part V was published by his widow in 1553.

Coeck was painter to Charles V, and to his sister, Mary of Austria, Queen of Hungary (born in Brussels in 1503), to whom Charles V gave the government of the Low Countries. In her the arts and sciences found as enthusiastic a patron as they had in her aunt Margaret of Austria. Just as the latter had had her favourite painters in van Orley and Jean Mostaert, so she chose Peter Coeck for hers.

Coeck achieved great fame in the remarkable triumphal arches which he designed for the joyous entrance of Philip II into Antwerp. In 1527, he was made master of the Guild of St. Luke. Thierry de Moelenere intrusted him with the decoration of his rich house in Antwerp, in which he displayed his knowledge as architect, painter and sculptor. Some of the caryatides from this house are now preserved in the Steen Museum. A superb mantelpiece with three tiers of subjects carved by his hand is in the Town Hall of Antwerp.

Coeck also executed a window for the Church of Notre Dame in Antwerp.

Among his pupils were the painters, Pierre Clays, Gilles de la Hee, Nicholas van Nieucasteel, surnamed Nicholas Lucidel, and Pierre Breugel the Elder (who married his daughter).

Lambert Lombard (1506–66), went to Italy in 1537. He returned to Liège in 1539. He was a painter, and more particularly an architect. He set up a school of painting and engraving, the first of its kind there. Three of his pupils brought great honour to his school: these were Francis Floris, called the “Flemish Raphael,” William Key and Hubert Goltzius. He worked very little himself beyond designs for engravers, and more often for paintings on glass. He was rich enough to indulge his taste for objects of antiquity. It was at this date that the study of numismatics came into existence in Belgium, and learned men took delight in setting up a cabinet of medals and coins: among the wealthy it became even a mania that was carried to extremes. Lombard’s collection, the beauty of which was praised by all his contemporaries, was composed of medals, coins, carvings, and other objects of high antiquity.

Hubert (or Hugo) Goltius (or Goltz), was a painter, engraver, numismatologist and historian. He was born at Venlo in 1526 and died in 1583. He studied under Lambert Lombard and was also influenced by Erasmus’ friend, van Watervliet, who guided him in his classic studies, Greek and Roman antiquities, etc.

Goltius visited all the great towns in Belgium, Holland, Germany, France and Italy, in order to examine the cabinets of collectors for material for his book on coins. His itinerary reveals an astonishing number of collectors of coins and medals.

Goltius made the decorations in Antwerp for the fêtes of the Golden Fleece. He was also appointed historian to Philip II.

A marriage coffer of leather, designed by him, represented the King of Spain and Margaret of Austria standing beside the Fountain of Love.

The craze for medals, coins and curios during the sixteenth century was widespread. We have seen that the Regent had a coffer full of corals and various trifles. To meet the demand for housing curios, the cabinet was developed. This was usually a double chest, the upper one smaller than the other. Both closed with doors and contained drawers and shelves.

Like almost all the pieces of furniture called “cabinets” of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the one reproduced on Plate VIII is in two parts, the upper being smaller than, and standing back on the top of, the lower. It is carved in walnut wood, enriched with sculptures, and here and there plaques of marble are set in order to relieve the monotony resulting from the sole use of wood. Stone of various colours was largely used at this period, as an inlay for furniture in the Netherlands and France, and more especially in Germany.

The principal fault with which the Flemish artists of the period are reproached is that of “painting the lily.” They frequently are lacking in restraint, and overcharge their surfaces with riot of ill-combined mouldings and carvings; but in this specimen we have fine restraint. Its structure and general disposition are strong and well-contrived; the mouldings have a good profile; the sculpture is in the right place, and, at the same time, is subordinated to the lines whose mission is to contain and quiet it. This piece belongs to the best school of the Renaissance, and will hold its own in almost any surroundings.

