Jan van Mansdale, also ''Jan I Keldermans'' (ca. 1345 – 1425) was a Brussels sculptor. He is considered the ancestor of the

Keldermans family Keldermans is a family of artists, originating from Mechelen (an independent city surrounded by the Duchy of Brabant). The members of the family were mostly architects working in the Brabantine Gothic style. As the most important architects of the ...

from

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

, which produced many master builders and sculptors. In Brussels, perhaps his hometown, Jan van Mansdale owned a house with the brewery ''In het Kelderken'' on Schildknaapstraat, which may explain his second name (''kelder'' = cellar). He married Katrien Pippens ca. 1375-1380 and had at least three children: Pieter, Jan II and Elizabeth van Mansdale who was married to Antoine van Robbroeck. Around 1370 he had become a master of the brick and mortar craft. Van Mansdale was initially known for carving ornate balustrades. His reputation soon reached beyond the city walls. In 1377 he was asked to take care of the decoration of the Great Hall in the Alderman's House in Mechelen. In 1384-85 he supplied eleven

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...

with representations of the

Nine Worthies The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, and legendary men of distinction who personify the ideals of chivalry established in the Middle Ages, whose lives were deemed a valuable study for aspirants to chivalric status. All were commonly ...

, Noah's drunkenness and Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac for the Mechelen Schepenhuis. This work has been preserved

in situ ''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...

. In the 1390s he also made the mausoleum of Franco de Mirabella and Maria van Gistel in

St. Rumbold's Cathedral St. Rumbold's Cathedral ( nl, Sint-Romboutskathedraal, french: Cathédrale Saint-Rombaut) is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, Roman Catholic metropolitan archiepiscopal cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium, dedicated to Rumbold of ...

, which he completed in 1415-1416. The monument, decorated with

pleurants Pleurants or weepers (the English meaning of ''pleurants'') are anonymous sculpted figures representing mourners, used to decorate elaborate tomb monuments, mostly in the late Middle Ages in Western Europe. Typically they are relatively small, ...

, was destroyed in 1810, except for a few fragments, which were transferred to the

Art & History Museum The Art & History Museum (french: Musée Art & Histoire, nl, Museum Kunst & Geschiedenis) is a public museum of antiquities and ethnographic and decorative arts located at the Cinquantenaire, Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in Brussels, Bel ...

of Brussels. On stylistic grounds, the mausoleum of Jan II van Polanen in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

has been tentatively attributed to Van Mansdale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Mansdale, Jan Year of birth uncertain 1345 births 1425 deaths Early Netherlandish sculptors 14th-century sculptors People from Brussels

Further reading

References