SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (FLEMISH)
Renewed Italian Influence—Rubens: his Studio, his House, his Pupils,
his Influence, his Successors—Seventeenth Century Woodcarvers—
Developments and Tendencies of Furniture—Crispin Van Den Passe—
Rembrandt’s Goods and Chattels—Old Belgian Houses—The Pitsembourg—
Kitchens—Leather-hangings—Tapestry—Marquetry—Chairs—Masters of
Ornamental Design—The “Auricular Style.”
Just as the seventeenth century was about to dawn, the Decadence that
had affected Italy for nearly half a century began to make itself felt
in the Low Countries. Those responsible for it were, Michael Angelo and
Borromeo, who abandoned the graceful forms of the Renaissance for
disproportionate and exuberant decoration. The Flemish architects,
artists, and decorative designers willingly subjected themselves to the
Italian influence again as they had done a century before.
Rubens undoubtedly had the greatest influence on the art taste of Europe
during the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century. Going to
Italy in 1600, he spent, with short breaks, seven years there. He found
that the Italians had already broken away from the sober lines of the
antique, and with an unrestrained curve were already giving promise of
the exaggerations indulged in later by Borromini, who, in line and form,
broke with all the old traditions. Rubens was affected by the new vogue;
and, on his return, the great Fleming introduced into his own country
the style of architecture and ornamentation still known as the _style
Rubens_. Rubens was too well inspired with the genius of the sublime
Michael Angelo not to know where to use restraint, but in the hands of
his followers and imitators this style soon degenerated. From breadth
and amplitude, it fell into weakness of form and contour, and great
heaviness in the ornamentation.
Albert and Isabella kept a splendid Archducal court at Brussels, and
there every form of art was sure of encouragement and support. The
palace was an imposing mass, picturesquely situated in the highest part
of the city. A French visitor in 1612 dwells on the magnificence of the
various apartments filled with splendid works of art, and thronged with
courtiers and attendants, the richness of the equipages and stables, and
the beauty of the park and gardens. When Rubens visited Brussels at the
Imperial request, he immediately found favour.
When Rubens took up his abode in Antwerp, he bought a house, and altered
and enlarged it from time to time to suit his tastes or needs. He
embellished it in every possible way with his collections of pictures,
busts and archaeological objects. In 1617, he had the banisters of the
chief staircase carved by Jan van Mildert. He had very decided ideas on
architecture, and supplied the workmen with his own plans. He was
originally attracted to the house because it was built somewhat on the
model of the Italian houses he had so greatly admired. In 1622, he
published a book on the Palaces of Genoa, and from the preface we learn
that he was greatly delighted to see the old style known as “barbarous”
or “Gothic” go out of style and disappear from Flanders, “giving place,
to the great honour of the country, to symmetrical buildings designed by
men of better taste, and conforming to the rules of the Greek or Roman
antique.”
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIII.—_Lady at Spinet, by J. M. Molenaer._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
Between the courtyard and his beautiful Italian garden, he built a small
imitation Pantheon, lighted, like its model, by a window in the centre
of the dome. This he filled with busts, antique studies, valuable
pictures brought from Italy, and other rare and curious objects. These
he arranged to his own taste; and the arrangement of his cabinets, etc.,
served as a model for rich and noble collectors.
A picture representing Rubens’s Drawing-room is in the National Gallery,
Stockholm. It has been attributed to Van Dyck, but it is now supposed to
have been painted by Cornelis de Vos about 1622, for the elder of the
two women in the foreground seems to be a portrait of De Vos’s wife,
while the other is Isabella Brandt, Rubens’s first wife.
The room is simple but quite elegant in style, with windows looking out
upon a garden. The walls are entirely hung with greenish leather on
which the designs—chimaeras and children grouped around vases and
pillars—are in gold. The chimney-piece is of black marble supported by
red marble pillars, and the firedogs are brass. On the right is a
sideboard of light polished oak, and opposite a table with a rich
Oriental carpet for a cover. Upon the leather chairs are cushions
embroidered with flowers. Two pictures hang on the walls, and a third is
above the chimney-piece. In the foreground, there are two ladies engaged
in friendly conversation, while three children are playing with a puppy.
The mother of the latter, a white spaniel marked with red, anxiously
watches this second group.
In the sale inventory of Rubens’s house in 1707 there is mention of the
gilded leather that decorated one of the sitting-rooms.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIIIA.—_Spinet, by Ruckers._
STEINERT COLLECTION, YALE UNIVERSITY, U.S.A.
]
This interior in general style and arrangement resembles a painting by
Barthol. van Bassen, in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, reproduced on Plate
XXIV. This represents a large hall or dining-room of the beginning of
the seventeenth century. The floor is tessellated or tiled; and facing
the spectator is a monumental chimney-piece supported by columns. Two
superb andirons are placed in the fireplace, but the absence of logs and
the fireback show that the time is spring or summer. The mantelpiece is
surmounted by a niche containing a figure, and above the broken pediment
is a cartouche flanked by reclining figures in the Renaissance style. On
either side of the chimney-piece stands a chair of the new style with
square back and square seat. The square seat and back of velvet or
stamped leather—it is not clear what the covering is—is put on by means
of large brass-headed nails. The heavy legs are connected by stretchers.
These chairs are similar to the one on Plate XXVIII; but in the latter
the stretchers are double. On either side of the chimney-piece is a
door. One of these is open and shows an inner room containing an
upholstered bed. The doors are very decorative with heavy entablatures
supported on columns and decorated with swags of drapery on the panels.
On the right is a colossal buffet or sideboard, the pillars being
caryatides, and behind these is a half-hexagon cupboard. Busts and vases
adorn the top. Below is a fine salver, evidently in the style of
Collaert (see Plates XXI and XXII). A very ornate doorway leads into an
adjoining apartment; it is ornamented with caryatides and decorated with
elaborate carving. Opposite to this is an open portal that seems to be
the entrance from the garden, or courtyard. This door is supported by
Corinthian columns. Three large and narrow windows give abundant light.
Their panes are small. The room is hung with gilt leather and above the
moulding are three landscapes in simple frames. A picture—_The Sacrifice
of Abraham_—stands over the sideboard and a landscape over the door on
the right. A long, low bench is placed under the window, on which a
gallant is lounging. The chair occupied by the lady with her back to us
is a survival of the one shown in Fig. 9, and also generally resembles
those in Plates XXVI and XLII and XLVI; a favourite type of chair with
the artists of the seventeenth century. The group in the foreground are
sitting on stools. The wine-cooler is also worth noting. There are a
number of pets in the room—dogs, cats, a monkey and a long-tailed parrot
over the door. The compartment ceiling—an extraordinary combination of
octagons, hexagons and crosses—should be noticed.
