DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68274#0099
The Renaissance
high places who clung obstinately to the old order of
things and resented innovations. Gothic art was still
supreme under the short rule of Mary of Burgundy ;
but her daughter Margaret of Austria, Regent of the
Netherlands, had to face the new ideas, and found it
hard to reconcile herself with them, notwithstanding
her encouragement of the arts as a whole. She kept
a brilliant court, and she and her husband, Philibert
of Savoy, warmly encouraged genius and talent. She
gathered around her more than one hundred and fifty
painters, sculptors, architects and decorators in all
branches of art.
On the death of her husband she was inconsolable ;
and planned a splendid church in which his and her
remains should finally rest side by side. In 1505,'she
intrusted the planning of the work to Jean Perreal.
In an early letter, he writes to her that he is delighted
to undertake the work, and will take advantage of all
he has observed regarding convents in Italy, where the
most beautiful in all the world are to be found. In
another letter, in 1509, we read: " Jy me suis mis
apres tant pour mon devoir envers nostre Majeste que
pour l' amour que je vous doy, et ay revyre mes pour-
traictures, au moins des choses antiques que j'ay eues es
parties d'Italie, pour faire de toutes belles fleurs ung
trosse bouquet, dont j'ai monstre le jet au diet Le
Maire."
The Flemish character of Pereal's early style had
undoubtedly made him acceptable to the Regent. During
her residence in France, from 1483 to 1493, she had
then been subjected to no other than Flemish influence
67
high places who clung obstinately to the old order of
things and resented innovations. Gothic art was still
supreme under the short rule of Mary of Burgundy ;
but her daughter Margaret of Austria, Regent of the
Netherlands, had to face the new ideas, and found it
hard to reconcile herself with them, notwithstanding
her encouragement of the arts as a whole. She kept
a brilliant court, and she and her husband, Philibert
of Savoy, warmly encouraged genius and talent. She
gathered around her more than one hundred and fifty
painters, sculptors, architects and decorators in all
branches of art.
On the death of her husband she was inconsolable ;
and planned a splendid church in which his and her
remains should finally rest side by side. In 1505,'she
intrusted the planning of the work to Jean Perreal.
In an early letter, he writes to her that he is delighted
to undertake the work, and will take advantage of all
he has observed regarding convents in Italy, where the
most beautiful in all the world are to be found. In
another letter, in 1509, we read: " Jy me suis mis
apres tant pour mon devoir envers nostre Majeste que
pour l' amour que je vous doy, et ay revyre mes pour-
traictures, au moins des choses antiques que j'ay eues es
parties d'Italie, pour faire de toutes belles fleurs ung
trosse bouquet, dont j'ai monstre le jet au diet Le
Maire."
The Flemish character of Pereal's early style had
undoubtedly made him acceptable to the Regent. During
her residence in France, from 1483 to 1493, she had
then been subjected to no other than Flemish influence
67