More varied and colorful than Flemish architecture and sculpture, Flemish painting unfolds in its magnificent flowering XVII century. Even more clearly than in these arts, the eternal Flemish emerges here from the mixture of northern and southern foundations as an ineradicable national treasure. Contemporary painting in no other country captured such a rich and varied area of subjects. In new or restored churches, hundreds of gigantic baroque altars awaited images of saints painted on large canvases. In palaces and houses, vast walls yearned for mythological, allegorical and genre easel paintings; and portraiture, which developed in the 16th century to life-size portraits, remained a great art in the full sense of the word, combining captivating naturalness with nobility of expression.
Next to this great painting, which Belgium shared with Italy and France, original cabinet painting, mostly on small wooden or copper boards, flourished here, continuing the old traditions, unusually rich, embracing everything depicted, not neglecting religious, mythological or allegorical subjects, preferring the daily life of all classes of the population, especially peasants, cab drivers, soldiers, hunters and sailors in all its manifestations. The developed landscape or room backgrounds of these small-figure paintings turned into independent landscape and architectural paintings in the hands of some masters. This series ends with images of flowers, fruits and animals. Overseas trade brought wonders of flora and fauna to the nurseries and menageries of the ruling archdukes in Brussels. The richness of their forms and colors could not be overlooked by the artists who had mastered everything.
Despite all this, in Belgium there was no longer any soil for monumental wall painting. With the exception of Rubens' paintings in the Antwerp Jesuit church and a few church landscape series, the great masters of Belgium created their large canvas, wall and ceiling paintings for foreign rulers, and the fall of the Brussels tapestry technique, to which Rubens' participation gave only a temporary rise, made participation unnecessary other Belgian masters, such as the Jordans and Teniers. But the Belgian masters took a certain, although not as deep as the Dutch, part in the further development of engraving and etching. The Dutch by birth were even the best engravers before Rubens, and the participation of the greatest Belgian painters: the Rubens, the Jordans, the Van Dycks, the Brouwers and the Teniers in the “picturesque engraving” - etching, is partly only a secondary matter, partly even doubtful.
Antwerp, a wealthy Low German trading city on the Scheldt, now became more than ever the capital of Low Dutch painting in the fullest sense. Brussels painting, which only sought independent paths in landscape, became a branch of Antwerp art; even the painting of the old Flemish centers of art, Bruges, Ghent and Mecheln, lived at first only by its relations with the Antwerp workshops. But in the Walloon part of Belgium, specifically in Lüttich, one can trace an independent attraction to the Italians and the French.
For the general history of Flemish painting of the 17th century, in addition to the collections of literary sources by Van Mander, Goubraken, de Bie, Van Gool and Weyerman, the lexicons of Immerzeel, Cramm and Wurzbach, the consolidated, only partly outdated books of Michiels, Waagen, Woters, Riegel and Philippi are important . In view of the predominant importance of Scheldt art, one can also mention the history of Antwerp art by Van den Branden and Rooses, which, of course, requires additions and changes. The chapter related to this by the author of this book in his and Woltmann’s “History of Painting” is already out of date in detail.
Complete freedom of pictorial arrangement and execution, internal unity of design and colors, the most fluid breadth and strength of the Flemish painting XVII century reached in the creative hands of its great master Peter Paul Rubens, who made Antwerp the central place for the export of paintings for all of Europe. There was no shortage, however, of masters standing at the transition between the old and new directions.
In the national realistic branches, with small figures against the background of the developed landscape, there still lived only echoes of the greatness and spontaneity of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The rendering of the transitional landscape remains within the framework of Gilliss Van Coninksloo's "scene style" with its tufted tree foliage and the avoidance of the difficulties of aerial and linear perspective through the development of individual, successive, differently colored tones. The founders of modern landscape painting, the Antwerp brothers Matthäus and Paul Bril (1550 - 1584 and 1554 - 1626), also came from this conventional style, about whose development almost nothing is known. Matthaus Briel appeared suddenly as a painter of landscape frescoes in the Vatican in Rome. After him early death Paul Briel, his brother's comrade at the Vatican, further developed the then new Dutch landscape style. Few authentic paintings by Matthäus have survived; the more has come from Paul, whose church and palace landscapes in the Vatican, in the Lateran and in the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Santa Cecilia and in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome I have reported in other places. Only gradually do they pass under the influence of the freer, more unified landscapes of Annibale Carracci, to the above-mentioned balanced transitional style. Further development Brill, part of the general history of landscape painting, is reflected in his numerous, partly marked by years, small landscapes on boards (1598 in Parma, 1600 in Dresden, 1601 in Munich, 1608 and 1624 in Dresden, 1609, 1620 and 1624 - in the Louvre, 1626 - in St. Petersburg), abundant as usual with trees, rarely trying to convey a specific area. In any case, Paul Bril belongs to the founders of the landscape style from which the art of Claude Lorrain grew.
In the Netherlands, the Antwerpian Josse de Momper (1564 - 1644), best represented in Dresden, developed the Koninksloo stage style in smartly painted mountain landscapes, not particularly rich in trees, in which "three backgrounds", sometimes with the addition of a sunlit fourth, usually appear in in all its brown-green-gray-blue glory.
