Portrait of Lysbeth van Duvenvoirde (?-1472)

The support is a single sheet of parchment, and may be slightly trimmed at all sides. It has been laid down on plexiglass (34 x 21.7 cm). Neither a priming layer nor an underdrawing are visible to the naked eye nor with infrared reflectography. The paint layer was applied rather thickly, as in a panel painting. Mordant gilding was used in areas of gold (ornaments, jewellery etc.). The coat of arms was not reserved.

Fair. There are four holes in the parchment, numerous discoloured retouchings, and a thick discoloured varnish.

…; collection Joannes M.C. van Blaauwsonnevelt van den Bergh (1842-?), Haarlem, 1897;¹¹Coll. cat. The Hague 2004b, p. 356. …; dealer, Frederik Muller, 1906, as manner of Hubert van Eyck; ²²Dealer cat. Muller 10 July 1906-15 September 1906 collection X; ...; collection Herman J. Heshuysen, Haarlem, 1910;³³Coll. cat. The Hague 2004b, p. 356; note RMA. …; collection Jonkheer Henry Teixeira de Mattos (1867-1924), Haarlem and Vogelenzang (Huize Teylingerbosch), 1915;⁴⁴Haarlem 1915, p. no. 348; Note RMA. his daughter Jonkvrouwe Margaretha A. Teixeira de Mattos (1905-1954) and her husband Pierre van Son (1904-1969), Aerdenhout, 1937;⁵⁵Coll. cat. The Hague 2004b, p. 356. …; sale, H.J.J.G.H. Miele (The Hague), Mrs J. Onnen-Vreede (Bilthoven) et al. Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 January 1944 sqq., no. 34, fl. 55,000, to Wilhelm Martin, for the Mauritshuis, The Hague;⁶⁶Copy RKD. on loan to the museum since 1959; on loan to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 2004-10

ObjectNumber: SK-C-1454

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis

Lysbeth van Duvenvoorde was a daughter of Dirck van Duvenvoorde van Duivenstein, who was related to the more distinguished Van Wassenaar family. He was the bailiff and dike reeve of Rijnland from 1407 to 1411, and was enfeoffed with Huis Duivenstein in Voorburg by his brother Arent IV, bailiff of Delfland and Schieland. On 19 March 1430, Lysbeth married Simon van Adrichem (d. 1482) of Kennemerland, who was probably the bailiff and dike reeve of Beverwijk and Noordwijk, among other places.⁷⁷For the lives of Lysbeth van Duvenvoorde and Simon van Adrichem see, among others, Tóth-Ubbens 1968; Aalbers et al. 2000, pp. 72, 434-45; Van Os et al. 2000, p. 50. The couple had three sons, the second of whom, Nicolaas (d. 1481), became abbot of the monastery in Egmond. Lysbeth died in 1472 and was buried by the Altar of the Holy Cross in the Regulars’ Convent of Our Lady of Sion in Beverwijk, which her husband had erected. Lysbeth could be identified from the Van Adrichem-Van Duvenvoorde arms of alliance at the top left and from the inscription on the back of the support giving her brief biography, which was probably written at a later date, possibly in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.⁸⁸Beneath that inscription there is a transcription of it in a nineteenth-century hand that is now mostly illegible. According to the RMA restoration files it reads: ‘Afbeeldsel van Juffer Lijsbeth van Duvoorde, Heer Dirck’ s dochter. Zij trouwde den 19 Meert om 1430 aan Symon van Adrichem, Ridder, Heer Floris zoon, en sterft op Ons Heeren Hemelvaerts Avond Ao 1472, en is begraven in de Beverwijck int Reguliersconvent voor het H. Cruys Altaar dat hij (Simon) had doen maken’

