RUBENS
If it be true that the spirit of a period can best be judged by its
intellectual and artistic achievements, we ought certainly to find in
the pictures of Rubens (1577-1640) an adequate expression of the
tendencies and aspirations of the Counter Reformation in Belgium.
Compared with the religious pictures of the Van Eycks and of Van der
Weyden, such works as the "Spear Thrust" (Antwerp Museum), "The
Erection of the Cross" and the "Descent from the Cross" (Antwerp
Cathedral) form a complete contrast. There is no trace left in them of
the mystic atmosphere, the sense of repose and of the intense inner
tragedy which pervade the works of the primitives. Within a century,
Flemish art is completely transformed. It appeals to the senses more
than to the soul, and finds greatness in the display of physical effort
and majestic lines more than in any spiritual fervour. Two predominant
influences contributed to bring about this extraordinary
transformation--the influence of Italy and that of the Catholic
Restoration, specially as expressed by the Jesuits.
While, in the fifteenth century, Art, in the Low Countries, had
remained purely Flemish, or, to speak more accurately, faithful to
native tendencies, all through the sixteenth century the attraction of
the Italian Renaissance became more and more apparent. We know that
Van der Weyden, in 1450, and Josse van Ghent, in 1468, visited Italy,
but they went there more as teachers than as students. Their works were
appreciated by the Italian patrons for their intense originality and
for their technical perfection. Jean Gossaert, better known as Mabuse
on account of his being born in Maubeuge (_c._ 1472), was the first of
a numerous series of artists who, all through the sixteenth century,
considered the imitation of the Italian art of the period as an
essential condition of success. Just as the primitive National school
had been patronized by the dukes of Burgundy, the Italianizants were
patronized by Charles V, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. The
worship of Raphael and Michael Angelo, so apparent in the paintings of
Van Orley, Peter Pourbus, J. Massys and many others, marks the
transition between the primitive tendencies of Van Eyck and the modern
tendencies of Rubens. Both tendencies are sometimes aptly combined in
their works, and their portraits, especially those of Antoine Moro,
still place the Antwerp school of the sixteenth century in the
forefront of European Art, but the general decadence of native
inspiration is nevertheless plainly apparent. The favour shown to these
painters by the governors under Charles V and Philip II is significant.
Whatever their personal opinions may have been, the Italianizants
adapted themselves to the pomp displayed by the Monarchists and to the
modern spirit of Catholicism, as opposed to the Reformation, whose
critical and satiric tendencies were expressed, to a certain extent, by
realists like Jerome Bosch (1460-1516) and Peter Breughel (_c._
1525-69) who painted, at the same time, genre pictures of a popular
character and who remained absolutely free from Italian influence. The
same opposition which divided society and religion reflected itself in
Art.
[_RUBENS_]
Though he succeeded in transforming their methods, Rubens is
nevertheless the spiritual descendant of the Italianizants. It is from
them and from his direct contact with the works of Michael Angelo and
Titian that he inherits his association of spiritual sublimity with
physical strength. Adopting without reserve Michael Angelo's pagan
vision of Christianity, he transformed his saints and apostles into
powerful heroes and endeavoured to convey the awe and majesty inspired
by the Christian drama through an imposing combination of forceful
lines and striking colouring.
Rubens was chosen by the Jesuits to decorate the great church they had
erected in Antwerp in 1620. Such a choice at first appears strange,
considering that, on several occasions, Rubens does not seem to conform
to the strict rule which the powerful brotherhood succeeded in imposing
on other intellectual activities. Translated into poetry, such works as
the "Rape of the Daughters of Lucippus," "The Judgment of Paris," "The
Progress of Silenus," would suggest a style very much akin to that of
Shakespeare's _Venus and Adonis_, and, needless to say, would never
have passed the Church's censor. For the reaction against the moral
license and the intellectual liberty of the previous century was by now
completed. Higher education was monopolized by the reformed University
of Louvain and the new University of Douai, and no Belgian was allowed
to study abroad. All traces of Humanism had disappeared from Louvain,
where Justus Lipsius remained as the last representative of Renaissance
tendencies strongly tempered by orthodoxy. Scientific novelties were so
much distrusted that when, in 1621, Van Helmont dared to make public
his observations on animal magnetism, he was denounced as a heretic and
obliged to recant. For fear of exposing themselves to similar
persecutions, the historians of the time confined themselves to the
study of national antiquities. The theatre was confined to the
representation of conventional Passions and Mysteries and to the plays
produced every year by the Jesuits in their schools.
