Part 15

_2nd Chapel._ Tomb of =John Moretus=, the son-in-law of Plantin, the famous printer (see after, under Musée Plantin-Moretus) erected by Martina Plantin, his widow, and with pictures by =Rubens=. Above, in an oval, portrait of John Moretus (by a pupil, re-touched by Rubens). Below, triptych; _centre_, *The Resurrection, emblematic of hope for his glorious future. _L. wing_, his patron, St. John-Baptist; _R. wing_, his widow’s patroness, St. Martina. This triptych, too, loses by not being first seen _closed_: on the outside are two angels, about to open a door; as the wings unfold, you behold the luminous figure of the risen Christ, grasping the red Resurrection banner. This figure is celebrated. The dismay of the Roman soldiers is conceived in the thorough Rubens spirit. Observe the arrangement of this triptych on the tomb: it will help you to understand others in the Museum.

Opposite this, Tomb of a Premonstratensian Friar, with St. Norbert, founder of the Order, in adoration, by Pepyn.

This chapel is also one of the best points of view for Rubens’s famous =**Assumption=, above the High Altar. We here see one of these great altar-pieces (of which we shall meet many examples in the Museum) placed in the situation for which it was originally designed. This Assumption ranks as one of Rubens’s masterpieces. Above, Our Lady is caught up into the air by a circle of little cherubs, dimly recalling the earlier Italian mandorla. Below, stand the Apostles, looking into the empty tomb, with the youthful figure of St. Thomas stretching out his hands in an attitude derived from the Italian subject of the Sacra Cintola. In the centre of the foreground, the Holy Women, about to pick roses from the empty tomb. (See a similar work in the Brussels Museum. This composition can only be understood by the light of earlier Italian examples.)

On the pier between this and the next chapel, Crucifixion, with Scenes from the Passion.

_3rd Chapel._ Master of the School of Cologne, 14th century. A Glory of the Angels. In the centre, St. Michael the Archangel slaying a dragon, whose double tongue divides into many heads of kings. R. and L., the insignificant donor and donatrix. On either side, choirs of angels in hierarchies. Above, Christ enthroned in a mandorla (almond-shaped halo) worshipped by angels. Beneath, in the predella, St. Stephen with his stone; St. Ursula with bow and arrow; St. Peter (keys); a Pietà; St. John the Evangelist; St. Agnes with her ruby ring; and St. Anthony the Abbot with his staff and bell. A good picture of the school from which Van Eyck was a reaction. Opposite it, Tomb of Bishop Ambrosio Capello, by Arthus Quellin, the only one remaining tomb of a bishop in the Cathedral.

_4th Chapel._ Good 16th century figure of Our Lady and Child. Tomb of Plantin, with Last Judgment by De Backer.

_5th Chapel._ Beautiful modern archaic altar-piece of St. Barbara.

_6th Chapel._ Nothing of special interest, though in all these chapels the stained-glass windows and polychromatic decorations are worthy of notice.

Opposite it, on the back of the High Altar, painted imitations of reliefs by Van Bree: an extraordinary illusion; Annunciation, Marriage of the Virgin, Visitation. In front of these, Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Charles the Bold, and mother of Mary of Burgundy. Altar-back, Death of the Virgin, 17th cent.

_7th Chapel._ Good modern archaic altar-piece, with a miracle of St. John Berchman. The saints are named on it.

_8th Chapel._ Tolerable modern archaic altar-piece of Our Lady and Child, with donors and saints.

On the pier, between this and the next chapel, School of Roger van der Weyden, Selection of Joseph as the husband of the Virgin, and Marriage of the Virgin; a good picture.

_9th Chapel_, of St. Joseph, patron saint of Belgium, and therefore honoured with this larger shrine. On the Altar, modern carved and gilt altar-piece, St. Joseph bearing the Infant Christ. Around it, Scenes from his Life. L. (beginning below), Marriage of the Virgin and Joseph, Nativity, Presentation in the Temple; R. (beginning above), Flight into Egypt, Finding of Christ in the Temple, the Holy Carpenter’s Shop. Centre, Death of St. Joseph. On the wings, R., Philip IV. dedicating Belgium to St. Joseph; L., Pius IX., accompanied by St. Peter, appointing Joseph patron saint of Belgium.

