Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/397

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NOTICES OF FOREIGN SEPULCHRAL BRASSES. 285 temporary memorials analogous in the features of their design.^ In Spain, a single monumental l^rass has been noticed, the effigy of Don Perafan de Ribera, Duke of Alcala, Viceroy of Naples, who died in 1571. He is portrayed in complete armour. This fine memorial was formerly in one of the churches at Seville, recently desecrated; and it has been removed to the chapel of the university in that city.^ In the northern countries of Europe a few brasses have been noticed, but no fac-similes appear as yet to have been brought to England, by which to form a precise notion of their character. Gough mentions the effigies of Hen'igius Molteke, a Danish knight, who died in 1325, and of his two wives ; these are canopied brasses ; also that of John Brostrdup, Archbishop of Lunden (1597), in the cathedral there. These, and other sepulchral memorials in Denmark, are represented in a work by De Klerenfeld, which I have been unable to find in any library in England.'^ There arc some brasses of fine design at Lubeck, and I have heard that some exjst at Bremen. It is in Flanders, however, that those who study these early productions of the graver have been encouraged to seek for analogous works of art, by the fact that some of the finest monumental plates existing in England appear to be marked by features characteristic of a Flemish origin. It is very probable that several good specimens still remain unnoticed in the Netherlands. A few years since I was informed, that three memorials of striking dimensions and design had been removed from the family chapel in the Chateau of Cortville, not far from Liege, the saleable con- tents of which were recklessly dispersed, on the succession of a spendthrift heir. One of them reached this country, and it has fortunately been preserved, in the Museum of Economic Geology, as a specimen of metal work, in the instructive series illustrating the processes of metallurgy. It represents Lode wye Cortewylle (1504), and his lady (1496), nearly of life-size, and surrounded by rich ornamental accessories. The other two Cortville brasses were described as of finer " See the representation of this fine Archit. Soc., p. 92. brass of the Bishop of Sariiin, Archoeo- ■* Nobilitas DanisD, ex Monumentis : logia, vol. XXX. pi. xix. p. 432. cui-antc T. de Klerenfeld ; 1.'5 folio plates. •'* Manual for the Study of Brasses ; Cited by Gough, Sep. Mon. Introd., vol. i.. Cat. of the Collections of the Oxford p. 183.