Although Rubens did not know it, Antwerp received a fatal blow to her
prosperity at the very moment he settled there. In the truce with
Holland concluded in 1609, the Archduke Albert neglected to stipulate
for the free navigation of the Scheldt; this enabled Amsterdam to
develop her own commerce at the expense of her rival. The effects soon
appeared. Seven years later, the English ambassador, Rubens’s friend,
describes Antwerp as “_magna civitas, magna solitudo_, for in the whole
time we spent there I could never set my eyes on the whole length of a
street upon forty persons at once: I never saw coach nor saw man on
horseback. In many places, grass grows in the streets, yet the buildings
are all kept in reparation ... _splendida paupertas_, fair and
miserable.”
As if in compensation for the loss of her commercial supremacy, Antwerp
saw the dawn of an art of which Rubens was the originator and most
brilliant representative.
The pupils of Rubens did not confine themselves to painting and
ornamental design. They were often practical carvers also. Only a month
before his death, Rubens wrote a testimonial for Louis Faydherbe,
stating that this pupil had lived with him for three years and had made
great progress in painting and carving, excelling especially in ivory
carving. He therefore exhorts nobles and magistracies to encourage him
to settle among them and embellish their dwellings with his works. Thus
we see how the _style Rubens_ extended.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIV.—_Interior, by Barthol van Bassen (Seventeenth Century)._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
Fig. 28: FLEMISH ANDIRON (Sixteenth Century); Fig. 29: DINANDERIE,
double Candlestick; Fig. 30: DINANDERIE, single Candlestick.
]
The universality of the _style Rubens_ in Western Europe for half a
century is undeniable. This great genius was known and honoured in
Italy: he was a favourite of the King of Spain and his brother, the
Viceroy of the Netherlands; when he was not painting nor designing
something, he took a rest by going to some foreign court on an embassy.
On one of these, Charles I of England knighted him; Philip IV made him
Secretary of the Privy Council. Pupils flocked to him as if his studio
in Antwerp was the Mecca of art. He had scarcely established himself
there when he wrote (1611): “On every side I am overwhelmed with
solicitations: without the least exaggeration I may assure you that I
have already had to refuse more than a hundred pupils.”
Every kind of decoration and design was subject to his brush. The
Flemish tapestry weavers pestered him for cartoons: the famous printer,
Moretus, must have him design title-pages, borders and vignettes for the
“_Imprimerie Plantin_”: chapel ceilings, cars for cavalcades and
triumphal arches all came alike to him; Marie de’ Medici was not
satisfied until he had immortalized her in grandiose canvases on the
walls of her new palace.
One of the Flemish artists who played a particularly important part in
the introduction of the new Italian style into the Low Countries was
Jacques Franquart (born in Brussels in 1577 and died there in 1651), an
architect, who studied in Italy. He became the chief architect of the
Archduke Albert, and engineer of the King of Spain in the Netherlands.
Philip III made him a knight. Among his important works were the Church
of the Jesuits in Brussels (the cornerstone of which was laid by Albert
and Isabella in 1606) and the Church of the Grand Béguinage in Mechlin
(1629–47).
The next name of importance is that of Artus Quillyn, or Quellin, born
at St. Trond in 1625. He studied sculpture with Artus Quillyn the elder
in Antwerp, studied in Rome and returned to Antwerp, where he died in
1700. The churches of Antwerp are full of his bold and masterly works.
His masterpiece, the statue of God the Father, was executed in 1680 for
the Cathedral of St. Sauveur in Bruges, where it still stands.
With Quillyn ranks Peter Verbrugghen of Antwerp. It is generally
believed that he carved the fine pulpit at St. Walburge in Bruges, a
work unexcelled among the sculpture of the seventeenth century. A
kneeling figure representing Religion supports the pulpit with one hand
and holds a cross in the other. Her attitude is noble, gracious and
animated, and her expression admirable and exalted. Each corner of the
base is ornamented with the figure of an angel in a niche and decorated
with four medallions representing the four evangelists whose features
are of imposing majesty. The sounding board in the form of a light and
graceful shell, although supported by two cherubim with outstretched
wings, seems suspended in the air. The stairway is flanked by four
figures representing Adoration, Eloquence, Meditation and Study; and the
balustrade, which is beautifully pierced in designs of branches and
figures, is ornamented with figures representing the four elements:
Earth, a rabbit chase; Air, hunting the falcon; Water, fishing with a
line; and Fire, sacrifice of a material love. It would be impossible to
carve oak more elaborately and boldly. This work was restored in 1845 by
two Bruges artists, Van Wedeveldt and P. Buyck.
The Flemish wood-carver had still plenty of work to do in the churches;
but in domestic furniture the lathe was making his services more and
more unnecessary on bars and uprights; and the increasing craze for
marquetry and the invasion of lacquer and japanned wares left him
comparatively little to do.
Much beautiful carved work of the seventeenth century survives. Vilvorde
Church has thirty-six upper and thirty-two lower oak stalls carved
originally in 1663 for the priory of Groenendael; this is a magnificent
specimen of the carver’s art. There is also lovely woodcarving of the
middle of the century in St. Michael’s, Louvain. The Church of St.
Walburge, Furnes, is also rich in carved oak. On the pulpit is a figure
of St. John writing the Apocalypse; the upper part is supported by two
palms, and a rock with an eagle. The choir stalls are particularly fine.
The Ostend parish church has a fine pulpit carved in 1674.
The Church of St. Anne in Bruges is rich in carved work of this period.
The choir stalls of oak were splendidly carved in the Renaissance style
by Jean Schockaert and Fr. Schaepelinck in 1664. The oak organ case was
carved in 1685 by Jacques Vanden Eynde, who was also the organist at
Ypres. Fine bas-reliefs in the nave were executed by Martin Moenaert in
1673 and the ornate confessionals by Jan de Sangher in 1699. There is
also a handsome communion bench made by an unknown carver in 1670, which
is decorated with the busts of the four Evangelists and four Doctors of
the Church with bas-relief panels of the Virgin, Joseph, St. Anne, St.
Joachim, the Pascal Lamb and the Eucharist ornamented with bunches of
grapes and garlands of wheat.
