This contribution provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant iconography of Jan van Leeuwen († 1378), the ‘Good Cook’ at the hermitage and later priory of Groenendaal in the Sonian Forest outside Brussels. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the 8 extant pictorial representations of...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Arblaster, John 1985- (Author)
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	2021
Subjects:	Jan > van Leeuwen > 1295-1377 Monastère > Groenendaal Geschichte Heiligenvita Heiligenbild
Summary:	This contribution provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant iconography of Jan van Leeuwen († 1378), the ‘Good Cook’ at the hermitage and later priory of Groenendaal in the Sonian Forest outside Brussels. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the 8 extant pictorial representations of Jan, this article argues that the canons of Groenendaal instigated Jan’s veneration almost immediately after his death and selected three central foci for this veneration: his demanding active life as the cook in the monastery, his constant contemplation of God that was not interrupted by his active life, and his authorship of divinely inspired mystical treatises. The article argues that these prominent elements in the first hagiographical texts influenced the earliest known iconographic representations of Jan, which attempted to visualize these aspects of his holiness. This contribution shows how the earliest sources had a profound impact on all later hagiographical writings and pictorial representations of Jan until the end of the eighteenth century, when the iconographic and hagiographic traditions appear to have ended. The article shows that although Jan has never officially been canonized and the extant iconographic depictions are not numerous, they were persistent through time and were not limited geographically to Groenendaal or even the Low Countries.
Physical Description:	Illustrationen
ISSN:	1846-8551