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VIDEO - JAN ALAERTS, kapelaan bij het altaar van Johannes-de-Doper in de Sint-Janskerk te Gent 1454
In 2004 is in de Grondbank [GMG | Inname, opslag en transport van grond en baggerspecie] een lakzegelstempel gevonden met een metaaldetector.
17 Januari 2025 werd de stempel door Hans Meijer in de vloeibare lak gezet.
Dit leverde de zegel van JAN ALAERTS op.
Jan Alaerts, Bastaardzoon van Daniel Alaerts
Johannes Alaerts, kanunnik in het Sint-Donaaskapittel te Brugge; hij trad op als procurator i.v.m. de annaten voor Judocus de Lisa; deze vroeg in 1431 om twee kapelanijen waarvan Johannes Alaerts, clericus van het bisdom Doornik, afstand had gedaan: de kapelanijen bij het Maria-altaar in de parochiekerk van Oedelem en bij het Maria-altaar in het Sint-Calixtusklooster te Cysoing v1430; dominus Johannes Alaerts, kapelaan bij het altaar van Johannes-de-Doper in de Sint-Janskerk te Gent v1454; hij bezat waarschijnlijk ook twee kapelanijen in het Rijke Gasthuis, een Gentse leprozerij v1455.
Jan Alaerts studeerde te Leuven; hij was geïmmatriculeerd in 1440, hij behaalde de graden van magister artium en doctor legum "docteur en lois" v1440
Sint-Janskerk Gent
De romaanse Sint-Janskerk werd van de 14de eeuw tot de 16de eeuw in verschillende fasen vervangen door een groter bouwwerk in gotische stijl. In een van de nieuwe straalkapellen kwam in 1432 een monumentaal altaarstuk, geschilderd door de broers Jan en Hubert van Eyck: het Lam Gods.
Joos Vijd (†1439) en Elisabeth Borluut lieten deze nieuwe straalkapel aan de zuidkant van het koor volledig inrichten. De koorafsluiting, het grafmonument en vooral het altaar met het Lam Godsretabel dat bij Hubert van Eyck (†1426) werd besteld en door diens broer Jan van Eyck werd afgewerkt, waren de kroonstukken van hun inspanningen om hun kapel zo luisterrijk mogelijk uit te rusten. De officiële inwijding vond plaats op 6 mei 1432. In 1445 kozen de ridders van het Gulden Vlies de Sint-Janskerk uit als vergaderplaats voor hun zevende kapittel. De achtendertig blazoenen die het koorgestoelte bij deze bijeenkomst sierden, werden geschilderd door Hugues de Boulogne, hofschilder van hertog Filips de Goede (1396-1496).
kapelaan bij het altaar van Johannes-de-Doper in de Sint-Janskerk te Gent
Filips de Goede, ook genaamd Filips III van Bourgondië (Dijon, 31 juli 1396– Brugge, 15 juni 1467), was hertog van Bourgondië van 1419 tot aan zijn dood. Als landsheer (graaf of hertog) van het graafschap Vlaanderen, het hertogdom Brabant, het graafschap Namen en het hertogdom Limburg heeft hij een belangrijke rol gespeeld in de geschiedenis van de Nederlanden. Gedurende een korte periode was hij ook graaf van Charolais. Hij is de stichter van de Orde van het Gulden Vlies.
Het Banket van de Fazant was een feest in Rijsel op zondag 17 februari 1454 georganiseerd door Filips de Goede om in een plechtige eed, de Eed op de Fazant, zijn intentie kenbaar te maken om op kruistocht te gaan.
Seignor, sachiez, qui or ne s’an ira
en cele terre ou Diex fu mors et vis
et qui la croiz d’outremer ne penra
a painnes mais ira en paradis.
Qui a en soi pitié ne remembrance,
au Haut Seignor doit querre sa vanjance
et delivrer sa terre et son paï
Français moderne:
Seigneurs sachez: qui point de s’en ira
En cette terre où Dieu fut mort et vif,
Et qui la croix d’outremer ne prendra,
A dure peine ira en paradis.
Qui n’a en soi pitié ni souvenance,
Au haut Seigneur doit chercher
cher sa vengeance,
Et délivrer sa terre et son pays.
Heren, weet dit: wie nu niet naar dat land gaat waar God stierf en opstond, en wie niet met het kruis naar de Kruisvaarders staten gaat, zal het moeilijk vinden ooit naar de hemel te gaan. Wie medelijden en goede gedachtenis in zijn hart heeft, moet de Hoogste Heer wreken en Zijn land en Zijn vaderland bevrijden.
Middeleeuwse dans ROTTA - Banket van de Fazant
Banket van de Fazant RIJKSMUSEUM
Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgundy Wien cod. 1857 14v 15r
Kyrie
altaar van Johannes-de-Doper in de Sint-Janskerk te Gent
Mary of Burgundy
Mary was born in 1457, the only child (by all accounts legitimate and illegitimate) of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy and his second wife, Isabella of Bourbon. Isabella died when Mary was just eight, however, and Charles soon re-married, which meant that the young Mary grew up primarily with her stepmother, Charles’ third wife, Margaret of York, the sister of King Edward IV of England. The two were reportedly very close, with Margaret providing advice and guidance to her stepdaughter, who carried a great weight of expectation on her shoulders.
As the daughter of Charles the Bold, Mary was the heir to one of the richest and most powerful territories in fifteenth-century Europe (she was sometimes known as ‘Mary the Rich’). This, naturally, also made her one of the most desirable marriage prospects. But before any marriage plans could be officially declared, Charles was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, when Mary was only twenty. Mary now faced pressure to marry as quickly as possible. Although she had several suitors vying for her hand, including the dauphin of France, Charles, son of Louis XI, she eventually settled on the eighteen-year-old Archduke Maximilian of Austria, future Holy Roman Emperor.
