The Spell of Belgium Part 11

Luke Painting the Madonna, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, is considered one of the masterpieces of that gallery.

As an artist, Roger van der Weyden was the equal of neither the van Eycks nor Memling, but he was greater as a master. His art combined the religious symbolism of the Middle Ages with the new naturalism of Jan van Eyck, and its effect was wide-spread. The Germans made his paintings their standard, the Italians acknowledged his greatness, and the artists of the Low Countries all formed their style under his teaching or strove to imitate his work.

I have never seen a keener and juster a.n.a.lysis of the art of the Flemish primitives than that given by Conway, in his "Early Flemish Artists,"

from which I quote: "Jan van Eyck was a man of fact, his work is an attempt to state the uttermost truth about things.... In his pictures, light and shade, texture, colour and outline have about equal stress laid upon them. In this respect he was one of the most complete of artists." Roger van der Weyden "laid chief stress upon outlines, striving to make them graceful so far as in him lay.... Memling was formed of milder stuff.... He was a painter of fairy tales, not of facts.... To lose oneself in a picture of his is to take a pleasant and healthy rest."

The same critic adds this beautiful characterization of early Flemish art in general: "The paintings of Flanders were not, and were not intended to be, popular. Flemish artists did not, like the Italians, paint for the folk, but for the delight of a small clique of cultured and solid individuals. They painted as their employers worked, with energy, honesty and endurance; they cared not for beauty of the more palpable and less enduring kind, but they cared infinitely for Truth; for her they laboured in humility, satisfied with the joy of their own obedience, and then, when they slept and knew not of it, she came and clothed the children of their industry with her own unfading garments of loveliness and life."

Between the glorious past of the van Eycks and Memling and the brilliant future of Rubens and Jordaens, stands Quentin Matsys, the founder of the Antwerp school, who died in 1530. He was the great master of the Gothic-Renaissance transition, showing the influence of the Renaissance, while still clinging to Gothic types. His paintings include religious subjects and incidents drawn from daily life. His "women of a G.o.ddess-like delicacy with almond eyes and long slim fingers," lived a mystical life among transparent, gla.s.sy columns and carpets with exotic embroideries. The men have an air of distinction. He often leans as far toward caricature, however, as he does toward sentimentality, and there are great contrasts in his work--grimacing, long-nosed, carousing old men and lovely women. "None understands as well as Matsys how to make strong splendours of colour shine through a thin veil of mist, or how to paint the tremulous surface of life so that we see the blood running in the veins."

From "Master Quentin's" prime until Rubens brought back to Flanders the results of his studies in Italy was nearly one hundred years--years that covered the Spanish oppression of the Low Countries under Charles V and Philip II, years that saw Flanders desolated by the Duke of Alva. But out of the decay of Flemish art rose Peter Paul Rubens, born in 1577.

John Rubens, the father of the painter, was a lawyer in Antwerp. As he favoured the Protestants, he found it the safest course, when the Duke of Alva's reign of terror began, to take refuge with his family across the border at Cologne. Here he became the legal adviser of Anne of Saxony, wife of William the Silent, who preferred to reside comfortably at Cologne while he was off fighting the Spaniards.

The result of this a.s.sociation was a scandal of the most serious nature, and only the efforts of his forgiving wife and the desire of the house of Orange to hush up the affair, saved Master Rubens from the penalty of death, as prescribed by the German law of that day. His sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, but after two years of close confinement he was permitted to live with his family in Siegen, on condition of giving himself up again whenever summoned. It was during this time that Peter Paul, "the most Flemish of all the Flemings," was born at Siegen, on German soil.

After the death of John Rubens, his widow returned with her family to Antwerp, where the little Peter Paul was sent to a school on the site of the present Milk Market, until he was thirteen years old. Then, as he was a bright, handsome boy, the Countess van Lalaing received him as page into her house, where she held a miniature court. He was in the service of the Countess only one year, but the training he gained in that time gave him the courtesy and ease of manners that made him, in after years, perfectly at home in the presence of princes.

