Portrait of Jan Gerritsz van Egmond van de Nijenburg, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (workshop of), c. 1518 Painted by hand in oil, brushstroke by brushstroke

This is a portrait of the Alkmaar burgomaster Jan Gerritsz van Egmond van de Nijenburg (?-1523). He is wearing a black gown trimmed with brown fur, and a black bonnet. In his right hand he holds a gold pomander - a perforated ball containing aromatic substances. The background landscape may be of the area around Nieuwburg, a castle north-east of Alkmaar built by Count Floris V (1254-96), of which Jan Gerritsz was bailiff,6 castellan and steward. He held various public offices between 1485 and 1520, as burgomaster, civic magistrate and sheriff.7 In 1483 he married Judith (also called Josina or Joost) Jacobsdr Heereman van Oegstgeest (?-1507), the daughter of a prominent citizen of Leiden.8 They had 17 children, one of whom, Judoca (also called Joos) van Egmond van de Nijenburg (dates unknown), married the Alkmaar burgomaster Augustijn van Teijlingen (?-1533). The latter couple were portrayed by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen in a Triptych with the Virgin and Child,9 and possibly in two pendant portraits of c. 1525.10 In 1520, Jan Gerritsz endowed a chantry at the altar of St Andrew in a chapel of Alkmaar’s Laurenskerk. He had a triptych with a Descent from the Cross installed in the chapel that contains the portraits of himself and his children.11 This may be the ‘outstanding piece’ by Jacob Cornelisz with the Deposition and portraits ‘[concerning] the Van der Nyeborgh family’ which Karel van Mander later saw ‘at the widow Van Sonneveldt’s in Alkmaar’, who was related to the Van Nijenburg family.12 Jan Gerritsz and his wife are buried in the crypt beneath the chapel. There are several coats of arms on the ribs of the vault of the chapel and on the capstone of the entrance which correspond to the painted arms of alliance in the Amsterdam portrait. It was on the basis of this evidence that Belonje was able to identify the sitter in 1955, who until then had gone under the name of Diederik Alewijn proposed by Hoogewerff.13 The heraldic left half of the coat can indeed refer to the Alewijn family.14 There are four other versions of this portrait: in Paris (fig. a), St Petersburg (fig. b), Berlin (fig. c), and at an unknown location.15 They are all panels that differ little from each other, apart from the border decoration, the coat of arms and the position of the hand. It is not known which version is the prototype. The Amsterdam painting is the only one with filigree decoration in the form of imitation goldwork suggested by pale yellow highlights. The other versions have imitation woodcarving. The pomander in Jan Gerritsz’s right hand is being held up on display in the Amsterdam panel, while in the other versions it is pointing more in the direction of the man’s nose. In the Louvre painting, the left-hand side of the coat of arms (1: Van Egmond) is differenced with a line of illegitimacy which can also be seen on the coats of arms on the groin vaults in the Laurenskerk in Alkmaar. This differencing probably indicates that the sitter was descended from a legitimised branch of the house of Egmond.16 Belonje suggested that the line could have been painted out on the Amsterdam panel, but examination with the stereomicroscope and infrared reflectography does not support this.17 For some unknown reason, the mermaid in the first quarter of the shield in Amsterdam and Paris is missing in all the other versions. Hoogewerff attributed the Amsterdam portrait to Jacob Cornelisz on the evidence of the painstaking, firm application of paint, whereas Carroll assigned the border decoration and the landscape background to an assistant. It is true that the painstaking touch mentioned by Hoogewerff is characteristic of Jacob Cornelisz, but it looks a little hackneyed, which confirms that this is a production-line piece and points to the hand of a workshop assistant. Opinions differ over the dating of the paintings. Friedländer placed them around 1516,18 Hoogewerff felt that they must have been painted before 1510 at the latest, on the evidence of the sitter’s apparent age,19 while Belonje estimated the date as c. 1515, and certainly after 1507, because he believed that the ring on Jan Gerritsz’s middle finger came from his wife, who died in February 1507.20 The ring, though, is part of the pomander, which was usually carried on a short chain attached to a ring that was slipped onto one of the fingers. Carroll proposed a date of c. 1518 on the evidence of the plasticity in the face, which corresponds to the portraits in the Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi of 1517 (SK-A-4706).21 Carroll’s argument is convincing, and is supported by the dendrochronology, which gives the most likely date as 1518 or later. (Daantje Meuwissen)