Agnes van den Bossche

The Maid of Ghent - Flag of the City of Ghent, 1481–82. 100 x 265cm, STAM Museum, Ghent

Agnes van den Bossche (c. 1435-40 – c. 1504) was a Flemish painter working in Ghent in the mid-to-late 15th century.

She is one of the few known women admitted to the painter's guild of Ghent, and worked mainly on designing flags and banners. Although these are records of numerous commissions, she is known today for her one extant work, the triangular banner The Maid of Ghent, the only recorded painting by a Flemish woman of the 15th century.

Life and career

Agnes van den Bossche's exact date of birth is unknown, but it was probably c. 1435–1440 in Ghent. A number of records of her life exist. She came from a family of well-regarded painters, including her father Tristran, a master painter in Ghent, and brother Lievin. When she was admitted to the guild of artists, Joos van Ghent acted as her guarantor. Van Ghent had earlier acted in the same role for the renowned master Hugo van der Goes. She married Heinrica Crabbe, of whom we know nothing, but was widowed in 1468. Her only surviving work is the 1481–82 Maid of Ghent, one of a series of flags commissioned by the city government of Ghent. Other known city commissions include blazons and pennons for trumpets between 1474 and 1475, and for a number of flags in 1476–77 for the Joyous Entry of Duchess Marie. She developed a baldachin for a statue of the Virgin at the Cathedral of Our Lady, Tournai, decorating the statue three times in her career. A 1483–84 commission included a pennon depicting St. Anthony and the Maid of Ghent. tight, broad waistband, and tightly pulled sleeves which widen at the cuffs. She has a high waist, petite breasts and a protruding stomach. Her collar hangs low over her upper chest, partially covering an underdress with a horizontal neckline, similar to that of the second daughter in Hans Memling's Triptych of the Family Moreel.

The flag is in good condition; it was kept unused for centuries in a government storage facility. It retains its original wooden pole. However, some of the silk fringe has been lost, as have pieces of linen from the tip and around the maid. There are cracks along parts of the paint surface, as well as some earlier repairs.

Placing the Maid of Ghent in context, art historian Diane Wolfthal observed that it "is not a work of the highest quality. While the painting carries effectively from a distance, it is crude at close range, especially the fingers and face. However, a look at Agnes van den Bossche's flag broadens our view of women painters of the time. Not only did they illuminate manuscripts, they also painted nine-foot canvases. The greatest value of the flag is historic. Not only is it, to my knowledge, the only flag painted on canvas that may be assigned with assurance to the Early Netherlandish school, it is the only documented painting by a 15th-century Flemish woman."