Remarkably, Mary and Maximilian’s marriage seems to have been one of those rare medieval royal matches that grew into true affection. The young couple shared many interests, including a love of animals, hunting, falconry, horseback riding, and the outdoors and other physical pursuits. Maximilian was fascinated by the Burgundian court culture, with its legacy of grand tournaments, and his time spent in Mary’s court following their marriage appears to have been one of the happiest times of his life.
Juan Luis Vives, a Valencian scholar and author of the sixteenth-century manual The Education of a Christian Woman, used Mary and Maximilian as a positive example of marriage. In it, he wrote:
‘Mary the wyfe of Maximilian the emperour / whiche had by her father of inheritance all Flanders and Pycatdye / and the people set nought by the symple and softe disposition of Maximilian / and sewed for all theyr matters vnto Mary his wyfe / yet wolde she neuer determyne nothyng without her husbandes aduise / whose will she rekened euer for a lawe / though she myght well inough haue ruled and ordened all as she lyst / with his good wyll: whiche vsed to suffer of his mylde stomacke any thing yet she lyst / vnto his good and prudent wyfe / & that in her owne goodes. So Mary by obeynge her husbande / and regardyng hym so well / brought hym in to great auctorite / and made the people more obedient vnto them both / as though their powers were increased and ayded either by other.’
Vives portrays Mary as a good wife due to her deference in all things to her husband. Yet he also reveals that the Burgundian people were not keen on the young archduke; they preferred to turn to Mary, their rightful ruler, with their troubles. It was only through Mary publicly recognising Maximilian’s authority that he achieved some level of respect.
Mary and Maximilian had two children who survived to adulthood: Philip ‘the Fair’ (1478-1506), future Duke of Burgundy and father of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and Margaret (1480-1530), whom we will encounter again in a few weeks. Yet sadly Mary and Maximilian’s marriage was short-lived. In 1482, while out hunting with her husband, Mary was thrown from her horse. She died several weeks later from her injuries; she was only twenty-five. It is also possible that she was pregnant when she died.
Maximilian was, by all accounts, broken-hearted by Mary’s tragic death.
Ten weepers from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, Borman workshop (attributed to), Renier van Thienen (I) (attributed to), c. 1475 - c. 1476
Commissioned by Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), Brussels, as part of the tomb of her mother, Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465), 1475; installed in the Sint-Michielsabdij, Antwerp, 1476; ? dismantled during the iconoclast uprising, August 1566;...; collection Jan de Vos, Amsterdam, before or in 1691; his son Pieter de Vos, Amsterdam, March 1691; from whom acquired by the City of Amsterdam, and installed in the ‘Thesaurie Ordinaris’ of the Town Hall (at Dam Square), Amsterdam, 1691; transferred to the Cabinet of Curiosities in the same building, April 1806; transferred to the Cabinet of Curiosities in the Town Hall (Prinsenhof), Amsterdam, 1808; transferred to the ‘Historische Tentoonstelling’ in the Oude Mannenhuis, Amsterdam, 1876; transferred to the Amsterdams Museum in the same building.
TOMB
Isabella's early death meant that she had little significance or influence during her lifetime, but in her death she became a symbol of the wealth of the Dukes of Burgundy, which would later be inherited by her only daughter Mary. As the duke's second marriage failed to produce any sons, Mary was heiress to the duchy, and her marriage to a Habsburg had major repercussions for centuries.
Isabella's funeral monument was erected in the church of St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp in 1476. It was decorated with 24 bronze statuettes of noblemen and women standing in niches, known as 'weepers' or 'mourners', with a bronze effigy of Isabella herself surmounted on it. During the Iconoclast Fury of 1566, radical Protestants destroyed images in Catholic churches and monasteries. The destruction was justified by Calvin's contention that all images in churches were idolatrous and had to be removed. As a result, Isabella's tomb was stripped of its decorations and the 'mourners' disappeared.
However, ten of them turned up in Amsterdam. In 1691 the burgomasters of Amsterdam purchased the ten statues which they thought represented the counts and countesses of Holland. Pieter de Vos, 'clerk of the secretariat', was the man who sold the statuettes, which he had presumably inherited from his father. In exchange for the statues De Vos received an annual pension of 150 guilders. He died in 1721; the city had therefore paid De Vos around four thousand five hundred guilders for the mourners.
The clothes worn by the mourners are of an earlier fashion than Isabella's. This is probably because the mourners were copied from older tombs, which are no longer in extant. The statuettes are copies from two earlier tombs, which were the work of the sculptor Delemer, the painter Rogier van der Weyden and the bronze-founder Jacob de Gerines, commissioned by Philip the Good. It is assumed that the models for the Amsterdam statuettes were supplied by Delemer or his workshop.
In fact the mourners are not Isabella's immediate family: they represent her ancestors. Two portraits have been identified as Emperor Louis of Bavaria (with the imperial crown and orb) and Albrecht of Bavaria, with the St Antony cross around his neck. These portraits have been identified on the basis of a list of names published in 1695 by Daniel Papebrochius. The statuettes reveal the kind of clothes worn by Burgundian nobles in the Late Middle Ages. An unusual aspect is the amount of cloth employed in the garments: the sleeves are exceptionally long, as are the robes. Various kinds of headgear are worn, both by men and women, the latter of whom have shaven heads, as was the fashion in those days.
These statues have been on display in the Rijksmuseum for around a hundred years. The rest of the tomb, with the statue of Isabella, is now in Antwerp cathedral. Nothing more of the tomb furnishings survives.
