Renewed Italian Influence—Rubens: his Studio, his House, his Pupils, his Influence, his Successors—Seventeenth Century Woodcarvers—Developments and Tendencies of Furniture—Crispin Van Den Passe—Rembrandt’s Goods and Chattels—Old Belgian Houses—The Pitsembourg—Kitchens—Leather-hangings—Tapestry—Marquetry—Chairs—Masters of Ornamental Design—The “Auricular Style.”

Just as the seventeenth century was about to dawn, the Decadence that had affected Italy for nearly half a century began to make itself felt in the Low Countries. Those responsible for it were, Michael Angelo and Borromeo, who abandoned the graceful forms of the Renaissance for disproportionate and exuberant decoration. The Flemish architects, artists, and decorative designers willingly subjected themselves to the Italian influence again as they had done a century before.

Rubens undoubtedly had the greatest influence on the art taste of Europe during the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century. Going to Italy in 1600, he spent, with short breaks, seven years there. He found that the Italians had already broken away from the sober lines of the antique, and with an unrestrained curve were already giving promise of the exaggerations indulged in later by Borromini, who, in line and form, broke with all the old traditions. Rubens was affected by the new vogue; and, on his return, the great Fleming introduced into his own country the style of architecture and ornamentation still known as the style Rubens. Rubens was too well inspired with the genius of the sublime Michael Angelo not to know where to use restraint, but in the hands of his followers and imitators this style soon degenerated. From breadth and amplitude, it fell into weakness of form and contour, and great heaviness in the ornamentation.

Albert and Isabella kept a splendid Archducal court at Brussels, and there every form of art was sure of encouragement and support. The palace was an imposing mass, picturesquely situated in the highest part of the city. A French visitor in 1612 dwells on the magnificence of the various apartments filled with splendid works of art, and thronged with courtiers and attendants, the richness of the equipages and stables, and the beauty of the park and gardens. When Rubens visited Brussels at the Imperial request, he immediately found favour.

When Rubens took up his abode in Antwerp, he bought a house, and altered and enlarged it from time to time to suit his tastes or needs. He embellished it in every possible way with his collections of pictures, busts and archaeological objects. In 1617, he had the banisters of the chief staircase carved by Jan van Mildert. He had very decided ideas on architecture, and supplied the workmen with his own plans. He was originally attracted to the house because it was built somewhat on the model of the Italian houses he had so greatly admired. In 1622, he published a book on the Palaces of Genoa, and from the preface we learn that he was greatly delighted to see the old style known as “barbarous” or “Gothic” go out of style and disappear from Flanders, “giving place, to the great honour of the country, to symmetrical buildings designed by men of better taste, and conforming to the rules of the Greek or Roman antique.”

Between the courtyard and his beautiful Italian garden, he built a small imitation Pantheon, lighted, like its model, by a window in the centre of the dome. This he filled with busts, antique studies, valuable pictures brought from Italy, and other rare and curious objects. These he arranged to his own taste; and the arrangement of his cabinets, etc., served as a model for rich and noble collectors.

A picture representing Rubens’s Drawing-room is in the National Gallery, Stockholm. It has been attributed to Van Dyck, but it is now supposed to have been painted by Cornelis de Vos about 1622, for the elder of the two women in the foreground seems to be a portrait of De Vos’s wife, while the other is Isabella Brandt, Rubens’s first wife.

The room is simple but quite elegant in style, with windows looking out upon a garden. The walls are entirely hung with greenish leather on which the designs—chimaeras and children grouped around vases and pillars—are in gold. The chimney-piece is of black marble supported by red marble pillars, and the firedogs are brass. On the right is a sideboard of light polished oak, and opposite a table with a rich Oriental carpet for a cover. Upon the leather chairs are cushions embroidered with flowers. Two pictures hang on the walls, and a third is above the chimney-piece. In the foreground, there are two ladies engaged in friendly conversation, while three children are playing with a puppy. The mother of the latter, a white spaniel marked with red, anxiously watches this second group.

In the sale inventory of Rubens’s house in 1707 there is mention of the gilded leather that decorated one of the sitting-rooms.

