SEVEN CENTURIES OF TOURNAISIAN ART
The citizens of Tournai of to-day have given to their beautiful city
the name of "Ville d'Art." To be sure, the same title is claimed for
Bruges and Ghent, for Antwerp and Malines. The first two are justly
proud of their many beautiful monuments of the past and their
associations with the work of the early Flemish painters, Antwerp of
its connection with the later development of painting in Flanders and
the most artistic of the early printers, Malines of its lace and its
splendid examples of religious architecture and art. Tournai, however,
has a broader title to the phrase than any of them in that the
artistic activities of its gifted sons have not been confined to one
medium or two, but have been independently developed along half a
score of different lines and during a period covering more than seven
centuries. Not only is the city a rich repository of the artistic
productions of past ages, but it is still more notable in having been
one of the most prolific producers of beautiful and artistic things.
To the true connoisseur a stay of several weeks in this fine old
border town would be none too long to afford opportunity to study all
of its collections and rummage in out-of-the-way corners for stray
specimens that the dealers and bargain hunters have overlooked.
Unfortunately, neither the Professor nor I can lay claim to more than
a rudimentary knowledge of such matters and in the chronicle of our
rambles in the City of Art there may be much to make the judicious
grieve. It is not, however, so much in order to give an account of
what we saw that this chapter is written as in the hope that it may
suggest how much there is to see for those whose eyes are better
trained and more discriminating than ours.
Tournai looms large in the history of early Flemish painting, for it
was here that the next important group of masters after the Van Eycks
appeared. As early as the first half of the fourteenth century
paintings on cloth were executed at Tournai, followed by what was
termed "flat painting" for panels. About 1406 the first of the great
artists whose names have come down to us settled at Tournai. This was
Robert Campin. He acquired the right of citizenship in 1410 and died
in 1444, being thus a contemporary of the Van Eycks. He is known to
have painted many works, but until recently none of these had been
definitely identified. Now, thanks to the earnest and patient study of
Belgian scholars, he seems likely to be given his rightful place as
one of the greatest of the early Flemish masters--after having been
completely forgotten for nearly five hundred years! His most important
work is an altarpiece in the possession of the Mérode family at
Brussels, while the Frankfort Museum and the Prado at Madrid contain
some fine examples of his skill.
It is known that Robert Campin was the master of two other Tournai
artists, Rogier Van der Weyden and Jacques Daret, of whom the former
soon far surpassed his teacher in renown. Daret entered the atelier of
Robert Campin in 1418, when a lad of fourteen, obtained the title of
apprentice in 1427, and became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in
1432. One of his pictures, a panel showing the Nativity, was in the
collection of the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Van der Weyden, whose
Walloon name was Roger de la Pasture, became one of Campin's
apprentices in 1427--the same date as Daret--and was admitted to the
guild of the painters at Tournai in 1432. He spent much of his time at
Brussels, however, and is sometimes considered as belonging to that
city rather than Tournai. A "Descent from the Cross" now at the
Escorial is his most famous picture. It was painted for the Archers'
Company at Louvain and a copy of it, made by the master himself, was
hung in the Church of St. Pierre in that city. About 1430 Van der
Weyden was commissioned to paint four large panels for the Hall of
Justice in the new Hotel de Ville at Brussels. Two of these showed
Trajan, the Just Emperor, and the other two depicted the Justice of
Herkenbald, and for more than two centuries the series was regarded as
the finest group of paintings in the Low Countries. They were
destroyed at the bombardment of Brussels in 1695, but tapestries
copied from the originals still exist in the Museum at Berne, having
been captured by the Swiss when Charles the Bold was defeated at
Granson.
In 1443 the artist began what in the judgment of the art critics was
his most important work, an altarpiece representing "The Last
Judgment" for the chapel of a hospital at Beaune, near Dijon in
Burgundy, where it still remains. The museum at Antwerp contains a
triptych of the Seven Sacraments by this master, showing the interior
of a cathedral suggestive of that of Tournai--and, in fact, it was for
the Bishop of Tournai that it was originally painted. Nearly every
important art gallery in Europe contains one or more works by Van der
Weyden, who not only was very industrious, receiving numerous orders
from the great men of his day, but fortunate in having most of his
masterpieces preserved from the destruction that overtook so much of
the work of the early Flemish artists.