Now enter the =N. Transept=.

_R. wall._ Rubens’s famous *Elevation of the Cross. In form a triptych, but with the same subject continued through its three members. _Centre_, The Elevation: _L._, St. John, the Mater Dolorosa, and the Holy Women: _R._, Longinus and the soldiers, with the two thieves. This is one of Rubens’s most bustling pictures, where the mere muscular effort almost wholly chokes the sense of pathos. The dog in the foreground is an exceptionally unhappy later addition by the master. The tone of colour is brown and cold; the work is mainly painted for light and shade. It was formerly the altar-piece in the Church of St. Walburga, who appears with other saints on the outer shutters.

This Transept also contains stained glass of the 17th century.

On the _L. wall_ is a triptych by Francken: _Centre_, Christ among the Doctors, said to be portraits of the Reformers. _L. wing_, St. Ambrose baptizing Augustine, with the donor, kneeling. _R. wing_, Elijah causing the widow’s cruse of oil to be replenished.

The _Chapel_ in the N. Transept has nothing of interest.

Now, enter the =Choir=, with good modern carved stalls, and a different but less impressive view of Rubens’s Assumption.

The =N. Aisle= has little of interest, save its stained-glass windows, and a Head of Christ, painted on marble, ascribed to Leonardo, but really of Flemish origin. This is affixed to the first pillar of the _Lady Chapel_. Further on in the Aisle, confessionals with tolerable wood-carvings.

The =Nave= has the usual overloaded 17th century _pulpit_, with Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

I have only briefly enumerated the principal contents; but you will find much more that is interesting for yourself if you spend an hour or two longer in examining the Cathedral.

_C_. THE PICTURE GALLERY

[The chief object of interest at Antwerp, even more important than the Cathedral itself, is the =Picture Gallery=, regally housed in a magnificent Museum at the S. end of the town. The building alone might make Trafalgar Square blush, if Trafalgar Square had a blush left in it. To this collection you should devote at least two or three mornings.

The Antwerp Gallery contains in its palatial rooms a large number of =Flemish pictures=, many of them collected from the suppressed Churches and Monasteries of the city. (Remember that they were painted for such situations, not to be seen in Museums.) You will here have an opportunity of observing a few good pictures of the =early Flemish School=, and especially of improving your slight acquaintance with =Roger van der Weyden=, one of whose loveliest works is preserved in the gallery. You will also see at least one admirable example of =Quentin Matsys=, as well as several fine works of the Transitional School between the early and the later Flemish periods.

But the special glory of the Antwerp Museum is its great collection of =Rubenses=. It is at Antwerp alone, indeed, that you can begin to grasp the greatness of Rubens, as you may grasp it afterwards at Munich and Vienna. I do not say you will love him: I will not pretend to love him myself: but you may at least understand him. This, then, is the proper place in which to consider briefly the position of Rubens in Flemish Art.

From the days of the Van Eycks to those of Gerard David, painting in the Low Countries had followed a strictly _national_ line of development. Its growth was organic and internal. With Quentin Matsys, and still more with Bernard van Orley, Pourbus, and the rest, the influence of the _Italian Renaissance_ had begun to interfere with the native current of art in the Low Countries. It was Rubens who finally transformed Flemish painting by adopting to a certain extent the grandiose style of the later Italian and especially the Venetian Masters, at the same time that he transfused it with local feeling and with the private mark of his own superabundant and vigorous individuality.

=Rubens= was =an Antwerp man=, by descent and education, though accidentally born at Siegen in Nassau. His father was an Antwerp justice of an important family, exiled for supposed Calvinistic leanings, and disgraced for an intrigue with a royal lady, Anna of Saxony, the eccentric wife of William of Orange. A gentleman by birth and breeding, Peter Paul Rubens painted throughout life in the spirit of a generous, luxurious aristocrat. His master was Otto van Veen, Court Painter to the Dukes of Parma, and himself an Italianised Flemish artist, whose work is amply represented in the Museum. Early in life, Rubens =travelled in Italy=, where he imbibed to a great extent the prevailing tone of Italian art, as represented by Titian, Veronese, and to a less extent, Tintoretto, as well as by Domenichino and the later Roman School of painters. To these influences we must add the subtler effect of the general spirit of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the age when voyages to America and to India, and the sudden opening of the Atlantic seaboard, had caused in men’s minds a great ferment of opinion and given rise to a new outburst of activity and struggle. Romance was rife. The world was turned upside down. It was the day of Spanish supremacy, the day when the gold and silver of the Indies poured in vast sums into Madrid and the Low Countries. The Mediterranean had given way to the Atlantic, Venice to Antwerp. In England, this age gave us the rich and varied Elizabethan literature; in the Low Countries, it gave us the highly analogous and profusely lavish art of the School of Rubens.

