THE JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Vol. 57- 03, Cambridge University
Press, July 2006, p. 607-08.
The Sint Janskerk in Gouda, the longest church in the Netherlands and
one of the most splendid in its cathedral- like proportions, might be
thought in itself to justify such a magnificently-produced treatment as
this book, but in fact only one single stained-glass window in the extraordinary
sequence of windows surviving in that great building forms the actual
subject of Wim de Groot's collective venture. The King's Window was commissioned
from the celebrated stained-glass artist Dirck Crabeth (c. 1500-74) by
Philip II of Spain (and King Consort of England): it was installed between
1557-59, as a major symbol of Habsburg power in an increasingly fragmented
and contentious Netherlands, and as a royal contribution to the rebuilding
of the church after a disastrous fire in 1552. For the English it has
a special significance as including a rare portrait of Philip with his
wife Queen Mary Tudor, kneeling as devout spectators of the Last Supper,
while its strong identification of Philip with King Solomon is one of
the first examples of the theme which became so important to the self-image
of the world-ruler, living in his reconstruction of Solomon's Temple at
the Escorial, half-monastery, half-palace. The glazing scheme survived
the iconoclastic fury of 1566 thanks to the power of the President of
the Secret Council, Viglius van Aytta, who had probably been responsible
for prompting Philip's gift of the King's Window in the first place: subsequently
it was not so fortunate in its relationship with Dutch weather, and only
about half of the glass is now original. Yet the unique distinction of
the window is the survival still in the Sint Janskerk archives of Crabeth's
full-size cartoon for the glass, which has enabled the window's triumphant
restoration at the beginning of last century. In 1997 the cartoon became
the centrepiece of a major exhibition at the Museo del Prado in Madrid:
this pleasing symbol of Hispano-Dutch reconciliation was the inspiration
for this volume, edited by the man responsible for conserving Crabeth's
cartoon. The contents provide not simply a detailed analysis of the window
itself and its context in the Habsburg Netherlands, but a pleasingly discursive
set of essays which range from a conspectus of the life and music of a
great Dutch church, as far as a treatment of the portrayal of King Solomon
in the Hebrew Bible. With essays from Spanish and Dutch scholars as well
as from such English luminaries as Geoffrey Parker and Glyn Redworth,
this is a triumph of collaborative presentation, and the illustrations
are superb, including the alarming photograph of a burned-out workman's
hut immediately below the window in 2003, which finally would have done
for it, but for the effectiveness of Dutch protective double-glazing.
DIARMAID MacCULLOCH
Professor of the History of the Church, St Cross College, University of
Oxford
Author: Reformation. Europe's House Divided 1490-1700, Penguin-Allen
Lane, London 2003.