The former Cloth Hall of Tournai, erected in 1610, was completely and
very successfully restored in 1884, and is now used to house an
admirable little collection of paintings and a museum of antiquities.
The paintings are, for the most part, the work of Tournai artists, and
most of its three hundred and eighty titles are of local rather than
international interest. There are several works, however, of the
highest rank, and the museum as a whole serves admirably to illustrate
the fact that the traditions and inspiration of the first great
masters of Flemish painting, whose work has made the name of Tournai
illustrious for all time, have never been wholly forgotten in their
native city. To be sure, there is nothing to represent Robert
Campin or Jacques Daret, nor had the caretaker ever heard of either of
them--a fact hardly to be wondered at, since the works of the former
have not yet been fully identified by the critics. Van der Weyden is
credited with a "Descent from the Cross" in the museum catalogue, but
many critics hold this to be a copy of a lost work by Hugo Van der
Goes. Those in charge of the museum have wisely included some
excellent photographs of the more famous works by Van der Weyden in
the leading European galleries--a plan that might well be followed
with respect to the other notable works by Tournaisian artists. The
masterpiece of the collection is the well known "Last Honours to
Counts Egmont and Horn," by Louis Gallait, the greatest of Tournai's
modern artists, whose statue stands in the little park before the
railway station. A replica of this fine but gruesome work was painted
by the artist for the Antwerp museum. The Tournai museum contains
nearly a dozen other works bequeathed to the city by this painter,
including several admirable portraits--a branch in which he was
especially skilful. The powerful "Abdication of Charles V" by this
master hangs in the Brussels museum, and his notable "Last Moments of
the Comte d'Egmont" in the museum of Berlin.
[Illustration: A TRIPTYCH OF THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS BY ROGIER VAN DER
WEYDEN.]
Equally fine in a very different way, but less widely known, is a
spirited painting by a comparatively unknown artist, Van Severdonck,
representing the Princess of Epinoy valiantly defending a breach in
the walls during the siege of Tournai in 1581. We were unable to
obtain a photograph of this admirable work as it is so hung that it is
difficult to get a good light upon it. A fine portrait of St. Donatian
is attributed in the catalogue to Jan Gossaert or Mabuse (from
Maubeuge where he was born). By some critics it is assigned to
Bellegambe, who was born at Douai in French Flanders and was a
contemporary of Gossaert. The museum also contains works by Hennebicq,
who painted the historical picture of Philip Augustus granting a
charter to the city of Tournai in the Hotel de Ville; Hennequin, the
teacher of Gallait; Stallaert, whose "Death of Dido" is in the museum
of Brussels, and several other natives of Tournai who are less well
known. From Robert Campin, who settled at Tournai about 1406 and died
in 1444, to Louis Gallait, whose three great masterpieces were painted
between 1840 and 1850, and to Stallaert and Hennebicq, who laid aside
their brushes in the first decade of the present century, there
extends a period of five hundred years during which the noble art of
painting has been practised and taught at Tournai by men of commanding
genius--a record in the history of art that no town in the world of
similar size has ever equalled.
It is worthy of remark, in passing, that the art of sculpture which
was practised at Tournai with such notable success as early as the
thirteenth century, and steadily thereafter for several hundred years,
has not survived to the present day. There are no modern sculptors in
the list of Tournaisian artists, but the cathedral is a veritable
museum of the stone carvings of the past. The men of the chisel,
moreover, must be credited with giving some of the inspiration that
made the work of the early artists of the brush so notable. Van der
Weyden, particularly, shows the influence of sculpture and a marked
appreciation of its effects in the framework and backgrounds of many
of his pictures. Moreover, for several centuries the sculptors of
Tournai enjoyed a renown that extended throughout Flanders and
northern France. In the churches of Tournai and of many other cities
examples of their work can be seen that show a continuous record of
achievement from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.
