Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

JÚLIA TÁTRAI AND LÁSZLO LENGYEL: Archduke Albert († 1621) on the Catafalque: A Picture of Old-New Acquisition

The abbreviations in the last line of the inscription have as yet not been deciphered with certainty. This problem of interpretation makes the attribution of the painting difficult and this point will be returned to later. The next line of the inscription is a chronosticon: the large-sized, pronounced letters are Roman numerals, the sum of which gives the year of Archduke Albert's death, which is probably also the date when the painting was executed, i.e. 1621. The third mention of the picture appears in the above mentioned 1952 list of works lost during the war, which names the Zichy Collection as the provenance of the work and again places a question mark next to the painter's name. PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS AND RELIGIOUS LIFE DURING THE REIGN OF ALBERT AND ISABELLA The inscriptions on the painting thus unambiguously identify the figure lying on the catafalque as Archduke Albert VII ("the Pious") of Austria, Governor-General of the Habsburg Netherlands, who passed away on July 13, 1621 in Brussels. Albert, the son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman emperor, and the infanta Maria was born in 1559 in Wiener Neustadt. From the age of eleven he was brought up in the court of his uncle, Philip II, king of Spain. It was originally planned that he pursue an ecclesiastical career, and thus was appointed cardinal in 1577, then in 1594 he was made archbishop of Toledo. Yet, despite never being actually ordained as a priest, nor as a bishop, his religious upbringing was to influence the rest of his life. One testament to Mbert's devotion to his faith is that posterity differentiates him from other ruling Mberts by dubbing him "the Pious" and "God-fearing". Finally Mbert was to fulfil important secular positions instead of the ecclesiastical career that had been planned for him in the Church: between 1584 and 1595 he was viceroy of Portugal. In 1596, after the death of his elder brother Archduke Ernst, Philip II appointed Albert to the position of governor-general of the Habsburg Netherlands. Two years later he married his cousin, Isabella, daughter of Philip II. The archducal couple were granted sovereignty from the Spanish Crown to govern the Habsburg Netherlands.

14 The period in which Mbert and Isabella governed was a period of development compared to the previous years of religious strife and war. The twelve-year truce they signed in 1609 with the northern provinces that were bent on secession brought about a period of economic prosperity and a flourishing of culture for the southern region.

15 The couple's good taste and patronage allowed Flemish art to flourish during their rule. The name of their court architect, Wenceslas Coberger, is linked to the renovation and rebuild-