This interior in general style and arrangement resembles a painting by Barthol. van Bassen, in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, reproduced on Plate XXIV. This represents a large hall or dining-room of the beginning of the seventeenth century. The floor is tessellated or tiled; and facing the spectator is a monumental chimney-piece supported by columns. Two superb andirons are placed in the fireplace, but the absence of logs and the fireback show that the time is spring or summer. The mantelpiece is surmounted by a niche containing a figure, and above the broken pediment is a cartouche flanked by reclining figures in the Renaissance style. On either side of the chimney-piece stands a chair of the new style with square back and square seat. The square seat and back of velvet or stamped leather—it is not clear what the covering is—is put on by means of large brass-headed nails. The heavy legs are connected by stretchers. These chairs are similar to the one on Plate XXVIII; but in the latter the stretchers are double. On either side of the chimney-piece is a door. One of these is open and shows an inner room containing an upholstered bed. The doors are very decorative with heavy entablatures supported on columns and decorated with swags of drapery on the panels. On the right is a colossal buffet or sideboard, the pillars being caryatides, and behind these is a half-hexagon cupboard. Busts and vases adorn the top. Below is a fine salver, evidently in the style of Collaert (see Plates XXI and XXII). A very ornate doorway leads into an adjoining apartment; it is ornamented with caryatides and decorated with elaborate carving. Opposite to this is an open portal that seems to be the entrance from the garden, or courtyard. This door is supported by Corinthian columns. Three large and narrow windows give abundant light. Their panes are small. The room is hung with gilt leather and above the moulding are three landscapes in simple frames. A picture—The Sacrifice of Abraham—stands over the sideboard and a landscape over the door on the right. A long, low bench is placed under the window, on which a gallant is lounging. The chair occupied by the lady with her back to us is a survival of the one shown in Fig. 9, and also generally resembles those in Plates XXVI and XLII and XLVI; a favourite type of chair with the artists of the seventeenth century. The group in the foreground are sitting on stools. The wine-cooler is also worth noting. There are a number of pets in the room—dogs, cats, a monkey and a long-tailed parrot over the door. The compartment ceiling—an extraordinary combination of octagons, hexagons and crosses—should be noticed.

Although Rubens did not know it, Antwerp received a fatal blow to her prosperity at the very moment he settled there. In the truce with Holland concluded in 1609, the Archduke Albert neglected to stipulate for the free navigation of the Scheldt; this enabled Amsterdam to develop her own commerce at the expense of her rival. The effects soon appeared. Seven years later, the English ambassador, Rubens’s friend, describes Antwerp as “magna civitas, magna solitudo, for in the whole time we spent there I could never set my eyes on the whole length of a street upon forty persons at once: I never saw coach nor saw man on horseback. In many places, grass grows in the streets, yet the buildings are all kept in reparation ... splendida paupertas, fair and miserable.”

As if in compensation for the loss of her commercial supremacy, Antwerp saw the dawn of an art of which Rubens was the originator and most brilliant representative.

The pupils of Rubens did not confine themselves to painting and ornamental design. They were often practical carvers also. Only a month before his death, Rubens wrote a testimonial for Louis Faydherbe, stating that this pupil had lived with him for three years and had made great progress in painting and carving, excelling especially in ivory carving. He therefore exhorts nobles and magistracies to encourage him to settle among them and embellish their dwellings with his works. Thus we see how the style Rubens extended.

The universality of the style Rubens in Western Europe for half a century is undeniable. This great genius was known and honoured in Italy: he was a favourite of the King of Spain and his brother, the Viceroy of the Netherlands; when he was not painting nor designing something, he took a rest by going to some foreign court on an embassy. On one of these, Charles I of England knighted him; Philip IV made him Secretary of the Privy Council. Pupils flocked to him as if his studio in Antwerp was the Mecca of art. He had scarcely established himself there when he wrote (1611): “On every side I am overwhelmed with solicitations: without the least exaggeration I may assure you that I have already had to refuse more than a hundred pupils.”

Every kind of decoration and design was subject to his brush. The Flemish tapestry weavers pestered him for cartoons: the famous printer, Moretus, must have him design title-pages, borders and vignettes for the “Imprimerie Plantin”: chapel ceilings, cars for cavalcades and triumphal arches all came alike to him; Marie de’ Medici was not satisfied until he had immortalized her in grandiose canvases on the walls of her new palace.

One of the Flemish artists who played a particularly important part in the introduction of the new Italian style into the Low Countries was Jacques Franquart (born in Brussels in 1577 and died there in 1651), an architect, who studied in Italy. He became the chief architect of the Archduke Albert, and engineer of the King of Spain in the Netherlands. Philip III made him a knight. Among his important works were the Church of the Jesuits in Brussels (the cornerstone of which was laid by Albert and Isabella in 1606) and the Church of the Grand BÉguinage in Mechlin (1629–47).