Closely allied to the carvers of stone were those who worked in metals
and of these Tournai had its full share. A street of the Goldsmiths
(rue des Orfévres) near the Grande Place indicates the importance of
that industry in ancient times. The best example of this branch of
Tournaisian art is to be found in the treasury of the cathedral. This
is the superb Chasse, or Reliquary of St. Eleuthereus, which is
considered to be one of the finest products of the goldsmith's art
during the Middle Ages. While the name of the maker of this
masterpiece is unknown, it is unquestionably of Tournaisian origin and
was completed in 1247. Built in the form of a sarcophagus, and made of
silver, heavily gilded, it is almost bewildering in the richness and
intricacy of its decorations and filigrees. At one end is a large
seated figure of Christ, at the other of St. Eleuthereus, while the
sides contain figures of the Virgin and the Apostles. Around, above
and below these chief figures the artist has placed a labyrinth of
minor ones, of churches and landscapes, of columns, arches and
architectural embellishments, all carved with a richness of design
that cannot be adequately described. Still older, for it dates from
1205, is the Chasse de Notre Dame, another treasure of the cathedral.
This was made by Nicolas de Verdun, a citizen of Tournai, and is of
wood, painted and adorned with curious bas-reliefs representing
incidents from the New Testament. A third chasse, which on account of
its great value is kept under lock and key in the treasury, like that
of St. Eleuthereus, is called the Chasse des Damoiseaux. It is made of
silver and bears in relief, and enamelled, the arms of some of the
patrician families of the city in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, when the Confrerie des Damoiseaux held many brilliant
tournaments in Tournai and other cities. This chasse, the keeper told
us, was not made at Tournai, but at Bruges. Although very beautiful,
it is not considered so notable a work of art as its companion.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Tournai rivalled Dinant
as a producer of fine copper and brassware, and in this industry the
artistic instincts of its citizens soon led them to produce pieces of
remarkable distinction. One of the finest of these is the baptismal
font in the church of Notre Dame at Hal, made in 1446. The artisans of
Tournai turned out a prodigious number of fine products of the
copper-smith's art during the two centuries mentioned--lamps,
candlesticks, chandeliers, funeral monuments, crucifixes and other
religious articles; and, in fact, it was not until the eighteenth
century that this industry declined, only to give place to the
manufacture of gilded bronze ware.
The cathedral and the museum of antiquities contain some choice
examples of another great Tournaisian art industry of the Middle
Ages--the manufacture of rich tapestries. During the fourteenth
century the renown of the products of Tournai in this field was
already considerable, and between 1440 and 1480 its artisans surpassed
even those of Arras. In richness of colouring, diversity and
sprightliness of subjects, beauty of design and workmanship, the
tapestries of Tournai rank among the finest art productions of the
Middle Ages. In 1477, when Louis XI seized Arras and dispersed its
workmen, many of them fled to Tournai, Audenaerde and Brussels,
establishing the industry in those cities. Tournai, where it had
already made great progress, was the first to benefit by this
emigration and for a time became the leading tapestry-making centre in
Europe. It was the school of Tournai that was the true forerunner of
the still more famous tapestry weavers of Brussels in depicting
historical and mythological scenes of the utmost vivacity and
richness, while the ateliers of Audenaerde specialised more largely in
quieter pastoral scenes and landscapes. Philip the Good, the most
fastidious connoisseur of his age, ordered several tapestries at
Tournai, including the history of Gideon in eight panels to decorate
the Hall of the Order of the Golden Fleece. In the cathedral the most
notable of the Tournai tapestries illustrates vividly the story of
Joseph, while one of the best in the museum depicts the history of
Abraham--the angels announcing the birth of Isaac. The border of a
Tournai tapestry usually bears the mark of the ateliers of that city,
a castle tower, which is plainly to be seen on the one last mentioned.
The cathedral also possesses a remarkable tapestry of Arras, made by
Pierrot Féré in 1402, and depicting incidents connected with the lives
of St. Piat and St. Eleuthereus and the plague at Tournai. This
masterpiece originally hung above the stalls in the choir, and more
than half of it has been destroyed at one time or another. The
remainder has been placed in a continuous panel, like a panorama,
around a semi-circular chapel back of the treasury, and constitutes
one of the most curious relics of the mediæval art to be seen in
Europe. According to some authorities the designs for this work were
drawn by one of the artists of the Tournai school of painters from
which Van der Weyden subsequently received his instruction. At all
events the scenes are extremely naïve, and the artist has inserted
sundry little devils who are giving expression to their contempt of
the various religious ceremonies depicted in some of the sections in a
manner that, to say the least, is most unconventional.
