Furthermore, the finely rendered heraldry featured in the top-right of the composition and the faintly inscribed letter held by the sitter has enabled us to identify him as Ferdinande de Bavière (1537 – c.1577), a prominent member of the prestigious Bruges Brokers’ Guild in the 1560s and 1570s.[1]

The Latin motto ‘FRVSTRA· QVOD· VLTRA’, decoratively incorporated within the coat-of-arms, roughly translates to ‘Everything else is in vain’, which might allude to the sitter’s steadfast Catholic faith. The subject is posed as though he is offering a letter to us, which is inscribed with his name, suggesting that it is a letter of introduction. Such a gesture fits his position as an effective broker in Bruges; indeed, it is interesting that Ferdinande has here chosen to portray himself posing for an act as formal as an introduction to a potential client; it demonstrates that he was an earnest professional and, demonstrably, successful enough to commission a portrait by one of the city’s most desirable portraitists.

Bruges had enjoyed a ‘golden age’ of rich cultural production in the early sixteenth century thanks to the patronage of the resident Dukes of Burgundy, whose refined tastes had coaxed many of Europe’s most talented artists to the city. This encouraged the local elite, including nobles and successful merchants, to follow their example, thus introducing an active market in ‘consumable’ artworks – primarily domestically scaled religious works - as well as employing local portrait painters to immortalise their likenesses. This vibrant cultural ecosystem meant that Bruges became a famous production centre for all kinds of other luxury goods, which were consumed locally and exported – to the great benefit of region – abroad. Dedicated guilds ensured that all the products were of the highest quality and foreign merchants, now habituated in the city, further elevated Bruges to becoming a hub for international trade. The increasing supply and demand of such quality goods for the local and international markets were almost entirely engineered by figures like Ferdinande de Bavière.

Brokers were singularly responsible for facilitating commercial trade, of any kind, within the Flanders region; from the initial interaction with a merchant to the ultimate sale of their goods. A broker’s familiarity with economic activities beyond the city walls and local demand meant that they wielded great systemic power, as well as responsibility for the prosperity of the area they represented. A brokers’ reputation, whether locally or abroad, was pivotal in securing the most lucrative contracts for their clients – as well as themselves. Around the time that this portrait was painted, Bruges was the commercial hub of Flanders - second only to Antwerp in the Low Countries - with brokers providing an important role in enabling the region to flourish in inter-regional and international trade. To be a member of the Bruges Brokers’ guild - through which every commercial deal in Flanders had to be conducted - one had to have been born in Flanders, to have been a burger in the city for at least one year and one day and pay a membership fee. The guild was run and managed by a council (also known as an oath), which consisted of a Dean and seven Principals, who were elected annually through a majority ballot. As well as negotiating the technical details of any deal, the brokers would often arrange for the storage of the traded goods and provided accommodation for the foreign merchants with whom they were transacting.[2]

Until our positive identification of Ferdinande being the subject of this portrait, his birth year was unknown; thanks to the artist having inscribed his age and the year in which the portrait was painted, we now know that he was born in 1537. Presently, the remainder of his biography has not been fully established due to scant archival records referring to the de Bavière family from the mid-sixteenth century. However, we have been able to establish the following from surviving documents: Ferdinand[us] de Bavière was the son of a Bruges-based broker, called Pierre. He followed his father’s profession and became a member of the Council of the Brokers’ Guild in Bruges, eventually serving as a principal in the guild for several years between 1561 and 1574. He married Joanna Aernout (also recorded as ‘Arents’) in Bruges on 26th September 1571 and they had two sons together: Walter [Walterus/Wouter], who was born 14th June 1573, and John [Joannes/Hans], born 19th June 1575.

One of the few surviving documents listing Ferdinande de Bavière by name is from a brokerage contract dated 1575, where he is recorded as being a guardian of the children of an Antoine van der Helst and Catherine van Brychove. The document also indicates that he was called upon to collect a share of the estate from Catherine van der Helst, widow of François de Valladolid, who was a former cleric of the Spanish consulate.[3] Sadly, the only other surviving reference to Ferdinand is a document from March 1577, where Joanna de Bavière is listed as a widow; the proximity between the birth of his second son and this reference means that Ferdinand must have died somewhere between September 1574 (i.e. 9 months before John was born) and March 1577.[4]

Painted a year after he became a master painter in the Bruges painters’ guild in 1566, this portrait is one of the earliest surviving examples by Gillis Claeissens (1536/37 – 1605), whose highly distinctive compositions, along with that of Pieter Pourbus (1523 - 1584), contributed significantly to Bruges’ school of portraiture during the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Having trained in the workshop of his father, Pieter I (1500 - 1576), Gillis worked from the family’s workshop on the Oude Zak street, where he had received his training and where he would remain for his entire career, buying out the rest of his family’s shares upon his father’s death in 1576.

Gillis was elected a council member of the Bruges’ painters’ guild several times and it is thought that he worked at the court of the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Alexander Farnese (1545 – 1592), between 1589 and 1592. Thereafter he worked in Brussels as the court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, but returning to Bruges periodically for larger commissions, including repairing the banner for the Bruges St Sebastian’s guild, of which he was a member. He married Elisabeth Boelandts, but they had no children together; Gillis did have an illegitimate son, Gillis II (d.c. 1622), who himself became a master in the Brussels Guild of St Luke in 1601. One of the last documented works Gillis I made was a miniature portrait of the Infanta in 1604; he died on 17 December 1605 and was buried in the Coopers’ Chapel in the Church of St James in Bruges. [5]

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[1] We are grateful to Evrard van Zuylen for his assistance in identifying the de Bavière coat-of-arms.

[2] A. Van den Abeele and M. Catry, Makelaars en handelaars, Bruges 1992, pp. 170 – 171.

[3] L. Gilliodts-Van Severen, Coutumes pays et comté de Flandre, des 2 coutumes des petites villes et seigneuries enclavées, quartier de Bruges, Brussels 1892, p. 190.

[4] We are grateful to Jan Anseeuw, Archivist at the Bruges stadsarchief, for his archival assistance.

[5] A. van Oosterwijk ed., Forgotten Masters: Pieter Pourbus and Bruges Painting from 1525 to 1625, Bruges 2017, p. 259.