Illustration: PULPIT OF SAINTE GUDULE, BRUSSELS (EIGHTEENTH CENTURY).
_Ph. B._
As a matter of fact, the tolerance and even the encouragement granted,
at the time, to an exuberant display of forms and colours and to an
overloaded ornamental architecture, were not opposed to the Jesuit
methods. They were determined, by all means at their disposal, to
transform the Low Countries into an advance citadel of Roman
Catholicism. Their policy was far more positive than negative. They
were far more bent on bringing to the Church new converts and
stimulating the zeal of their flock than on eradicating Protestantism.
They thought that the only means to obtain such a result was to attract
the people by pleasant surroundings and not to rebuke them by morose
asceticism. They were the first to introduce dancing, music and games
into their colleges. They organized processions and sacred pageants.
They surrounded the first solemn communion with a new ceremonial.
They stimulated emulation and showered prizes on all those who
distinguished themselves.
[_THE JESUITS_]
Society was merely for them a larger school in which they used the same
means in order to consolidate their position. During the first years of
the seventeenth century, an enormous number of new churches were built.
Never had architects been so busy since the time of Philip the Good.
The church of Douai, erected in 1583, was a replica of the Gesu in
Rome, and the general adoption of the Italian "barocco" by the Jesuits
has encouraged the idea, in modern times, that there really existed a
Jesuit type of architecture. The flowery ornaments on the facades of
these churches, their columns, gilded torches, elaborate and heavy
designs, cannot be compared to Rubens's masterpieces, but, from the
point of view of propaganda, which was the only point of view that
mattered, the glorious paintings of the Antwerp master fulfilled the
same purpose. They rendered religion attractive to the masses, they
combined with music and incense to fill the congregation with a sacred
awe conducive to faith.
It ought not to be assumed, however, that the painters of the period
enjoyed complete liberty of expression. If the Church showed great
tolerance with regard to the choice of certain profane subjects,
Christian art was directly influenced by the reforms promulgated by the
Council of Trent. In a pamphlet published in 1570 by Jean Molanus, _De
Picturis et Imaginibus sacris_, the new rules are strictly set forth.
All subjects inspired by the apocryphal books and popular legends are
proscribed, and even such details of treatment as the representation of
St. Joseph as an old man and the removal of the lily from the hand of
the Angel of the Annunciation to a vase are severely criticized. The
censors of the period would have given short shrift to Memling's
interpretation of St. Ursula's story and all similar legends which
could not be upheld by the authority of the _Acta Sanctorum_. This
remarkable historical work, initiated by Bollandus at the time,
endeavoured to weed out from the lives of the saints most of the
popular anecdotes which had inspired mediaeval artists. All episodes
connected with the birth and marriage of the Virgin disappeared, at the
same time, from the churches. The Jesuits were stern rationalists, and,
considering themselves as the defenders of a besieged fortress, were
determined not to lay the Church open to attack and to remove any cause
for criticism. Their point of view was entirely contrary to that of the
mediaeval artists. For the latter, Art sprang naturally from a fervent
mysticism, just as flowers spring from the soil. Its intimate faith
does not need any effort, any artifices, to make itself apparent; even
secondary works retain a religious value. The sacred pictures of the
seventeenth century appear, in contrast, as a gigantic and wonderful
piece of religious advertisement. Based on purely pagan motives, they
succeed in capturing the wandering attention on some sacred subject, by
overloading it with a luxury of ornament and an exuberance of gesture
unknown to the primitives. The treatment may be free, it is even
necessary that it should be so in order to flatter the taste of the
period, but the repertory of subjects becomes more and more limited.
