Dietic Bouts Documents

From Wolfgang Stechow, Northern Reanissance Art 1400-1600 (Sources and Documents series). Engelewood Cliffs, 1966.

Commentary: The contract of 1464 for Dieric Bouts' Holy Sacrament Altarpiece in St. Peter's Church at Louvain (Leuven) [1] is the first document that has come down to us for a still extant work of great importance within the realm of Early Netherlandish Painting. With regard to its strict stipulations on subject matter, effort, priority over other work, time limits, and price, it corresponds closely to agreements concluded between artists and church authorities in contemporary Germany and Italy. In this respect it is a thoroughly medieval document, lacking the minor elements of greater freedom for the artist that even some slightly earlier ones contain (see below, pp. 142 ff. The altarpiece was completed in 1467. Alter many vicissitudes, all parts, with the exception of the lost outer wings, have been reunited at their original site.

Text: All who will see the present document or will hear it read are hereby informed and notified that on the fifteenth of March 1464 (after the reckoning of the venerable court of Liege) a firm agreement and contract was set up and concluded between the four administrators of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament at the Church of St. Peter in Louvain, who act on and in behalf of said Brotherhood--that is, Rase van Baussele as principal, Laureys van Winghe, Reyner Stoop, and Staas Roelofs Beckere [2] as the first party, and the painter, Master Dieric Bouts, as the second party, that he should make for them a precious altarpiece with scenes pertaining to the Holy Sacrament. In this altarpiece there shall be presented on the center panel the Supper of our Beloved Lord with his Twelve Apostles, and on each of the inner wings two representations from the Old Testament: 1) the Heavenly Bread, 2) Melchizedek, 3) Elijah, 4) the Eating of the Paschal Lamb as described in the Old Covenant. Item, on each of the outer wings there shall be one picture: on one, the scene with the Twelve Loaves which only the priests were allowed to eat, [3] and on the other …[lacuna]. [4]
And the aforementioned Master Dieric has contracted to make this altarpiece to the best of his ability, to spare neither labor nor time, but to do his utmost to demonstrate in it the art which God has bestowed on him, in such order and truth as the Reverend Masters Jan Vaernacker and Gillis Bailluwel, Professors of Theology, shall prescribe to him with regard to the aforementioned subjects. And it is understood that said Master Dieric, after having begun work on this altarpiece, shall not contract any other work of this kind until this one has been completed. For his work said Master Dieric shall be paid and receive the sum of two hundred Rhenish guilders of twenty stivers each: to wit, twenty-five Rhenish guilders as soon as he has begun to paint this altarpiece, and further, twenty-five Rhenish guilders during the next half year, fifty Rhenish guilders after completing the work, and the remaining one hundred Rhenish guilders during the following year, not reckoning the first three months of the one after that. But if, by the grace of God, the
good people should so amply demonstrate their charity and liberality toward said work that the above named sum can be paid in full to said Master Dieric for his completed work, and if that sum of money would otherwise lie unused in awaiting the aforementioned time limit, it has been contracted that said Master Dieric shall be paid in full as soon as he has fulfilled his obligation. This has been witnessed (in addition to the Reverend Professors mentioned before) by Claes van Sinte Goericx, Knight, Master Laureys van Maeldote, Priest, and Master Gheert Fabri, Schoolmaster.

Commentary: The last documented work by Dieric Bouts, left unfinished at the time of his death in 1475, was commissioned by the city fathers of Louvain.The two documents which follow do not speak a very clear language with regard to the ensemble planned for a room in the Louvain town hall, and the demise of the artist may have caused considerable alterations in the original intentions as well. The "small" altarpiece of the Last Judgment-small in comparison with the Justice panels-was probably executed first; the central part is known only through a copy but the wings with Hell and Paradise have survived in the Louvre and in the Lille Museum, respectively. [5] The two large Justice panels, one completed by Bouts [6] the other left unfinished by him and completed somewhat later by a much weaker hand, [7] depict a rare case of the kind of judicial "exemplum" which Roger van der Weyden had painted for the Brussels counterpart of Bouts' Louvain commission [8] and which remained so popular with Netherlandish authorities and painters of later generations. The first document [9] has not survived in its original form and must be read in the light of our knowledge as gained from the second, and from a few minor ones. It has come down to us in a 17th century report clearly based on sources prior to 1489 but apparently interpolated with the aid of later documents.