The wars and troubles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries very
nearly extinguished the art industries of Tournai, the number of
master-weavers of tapestries declining from two hundred and fourteen
between 1538 and 1553 to forty in 1693, and twenty-nine in 1738. It
was only a few years after the last date, however, when a new art
industry became established in the city. In 1751 a native of Lille,
named François Péterink, began the manufacture at Tournai of fine
porcelains. Dinner sets elaborately decorated and daintily formed,
vases, statues and statuettes of "biscuit" equal to the finest
products of Sèvres, Saxony or England, were turned out in considerable
quantities for more than a century, and the porcelains of Tournai
became so renowned that princes vied with one another to secure these
works of art. It is still possible for the collector to secure some of
these fine products, the trademarks being a rude castle tower or two
crossed swords with tiny crosses at their intersecting angles. In the
finest tableware these are usually in gold, but red or some other
colour should not be despised, as the genuine Tournai ware is becoming
rare and already brings high prices. These marks, it should be added,
have been imitated, and the amateur will do well to consult expert
advice before purchasing.
Still another noteworthy art industry of Tournai merits at least a
word in passing. From the very earliest period after the art of making
stained or painted glass was invented the ateliers of the "Ville
d'Art" have excelled in this fine branch of handicraft. During the
fifteenth century Tournaisian artists made the seven stained glass
windows in the transept of the cathedral that depict in glowing
colours the history of the contest between Childeric and Sigebert and
the donations and privileges granted to the bishop and the cathedral
by Chilperic. Not only are these scenes of the utmost interest
historically, but the student of costumes and customs during the
Middle Ages and the student of early Flemish art will both find in
them abundant material for study. It has already been said that the
cathedral of Tournai is in itself a history of Flemish architecture
covering a period of well-nigh a thousand years. It is also a
veritable museum of Flemish art, and especially of Tournaisian art, in
almost all of its many branches.
In the eighteenth century the apparently inextinguishable artistic
spirit of Tournai found expression in the production of carpets that
recalled the best period of its tapestry weavers. The carpet in the
cabinet of Napoleon at Fontainebleau and the celebrated carpet of the
Legion of Honour, which was shown in the French pavilion at the recent
exposition at Turin, were made at Tournai during this period. At the
same epoch the goldsmiths and coppersmiths, whose activities had never
entirely ceased during the centuries of trouble, began once more to
turn out their artistic products in considerable quantities, nor have
these ateliers entirely ceased operations at Tournai to this day.
Truly the name "Ville d'Art" has been fairly won and kept by this
little city, if seven centuries of almost uninterrupted artistic
endeavour and achievement count for anything!
It is a somewhat remarkable feature of modern Belgium, however, that
while its cities abound in beautiful and artistic things, the common
people--both the working classes and the _bourgeoisie_, or fairly
prosperous middle-class of small merchants and manufacturers--seem to
have very little interest in pictures or works of art, and little or
no desire to acquire them. The average Belgian home is utterly bare of
ornament, save perhaps a crucifix or a religious image or chromo--if
these can be termed ornamental. Reproductions of the fine masterpieces
of painting and statuary in which this little country is so rich are
incredibly scarce and difficult to procure--save only the very famous
pictures, of which copies have been made to sell to tourists in the
larger cities. Even these the native Belgian apparently never buys,
and the art stores carry very few coloured prints of moderate price
such as are to be seen everywhere in the United States. In fact, of
those we saw a considerable proportion were of American manufacture.
Of course these remarks do not allude to the stores handling original
paintings by ancient and modern masters, costly water-colours and
etchings. These are purchased in Belgium, as everywhere else, by the
wealthy class, whose homes are as rich and artistic as any in the
world. It is the absence of interest by the two classes first
mentioned that seems to me so remarkable in a country that for
centuries has been passionately devoted to art in all its
manifestations, and, for its population and area, is without doubt the
world's largest producer of beautiful things.
On the other hand, the Belgian of even the humblest social standing is
invariably fond of flowers. In the cities every woman on her way to or
from market buys a bouquet for the table, while in the country there
is no garden without its little flower-bed, or flower-bordered paths,
or rambling rosebushes climbing up the high brick garden wall or
arching over the entrance. This shows an intense and inborn love of
the beautiful. Why is it, then, that men and women whose daily lives
are spent in creating beautiful things--rare lace, fine wood-carvings,
rich brass or copper ware--are content with homes that are as bare of
ornament as any prison cell?