The next name of importance is that of Artus Quillyn, or Quellin, born at St. Trond in 1625. He studied sculpture with Artus Quillyn the elder in Antwerp, studied in Rome and returned to Antwerp, where he died in 1700. The churches of Antwerp are full of his bold and masterly works. His masterpiece, the statue of God the Father, was executed in 1680 for the Cathedral of St. Sauveur in Bruges, where it still stands.

With Quillyn ranks Peter Verbrugghen of Antwerp. It is generally believed that he carved the fine pulpit at St. Walburge in Bruges, a work unexcelled among the sculpture of the seventeenth century. A kneeling figure representing Religion supports the pulpit with one hand and holds a cross in the other. Her attitude is noble, gracious and animated, and her expression admirable and exalted. Each corner of the base is ornamented with the figure of an angel in a niche and decorated with four medallions representing the four evangelists whose features are of imposing majesty. The sounding board in the form of a light and graceful shell, although supported by two cherubim with outstretched wings, seems suspended in the air. The stairway is flanked by four figures representing Adoration, Eloquence, Meditation and Study; and the balustrade, which is beautifully pierced in designs of branches and figures, is ornamented with figures representing the four elements: Earth, a rabbit chase; Air, hunting the falcon; Water, fishing with a line; and Fire, sacrifice of a material love. It would be impossible to carve oak more elaborately and boldly. This work was restored in 1845 by two Bruges artists, Van Wedeveldt and P. Buyck.

The Flemish wood-carver had still plenty of work to do in the churches; but in domestic furniture the lathe was making his services more and more unnecessary on bars and uprights; and the increasing craze for marquetry and the invasion of lacquer and japanned wares left him comparatively little to do.

Much beautiful carved work of the seventeenth century survives. Vilvorde Church has thirty-six upper and thirty-two lower oak stalls carved originally in 1663 for the priory of Groenendael; this is a magnificent specimen of the carver’s art. There is also lovely woodcarving of the middle of the century in St. Michael’s, Louvain. The Church of St. Walburge, Furnes, is also rich in carved oak. On the pulpit is a figure of St. John writing the Apocalypse; the upper part is supported by two palms, and a rock with an eagle. The choir stalls are particularly fine. The Ostend parish church has a fine pulpit carved in 1674.

The Church of St. Anne in Bruges is rich in carved work of this period. The choir stalls of oak were splendidly carved in the Renaissance style by Jean Schockaert and Fr. Schaepelinck in 1664. The oak organ case was carved in 1685 by Jacques Vanden Eynde, who was also the organist at Ypres. Fine bas-reliefs in the nave were executed by Martin Moenaert in 1673 and the ornate confessionals by Jan de Sangher in 1699. There is also a handsome communion bench made by an unknown carver in 1670, which is decorated with the busts of the four Evangelists and four Doctors of the Church with bas-relief panels of the Virgin, Joseph, St. Anne, St. Joachim, the Pascal Lamb and the Eucharist ornamented with bunches of grapes and garlands of wheat.

Carving was by no means confined to the churches: those who could afford it still beautified the furniture of castle and hall with the work of the chisel. Chests or bahuts, cabinets, armoires, tables, chairs and the old “sideboards,” known in England in Jacobean days as “court cupboards,” and in Flanders as credences or “buffet À deux corps,” were as highly ornamented with carving in the late Renaissance style as they were with Gothic ornament during the fifteenth century. During the Louis XIII period, the more important pieces of furniture usually assumed the forms and lines of Classic architecture. A typical bahut of this period (see Plate LVII), owes its interest chiefly to its architectural decorations. The fluted columns, though somewhat squat, which adorn the divisions of the front, produce a pleasing effect; the mouldings are strongly accented and their ornamentations are bold and in fine style. One can easily understand that this chest would not be out of place in any late Renaissance apartment, but would contribute to the decorative effect of the whole. The two side niches representing the two virtues contain statuettes—Prudence and Strength. The central panel tells the story of Judith and Holofernes with a directness and simplicity worthy of a Botticelli.

The two-storied buffet (buffet À deux corps) frequently received similar treatment, totally at variance with the handsome one reproduced in Plate XLIII. A splendid example decorated with the arms of Ypres, Ghent, Bruges and Franc, is preserved in the Ypres Museum. This was the work of Jan van de Velde, who carved it in 1644, and received 162 florins for his trouble.