The influence of Brill's older paintings is felt by Peter Bruegel the Elder's second son, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 - 1625), who worked in Rome and Milan before his return to Antwerp in 1596. Crivelli and Michel dedicated separate works to him. He painted mainly small, sometimes miniature, pictures that give the impression of landscape even in cases where they represent biblical, allegorical or genre themes. It is they who firmly adhere to the Koninksloo style with tufted foliage, although they more subtly convey the mutual transitions of the three backgrounds. Characteristic of Jan Brueghel's versatility is that he painted landscape backgrounds for figure painters like Balen, figures for landscape painters like Momper, and floral wreaths for masters like Rubens. He is famous for his freshly and subtly executed “The Fall” of the Hague Museum, in which Rubens painted Adam and Eve, and Jan Brueghel painted landscapes and animals. His own landscapes, abundantly equipped with colorful folk life, which do not yet convey the sky with its clouds particularly expressively, represent mainly hilly areas irrigated by rivers, plains with windmills, village streets with tavern scenes, canals with wooded banks, busy country roads on wooded heights and forested roads with woodcutters and hunters, vividly and faithfully observed. Early paintings by him can be seen in the Milanese Ambrosiana. It is best represented in Madrid, and well in Munich, Dresden, St. Petersburg and Paris. Of particular importance in the sense of searching for new paths was his painting of flowers, which extremely convincingly conveyed not only all the charm of forms and the brightness of the colors of rare colors, but also their combinations. Madrid, Vienna and Berlin have paintings of flowers by his brush.
Of his collaborators, we should not miss Hendrik Van Balen (1575 - 1632), whose teacher is considered to be Rubens' second teacher, Adam Van Noort. His altar paintings (for example, in the Church of James in Antwerp) are unbearable. He became famous for his small, smoothly painted, sugary paintings on boards with content mainly from ancient fables, for example, “The Feast of the Gods” in the Louvre, “Ariadne” in Dresden, “The Gathering of Manna” in Brunswick, but his paintings of this kind also lack artistic freshness and spontaneity.
The transitional landscape style described above continued, however, with weak imitators until the beginning of the 18th century. Here we can note only the strongest masters of this trend, who transferred it to Holland: David Vinkboons from Mecheln (1578 - 1629), who moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam, painted fresh forest and village scenes, on occasion also biblical episodes in landscape settings, but most of all temple ones holidays in front of village taverns. His best paintings in Augsburg, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Munich, and St. Petersburg are quite directly observed and not without force, painted with colorful colors. Roelant Savery of Courtrai (1576 - 1639), to whom Curt Erasmus dedicated a lovingly written study, studied the German wooded mountains in the service of Rudolf II, after which he settled as a painter and etcher, first in Amsterdam, then in Utrecht. He equipped his light-filled, gradually merging three plans, but somewhat dry in execution, mountain, rocky and forest landscapes, which can be seen well in Vienna and Dresden, with living groups of wild and tame animals in hunting scenes, in images of paradise and Orpheus. He also belongs to the earliest independent flower painters. Adam Willaerts from Antwerp (1577, d. after 1649), who moved to Utrecht in 1611, was a representative seascape this transitional style. His coastal and sea views (for example, in Dresden, by Weber in Hamburg, in the Liechtenstein Gallery) are still dry in the pattern of waves, still rough in the depiction of ship life, but captivating with the honesty of their attitude towards nature. Finally, Alexander Kerrinckx of Antwerp (1600 - 1652), who transferred his Flemish landscape art to Amsterdam, in paintings with his signature is still entirely following Koninksloe, but in later paintings of Brunswick and Dresden is obviously influenced by the brownish Dutch tone painting of Van Goyen . He thus belongs to the transitional masters in the fullest sense of the word.
Of the Antwerp masters of this style who remained at home, Sebastian Vranx (1573 - 1647) shows undoubted success as a landscape painter and painter of horses. He also depicts foliage in the form of bunches, most often hanging, like a birch, but gives it a more natural connection, gives the airy tone a new clarity and knows how to impart a vital character to the actions of the confidently and coherently written horses and riders of his battle and robber scenes, which can be seen , for example, in Braunschweig, Aschaffenburg, Rotterdam and at Weber in Hamburg.
Finally, in architectural painting, back in the 16th century, his son Hendrik Steenvik the Younger (1580 - 1649), who moved to London, and next to him, the main image, Peter Neefs the Elder (1578 - 1656), internal views whose churches can be found in Dresden, Madrid, Paris and St. Petersburg.
In general, Flemish painting was obviously at a very on the right track a return to small art, when the great art of Rubens rose above her like the sun and carried her along with it into the kingdom of light and freedom.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) is the sun around which all Belgian art of the 17th century revolves, but at the same time one of the great luminaries of pan-European art of this period. Contrary to all Italian Baroque painters, he is the main representative of the Baroque in painting. The fullness of forms, freedom of movement, dominance over the masses, which gives picturesqueness to the baroque style of architecture, in Rubens’s paintings they abandon the heaviness of stone and, with the intoxicating luxury of colors, receive an independent, new right to exist. With the power of individual forms, the grandeur of the composition, the flourishing fullness of light and colors, the passion of life in conveying sudden actions, the strength and fire in exciting the physical and mental life of his fleshy male and female, dressed and undressed figures, he surpasses all other masters. The luxurious body of his blond women with full cheeks, plump lips and a cheerful smile shines white. Burnt by the sun, the skin of his warrior men glows, and their bold convex forehead is enlivened by the powerful arch of their eyebrows. His portraits are the freshest and healthiest, not the most individual and intimate for their time. No one knew how to reproduce wild and tame animals as vividly as he did, although due to lack of time, in most cases he left assistants to depict them in his paintings. In the landscape, the execution of which he also entrusted to assistants, he saw, first of all, the general effect due to atmospheric life, but he himself painted, even in old age, amazing landscapes. His art embraced the entire world of spiritual and physical phenomena, all the complexity of the past and present. He painted altar paintings and again altar paintings for the church. He painted portraits and portraits mainly for himself and his friends. He created mythological, allegorical, historical images and hunting scenes for the greats of this world. Landscape and genre paintings were random side jobs.
Orders rained down on Rubens. At least two thousand paintings came out of his studio. The great demand for his art was caused by the frequent repetition of entire paintings or individual parts by the hands of his students and assistants. At the zenith of his life, he usually left his own paintings to be painted by his assistants. There are all the transitions between his own works and the paintings of the workshop, for which he gave only sketches. With all the similarity of basic forms and basic moods, his own paintings reveal significant changes in style, the same as those of many of his contemporaries, from solid plastic modeling and thick, heavy writing to a lighter, freer, brighter execution, to more animated outlines, to more soft, airy modeling and full of mood, illuminated by the colorful colors of tonal painting.
