Jan van Eyck - The Madonna with Canon van der Paele (detail) - WGA7708

Joris van der Paele or Georgius de Pala (ca. 1370–1443) was a scribe in the papal chancery, a successful career ecclesiastic, and a patron of the painter

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

Life

Joris van der Paele was born in or near

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

around 1370, into a family with considerable clerical connections. Among these, both his uncle and his brother were to hold positions in Saint Donatian's collegiate church in Bruges. Joris became a clerk in

minor orders Minor orders are ranks of church ministry. In the Catholic Church, the predominating Latin Church formerly distinguished between the major orders —priest (including bishop), deacon and subdeacon—and four minor orders—acolyte, exorcist, lecto ...

of the

diocese of Tournai The Diocese of Tournai is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was formed in 1146, upon the dissolution of the Diocese of Noyon & Tournai, which had existed since the 7th Century. It is ...

at an early age, and was later ordained

subdeacon Subdeacon (or sub-deacon) is a minor order or ministry for men in various branches of Christianity. The subdeacon has a specific liturgical role and is placed between the acolyte (or reader) and the deacon in the order of precedence. Subdeacons in ...

but never received higher orders. He was appointed a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the ...

of St Donatian's in 1387 and installed on 22 March 1388. In 1394, during the

Western Schism The Western Schism, also known as the Papal Schism, the Vatican Standoff, the Great Occidental Schism, or the Schism of 1378 (), was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 1378 to 1417 in which bishops residing in Rome and Avignon bo ...

, he was deprived of his prebend due to his loyalty to

Pope Boniface IX Pope Boniface IX ( la, Bonifatius IX; it, Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope of the Western Schism.Richa ...

in Rome, the city of Bruges recognising Avignon as the seat of the papacy. By 1396 he had been appointed to a position in the Roman chancery, and by 1409, while still working in the papal chancery, he had been appointed to prebends in Utrecht, Maastricht, Strasbourg, Cologne and Huy. In 1410 he was reappointed to a

canonry A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

of the church of St Donatian in Bruges. In July 1418 he began a process of retirement. From 1425 he was permanently resident in Bruges. In 1432 Van der Paele's health declined markedly. From 1434 he began to work on his legacy to the church, founding a chapel and commissioning a painting from Jan van Eyck. This was to become ''

Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele ''The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele'' is a large oil-on-oak panel painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within an apparition of sain ...

''. He would have been in his sixties and suffering from

temporal arteritis Temporal may refer to: Entertainment * Temporal (band), an Australian metal band * ''Temporal'' (Radio Tarifa album), 1997 * ''Temporal'' (Love Spirals Downwards album), 2000 * ''Temporal'' (Isis album), 2012 * ''Temporal'' (video game), a 200 ...

, when the painting was begun.Jan V. Dequeker, "Polymyalgia Rheumatica with Temporal Arteritis, as Painted by Jan van Eyck in 1436," ''

Canadian Medical Association Journal The ''Canadian Medical Association Journal'' (French ''Journal de l'Association Médicale Canadienne'') is a peer-reviewed general medical journal published by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). It publishes original clinical research, anal ...

'' 124/12 (15 June 1981): 1597-98. In 1442 he founded a second chapel. Van der Paele died in Bruges on 25 August 1443 and was buried in the chapel he had founded in the church of St Donatian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paele, Joris van der 1370s births 1443 deaths Clergy from Bruges Burgundian Netherlands Roman Catholic clergy