Rubens lived his life throughout on =a big scale=. He travelled much. He was statesman and diplomatist as well as painter. He moved from Paris to London, from Madrid to Mantua. All these things give a tone to his art. He is large, spacious, airy, voluptuous. He has a bold self-confidence, a prodigal freedom, an easy opulence. He delights in colossal figures, in regal costume, in court dresses and feathers,—the romance and pageantry of the royal world he lived in. Space seems to swell and soar on his canvas. Vast marble halls with huge pillars and lofty steps are the architectural background in which his soul delights. His outlines are too flowing to be curbed into stiff correctness. His sturdy Flemish nature, again, comes out in the full and fleshy figures, the florid cheeks, and the abundant fair hair of his female characters. All scenes alike, however sacred, are for him just opportunities for the display of sensuous personal charm, enlivened by rich costume or wealthy accessories. Yet in his large romantic way he is doing for cosmopolitan mercantile Antwerp in the 17th century what Van Eyck and Memling did for cosmopolitan Ghent and Bruges in the 15th.

One more peculiarity of his art must be mentioned. The early painters, as we saw in the St. Ursula casket, had little sense of real dramatic life and movement. Rubens had learned to admire this quality in his Venetian masters, and he bettered their instruction with Flemish force and with the =stir and bustle= of a big seaport town in an epoch of development. His pictures are full, not merely of life, but of strain, stress, turmoil. It is more than animation—it is noise, it is tumult. He often forgets the sacredness of a scene by emphasizing too much the muscular action and the violent movement of those who participate in it. This is particularly noticeable in the Descent from the Cross in the Cathedral, and still more in the famous Coup de Lance at the Museum.

The astonishing number of pictures which Rubens has left may be accounted for in part by his incredible rapidity of execution—he dashed off a huge picture in a fortnight,—but in part also by the fact that he was largely assisted by a numerous body of pupils. Of these, =Van Dyck= was by far the most individual, the tenderest, the most refined: and not a few of his stately and touching masterpieces may here be studied.

The =Dutch School= is also represented by several excellent small pictures.

Of alien art, there are a few fine pieces by =Early Italian= artists.]

The =entrance door= is under the great portico on the west front, facing the river. Open daily, 9 or 10 to 4 or 5, 1 fr. per person: free on Sundays. (Inquire hours of hotel porter.)

You pass from the Vestibule (sticks and umbrellas left) into a Hall and Staircase of palatial dimensions, admirably decorated with fine modern paintings by N. De Keyser, of Antwerp, representing the Arts and Artists of the city, the influence upon them of Italian masters, and the recognition extended to their work in London, Paris, Rome, Bologna, Amsterdam, and Vienna. I do not describe these excellent pictures, as the inscriptions upon them sufficiently indicate their meaning, but they are well worth your careful attention.

The =rooms= are lettered (A. B. C. etc.) over the doorways. On reaching the top of the staircase, pass at once through Rooms J. and I., and go straight into

ROOM C.

=Hall of the Ancient Masters=, Flemish or foreign.

=Right of the door=,

224. Justus of Ghent: a bland old pope, probably St. Gregory, holding a monstrance, between two angels. In the background, a curious altar-piece, with the Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt, Presentation in the Temple, and Finding of Christ in the Temple. Above it, two female saints (or figures of Our Lady?). A good work, in an early dry manner.

Above it, 463. Madonna and Child, by Van Orley: the landscape by Patinier. From a tomb in the Cathedral.

383. Van der Meire. Triptych from an altar; Centre, Way to Calvary, with St. Veronica offering her napkin, and brutal, stolid Flemish soldiers bearing the hammer, etc. In the background, the Flight into Egypt. The _wings_ have been transposed. _L._, (should be R.), the Finding of Christ in the Temple. _R._ (should be L.), the Presentation in the Temple.

