait

with

its 'keen

scrutinising

glance'

is that

of

a

Cardinal-diplomat,

art-

historians may simply have chosen the wrong Cardinal. It would not

be too difficult

to see

in it

the face

of a

statesman

and financier whose

business

brought

him

so

often to

the

Burgundian

lands.

StJohn's

College, Oxford

MALCOLM VALE

I. Weiss, art. cit., p.

147:

'dominus de Sancta Cruce' is

the title which Weiss

proposed.

EHR Apr

go

Cardinal Henry Beaufort and the 'Albergati' Portrait

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Transcript of Cardinal Henry Beaufort and the 'Albergati' Portrait