Shield of Edward IV (1442-83), King of England, in his Capacity as Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece

The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks (measured in the frame: 16.5, 23.8 and 27.2 cm) and is fixed in the original frame (sight size: 111.3 x 68 cm). On the reverse there is gradual bevelling on all sides. The nine horizontal blocks applied to reinforce the joins were all added later. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1468. The panel could have been ready for use by 1479, but a date in or after 1493 is more likely. Since the panel is still in its original frame, it is not clear whether the white ground (which is visible in lacunae) extends to the edges or whether the remains of a barbe are still present. There is no underdrawing visible to the naked eye nor with infrared reflectography. Most of the golden heraldic elements seem to have been created with gold leaf on top of an underlying layer of bolus. These elements were reserved in the black background. On top of the golden areas the artist applied a linear system of contours and hatchings in black, red (possibly a red lake) and brown paint. Like the heraldic elements, the golden letters seem to have been reserved.

Fair. Apart from abrasion, there are many small paint losses through flaking in the black background which have been carefully retouched.

This frame (fig. e) and the one surrounding Shield of Jacob of Luxemburg (SK-A-4642) are identical, and both are well preserved. A cross-section of the profile shows a narrow tenia, a scotia, a bevel and bead forming a round sight edge (fig. a). The sill has a bevelled sight edge (fig. b). The outside and the tenia are painted red; the profiles on the side and top members, as well as the bevelled sight edge of the sill, are gilded. On the back the panel has bevelled edges and fits snugly in the closed rebate. The bottom corners are connected with mortise and tenon joints (fig. c). The top corners have mitred, open mortise and tenon joints, and the tenon of each top joint has a reverse tapering (fig. d). Carpenter’s marks indicating the location of the mortises are scribed in the back of the frame. The top and bottom corners are secured with dowels. There are also coarser markings scratched into the back of the frame which do not seem to relate to the construction. Markings on the reverse indicate that the frame was originally mounted with a single hanging device.

Placed in the choir of the St Jan’s Cathedral, ’s-Hertogenbosch, on the occasion of the 14th chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1481;¹¹The accounts of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy from 1481 list a payment: ‘A Pierre Coustain, varlet de chambre et peintre… pour ouvraiges faitz pour la Thoison tenue à Bois-le-Duc’; see Coninckx 1907, p. 69, Koldeweij in ’s-Hertogenbosch 1990, p. 106, no. 53a-c. public sale, St Jan’s Cathedral, ’s-Hertogenbosch, 4 June 1798;²²Koldeweij in ’s-Hertogenbosch 1990, p. 106, no. 53a-c. …; ? estate inventory, Andreas J.L. van den Bogaerde van Terbrugge (1787-1855), Kasteel Heeswijk, 1855, no. 438 (‘elf verschillende wapenborden’);³³Kruijsen 2002, pp. 297, 299. his sons, Louis M.C. (1826-74) and D.T. Albéric (1829-95), Huis de Nemerlaer, Haaren;⁴⁴Kruijsen 2002, pp. 289, 293. their sale, ’s-Hertogenbosch (Van der Does de Willebois), 26 March 1896 sqq., fl. 691.37, with SK-A-4642, to the museum;⁵⁵There was no printed catalogue for this sale; see Kruijsen 2002, p. 290. on loan to the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch, since 1987

ObjectNumber: SK-A-4641

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

This shield and the other shown in SK-A-4642 are those of Edward IV, King of England, and Jacob of Luxemburg, Lord of Fiennes. They represent both men in their capacity as knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece. A shield was made for each knight for every chapter meeting of the order. The shields were then typically hung in the choir of the church where the meeting took place, above the seats of the men whom they represented. The two examples in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, in all likelihood painted by Pierre Coustain, were made for the 14th chapter of the order held in St Jan’s Cathedral in ’s-Hertogenbosch in May 1481.⁶⁶See Provenance.

