Die Bischofsweihe des hl. Nikolaus (Scheibenriss)

In 1537, Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder

(1502–1550) composed and signed a receipt to the

Antwerp merchants’ guild for their commission of a

stained-glass window above the altar in the guild’s

chapel, located in the nave of the Cathedral of Our

Lady.1 The subject focused on the consecration

of the guild’s patron saint, Saint Nicholas, as

bishop of Myra. Friedländer first surmised that the

Albertina drawing was the vidimus (Latin for “we

have seen”)—a finished work to be shown to the

guild officials for approval—for the bottom portion

of the window.2 The window does not survive,

but Alsteens observes that it was likely a Gothic

arch of approximately 9.5 by 4.5 meters, the same

size as other sixteenth-century windows still in

situ in the cathedral.3 Coecke van Aelst’s window

design was part of the centuries-long adornment

of Antwerp’s cathedral by generations of the

city’s most esteemed artists in the service of civic

corporations, confraternities, and wealthy families.

Unfortunately, the vicissitudes of the century led to

the need for continual replacements for damaged

works of art; Coecke van Aelst’s window may have

been destroyed as early as the 1566 iconoclastic riots

in Antwerp.

According to legend, after the death of the

fourth-century bishop of Myra, a heavenly voice

ordained that a new bishop named Nicholas would

enter the church the following morning. In the

composition, Coecke van Aelst positioned the young

Saint Nicholas in the center, where he receives

the unexpected honor of consecration from two

older bishops. Surrounding the central scene is a

crowd of monks and laypeople who watch aghast

or in wonder at the spontaneous event. Coecke van

Aelst met the challenge of a relatively static and

undramatic subject with figures varied in pose

and expression. At the same time, he tempered the

dynamic body movements for which he was known

in his tapestry and print designs (see [32]) to adapt

to the tall, skinny format of each pane, or “light,” of

glass. Across the five tall panes, Coecke van Aelst

constructed a single church interior. The expansive

background space is articulated with an altar and

an antique pediment above an open arcade that

shows his familiarity with ancient architecture—at

this time he was at work on a Dutch translation

of Sebastiano Serlio’s (1475–1554) treatise on the

ancient orders of architecture (1539).4 The altar in

the composition is adorned with an image of the

Assumption of the Virgin, a reference to the patron

saint of the Cathedral and the city of Antwerp.

Alongside its status as a vidimus, the composition

also functioned as a working drawing, necessary

both for the making of the window and the fullscale

cartoon. Coecke van Aelst worked in tandem

with the glassmaker, who used incised lines and

then red chalk to indicate the vertical edges of the

panels, leading, and horizontal lead ties (see Peters’s

essay). Coecke van Aelst drew the composition so

that none of the seams bisect a face and each body

is contained horizontally within a panel. He placed

the saint slightly to the right of center to avoid an

awkward seam. The work was squared for transfer

to allow either Coecke van Aelst or the glassmaker’s

workshop, both of whom were trained in cartoon

drawing, to transfer the design to a 1:1 model.5 In

the final transfer, the cartoon was probably placed

below a glass pane, and the contours and colors

traced onto the glass with paint.6 Coecke van Aelst’s

refined ink-and-wash technique offers careful

indications of shadows, highlights, and details such

as the articulation of costume, ornament, and faces

with deep-set eyes; these elements conveyed his

intentions to the guild, even if some nuances would

have undoubtedly been lost in translation to the

less-detailed medium of glass.

 

1. Rijksarchief, Brussels, family papers under Coucke. See

Marlier 1966, 43–44, fig. 7; Alsteens in Cleland 2014, 76, no. 14.

2. Friedländer 1917, 91. For the commission, see Grieten

and Bungeneers 1996, 181–82; Alsteens in Cleland 2014, 80,

under nos. 13–14.

3. Alsteens in Cleland 2014, 78.

4. Sebastiano Serlio and Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Generale

reglen der architecture op de vyve manieren van edificien te

weten thuscan, dorica, ionica, corinthia, end composita, met den

exemplen der aniquiteiten (Antwerp: Pieter Coecke van Aelst the

Elder, 1539).

5. See Marlier 1969, 318–20; Delmarcel 2004, 26.

6. Van Oosterwijk and Van Ruyven-Zeman 2011, 230.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 33