At the head of the latest literature on Rubens is the broadly conceived collected work of Max Rooses: “The Works of Rubens” (1887 - 1892). The best and most important biographical works belong to Rooses and Michel. Collective works, after Waagen, were also published by Jacob Burchardt, Robert Fischer, Adolf Rosenberg and Wilhelm Bode. Individual questions about Rubens were examined by Ruelens, Woltmann, Riegel, Heller von Ravensburg, Grosmann, Riemanns and others. Giemans and Voorthelm-Schnevogt were engaged in Rubens as an engraver.
Rubens was born in Siegen, near Cologne, from respected Antwerpians and received his first artistic education in the city of his fathers with Tobias Verhegt (1561 - 1631), a mediocre landscape painter of the transitional style, then studied for four years with Adam Van Noort (1562 - 1641), one of the average masters of mannered Italism, as is now known, and then worked for another four years from Otto Van Wen, rich in inventions, empty in form, a false classic, with whom he first closely joined and in 1598 became a guild foreman. In 1908, Haberzwil dedicated detailed articles to Rubens' three teachers. No painting from Rubens's early Antwerp period can be established with certainty. From 1600 to 1608 he lived in Italy; first in Venice, then mainly in the service of Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. But already in 1601 he wrote in Rome for three altars of the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme “The Finding of the Cross”, “The Crowning of Thorns” and “The Exaltation of the Cross”. These three paintings, now belonging to the hospital chapel in Grasse, in Southern France, reveal the style of his first Italian period, still searching for itself, still influenced by copies of Tintoretto, Titian and Correggio, but already filled with an independent desire for strength and movement. The young master went to Spain in 1603 with an order from his prince. Of the paintings he painted there, the figures of the philosophers Heraclitus, Democritus and Archimedes in the Madrid Museum still display pompous, dependent forms, but also a strong impression of psychological depth. Returning to Mantua, Rubens painted a large three-part altarpiece, the middle picture of which, with the Gonzaga family's veneration of St. Trinity, preserved in two parts in the Mantuan library, and from the wide, side paintings abundant with figures, showing the ever-growing power of forms and the action of the masses, “The Baptism of Christ” ended up in the Antwerp Museum and “Transfiguration” in the Nancy Museum. Then, in 1606, the master again painted in Rome for Chiesa Nuova a magnificent altarpiece of the Assumption of St., already filled with Rubensian power in his figures bathed in light. Gregory", now owned by the Grenoble Museum, and in Rome replaced already in 1608 by three other, not at all better, paintings by the same master. The spectacular “Circumcision of Christ” of 1607 in Sant’Ambrogio in Genoa more clearly resembles Caravaggio’s style. However, researchers such as Rooses and Rosenberg attribute the master to the Italian period, when he copied works by Titian, Tintoretto, Correggio, Caravaggio, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as a number of paintings by him, apparently, however, painted later. Large ones, originating from Mantua, strong in form and color, allegories of display and virtue in Dresden, if not written, as Michel thinks with us, around 1608 in Mantua, then we rather admit, together with Bode, that they appeared after Rubens' return to his homeland than with Roosers, that they were written before his Italian trip to Antwerp. The confidently drawn and plastically modeled image of Jerome in Dresden also reveals a peculiar Rubensian style, perhaps even too developed for his Italian period, to which we now attribute this picture. Upon Rubens's return to Antwerp in 1608, already in 1609 he was appointed court painter to Albrecht and Isabella, and his style, already independent, quickly developed to tremendous strength and grandeur.
Cluttered in composition, restless in outline, uneven in lighting effects is his “Adoration of the Magi” (1609 - 1610) in Madrid, marked, however, by powerful movement. Full of life and passion, powerful in the muscular modeling of the bodies, his famous three-part image “The Exaltation of the Cross” in the Antwerp Cathedral. Stronger Italian memories are reflected in simultaneous mythological paintings, such as Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres in Kassel, and the plump, chained Prometheus in Oldenburg. Typical examples of large-scale portraits of this era are landscape portraits of Albrecht and Isabella in Madrid and a magnificent Munich painting representing the master himself in a honeysuckle gazebo with his young wife, Isabella Brant, whom he brought to his homeland in 1609, an incomparable image of calm, pure happiness love.
The art of Rubens discovered its further flight between 1611 and 1614. The huge painting “The Descent from the Cross” with the majestic “Visit of Mary Elizabeth” and “Introduction into the Temple” on the doors, in the Antwerp Cathedral, is considered the first work in which the master brought his types and his own way of writing to full development. The passionate vitality of individual movements is wonderful, and even more wonderful is the soulful power of the pictorial execution. Mythological paintings such as “Romulus and Remus” in the Capitoline Gallery, “Faun and Faun” in the Schönborn Gallery in Vienna also belong to these years.
Rubens' painting in 1613 and 1614, confident in composition, with clearly defined forms and colors, is represented by some paintings marked, as an exception, with his name and year of execution. These are the painting “Jupiter and Callisto” (1613), pure in form, beautiful in color, “Flight into Egypt” in Kassel, full of magical light, “Chilled Venus” (1614) in Antwerp, pathetic “Lamentation” (1614) in Vienna and "Susanna" (1614) in Stockholm, whose body is undoubtedly more pleasant and better understood than the too luxurious body of his earlier Susanna in Madrid; According to the method of painting, these paintings are also accompanied by powerful symbolic images of a lonely crucified Christ against the background of a darkened sky in Munich and Antwerp.
