Castle of the =Counts of Louvain= and Dukes of Brabant, in the Ancienne
Cour, now occupied by the Royal Library and the Modern Picture Gallery,
as well as towards the ecclesiastical quarter of the Cathedral and the
Chancellerie. The antiquity of this portion of the Upper Town is well
marked by the continued existence of the mediæval churches of Notre-Dame
de la Chapelle, Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, and the Chapelle de
l’Expiation. Under the =Burgundian princes=, Brussels ranked second to
Ghent and Bruges; but after the =Hapsburgs= obtained possession of the
Low Countries, it was made the principal residence of the sovereigns in
their western domains. Charles V. inhabited it as one of his chief
capitals. Under Philip II. of Spain, it became the official residence of
the Stadtholder of the Netherlands; and Margaret of Parma, who bore that
office, held her court in the old Palace. From that time forth Brussels
was recognised as the common capital of the southern Low Countries. The
Austrian Stadtholders habitually lived here; and when, after the
Napoleonic upheaval, Belgium and Holland were united into a single
kingdom, Brussels was made the alternative capital with Amsterdam. By
the time that Belgium asserted her independence in 1830, Brussels had
thus obtained the prescriptive right to become the seat of government of
the new nation.
The old Palace had been burnt down in 1731, and the outer wings of the
existing Palace were built by the Austrians shortly after. It was they,
too, who laid out the Rue Royale and Place Royale, with the Park and its
surroundings, as we still see them at the present day. To the Austrian
rulers are also due the Parliamentary Buildings: but the Palais des
Académies was built under Dutch rule in 1829. Since 1830 the town has
been greatly beautified and improved. The Inner Boulevards have been
opened through the labyrinth of streets in the old centre: the Palais de
Justice has been built, the Quartier Léopold has grown up, and great
edifices have been erected at Schaerbeck and elsewhere on the outskirts.
At the present day, of Brussels =within the Boulevards=, the Hill
District is _governmental and fashionable_; the Central District,
_municipal and commercial_: the Western District contains the markets,
basins, canals, and _wholesale business_ side of the city. =Without the
Boulevards=, Fashion has spread eastward towards the Bois de la Cambre
and the Parc Léopold. The poorer districts run southward and westward.
But every part of the city is amply provided with wide thoroughfares and
open breathing-spaces. In this respect, Brussels is one of the
best-arranged cities in Europe.
_F_. SURROUNDINGS
The only =excursion= of interest in the immediate neighbourhood of
Brussels is that to =Laeken= (recommended), which may be taken by tram
from the Inner Boulevards, the Gare du Nord, the Gare du Midi, Bourse,
etc. Cars run every 10 minutes. The modern =Church of St. Mary= at
Laeken is a handsome unfinished building. A little to the R. lie the
Park and the =Royal Château=, inaccessible and unimportant. The road
behind the church ascends the Montagne du Tonnerre, a little hill with a
=Monument to Léopold I.=, not unlike the Albert Memorial in London. A
good =*view= of Brussels is obtained from the summit of the monument,
ascended by a winding staircase. (No fee.) The easiest way to make this
excursion is by carriage _in the afternoon_.
Unless you are a military man or a student of tactics, I do not advise
you to undertake the dull and wearisome excursion to =Waterloo=. The
battle-field is hot and shade-less in summer, cold and draughty in
spring and autumn. The points of interest, such as they are, lie at
considerable distances. Waterloo is country, and ugly country—no more.
The general traveller who desires to be conducted round the various
strategic landmarks of the field will find his wants amply catered for
by Baedeker. But I advise him to forego that foregone disappointment.
The time saved by _not_ visiting Waterloo may, however, be well devoted
to a morning excursion to
LOUVAIN.