Carving was by no means confined to the churches: those who could afford
it still beautified the furniture of castle and hall with the work of
the chisel. Chests or _bahuts_, cabinets, _armoires_, tables, chairs and
the old “sideboards,” known in England in Jacobean days as “court
cupboards,” and in Flanders as _credences_ or “_buffet à deux corps_,”
were as highly ornamented with carving in the late Renaissance style as
they were with Gothic ornament during the fifteenth century. During the
Louis XIII period, the more important pieces of furniture usually
assumed the forms and lines of Classic architecture. A typical _bahut_
of this period (_see_ Plate LVII), owes its interest chiefly to its
architectural decorations. The fluted columns, though somewhat squat,
which adorn the divisions of the front, produce a pleasing effect; the
mouldings are strongly accented and their ornamentations are bold and in
fine style. One can easily understand that this chest would not be out
of place in any late Renaissance apartment, but would contribute to the
decorative effect of the whole. The two side niches representing the two
virtues contain statuettes—Prudence and Strength. The central panel
tells the story of Judith and Holofernes with a directness and
simplicity worthy of a Botticelli.
The two-storied buffet (_buffet à deux corps_) frequently received
similar treatment, totally at variance with the handsome one reproduced
in Plate XLIII. A splendid example decorated with the arms of Ypres,
Ghent, Bruges and Franc, is preserved in the Ypres Museum. This was the
work of Jan van de Velde, who carved it in 1644, and received 162
florins for his trouble.
The bench (_banc_), often forms part of the woodwork of the wall of a
hall in Flanders in the seventeenth century. It was frequently placed
between the windows and made luxurious with cushions. Movable benches
were often used. In these the backs turned on an axis and were most
convenient, as the occupant could arrange the seat in any position he
pleased. The benches in De Vries’s “_Cubiculum_” (Plate X), should be
compared with the bench against the wall in Plate XXXVIII in studying
the development of the _banc_. The high _banc_, or settle, in this
picture is interesting on account of its simplicity.
The general tendency of furniture was a gradual breaking away from
immovables, a development from monumental solidity into grace and
lightness. The heavy tables of De Vries are cut away, and return in
general form to the original board and trestles. A glance at Fig. 8 will
show that the workman had only to connect the struts of the trestles in
the centre of the table in order to produce a rough model of the richly
carved tables in vogue from the period of Henri II to that of Louis XIV.
The box form of support, therefore, in this style of table gives way to
what we may regard as two trestles connected in the middle by an upright
board. These, as well as the edge of the table top, are embellished by
beautiful carving. The trestles now consist of eagles, lions, chimaeras,
mermaids, satyrs and other human and animal figures; and the central
connexion is pierced, balustraded, columned and treated in a thousand
different ways. In the seventeenth century, lightness was carried a step
further, and the favourite table is simply supported by four turned legs
with heavy bulb feet, the legs have connecting rails close to the floor
and usually have one or more heavy globular swellings. In England during
the Tudor and Jacobean periods, this heavy form was known as the
drawing-table. It occurs in numberless interiors by Dutch and Flemish
masters. The desire for greater lightness, however, made itself
increasingly felt; and early in the seventeenth century we find legs
turned in plain spirals, or with beading. Chair frames naturally
corresponded with table legs.
Though the masters of Decorative Art were constantly increasing in
numbers, it was three-quarters of a century after the appearance of the
furniture designs by De Vries before another important work of the same
nature was published. This was by another Dutchman. In 1642, Crispin van
den Passe published at Amsterdam his “_Boutique Menuiserie dans laquelle
sont comprins les plus notables fondaments non moins arichesse avecq des
nouvelles inventions_.”
Of his life little is known, except that he was the son of the great
engraver of the same name and was born in Utrecht in 1585. His _Boutique
Menuiserie_ contains a series of plates of furniture. It is extremely
rare today, but was doubtless in every cabinet-maker’s shop of the
period.
The furniture, it will be noticed, is “new.” The book was published two
years after the death of Rubens, while the _style Rubens_ was still in
its glory. From a study of these plates, together with the engravings of
Abraham Bosse, we can obtain a clear vision of an interior, either
Flemish or French, during the reign of Louis XIII, for Crispin’s
furniture designs were as well known to French as to Flemish workmen.
Three of his chairs, two of them folding, are reproduced in Figs. 31,
32, and 33; Fig. 34 also shows a small table by him.
We have already caught a glimpse of Rubens’s home in Antwerp; and now we
cannot do better than look at the interior of the other great master in
Amsterdam. When that city passed through a great financial crisis in
1653, Rembrandt suffered in company with his fellow-citizens. He had
been living like a lord in a splendid dwelling sumptuously furnished and
decorated, and surrounded by a multitude of objects of art which he
loved to collect—armour, robes, busts, ceramics, engravings, and famous
pictures by Italian and native artists, as well as his own productions.
To satisfy his creditors, these all came to the hammer in 1656. The
inventory gives us a good idea of his home. In the vestibule, there were
four Spanish chairs covered with Russia leather, four Spanish chairs
with black seats, and one low form of pinewood.
The Antechamber contained an ebony-framed mirror and an ebony stand, a
marble basin, a walnut table with a Tournay cover, and seven Spanish
chairs covered with green velvet. The “Room behind the Antechamber” was
furnished with a gilded frame, a small oak table, four common chairs, a
copper cauldron, and a portmanteau. In the “Hall,” there were six chairs
with blue seats, a large mirror, an oak table, with an embroidered
tablecloth, a bed with blue hangings, two pillows and two covers, a
matted chair, a set of fire-irons, and a “sacerdan” wood press, and a
“sacerdan” small _kas_ with doors. The “Art Cabinet” contained three
East India cups, one East India powder box, one East India “jatte” with
a little Chinaman, one East India workbox, two porcelain “casoars,” two
porcelain figurines, one Japanese casque, plaster casts, copper and
pewter, globes, and seventy natural history specimens. On the floor at
the back were a great quantity of shells, marine plants and other
curiosities, statues, arms, armour, etc. Here also were many portfolios
filled with choice engravings, etchings and drawings, besides one old
chest, four chairs with black leather seats, and one pine table. In the
“Small Studio,” there are musical instruments and armour (119 pieces),
and a great number of casts of hands, arms and heads from nature, and
many various kinds of woven materials. The “Large Studio” has in it
twenty pieces—halberds, swords, and Indian fans, costumes of an Indian
man and woman, cuirasses and trumpets. The “Studio Entry” is decorated
with the skins of a lion and lioness, and other furs.
A bedstead stands in the “Little Room.”
The “Small Kitchen” is furnished with a little table, a larder, some old
chairs, two cushioned chairs, some pots and pans, and a tin waterpot.
Nine white plates and two earthen plates decorate the “Corridor.”
Rembrandt owned a good deal of linen; and most of the rooms contained
pictures.
No one looking at Rembrandt’s own pictures can fail to appreciate his
fondness for dressing himself and his models in feathers, armour and
fantastic costumes, which, as we have seen, he kept as properties in his
Studio.
Rembrandt resided in the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam from 1640 to 1656.