Portrayed almost full length, Lysbeth is wearing a long red houppelande with cut, wide sleeves. Underneath she wears a gold brocaded gown with golden letters attached to the sleeves. Whether these letters are embroidered or pinned to the dress is impossible to ascertain.⁹⁹For other examples of letters attached to garments see Egmond and Kemperdick 2012, p. 66. The houppelande is cinched above her waist with a gold belt inlaid with sapphires from which bells hang on at least five gold chains. The skirt is tied together with two pins. Most of her red hair, put up in a roll around her head, is covered by a chaperon with a long liripipe decorated with golden buttons. From the back of her head hangs a transparent veil down her shoulders. Around her neck she wears a heavy golden chain. With her high waistline, the bells on the belt and the round shoulders, she is dressed in Franco-Burgundian fashion of around 1415.¹⁰¹⁰Tóth-Ubbens 1968; Conrads 1990, p. 34; Van Os in Van Os et al. 2000, p. 50; Ubl 2015, p. 77. She is holding a banderole with the text ‘Mi verdriet lange te hopen, Wie is hi di sijn hert hout open’ (It saddens me to yearn so long. Who is it that will open up his heart?) Nahuys reported the existence of a second version of this portrait that was in the Belgian collection of M. della Faille de Leverghem.¹¹¹¹Nahuys 1875, pp. 204-06. It was on panel and measured 54 x 40 cm, and in addition to the Van Adrichem-Van Duvenvoorde arms it had the coats of Cornelis (d. 1504) and Mathilde De Jonge-van der Merwede (d. 1507) in each corner.

The painting originally had a pendant with the portrait of Simon van Adrichem, which must have been separated from Lysbeth already before 1875-78. The mention that it was sold by Frederik Muller in the beginning of the twentieth century sometime before 1915 might be a confusion with the only recently rediscovered auction of Lysbeth’s portrait in 1906.¹²¹²Dealer cat. Muller 1906; Gratama 1915, p. 78: ‘Het is een blad van een tweeluik met verlovingsportretten, waarvan het mansportret voor eenige jaren bij Frederik Muller geveild werd (...)’; Tóth-Ubbens 1968, p. 2a. Neither a sale catalogue nor the record of a sale for Simon’s portrait have been traced. The mention in Amsterdam 1958, p. 40, no. 3 that it was sold in the beginning of the nineteenth [sic century is very likely to be faulty. Tóth-Ubbens mentions that the portrait is lost since 1906 but there is nothing to be found on how she came to that date. She must have mixed up the sale of Lysbeth’s portrait in 1906.] That portrait, too, had an inscription: ‘Mi banget seret wie is hi die mi met minne eeret’ (I have been afeared. Who is it that would honour me with love?).¹³¹³Gratama 1915, p. 77. Hoogewerff mentioned a partial copy of this pendant in bust-length on panel which was then in the Italian collection of P. Paolini in Rome.¹⁴¹⁴Hoogewerff 1921, pp. 27-28; Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 54-55. Although he did not mention any dimensions he stated the portrait being life-size which would be in accordance with the dimensions of the copy after Lysbeth’s portrait Nahuys mentioned. The interrogative nature of both texts in the banderols led several authors to suggest that this is a pair of betrothal portraits.¹⁵¹⁵Among others, Gratama 1915, p. 78; Tóth-Ubbens 1968, p. 2a. However, given the coat of alliance at the top left, which appears to be contemporary with the painting, it can be taken that the portraits were painted on the occasion of the couple’s marriage.¹⁶¹⁶See also Amsterdam 1958, p. 40; Châtelet 1981, p. 203. Lysbeth’s attire and jewellery could be a reference to the wedding.¹⁷¹⁷Gans 1961, p. 18. The inscriptions on both portraits may have been part of a tradition, the meaning of which has not come down to us, leaving us in the dark as to its precise function. Although both Nahuys and Hoogewerff suggested that the S shape of Lysbeth’s banderole could be a reference to Simon’s name, thus answering the question as to ‘who is it that will open up his heart?’, that theory is difficult to substantiate without the companion piece.¹⁸¹⁸Nahuys 1875, p. 203; Hoogewerff II, 1937, p. 53. It is interesting to mention that Lysbeth is portrayed on the dexter side which generally is given to the male sitter or a religious scene. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, for example as the female sitter is of a higher standing as the male. In this particular case it might be connected to Lysbeth’s descend from the more distinguished Wassenaar family.