[This ancient and important town, which should be visited both
on account of its magnificent =Hôtel-de-Ville=, and in order to
make a better acquaintance with =Dierick Bouts=, the town
painter, can be conveniently reached by train from the Gare du
Nord. The best trains take little more than half an hour to do
the journey. A single morning is sufficient for the excursion,
especially if you start early. Wednesday is the most convenient
day, as a quick train then returns about 1.30. (Consult
Bradshaw.) Lunch can be obtained (good) in the large white
building on the left-hand side of the Hôtel-de-Ville. (It is a
private club, but contains a public restaurant, on the R.,
within, to which, push through boldly.) If you have Conway, take
him with you on this excursion, to compare the doubtful Roger
van der Weyden at St. Pierre with the woodcut he gives of its
supposed original at Madrid. Read before you start (or on the
way) his admirable accounts of Roger van der Weyden and Dierick
Bouts.
=Louvain= is, in a certain sense, =the mother city of Brussels=.
Standing on its own little navigable river, the Dyle, it was,
till the end of the 14th century, the capital of the Counts and
of the Duchy of Brabant. It had a large population of weavers,
engaged in the cloth trade. Here, as elsewhere, the weavers
formed the chief bulwark of freedom in the population. In 1378,
however, after a popular rising, Duke Wenseslaus besieged and
conquered the city; and the tyrannical sway of the nobles, whom
he re-introduced, aided by the rise of Ghent or, later, of
Antwerp, drove away trade from the city. Many of the weavers
emigrated to Holland and England, where they helped to establish
the woollen industry.
During the early Middle Ages, Louvain was also celebrated for
its =University=, founded in 1426, and suppressed by the French
in 1797. It was re-established by the Dutch in 1817, but
abandoned by the Belgian Government in 1834, and then started
afresh in the next year as a free private Roman Catholic
University. Charles V. was educated here.
The modern town has shrunk far away within its ancient ramparts,
whose site is now for the most part occupied by empty
Boulevards. It is still the stronghold of Roman Catholic
theology in Belgium.]
As you emerge from the station, you come upon a small Place, adorned
with a statue (by Geefs) of Sylvain van de Weyer, a revolutionary of
1830, and long Belgian Minister in England. Take the long straight
street up which the statue looks. This leads direct to the Grand’ Place,
the centre of the town, whence the chief streets radiate in every
direction, the ground-plan recalling that of a Roman city.
The principal building in the Grand’ Place is the =Hôtel-de-Ville=,
standing out with three sides visible from the Place, and probably the
finest civic building in Belgium. It is of very florid late-Gothic
architecture, between 1448 and 1463. Begin first with the left _façade_,
exhibiting three main storeys, with handsome Gothic windows. Above come
a gallery and then a gable-end, flanked by octagonal turrets, and
bearing a similar turret on its summit. In the centre of the gable is a
little projecting balcony of the kind so common on Belgian civic
buildings. The architecture of the niches and turrets is of very fine
florid Gothic, in better taste than that at Ghent of nearly the same
period. The statues which fill the niches are modern. Those of the first
storey represent personages of importance in the local history of the
city: those of the second, the various mediæval guilds or trades: those
of the third, the Counts of Louvain and Dukes of Brabant of all ages.
The bosses or corbels which support the statues are carved with
scriptural scenes in high relief. I give the subjects of a few
(beginning L.): the reader must decipher the remainder for himself. The
Court of Heaven: The Fall of the Angels into the visible Jaws of Hell:
Adam and Eve in the Garden: The Expulsion from Paradise: The Death of
Abel, with quaint rabbits escaping: The Drunkenness of Noah: Abraham and
Lot: etc.
The main _façade_ has an entrance staircase, and two portals in the
centre, above which are figures of St. Peter, L., and Our Lady and
Child, R., the former in compliment to the patron of the church
opposite. This _façade_ has three storeys, decorated with Gothic
windows, and capped by a gallery parapet, above which rises the
high-pitched roof, broken by several quaint small windows. At either end
are the turrets of the gable, with steps to ascend them. The rows of
statues represent as before (in 4 tiers) persons of local distinction,
mediæval guilds, and the Princes who have ruled Brabant and Louvain.
Here again the sculptures beneath the bosses should be closely
inspected. Among the most conspicuous are the Golden Calf, the
Institution of Sacrifices in the Tabernacle, Balaam’s Ass, Susannah and
the Elders, etc.