His house, Jodenbrêe Straat, No. 4, next door but one to the bridge, is
marked by a simple memorial tablet.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV.—_Panelled Bedstead._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
We can form a very clear idea of the general appearance of a street of
the Renaissance period from many old houses that still stand in Belgium
and Holland. The interiors in some cases we can also reconstruct by the
aid of inventories. Mechlin is particularly rich in buildings of the
sixteenth century. The _Mont de Piété_, once the home of Canon
Busleyden, is a Gothic building of 1507, restored in 1864; on the Quay
au Sel, there are several old timber-houses, the _Salm Inn_, with a
Renaissance façade of 1530–34, and a house in the Franco-Flemish style,
very rich in detail. There is also an interesting timber-house in the
Quay aux Avoines.
Bruges and Ypres contain several houses of the seventeenth century;
Ghent has two private houses on the Quai de la Grue (one of which is
named the _Vliegenden Hert_); and Antwerp, several Guildhouses. Holland
is richer in houses and buildings of this century. In Amsterdam, the
royal palace—the Dam—was built in 1648 as a Town Hall by Jacob van
Kampen; the house of Admiral de Ruyter may be seen on the
Prins-Hendrik-Kade, and the house of Baron Six in the Heerengracht, and
on the Heerengracht and Keizersgracht are many houses of the seventeenth
century.
There are also a number of seventeenth century houses of great interest
to the student of architecture in Alkmaar. The Stadhuis, in Enkhuisen,
dates from 1688; Sneek has a water-tower of 1615, which was restored in
1878; Zwolle has a guard-house of 1614; and the police-office of
Deventer is a Renaissance structure of 1632. Several brick buildings of
the seventeenth century still stand in the Zaadmarkt and Groenmarkt of
Zutphen; there are several houses in Bommel of this period, including
the famous house of Maarten van Rossum, now a district court; and the
weigh-house and meat market of Gouda date from 1668 and 1691.
The doors and interior woodwork of these houses in many cases are
precious records of the skill of the Dutch and Flemish wood-carvers of
the period.
One of the most famous houses in Mechlin in the second half of the
seventeenth century was a commandery called the Pitsembourg; and it was
selected in 1668 as the most suitable residence for the High Constable
of Castile and Leon.
An inventory of the furnishings of this establishment was taken in 1656,
which enables us to go through the house.
The first room that we enter is called _de Trappenye_, and was used as
an office. Here we find a picture representing the _Birth of Christ_ and
two pieces of sculpture—_The Offering_ and _The Three Kings_, standing
on two pedestals that bear the arms of Cratz (Cratz was commander of the
House of Mechlin from 1564 to 1604). In this room are two large cases—
one with twenty and the other with ten drawers, one lettered, and the
other numbered—to preserve papers, documents and charts. It is warmed by
a half-stove, _halve stove_, according to the inventory. For diversion,
there is a backgammon board with white pieces of boxwood, and black of
lignum-vitæ.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVI.—_The Sick Woman, by Jan Steen._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
Figs. 31 and 33: FOLDING CHAIRS, by CRISPIN VAN DE PASSE; Fig. 32:
CHAIR, by CRISPIN VAN DE PASSE; Fig. 34; TABLE, by CRISPIN VAN DE
PASSE.
]
Passing from this into the _camer beneffens de trappenye_, we find a
bedroom, _de camer boven de trappenye_, the most conspicuous object of
which is a bed. So sumptuous is this, in fact, that no other furniture
is needed to give this room distinction. To begin with, the framework is
ornately carved, and it is hung with rich silken curtains and
sumptuously upholstered. Undoubtedly this bed was of the same type as
the beautiful Renaissance specimen reproduced in Plate XXV, from the
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. A reference to Plate X will show this is later
in style than the “new” one designed by De Vries. The “linen-fold” panel
has entirely disappeared, and the carved accessories are all pure late
Renaissance. At the time this inventory was taken, however, these
magnificent wardrobe-shaped beds with elaborate carving were already out
of date and supplanted in favour by the lighter form with simple posts
at the corners, the whole being entirely closed with curtains. This bed
appears in Plate XXVI and Plate XXVII with both square and dome-shaped
tops, and in many other pictures by the Dutch masters of the seventeenth
century.
The bed in which upholstery had superseded carving had been growing in
favour, not only in the homes of the middle classes, but also in those
of the rich. It even occurs in the inner room of the wealthy house
represented in Plate XXIV.
This bed, known as the _lit en housse_, is the typical bed of the
seventeenth century, and is the one that appears in Abraham Bosse’s
engravings, whenever a bed is introduced—in the homes of the rich, in
hospitals, and in the rooms of tradesmen and school teachers. In this
style of bed, the framework is of comparatively little importance. The
_ciel_, or canopy, is supported on four posts which are carved or
painted in harmony with the curtains, or covered with the same
materials. Beneath the valance, a rod runs under the canopy for the
support of the curtains, which are drawn up or down by means of cords
and pulleys. When closed, the _lit en housse_ looks like a square box.
The elegance of the bed depended upon its upholstery. The richest beds
were draped with tapestry, silk, damask brocade and velvet, beautifully
trimmed with gold and silver braid or lace, narrow silk fringe, or
fringe of gold or silver threads, or decorative cords and tassels.
Serge, cloth, East Indian goods, linen and cotton materials were also
employed. The curtains were more or less richly lined and the four
corners of the canopy above the posts were decorated with a carved or
turned wooden knob called a _pomme_ (which was sometimes gilded or
painted), a bunch of feathers, or a “bouquet” made of ravelled silk
ornaments or inverted tassels.
Returning now to our examination of the Pitsembourg, we note that the
next room is that of the master brewer, in which there is a very shabby
bed, an old picture representing the _Elevation during Holy Mass_, a
wall map of Germany and a standard with the arms of Lant-Commander,
Werner Spies von Bullesheim, who was at the head of the house of Mechlin
from 1639 to 1641.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVII.—_Woman, with a Parrot, by Jan Steen._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
Passing by the unimportant rooms of the servants, we enter the old room
of the commander, where we note an alcove hung with two little green
curtains with an embroidered border, and in the alcove a bed with
bolster, pillow and two counterpanes, one white, and the other green, a
table covered with a cloth, some little stools (_escarbeaux_), two
chairs covered with green cloth, andirons, shovel and tongs of copper,
and a number of pictures, among which are two little representations of
castles, the Battle of Calloo, a portrait of Lant-Commander Bongaert in
full-dress uniform, one of Lant-Commander van Ruyssenbergh, one of
Commander Cratz, and one of Commander Werner Spies von Bullesheim
kneeling with a chaplain at the feet of the Virgin. Two little rooms and
a bathroom belonging to the chaplain follow, and then we enter a room
called _In den inganck van’t voorhuys_. In the centre stands an old
table covered with a “carpet of gilt leather.” There are some
water-colours on the wall, including two vases filled with flowers, and
two of decorative motives with the inscriptions “_Virtus parit honorem_”
and “_Qui confidit in divitiis corruet_.” There is also a large painting
of the arms of the Archduke Maximilian, Grand Master of the Order (son
of the Emperor Maximilian II).