In his boyhood Rubens had shown his love of art by making it his chief amus.e.m.e.nt to copy the ill.u.s.trations in his mother's large family Bible, and after leaving the Countess van Lalaing, he persuaded his mother to let him study painting. For four years he was the pupil of Adam van Noort, and afterward of Otto van Veen, also called Vaenius, after the fashion of the day. At that time van Veen was the most noted painter in Antwerp. Two years more of study, and Rubens was admitted into the Guild of St. Luke, and the following year he a.s.sisted his master in decorating the city for the Joyous Entry of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella.

The young painter's next step was to seek inspiration in Italy, and in 1600 he went to Venice to study t.i.tian and Veronese. Here he copied old masters, painted portraits, and attracted the attention of the Duke of Mantua, who became his patron. In 1603 he was sent to Spain by the Duke, and took with him many paintings as a present for Philip III. When he went home to Flanders in 1608, Albert and Isabella made him court painter in order that they might keep him in Antwerp.

Rubens was twice married. His first wife, Isabella Brant, made his home happy for seventeen years, and is commemorated in several paintings.

Helena Fourment, whom he married four years after Isabella's death, was a girl of sixteen who was considered remarkably beautiful, and if we may judge by the use he made of her as a model, this opinion of her was fully shared by her husband. Besides the numerous portraits of her--in every possible position, sitting, standing or walking, handsomely dressed or nearly nude, alone or with her husband or children, in her own person or as Bathsheba, Dido or Andromeda--she appears in such large compositions as the Garden of Love and the Judgment of Paris.

The paintings of Rubens have always been the special pride of Antwerp.

The Elevation of the Cross and the Descent from the Cross were the treasures of the cathedral. The first was painted in 1610, soon after his return from Italy, and the second but little later. There are six known variants of the Descent from the Cross. The one in the cathedral is a wonderful composition, brilliant in its conception and marvelously drawn. The Elevation is by some critics considered finer than its companion picture. The Christ a la Paille, the "Coup de Lance," the Adoration of the Kings, and the Last Communion of St. Francis are all in the Antwerp Museum.

Fromentin, writing of Rubens in 1876, thus spoke of Malines and works of the great artist that were treasured there: "There are only two things that have outlived its past splendour, some extremely costly sanctuaries and the pictures by Rubens. These pictures are the celebrated triptych of the Magi, in St. John's, and the no less celebrated triptych of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, which belongs to the Church of Notre Dame."

In this connection it is interesting to read how, when the Germans were sh.e.l.ling Malines for the second time, early last September, a Red Cross worker saved the Adoration of the Magi. The church had not yet suffered from the German sh.e.l.ls. "This large work, composed of two side panels and a center piece, being on panel, was too heavy for two men to handle.

I was first compelled to break into the church, for everybody had fled from the stricken town, and after many endeavours to find help, commandeered the only police officer available, two fine gendarmes and a locksmith. These men, with the utmost good will, helped us to rig a tackle over the famous picture, and, after two or three hours' work, we were rejoiced to see our exertions crowned with success, for the three parts of the picture were down, without the slightest scratch. We commandeered from a village close by a dray and two horses, lashed the central piece of the picture between soft pads of hay and blankets, and sent it under the care of one of our men into safety at ----. The two side panels I took away myself in my own car."

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, which had been removed from the church of Notre Dame, and was found in a corridor of a public gymnasium, lying bare against the wall and without any protection whatever, was saved in the same way. The shrine of St. Rombaut, "a very costly work of silver and gold, about three feet high and five feet long," was rescued before the destruction of the cathedral, and sent to a secret place of safety. It is a "valuable specimen of antique goldsmith's work." Many altar furnishings in gold and silver, beautiful laces, and a number of paintings, among them two more that are attributed to Rubens, were also included among the articles saved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF A MAN AND HIS WIFE.--RUBENS.]