In any event, the portrait must have been painted around the time of Lysbeth’s marriage in 1430, making it one of the earliest surviving portrait paintings with a northern Netherlandish sitter. Although full-length portraits must have been produced on a large scale, among other things for wall and tomb paintings, it is unusual for such an early, autonomous portrait of an almost full-length figure to have survived. Most of the extant portraits from this early period consist of heads and busts.¹⁹¹⁹Dunkerton et al. 1991, pp. 92, 258; Campbell 1990, pp. 60-61; Van Os in Van Os et al. 2000, p. 50. It is possible that there was a tradition of full-length marriage portraits in European painting. Other examples include Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini portrait of 1434, and the marriage portrait of a couple painted by an anonymous south German artist around 1470.²⁰²⁰London, The National Gallery; illustrated in ENP I, 1967, pl. 20, and Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art; illustrated in coll. cat. Cleveland 1974, p. 34, fig. 12. Full-length figures, however, are more frequently found in miniatures, such as the portrait of Mary of Guelders in the prayer book of Mary of Guelders of circa 1415 (fig. a). Although the Rijksmuseum portrait was painted in oils, the parchment stimulated the idea that the artist had his roots in miniature painting.²¹²¹Van Os in Van Os et al. 2000, p. 50. However, this is not necessary, as there are other known oil paintings on parchment (laid down on wood) that certainly are not to be associated with book illumination, as for example a Head of Christ by Petrus Christus of circa 1445.²²²²Petrus Christus, Head of Christ, ca. 1445, parchment laid down on wood, 14.6 x 10.5 cm (parchment). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 60.71.1 Whether Lysbeth’s portrait was ever laid down on panel cannot be detected any more. Already in 1875-78 no traces of a wooden panel could be found.²³²³Nahuys 1875-78, p. 199.

Regarding the somewhat lesser quality of painting, the painter has for a long time been associated with an anonymous local artist from Holland. Indeed, the manner of painting does not show any affinity to the new way of painting we know from the Van Eycks with its emphasis on a realistic and true-to-life rendering of materiality and verisimilitude. Also miniature painting from the time for instance in Utrecht, such as by the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg or the Master of Catherine of Cleves, is not comparable.²⁴²⁴Egmond and Kemperdick 2012, p. 254.

Kemperdick rather convincingly put forward another possibility for the artist’s likely origin. He stated very interesting affinities with Cologne painting from the circle of the Master of St Veronica alias Master Wilhelm around 1400-30.²⁵²⁵On Master Wilhelm see Kemperdick 2012. Convincing similarities are for example to be found with Lysbeth and the Infant Jesus from the Madonna of the Sweet Pea (fig. b)²⁶²⁶Master of St Veronica alias Master Wilhelm, Madonna of the Sweet Pea, after 1426, panel, central panel, 59 x 39.5 cm; wings each 59 x 19.9 cm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) or the Veronica from a Large Mount Calvary (fig. c).²⁷²⁷Anonymous Cologne, Large Mount Calvary, c. 1415-20, oak, 197 x 129 cm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Collection of Ferdinand Franz Wallraf, inv. no. WRM 0353 Especially the faces of Lysbeth and the Infant Jesus share many common details. The eyes are formed alike while the proper left eye in both cases somewhat slopes. Also the dark rims above the eyelids and the white reflections in the corner of the eyes are the same. Furthermore, the round foreheads, the drawing of the lips and the noses show striking resemblances. Also the hair dress follows a scheme often seen in Cologne painting. It is obvious that the face of the Infant Jesus and Lysbeth must stem from the same model. As Kemperdick correctly pointed out the portrait of Lysbeth probably only partly resembles her lifelike appearance.

The circumstances of the production of the portrait cannot be determined precisely. Whether it was a Cologne painter, trained in the workshop of the Veronica Master working in Holland or the portrait had been ordered in Cologne, remains uncertain.²⁸²⁸Egmond and Kemperdick 2012, p. 254-55.

M. Ubl, 2021
(A previous version of this entry written by J. Niessen in 2009 can be downloaded below)

Nahuys 1875-78, pp. 199-206; dealer. cat. 1906; Gratama 1915, pp. 77-78; Haarlem 1915, p. 348; Huizinga 1935, p. 448; Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 50-54; Amsterdam 1958, p. 40, no. 3, p. 132; Tóth-Ubbens 1968; Châtelet 1981, p. 203, no. 36; Campbell 1990, p. 61; Van Os 1997, pp. 131-34; Van Os in Van Os et al. 2000, p. 50, no. 2; coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 323, no. 831

1960, p. 9, no. 129 F 1; 1976, p. 651, no. C 1454

J. Niessen, 2010/M. Ubl, 2021, 'anonymous, Portrait of Lysbeth van Duvenvoirde (?-1472), Cologne, c. 1430', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4780