THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB
The hotels de ville built during the Burgundian period afford an
excellent example of the new economic tendencies prevailing at the
time, but they are by no means the greatest works of art illustrating
this period of Belgian efflorescence. Neither in the Town Hall of
Bruges, begun in 1376 by Jean de Valenciennes, nor in those of Brussels
(1402 to 1444), built by Jacques van Thienen and Jean de Ruysbroeck, or
of Louvain, completed in 1448 by Matthieu de Layens, still less in the
pretty municipal buildings of Oudenarde or destroyed Arras, can we find
any adequate representation of the wonderful intellectual and artistic
movement which placed the Netherlands, during the fifteenth century, at
the head of Northern European civilization. This can only be realized
by a careful study of the pictures of the period, generally known as
the works of the Early Flemish School.
[_INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT_]
Before trying to determine the position of this school in the history
of Art, it may be well to give a rapid survey of the intellectual
movement under the Burgundian regime, and to show that in every
department, literature, architecture and music, the civilization of the
period produced some remarkable works. In this way, the Netherlands of
the fifteenth century are comparable with the Italian republics and
principalities which flourished at the same time. In Belgium, as in
Tuscany and Umbria, all arts were cultivated at the same time and
sometimes by the same man, and people and princes took an equal
interest in all the manifestations of human genius. One would have to
go back as far as ancient Greece to find such a harmonious development,
and the world has never produced it since.
Literary activity was perhaps the least brilliant, owing mostly to the
division of languages. Though the intercourse between the Flemish and
the Walloon parts of the country was intimate and never constituted an
obstacle in the work of unification, Belgium can scarcely boast of one
common literature at the time when its nationality was founded.
As far as political and administrative activity was concerned, an
almost exact balance was struck between the languages of the North and
the South. In Flanders, from the beginning of the fourteenth century,
French influence had considerably decreased, owing partly to the loss
of Artois and Walloon Flanders and to the blow inflicted on French
prestige by the reverses of the Hundred Years' War. The use of French
was only maintained among the nobility and the rich bourgeoisie, and in
all intercourse with other countries; Flemish made considerable
progress and took the place of Latin in all acts of common
administration. Its prestige as a literary language had been enhanced
by the reputation of van Maerlant, and it served also in all relations
with Lower Germany. By the end of the century, bilingualism was a
consecrated institution both in Flanders and Brabant, the judges
rendering their sentences in the tongue spoken by the parties and some
officials using, according to circumstances, either French, Latin or
Flemish. Under John the Fearless and Philip the Good, this situation,
which favoured the centralizing influence of the dukes, remained
unchanged. In Holland and Zeeland, where French was practically
unknown, State officials only used Flemish. The dukes themselves knew
both languages, included Flemish books in their libraries, and
encouraged Flemish letters. Owing to the economic attraction of
Antwerp, a great number of Walloon traders used both languages, and the
number of those who understood Flemish and French was considerable
enough to allow the production of Flemish plays to the south and of
French plays to the north of the dividing language line. It is true
that Charles the Bold attempted vainly to enforce French for
administrative purposes in Flemish districts, but, owing to subsidiary
evidence, this must be considered much more as an act of political
absolutism than as a sign of hostility towards Flemish. As a matter of
fact, we should seek vainly for proof of any attempt to frenchify the
country at the time. In holding their courts in the Netherlands, the
dukes of Burgundy had renounced their French origin.
Bilingualism must thus be considered as a solution of the language
question in Belgium in the fifteenth century. But though the people
remained united, the literatures of the two parts of the country
followed different lines.
On the Flemish side, poetry had never ceased to decline since the death
of van Maerlant, in spite of the numerous works produced by the
disciples of this master, especially in Brabant. Jean Boendaele
(1280-1365) described in his remarkable _Brabantsche Yeesten_ the
struggle of the duke against his enemies. His attitude of mind is
thoroughly typical of the time. Boendaele is a bourgeois poet, and
distrusts equally the democracy of the towns and the nobility. He
places his faith in the prince, the merchants and the peasants.