Rubens was a prolific artist, and his pictures are to be found in all the great galleries of Europe, besides a small number in American private houses and museums. An interesting example of these is the portrait of a man and his wife, in the collection of Mrs. Robert D.

Evans of Boston, now in the Museum of Fine Arts.

Rubens had all the industry, honesty, and brilliancy of colour of the great Flemings. He had, besides, greatness of conception and breadth of composition. A distinguished English painter calls him "perhaps the greatest master in the mechanical part of the art, the best workman with his tools, that ever exercised a pencil." His paintings glow with vitality; they depict natural life in landscapes, in animals, in human beings. Many of his works are on large canvases and depict gross and sensual subjects. His Madonnas are often unsatisfying; his figures of Christ seldom bear the impress of the G.o.dhead; with one or two notable exceptions the life of the spirit is lacking in his work. One of these exceptions is the Last Communion of St. Francis, which was at last accounts in the Antwerp Museum. The dying saint in the foreground has raised himself on his knees, and is even stretching toward the officiating priest on the left. His weak body is supported by a monk on the right. His face is radiant with spiritual exaltation and an earnestness of purpose that would hold even death in check until the holy wafer has pa.s.sed his lips. In this picture Rubens has pierced the veil and revealed the things that cannot be known by the senses.

Fromentin says of it: "When one has made a prolonged study of this unequalled work in which Rubens is transfigured, one can no longer look at anything, neither any person, nor other paintings, not even Rubens himself; for today one must leave the Museum."

But Rubens was the head of a school of painting--the later Flemish school. His studio was thronged with young artists, who were a.s.sistants as well as students. With his keenness of observation directed to a line of business, the master quickly discovered what each pupil could do best, and set him at that part of a composition. In this way Rubens was enabled to produce the immense number of pictures that bear his name--thirteen hundred have been catalogued. One student would paint nothing but landscapes, another all the animals, while the teacher put in the most important parts and added the finishing touches to the whole. There was no deceit in this method of working, for the amount of Rubens' own work a given piece contained depended upon the price his clients were willing to pay. The design was always his, but those who paid the lowest price got nothing but the design from his hand, while his wealthy patrons who could afford the maximum received pieces that were entirely his own handiwork, and between the two extremes there were all grades of collaboration.

Jacob Jordaens was one of the most famous of Rubens' pupils. It is said that "they are of the same family and the same temperament; and Rubens stands between Jordaens and van Dyck. Rubens is gold, van Dyck silver, and Jordaens blood and fire." The latter was an indefatigable painter and a rapid worker, often completing a portrait at a single sitting. He covered a wide range of subjects, religious, allegorical, landscapes, portraits and animals, and he succeeded so well that "there are Jordaens attributed to Rubens and Rubens to Jordaens."

Anthony van Dyck was another pupil of the great master, and the aristocrat of the famous seventeenth century Flemings. He was only a boy among boys, quite undistinguished, until one day chancing to rub against a painting of his teacher's on which the paint was still wet, he retouched it so skilfully that it turned out better than before. In time he became so formidable a rival, in spite of his youth, that Rubens sent him off to Italy to study. He came back in four years, greater than ever. A few years later, Rubens contrived to have him called to England as court painter. During the time that he remained in Flanders he produced several religious pictures, among them the Raising of the Cross, at Courtrai, and a Crucifixion, which, before the war, was in the Cardinal's palace at Malines. The same Red Cross worker who rescued the Rubens from destruction at Malines also brought away this composition, of which he says, that it had been cut out of its frame the day before, rolled up, and stowed away in the cellar. But van Dyck's best work was done in portraiture, and in this he was "nearly the equal of t.i.tian."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES I AND HIS FAMILY.--VAN DYCK.]

