Portrait of Philip the Good (1369-1467), Duke of Burgundy

The support with engaged frame consists of two diagonally grained oak planks (32.6 and 6.1 cm). The reverse is covered with black paint. The entire support, along with the frame, was given a white ground. No underdrawing could be detected with infrared reflectography. The paint was applied thinly. Brushstrokes are clearly visible in the background, and the underlying ground shows through. Brown and yellow paint were used to suggest gold.

Fair. There is discoloured retouching, especially in the face and tile floor. The thick varnish has yellowed slightly.

…; ? collection Sir V. Houllon, Malta;¹¹According to the label on the reverse of SK-A-3835....; donated by the dealer  G. Wildenstein, New York, with pendant, SK-A-3836, to the museum, 1952

ObjectNumber: SK-A-3835

Credit line: Gift of Kunsthandel G. Wildenstein

This portrait tondo and its pendant (SK-A-3836 depict the Burgundian dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold in their capacity as the first two sovereigns of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Philip founded the order in January 1430 and served as its sovereign until his death in Bruges on 15 June 1467. Thereafter, his son Charles succeeded him and governed the order until 5 January 1477, when he was killed at the Battle of Nancy in Lorraine.²²See Pastoureau 1996a on the history of the order under the two sovereigns.

Both Philip and Charles are shown at full length, facing to the right and left respectively. They are each situated in the corner of a room with grey walls and a green-and-grey tiled floor. When the portraits are placed side by side, however, the two rooms do not form a single cohesive space. The dukes’ mottoes and coats of arms, each surrounded by the official collar of the order and surmounted by a crown, appear beside their heads on the upper portion of the panels. Both figures appear in the ceremonial dress worn at chapter meetings, a long red robe lined with white fabric and embroidered in gold with the symbols of the Order of the Golden Fleece: the X-shaped cross of St Andrew, patron saint of the order and of the Burgundian house, and the steel, flint and fleece that make up the order’s official collar.³³On the robe, see Pippal in Brussels 1987, pp. 160-61, no. 55; on the symbols of the order see Pastoureau 1996b. The sovereigns each wear the collar around their necks and a red chaperon on their heads. Pinned to Philip’s chaperon is a gold hat jewel with a hanging pearl.⁴⁴This pin closely resembles the one hanging from Philip’s hat in a bust-length portrait, sometimes considered a copy after Rogier van der Weyden, in Bruges, Groeningemuseum; De Vos 1999 pp. 372-73, no. B13 (ill.), with additional literature.

The full-length format of these portraits is extremely unusual for 15th-century panel painting. Their most likely models are the full-length illuminated portraits that first appear in manuscripts of the Order of the Golden Fleece in the late 15th century. This connection was first proposed by Van Luttervelt, who also suggested that the tondo format of the portraits was inspired by the mid-15th century manuscript illuminations in ‘Les chroniques de Jérusalem abrégées’ in Vienna.⁵⁵Österreichische Nationalbibliothek; Pächt ‘et al.’ 1983, pp. 61-77, no. 2533; Van Luttervelt 1951a, p. 193. Yet given the prevalence of the tondo format, particularly for portraits, there is no need to identify such a specific model. A manuscript of the ‘Statuts [...] de l’Ordre de la Toison d’Or’ (Statutes [...] of the Order of the Golden Fleece) preserved in The Hague,⁶⁶Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Hs 76 E10. dated c. 1473, is one of the earliest examples to include a series of full-length portraits of the sovereigns and knights of the order dressed in ceremonial robes and standing in an interior with a tiled floor.⁷⁷Korteweg 1996b, pp. 50-55. The figures in the Rijksmuseum paintings, however, bear the closest resemblance to the portraits in an armorial in the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels made between 1559 and 1580.⁸⁸Ms. 9080, fol. 17v; Brussels 1987, pp. 102-03, no. 26. See also Brussels 1977, pp. 63, 190-93, nos. 89-90, 92, for other manuscripts with full-length portraits of knights. The portrait of Charles the Bold in the latter manuscript (fig. a) is essentially identical in costume, pose and facial features to the panel painting of Charles. The Rijksmuseum portraits and the Brussels illuminations probably derive from a common late 15th-century model.

M. Bass

Amsterdam 1951, p. 3, no. 9; Van Luttervelt 1951a, p. 193

1956, p. 252, nos. 344E1-2; 1960, p. 18, nos. 344 E1-2; 1976, p. 688, nos. A 3835, A 3836 (as second half 15th century; pictures and inscriptions switched)

M. Bass, 2010, 'anonymous, Portrait of Philip the Good (1369-1467), Duke of Burgundy, Southern Netherlands, c. 1460 - c. 1480', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10006