ABSTRACT
Devotional portrait diptychs are ripe for exploring the potentially conflicting masculinities claimed by Burgundian men, for all of the genres have at least some bearing on the works. In certain cases it is relatively easy to slot those depicted in the paintings into specific categories. For men who aspired to holiness, the male body was a constant source of conflict and frustration originating in the sinful desires, disobedient behaviors, and uncontrollable urges of the penis. Some of the strongest statements of a masculinity grounded in wedlock and procreation in fifteenth-century Bruges were presented in the form of marriage and family portraits. The diptychs of Martin van Nieuwenhove and Jan du Cellier promote another type of lay masculinity, however, one grounded not in standards of marriage and fatherhood but rather in bodily control and even virginity or chastity. The theme of bodily fortitude is carried further in an unusual aspect of the depiction of St. Martin as a patron saint.