From this time on, orders piled up so much in Rubens's studio that he gave his assistants a more prominent role in the execution of his paintings. The oldest, besides Jan Bruegel, include the outstanding painter of animals and fruits Frans Snyders (1579 - 1657), who, according to Rubens himself, painted the eagle in the above-mentioned Oldenburg painting with Prometheus, and the lively landscape painter Jan Wildens (1586 - 1653), who worked from 1618 . for Rubens. The most remarkable employee was Anton Van Dyck (1599 - 1641), who later became an independent figure. In any case, having become a master in 1618, he was Rubens' right hand until 1620. Rubens's own paintings of these years usually contrast the bluish penumbra of the body with a reddish-yellow spot of light, while paintings with a clearly established collaboration by Van Dyck are distinguished by a uniform warm chiaroscuro and a more nervous painterly rendering. These include six large, enthusiastically painted images from the life of the Roman consul Decius Mussa, in the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna, cardboards of which Rubens made for woven carpets in 1618 (surviving copies are in Madrid), and large decorative ceiling paintings (surviving only sketches in various collections), and some of the spectacular compositions, with many figures of the altarpieces of this church, “The Miracle of St. Xavier" and "The Miracle of St. Ignatius”, rescued by the Vienna Court Museum. There is no doubt about Van Dyck's collaboration also in the huge Crucifixion in Antwerp, in which Longinus on horseback pierces the side of the Savior with a spear, in the Madonna with penitent sinners in Kassel, and according to Bode also in the Munich "Trinity Day" and in the Berlin "Lazare", according to Rooses also in the dramatic lion hunt and in the no less dramatic, passionate and quick abduction of the daughters of Leucippus in Munich. All these paintings shine not only with the bold power of Rubens' composition, but also with the penetrating subtlety of Van Dyck's feeling of painting. Among the hand-painted paintings, painted in the main parts by Rubens himself between 1615 and 1620, are the best religious paintings - full of ebullient, agitated mass movements “The Last Judgment” in Munich and full of inner animation “The Assumption of Our Lady” in Brussels and in Vienna, as well as masterful mythological paintings, luxurious "bacchanalia" and images of "Thyasos" in Munich, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Dresden, in which the power of the overflowing sensual joy of life, translated from Roman into Flemish, apparently for the first time reaches full expression . “The Battle of the Amazons” in Munich (circa 1620), an unattainable creation in the sense of a picturesque transfer of the most frantic dump and battle, although written in a small size, is adjacent here. Then follow life-size naked children, like superb "putti" with a garland of fruit in Munich, then wild hunting scenes, lion hunts, of which the best is in Munich, and wild boar hunts, of which the best hangs in Dresden. Then come the first landscape paintings with mythological additions, for example, the full of mood “The Shipwreck of Aeneas” in Berlin, or with natural surroundings, such as the radiant Roman landscape with ruins in the Louvre (circa 1615) and the vibrant landscapes “Summer” and “Winter” " (about 1620) at Windsor. Majestically rendered, broadly and truthfully painted without a hint of old mannerisms, illuminated by the light of all sorts of heavenly manifestations, they stand like boundary pillars in the history of landscape painting.
Finally, the portraits of Rubens of this fifth anniversary stand out clearly, majestically, and powerfully. His self-portrait in the Uffizi is a masterful work, and his portrait group “Four Philosophers” in Palazzo Pitti is magnificent. His wife Isabella appears in the prime of her beauty in noble portraits of Berlin and The Hague. Around 1620, an amazing portrait of Susanna Furman in a hat with a feather was also painted in the London National Gallery, covered in the most delicate chiaroscuro. The master's famous male portraits of these years can be seen in Munich and in the Liechtenstein Gallery. As passionately as Rubens depicted episodes from sacred world history, hunting scenes and even landscapes, he just as calmly painted his portrait figures, being able to convey their bodily shell with monumental power and truth, but without trying to spiritualize internally, captured only in general, facial features.
Van Dyck left Rubens in 1620, and his wife Isabella Brant died in 1626. A new impetus for his art was his second marriage to the beautiful young Helena Furman in 1630. However, his artistic and diplomatic trips to Paris also served as impetus ( 1622, 1623, 1625), to Madrid (1628, 1629) and to London (1629, 1630). Of the two large historical series with allegories, 21 huge paintings from the life of Marie de Medici (the story was written by Grossman) now belong to the best decorations of the Louvre. Sketched by the masterful hand of Rubens, painted by his students, completed by himself, these historical paintings are filled with many modern portraits and allegorical mythological figures in the spirit of modern Baroque and represent such a mass of individual beauties and such artistic harmony that they will forever remain the best works of painting of the 17th century. From a series of paintings of the life of Henry IV of France, two half-finished ones ended up in the Uffizi; sketches for others are kept in different collections. The nine paintings glorifying James I of England, with which Rubens a few years later decorated the ceiling fields of the state hall in White Hall, blackened by London soot, are unrecognizable, but they themselves do not belong to the master’s most successful works.
Of the religious paintings Rubens painted in the twenties, the large, fiery Adoration of the Magi at Antwerp, completed in 1625, again marks a turning point in his artistic development with its looser and wider brush, lighter language of form and more golden, airy coloring. . The bright, airy “Assumption of Mary” of the Antwerp Cathedral was ready in 1626. This is followed by the picturesque, free “Adoration of the Magi” in the Louvre and “The Raising of the Virgin Mary” in Antwerp. In Madrid, where the master again studied Titian, his coloring became richer and more “florid”. The "Madonna" with the saints worshiping her in the Augustinian church in Antwerp is a more Baroque repetition of Titian's Madonna-Frari. The meaningfully revised part of Mantegna's Triumph of Caesar, which was in London in 1629 (now in the National Gallery), judging by her letter, could also have appeared only after this time. This decade is especially rich in large portraits of the master. Aged but still full of warming prettiness is Isabella Brant in the beautiful Hermitage portrait; The portrait in the Uffizi presents sharper features. Among the finest and most colorful is the double portrait of his sons in the Liechtenstein gallery. The expressive portrait of Caspar Gevaert at his desk in Antwerp is famous. And the aged master himself appears before us with a subtle diplomatic smile on his lips in the beautiful chest-length portrait of Aremberg in Brussels.