In the lower part of this cabinet, the two panels that form the doors are carved with the figures of Diana and Juno with their attributes. The drawers above are decorated also: the central one has a lion’s head, to which a ring is suspended, and the two others have a simple knob. In the panels of the upper doors, Paris is presenting the golden apple to Venus, whose beauty has outshone that of her rivals. A garland of fruits with a mascaron in the centre is above this, and the whole is topped by a broken pediment framing an armed Pallas.

If we cast a glance at Italian furniture, we shall see that the French and Flemish artists at first frankly copied what they had seen when they accompanied the three expeditions to Naples.

In the sixteenth, as in the preceding century, the Italians were particularly fond of the Roman triumphal arch and sarcophagus, as forms for furniture. The Classic Orders were in great vogue, and the arabesque and candelabra-shaped pilasters, introduced so long ago into decoration, were renewed and made popular by Raphael. To the ancient style of marquetry, composed of little geometrically-cut cubes of natural wood, there succeeded a marquetry of coloured woods arranged to form actual pictures with perspective. Some of the furniture was carved, and then painted, or gilded; but other furniture shows large surfaces that are decorated with beautiful oil paintings.

The Italian furniture was particularly _da pompa_, made for the adornment of long galleries, enriched with paintings, gildings, tapestries, velvets, damasks, brocades, cushions, curtains, mirrors, and sumptuous _cassoni_. Beds, chairs, tables, cabinets, mirror and picture frames, standing candelabra, bellows, coffers, chests, seats and buffets (_credenza_), are of the most luxurious nature; and the latter display magnificent gold and silver work (Cellini is busy at this period), and marvellous examples of faïence; for, be it remembered, it is also the period of Luca della Robbia and his school.

The Italians cared little or nothing for the large chimney-pieces, so dear to the northern races in their colder climate; and the great seats by the fireside have also no attractions. The Italian has no oak, nor half-timbered houses with pointed gables without and heavy beams within: his woods are walnut, pine and chestnut for ordinary furniture, and ebony, cedar and cypress for his luxurious articles. His materials, like his taste, are more decorative than practical.

Such was the taste that invaded the Low Countries during the Renaissance; much of it brought home by the Flemish artists who visited Italy; and some of it coming into the country by way of France, where Serlio was the guiding spirit, Cellini had settled, and the school of Fontainebleau was in full blast.

The characteristic feature of Renaissance furniture consists in the monumental façade that is like a Roman temple, and various orders of Classic architecture are superimposed: it is Doric at the base; Doric in the centre; and Corinthian at the top. The whole is surmounted by a pediment, the triangle of which is broken in the centre to receive a bust, vase or statuette. (_See_ Plate VIII.)

The projections stand out boldly and form sharp cornices. In the panels, in the supports and between the columns, niches are cut out and framed in an architectural motive of some kind. In them are figures of heroes or classic deities. Sometimes also there are round medallions in the form of dormer windows from which curious heads with outstretched necks peer forth.

Ornate pieces of furniture exhibit a whole world of real or imaginary beings, mingled with garlands of fruits, or flowers, and ribbons. Often the figures are fantastically developed out of the leaves and floral branches. The favourite decorative motives are antique columns, pediments, broken pediments, terms, garlands, pagan deities, classical heroes, caryatides, grotesque figures, initial letters smothered in branches of foliage, cartouches, pilasters and arabesques. Gothic perforations are also used, although they are more geometrical than during the preceding period. (_See_ Plate X.) The favourite linen-fold pattern dies very hard. Strips of leather called “_cuirs_,” variously folded and plaited, enjoy a great vogue. (_See_ panel on Plates XXI and XX). The _encoinçon_ (_see_ Figs. 17 and 18) is also popular; and the “_compartiment_” appears in hundreds of designs. The compartment ceiling is a favourite room decoration, and is often ornamented with roses, brackets, floral designs and monograms. A compartment ceiling of intricate design appears in Plate XXIV.

The arabesque, which so often forms a central motive, is usually in the form of a flower stem, a knot of ribbon or a candelabra, symmetrically arranged with branches to right and left, and charged with trophies, vases, fantastic beings, animals, etc., at the caprice of the artist. These delicate ornaments flourish in the panels, mingling with the horn of plenty, bold sirens, and medallions of antique heroes in high relief.