From the _Inganck van’t voorhuys_, we step into a more luxurious hall
called _het cleyn salet naast het voorhuys_, hung with ten large pieces
of leather with gold patterns on a silver background. The furniture
consists of a table with oak leaves, covered with a Turkish carpet,
chairs with stuffed backs of red ribbed silk, a screen made of four
painted canvases, and eleven pictures, one the _Battle of Prague_ and
the others landscapes, ornamental copper andirons, and a hearth-box.
The next salon, _de sale naar de Trappenye_, is hung with portraits, and
some large pictures, one of which represents Samson proving his
strength.
In the dining-room, _in de nieuwe gemaeckte stove_, there are also many
pictures, including portraits, a “winter scene” and a “Flemish
_Kermesse_.” The principal piece of furniture is a superb sideboard of
carved oak, on which the following pieces of silver are displayed: one
_aiguière_ and basin with the arms of Spies; four candelabra with
chiselled sconces, an extinguisher with tray, and an amphora, all with
the arms of Lutzenrode; two large jugs, a deep dish, a mustard-pot and
six salt-cellars, also with the arms of Lutzenrode; a chafing-dish with
the Ruyssenbergh arms, twenty-two spoons, twenty-six forks, twenty-two
knives, and ten porcelain wine-jugs with silver tops.
Next to this hall is the bishop’s room, which is luxuriously furnished.
The walls are hung with eight large “tapestries of leather” with gold
patterns on a silver background. The bed is upholstered with curtains of
mauve silk trimmed with a silk braid of yellow and violet. It is
furnished with two mattresses, a bolster, two pillows, and two
counterpanes—one white, the other green—and over the whole is thrown a
large counterpane of embroidered silk trimmed with a fringe of silk and
gold thread. The window-curtains, the six chairs, and armchair, are
covered with the same silk as the counterpane. There is a large mirror
in an ebony frame and portraits of Maximilian, Syberg, and Bongaert.
The bishop’s room is next to the salon, _groot salet beneden d’aarde_,
which is hung with thirteen pieces of “leather tapestry,” showing gold
patterns on a red background. On the mantelpiece there is a crucifix
carved of boxwood, the foot of which is incrusted with mother-of-pearl,
and there is a magnificent mirror of gold and black wood, the fronton of
which is ornamented with a silk cord with large tassels, the whole
supported by three gilded griffins. This room also contains sixteen
pictures, nine of which are still-life, and are signed Jacques van Esch
of Antwerp (1606–1666).
The commander’s bedroom is very modest, as becomes one who has assumed
the vows of poverty: a little walnut bed with very ordinary curtains,
with a mattress, two bolsters, three pillows (one covered with white
leather, which he takes on his travels), and a counterpane of quilted
silk. He allowed himself the luxury of a fire, because there are
andirons and a hearth-box. A portrait of the _Virgin_ and _The
Temptation of St. Anthony_ are his only pictures, and the one ornament
is a sculptured _Descent from the Cross_. A little desk and a close
chair covered in black leather and inlaid with copper, complete the
furniture of this room, which makes an interesting contrast with the
bishop’s.
The enormous number of cooking utensils in the kitchen show that the
most lavish hospitality was offered in this house. Every kind of copper
pot and pan, from the largest saucepan and boiler (_de schonck of
hespenketel_) to the tiniest pans for cakes and pastry (_een clein coper
panneke waarin men dry eieren kan doppen_, and _koek_ and _taart
pannen_), are present in great numbers; and, moreover, there are
portable ovens to bake tarts, ladles, skimmers, sieves, spice-boxes,
spits, skewers, ten grills, large and small, some of them for roasting
oysters—in short every article that a cook would need to prepare a feast
for a _gourmet_.
The _buffets_, _armoires_ and shelves of the kitchen are filled with
valuable metal ware, including eight _aiguières_ and eight dishes,
weighing sixty-five pounds. These are marked with the arms of Spies and
Syberg. Then there are seventeen candlesticks, some of which have round
and others square bases; there are ninety-three large and small dishes
with the arms of Lutzenrode, Spies and Syberg, and a hundred and
twenty-eight plates with the arms of the various commanders. The shelves
also contain a great number of wine jars and measures and pots for
holding grape-juice and a great number of earthenware dishes, crocks,
etc.
There is a special pantry, and near this a pastry-room; and a brewery, a
harness-room, tool houses, a house for the gardener, and in the park,
which is a kind of botanical garden, there is a pavilion on a knoll,
where any one desiring to fish could find rods and lines.
The kitchen is the most important room in the majority of the
middle-class houses; in fact, in many a Flemish and Dutch interior it
appears as the general living-room. Plate XXVII and Plate XXXVI afford
Dutch examples.
A fine example of a Flemish kitchen of the seventeenth century is by
Teniers the younger, called _The Good Kitchen_ in the Hague Gallery.
This was painted in 1644.
Another fine kitchen of the period occurs in a Family Group by Cocx
(Coques), in the Cassel Gallery. In the foreground a man is seated at a
table looking at his son’s drawings. Not far away his wife is teaching
her daughter to make lace, and through a large door the kitchen is
visible, where fish, oysters, pastries and birds show preparations for a
feast.
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has a series of rooms fitted up in the
old style with original furniture. The kitchen represented in Plate
XXXII is equipped with all the pots and pans dear to the heart of the
Dutch housewife. The hearth, ovens and shelves are furnished with all
the implements and utensils necessary for good housekeeping: cauldrons,
spits, churns, plate-warmers, kettles, bellows, waffle-irons, etc., are
all there. A Frisian clock hangs on the tiled wall, and the cupboards
contain everything necessary for cooking and cleaning.
The library of the Pitsembourg was well stored with religious works. The
chapel, a beautiful edifice built in 1228 and dedicated to St. Elizabeth
of Hungary, contained some fine carvings, two crucifixes, one of silver
and one of copper, organs, carved statues, silver chandeliers;’and
exceptionally rich vestments, altar-cloths and Flemish lace.
It will be noticed that all the principal rooms in this establishment
were hung with leather, or “leather tapestry” in accordance with the
taste of the age.