The gable-end to the R., ill seen from the narrow street, resembles in
its features the one opposite it, but this _façade_, which was even
finer than the others, is at present in course of wholesale restoration.
The best =general view= is obtained from the door of St. Pierre, or near
either corner of the Place, diagonally opposite.
Do not trouble about the =interior=.
Opposite the Hôtel-de-Ville stands the =Church of St. Pierre=,
originally erected in 1040, but entirely rebuilt in 1430, to which date
the whole existing edifice belongs. It is a handsome late-Gothic
building, with a fine West Front, never completed, and a truncated
tower. The central West Window is imposing, but the ruined portal has a
depressing effect. Walk round the church once outside to observe its
exterior architecture, obscured towards the Grand’ Place by the usual
agglomeration of small Renaissance houses. The =main entrance= is in the
South Transept; above it stands a poor modern statue of the patron, St.
Peter. The High Choir, with its flying buttresses, would form a fine
element if the houses were cleared away, so as to afford a view of the
chapels below.
Now view the =interior=. Go at once into the body of the church. The
general effect is handsome, but the walls are cold and white-washed. The
church has a fine Nave, with single Aisles, short Transepts, high Choir,
and Ambulatory. The Nave, Transepts, and Choir, have all an exactly
similar clerestory, with an unusual Triforium of open latticework, and
tracery in the same style in the spandrils of the arches.
Go down to the W. end of the Nave. The entrance doors at this end have
good but not beautiful carved woodwork of the Renaissance.
=Left Aisle.= _First chapel._ Late Gothic copper font, with large crane,
to support a heavy iron cover, now removed. The other chapels on this
side contain nothing of interest.
=Right Aisle.= _First chapel_ (of San Carlo Borromeo), has an
altar-piece, copied from one by De Crayer, carried off by the French and
now at Nancy. It represents San Carlo ministering to the plague-stricken
at Milan. Also, a triptych, by Van de Baeren, 1594. Centre, St. Dorothea
beheaded. Her head praising God. L., Her trial before the governor,
Fabricius. R., Her torture in enduring the sight of her sister’s
martyrdom. Statue of San Carlo by Geefs.
_Second chapel_, of the Armourers, has a railing with arms and cannon,
and contains an old blackened crucifix, much venerated because it is
said to have caught a thief who had entered the church to steal the
treasures.
The =pulpit= is a carved wooden monstrosity of the 18th century,
representing, behind, the Repentance of Peter, with the cock crowing, a
maladroit subject for a church dedicated to the saint. In front, the
Conversion of St. Paul, with his horse overthrown. Above are two palm
trees.
The =Choir= is separated from the Transepts and Nave by a very handsome
and elaborate *Rood-Loft, in the finest flamboyant late-Gothic style
(1450), one of the best still remaining examples in Europe. It supports
a Crucifixion, with St. John and Our Lady. Its arcade of three handsome
arches is surmounted by a sculptured balustrade, containing figures of
saints (the Saviour, Our Lady and Child, the Twelve Apostles with the
instruments of their martyrdom, the Doctors of the Church, and a few
others). Examine carefully.
Now, pass behind the Choir, into the =Ambulatory=, beginning on the N.,
or left side. The _first recess_ has a fine mediæval tomb of Mathilde de
Flandre. On your R., in the Choir, a little further on, is a beautiful
late-Gothic tabernacle or canopy of 1450, gilded, and containing scenes
from the Passion. Just behind the High Altar is a curious little 15th
century relief: _Centre_, the Crucifixion with St. John and Our Lady:
_R._, The Resurrection, with sleeping Roman soldiers: _L._, The donor,
with his patron St. John the Baptist.
The _first chapel_ beyond the High Altar contains =**The Last Supper=,
by Dierick Bouts. This picture forms the central piece of a =triptych=,
painted for the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament. The _L. wing_ of it
is now at Munich, and the _R._ at Berlin. It represented, when entire,
the same mystical series of the Institution of the Eucharist which we
have already seen in the Pourbus of the Cathedral at Bruges. The
_central panel_ represented the Institution of the Eucharist; the L.
