The book by Anna Koopstra about Jean Bellegambe adds an extremely careful, thorough, and beautifully produced study to the monographs on early Dutch painters. (...) More traditional art historical research?iconographic, stylistic, archival, and historiographic?is combined with modern technical research and a keen eye for drawings and graphics as visual sources for the artist. (?) The beautifully produced and clearly written book represents excellent and versatile art historical research that, through in-depth analysis of a small group of characteristic artworks, offers a new perspective on an important artist, his work and methods, as well as the impact of that distinctive body of work." Drs. Lidewij de Koekkoek (VNK, Frans Hals Museum) - Jury President - 2023 Karel van Manderprijs BIO Anna Koopstra (1980) studied art history at the University of Groningen (MA, 2004) and obtained her doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art (PhD, 2016). She has held curatorial positions and research fellowships at the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum (2005-08), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Slifka interdisciplinary Fellow, 2008-10), The National Gallery (2015-17), and the Courtauld (Associate Caroline Villers Research Fellow, 2016/17). Her research focuses on the technical investigation of paintings, and in particular on the making and meaning of early Netherlandish paintings. SUMMARY Jean Bellegambe (c. 1470- 1535/36), whose career as far as we know spanned the first three decades of the sixteenth century, was a successful painter. His patrons included some of the most high-ranking clerics in the Habsburg-Burgundian Netherlands as well as members of the ruling class of Douai, the town where he lived and worked all his life. This is the first study to appear since Dehaisnes' 1890 monograph that is exclusively devoted to the artist. By reassessing primary evidence - archival documents and material evidence from the works of art themselves - it aims to highlight Bellegambe's artistic achievements. Close scrutiny of his paintings and investigation of the artist's working methods will show that Bellegambe visualised the concerns of his patrons by closely linking the physical characteristics of his works to their original imagery, function and use. This volume presents a series of five case studies of his works that were made for a monastic community, two individual clerics, a town hall and a bourgeois layman, thus providing rich evidence of patronage and audiences. The objective here is to examine how Bellegambe met the challenges posed by these commissions, and to gain further insight into the practice of a skilled artist who - rooted in a long line of craftsmanship and artistic tradition and in close collaboration with his colleagues and patrons - produced a body of highly original works. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I The Artist?s Life and Career Life Works Posthumous legacy CHAPTER II Oeuvre and Patrons The Anchin Polyptych Similar patrons, similar commissions Other works CHAPTER III Preliminary Observations on Materials and Working Methods Panels and frames Underdrawing and painting technique Technical evidence and questions of attribution Workshop CHAPTER IV Jean Bellegambe and the Convent of Flines: Reconsidering The Cellier Altarpiece Monastic reform and the convent of Flines The evolution of the composition Interpreting the iconographic program Location, audience, date CHAPTER V Clerical Devotion and the Monastic Milieu: The Diptych of the Virgin and Child with Saint Bernard and an Unidentified Cistercian Monk The Virgin and child as an object of clerical devotion The abbess as exemplar CHAPTER VI Self-Representation and Piety for the Here and the Hereafter: Abbot William of Brussels and the Triptych of the Annunciation William of Brussels as a patron Function and location CHAPTER VII Painting as a Moral Compass: Triptych of the Last Judgment The Last Judgment, the Four Last Things, and visions of heaven and hell Function and audience CHAPTER VIII Civic Duty, Charitable Giving, and the Wish to Be Commemorated: The Pottier Triptych and the Pottier Family Reviewing the archival evidence Iconography and meaning Scenes of the life of Saint Anne, demi-grisaille, and the reality of giving CONCLUSION Bibliography