The last decade that fell to the lot of Rubens (1631 - 1640) stood under the star of his beloved second wife Helena Furman, whom he painted in all forms, and who served him as a model for religious and mythological paintings. Her best portraits by Rubens belong to the most beautiful portraits of women in the world: half-length, in a rich dress, in a hat with a feather; life-size, sitting, in a luxurious dress open at the chest; in a small form, next to her husband for a walk in the garden - she appears at the Munich Pinakothek; naked, only partially covered with a fur robe - in the Vienna Court Museum; in a suit for a walk in the field - in the Hermitage; with her firstborn on the side, on the arm of her husband, and also on the street, accompanied by a page - with Baron Alphonse Rothschild in Paris.
The most significant church works of this blooming, radiant late era master - majestic and calm in composition, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, the altar of St. Ildefonso with powerful figures of donors on the doors of the Vienna Court Museum and a magnificent altarpiece in Rubens’s own tomb chapel in the Church of James in Antwerp, with the saints of the city, painted from persons close to the master. Simpler works, such as: St. Cecilia in Berlin and the magnificent Bathsheba in Dresden are not inferior to them in tone and colors. Among the precious mythological pictures of this period are the brilliant courts of Paris in London and Madrid; and what passionate vitality does Diana’s hunt in Berlin breathe, how fabulously luxurious is the festival of Venus in Vienna, what a magical light is illuminated by Orpheus and Eurydice in Madrid!
Some genre images of the master are preparatory for this type of painting. Thus, the character of the mythological genre is captured in the boldly sensual, life-size “Rendezvous Hour” in Munich.
The prototypes of all Watteau’s social scenes are the famous paintings with flying gods of love, called “Gardens of Love”, with groups of luxuriously dressed couples in love at a party in the garden. One of the best works of this kind is owned by Baron Rothschild in Paris, another in the Madrid Museum. The most important genre paintings with small figures from folk life, painted by Rubens, are a stately and vital, purely Rubensian peasant dance in Madrid, a half-landscape tournament in front of the castle moat, in the Louvre, and a fair in the same collection, the motives of which are reminiscent of Teniers.
Most of Rubens's true landscapes also belong to the last years of his life: such is the radiant landscape with Odysseus in the Pitti Palazzo, such are the landscapes that are new in design, artistically explaining with a simple and broad depiction of the surroundings the flat area in which Rubens's dacha was located, and with a majestic, full of mood rendering changes in the sky. The most beautiful ones include the fiery sunset in London and landscapes with rainbows in Munich and St. Petersburg.
Whatever Rubens took on, he turned everything into shining gold; and anyone who came into contact with his art, as a collaborator or follower, could no longer escape his enchanted circle.
Of Rubens's many students, only Anton Van Dyck (1599 - 1641) - whose light, of course, relates to Rubens' light, as the moon does to the sun - reaches the heavens of art with his head illuminated by brilliance. Although Balen is considered his real teacher, Rubens himself called him his student. In any case, his youthful development, as far as we know, was under the influence of Rubens, from whom he never completely departs, but, in accordance with his more impressionable temperament, transforms it into a more nervous, gentle and subtle manner in painting and less strong in drawing. . His many years of stay in Italy finally turned him into a painter and master of colors. It was not his job to invent and dramatically intensify living action, but he knew how to put figures in clearly thought-out relationships to each other in his historical paintings and convey to his portraits the subtle features of social status, which became the favorite painter of the nobles of his time.
The latest summary works on Van Dyck belong to Michiels, Guiffrey, Kust and Schaeffer. Individual pages of his life and art were explained by Vibiral, Bode, Giemans, Rooses, Lau, Menotti and the author of this book. Even now they argue about the delimitation of different periods of life, which were mainly connected with travel. According to the latest research, he worked until 1620 in Antwerp, in 1620 - 1621 in London, in 1621 - 1627 in Italy, mainly in Genoa, with a break from 1622 to 1623, carried out, as Rooses showed, probably in his homeland, in 1627 - 1628 in Holland, then again in Antwerp, and from 1632 as a court painter to Charles I in London, where he died in 1641, and during this period, in 1634 - 1635 he was in Brussels, in 1640 and 1641 in Antwerp and Paris.
There are hardly any early works by Van Dyck in which the influence of Rubens would not be noticeable. Even his early apostolic series already show traces of Rubens' style. Of these, some of the original heads are preserved in Dresden, others in Althorp. Among the religious paintings that Van Dyck painted according to his own plans, at his own peril and risk, from 1618 to 1620, while he was in the service of Rubens, are “The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian”, with the composition “Lamentation of Christ” and “Bathing Susanna” overloaded in the old way in Munich. “Thomas in St. Petersburg”, “The Copper Serpent” in Madrid. None of these paintings boast a flawless composition, but they are well painted and colorful in color. The Dresden “Jerome” is picturesque and deeply felt, representing a clear contrast to the neighboring, calmer and roughly written Jerome by Rubens.
Then follow: “The Desecration of Christ” in Berlin, the most powerful and expressive of these semi-Rubensian paintings, and beautiful in composition, no doubt sketched by Rubens, “St. Martin" in Windsor, sitting on a horse, offering a cloak to a beggar. The simplified and weaker repetition of this Martin in the church of Saventem stands closer to the later manner of the master.
Van Dyck is a great artist in this Rubensian era, especially in his portraits. Some of them, combining the well-known advantages of both masters, were attributed to Rubens in the 19th century, until Bode returned them to Van Dyck. They are more individual in individual features, more nervous in expression, softer and deeper in writing than the contemporaneous portraits of Rubens. The oldest of these half-Rubensian portraits by Van Dyck include both bust-length portraits of an elderly married couple from 1618 in Dresden, the most beautiful are the half-figures of two married couples in the Liechtenstein gallery: a woman with gold lacing on her chest, a gentleman pulling on gloves, and sitting in front of a red curtain lady with a child on her lap, in Dresden. The magnificent Isabella Brant of the Hermitage belongs to him, and from the Louvre there is a double portrait of the supposed Jean Grusset Richardo and his son standing next to him. Of the double portraits, the spouses standing next to each other are known - the portrait of Frans Snyders and his wife with very forced poses, Jan de Wael and his wife in Munich, the most picturesque. Finally, in the master’s youthful self-portraits, with a thoughtful, self-confident look, in St. Petersburg, Munich and London, his very age, about twenty years old, indicates an early period.
