THE WORLDMAP BY JAN VAN EYCK part 6
Now we come to the inevitable question: how can a Neapolitan historian Bartolomeo Facio be so well informed about the map of the world ? He must have received this information from persons who saw the map de visu. To explain this we must go in to the close relationship of Philippe the Good with Alphonse V of Naples.
The good relationship between these two monarchs in fact go back to the relations of Philippe the Bold and the court of Aragon in Spain. We learn that a monarch like Martin I the Humane already in the beginning of the 15th century wanted to renew an old alliance with the duke of Burgundy. And so in this context we understand the trying of Philippe the Good to get in marriage the niece of Alphonse V, Isabella. Jan Van Eyck made very likely part of the legation send to Valencia with the purpose to ask the hand of Isabella.
The relationship was not only dynastical but also commercial and linked with the trading between Bruges and Aragon. Already in the 14th century there was a trade post from Bruges in Barcelona while in Bruges itself were many tradesmen from Aragon and Catalonia. Philippe the Good and even more his third wife Isabella intervened many times when the trade of Bruges got difficulties in a port like Barcelona.
After the conquest of Naples in 1442 Alphonse left his homeland to stay in the conquered city. When he stayed mostly in Valencia before his moving to Italy he was surrounded by a luxurious renaissance court. He had a large interest in Southern Netherlands’ tapestry and Flemish painting. So in 1431 he send the painter Luis Dalmau and the carpet weaver Guillem de Vexell to Flanders to learn painting. There must have been contact with Jan Van Eyck and they must have attested the inauguration in 1432 of the Ghent Altarpiece because of the painting Maria and the counsellors in Barcelona of 1445 in the Museo de Arte de Cataluna. In 1439 lived in Valencia the Flemish painter Lodewijk Allyncbrood and in the capital of Aragon, Saragossa we see the Flemish painting technique coming in. Valencia gave Flanders its important ceramics called in Flanders Valenschen wercke (work of Valencia).
Things will go much more intense with the court of Burgundy when Alphonse V was established in Naples, from 1442. According to Burgundy chronicle writers, Jean de Wavrin, J. du Clercq and Georges Chastellain they considered themselves brother-in-arms and allies; specially when from the fifties they went together in a confederation with the purpose to organise a crusade against the Turks. They gave each other their knighthoods. Alphonse V was allowed in the order of golden fleece in Ghent in 1445 as the first foreign ruler who granted this honour. Philippe the Good received the order of the Stola and the Jarra (a chair with the image of a pot or jug with a triple lily, in Spanish called Terraza and derived from the Annunciation). They gave each other presents: Alphonse gave Philippe an organ made by Constantine of Modena and the duke gave him a watch with a new mechanism. This last present was brought to Naples in 1452 by Jan van Arnhem.
From Naples Alphonse kept a great interest in the evolution of Flemish tapestry, but also painting, silverware and copper. He had the Lomellini-triptych by Jan Van Eyck and in 1444 a Saint-George with a dragon. This was send from Valencia along with shepherd’s pipes from Bruges. Shortly after 1450 he obtained 3 great watercolours of Rogier van der Weyden on which the complete passion of Christ was represented. The tapestries from Arras and Tournai decorated the Sala Nuova or the Gran Sala in the Castel Nuovo in Naples while several were also hung in his guardaroba, his treasure room. In 1446-1447 he send Giovanni de Benedetti to Arras to buy a number of tapestries for him. He recommended then also his agent to Philippe the Good and then among the weavers at the court we find in 1455 a master called Gualterio de Tornay.
So we believe that persons in the service of these monarchs were responsible for letting know to Facio about the existence of the map of the world by Jan Van Eyck. But who could these persons most likely be? Remarkably we are well informed about certain aspects of the relationship of the two monarchs.