De Medusa in de aegis van Hendrick de Keyser. Vorm en functie van een ornament op het grafmonument van Willem van Oranje (1614-1623)

Abstract

Both in architecture and in art the head of Medusa is omnipresent and it hardly seems to need any further introduction. Nevertheless, this article discusses two specific ornaments of this type, namely the Medusa on the tomb of William of Orange, designed by Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621) and the Medusa on the town hall of Antwerp, designed by Cornelis Floris (1513/14-1575). The author states that these two heads are part of the aegis of Minerva. The aegis is a sort of breast-plate that is part of the weaponry of this goddess. The Medusa thus is a part of a bigger whole that can be seen as an aegis. The article demonstrates how in contemporary art literature (Van Mander, Ripa and Cartari) the aegis functions as a pars pro toto for Minerva, the deft Goddess of War and therefore, in an abstract sense, stands for sensible leadership in times of conflict. The article also aims to show that the aegis not only has an iconographic meaning, but that it also, in the cases of the town hall and the tomb, harks back to a votive offering that was part of classical architecture. This aegis therefore belongs to both architecture and art.