The bench (banc), often forms part of the woodwork of the wall of a hall in Flanders in the seventeenth century. It was frequently placed between the windows and made luxurious with cushions. Movable benches were often used. In these the backs turned on an axis and were most convenient, as the occupant could arrange the seat in any position he pleased. The benches in De Vries’s “Cubiculum” (Plate X), should be compared with the bench against the wall in Plate XXXVIII in studying the development of the banc. The high banc, or settle, in this picture is interesting on account of its simplicity.

The general tendency of furniture was a gradual breaking away from immovables, a development from monumental solidity into grace and lightness. The heavy tables of De Vries are cut away, and return in general form to the original board and trestles. A glance at Fig. 8 will show that the workman had only to connect the struts of the trestles in the centre of the table in order to produce a rough model of the richly carved tables in vogue from the period of Henri II to that of Louis XIV. The box form of support, therefore, in this style of table gives way to what we may regard as two trestles connected in the middle by an upright board. These, as well as the edge of the table top, are embellished by beautiful carving. The trestles now consist of eagles, lions, chimaeras, mermaids, satyrs and other human and animal figures; and the central connexion is pierced, balustraded, columned and treated in a thousand different ways. In the seventeenth century, lightness was carried a step further, and the favourite table is simply supported by four turned legs with heavy bulb feet, the legs have connecting rails close to the floor and usually have one or more heavy globular swellings. In England during the Tudor and Jacobean periods, this heavy form was known as the drawing-table. It occurs in numberless interiors by Dutch and Flemish masters. The desire for greater lightness, however, made itself increasingly felt; and early in the seventeenth century we find legs turned in plain spirals, or with beading. Chair frames naturally corresponded with table legs.

Though the masters of Decorative Art were constantly increasing in numbers, it was three-quarters of a century after the appearance of the furniture designs by De Vries before another important work of the same nature was published. This was by another Dutchman. In 1642, Crispin van den Passe published at Amsterdam his “Boutique Menuiserie dans laquelle sont comprins les plus notables fondaments non moins arichesse avecq des nouvelles inventions.”

Of his life little is known, except that he was the son of the great engraver of the same name and was born in Utrecht in 1585. His Boutique Menuiserie contains a series of plates of furniture. It is extremely rare today, but was doubtless in every cabinet-maker’s shop of the period.

The furniture, it will be noticed, is “new.” The book was published two years after the death of Rubens, while the style Rubens was still in its glory. From a study of these plates, together with the engravings of Abraham Bosse, we can obtain a clear vision of an interior, either Flemish or French, during the reign of Louis XIII, for Crispin’s furniture designs were as well known to French as to Flemish workmen. Three of his chairs, two of them folding, are reproduced in Figs. 31, 32, and 33; Fig. 34 also shows a small table by him.

We have already caught a glimpse of Rubens’s home in Antwerp; and now we cannot do better than look at the interior of the other great master in Amsterdam. When that city passed through a great financial crisis in 1653, Rembrandt suffered in company with his fellow-citizens. He had been living like a lord in a splendid dwelling sumptuously furnished and decorated, and surrounded by a multitude of objects of art which he loved to collect—armour, robes, busts, ceramics, engravings, and famous pictures by Italian and native artists, as well as his own productions. To satisfy his creditors, these all came to the hammer in 1656. The inventory gives us a good idea of his home. In the vestibule, there were four Spanish chairs covered with Russia leather, four Spanish chairs with black seats, and one low form of pinewood.

The Antechamber contained an ebony-framed mirror and an ebony stand, a marble basin, a walnut table with a Tournay cover, and seven Spanish chairs covered with green velvet. The “Room behind the Antechamber” was furnished with a gilded frame, a small oak table, four common chairs, a copper cauldron, and a portmanteau. In the “Hall,” there were six chairs with blue seats, a large mirror, an oak table, with an embroidered tablecloth, a bed with blue hangings, two pillows and two covers, a matted chair, a set of fire-irons, and a “sacerdan” wood press, and a “sacerdan” small kas with doors. The “Art Cabinet” contained three East India cups, one East India powder box, one East India “jatte” with a little Chinaman, one East India workbox, two porcelain “casoars,” two porcelain figurines, one Japanese casque, plaster casts, copper and pewter, globes, and seventy natural history specimens. On the floor at the back were a great quantity of shells, marine plants and other curiosities, statues, arms, armour, etc. Here also were many portfolios filled with choice engravings, etchings and drawings, besides one old chest, four chairs with black leather seats, and one pine table. In the “Small Studio,” there are musical instruments and armour (119 pieces), and a great number of casts of hands, arms and heads from nature, and many various kinds of woven materials. The “Large Studio” has in it twenty pieces—halberds, swords, and Indian fans, costumes of an Indian man and woman, cuirasses and trumpets. The “Studio Entry” is decorated with the skins of a lion and lioness, and other furs.