[_JAN RUYSBROECK_]
The mystic treatises of Jan Ruysbroeck (1292-1381), who may be
considered as the founder of Flemish prose, just as van Maerlant is the
founder of Flemish poetry, are far more important than the rhymed
chronicles of Boendaele. Not only do they rank among the most inspired
religious writings of the Middle Ages, but they are the expression of a
deep-rooted religious movement which animated the Flemish bourgeoisie
at the time, and which had its origin in the foundation of the
institution of the Beguines and the Beggards, so active and so
influential during the twelfth century. This movement aimed at bringing
religion closer to the common people through the work of laymen who,
though deeply attached to the Church, were conscious of its limitations
and of the barrier which aristocracy and privilege had built around it.
One of Ruysbroeck's disciples, Gerard de Groote (1340-84), founded the
Order of the "Freres de la Vie Commune" (Brothers of the Common Life),
and the "Sustershuysen," which contributed so much to the revival of
religious studies and general education in the early days of the
fifteenth century. Like the Beggards, the Brothers did not strictly
constitute a religious order, they did not pronounce any binding vow
and retained their lay character. Refusing any gift or endowment from
outside, they had to provide for their own needs, but, while the
Beggards devoted most of their time to the weaving industry, the
Brothers gave themselves up to copying manuscripts, learning and
teaching. Under Florent Radewyn, one of de Groote's early disciples,
they acquired a very complete organization and founded numerous
schools, specially in Brussels (1422) and in Ghent (1432), their
influence spreading as far as Germany. Thierry Maertens, the first
well-known Belgian printer, was one of their pupils. This educational
and religious revival is closely connected with the foundation of the
University of Louvain in 1426. De Groote and his disciples were
frequently attacked, chiefly by the monks, who became jealous of their
success, but their strict orthodoxy and the unimpeachable character of
their life made their position unassailable. De Groote was equally well
known for his criticism of the abuses among the clergy, his
denunciation of the luxury displayed by the rich and the mystic
character of his preaching. He was equally severe against heretics, and
was called by his contemporaries "malleus hereticorum." Another of his
followers founded the celebrated monastery of Windesheim, where, half a
century later, the _Imitation of Christ_ was written.
While the Flemish writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
wrote mostly for the bourgeoisie and the people and kept in close
contact with the religious aspirations of the time, the authors
belonging to the Walloon part of the country were nearly all attached
to some court and confined themselves to the production of chronicles
and memoires destined for the aristocracy. Though extremely limited,
this genre was cultivated with great success by the Walloon writers and
is typical of the Belgian branch of the French letters of the period.
As early as the fourteenth century, Jean Le Bel of Liege had related
with extraordinary vividness his adventures at the court of Hainault
and the part played by his master, Jean de Beaumont, in the expedition
led by Edward III against the Scots. Le Bel writes in French, but as
far as his political views are concerned remains impervious to French
influence and chooses an English King, "le noble roi Edowart," for his
hero, while he has nothing but harsh words for Philip de Valois.
[_JEAN FROISSART_]
Jean Froissart, of Valenciennes, who continued the work of Le Bel and
served as a link between him and the Burgundian school of chroniclers,
had a much wider field of vision. Attached successively to Albert of
Bavaria, Queen Philippa of England and Wenceslas of Luxemburg, he had
many opportunities to study European affairs, and, as a Belgian, was
able to consider them from an independent and even a sceptical point of
view. Though generally considered as a French writer, he remains
independent of French influence. With Monstrelet, Chastellain, Jean
Molinet and Jean Lemaire de Belges, who wrote for the dukes of
Burgundy, this independent attitude is still further strengthened. All
these writers extolled the Burgundian regime and supported the duke's
policy, whether friendly or antagonistic to France. From a literary
point of view, they are greatly inferior to their predecessors and
often lapse into rhetorical eloquence. Their style, which appears to
be overloaded with flowery images, excited great admiration at the
time, especially in the case of Chastellain, who was hailed by his
contemporaries as a "supreme rhetorician."
* * * * *
Music was not hampered, like literature, by the division of languages,
and might, under different circumstances, have given a more accurate
expression to the Belgian national spirit. Its style was, unhappily,
still so formal that national characteristics cannot immediately be
recognized in the works of Guillaume Dufay, of Chimay (1350-1432) and
Giles de Binche, Chapelmasters to Philip the Good, and those of the
Fleming Jean Ockeghem (dec. 1494-6) and of Josquin des Pres, of
Hainault (_c._ 1450-1521). These musicians, who enjoyed European
celebrity and exerted a widespread influence on the musical movement in
France and Italy, are well known to musical historians as having
largely contributed to the development of polyphonic music as opposed
to the monody of the Gregorian chant. They were thus pioneers in the
art of musical ornamentation, and their method may be associated with
the flowery images of Chastellain's style, the architectural luxury of
Burgundian Gothic and the display of colouring of the early Flemish
painters. In all branches of intellectual activity, Belgium enters
decidedly, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, into the
Renaissance period. But, unlike the Italian, the Belgian Renaissance
was at first only very slightly affected by the study of the classics.