Brilliant colours, floating draperies, powerful draughtsmanship,
become the obedient servants of a stern and dogmatic mind. The pagans
exalted sensuousness, the mediaeval artists magnified faith, the artists
of the Counter-Reformation used all the means of the former to reach
the aim of the latter "ad majorem Dei gloriam."
[_INTELLECTUAL LIFE_]
The result of this intellectual and artistic movement was stupendous.
While the Recollets and Capuchins, Carmelites, Brigittines, Ursulines
and Clarisses worked among the poor, the Jesuits succeeded in capturing
the upper classes. All the children of the rich bourgeoisie and the
nobility attended their schools and colleges, and, in 1626, the number
of pupils with their parents who had entered the Congregation of the
Virgin reached 13,727. One might say that the Jesuits had taken
intellectual power from the hands of the laity in order to wield it for
the benefit of the Church. From their ranks rose all the most prominent
men of the period, philosophers like Lessius, economists like Scribani,
historians like the Bollandists, physicians, mathematicians, architects
and painters.
The direct result of this clericalization of Art and Letters was to
thwart the progress realized during the last century by the vulgar
tongue. Latin replaced French in philosophy, history and science, and
even in literature the elite preferred to express themselves in the
classic tongue. Flemish was completely disdained. According to Geulinx,
"it ought not to have been heard outside the kitchen or the inn." This
period, which from the artistic point of view was marked by such bold
innovations, favoured a reaction towards the mediaeval use of Latin in
preference to the vulgar tongue. But Latin was not read by the people.
Rubens was not only the most successful religious painter of his time,
he was also the favourite and ambassador of Albert and Isabella, the
great courtier and portrait painter and the decorator of the Luxemburg
Palace in Paris. He not only paid court to the Church, he also placed
his talent at the service of the sovereigns and nobles of his day, and
certainly the encouragement given by the latter to pagan subjects may
account for the leniency of the Church towards them. In 1636 the King
of Spain ordered from the Antwerp master fifty-six pictures
illustrating the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, destined for his hunting
lodge near Madrid. Rubens's pupil, Van Dyck, was the accomplished type
of the court painter of the period. His portraits of Charles I and of
his children and of Lord John and Lord Bernard Stewart are among the
best-known examples of the work he accomplished in England.
[_BREUGHEL AND JORDAENS_]
There is a third aspect of Rubens which cannot be ignored and through
which he may be associated with the realist artists of the seventeenth
century, who succeeded in preserving a purely Flemish and popular
tradition in spite of Italian and monarchist influences. The "Kermesse"
of the Louvre and the wonderful landscapes disseminated in so many
European museums are the best proofs that the master did not lose touch
with his native land and with the people who tilled it. This special
aspect of his art is even more prominent in the works of his follower,
Jacques Jordaens (1593-1678). It is significant that the latter became
a Calvinist in 1655. While Rubens and Van Dyck represent mostly the
aristocratic and clerical side of the Flemish art of the period,
Jordaens appears as the direct descendant of Jerome Bosch and Peter
Breughel. Breughel's satires, such as the "Fight between the Lean and
the Fat" and the "Triumph of Death," show plainly that his sympathies
were certainly not on the side of Spanish oppression. His
interpretation of the "Massacre of the Innocents" (Imperial Museum,
Vienna) is nothing but a tragic description of a raid of Spanish
soldiery on a Flemish village. Quite apart from their extraordinary
suggestiveness, these works, like most of Breughel's drawings and
paintings, constitute admirable illustrations of the popular life of
the Low Countries during the religious wars. It must never be forgotten
that all through the sixteenth century, starting from Quentin Matsys,
the founder of the Antwerp school, the popular and Flemish tradition
remains distinct from the flowery style of the Italianizants. Though it
is impossible to divide the two groups of artists among the two
political and religious tendencies in conflict, the works of Breughel
and Jordaens may be considered as a necessary counterpart to those of
Frans Floris and Rubens if we wish to form a complete idea of the
civilization of the period.
Illustration: THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS (SIXTEENTH CENTURY).
(Imperial Museum, Vienna.)
_P. Breugghel._[i]