Renier de Huy (or Rainer of Huy) (also Reiner, van, etc. in any combination) was a 12th-century metalworker and sculptor to whom is attributed a major masterpiece of
Mosan art
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although in a broader sense the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque ar ...
, the
baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in
Liège,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
of 1107–18. The
Meuse
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...
river valley in modern Belgium and France, roughly comprising the
Diocese of Liège
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
, was the leading 12th century centre of
Romanesque metalwork, which was still the most prestigious medium in art. Nothing is known of Rainer's life other than that a "Reinerus aurifaber" witnessed a
charter of the Bishop of Liège relating to a church in
Huy
Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...
in 1125, but the 15th century Liège
chronicle mentions him as the artist of the font. He may have died about 1150. Another equally shadowy figure in Mosan metalwork from the next generation,
Godefroid de Huy/de Claire, also came from the small but prosperous city of Huy on the Meuse.
The only other work generally agreed to be by the same master as the font is a small bronze
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
figure (
Schnütgen Museum,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
); another 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 ...
is probably from the same mould, with extra chasing. Others in Brussels and
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
are probably from the workshop as they have many similarities.
[Lasko, 181, and plate 182 for the Cologne figure. one of the Brussels figures is illustrated in Xhayet and Halleux, before p. 129]
Notes
References
*Beckwith, John. ''Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque'', Thames & Hudson, 1964 (rev. 1969),
*Calkins, Robert G.; ''Monuments of Medieval Art'', Dutton, 1979,
*
Lasko, Peter, ''Ars Sacra, 800–1200'', Yale University Press, 1995 (2nd edn.)
*"Oxford": Rainer of Huy: The Oxford Dictionary of Art." Accessed 10 January 2010
*Swarzenski, Hanns. ''Monuments of Romanesque Art; The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe'',
Faber and Faber, 1974,
*Xhayet, Geneviève and Halleux, Robert (eds), ''Études sur les fonts baptismaux de Saint-Barthélémy à Liège'', Editions du CEFAL, 2006, , 978287130212
google books
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huy, Renier De
Metalworkers
Mosan art
Belgian goldsmiths
Romanesque artists
Early Netherlandish art
Early Netherlandish sculptors
1150 deaths
Year of birth unknown
Year of death uncertain
12th-century sculptors
People of medieval Belgium
12th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire