Parergon 33.1 (2016) Miscellanea A Note on the Identity of the Donor in a Triptych from the Cologne School in the National Gallery of Australia Hugh Hudson Using heraldic and genealogical evidence, the identity of the donor igure in the Cologne School Virgin and Child with Saints triptych in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, can be conirmed, while iconographic and circumstantial evidence suggests the work’s probable original location. In 2001, the National Gallery of Australia acquired an imposing early sixteenth-century triptych, from the Cologne School, of the Virgin and Child with Saints (see Figure 1). 1 It shows, in the centre panel, the Virgin and Child enthroned in a sacra conversazione with SS. Dorothea, Catherine, Agatha, Barbara, Cecilia, and Agnes. On the inside of the left wing are SS. Charlemagne 2 and Helena, with the donor, who wears armour covered by a 1 Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, NGA 2001.19.A–C (purchased with the assistance of James O. Fairfax AO and the Nerissa Johnson Bequest 2001), Cologne School (Germany), Virgin and Child with Saints and Ludwig von Seinsheim, c. 1515, oil on three oak panels, 126.5 × 350.5 × 6.0 cm (overall, with frame), 108.0 × 160.0 cm (centre panel), 108.0 × 79.0 cm (wing panels). The painting is not presently attributed to a named or anonymous artist with a defined oeuvre. I am grateful to Christine Dixon, Senior Curator, and Lucina Ward, Curator, International Art, at the National Gallery of Australia, as well as Rainer Dahl, Ursula Düriegl, Pawel Garncarczyk, Sharon Harrison, Britta Hochkirchen, Theo Jülich, Blaide Lallemand, Grantley McDonald, Nick Nicholson, and Parergon’s two anonymous referees, for their kind assistance in the preparation of this note. 2 However, cf. Mark L. Evans and Brian Kennedy, Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints, Cologne School c. 1510–20 (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2001), (unpaginated) n. 1. Mark Evans rejected the longstanding identification of the first saint as Charlemagne (c. 742–814), in favour of St Henry (973–1024; at various times Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany, King of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor), because he is holding a model church. Evans associated this with St Henry’s ecclesiastical foundations, such as Bamberg Cathedral. However, Charlemagne was also depicted in art with a model church, in reference to his foundation of Aachen Cathedral. An example is the anonymous medieval, polychromed wood statue of Charlemagne in the choir at Aachen Cathedral itself. Furthermore, the arms on the breastplate of the saint in the triptych show a black half-eagle on a gold ground on the left (for the Holy Roman Empire) and gold fleurs-de-lis on a blue background on the right (for the Frankish Kingdom). These arms correspond better to Charlemagne’s titles as Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks, rather than Henry’s titles of Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Bavaria, even if Renaissance reconstructions of early medieval heraldry were often speculative. For a medieval written account of Charlemagne’s heraldry, including fleurs-de- lis, see, Meredith P. Lillich, Rainbow Like an Emerald: Stained Glass in Lorraine in the Thirteenth This PDF copy of Parergon 33.1 (2016), 183–90 was provided by ANZAMEMS (Inc.), under Parergon’s Open Access Policy. Copyright is retained by the author(s).