(Munich) has Melchizedeck offering bread and wine to Abraham; the R.
(Berlin) Elijah fed by ravens in the wilderness. On the outer sides of
the panels are two similar typical subjects: L. (Munich), the Gathering
of the Manna or food from Heaven; and R. (Berlin), the Feast of the
Passover, the Paschal Lamb being regarded as a type of the Christian
sacrifice. The picture as it stands in this chapel has of course lost
its mystical significance. It closely resembles the smaller Last Supper
in the Brussels Gallery; but the architecture here is Gothic, not
Renaissance. Study well, especially the figures of the donor (by the
door) and the servant. The floor is characteristic.
Also a =**triptych=, by Dierick Bouts, the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus,
patron against intestinal diseases: a bishop, martyred at Formia in the
persecution of Diocletian. It represents the hideous episode of the
unwinding of the saint’s bowels. The executioner on the L. is a good
specimen of Dierick Bouts’s rude artisan figures; he looks like a
cobbler. In the background is the Emperor Diocletian, richly attired,
with a courtier, whose attitude recalls more than one of those in the
Justice of Otho. The landscape is characteristic of Bouts’s manner. This
is a good, hard, dry picture. The _L. panel_ has St. Jerome, robed as
cardinal, with his lion; the R. has St. Anthony, accompanied by a
vanquished demon. This, however, is a St. Anthony as the abbot, not as
the hermit in the desert.
On the roof of the _fourth chapel_ have recently been discovered some
frescoes, from which the plaster and whitewash is now being removed.
In the chapel next it to the R. is a =triptych=, the Descent from the
Cross (covered, the Sacristan will open it: 1 franc); usually attributed
to Roger van der Weyden, but much disputed. It is probably a smaller
(altered) copy of the famous composition in the Escurial at Madrid (see
Conway). The _central picture_ has Christ supported by Joseph of
Arimathea and Nicodemus, with the fainting Madonna, St. John, and the
other Maries. The singularly unpleasing fat cook-like Magdalen, in a
rich robe, is a constant feature in the group of Descents from the Cross
by Roger and his pupils. Study this picture. The _L. panel_ has a good
portrait of the donor, with his two sons, accompanied by his patron St.
James the Greater (or St. William?). The _R. panel_ has his wife, with
her two daughters and her patroness, St. Adelaide (or St. Elizabeth of
Hungary, holding the crown which she gave up for the Franciscan
profession?).
In the _sixth chapel_ is a fine Renaissance tomb, representing Adolf van
Baussede in adoration before the Trinity, introduced by his patron St.
Adolphus, with allegorical figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The work
is almost Italian in character.
Over the High Altar is a modern figure of the patron, St. Peter,
enthroned as pope, and with papal symbols behind him. Left of it is the
fine canopy we have already observed from the outside, with scenes from
the Passion. The architecture here is striking.
The great Quentin Matsys of the Family of St. Anne in the Brussels
Picture Gallery was formerly an altar-piece in this church.
There is nothing else at Louvain that need detain you. If you like, you
can stroll a little way down the Rue de Namur, just to the R. of the
Hôtel-de-Ville. It contains some good old houses. The desolate building
on your R. was originally the Halles, but is now the University. It was
built for the Guild of Clothmakers in 1317, and has been wholly
modernised; but there are some good Gothic arches on the basement floor
within (approach down the side street to the R.). Further on is the
Collège du St. Esprit on the R., and the Church of St. Michel
(uninteresting) on the L. The street which here runs off obliquely
conducts to the Collège Marie-Thérèse, and the Collège Adrien VI.,
uninteresting, and all used as hostelries for the students. The only
other objects to look at in Louvain are the =choir-stalls= in carved
wood, early Renaissance, at the Church of =St. Gertrude=, dedicated to
the Abbess of Nivelles and aunt of St. Gudula. It lies down the Rue de
Malines, in the opposite direction from the Rue de Namur. You have then
seen Louvain.