The arabesque was beautifully treated by many artists, but the most successful were Marc Gerard, a celebrated painter, sculptor and architect of Bruges, and Lucas van Leyden whose style of treating arabesques follows Albrecht Dürer. Examples of Lucas van Leyden appear in Figs. 10, 11 and 12.

The pilaster is a decorative necessity of the upright, marking the division of the façades, or accenting the uprights of the chests, chairs, _dressoirs_, etc.

The cartouche (Italian _cartoccio_) scrolled paper, is generally composed of a frame made of mouldings, or scrolls, enclosing a plain, convex, or concave space, of regular or irregular form intended for an inscription, coat of arms, cypher, etc. Vredemann de Vries and Theodore de Bry decorate their cartouches with swags of fruits, which were copied by Gerrit Hessels, a Dutch engraver whose compositions mark the transition between those artists and Crispin de Passe, Francouart and the school of Rubens. One of the peculiar features of the cartouche of the sixteenth century is the use of motives composed of strips of leather twisted, and variously decorated. Vredemann de Vries calls these “Compartments” in his well-known _Multarum variarumque protractionum (compartimenta vulgus pictorum vocat) libellus utilissimus, jam recens delineatus per Johannem Vreedemanum, Frisium Gerardus Judaeus exculpebat_ (Antwerp MDLV).

This peculiar style of leather ornamentation known as _cuirs_, and consisting of strips interlaced in so many forms, is a much loved decoration of the Flemish school. A notable collection of _cuirs_ was published by Jerome Cock, the printer-engraver, in Antwerp, his native town.

Among the favourite decorations is the banderole, the floating ribbon or streamer which had been much used during the Middle Ages. It was used in great variety by many artists during the Renaissance.

The peculiar form of caryatid called _gaîne_ or _terme_, a species of support, is also extremely popular. It is used by Peter Coeck of Alost, in most of his compositions; and by his pupil Vredemann de Vries, who composed a special collection of _Caryatides ou termes_.

In studying the furniture of the early Renaissance, the works of the masters of design are most important aids. Before 1500, as we have seen, publications of purely decorative design, and even of architecture as a whole, are exceedingly scarce. From the opening of the sixteenth century, however, such publications rapidly multiply. Interior decorators who used the chisel in panel and pillar, and the contemporary joiners and cabinet-makers decorated their surfaces with details and motives taken from the Italians, and from the designs of native goldsmiths, engravers, painters and architects. As we have seen, it was no uncommon thing for one individual to be an adept in all these branches.

Therefore, the decorations of the designers of the early Renaissance have a special interest for us when we want to see what motives supplanted Gothic tracery, Biblical scenes and angels on carved chests, _credences_, _armoires_, beds and seats.

The first decorative designers who adopted the style of the Renaissance were Alaert Claas, Lucas van Leyden and Cornelis Bos. Claas (painter and engraver) worked in Utrecht from 1520 to 1555. Lucas van Leyden (painter and engraver), whose family name was Damesz, was born in Leyden in 1494 and died in 1533. Cornelis Bos (glass painter, architect and engraver), was born in Bois-le-Duc about 1510. He worked in Rome and was famous from 1530 to 1560. Another artist and engraver who belonged to the same school of decorative art was Martin van Heemskerck (1494–1574). He worked and died in Haarlem.

A mascaron with typical floral scroll-work dated 1523, the work of Lucas van Leyden, appears in Fig. 10. Another decorative composition with grotesque sirens and floral scrolls in Fig. 11, also by the same master, is dated 1528. A third and very graceful design of the same date by Lucas van Leyden is shown in Fig. 12. Decorations for panels, or other flat surfaces in wood, stone or goldsmith’s work are represented in Figs. 13 and 14 and Figs. 15 and 16; these are by Alaert Claas (or Claasen).