From religious paintings painted by Van Dyck between 1621 - 1627. in Italy, in the south, there remained a beautiful scene inspired by Titian with the “Coin of Peter” and “Mary and Child” in a fiery halo, in the Palazzo Bianco, reminiscent of Rubens, the “Crucifixion” in the royal palace in Genoa, tenderly felt in picturesque and spiritual terms , the Entombment of the Borghese Gallery in Rome, the languid head of Mary in the Pitti Palazzo, the magnificent, radiantly colored family in the Turin Pinacoteca and the powerful but rather mannered altarpiece of the Madonna del Rosario in Palermo with elongated figures. Of the secular paintings, we will mention here only the beautiful, in the spirit of Giorgione, painting depicting the three ages of life in the city museum in Vincenza and the simple in composition, but passionately painted painting “Diana and Endimon” in Madrid.
The confident, firm and at the same time gentle brushstroke modeling in dark chiaroscuro and the deep, rich coloring of the master’s Italian heads, striving for unity of mood, are also evident in his Italian, especially Genoese, portraits. Painted from a bold perspective, almost facing the viewer, the equestrian portrait of Antonio Giulio Brignole Sale waving his hat in greeting right hand, located in the Palazzo Rossi in Genoa, was a true indicator of the new path. Noble, with baroque columns and drapery in the background, the portraits of Signora Geronima Brignole Sale with her daughter Paola Adorio in a dark blue silk dress with gold embroidery and a young man in the clothes of a noble person, from the same collection, stand at the height of absolute portrait art. They are joined by portraits of the Marchioness of Durazzo in a light yellow silk damask dress, with children, in front of a red curtain, a lively group portrait of three children with a dog and a noble portrait of a boy in a white dress, with a parrot, kept in the Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini. In Rome, the Capitoline Gallery has a very vital double portrait of Luca and Cornelis de Wael; in Florence, in the Pitti Palazzo, there is a spiritually expressive portrait of Cardinal Giulio Bentivolio. Other portraits from Van Dyck's Italian period found their way abroad. One of the finest is owned by Pierpont Morgan in New York, but they can also be found in London, Berlin, Dresden and Munich.
The five years (1627 - 1632) spent by the master in his homeland upon his return from Italy turned out to be extremely fruitful. Large altarpieces full of movement, such as the powerful Crucifixions in the Church of St. Women in Dendermonde, in the Church of Michael in Ghent, and in the Church of Romuald in Mecheln, and adjacent to them the "Exaltation of the Cross" in the Church of St. The women in Courtray do not represent him as well as the works full of inner life, to which we include the Crucifixion with the upcoming one in the Lille Museum, “Rest during the Flight” in Munich and individual Crucifixions full of feeling in Antwerp, Vienna and Munich. These paintings translate Rubens's images from heroic language into the language of feeling. Among the most beautiful paintings of this period are the Madonna with the kneeling couple of donors and angels pouring flowers in the Louvre, the Madonna with the standing child Christ in Munich and the full of mood “Lamentations over Christ” in Antwerp, Munich, Berlin and Paris. Madonnas and laments in general were Van Dyck's favorite themes. He rarely took on images of pagan gods, although his “Hercules at the Crossroads” in the Uffizi, images of Venus, Vulcan, in Vienna and Paris show that he was able to cope with them to some extent. He remained primarily a portrait painter. About 150 portraits by him have survived from this fifth anniversary. Their facial features are even sharper, their typically graceful, sedentary hands have even less expression than Italian paintings him in the same way. A somewhat more aristocratic ease was added to their bearing, and a more subtle general mood appeared in the colder coloring. Clothes usually fall easily and freely, but materially. Among the most beautiful of them, painted in life size, are the characteristic portraits of the ruler Isabella in Turin, in the Louvre and in the Liechtenstein Gallery, Philip de Roy and his wife in the Wallace collection in London, double portraits of a gentleman and a lady with a child in their arms in the Louvre and in Gothic Museum and several more portraits of gentlemen and ladies in Munich. Among the most expressive half-length and generational portraits we include the portraits of Bishop Mulderus and Martin Pepin in Antwerp, Adrian Stevens and his wife in St. Petersburg, Count Van den Bergh in Madrid, and Canon Antonio de Tassis in the Liechtenstein Gallery. Organist Liberty looks languidly, sculptor Colin de Nole, his wife and their daughter look boring at a portrait group in Munich. The portraits of the gentleman and lady in Dresden and Marie Louise de Tassis in the Liechtenstein gallery are especially distinguished by their noble picturesque bearing. Van Dyck's influence on all portraiture of his time, especially English and French, was enormous; however, in natural characteristic and inner truth, his portraits cannot be equal to those of his contemporaries Velazquez and Frans Hals, to name no others.
On occasion, however, Van Dyck also took up the engraving needle. There are 24 easily and meaningfully executed sheets of his work. On the other hand, he commissioned other engravers to reproduce a large series of small portraits of famous contemporaries drawn by him, painted in the same gray tone. IN full meeting this “Iconography of Van Dyck” in one hundred sheets appeared only after his death.