A bedstead stands in the “Little Room.”

The “Small Kitchen” is furnished with a little table, a larder, some old chairs, two cushioned chairs, some pots and pans, and a tin waterpot. Nine white plates and two earthen plates decorate the “Corridor.” Rembrandt owned a good deal of linen; and most of the rooms contained pictures.

No one looking at Rembrandt’s own pictures can fail to appreciate his fondness for dressing himself and his models in feathers, armour and fantastic costumes, which, as we have seen, he kept as properties in his Studio.

Rembrandt resided in the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam from 1640 to 1656. His house, JodenbrÊe Straat, No. 4, next door but one to the bridge, is marked by a simple memorial tablet.

We can form a very clear idea of the general appearance of a street of the Renaissance period from many old houses that still stand in Belgium and Holland. The interiors in some cases we can also reconstruct by the aid of inventories. Mechlin is particularly rich in buildings of the sixteenth century. The Mont de PiÉtÉ, once the home of Canon Busleyden, is a Gothic building of 1507, restored in 1864; on the Quay au Sel, there are several old timber-houses, the Salm Inn, with a Renaissance faÇade of 1530–34, and a house in the Franco-Flemish style, very rich in detail. There is also an interesting timber-house in the Quay aux Avoines.

Bruges and Ypres contain several houses of the seventeenth century; Ghent has two private houses on the Quai de la Grue (one of which is named the Vliegenden Hert); and Antwerp, several Guildhouses. Holland is richer in houses and buildings of this century. In Amsterdam, the royal palace—the Dam—was built in 1648 as a Town Hall by Jacob van Kampen; the house of Admiral de Ruyter may be seen on the Prins-Hendrik-Kade, and the house of Baron Six in the Heerengracht, and on the Heerengracht and Keizersgracht are many houses of the seventeenth century.

There are also a number of seventeenth century houses of great interest to the student of architecture in Alkmaar. The Stadhuis, in Enkhuisen, dates from 1688; Sneek has a water-tower of 1615, which was restored in 1878; Zwolle has a guard-house of 1614; and the police-office of Deventer is a Renaissance structure of 1632. Several brick buildings of the seventeenth century still stand in the Zaadmarkt and Groenmarkt of Zutphen; there are several houses in Bommel of this period, including the famous house of Maarten van Rossum, now a district court; and the weigh-house and meat market of Gouda date from 1668 and 1691.

The doors and interior woodwork of these houses in many cases are precious records of the skill of the Dutch and Flemish wood-carvers of the period.

One of the most famous houses in Mechlin in the second half of the seventeenth century was a commandery called the Pitsembourg; and it was selected in 1668 as the most suitable residence for the High Constable of Castile and Leon.

An inventory of the furnishings of this establishment was taken in 1656, which enables us to go through the house.

The first room that we enter is called de Trappenye, and was used as an office. Here we find a picture representing the Birth of Christ and two pieces of sculpture—The Offering and The Three Kings, standing on two pedestals that bear the arms of Cratz (Cratz was commander of the House of Mechlin from 1564 to 1604). In this room are two large cases—one with twenty and the other with ten drawers, one lettered, and the other numbered—to preserve papers, documents and charts. It is warmed by a half-stove, halve stove, according to the inventory. For diversion, there is a backgammon board with white pieces of boxwood, and black of lignum-vitÆ.

Passing from this into the camer beneffens de trappenye, we find a bedroom, de camer boven de trappenye, the most conspicuous object of which is a bed. So sumptuous is this, in fact, that no other furniture is needed to give this room distinction. To begin with, the framework is ornately carved, and it is hung with rich silken curtains and sumptuously upholstered. Undoubtedly this bed was of the same type as the beautiful Renaissance specimen reproduced in Plate XXV, from the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. A reference to Plate X will show this is later in style than the “new” one designed by De Vries. The “linen-fold” panel has entirely disappeared, and the carved accessories are all pure late Renaissance. At the time this inventory was taken, however, these magnificent wardrobe-shaped beds with elaborate carving were already out of date and supplanted in favour by the lighter form with simple posts at the corners, the whole being entirely closed with curtains. This bed appears in Plate XXVI and Plate XXVII with both square and dome-shaped tops, and in many other pictures by the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century.