The leather hangings of the seventeenth century are even more brilliant
than those of the past; and on the bright background of scarlet, blue,
sea-green, gold or silver, a wealth of ornamentation appears—animals,
birds, flowers, fruits, mascarons and other favourite devices of the
time. Leather hangings are always present in wealthy homes of Holland.
An excellent example is shown in the picture of _The Young Scholar and
his Sister_ by Coques (Cocx), now in the Cassel Gallery. The room, which
is richly furnished, is hung with blue and gold leather. This picture
was painted in the seventeenth century.
The Low Countries by this time had become renowned for their fine
leather and exported a vast amount of it. Notwithstanding the rivalry of
the French and Italian workshops, there was a special shop in the Rue
St. Denis in Paris where Flemish and Dutch leathers could be obtained.
Some of the French inventories of this century mention especially
“tapestries of leather” from the Netherlands; for example, Fouquet has
at his Château of Vaux, in 1661, “a rich hanging of tapestry of _cuir
doré_ from Flanders, consisting of eight pieces”; and in 1698, a rich
Parisian owns “a hanging of tapestry of _cuir doré de Hollande_,” with a
red background.
The Rijks Museum in Amsterdam contains a great number of gilt leather
hangings of the seventeenth century; at the Hôtel de Ville of Furnes,
there are some hangings of Spanish leather and the Antiquarian Museum of
Utrecht also contains some embossed gilt leather hangings.
In the seventeenth century, the great centres for the production of
tapestry shifted to Paris and London. This is the period when the famous
looms of the Gobelins and Mortlake were established. The directors and
workers in these famous establishments were Flemings. It was largely
owing to the influence of Le Brun that Paris triumphed over Brussels
with her Gobelins manufactory established in 1662. This was really the
outgrowth of the high-warp looms established by Henry IV in 1597, under
an excellent tapestry-worker named Laurent. These workshops were first
situated in the house of the Jesuits in the Faubourg St. Antoine, and
were transferred to the Louvre in 1603. The King sent to Flanders for
tapestry-workers over whom he placed the Sieur de Fourcy. In 1607 he
sent for more workers, among whom were Marc Comans (or Coomans) and
François de la Planche, who were given charge of the workshops at
Tournelles. These were removed to the Faubourg St. Marceau. The
tapestries had to be made _façon de Flandres_.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVIII.—_Flemish Chair._
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.
]
The King’s enterprises were not universally approved. “They cost large
sums to his Majesty,” says a contemporary, and loss and ruin to his
subjects. Witness the Brussels tapestries at St. Marcel, the Flemish
linens at Mantes and the cloths of silk and gold of Milan.
After the King’s death, Comans and De la Planche continued to work in
Paris, and in 1630 were engaged at the manufactory that afterwards
became the Gobelins.
Flemish workmen were also employed at Maincy near Vaux in 1658. When,
owing to the wars, the Gobelins was closed in 1694, some of the workmen
entered the army, twenty-three returned to Flanders and others went to
Beauvais. This great factory was no less indebted than was the Gobelins
to the Flemings. It was established in 1664 by a “_marchand tapissier_,”
named Louis Hynart, a native of Beauvais, who owned a large number of
workshops in Flanders as well as in Paris. As Beauvais was at that time
an important centre for woollen stuffs, Hynart proposed to the
municipality that he should establish workshops of high-warp tapestry
“in the manner of those of Flanders.” Hynart obtained a subsidy and
brought a number of Flemish workmen to Beauvais. He was negligent,
however, and in 1684 the directorship of the Beauvais manufactory was
given to Philippe Béhagle (originally Behagel) of a famed family of
tapestry-weavers of Oudenarde. Under Béhagle the “Royal Manufactory of
Tapestry,” flourished until his death in 1704. Another workman who
contributed greatly to the success of Beauvais was Georges Blommaert,
who was also called to Beauvais in 1684 from Lille, where he had
established a workshop in 1677.
When Georges Blommaert left Lille to go to Beauvais, he was succeeded by
François and André Pannemaker, descendants of the famous Pannemaker
family of tapestry-makers. In 1688, they had a rival in Jean de Melter,
of Brussels, who was particularly fond of reproducing compositions after
Rubens. The Pannemakers devoted their skill chiefly to “_Verdures_.”
The looms at Nancy, established in the seventeenth century, and closed
in 1625, were also worked by men from the Low Countries, among them one
Melchior van der Hameidan. The Brussels looms were still busy in this
century, but the corporation of tapestry-workers was recruited from a
few families, such as the De Vos, De Castros, Raës, Van der Borchts, Van
der Heckes, and Leyniers. They repeated the cartoons of the last
century; but in the middle of the seventeenth Teniers produced many
rustic scenes that, known as _Tenières_, became very popular. Flemish
tapestry-weavers are found in Rome; in Denmark (twenty-six were there
about 1604); in Russia (Martin Steuerbout of Antwerp had a manufactory
in Moscow in 1607); and in England.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIX.—_Flemish Chair._
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.
]
The Mortlake manufactory, established by James I near London in 1619,
was practically a Flemish manufactory. In a short while its only rival
was the Gobelins. The King sent specially to Flanders for skilled
workmen and no less than fifty arrived in one month, among whom were
Josse Ampe of Bruges, Simon Heyns, Jacques Hendricx, Josse Inghels, and
Pierre Foquentin of Oudenarde. Rubens and Van Dyck were commissioned to
supply cartoons; but many of the old favourite historical and religious
sets of the past century were reproduced. Paris and Hampton Court Palace
contain a number of these.
Mortlake had closed when William III ordered his victories to be
commemorated in woven pictures. The cartoons for _The Battle of
Bresgate_, _The Descent on Tor bay_ and _The Battle of the Boyne_, were
drawn by Jean Lottin, the painter, and made by Clerck, Vander Borcht,
Cobus and De Vos of Brussels.
Flemish tapestry-weavers settled in Sandwich, Canterbury, Maidstone,
Norwich and Colchester in 1567–8, after the persecutions of the Duke of
Alva; but notwithstanding the good work produced in England, Admiral
Howard ordered the famous set of six pieces to commemorate the
destruction of the Spanish Armada from the painter H. Cornelis de Vroom
of Haarlem and Franz Spierinx of Delft. These fine pieces hung in the
House of Lords, London, until destroyed by the fire of 1824.
Religious, mythological and allegorical subjects continue in favour
during the seventeenth century; and subjects inspired by contemporary
history are also popular. The cartoons by Rubens, however, take
precedence of everything; and his _History of Achilles_, _History of
Constantine_, _Scenes from the Old Testament_, _Triumph of the Church_,
etc., are reproduced in every workshop in Europe. His most famous work,
_The History of Marie de’ Medici_, was finally completed at the Gobelins
manufactory during the reign of Louis Philippe.