As court painter to Charles I, Van Dyck painted little religious or mythological paintings during the last eight years of his life. Nevertheless, several masters date back to this late time. best paintings, written during his short stay in the Netherlands. This was the last and most picturesque image of the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt", with a round dance of angels and flying partridges, now in the Hermitage, the most mature and most beautiful "Lamentation of Christ" in the Antwerp Museum, not only clear, calm and touching in composition and soulful expression of true grief, but also in its colors, its beautiful chords of blue, white and dark gold, representing a masterful, enchanting work. This is followed by extremely numerous portraits of the English period. True, his heads become, under the influence of the London court type, more and more like masks, his hands become less and less expressive; but the dresses are becoming more refined and more substantial in design, the colors, the silvery tone of which only gradually began to fade, are increasingly gaining in delicate charm. Of course, Van Dyck also set up a workshop in London with large-scale production, in which numerous students worked. The family portrait at Windsor, showing the royal couple seated with their two children and their dog, is a rather weak showpiece. The equestrian portrait of the king in front of the triumphal arch, located there, was painted with great taste, his equestrian portrait in the National Gallery is even more picturesque, and the delightful portrait of the king dismounting from his horse in a hunting suit in the Louvre is truly picturesque. Of the portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria by Van Dyck, the one belonging to Lord Northbrook in London and depicting the queen with her dwarfs on the garden terrace is among the freshest and earliest, and the one in the Dresden gallery, for all its nobility, is among the weakest and latest. Various portraits of the children of the English king are famous, belonging to the most attractive masterpieces of Van Dyck. The most beautiful of the portraits of the three royal children are those of Turin and Windsor; but the most luxurious and prettiest of all is the Windsor portrait with the five children of the king, with a large and small dog. Of the rest of Van Dyck's numerous portraits at Windsor, the portrait of Lady Venice Digby foreshadows with its allegorical additions in the form of doves and love gods new era, and the double portrait of Thomas Killigrew and Thomas Carew amazes with the life relationships of those depicted, which are unusual for our master. The portrait of James Stuart with a large dog clinging to him in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is particularly graceful; the portrait of the betrothed, the children of William II of Orange and Henrietta Maria Stuart, in the City Museum in Amsterdam is delightful. About a hundred portraits of the master’s English period have survived.
Van Dyck died young. As an artist, he apparently spoke his all. He lacks the versatility, completeness, and power of his great teacher, but he surpassed all his Flemish contemporaries in the subtlety of a purely picturesque mood.
The rest of the important painters, Rubens' collaborators and students in Antwerp before and after Van Dyck, live only in echoes of Rubens' art, Even Abraham Diepepbeck (1596 - 1675), Cornelis Schut (1597 - 1655), Theodore Van Thulden (1606 - 1676), Erasmus Quellinus (1607 - 1678), the brother of the great sculptor, and his grandson Jan Erasmus Quellinus (1674 - 1715) are not so significant that we need to dwell on them. Representatives of the various realistic departments of Rubens’ workshop have more independent significance. Frans Snyders (1579 - 1657) started with dead nature, which he loved to perform in natural size, broadly, realistically and at the same time decoratively; all his life he painted large, full of healthy observational images of kitchen supplies and fruits, such as those available in Brussels, Munich and Dresden. In Rubens's workshop, he also learned to depict lively and excitingly, almost with the strength and brightness of his teacher, the living world, life-size animals in hunting scenes. His large hunting paintings in Dresden, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Cassel and Madrid are classics of their kind. Sometimes his brother-in-law Paul de Vos (1590 - 1678) is mixed with Snyders, whose large paintings of animals cannot compare with the freshness and warmth of Snyders's paintings. The new landscape style, which developed under the influence of Rubens, almost completely doing away with the old three-color backdrop backgrounds and traditional tufted tree foliage, appears before us more clearly in the paintings and etchings of Lucas Van Udens (1595 - 1672), an assistant in the later years of the landscape master. His numerous, but mostly small, landscape paintings, of which nine hang in Dresden, three in St. Petersburg, two in Munich - simple, naturally captured images of the charming local border landscapes between the Brabant hilly region and the Flemish plain. The execution is broad and thorough. His colors strive to convey not only the natural impression of green trees and meadows, brownish earth and bluish hilly distances, but also a slightly cloudy, light sky. The sunny sides of his clouds and trees usually flicker with yellow spots of light, and under the influence of Rubens sometimes rain clouds and rainbows also appear.
Rubens' art also caused a revolution in Dutch copper engraving. Numerous engravers, whose works he himself examined, were in his service. The oldest of them, the Antwerpian Cornelis Halle (1576 - 1656) and the Dutch Jacob Matham (1571 - 1631) and Jan Müller, still translated his style into an older language of forms, but the engravers of the Rubens school, a number of which are discovered by Peter Southman from Haarlem (1580 - 1643), and continues to shine with such names as Lucas Forsterman (b. 1584), Paul Pontius (1603 - 1658), Boethius and Schelte. Bolsvert, Pieter de Jode the Younger, and especially the great chiaroscuro engraver Jan Witdöck (b. 1604) managed to imbue their sheets with Rubensian force and movement. The new mezzotint technique, which gave a rough surface to a plate by means of a grab-stitch in order to scrape out a design on it in soft masses, was, if not invented, then widely used for the first time by Vallerand Vaillant of Lille (1623 - 1677), a student of Rubens' student Erasmus Quellinus, a famous excellent portrait painter and a unique painter of dead nature. Since, however, Vaillant studied this art not in Belgium, but in Amsterdam, where he moved, the history of Flemish art can only mention it.
Some important Antwerp masters of this period, who had no direct relations with Rubens or his students, joined Caravaggio in Rome and formed the Roman group. Clear outlines, plastic modeling, heavy shadows of Caravaggio soften only in their later paintings with freer, warmer, broader writing, which spoke of the influence of Rubens. At the head of this group is Abraham Janssens Van Nuessen (1576 - 1632), whose student Gerard Zeghers (1591 - 1651) in his later paintings undoubtedly followed the footsteps of Rubens, and Theodor Rombouts (1597 - 1637) reveals the influence of Caravaggio in his genre, in life-size, with metallic shiny colors and black shadows, paintings in Antwerp, Ghent, St. Petersburg, Madrid and Munich.