The bed in which upholstery had superseded carving had been growing in favour, not only in the homes of the middle classes, but also in those of the rich. It even occurs in the inner room of the wealthy house represented in Plate XXIV.

This bed, known as the lit en housse, is the typical bed of the seventeenth century, and is the one that appears in Abraham Bosse’s engravings, whenever a bed is introduced—in the homes of the rich, in hospitals, and in the rooms of tradesmen and school teachers. In this style of bed, the framework is of comparatively little importance. The ciel, or canopy, is supported on four posts which are carved or painted in harmony with the curtains, or covered with the same materials. Beneath the valance, a rod runs under the canopy for the support of the curtains, which are drawn up or down by means of cords and pulleys. When closed, the lit en housse looks like a square box. The elegance of the bed depended upon its upholstery. The richest beds were draped with tapestry, silk, damask brocade and velvet, beautifully trimmed with gold and silver braid or lace, narrow silk fringe, or fringe of gold or silver threads, or decorative cords and tassels. Serge, cloth, East Indian goods, linen and cotton materials were also employed. The curtains were more or less richly lined and the four corners of the canopy above the posts were decorated with a carved or turned wooden knob called a pomme (which was sometimes gilded or painted), a bunch of feathers, or a “bouquet” made of ravelled silk ornaments or inverted tassels.

Returning now to our examination of the Pitsembourg, we note that the next room is that of the master brewer, in which there is a very shabby bed, an old picture representing the Elevation during Holy Mass, a wall map of Germany and a standard with the arms of Lant-Commander, Werner Spies von Bullesheim, who was at the head of the house of Mechlin from 1639 to 1641.

Passing by the unimportant rooms of the servants, we enter the old room of the commander, where we note an alcove hung with two little green curtains with an embroidered border, and in the alcove a bed with bolster, pillow and two counterpanes, one white, and the other green, a table covered with a cloth, some little stools (escarbeaux), two chairs covered with green cloth, andirons, shovel and tongs of copper, and a number of pictures, among which are two little representations of castles, the Battle of Calloo, a portrait of Lant-Commander Bongaert in full-dress uniform, one of Lant-Commander van Ruyssenbergh, one of Commander Cratz, and one of Commander Werner Spies von Bullesheim kneeling with a chaplain at the feet of the Virgin. Two little rooms and a bathroom belonging to the chaplain follow, and then we enter a room called In den inganck van’t voorhuys. In the centre stands an old table covered with a “carpet of gilt leather.” There are some water-colours on the wall, including two vases filled with flowers, and two of decorative motives with the inscriptions “Virtus parit honorem” and “Qui confidit in divitiis corruet.” There is also a large painting of the arms of the Archduke Maximilian, Grand Master of the Order (son of the Emperor Maximilian II).

From the Inganck van’t voorhuys, we step into a more luxurious hall called het cleyn salet naast het voorhuys, hung with ten large pieces of leather with gold patterns on a silver background. The furniture consists of a table with oak leaves, covered with a Turkish carpet, chairs with stuffed backs of red ribbed silk, a screen made of four painted canvases, and eleven pictures, one the Battle of Prague and the others landscapes, ornamental copper andirons, and a hearth-box.

The next salon, de sale naar de Trappenye, is hung with portraits, and some large pictures, one of which represents Samson proving his strength.

In the dining-room, in de nieuwe gemaeckte stove, there are also many pictures, including portraits, a “winter scene” and a “Flemish Kermesse.” The principal piece of furniture is a superb sideboard of carved oak, on which the following pieces of silver are displayed: one aiguiÈre and basin with the arms of Spies; four candelabra with chiselled sconces, an extinguisher with tray, and an amphora, all with the arms of Lutzenrode; two large jugs, a deep dish, a mustard-pot and six salt-cellars, also with the arms of Lutzenrode; a chafing-dish with the Ruyssenbergh arms, twenty-two spoons, twenty-six forks, twenty-two knives, and ten porcelain wine-jugs with silver tops.

Next to this hall is the bishop’s room, which is luxuriously furnished. The walls are hung with eight large “tapestries of leather” with gold patterns on a silver background. The bed is upholstered with curtains of mauve silk trimmed with a silk braid of yellow and violet. It is furnished with two mattresses, a bolster, two pillows, and two counterpanes—one white, the other green—and over the whole is thrown a large counterpane of embroidered silk trimmed with a fringe of silk and gold thread. The window-curtains, the six chairs, and armchair, are covered with the same silk as the counterpane. There is a large mirror in an ebony frame and portraits of Maximilian, Syberg, and Bongaert.