It was more realistic in its aims than the mediaeval period. It
revelled in the display of harmony, whether in sound, colour or form,
and abundance of tracery, but as far as the subject was concerned it
remained essentially and profoundly Christian.
[_SOCIAL LIFE_]
Though the works of Belgian writers and artists of the period are very
remarkable, they are somewhat misleading if we want to form an accurate
idea of social life in the fifteenth century. Neither the _Libri
Teutonici_, published by Ruysbroeck's followers, nor the great
paintings of the brothers Van Eyck, Van der Weyden and Memling, suggest
for one moment the laxity of morals prevalent at the time and revealed
by the writers of the Chronicles. The number of illegitimate births was
extraordinarily high, the example being set by the dukes themselves,
Philip the Good alone being responsible for eighteen bastards and Jean
de Heinsberg, Bishop of Liege, for nearly as many. It must be pointed
out, however, that the illegitimate character of their birth did not
stand in the way of many prominent men of the time, such as the
Chancellor Rolin, the Dean of St. Donatian of Bruges, the great
financier Pierre Bladelin, the Bishop of Tournai and many high
officials. All these had, of course, received their letters of
legitimation. Numerous edicts made by the dukes were unable to check
gambling, prostitution and prodigality. The scant effect of the
regulations relating to the latter may be easily understood when we
read that, on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret of York to
Charles the Bold, Belgian artists and artisans were ordered to prepare
and to decorate a large wooden house which was subsequently transported
by water from Brussels to Bruges. In a tower 41 feet high attached to
this house, the noble company invited to the ceremony witnessed the
movements and heard the cries of a number of mechanical animals,
monkeys, wolves and boars, while a whale 60 feet long moved around the
hall together with elephants, amid thirty large trees, a fountain of
crystal and a pelican "spouting hippocras from his beak." The fact is
that the situation in the Netherlands, in the second half of the
fifteenth century, was very much the same as that in Florence at the
same time, the people being swayed between an exuberant enjoyment of
life and a severe asceticism. There are many points of contact between
Charles the Bold and Lorenzo the Magnificent, and no figure comes
closer to Savonarola than that of the Carthusian, Thomas Conecte, who
stirred public feeling to such a pitch that the people crowding to
listen to his fiery speeches, in market-places, threw into the braziers
burning before his platform all the instruments of their worldly
life--chessboards, cards, dice, skittles, silks and jewels.
Strangely enough, no religious order benefited more from the sympathy
and generosity of the people than the ascetic Carthusians. Philip the
Bold erected in Dijon the famous Chartreuse of Champmol; Philip the
Good and Margaret of York corresponded with the celebrated Carthusian
Denys de Ryckel, the "doctor extaticus," and the Chartreuse of Louvain
was endowed by rich bourgeois of the duke's entourage. Unless this
apparent contradiction is fully realized, it is impossible to
understand the spirit of an epoch which, though deeply absorbed by its
worldly life, produced works almost entirely devoted to Faith, and
in which luxurious garments and colours are only employed to enhance
the glory of God.
* * * * *
[_THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK_]
Painting stands foremost among the achievements of the Burgundian
period. Here again the difference of language does not hamper the
genius of the nation. While in music the Walloon element dominates, the
Flemish dominates in Art; but it must be clearly stated that, in this
branch, as in all other branches of Burgundian civilization, the two
parts of the country are strongly represented, and that the title of
"Flemish School of Painting" is therefore misleading when referring to
Belgian painting of the fifteenth century.
