Pair of portraits of of Jacques Godin and Catharine le Comte

General information
Original location Valenciennes? (where the sitter probably lived)
Current location Maarsbergen, Collection Godin de Beaufort
Provenance Continuously in the collection of the family Godin.
Artist Anonymous
Date Possibly a copy of a portrait made after 1503 (year of pilgrimage), but probably much younger (see remarks)
Material Canvas
Dimensions 56 x 42 cm
Visual elements
Short description Pair of portraits of a man and a woman, displayed half-length, facing each other. The man is depicted on the left panel and carries the signs of the Jerusalem pilgrimage.
Depicted pilgrim (left panel)
Personal information
Name Jacques IV Godin
Social status / profession Knight of the Holy Sepulchre; Town counselor (schepen) of Valenciennes
Coat of arms On the frame, top and top left: late gothic shield - a covered cup (een bokaal met deksel);
top right: ?
bottom right: late gothic shield - ?
bottom left: late gothic shield - a chevron between three six-pointed stars, 2-1 (een keper, vergezeld van drie zespuntige sterren, 2-1)
Other known portraits Resurrection of Christ and view on Jerusalem with devotional portraits of Jean Godin and family (private collection), eighth from the left. On the panel Jean Godin is depicted as a Jerusalem pilgrim, as well as one of his sons. Although the latter is not mentioned to be Jacques, he was the only son of Jean known to have visited Jerusalem (see Maertens de Noordhout)
Pilgrimages
Year of Jerusalem pilgrimage 1503
Attributes Jerusalem pilgrimage Palm; Embroidered Jerusalem cross on white cloak
Death
Year of death 1525
Additional information
General remarks These two portraits are part of an Ahnengalerie, a series of portraits of a family's ancestors, made at a far later date (possibly seventeenth or eighteenth century). It might have been a copy after an older original from Jacques's own time, but it is very likely that this portrait was invented. This is corroborated by the white cloak with a red Jerusalem cross worn by the sitter, which resembles the cloak worn by the members of the modern Order of the Holy Sepulchre (revived in 1847), but is not known from any other sixteenth-century depiction of a knight of the Holy Sepulchre. The same goes for the pair of portraits of Jean Godin (Jacques's father) and Jeanne de Salembiens.
Literature
  • Maertens de Noordhout, J., Notice sur Jehan Godin, Chevalier de Jérusalem (Ghent 1937)
Descriptions of the RKD:
Jacques IV Godin
Catharine le Comte
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