Jan Borman II (? Neerlinter c. 1460 - Brussels c. 1520) and the Borman workshop

The prominent Brussels sculptor Jan Borman, or Borreman(s), was rediscovered by the Leuven city archivist Van Even in 1876. The sculptor, described in a Brussels’ document drawn up in 1513 as the beste meester beeldsnijdere (best master sculptor) is part of an influential sculptors-dynasty, two members of which (his father Jan I and son Jan III) confusingly are likewise named ‘Jan’. In the 1930’s and 80’s the biographical and archival knowledge on the Borman-dynasty was greatly enhanced through efforts by De Borchgrave d’Altena and D’Hainaut-Zveny, and again updated in 2019 by Debaene and Dumortier.²²M. Debaene, ‘A Survey of Archiveal Sources’, in M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 47-53; C. Dumortier, ‘A Sculptor’s Family of Leuven in Brussels and Antwerp: Some New Information about the Bormans’, in ibid., pp. 57-61.

In 1479, the name of Jan Borman – also referred to as Jan II, or ‘the Great’ in distinguishing him from his father, Jan I (c. 1440-1502/3) – appears for the first time in the city register of Brussels in connection with his citizenship and entry into the sculptor’s guild. He therefore originated from elsewhere, with some strong indications pointing to Leuven, where his father – who lived in the nearby town of Neerlinter – is considered to have been active from about 1460 until his death.

While few details are known about his life, certain is that Jan II had a brother, Willem I, who might also have worked as a sculptor, and at least two sons, Pasquier (c. 1470-1537?) and Jan III (c. 1480-?), who both assisted in their father’s workshop and later entered the same guild, respectively in the years 1492 and 1499. Other Borman-family members who were probably active in the workshop are Maria Borman (d. 1545, Jan III’s wife or sister?) and Willem II (c. 1518?-before 1599, Pasquier’s son). Jan II was highly active in the cultural and social life of Brussels, serving as an administrator of the rhetorical chamber, a member of the Seven Sorrows Confraternity.³³E.S. Thelen (ed.), The Seven Sorrows Confraternity of Brussels: Drama, Ceremony, and Art Patronage (16th-17th centuries), Turnhout 2015, pp. 94-102. Jan II was active until around 1516 and is likely to have died in or around 1520, as his name no longer appears in archival documents after this time.

His most important work is the St George Altar, completed in 1493 for the Great Guild of the Crossbow for their chapel of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Ginderbuiten in Leuven. Although he produced at least two other altarpieces for the cities of Leuven and Turnhout, only the St George Altar has survived, since 1813 preserved at the Art and History Museum in Brussels.⁴⁴Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 362. Remarkably, the altar has been signed, thus clearly conveying a self-awareness of his ability and status as an artist. In fact, the Borman family placed their signature on a number of their carved altarpieces – also those in Herentals (signed by Pasquier) and in Güstrow (signed by Jan III) – a practice that was highly exceptional for Netherlandish sculptors at this time. The Borman workshop created several altarpieces for the German, Scandinavian and Spanish export markets and at least one altarpiece is known to have found its way to Italy (Mondovi).⁵⁵M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, nos. 107, 111, 112, 171-86, 225-27, 236-39, 241, 242, 262 and 264.

In 1511, Jan Borman II was asked to provide the wooden models for life-size bronze statues, to be cast by Renier van Thienen I (active c. 1465-d. 1498), that were destined for the balustrade enclosing the forecourt (Baliënhof) of the Coudenberg Ducal Palace in Brussels after designs by the court painter Jan van Roome (active 1498-1521). Jan II had previously collaborated with Van Thienen on the tomb of Mary of Burgundy in Bruges in circa 1490-98. On stylistic grounds, Borman likely also carved the wooden models for Isabella of Burgundy’s tomb in Antwerp, of which ten surviving bronze weepers are today preserved in the Rijksmuseum (BK-AM-33). The Borman style was highly influential in the first decades of the sixteenth century and the family workshop was continued until the late 1540’s.

In 2019, the Museum M in Leuven organized an exhibition on the Borman dynasty. In the accompanying catalogue, Lefftz and Debaene attempted to define the creative identity and artistic development of individual family members, resulting in a fundamental reordering and major expansion of the oeuvre.⁶⁶M. Debaene ‘The Death and Rise of the Leuven Late Gothic Sculpture Centre’, in M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019, pp. 62-63; M. Lefftz, ‘The creative identity of the Bormans: A stylistic approach’ in ibid., pp. 65-99; M. Lefftz and M. Debaene, ‘Summary Catalogue of the Borman Dynasty and Workshop’, in ibid. pp. 178-293. In many cases based on presumption and stylistic arguments, their findings led to substantial shifts. Sculptures previously linked to the most renowned member of the Borman family, Jan II, as well as other anonymous Leuven masters, including the Master of the Arenberg Lamentation, the Master of Piétrebais and the Master of Christ on the Cold Stone, were now reassigned to an oeuvre of approximately sixty pieces ascribed to father Jan I, a sculptor to whom in fact no surviving sculptures can be attributed unequivocally. In Lefftz and Debaene’s vision, the Borman style originated in Jan I’s workshop in Leuven, where Jan II first acquired his skills before moving on to Brussels. Grandson Pasquier was linked to works such as the alabaster statuettes on the tomb monuments of Margaret of Bourbon, her husband and mother-in-law in the Monastère royale de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse, while Jan III and Maria were chiefly typecast as conservative and inferior sculptors, merely capable of repeating previously devised formulas. In light of the stylistic cohesion of a majority of the works, however, attributions to individual artistic personalities within the Borman workshop prove perilous when founded solely on stylistic criteria. Moreover, a close collaboration between family members, apprentices and assistants undoubtedly existed in the workshop, with larger commissions even involving working associations with other studios, as was common practice at this time. On the other hand, a number of the attributed sculptures display only a minimal stylistic agreement with the Borman family’s core works, suggesting little more than an origin in the same artistic circle.

