A great and beneficent man was Philip the Good, one of the magnificent
Dukes of Burgundy who ruled over the Netherlands in the fifteenth
century. In Bruges, their capital, craftsmen were encouraged in the
making of brocades and fine glass, ornaments of precious metal,
miniatures and illuminated manuscripts. Professor John C. Van Dyke
remarks that, with the rise of the House of Burgundy, “The Flemish
people became strong enough to defy both Germany and France, and
wealthy enough, through their commerce with Spain, Italy and France
to encourage art not only at the ducal court, but in the churches and
among the citizens of the various towns.” The story of Flemish painting
will be related and illustrated in a future number of The Mentor.
The brothers Van Eyck, Hubert (born 1370) and Jan (1390), were not
the first of the Fleming painters to substitute oil for other mediums
in mixing paints, but the use of oil paints became more popular after
their invention of certain mellow colors associated with their names.
Their most renowned work is the twelve-paneled altar-piece painted for
St. Bavon’s Church, Ghent, the city of their birth. This is the most
important work of the early Flemish school, in composition, drawing and
lustrous detail. Hans Memling, the next great painter of the Flemish
School, if we except that excellent draftsman and decorative artist,
Roger van der Weyden, was especially successful in making portraits and
religious pictures. His infinitely beautiful “Reliquary of St. Ursula,”
executed about the middle of the fifteenth century for the Hospital of
St. John, Bruges, represents the apex of his ability as a miniaturist.
Another of the early Flemish painters was Quentin Metsys (1466-1530)--a
blacksmith by trade, who became a painter because the stern father of
the maiden he adored refused to give her hand to any but an artist. To
the surprise of the art-loving old city of Antwerp, Metsys achieved
such mastery with the brush that, after several years of persevering
effort, he was hailed as the best Flemish painter of his century.
The prince of the “Golden Age of Art” in Flanders was Petrus Paulus
Rubens, who was born in the year 1577. While a student in Italy, a
reigning Italian duke sent him on a mission to the King of Spain.
The passport he was instructed to present to Philip III. introduced
him as “Peter Paul, a Fleming, who will say all that is proper, like
the well-informed man that he is. Peter Paul is very successful in
painting portraits. If any ladies of quality wish their pictures,
let them take advantage of his presence.” Wherever the young artist
traveled--to Italy, to Spain, to France, to England, he was received
with honors. Rubens was twice married, and his two wives and their
children were often his models. He loved to paint sumptuous flesh and
rosy faces, richly dressed children, cavaliers, gods and goddesses;
and he delighted to make designs for the tapestries of Brussels and
Arras. One of the pictures by which he is best remembered is the divine
group, “The Descent from the Cross,” which has lately been restored to
its place in the Antwerp Cathedral, after a period of over four years’
seclusion, safe from the enemy’s hands. So sure was the painter’s
skill and so great his vogue that he became very rich and lived in a
splendid house filled with rare objects of art. Many of his largest
canvases were painted by pupils under his supervision. In all, he
painted, or supervised, nearly two thousand pictures, some of them of
huge dimensions. When he died in 1640 he was buried with great pomp in
Antwerp, which proudly calls itself, “Rubens’s City.”
Still another son of the city of Antwerp, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, was a
pupil of the great Rubens, and very early became a master. Visitors to
the notable galleries of the world invariably find there at least one
example of Van Dyck’s artistry. He painted with special enthusiasm the
faces and figures of kings and courtiers, the richly bedecked wives of
wealthy burghers, and, also, spirited horses and dogs of high degree.
Besides, he gained renown for his sensitively conceived religious
pictures. Charles I. of England made Van Dyck his court painter,
and the king and his nobles were often pleased to sit for him. But
prosperity led to extravagance, and extravagance to impoverishment and
a broken spirit. Van Dyck died when still a comparatively young man.
He is declared by many critics to have been the most distinguished
portraitist of the Flemish School--some say of any school and any
century.
Most amusing and characteristic are the pieces descriptive of Flemish
life left to us by Jacob Jordaens and by David Teniers the Younger, who
painted hundreds of pictures and rivaled the Dutchman, Jan Steen, as a
delineator of fairs and homely festivities.
WRITTEN FOR THE MENTOR BY RUTH KEDZIE WOOD
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 8, No. 3, SERIAL No. 199
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. INC.