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DELEMER, Jean - b. ~1410 ?, d. ~1450 Brussel - WGA

DELEMER, Jean

(b. ~1410 ?, d. ~1450 Brussel)

Jean Delemer was a Flemish sculptor. He was paid in 1428 for carving a life-size stone Annunciation group, painted by Robert Campin for St Pierre, Tournai. It is known that other pieces modelled by him were painted by Robert Campin. No other works by the sculptor have survived in Tournai, but a number of later Tournaisian sculptures appear to reflect lost works by Delemer.

Burgundian tombs were the fruit of a collaboration between the sculptor Delemer, the painter Rogier van der Weyden and the bronze-founder Jacob de Gerines. The statuettes of 1476 from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon in the former Abbey of St Michael in Antwerp, which are among the most delicately worked examples of 15th-century bronze sculpture, are based on models by Delemer.

Albrecht of Bavaria from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon
Albrecht of Bavaria from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon by

Albrecht of Bavaria from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon

The funeral monument of Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was erected in the abbey church of St Michael near Antwerp in 1476. It was robbed of most of its decoration in the 16th or 17th century. Originally the tomb was surrounded by 24 bronze statuettes of noblemen and women standing in niches. The bronze effigy of Isabella was later moved to the O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady) in Antwerp, where it remains to this day. Nothing more of the tomb furnishings survives, with the exception of ten statuettes in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Isabella’s mausoleum is based on two almost identical tombs which no longer exist. These tombs were the work of the sculptor Delemer, the painter Rogier van der Weyden and the bronze-founder Jacob de Gerines. It is assumed that the models for the Amsterdam statuettes were supplied by Delemer or his workshop.

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Female Figure from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon
Female Figure from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon by

Female Figure from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon

The funeral monument of Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was erected in the abbey church of St Michael near Antwerp in 1476. It was robbed of most of its decoration in the 16th or 17th century. Originally the tomb was surrounded by 24 bronze statuettes of noblemen and women standing in niches. The bronze effigy of Isabella was later moved to the O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady) in Antwerp, where it remains to this day. Nothing more of the tomb furnishings survives, with the exception of ten statuettes in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Isabella’s mausoleum is based on two almost identical tombs which no longer exist. These tombs were the work of the sculptor Delemer, the painter Rogier van der Weyden and the bronze-founder Jacob de Gerines. It is assumed that the models for the Amsterdam statuettes were supplied by Delemer or his workshop.

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