The greatest name associated with the period is that of the brothers
Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, and the work which naturally comes to the
mind, when thinking of them, is the monumental altarpiece which they
painted for Jos. Vyt, lord of Pamele, to be placed in his chapel in the
Cathedral of St. John in Ghent. This work, generally known as the
"Mystic Lamb," is composed of ten smaller pictures, but the partitions
separating the various divisions of the wings and the wings from the
central piece scarcely detract from the majesty of the ensemble. The
composition is well known: Above, God the Father, as Christ, enthroned,
His hand raised in benediction, between St. John Baptist and the
Virgin, with angels on both sides singing and playing on various
instruments. On the extreme right and left of the upper panels,
excluded, so to speak, from the company of heaven, stand Adam and Eve,
in all the realistic weakness of their nakedness. Below, in the midst
of a flowery meadow, behind the fountain of life, surrounded by groups
of holy virgins, martyrs and saints, in the New Paradise, under the
walls of the New Jerusalem, stands the Lamb, directly under the figure
of Christ and the symbol of the Holy Ghost, the centre towards which
every line, every attitude in the picture converges. Towards the holy
spot walk, on the right, the pilgrims and the hermits, on the left, the
good judges and the soldiers of Christ. The symbolism of the picture
which enfolds the majestic plan of the redemption of man through
Christ's sacrifice, of the second creation through the Spirit, as
contrasted with the first creation through the flesh, is directly
inspired by the mystic writings of the time, while the harmony and
depth of colours, the gorgeous robes and jewels adorning the figures of
God, the Virgin and the angels, the pompous cavalcade of knights and
judges and the systematic grouping of the central scene, are an
adequate expression of the love of ceremony and solemn luxury which
characterized the Burgundian age. The whole picture appears as a sacred
pageant in which the saints, the angels and the blessed take the place
of nobles, ladies and clerics, as they were seen during the festivities
and processions arranged at the ducal court.
Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB (SAINT BAVON, GHENT).
Angels singing and playing.
[_THE MYSTIC LAMB_]
Considered as a purely religious picture, this work, like almost all
the works of the school, stands in striking contrast to Italian
fourteenth-century painting, especially as illustrated by the frescoes
of Giotto. The latter are characterized by an extreme simplicity of
outline and by vivid narrative power. In Padua, for instance, Giotto
tells us the story of Christ as he saw it in his mystical vision,
without any concern for accessories or detail. He clings to essentials,
to the figures of Christ and his apostles, while scorning any
subordinate object, such as trees, architecture, costumes, etc., which
are only represented in a rude fashion when necessary to the story. It
is characteristic of Hubert Van Eyck's work (since, according to all
evidence, Hubert must be considered as the author of the general
outlines of the picture, which was finished by his brother Jan after
his death) that perhaps the least satisfactory figure of the Adoration
of the Lamb is the Deity, while our attention is immediately captured
by the group of angels surrounding Him, and still more by the
procession of worshippers at the bottom of the picture. To put it
briefly, whereas Giotto's art is at its best when dealing with the
_divine_ side of the Christian drama, Van Eyck's genius stands foremost
in the _human_ interpretation of the subject. His greatest creations
are not the figures of the worshipped but of the worshippers, and we
must seek for religious inspiration not so much in the direct vision of
the Divinity as in the expression of devotion reflected on the faces of
the adoring crowds.
Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB (SAINT BAVON, GHENT).
The Annunciation (exterior of the shutters).
_Hubert and Jan van Eyck._
It is true that we may find the same insistence on landscape, costume
and the portraits of donors in the works of the Italian artists of the
Early Renaissance, who painted at the same time as Van Eyck, and that
the spirit of the period may, to a certain extent, account for it. But
it would be difficult to discover in the pictures of Masaccio, Fra
Filippo Lippi, Ghirlandajo, Botticelli and the other masters of the
Italian fifteenth century, with the sole exception of Fra Angelico,
the same depth of religious inspiration which pervades the works of the
Van Eycks and of their disciples. If the Gospel story still provides
most of the subjects of the Italian school, it is treated in a lighter
vein, and pagan inspiration, prompted by the study of classics, is more
and more conspicuous. Earthly loveliness is of greater importance than
Christian teaching.
The virgins of Van Eyck, the Pieta of Van der Weyden and the saints of
Memling occupy the intermediate position between the purely mediaeval
attitude of Giotto and of the sculptors of the French cathedrals and
the worldly atmosphere of the Early Italian Renaissance. They preserve,
to a great extent, the religious atmosphere of the former, and devote
the same attention to technical skill and realistic representation as
the second. The combination of these two elements is the chief source
of originality of the Burgundian school of painters, and it is truly
characteristic of the period, which, though strongly attached to the
world and its pleasures, founded its greatest productions on the stern
lessons of deep devotion and of a society in which the Beggards and the
Brothers of the Common Life strove incessantly to bring religion closer
to the heart of the people.