The bishop’s room is next to the salon, groot salet beneden d’aarde, which is hung with thirteen pieces of “leather tapestry,” showing gold patterns on a red background. On the mantelpiece there is a crucifix carved of boxwood, the foot of which is incrusted with mother-of-pearl, and there is a magnificent mirror of gold and black wood, the fronton of which is ornamented with a silk cord with large tassels, the whole supported by three gilded griffins. This room also contains sixteen pictures, nine of which are still-life, and are signed Jacques van Esch of Antwerp (1606–1666).

The commander’s bedroom is very modest, as becomes one who has assumed the vows of poverty: a little walnut bed with very ordinary curtains, with a mattress, two bolsters, three pillows (one covered with white leather, which he takes on his travels), and a counterpane of quilted silk. He allowed himself the luxury of a fire, because there are andirons and a hearth-box. A portrait of the Virgin and The Temptation of St. Anthony are his only pictures, and the one ornament is a sculptured Descent from the Cross. A little desk and a close chair covered in black leather and inlaid with copper, complete the furniture of this room, which makes an interesting contrast with the bishop’s.

The enormous number of cooking utensils in the kitchen show that the most lavish hospitality was offered in this house. Every kind of copper pot and pan, from the largest saucepan and boiler (de schonck of hespenketel) to the tiniest pans for cakes and pastry (een clein coper panneke waarin men dry eieren kan doppen, and koek and taart pannen), are present in great numbers; and, moreover, there are portable ovens to bake tarts, ladles, skimmers, sieves, spice-boxes, spits, skewers, ten grills, large and small, some of them for roasting oysters—in short every article that a cook would need to prepare a feast for a gourmet.

The buffets, armoires and shelves of the kitchen are filled with valuable metal ware, including eight aiguiÈres and eight dishes, weighing sixty-five pounds. These are marked with the arms of Spies and Syberg. Then there are seventeen candlesticks, some of which have round and others square bases; there are ninety-three large and small dishes with the arms of Lutzenrode, Spies and Syberg, and a hundred and twenty-eight plates with the arms of the various commanders. The shelves also contain a great number of wine jars and measures and pots for holding grape-juice and a great number of earthenware dishes, crocks, etc.

There is a special pantry, and near this a pastry-room; and a brewery, a harness-room, tool houses, a house for the gardener, and in the park, which is a kind of botanical garden, there is a pavilion on a knoll, where any one desiring to fish could find rods and lines.

The kitchen is the most important room in the majority of the middle-class houses; in fact, in many a Flemish and Dutch interior it appears as the general living-room. Plate XXVII and Plate XXXVI afford Dutch examples.

A fine example of a Flemish kitchen of the seventeenth century is by Teniers the younger, called The Good Kitchen in the Hague Gallery. This was painted in 1644.

Another fine kitchen of the period occurs in a Family Group by Cocx (Coques), in the Cassel Gallery. In the foreground a man is seated at a table looking at his son’s drawings. Not far away his wife is teaching her daughter to make lace, and through a large door the kitchen is visible, where fish, oysters, pastries and birds show preparations for a feast.

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has a series of rooms fitted up in the old style with original furniture. The kitchen represented in Plate XXXII is equipped with all the pots and pans dear to the heart of the Dutch housewife. The hearth, ovens and shelves are furnished with all the implements and utensils necessary for good housekeeping: cauldrons, spits, churns, plate-warmers, kettles, bellows, waffle-irons, etc., are all there. A Frisian clock hangs on the tiled wall, and the cupboards contain everything necessary for cooking and cleaning.

The library of the Pitsembourg was well stored with religious works. The chapel, a beautiful edifice built in 1228 and dedicated to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, contained some fine carvings, two crucifixes, one of silver and one of copper, organs, carved statues, silver chandeliers;’and exceptionally rich vestments, altar-cloths and Flemish lace.

It will be noticed that all the principal rooms in this establishment were hung with leather, or “leather tapestry” in accordance with the taste of the age.

The leather hangings of the seventeenth century are even more brilliant than those of the past; and on the bright background of scarlet, blue, sea-green, gold or silver, a wealth of ornamentation appears—animals, birds, flowers, fruits, mascarons and other favourite devices of the time. Leather hangings are always present in wealthy homes of Holland. An excellent example is shown in the picture of The Young Scholar and his Sister by Coques (Cocx), now in the Cassel Gallery. The room, which is richly furnished, is hung with blue and gold leather. This picture was painted in the seventeenth century.