In furniture, during the seventeenth century, it may be said that carved
figures gradually gave way to turned supports, and uprights; and the
surfaces depended for decoration on panelling of geometrical designs and
applied ornaments of real or imitation ebony. Another favourite way of
decorating the broad surfaces was to inlay them in various designs with
wood of different colours. The latter taste rapidly advanced during this
century with the constantly increasing importation of the beautifully
coloured woods of the East and West Indies. As the Flemish artists,
moreover, went so often to Italy for inspiration, Flemish marquetry,
doubtless, took its first stimulus from Italian taste. To quote a
learned critic[4]: “The Italians of the Decadence had a passion for
ebony and coloured woods, and theatrical and complicated decorations.
Furniture completely changed its physiognomy; the decorative panels with
all their ornaments, are renounced for plain surfaces on which marquetry
can be displayed to advantage. Forsaken by fashion, walnut drops out of
use; profiles are multiplied; the fine _cuirs_ that were cut in solid
bosses sprawl about in an enervated, weakened fashion; the straight,
firm and springing Classic column now becomes twisted and distorted; and
the stale and banal decoration has neither sinews nor youth. The
sculptor yields his place to the marquetry-worker and the carpenter
(_menuisier_) becomes a cabinet-maker (_ébéniste_).”[5]
Footnote 4:
Bonaffé.
Footnote 5:
A literal translation is more to the point: the carpenter becomes a
worker in exotic woods, ebony, etc.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXX.—_Chairs._
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.
]
Until the sixteenth century, marquetry seems to have chiefly consisted
of ivory and ebony; but at this period exotic woods began to be
employed. Beautiful marquetry was a mark of luxury; for example, in the
famous pamphlet _L’Isle des Hermaphrodites_, directed against Henri III
and his Court, the author says: “As for the furniture of wood, we should
like to have it all of gold, silver, and marquetry, and the pieces,
especially the canopies of the beds, if possible, of cedar, rose, and
other odoriferous woods unless you would rather have them of ebony and
ivory.”
In this century Italy carried to perfection, the inlay of rare and
polished marbles, lapis-lazuli, agates, pebbles, etc., called
_pietra-dura_, and this style was imitated in other countries.
During the Decadence, the old marquetry of wood gave place to
incrustations of mother-of-pearl, shell, precious stones and coloured
marbles, and the furniture was made even more sumptuous by the additions
of chiselled mounts, key-plates, handles, feet, etc., of silver or gilt
bronze. Painted glass was also a popular kind of inlay. A good example
of this work is in the hospice of Liège—a walnut cabinet with plaques of
painted glass in many colours in imitation of what the Italians call
_mille fiori_.
A new kind of marquetry, however, made its appearance in the seventeenth
century and gained in popularity. This consisted of large designs of
flowers—particularly the tulip—birds and foliage represented in very
gaily-coloured woods of many varieties and dyes, and bits of ivory or
mother-of-pearl are added to the eyes of birds, or petals of flowers, to
give a touch of brilliancy. Cabinets, bedsteads, writing-desks,
china-cupboards, tall clocks, the frames of chairs—in short every piece
of furniture was subject to this style of decoration. This kind of
marquetry was popular in England during the reign of William and Mary,
when everything Dutch was the rage. It is well known that the Dutch were
even fonder of marquetry than the Flemings. A Dutch cabinet, which
depends for its decoration entirely on the contrasted colours and shapes
of its inlaid woods, standing on a low frame with spiral legs and knob
feet connected by a plain stretcher (_see_ Plate XXXI), is in the Rijks
Museum, Amsterdam. This is a good specimen of geometrical inlay.
Motives of marquetry of a formal floral nature are reproduced in Fig.
37.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXI.—_Marquetry Cabinet._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
During the Spanish dominion in the sixteenth century, the chair in which
great personages sit for their portraits has a high straight back with
the side posts usually ending in carved lions’ heads, straight or
scrolled arms and carved or plain straight legs connected by stretchers.
The feet are sometimes carved with the heads or feet of animals. The
back and seat are upholstered with velvet or stamped leather fixed to
the frame with large brass-headed nails. This “Spanish chair” was common
in Spain, Italy, France and England, as well as in the Netherlands. We
find it in the pictures of the great portrait painters of the
Renaissance—Raphael, Titian and Velasquez—as well as the great Dutch and
Flemish masters. Fig. 36 shows a fine solid and simple example of this
style of chair of Flemish workmanship. It is well-proportioned; both
front and back legs and the arms are turned, and the stretchers are
grooved and shaped. When in use, of course, the seat would be
comfortably cushioned. The back, seat and arms are covered with leather.
The most common chair of the seventeenth century, however, is one
without arms. It is rather low and is a simplified form of the above
“Spanish chair.” A fine early example of this model is represented in
Plate XXVIII, now in the Cluny Museum, Paris. It will be noticed that
the heads on the back posts are still carved, and that the legs are
shaped and turned, while the rails are grooved. The Cluny Museum has a
considerable number of Flemish chairs of this style and period. One of
them, stamped with the monogram of Christ and the date 1672, probably
belonged to an ecclesiastic. The ordinary form of this chair appears on
either side of the chimney-piece in Plate XXIV.
The low-backed chair without arms is very common in interior scenes by
Dutch and Flemish masters. Sometimes we see guests seated on them at the
table; and sometimes it will serve as a seat for a lady as she takes a
music-lesson. (_See_ Plate XXXIX.) It is found in various dimensions and
proportions. Sometimes it has one set of rungs and sometimes two;
sometimes the legs are plain, and sometimes elegantly turned. Sometimes
the back posts have lions’ heads and frequently not. (_See_ Plates XXXV
and XXXIX, and Fig 35.)
The design by Crispin de Passe, Fig. 32, shows the style for an armchair
of the middle of the century. Here the centre of the top back bar is
raised with ornamental carving and the lions’ heads are suppressed. A
variety of the same style of chair fashionable during the period of
Louis XIII is represented by the handsome piece of Flemish workmanship
in Plate XXIX, also in the Cluny Museum. The arms and bars and front
legs are turned in elegant spirals effectively relieved. The back posts
do not rise above the top rail, and have no lions’ heads, but finely
carved heads terminate the arms. The back and seat are covered with gilt
leather stamped with a beautiful floral design and fastened to the frame
with the usual large-headed nails. Sometimes instead of lions’ heads, we
find carved heads of other animals and of women. Besides leather and
velvet, this style of chair was frequently covered with embroidered
material and tapestry.