The Adoration of the Lamb is not only the most complete expression of
the spirit of Belgium in the fifteenth century, it is also the first
great work produced by Belgian painters. Art critics have been at great
pains to explain the sudden appearance in history of such a highly
skilled and complete production. But a closer study of Belgian
civilization in the fourteenth century would show that it is merely
the outcome of previous efforts and the blossoming of a great
individual genius in an Art which had already found, in other
departments, very remarkable means of expression.
[_SCULPTURE_]
From the end of the twelfth century, Belgian Art, as shown by the works
of the goldsmiths, decorators, sculptors and miniaturists, had become
independent of German and French influence. A highly trained class of
artisans was formed, and, in the middle of the fourteenth century, was
organized into regular corporations. Goldsmiths and decorators devoted
their talent to the embellishment of churches and ecclesiastical
treasures, as well as to decoration of secular buildings such as Cloth
Halls or Town Halls and to the designing of banners for the guilds. We
still possess a great number of engraved tombstones which reveal an
extraordinary development of technique. Soon the figure of the deceased
was raised in high relief, and even, as in the tomb of the Count of
Artois in the cathedral of St. Denys, the work of Pepin of Huy, raised
on the shoulders of standing figures. From the second half of the
fourteenth century the most prominent sculptors ceased to be considered
as mere artisans. Hennequin of Liege was attached to the court of the
French king Charles V, while Andre Beauneveu (1364-90) remained in
Flanders as the sculptor of Louis de Male. The striking sculptures of
the pit of Moses, at Dijon, were executed by Claus Sluter of Zeeland.
These statues, which bear comparison with those of Ghiberti and
Donatello, Sluter's contemporaries, suffice to explain the sense of
form and of line in the draperies revealed by the early Flemish
masters. In the North, as in the South, sculpture developed earlier
than painting, and, just as Pisano precedes Giotto, Sluter precedes,
and to a certain extent explains, the brothers Van Eyck. The influence
of sculpture on painting is made evident from the fact that many
statues of the time were gilded and coloured, painters being frequently
called in to perform this part of the work. Besides, many sculptors
such as Beauneveu and Hennequin were equally skilled in the art of
painting. The result of these influences is shown in the _Book of
Hours_ of the Duke of Berry, the work of Pol de Limburg, and in the
pictures painted in Dijon for Philip the Bold by Melchior Broederlam.
The latter's Annunciation, Presentation in the Temple and Flight into
Egypt prepare the way for the Adoration of the Lamb, though far from
being equal to it. These pictures serve as a link between the Belgian
Art of the fifteenth and the fourteenth centuries. The difference to be
accounted for is certainly not larger than that separating, a century
before, the frescoes of Giotto from the works of Cimabue and his
school.
Illustration: "PLOURANT."
Detail of the tomb of John the Fearless (Dijon Museum). Netherlandish
School of the fifteenth century.
[_FLEMISH SCHOOL_]
It would be impossible here to characterize the works of the various
masters who followed in the wake of the brothers Van Eyck. Of the two
brothers, hailing from Maeseyck, we know that Hubert settled in Ghent
(_c._ 1410) and Jan in Bruges in 1425. Roger de la Pasture, usually
known as Van der Weyden, the foremost representative of the Walloon
branch of the school, came from Tournai to Brussels in 1435. There were
other Walloons, such as Robert Campin and Jacques Daret of Tournai, but
the Flemish element, represented beside the brothers Van Eyck by the
Brabancon Pieter Christus, Justus van Ghent, Hughes Van der Goes (of
Ghent) and Thierry Bouts of Harlem, not to mention Memling (of
Mayence), was manifestly prevalent. The renown enjoyed by these artists
extended far beyond the limits of Belgium and France, and the influence
exerted by their works in Italy can easily be traced. Strangely enough,
while during the next century the Belgian painters were subjected so
strongly to Italian influence, they were hailed, at this period, as
pioneers by the Italians themselves. At home, the consideration which
the great painters enjoyed is shown by the interest displayed in their
work not only by the prince but also by his courtiers, among them
Chancellor Rolin, and by rich foreigners, such as the Portinari and the
Arnolfini established in Flanders. Philip the Good visited Jan Van Eyck
frequently, was godfather to his daughter, and employed him on several
occasions for secret missions. His position at the court of Burgundy
was equal to that occupied later by Rubens at the court of Albert and
Isabella.