Marie Mundigler and Bieke van der Mark, 2024

References
J. de Borchgrave d’Altena, Le retable de Saint Georges de Jan Borman, Brussels 1947; M. Debaene (ed.), Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2019; E. van Even, ‘L’auteur du retable de 1493 du Musée de la Porte de Hal à Bruxelles’, Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie 16 (1877), pp. 581-98; E. van Even, ‘Maître Jean Borman, le grand sculpteur belge de la fin du XVe siècle’, Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie 23 (1884), pp. 397-426; B. D’Hainault-Zveny, ‘La dynastie Borreman (XVe-XVIe s.). Crayon généalogique et analyse comparative des personnalités artistiques’, Annales d’histoire de l’art et d’archeologie V (1983), pp. 47-66; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 40-45; H. Nieuwdorp, ‘Einige Bemerkungen zu den Bormanns, ihren Werkstätten und der Zusammenarbeit’, in C. Périer-D’Ieteren et al., Der Passions-Altar der Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Güstrow. Historische und Technologische Studie, Brussels 2014, pp. 169-73; E. Pegues, ‘Jan Borreman’s Wooden Models for Bronze Sculpture: A Documentary Reconstruction’, Artibus et Historiae 76 (2017), pp. 181-204; F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, pp. 46-48; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 4, Leipzig 1910, pp. 364-65

Renier van Thienen I (active in Brussels c. 1465-d. 1498)

Renier van Thienen (or Reynier/ Reynere/ Rogier van Tienen/ van Naenhoven) is known to us through documents from the city of Brussels, where he was the main bronze founder of the Burgundian court. The Van Thienens were an artistic family, with both his father or brother Jan van Naenhoven being a bronze caster as well as his own son, also called Renier (II).

Van Thienen I is documented as a bronze founder from 1465 onward, placing his estimated birthdate around 1430. His name suggests he was born in Tienen (present-day Belgium), though no archival verification exists. He is cited as holding various posts in the Brussels city government, acting in the role of tax collector, member of the Wijde Raad (City Council) in 1476 and 1491, and even burgomaster in 1485 and 1490. Together with his position at court, Renier van Thienen must have been an influential and important man, both politically and as an artist.

In 1473, Van Thienen married Julienne de Beer, with whom he begot several children. Of his three sons, his namesake Renier was the eldest, who also followed in his father’s footsteps as a bronze founder. Van Thienen is certain to have died prior to June 1498, as a document from this time lists his wife as a widow.

Only a few of Van Thienen’s commissioned works have survived, others are only known through archival documents. His earliest known work, a lost lectern for the Sint-Jacob-op-de-Koudenbergkerk in Brussels, dates from 1465. In 1468 Van Thienen was commissioned to cast 54 copper knobs for the carriage of the Duchess of Burgundy. In subsequent years, he is also known to have cast lighting fixtures for the local Sint-Goedelekerk and the Rekenkamer (Chamber of Accounts). From circa 1482 through 1484, he was commissioned to cast paschal candelabra for the churches of Sint-Leonardus in Zoutleeuw, the Sint-Pieterskerk in Leuven and Averbode Abbey. Only the one at Zoutleeuw has survived to the present day. Three supporting lions of this imposing structure are preserved in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, as well as a brass statuette of St Leonard which stood atop a lost arched candelabrum Van Thienen had cast for the same church somewhat earlier.⁷⁷Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. KB 63.

Van Thienen was also in charge of the commission of the monumental tomb of Mary of Burgundy in 1488-98. On this project, he collaborated with the sculptor Jan II Borman (who provided the models), the goldsmiths Pieter de Backere and Lieven van Lathem and the painter Jacques van Lathem, among others. That Van Thienen was entrusted with this prestigious project suggests he had previous experience with tomb sculpture. In all probability, he was also responsible for casting the bronze tomb of Mary’s mother, Isabella of Burgundy, which dates from 1475-76. Surviving to this day are the monument’s effigy (Antwerp Cathedral) and ten weepers (Rijksmuseum, inv. no. BK-AM-33).

Marie Mundigler, 2024

References
C. Engelen, Zoutleeuw. Jan Mertens en de laatgotiek. Confrontatie met Jan Borreman, Leuven 1993; J.W. Frederiks, ‘Enkele beschouwingen naar aanleiding van het gietwerk van Reinier van Thienen’, Oud Holland 60 (1943), pp. 118-28; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 40-45; E. Pegues, ‘Jan Borreman’s Wooden Models for Bronze Sculpture: A Documentary Reconstruction’, Artibus et Historiae 76 (2017), pp. 181-204; M. de Ruette et al., ‘Technologische Studie van gegoten Koperwerk: Het werk van Renier van Thienen en de Restauratie van de Paaskandelaar van Zoutleeuw 1483’, Bulletin van het Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium 24-25 (1992-1993), pp. 171-210; F. Scholten, Isabella’s Weepers: Ten Statues from a Burgundian Tomb, Amsterdam 2007, pp. 46-48; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 33, Leipzig 1939, p. 31