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 Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

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 A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

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 A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

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 States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

); 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 Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

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 Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

, 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