The Low Countries by this time had become renowned for their fine leather and exported a vast amount of it. Notwithstanding the rivalry of the French and Italian workshops, there was a special shop in the Rue St. Denis in Paris where Flemish and Dutch leathers could be obtained. Some of the French inventories of this century mention especially “tapestries of leather” from the Netherlands; for example, Fouquet has at his ChÂteau of Vaux, in 1661, “a rich hanging of tapestry of cuir dorÉ from Flanders, consisting of eight pieces”; and in 1698, a rich Parisian owns “a hanging of tapestry of cuir dorÉ de Hollande,” with a red background.

The Rijks Museum in Amsterdam contains a great number of gilt leather hangings of the seventeenth century; at the HÔtel de Ville of Furnes, there are some hangings of Spanish leather and the Antiquarian Museum of Utrecht also contains some embossed gilt leather hangings.

In the seventeenth century, the great centres for the production of tapestry shifted to Paris and London. This is the period when the famous looms of the Gobelins and Mortlake were established. The directors and workers in these famous establishments were Flemings. It was largely owing to the influence of Le Brun that Paris triumphed over Brussels with her Gobelins manufactory established in 1662. This was really the outgrowth of the high-warp looms established by Henry IV in 1597, under an excellent tapestry-worker named Laurent. These workshops were first situated in the house of the Jesuits in the Faubourg St. Antoine, and were transferred to the Louvre in 1603. The King sent to Flanders for tapestry-workers over whom he placed the Sieur de Fourcy. In 1607 he sent for more workers, among whom were Marc Comans (or Coomans) and FranÇois de la Planche, who were given charge of the workshops at Tournelles. These were removed to the Faubourg St. Marceau. The tapestries had to be made faÇon de Flandres.

The King’s enterprises were not universally approved. “They cost large sums to his Majesty,” says a contemporary, and loss and ruin to his subjects. Witness the Brussels tapestries at St. Marcel, the Flemish linens at Mantes and the cloths of silk and gold of Milan.

After the King’s death, Comans and De la Planche continued to work in Paris, and in 1630 were engaged at the manufactory that afterwards became the Gobelins.

Flemish workmen were also employed at Maincy near Vaux in 1658. When, owing to the wars, the Gobelins was closed in 1694, some of the workmen entered the army, twenty-three returned to Flanders and others went to Beauvais. This great factory was no less indebted than was the Gobelins to the Flemings. It was established in 1664 by a “marchand tapissier,” named Louis Hynart, a native of Beauvais, who owned a large number of workshops in Flanders as well as in Paris. As Beauvais was at that time an important centre for woollen stuffs, Hynart proposed to the municipality that he should establish workshops of high-warp tapestry “in the manner of those of Flanders.” Hynart obtained a subsidy and brought a number of Flemish workmen to Beauvais. He was negligent, however, and in 1684 the directorship of the Beauvais manufactory was given to Philippe BÉhagle (originally Behagel) of a famed family of tapestry-weavers of Oudenarde. Under BÉhagle the “Royal Manufactory of Tapestry,” flourished until his death in 1704. Another workman who contributed greatly to the success of Beauvais was Georges Blommaert, who was also called to Beauvais in 1684 from Lille, where he had established a workshop in 1677.

When Georges Blommaert left Lille to go to Beauvais, he was succeeded by FranÇois and AndrÉ Pannemaker, descendants of the famous Pannemaker family of tapestry-makers. In 1688, they had a rival in Jean de Melter, of Brussels, who was particularly fond of reproducing compositions after Rubens. The Pannemakers devoted their skill chiefly to “Verdures.”

The looms at Nancy, established in the seventeenth century, and closed in 1625, were also worked by men from the Low Countries, among them one Melchior van der Hameidan. The Brussels looms were still busy in this century, but the corporation of tapestry-workers was recruited from a few families, such as the De Vos, De Castros, RaËs, Van der Borchts, Van der Heckes, and Leyniers. They repeated the cartoons of the last century; but in the middle of the seventeenth Teniers produced many rustic scenes that, known as TeniÈres, became very popular. Flemish tapestry-weavers are found in Rome; in Denmark (twenty-six were there about 1604); in Russia (Martin Steuerbout of Antwerp had a manufactory in Moscow in 1607); and in England.

Plate XXIX.—Flemish Chair.
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.