Above it, 380. Van den Broeck (1530-1601): a Last Judgment. Interesting for comparison with previous examples. Renaissance nude.

557. Unknown. Dutch School of the early 16th century. The Tiburtine Sibyl showing the Emperor Augustus the apparition of the Virgin and Child on the Aventine. A page, his robe embroidered with his master’s initial A., holds the Emperor’s crown. Very Dutch architecture. (The Catalogue, I think erroneously, makes it the Madonna appearing to Constantine.)

560. Good hard early Dutch portrait.

527. Unknown. Resurrection, the Saviour, bearing the white pennant, with red cross, and sleeping Roman soldiers.

42. An Adam and Eve, attributed to Cranach the Elder. Harsh northern nude.

341. Good portrait by Susterman, _alias_ Lambert Lombard.

Above these, Madonna, in the Byzantine style, with the usual Greek inscriptions.

521. School of Albert Dürer: Mater Dolorosa, with the Seven Sorrows around her.

549. Good Flemish portrait of William I., Prince of Orange.

Above, 387, Van der Meire: an Entombment, with the usual figures, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea; the Magdalen in the foreground with the box of ointment; the Mater Dolorosa supported by St. John (in red); and, behind, the two Maries. In the background, a _Pietà_—that is to say, the same group mourning over the Dead Saviour.

425. Van Hemessen: The Calling of Matthew from the receipt of custom. Harsh and uninteresting.

568. School of Quentin Matsys: Christ and St. Veronica. Probably part only of a Way to Calvary. The spiked club is frequent.

241. Quentin Matsys: a fine and celebrated *Head of the Saviour Blessing, with more expression than is usual in the Flemish type of this subject. Notice even here, however, close adhesion to the original typical features.

242. Quentin Matsys: Companion *Head of Our Lady, as Queen of Heaven. Full of charm and simplicity.

Between these, 4, =*Antonello da Messina= (an Italian profoundly influenced by the School of Van Eyck, and the first to introduce the Flemish improvements in oil-painting into Italy). Crucifixion, with St. John and Our Lady. This work should be carefully studied, as a connecting link between the art of Flanders and Italy. It is painted with the greatest precision and care, and bears marks everywhere of its double origin—Flemish minuteness, Italian nobility.

254. Memling: **admirable cold-toned portrait of a member of the De Croy family. The hands, face, and robe, are all exquisitely painted.

Centre of the wall, 412, good early copy of Jan van Eyck’s altar-piece for Canon George van der Paelen, in the Academy at Bruges. If you have not been there, see page 59 for particulars. Better preserved than the original: perhaps a replica by the master himself.

519. Crucifixion, with Our Lady and St. John, on a gold background. Interesting only as a specimen of the very wooden Dutch painting of the 14th century. Contrast it with the Van Eyck beneath it, if you wish to see the strides which that great painter took in his art.

397. Good hard *portrait of Philippe le Bon of Burgundy, an uninteresting, narrow-souled personage, wearing the collar of the Golden Fleece, by Roger van der Weyden.

43. Cranach the Elder: Charity. A study of the nude, somewhat more graceful than is the wont of this painter.

264. Mostaert (Jan, the Dutchman), tolerable hard portrait: same person reappears in 262.

179. Gossaert: *a beautiful panel representing the Return from Calvary. The Mater Dolorosa is supported by St. John. On the L., the Magdalen with her pot of ointment; R., the other Maries. Very touching. Notice the Flemish love for these scenes of the Passion and Entombment.

198. Hans Holbein the Younger: **admirable portrait of Erasmus. It lives. Full of vivacity and scholarly keenness, with the quick face of a bright intelligence, and the expressive hands of a thinker. The fur is masterly.

180. Gossaert: group of figures somewhat strangely known as “The Just Judges.” Probably a single surviving panel from an extensive work of the same character as the Adoration of the Lamb at Ghent.

263. Jan Mostaert: *very fine portrait of a man in a large black hat and yellow doublet. Pendant to 264.

558. Holy Family. Dutch School. Early 16th century.

202. Lucas van Leyden: *portraits. Characteristic, and well thrown out against the background.

566. School of Quentin Matsys: a genre piece; an unpleasant representation of a young girl attempting to cut the purse strings of an old man. Probably a companion picture to one now in the possession of the Countess of Pourtalés, Paris.

