Jacques Jonghelinck ( Antwerp, 21 October 1530 - 1606) was a Flemish sculptor and medallist working in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in the

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

style common to the Catholic courts of Western Europe. He moved from Antwerp to set up a workshop in

in 1562 and was appointed court sculptor the following year. In Brussels he specialized in funeral monuments for an aristocratic clientele and was also a successful merchant, and financier. He belonged to the immediate entourage of the diplomat

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin (Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburg ...

, president of the council of state from 1556 to 1564. He collaborated as sculptor and bronze-founder with the sculptor Joos Aerts in the gilt-bronze and black marble memorial of

Charles the Bold Charles I (Charles Martin; german: Karl Martin; nl, Karel Maarten; 10 November 1433 – 5 January 1477), nicknamed the Bold (German: ''der Kühne''; Dutch: ''de Stoute''; french: le Téméraire), was Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477. ...

(died 1477) in the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk ("Church of Our Lady") (

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Scienc ...

), completed in 1563. Letters between de Granvelle, now in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, and his secretary Morillon in Brussels show that Jonghelinck, now as medallist, made a mould for a small medal in the spring of 1566. Successively he cast medals in lead, tin, copper, silver or gold of the type known as Geuzen medals. One of his masterworks, a full-length, over-lifesize bronze of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba – made in 1569 from the gunmetal of the 16 cannon captured at Jemmingen and erected in the

citadel of Antwerp Antwerp Citadel ( es, Castillo de Amberes, nl, Kasteel van Antwerpen) was a pentagonal bastion fort built to defend and dominate the city of Antwerp in the early stages of the Dutch Revolt. It has been described as "doubtlesse the most matchles ...

– was destroyed after the death of Alba on orders of king Philip II. Even in Italy and Madrid the statue was thought to be too pompous and to exhibit unnecessary cruelty. It is a coincidence that Jonghelinck at that moment had already returned to Antwerp, where he was "waardijn" (director) of the mint. His bronze of ''Silenus astride a Cask'', 1570, is the figure for a fountain in the gardens of the

Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of Tagus, a bit upstream the discharge of the Jarama. , the municipality h ...

; it replaced

Giambologna Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...

's ''Samson and a Philistine'', which had been given to

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

in 1623, on the ill-fated diplomatic mission over the "

Spanish Match The Spanish match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles, the son of King James I of Great Britain, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations took place over the period 1614 to 1623, and during th ...

". His brother Niclaes Jonghelinck was a major patron of Pieter Brueghel who owned 16 pictures of his by 1565, including many of his best known.Orrock, Amy, "Homo ludens: Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s Games and the Humanist Educators" JHNA, Vol. 4.2, who cites Iain Buchanan, “The Collection of Niclaes Jonghelinck: II. The ‘Months’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder,” Burlington Magazine 132 (1990): 541–49, 550 n. 11

References

Frick Collection, New York: ''Bust of the Duke of Alba''
bronze, dated 1571
Victoria and Albert Museum: ''The Spanish Fury at Antwerp''
bronze low-relief

plaquette A plaquette (, ''small plaque'') is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were of ...

roundel attributed to Jognhelinck: circa 1580, depicting events of 1576 *Smolderen, Luc, ''Jacques Jonghelinck: Sculpteur, medailleur et graveur de sceaux (1530-1606)'' (Louvain, 1996)
Léon E. Lock, "A brief history of the sculpture in the present-day Netherlands and Belgium"
Brief mention of Jonghelinck in context

1562 *Henry Kamen, ''The Duke of Alba'' (Yale University Press, 2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonghelinck, Jacques 1530 births 1606 deaths Flemish Baroque sculptors Artists from Antwerp Artists from Brussels