Text: In the year 1468 [l0] two paintings were made by Master Dierick Stuerbout [11] which are placed in the council room. In one, the emperor has judgment passed on a count, a member of the court, because the empress had accused him of having made attempts upon her honor; in the other, the emperor sentences his empress to be burnt, after the aforementioned accusation has been proved false [12] This was estimated at 230 crowns of 72 placques each.[13]
In the same year, on May 20th, the city of Louvain made a contract with the aforementioned Master Dierick Stuerbout for a certain painting on wood, 26 feet wide and 12 feet high, [14] together with another panel with Our Lord's Judgment, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide, for the price of 500 crowns; [15] this Judgment panel hangs in the councilmen's room of the town hall at Louvain.

Commentary: The second document,[16] datable between May 1st and July 31st, 1480, is preserved in the original and offers us the precious glimpse of a great master being called upon to estimate the value of a work by an illustrious predecessor.

Text: Item, Master Dierick Boudts, the painter, had made a contract with the city to paint four parts of a large work which were intended to be placed in a hall or room, with portraits and [other] paintings, and another small panel with its wings showing the Judgment, and the Judgment [also] on the inside, hanging in the council room. For these, the aforementioned Master Dierick was to receive from the city, after completion, the sum of 500 crowns, but this did not come to pass because he died in the meantime so that he was unable to finish them in his time. Of the large panels one was entirely, and the second, almost completed; the small panel with the Judgment, which hangs in the council room, is finished. For this the city has defrayed and paid to him and to his children the sum of 306 guilders and 36 placques [17] on the basis of an estimate and valuation from one of the most eminent painters that could be found around these parts, a man born in the city of Ghent and now residing in the Red Cloister in the district of Soignes. [18]

NOTES

1. Translated from the Netherlandish text as reprinted by Wolfgang Schone, Dieric Bouts und seine Schule (Berlin 1938), p. 240.
2. It is more probable that "Beckere" is part of the name than that it indicates the profession of baker (as interpreted by SchSne).
3. The "show breads," Leviticus 24, 5-9.
4. The outer wings are lost--if they were ever done.
5. But see A. Chatelet in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jahrbuch 1965.
6. The documents do not specify this hut common consensus has identified it with the Ordeal by Fire.
7. The Execution of the Innocent Count; see note 6. The extent of Dieric Bouts' participation in this panel has been judged variously; see Schone, p. 109, and A. and P. Philippot, "La Justice d'Othon de Thierry Bouts: Examen stylistique et technique," Bulletin de l'Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, ! (1958), 31 ff.
8. See above, p. 9.
9. Translated from the Netherlandish text as reprinted by Schone, p. 242, and (with slight changes) by Frans van Molle, "La Justice d'Othon de Thierry Bouts: Sources &Archives," Bulletin de l'lnstitut . . . (see note 7), p. 7, note 2.
l0. The date 1468 must refer to the commission, not to the execution of the panels.
11. This name rests on confusion between Bouts and the painter Hubrecht Stuerbout which became frequent even during Bouts' lifetime.
12. The story is related in the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine and elsewhere, and was prescribed to Bouts by a learned theologian, Jan van Haeght; see Schone, p. 111, and Nicole Verhaegen, "La Justice d'Othon de Thierry Bouts: Iconographie," Bulletin de l'lnstitut . . . (see note 7), 22 ff.
13. As mentioned here, the crown consisted of 72 "plekken," while the guilder was worth only 54 of them.
14. This must have included the Justice panels, as Schone, p. I00, has shown.
15. See on this the following document.
16. Translated from the Netherlandish text as reprinted by Schone, p. 244, and (with slight changes) by F. van Molle (see note 9), p. 11 (reproduction of the original document; the transcription on p. 10, note 3, leaves out them passage on Bouts, death by mistake).
17. See note 13.
18. Hugo van der Goes; on his residence in the "Roode Klooster" near Brussels see below, p. 15.