The Burgundians by Van Loo Bart;

Author:Van Loo, Bart; [Loo, Bart Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus

‘Johannes De Eyck Fuit Hic’

Joos Vijd was certainly no stranger to Philip. In the summer of 1425 he was part of the ducal retinue that would plead for peace between Philip and Jacqueline of Bavaria in The Hague, more specifically ‘to speak for the benefit of peace between our fearsome Lord and my Lady of Holland’.1 Except the delegation never arrived. Jacqueline’s escape, and the eruption of hostilities, put a definite stop to it.

His father may have fallen into disgrace with Philip’s grandfather, but the burgher of Ghent had done very well for himself. Yet there must have been a feeling of unease that he could not shake. Without his father’s indiscretion, he might have become part of Philip’s court. That was a level he would never attain, even though the success of the Ghent Altarpiece put him entirely back on the map. One year after the installation he was appointed chief alderman of the metropolis of Ghent, a position more or less equivalent to that of mayor.

Joos Vijd had played his cards right. By throwing in his lot with Jan van Eyck, he was sure of attracting the duke’s attention. And another bit of unexpected fortune also came his way. The day of the installation, 6 May 1432, was not only a lovely day for Joos Vijd himself, but it was an even more memorable feast for Philip the Good and his wife, if such a thing were possible. To their great sorrow they had lost their first son, Anthony, two months earlier when he was barely a toddler. But God be praised, a second infant soon followed, and coincidentally – or maybe not – the baby was baptized on 6 May. To top it off, the new son was named Joos (Josse in French), just like the patron of the great work, although that was purely by chance: Isabella had a great devotion to St Jodoc, or Josse, as he was also known. Yet it was an unusual name in a family in which almost all the male members were called Philip, John or Anthony.

Although it has never become clear exactly how the baptismal ceremony and the installation were interwoven, everything indicates that Philip the Good was present when the altarpiece was officially opened for the first time. A minor debate has raged on this subject between historians and art historians,2 but it seems logical to us that the duke would not have been absent when his possible successor was being received into the bosom of the Catholic Church.

Of course, the Ghent Altarpiece – the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb – was a symbol for the passion of Christ. But Van Eyck’s ingenious decision to place the holy animal in the centre of the composition must have made Duke Philip reach for his chest in an involuntary reflex, seeing a reflection of the golden ram he wore around his own neck in the image of the sheep. Not only was the painter paying tribute to the recently established

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