Virgin and Child with devotional portraits of the Van Zwieten family

General information
Original location Leiden, convent Mariënpoel
Current location Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, inv. no. S 250
Commissioner Johanna van Zwieten
Artist Pieter Willemsz Sluyter? ('PS' mentioned on painting)
Date 1552
Material Oil on canvas
Dimensions 129,5 x 385 cm
Visual elements
Short description Right of the center the Virgin with Child on a throne. Kneeling on both sides are four generations of the family, ordered in couples, husbands in front and wives behind. On the viewer's right six persons: Liudgard van Zwieten, her daughters and their respective husbands. On the viewer's left eleven persons: Boudewijn van Zwieten, founder of the convent, with his sons and their wives, the offspring of the youngest son Jan, and the offspring of his son Adriaan. Above the heads of the portrayed persons their respective coats of arms, under their portraits a text field.
Depicted pilgrim (tenth from the left)
Personal information
Name Dirk van Zwieten
Social status / profession 1427: Lord of Schobbelandsambacht; 1429-: Member of the Leiden city council; 1429-1430: Burgomaster of Leiden; 1432: Lord of Zoetermeer; 1433-1434: Sheriff (schout) of Leiden; 1437-1438: Town counselor (schepen) of Leiden; 1438: Sheriff (schout) of Zoetermeer; 1439-1440, 1447-1451: Judge at the council of Holland; 1451: Knight of the Holy Sepulchre
Coat of arms Above the portrait: semicircular shield - in red three silver fiddles (2-1), in chief a gold escutcheon with a red fess - crest present
Text Under the portrait: Anno m iiiic li, den xxi dach junio starf heer Dirck van Zweten ridder ten Heylighen Graeve oudtste zoon van Boudewyns van Zweten
Pilgrimages
Year of pilgrimage to Jerusalem 1451
Attributes Jerusalem pilgrimage Palm
Death
Date of death 21 July 1451
Additional information
General remarks Dirk van Zwieten died on the way home from Jerusalem, and his place of burial is unknown, according to the register of the convent. On his day of death his wife Johanna van Leyenburg is mentioned with him, although she died at a later date. Though not made explicit, this implies (if only because someone had to transfer the information about Dirks exact date of death) that she had traveled with her husband to Jerusalem. However, she is not displayed (ninth from the left, behind her husband) with the attributes of the Jerusalem pilgrimage.
Dirk van Zwieten was the uncle of the Jerusalem pilgrim Hugo van Zwieten, who is included on the Leiden text panel for sixteen pilgrims.
As mentioned in the text under Johanna van Zwieten's portrait (second from the left), she had the panel renewed in 1552, because it was worn. What this renewal exactly encompassed, however, is unknown. In any case, it is apparent that the composition of the panel is quite different from other memorial panels, since the focus lies less on the devotional object (Mary and Child) than on the family members and the devotional object is not placed in the center. The latter can be explained by Johanna's renewal, because in order to include her own portrait with lineage to Boudewijn van Zwieten in the painting, she had to expand it to the left (See van Bueren 1999)
Literature
  • Bueren, Truus van, Leven na de dood: gedenken in de late Middeleeuwen (Turnhout 1999), pp. 238-240
  • Damen, Maria, De staat van dienst. De gewestelijke ambtenaren van Holland en Zeeland in de Bourgondische periode (1425-1482). Hollandse studiën 36 (Hilversum 2000), p. 501
  • Wurfbain, Maarten Lodewijk et al., Stedelijk museum De Lakenhal: catalogus van de schilderijen en tekeningen (Leiden 1983), pp. 5-6
Commemoration in the convent Mariënpoel: Prayer and Politics, Rich internet application of the MeMO project about this panel
MeMO ID 595
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