Pierre Coustain (attributed to)

Shield of Jacob of Luxemburg (after 1441-88), Lord of Fiennes, in his Capacity as Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece

c. 1481

Inscriptions

  • inscription, top and bottom:Jaques. de luxembo // Seignr. De Fiennes. (Jacob of Luxemburg. Lord of Fiennes.)
  • coat of arms, Coat of arms: quartered, 1 and 4, a red fork-tailed lion rampant on a white field; 2 and 3, a white sixteen-pointed star on a red field. Crest: a dragon. The shield set within the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece

Technical notes

The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks (measured in the frame: 30.5 and 27 cm) and is fixed in the original frame (sight size: 92.2 x 58.3 cm). On the reverse there is gradual bevelling on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1460. The panel could have been ready for use by 1471, but a date in or after 1485 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. No underdrawing is visible with the naked eye or with infrared photography. 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.

Scientific examination and reports

  • condition report: G. Tauber, RMA, 25 september 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 12 januari 2007

Condition

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

Conservation

  • G. Boevé-Jones, 2001: complete restoration

Original framing

See SK-A-4641.

Provenance

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;1The 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;2Koldeweij 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’);3Kruijsen 2002, pp. 297, 299. his sons, Louis M.C. (1826-74) and D.T. Albéric (1829-95), Huis de Nemerlaer, Haaren;4Kruijsen 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;5There 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-4642

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Biography

Pierre Coustain (active in Bruges and Brussels c. 1453-87)

Pierre Coustain, painter and ‘varlet de chambre’ to the Burgundian court, was active in Bruges and Brussels during the second half of the 15th century. He served under both Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, and subsequently received commissions from Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian I of Austria. His first documented commission for the Burgundian court was for painted decorations at a banquet held in Lille in 1453. Coustain is known to have painted works for the chapters of the Order of the Golden Fleece held in 1456, 1461, 1468, 1473, 1478 and 1481, and for other court festivities, among them the wedding celebrations of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York in 1468. He was also commissioned to paint banners, polychrome statues, and even repair a gold clock. Although he was never granted official membership in the Bruges painters’ guild, his name and the epithet ‘der princen scildere’ (the painter of princes) are inscribed in the guild’s memorial book under 1487, the presumed year of his death.

References
De Laborde I, 1849, nos. 1570, 1816, 1839, 1868, 1899, 1933, 1985, 1999, II, 1851, pp. XII, 332, nos. 4039, 4041, 4732, 4879, 4896, 4899; Coninckx 1907, pp. 67-70; De Lettenhove et al. 1908, I, pp. 221-22; Thieme/Becker VII, 1912, pp. 600-01; Schouteet 1989, pp. 152-58; Gruben 1997, pp. 237, 273-276, 290, 294, 308, 327, 339, 358, 367, nos. 218, 232, 240, 250, 251, 252, 258, 292, 331, 336; Châtelet in Saur XXII, 1999, pp. 14-15; Van der Velden 2000, pp. 38-40; Bücken in Bücken/Steyaert 2013, pp. 120-21

Entry

See the entry on SK-A-4641.

Literature

See SK-A-4641.

Download Bibliography (PDF)

Collection catalogues

See SK-A-4641.

Citation

M. Bass, 2010, 'attributed to Pierre Coustain, Shield of Jacob of Luxemburg (after 1441-88), Lord of Fiennes, 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.10530

(accessed 11 May 2025 17:49:09).

Footnotes

  • 1The 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.
  • 2Koldeweij in ’s-Hertogenbosch 1990, p. 106, no. 53a-c.
  • 3Kruijsen 2002, pp. 297, 299.
  • 4Kruijsen 2002, pp. 289, 293.
  • 5There was no printed catalogue for this sale; see Kruijsen 2002, p. 290.