A Dutch chair of this general form, though with sloping and scrolled
arms, is in the Rijks Museum. (_See_ Plate XXXIII.) The legs are turned
in spirals; and the back and seat are upholstered with a rich material
figured with large flower forms—tulips, roses, irises, etc.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXII.—_Kitchen._
STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
Still another model of this style of armchair with spiral rungs and
supports, scrolled arms, carved top and leather back and seat, appears
on Plate XXXIV. This is also a Dutch chair in the Rijks Museum. It is
interesting to compare it with another armchair on the same plate. This,
of carved oak, turned back posts, front legs of carved heavy scrolls,
diagonal connecting rails also formed of heavy scrolls, and scrolled
front bar, is an interesting example of an armchair of the Dutch work of
the Louis XIV period. The back has a central panel with a scrolled
frame, elegantly carved. It is filled with woven cane instead of
leather, or other upholstery. The seat is cane also. A chair without
arms, which looks as if it might have belonged to the same set, though
it is now preserved in the Cluny Museum, Paris, is shown in Plate XLV.
Another armchair of the same period and general style (_see_ Plate
XXXIII) has a carved panel filled with cane, cane seat, scrolled arms,
turned rails and legs, and carved front bar. Chairs of this fashion were
extremely popular in the Low Countries and in England during the second
half of the seventeenth century. In all probability, they originated in
the Netherlands, and became familiar and favourites with the exiled
Cavaliers between 1640 and 1660; and at the Restoration the style was
imported into England. However this may be, this well-known carved oak
chair, with cane back and seat, is still popularly known as the “Charles
II Chair.” A light Dutch model of this type, with elegantly carved front
bar, turned rails and posts and scrolled front legs, is shown in Plate
XXXIV. It has no arms and the back panel is divided into two narrow
panels of cane, producing a very light and elegant effect. The scrolls
of the feet are much lighter and more graceful than those of the
armchair at its side.
An armchair of the same style and period, also from the Rijks Museum, is
in the centre on Plate XXXV.
The central panel of the back is gracefully treated with open carved and
turned work. The panel proper is framed with heavy scrolls, and the
central bar is pierced and carved with graceful bellflowers running
downwards and upwards. This _chute_ of the bell-flower now becomes a
very favourite ornamentation in decorative art, and Bérain, Marot and
other artists of the period make free use of it. The curved stretchers
with the vase ornament in the centre is very characteristic of Dutch,
English, and French furniture of the second half of the seventeenth
century. It occurs in ordinary tables, dressing-tables, stands for
cabinets, and, in fact, every piece of furniture that stands on four
legs. The arms and legs consist of the usual scroll, and the feet of
carved bulbs.
A chair with the characteristic scrolled stretcher just alluded to
occurs on Plate XXXIII. It is richly carved, and has turned and carved
straight legs, with bulbed feet. The back is a richly carved frame,
filled with cane. The top is crowned with delicate ribbon and foliage
carving, and the shape of the back is a favourite one for the mirrors of
the period. The proportions of the seat, which is stuffed and covered
with velvet fastened with small brass nails is quite modern. This chair,
however, belongs to the end of the seventeenth century. The affinities
between the chairs we have been describing and the designs by Marot,
which were so popular in Holland, may be studied in the next chapter.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXIII.—_Chairs._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
The masters of this school of ornamentation were numerous. Hitherto
Flanders has overshadowed the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands in
art products; but beginning with De Vries, Holland assumes equal
importance. Peter Soutman (Haarlem 1580–1650), was a pupil of Rubens;
William Buytenweg worked at Rotterdam; Adrian Muntink was famous in
Groningen (_circ._ 1610); other goldsmiths and engravers, named Laurens,
Janss Micker, Geraert van Ryssen, Meinert Gelis, Jacobus van der Tverff,
Gerritz Hessel (Amsterdam), Abraham Hecker (Amsterdam), Hendrik de
Keyser (Amsterdam), Jacobus Collan (Rotterdam), and Arnold Houbraken
(Dordrecht), all flourished during the first half of the seventeenth
century. Their motives of garlands, fruits, flowers, human and animal
figures, birds, insects, etc., were used in the decoration of sumptuous,
carved furniture, and for marquetry and mosaics, as well as for the gold
and silver ware of which the nobles and rich merchants were so fond.
Other masters of ornament of the Netherlands of this period, whose works
have survived, are Martin van Buten (_circ._ 1607), Franz Aspruck
(_circ._ 1601), Jacques de Gheyn (_circ._ 1610), J. B. Barbé (_b._
1585), Blondus (1590–1656), Raphael Custode, Michel van Lochon,
Henderick Lodeweycke (_circ._ 1626), André Pauli (_circ._ 1628).
Following the above, when the _style Rubens_ was giving way to the
Decadence, we find Michel Natalis (1609–80), Arthus Quellin (_b._ 1609),
Jacob van Campen (_circ._ 1660), Peter van den Avont (_b._ 1619), James
Collan (_circ._ 1650), Arnold Houbraken (_d._ 1660), L. Hendericks
(_circ._ 1660), Romanus de Hooghe (1638–1718), Gaspard Bouttats,
(1640–1703), J. J. Falkema (_circ._ 1680), Isaac Moucheron (1660–1744),
Antony de Winter (_circ._ 1690), Peter Paul Bouche (_circ._ 1693), J.
Thuys (_circ._ 1690), J. and F. Harrewyn (_circ._ 1694), Heinrich van
Bein (1689–98), and G. Vischer, Erasmus Kamyn, P. Schentz and M.
Heylbrouck, who all worked at the close of the century.
The most extraordinary style of ornamentation employed by the masters of
Decorative Art during the seventeenth century is that known as the
_genre auriculaire_. In this, every part of the human ear is used as a
decorative motive. The outer rim and lobe had been used long before it
was carried to excess. A very early example is shown in the bed dated
1580 on Plate XI where auricular curves are plainly recognizable in the
carving.
In the “_Buire_” (Plate XLVI) by Mosyn, however, this style is seen in
its most exaggerated form. This design is by M. Mosyn, an engraver, born
at Amsterdam about 1630. His chandeliers are equally extravagant. Peter
Nolpe, born at the Hague (1601–70), was another designer of this school,
as was also John Lutma of Amsterdam (1609–89). The latter represents the
very decadence of art, with his hideous cartouches, compartments, frames
and _aiguières_, composed of distorted and tortured ears. Another master
of Amsterdam who published many plates in the same extraordinary taste
was Gerbrandt van der Eeckhout. He also worked in the middle of this
century. This style attained its greatest vogue in Germany. There
Friederich Unteutsch, a master carpenter of Frankfort, published (1650)
110 plates of all kinds of furniture, on which the ear is prominent as
an ornament. Daniel Rabel (_d._ 1637), also used the _genre auriculaire_
in France, but there its life was short and feeble.