Highlights

This portrait of Charles the Bold belongs to a series of portraits of the Dukes of Burgundy. It is a later copy of a celebrated portrait painted around 1460 by the Netherlandish artist, Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400-1464); it depicts Charles aged about 30 when he was still Count of Charolais. The inscription, however, refers to him as Duke of Burgundy, a title he only assumed after the death of his father, Duke Philip the Good, in 1467. This copy was clearly commissioned in the context of the Habsburgs’ commemoration of their family-history, in which the Dukes of Burgundy frequently play a prominent role due to their contribution to the Habsburgs’ rise to become a major power.
 

Charles the Bold donated this precious sculpture to the cathedral of Liège in 1471. It is a monument both to his piety and his status as the divinely-chosen protector of the conquered city. Introduced by his personal patron saint, St. George, the kneeling Duke is proffering a reliquary containing the fragment of a finger of St. Lambert. The similarities in the features and armour of the prince and the saint are clearly intentional. The Duke commissioned several such portraits from Gerard Loyet. However, only the one in Liège has survived. Today it is regarded as one of the most important European goldsmith sculptures to have survived from the late Middle Ages.

This goblet is one of the outstanding masterpieces to have survived from the Burgundian court. Cup, lid and foot are made of cut rock-crystal. A sophisticated gold setting joins the different elements and gives the goblet its elegant outline, culminating in the shimmering pearls bursting fountain-like from the knob on the lid. The gold setting features the personal devices of Duke Phillip the Good – fire iron and flint-stone, and the double “e”. Both the foot and the setting of the lid are also decorated with groups of pearls alternating with precious stones, among them the fleur-de-lys of the House of Valois formed by five diamonds cut using an ingenious new technique.
From the estate of Charles the Bold the „Burgundian court goblet“ passed into the possession of the French crown. In 1571, King Charles IX presented it to Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol who had represented the French monarch at his proxy marriage to an Austrian archduchess.

In 1477, Mary of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, married Maximilian, the only son of the Emperor Frederick III. This marriage had first been proposed in 1463 in the course of negotiations between Frederick III and Charles the Bold about the Duke’s plan to unite his domains in a single kingdom. The son from that marriage, Philip the Handsome (1478-1596) – and thus the House of Habsburg – subsequently inherited Burgundy and much of its wealth.  
Mary died already in 1482 after a fall from her horse, but the Emperor continued to keep her memory alive even after he had remarried. This portrait showing Mary in profile wearing a fashionable hennin, a cone-shaped headdress with long transparent veil, was probably also executed after her death. There are a number of other replicas and copies of this portrait of the Duchess of Burgundy.

A floral ground – symbolising the flowering realm of the Dukes of Burgundy – dominates this delicate tapestry made of very fine threads. At the centre of a sea of flowers are the arms and emblems of Philip the Good. Helm and crest rest on the Burgundian coat-of-arms. The shield is enhanced by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Fire irons with flint stones and flying sparks are pictorial devices that symbolise the Duke’s energy and drive. The meaning of the double “e” is still disputed.
This tapestry is the only one from a series of eight similar tapestries to have survived; they once decorated a room in Duke Philip the Good’s palace in Brussels. After his death, his son Charles the Bold continued to use the tapestries to decorate his palace.

In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy were leaders of fashion. This man’s tunic is a rare example of secular clothes to have survived from the late Middle Ages. One needed a servant to close it on the back, an obvious sign of wealth and high birth. At a later date, the tunic was taken in at the waist and the shape of the sleeves altered.

The casula belongs to the set of liturgical vestments probably reserved for the celebration of High Mass on St. Andrew’s Day (November 30), the feast-day of the patron saint of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The vestments now in the Treasury in Vienna may have been commissioned by Duke Philip the Good himself.
The vestment on show here, elaborately embroidered with gold- and silk threads, was worn by one of the priests celebrating Mass. Its back – i.e. the side facing the congregation – shows the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. Its front depicts the Baptism of Christ. It has been suggested that the designs may be by two of the most important representatives of Old Netherlandish painting, the Master of Flémalle (active between 1410 and 1440) and Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464).

More than any other artistic medium tapestries reflect the period’s feudal society. Their monumental formats feature many-figured compositions depicting historical subject-matters as a reflection of life at the court of Burgundy.
This tapestry belongs to a series of four depicting the Triumphs of Caesar. Caesar’s entry into Rome looks like a contemporary “joyeuse entrée”. The historical story is completely absorbed into Burgundian traditions of public display. Caesar is seated in a litter, borne by horses disguised as elephants. He is accompanied by musicians. On the right we see Caesar enthroned, but the drawn daggers of his enemies are an intimation of his imminent assassination. This, however, is not depicted, probably so as not to detract from Caesar’s courage which is celebrated in the inscriptions.

Parade Armour for man and horse was worn during ceremonies, festivities and campaigns to document a prince’s power and wealth. This heavy horse armour was made for the Emperor Frederick III for the 1476/7 war between Burgundy, Lorraine and the Swiss Confederacy. An embossed double-headed eagle and the red-white-red shield of Austria decorate the plates protecting the charger’s flanks. The suit-of-armour was made later. It was assembled from pieces originally belonging to various suits-of-armour made for the Emperor Maximilian I.

Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) was named after his great-grandfather, Charles the Bold. Growing up at the court of his aunt Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands, he was educated in the tradition of late-mediaeval Burgundian ideals. The Burgundian inheritance that fell to him after the death of his father, Philip the Handsome, played a pivotal role in making him ruler over an empire in which “the sun never set”.