Cornelia van Wulfschkercke

Cornelia van Wulfschkercke (unknown, 14.. - Bruges, 15 april 1540) was a Flemish miniaturist who worked in the workshop of the Carmelite convent of Sion in Bruges. She is one of the few late-medieval female miniaturists whose artworks have survived and are still documented today.

Van Wulfschkercke first appears in the archives in 1495 as a postulant in the convent of Sion in Bruges. In 1501 she took her vows as a Carmelite nun in this convent.^[1] She died on 15 April 1540 in Bruges.^[2]

At the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century, a workshop of copyists and manuscript illuminators was established in the Bruges convent of Sion. According to the convent’s archives, Cornelia van Wulfschkercke was working in this workshop as a copyist by 1495 at the latest.^[3] She was trained as a manuscript illuminator by Grietkin Scheppers, a professional illuminator and laywoman who was a member of the Bruges guild of librariërs (book producers). In turn, Cornelia van Wulfschkercke trained another nun, Margriet van Rye.^[4] Her first documented work dates from 1505. The colophon of this manuscript, a gradual for the convent of Sion, explicitly mentions her as the illuminator of the work.^[5] This manuscript is used in research on Van Wulfschkercke’s oeuvre as a reference point.

Alain Arnould and Anne Margreet As-Vijvers, the researchers who have studied the stylistic characteristics of her work most extensively, attribute 23 works to her.^[1][3] Compared with other miniaturists of that period—especially a woman—this is a high number.^[6] She produced books for, among others:

• the Spanish-Flemish family Ayala-Rodriguez,^[7]
• Abbot Raphael de Mercatellis of the Ghent Saint Bavo’s Abbey,^[8]
• Abbot Christiaan de Hondt of Ten Duinen Abbey,^[9]
• the Bruges Magdalene leper hospital (Magdalene leprosarium).

Stylistically, her work aligns with that of the Masters of Raphael de Mercatellis, with whom she also collaborated regularly.^[1]

• Arnould, A. (1998). De la production de miniatures de Cornelia van Wulfschkercke au couvent des carmélites de Sion à Bruges, Brussels
• As-Vijvers, A.M. (2013). ‘Manuscript Production in a Carmelite Convent: The Case of Cornelia van Wulfschkercke’, in S. Hindman & J. Marrow (red.), Books of Hours Reconsidered, Turnhout, p. 279-296, 519-520.
• Gil, M. (2011). ‘Les femmes dans les métiers d’art des Pays-Bas bourguignons au XVe siècle’, Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire, 34(2), 231-254.
• Hauwaerts, E. 'Cornelia van Wulfschkercke en vrouwen in het laatmiddeleeuwse boekenbedrijf', in België in 100 voorwerpen. Tielt: Lannoo. 2024.
• Rossignol, S. (2017). 'Visualizing Reading Practices in the Late Middle Ages: Images in a Book of Hours Held at Memorial University', Florilegium, Volume 34, 90-118
• Vandamme, L. (1998). ‘Een bibliotheek in het karmelietessenklooster Sion’, in Vandamme, L. (red.), Een stad vol boeken: Bibliotheken en leescultuur in Brugge in de 16de eeuw, Bruges, p. 13-16.
• van der Stighelen, K., Meijer, M., & Westen, M. (1999). Elck zijn waerom: vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland 1500-1950. Ghent: Ludion.
• Vanwijnsberghe, D. (2015). ‘L’Antiphonaire d’Oosteeklo et son enlumineur (Cornelia van Wulfschkercke?)’, CeROArt - Conservation, exposition, restauration d'objets d'arts, Hors série: Mélanges en l’honneur de Roger Marijnissen [Online journal] URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ceroart/4749; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ceroart.4749
• Vertonghen, S. (1997). 'Graduale', Vlaamse miniaturen voor vorsten en burgers, 1475-1550 (exhib. cat.), Ghent, nr. 31, p. 188-189