Van Dyck so quickly became a great favourite of Charles I that he was knighted within three months after going to England. He painted the King and Queen many times. The portrait of Charles I in the Louvre was done at the height of his skill. He loved to paint kings and n.o.bles, in velvet and silken garments trimmed with rare old lace. For ten years he was court painter in England, and so many of his portraits are still in the great houses there that a family portrait by van Dyck is said to be "tantamount in England to a patent of n.o.bility." After the execution of Charles, he went to Flanders and to Paris seeking commissions, but his popularity had waned, and he returned to England broken in health and spirit, and died there in 1641. His body rests in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Van Dyck painted cavaliers, and he himself belonged to that type. His work is so individual that it is easily recognized. A charming adventurer, a popular courtier, he was a favourite of kings, was feted in foreign countries. At the close of his life, he is called "a man in ruins, who until his last hour has the good fortune, and this is the most extraordinary thing about him, to preserve his greatness when he paints."

The annals of the seventeenth century are filled with the names of a host of artists of more or less renown, followers of Rubens and van Dyck. But "for the Flemish school, the eighteenth century is a long entr'acte, during which the stage, so n.o.bly occupied of old, is sad and deserted."

The modern Belgian school of art started in Antwerp after the Revolution of 1830. At first it corresponded to the romantic movement in France, of which Delaroche was one of the leaders, but with this difference, that the Belgians chose their subjects for the most part from the age-long battle for freedom waged by their country. The most distinguished of these "romantic" Belgian artists were Louis Galliat and Edouard Biefve.

The "historic" and "archaic" schools of these modern painters included Leys and his followers, whose work is interesting because they sought to reproduce the characteristics of van Eyck and Memling. The frescos in the Antwerp town hall by Leys, ill.u.s.trating the charters and the privileges of that city in olden times, are called by Max Rooses, "monumental creations by a great master of the art of painting." Henri de Braekeleer had the art of investing the most prosaic subjects with interest. He painted the ordinary things of daily life, a wine-shop, an old man at his printing, in a way that glorified them.

The insane artist, Wiertz, thought himself the second Rubens, and produced a number of huge canvases. The Wiertz Museum had an astonishing collection of the works of this artist--paintings on every imaginable theme, ranging from "wild nightmares of the brain" to such impressive compositions as the Contest for the Body of Patroclus, after the manner of Rubens, and the Triumph of Christ, a sublime work showing great originality and wonderful power of execution.

Much remarkably good restoration of paintings has been done by modern Belgian artists. An amusing story has come to me of an artist who was employed to touch up a large painting in an old church. When he presented his bill the committee in charge refused payment unless the details were specified. Whereupon he presented the items as follows:

To correcting the ten commandments $5.12

To embellishing Pontius Pilate and putting new ribbons on his hat 3.02

To putting new tail on rooster of St. Peter and mending his comb 2.20

To repluming and gilding left wing of the Guardian Angel 5.18

To washing the servant of the High Priest and putting carmine on his cheeks 5.02

To renewing Heaven, adjusting the Stars and cleaning up the moon 7.14

To touching up Purgatory and restoring Lost Souls 3.06

To brightening up the flames of h.e.l.l and putting new tail on the Devil, mending his left hoof and doing several odd jobs for the d.a.m.ned 7.17

To rebordering the robes of Herod and adjusting his wig 4.00

To taking the spots off the son of Tobias 1.30

To cleaning Balaam's a.s.s and putting new shoe on him 1.70

To putting rings in Sarah's ears 1.71

To putting new stone in David's sling and enlarging the head of Goliath and extending Saul's legs 6.13

To decorating Noah's Ark and putting head on Shem 4.31

To mending the shirt of the Prodigal Son and cleaning his ear 3.39

$60.45

Belgium has lost none of her interest in artistic expression. At the Academy in Antwerp, there were about two thousand art students before the war, and about sixteen thousand in all Belgium. Perhaps the most noted living painters at that time were Stevens and Wauters, and Madame Ronner, who was famous for her pictures of cats. The studio of Blanc-Grin, in Brussels, was the center of present-day painters when we were there.