Alart du Hameel (1450 - 1506). Alaert du Hamel, also written as Alart du Hameel or Duhameel, was a Southern Netherlandish architect, sculptor, print artist and draftsman. He also designed ecclesiastical objects, such as monstrances and canopies. The exact year of birth of Du Hamel is unknown. The year of birth 1449 is incorrect and based on a false portrait drawing by Jheronimus Bosch of Du Hamel with the inscription Anno 1504 Aetatis 55. He was active in 's-Hertogenbosch from 1478 to the end of 1494, where he was pilot master of the current St. John's Cathedral. In 1478 his name is mentioned for the first time in a contract for the southern aisle of St. John's. In 1478 he was included as an outside member in the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap together with his sister and the architect Jan Heyns. Under Du Hamel's leadership, the chapel of this fraternity in St. John's, nowadays Holy Sacrament Chapel, was built. In 1486-1487 he made a drawing of the reticulated vault of this chapel. He probably also designed and executed the rest of the chapel. In 1484 he also designed a monstrance made by the Cologne goldsmith Hendrik de Borchgrave. It is uncertain whether he also designed the baptismal font from 1492 in the Sint-Jan van Aert van Tricht. His first wife, Margriet van Auweningen, died on 1 November 1484. Her tombstone, possibly designed by Du Hamel, in St. John's Square bears the inscription: Margriete van Auwenige Alart du Hamiel, buried here, leit Meister vanden wercke husvrou who dies on all Saints' advent Anno 1484. In 1494 Du Hamel moved to Leuven, where he worked, among other things, at St. Peter's Church. He was also active in Brussels and Antwerp, where he probably died around 1506, not until the second half of 1509. Du Hamel must have been friends with the Bosch painter Jheronimus Bosch. Both artists were members of the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap and both were involved in the construction and furnishing of the Sint-Jan, one as an architect and the other as a painter. Three engravings are known by Du Hamel, executed in a style closely related to Bosch's: a Last Judgment, an Elephant and a Saint Christopher. German art historian Max Friedländer says of the first two engravings that they are so Bosch-like, that we are entitled to assume a drawing by the master served as the model, in other words that they are made after work by Bosch. About the third engraving - Saint Christopher - Friedländer says that it was designed by an exaggerating imitator rather than by Bosch himself. In addition to Du Hamel's house brand, the three prints also contain the inscription bossche. However, this inscription does not refer to Jheronimus Bosch. In the 15th century it was unusual to mention both the maker and the designer on an engraving and so it is believed that it refers to Du Hamel's hometown, 's-Hertogenbosch.