Above these, 168, Triptych by Fyol, German School. _Centre_, the Adoration of the Magi. The Old King has removed his crown, as usual, and presented his gift. He is evidently a portrait: he wears a collar of the Golden Fleece, and is probably Philippe le Bon. Behind him, the Middle-aged King, kneeling; then the Young King, a Moor, with his offering. (The story of the Three Kings—Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar—was largely evolved in the Cologne district, where their relics formed the main object of pious pilgrimage.) To the R., an undignified Joseph, with his staff, and the peculiar robe with which you are now, I hope, familiar. In the background, the family of the donor, looking in through a window. The _wings_ have, I think, been misplaced. L., The Circumcision; R., Nativity: notice the ox and ass, and the costume of Joseph.

325. Schoreel: Crucifixion, with Our Lady, St. John, the Magdalen, and angels catching the Holy Blood. (A frequent episode.)

Above it, 570, School of Gossaert: Our Lady.

262. Jan Mostaert: The Prophecies of Our Lady. Above, she is represented as Queen of Heaven, in an oval glory of angels, recalling the Italian mandorla. Below, those who have prophesied of her: in the centre, Isaiah, with scroll, “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive,” etc.: R. and L., Micah and Zechariah. Further R. and L., two Sibyls. The one to the R. is the same person as 264.

567. School of Quentin Matsys: Favourite subject of the Miser.

25. More monstrosities by Bosch.

=Beyond the door=,

534. Unknown: Flemish School: Assumption of Our Lady. Above, the Trinity waiting to crown her.

123. Dunwege: German School. The Family of St. Anne, resembling in subject the Quentin Matsys at Brussels. Centre, St. Anne enthroned. Below her, Our Lady and the Divine Child. (Often Our Lady sits on St. Anne’s lap.) L., Joachim offers St. Anne and Our Lady cherries. (See _Legends of the Madonna_.) R., St. Joseph, with his staff and robe. On either side, the Maries, with their children, here legibly named, and their husbands. (From a church at Calcar.)

Above this, 523. Triptych: Madonna and Child, with donors and patron saints (Sebastian and Mary Magdalen). Note their symbols. On either side,

Van der Meire: 388: Mater Dolorosa; her breast pierced with a sword: and on the other side of the triptych 389 (attribution doubtful, according to Lafenestre), a donatrix with St. Catherine, holding the sword of her martyrdom.

569. School of Gossaert, Way to Calvary, with the usual brutal soldiers.

47. Herri Met de Bles: Repose on the Flight into Egypt. Notice the sleeping St. Joseph, and the staff, basket, and gourd, which mark this subject.

539. Good unknown Flemish portrait.

Beyond this, a frame containing five excellent small pictures.

243. Quentin Matsys: *St. Mary Magdalen with her alabaster box. Sweet and simple. In reality, portrait of an amiable round-faced Flemish young lady, in the character of her patron saint. Her home forms the background.

526 and 538. Fine unknown portraits.

199. *Exquisite and delicate miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger. (Lafenestre doubts the attribution.)

132. Fouquet, the old French painter, 1415-1485. Hard old French picture of a Madonna and Child, of the regal French type, with solid-looking red and blue cherubs. Said to be a portrait of Agnes Sorel, mistress of Charles VII. From the Cathedral of Melun.

Then, another case, containing six delicate works of the first importance.

396. *Roger van der Weyden (more probably, School of Van Eyck): Annunciation. The angel Gabriel, in an exquisitely painted bluish-white robe, has just entered. Our Lady kneels at her prie-dieu with her book. In the foreground, the Annunciation lily; behind, the bed-chamber. The Dove descends upon her head. This is one of the loveliest works in the collection.

253. Memling: **Exquisite portrait of a Premonstratensian Canon.

28. Dierick Bouts: The Madonna and Child. An excellent specimen of his hard, careful manner.

203. Lucas of Leyden: David playing before Saul.

30. Bril, 1556-1626. Fine miniature specimen of later Flemish landscape, with the Prodigal Son in the foreground.

559. Unknown but admirable portrait of a man.

223. Justus van Ghent: Nativity, with Adoration of the Shepherds. A good picture, full of interesting episodes.