Jean de Croy
Jean de Croÿ , also Jean de Croy , II. Comte de Solre, Baron de Molembaix et Beaufort (* 1588 , † 1638 ) was a Spanish politician , general and art collector .
Life
Jean de Croÿ was the eldest son of Philippe de Croÿ (1562-1612) and his first wife Anne de Beaufort . He served as Gentilhombre de Cámara to the Archduke of the Spanish Netherlands , Albrecht VII of Habsburg , and was captain of the Brussels infantry. He was well connected in the Duchy of Burgundy and cemented his position in the region by marrying his distant cousin Marie-Jeanne de Lalaing. Dame de Condé et Bailleul, Baronne de Montigny in 1608. Since her mother was Philippe de Croy's second wife, the two had grown up in the same household. In 1614 Jean de Croÿ was elected a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece and was introduced by the Archduke on April 27, 1615.
After his service in the Netherlands, he succeeded his uncle, the Marqués de Falces , as captain of the Guard of Flemish Archers in Madrid. He was sworn in on May 8, 1624 in this position. As a result, he changed the rules of the guard until 1626. He has also been a member of the Internal Affairs Council since his return to Spain. In this capacity, he was made an honorary gentilhombre de la Cámara of the king on June 17, 1627. Since Jean de Croÿ was a reliable ally for Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde de Olivares , he was appointed to the Council for the Netherlands in 1628, chaired by Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán . De Croÿ was sent on diplomatic missions to Poland , France , the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands .
In Madrid, Jean de Croÿ, the Comte de Solre, lived in a large house with a garden on Calle de Alcalá that had previously belonged to his uncle. De Croy was an avid gardeners and had also next to the one on the banks of his house Manzanares , the de Huerat Sorá said. He bought rare plants for them. In 1638 the Comte de Solre died.
Art collection
The great art collection of the Comte de Solre was inventoried after his death in 1638 by Felix Castello and Felipe Diricksen , a painter who was a member of the Flemish Guard of Archers. Only a few paintings were ascribed in the inventory they put up, but it does provide information about the scope and focus of the collection. In Jean de Croy's house there were 150 paintings, only six of which showed religious subjects. Other paintings hung in his garden pavilion, where he also kept silver and vermeil services. Half of the collection consisted of landscapes , which was a fairly new genre in Spain. In addition, the Comte de Solre owned various still lifes , genre pictures , allegories and paintings that showed the ancient gods. It is unusual that the inventory does not contain a single portrait . This is actually not likely for a person with such a position at court as Jean de Croy held. Other collections in Madrid at the time, which were also so secular in nature, included a wide variety of portraits. If the inventory of the de Croÿs collection is complete, then the large portrait that Juan van der Hamen y León made of him must have been in the possession of another family member.
The outstanding quality of Jean de Croÿ's collection is underlined by the fact that the Spanish King acquired 28 of 151 paintings, including paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder , Paul de Vos , Peter Paul Rubens , Frans Snyders and others. From this collection the king also acquired the two portrait-format still lifes by Juan van der Hamen y León, which probably framed a door or were even mounted on its wings. In their individuality, the two paintings stand out from the rest of the still lifes of this painter, which are determined by compositional schemes. Juan van der Hamen was probably more closely connected to the Comte de Solre and was allowed to carry out plant studies in his gardens. The de Croÿ collection also contained a few small fruit still lifes, which, with prices between 100 and 150 reales, probably also came from van der Hamen, but certainly not from Flemish painters.
literature
- William B. Jordan : Juan van der Hamen y León & The Court of Madrid . Yale University Press, New Haven 2005. ISBN 0-300-11318-8 .
- Felix Scheffler and Luis Ramón-Laca: The Gardens of Jean de Croÿ, Count of Solre, in Madrid and the "Offering to Flora" by Juan van der Hamen , in: Garden History, Vol. 33, No. 1, Summer, 2005, pp. 135-145.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Croy, Jean de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jean de Croÿ, II Comte de Solre, Baron de Molembaix et Beaufort |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish military, politician and art collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1588 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1638 |