* * * * *
On your way from Brussels to Antwerp, you ought to visit Malines
Cathedral. The easiest way is to book your luggage through, and then
stop for an hour or two at Malines, going on by a later train.
IV
ANTWERP
_A_. ORIGINS OF ANTWERP
ANTWERP, the seaport of the Schelde estuary, is practically =the
youngest= (and the least interesting) of the great Belgian towns. It
should therefore be visited _last_ by the historically-minded tourist. A
small town, known in Flemish as =Antwerpen= (“at the Wharf”),—a name
altered in French and English into Anvers and Antwerp,—existed here, it
is true, as early as the 7th century, and suffered heavily in the 9th
from the ubiquitous Northmen. But its situation at the open mouth of the
great estuary of the Schelde, exposed to every passing piratical
invader, rendered it unfit for the purposes of early commerce. The trade
of Flanders, in its first beginnings, accordingly concentrated itself in
the more protected inland ports like Bruges and Ghent; while that of
Brabant, of which province Antwerp itself formed a part, found a safer
home in Brussels or Louvain, far up some minor internal river. Hence
=the rise of Antwerp= dates no further back than the end of the 15th and
beginning of =the 16th century=.
Its rise, that is to say, as =a great commercial port=, for from an
early period it was the capital of a petty margrave, under the Duke of
Brabant. As northern Europe grew gradually quieter during the 11th and
12th centuries, Antwerp rose somewhat in importance; and the
magnificence of its cathedral, the earliest part of which dates from
1352, sufficiently shows that the town was increasing in wealth and
population during the palmy period when Bruges and Ghent governed the
trade of the Continent. But when, in the 15th century and the beginning
of the 16th, Bruges began to decline (partly from political causes, but
more still from changes in navigation and trade routes), Antwerp rose
suddenly to the first position in the Low Countries and perhaps in
Europe. Its large, deep, and open port was better adapted to the
increasing shipping of the new epoch than were the shallow and narrow
canals or rivers of Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels. The discovery of
America, and of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, had
revolutionized both commerce and navigation; vessels were built larger
and of deeper draught; and the Schelde became for a time what the
Thames, the Clyde, and the Mersey have become in our own period. Antwerp
under Charles V. was probably even more prosperous and wealthier than
Venice. =The centre of traffic was shifting= from the _Mediterranean_ to
the _Atlantic seaboard_. The city reached its highest point of
prosperity about 1568, when it is said that thousands of vessels lay at
anchor in the Schelde, and that more than a hundred craft sailed and
arrived daily. Even allowing for the smaller burden of those days,
however, this is probably an exaggeration. The great =fairs= of Antwerp,
of which those of Leipzig and Nijni Novgorod are now the only modern
representatives, also drew thousands of merchants from all parts of the
world. The chief imports were wool and other agricultural produce from
England, grain from the Baltic, wines from France and Germany, spices
and sugar from Portuguese territory, and silks and Oriental luxuries
from Venice and other parts of Italy. The exports were the manufactured
goods of Flanders and Brabant, countries which still took the lead in
textile fabrics, tapestries, carpets, and many other important
industries.
It is to this late period of wealth and prosperity that Antwerp owes
most of the great buildings and works of art which still adorn it. Its
=cathedral=, indeed, varies in date in different parts from the middle
of the 14th to the beginning of the 16th century, and some portions were
not quite completed till the 17th; but the general aspect of the core of
the town is of the =Renaissance= epoch. It contains in its modern
gallery not a few Flemish paintings of the earlier period, produced by
the artists of Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels; but its own native art dates
no further back than =Quentin Matsys= (1466-1531), the last of the
painters of the Netherlands who adhered to the national type of art;
while it reached its highest point in =Rubens= (1577-1640), who
introduced into the Low Countries the developed style of the Italian
Renaissance, adapted and strained through an essentially robust Flemish
nature. It is only at Antwerp that these two great masters can be
studied to the highest advantage; they illustrate, one the rise, the
other the culmination and after-glow, of the greatness of their native
city. I say native advisedly, for though Rubens most probably was born
at Siegen (in Nassau), he was an Antwerper by descent, by blood, by
nature, and by residence.