Portraits of the van den Steen – Nuvolara couple

Oil on canvas, Liège school, late-17th century
With a carved and gilded oval frame with rococo decoration (17th century)

The coat of arms that can be seen in the upper left-hand portion of the man’s portrait represents the Nuvolara family. The first and fourth panels are gold with a (black) sable basilisk with its wings raised; the second and third panels are silver with a sable basilisk with its wings raised.

The coat of arms that can be seen in the upper left-hand portion of the woman’s portrait represents the van den Steen family. It is (black) sable with a silver chief with three leaning mallets from the field.

The van den Steen's coat of arms is famous in Jehay because the family has maintained the castle and estate for 280 years. The Nuvolara family’s coat of arms is not represented in the ancestry of the landowners of Jehay.