Both shields adhere to the standard format used for such panels, as shown by others preserved in Bruges, Mechelen and elsewhere. The individual’s coat of arms appears in the centre, surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and surmounted by a helmet and a crest particular to the individual, a crowned lion for Edward and a dragon for Jacob. Fluttering pennants (ermine and gold for Edward; red and grey for Jacob) surround the helmet and shield, and inscriptions along the upper and lower portions of the panels identify their subjects by name and title.⁷⁷See De Lettenhove ‘et al.’ 1908, I, pp. 224, 227-34, II, nos. I-XVI, for comparative examples. Three additional shields made for Edward IV also survive: two from the chapters held in Bruges in 1468 and 1478 (in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk and St Salvator’s Cathedral respectively), and one from the chapter held in Mechelen in 1491 (in St Rumbold’s Cathedral). One additional shield for Jacob also survives in Mechelen.^[See De Smedt 1991, pp. 24-29; Martens ‘et al.’ 1992, pp. 23, 68-70, nos. 39-42, for additional literature.

Edward IV, who was crowned King of England on 28 June 1461, was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece during the chapter meeting convened in Bruges’s Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in 1468.⁸⁸De Smedt 2000, pp. 153-54, no. 63. He was nominated by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, the reigning sovereign of the order, who hoped to strengthen Burgundy’s political alliance with England.⁹⁹Payne/Jefferson 1996, pp. 194-97; Van der Velden 2000, pp. 38-40. Jacob of Luxemburg, who served as an advisory chamberlain to both Charles the Bold and Maximilian I of Austria, was inducted into the order during the chapter held in Bruges’s St Salvator’s Cathedral in 1478.¹⁰¹⁰De Smedt 2000, pp. 196-97.

Neither Edward nor Jacob actually attended the chapter held in St Jan’s Cathedral in 1481. Only six knights were present at this meeting, which was held under the somewhat contested leadership of Maximilian.¹¹¹¹Kuyer 1981, pp. 74-86. Preparations for the ceremony within the cathedral were nevertheless elaborate. Not only were the choir stalls enlarged and embellished, but it also seems quite likely that the angels painted in the vaults of the choir, whose trumpets bear the arms of the house of Burgundy, were added at this time or shortly afterwards.¹²¹²Le Blanc 1990, pp. 389-90. Both panels were hung in the choir of the church on the left side, Edward’s in the first position nearest to the high altar (indicating his high rank) and Jacob’s in the 14th position, closer to the nave.¹³¹³Korteweg 1996a, p. 219. The entire series was still hanging in the church two centuries later when Ambrosius Vissers was commissioned to restore all the panels, a project he completed between 1690 and 1695.¹⁴¹⁴Peeters 1985, pp. 354, 462, note 122.

Today, only the two shields in the Rijksmuseum and two others in a private collection survive from the series painted for the chapter in ’s-Hertogenbosch.¹⁵¹⁵The two additional shields are of Jean de Melun (panel, 94.5 x 58.5 cm) and Philippe de Croy (panel, 94.5 x 58 cm), and are in the collection of Dr J.B.V.M.J. van de Mortel in Oostelbeers; Peeters 1985, p. 462, note 122; reproduced in Kuyer 1981, pp. 79-80. Most of the panels were lost after 1798, when they were sold at a public auction instigated by the authorities of the Batavian revolution.¹⁶¹⁶Ebeling 1926, pp. 1-15. The Rijksmuseum shields were purchased by the museum in 1896 from the famous medieval art collection of Van den Bogaerde van Terbrugge at Kasteel Heeswijk.¹⁷¹⁷Kruijsen 2002, pp. 281-307.

It is worth mentioning the striking similarity between the calligraphy employed on these shields and that in Jheronimus Bosch’s painting The Stone Operation in Madrid.¹⁸¹⁸Museo Nacional del Prado; illustrated in ENP V, no. 109, pl. 99. The parallel has led Koldeweij to speculate that Coustain himself may have inscribed the text on Bosch’s painting.¹⁹¹⁹Koldeweij 1991. The shields that Coustain painted for St Jan’s Cathedral were probably the most immediate model for Bosch’s composition.

(Marissa Bass)

Kuyer 1981, pp. 74-86; Peeters 1985, pp. 353-54; Koldeweij in ’s-Hertogenbosch 1990, pp. 106-07; Koldeweij 1990a, p. 366; Koldeweij 1991, pp. 20-29

1903, p. 328, nos. 2971, 2972 (as Anonymous, second half 15th century); 1934, p. 370, nos. 2971, 2972; 1976, p. 824, nos. A 4641, A 4642

M. Bass, 2010, 'attributed to Pierre Coustain, Shield of Edward IV (1442-83), King of England, in his Capacity as Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, c. 1481', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10529