Portrait of Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot (1800s): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Heir of an illustrious Flemish family and a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Philippe de Croy held the position of governor of Antwerp and governor-general of Flanders. As such, he repeatedly served the interests of the Habsburg emperor Charles V and King Philip II in the Spanish imperial armor. He is represented in this vellum miniature wearing the ceremonial parade armor befitting a great general. His blued, etched, and gilded armor is probably of Augsburg make, a center many of the Habsburgs favored for its production of deluxe armor.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Belgium, Flemish School, 19th century
• Type: Portrait Miniature
• Technique: watercolor on vellum in a later gilt-wood frame
• Dimensions: Framed: 24.5 x 20.9 cm (9 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.); Unframed: 16 x 12.1 cm (6 5/16 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Flemish
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1940.1222

Collection credit

The Edward B. Greene Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Edward Belden Greene. Portrait Miniatures ; The Edward B. Greene Collection. 1951.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.