ABSTRACT
The ommegangen were one of the most important civic events of the year, and the Guilds formed an important traditional part of the procession. The companion-piece to the Triumph of Isabella, also in the Victoria and Albert shows what to them would be the no less fascinating spectacle of each Guild marching with its weapons, and led by its patron saint: the giant St. Christopher, St. George and St. Margaret and her dragon. The Louvain ommegang was slightly later, on 8 September, which is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. In Louvain, the last complete refurbishment seems to have taken place immediately after 1548, when Jan Van Rillaert was appointed Pageant Master: his are the designs, Van Even suggests, that see in Boonen's drawings. The connections between Burgundian and English pageantry have been canvassed very persuasively at the court level by Gordon Kipling in his Triumph of Honour.
