Heraldic Figure with Four Coats of Arms, unknown maker from Belgium

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums Coats of arms might be described as a richly symbolic means to visualize family memory, heritage, and rank. The rules that govern the arrangement of symbols and forms that constitute a coat of arms are so strictly standardized that it is possible to read them. An analysis of the coats of arms on the four shields seen here reveals that they represent the Van den Berghe, Schore, Van der Noot, and Watermaele families. The two elegantly helmeted elders who display these four shields are guardians of the history, memory, and honor of these related families. These two sculptural groups were once an integral part of the upper register of a memorial altarpiece in the Church of the Augustines in Leuven, Belgium. It was commissioned in 1536 by Louis III de Schore for himself and his second wife, Anne van der Noot, and was probably completed by 1548, the year of de Schore’s death. The church and altarpiece were demolished in 1801 during the Napoleonic era. Label 2009: These two old yet muscular warriors rest on shields bearing the coats of arms of four prominent sixteenth-century Flemish families: the Van den Berghes, the Schores, the Van der Noots, and the Watermaeles. The sculptures were once seated atop a funerary monument (demolished in 1801) in the Chapel of Notre Dame in the Church of the Augustines in Louvain, Belgium. The monument was commissioned in 1536 by Louis III de Schore for himself and his second wife, Anne van der Noot, and was probably completed by 1548, the year of de Schore’s death. Another example of sixteenth-century funerary sculpture, from Italy rather than Northern Europe, may be seen elsewhere in the Spencer’s Renaissance Gallery.