The oldest of the then Flemish painters who had not been to Italy, Caspar de Crayer (1582 - 1669), moved to Brussels, where, competing with Rubens, he did not go further than eclecticism. They are led by Antwerpian Jacob Jordaens (1583 - 1678), also a student and son-in-law of Adam Van Noort, the head of the truly independent Belgian realists of the era, one of the most significant of its kind in Flemish outstanding painters of the 17th century, next to Rubens and Van Dyck. Rooses also dedicated an extensive essay to him. More rude than Rubens, he is more spontaneous and original. His body is even more massive and fleshy than Rubens’s, his heads are rounder and more ordinary. His compositions, usually repeated, with minor changes for different paintings, are often more artless, and often overloaded; his brush, for all his skill, is drier, smoother, sometimes denser. For all that, he is a wonderful, original colorist. At first he writes freshly and briskly, loosely modeling in rich local colors; after 1631, captivated by the charms of Rubens, he moves to more delicate chiaroscuro, to sharper intermediate colors and to a brownish tone of painting, from which rich, deep fundamental tones effectively shine through. He also depicted everything depicted. He owes his best successes to allegorical and genre paintings and life-size, in most cases on the theme of folk proverbs.
The earliest known painting by Jordaens is the Crucifixion from 1617 in the Church of St. Paul in Antwerp reveals the influence of Rubens. Jordaens appears quite himself in 1618 in “The Adoration of the Shepherds” in Stockholm and in a similar picture in Brunswick, and especially in the early images of the satyr visiting a peasant, to whom he tells an incredible story. The earliest painting of this kind is owned by the city of Celst in Brussels; followed by instances in Budapest, Munich and Kassel. Early religious paintings also include expressive images of the evangelists in the Louvre and “Disciples at the Savior’s tomb” in Dresden; Of the early mythological paintings, “Meleager and Atlanta” in Antwerp deserves mention. The earliest of his living family compositions portrait groups(circa 1622) belong to the Madrid Museum.
Rubens's influence is again evident in Jordaens' paintings written after 1631. In his satire of the peasant in Brussels, a turn is already noticeable. His famous images"The Bean King", of which Kassel has the earliest copy - others are in the Louvre and in Brussels - as well as his countless times repeated depictions of the saying "What the old sing, the little ones squeak", the Antwerp copy of 1638 is even more recent colors than the Dresden one, painted in 1641 - others in the Louvre and Berlin - already belong to the master’s smoother and softer style.
Before 1642, rough mythological paintings of “The Procession of Bacchus” in Kassel and “Ariadne” in Dresden, and lively excellent portraits of Jan Wirth and his wife in Cologne were also painted; then, until 1652, paintings that were animated externally and internally, despite the calmer lines, like St. Ivo in Brussels (1645), a superb family portrait in Kassel and the vibrant "Bean King" in Vienna.
The invitation to The Hague to take part in the decoration of the “Forest Castle” found the master in full force in 1652, to which “The Deification of Prince Frederick Henry” and “The Victory of Death over Envy” by Jordaens’ brushes give his imprint, and in 1661 an invitation to Amsterdam, where he painted the surviving but now almost indistinguishable paintings for the new city hall.
The most beautiful and religious picture of his later years is “Jesus among the Scribes” (1663) in Mainz; the luxuriously colored “Introduction to the Temple” in Dresden and the luminous “Last Supper” in Antwerp.
If Jordaens is too rough and uneven to be ranked among the greatest of the greats, then nevertheless, as an Antwerp burgher-painter and painter of burghers, he occupies a place of honor next to Rubens, the prince of painters and the painter of princes. But precisely because of his originality, he did not create any remarkable students or followers.
A master, like Jordaens, who independently belonged to the pre-Rubens past of Flemish art was Cornelis de Vos (1585 - 1651), especially outstanding as a portrait painter, striving for unartificial truth and sincerity with a calm, soulful pictorial manner, a peculiar sparkle in the eyes of his figures and a color full of light. The best family group portrait, with a relaxed composition, belongs to the Brussels Museum, and the strongest single portrait of the guild master Grapheus belongs to the Antwerp Museum. His double portraits of the married couple and his little daughters in Berlin are also very typical.
In contrast to his purely Flemish style with an admixture of Italian, which was maintained with greater or lesser deviations by the vast majority of Belgian painters of the 17th century, the Lüttich Walloon school, studied by Gelbier, developed the Roman-Belgian style of the Poussinian direction that followed the French. At the head of this school is Gerard Duffet (1594 - 1660), an inventive, painterly academician who can best be seen in Munich. A student of his student Barthollet Flemalle or Flemal (1614 - 1675), a sluggish imitator of Poussin, Gerard Leresse (1641 - 1711), who had already moved to Amsterdam in 1667, transplanted from Lüttich to Holland this academic style imitating the French, which he carried out not only as a painter and etcher of mythological subjects, but also with the pen in his book, which had significant influence. He was an extreme reactionary and most of all contributed at the turn of the century to the turn of the healthy national direction Dutch painting in the Romanesque fairway. “Seleucus and Antiochus” in Amsterdam and Schwerin, “Parnassus” in Dresden, “The Departure of Cleopatra” in the Louvre give a sufficient idea of him.
Leres finally returns us from large Belgian painting to small; and this latter, undoubtedly, was still experiencing, in small-figure paintings with landscape or architectural backgrounds, the mature national flowering of the 17th century, which grew directly from the soil prepared by the masters of the transitional time, but achieved complete freedom of movement thanks to the almighty Rubens, and in some places also thanks to new influences, French and Italian, or even the influence of young Dutch art on Flemish.
A true genre picture, now, as before, played the first role in Flanders. At the same time, a rather sharp boundary is noticeable between the masters who depicted the life of the upper classes in social scenes or small group portraits, and the painters of folk life in taverns, fairs and country roads. Rubens created examples of both genera. Secular painters, in the spirit of Rubens’ “Gardens of Love,” depict ladies and gentlemen in silk and velvet, playing cards, having a feast, playing merry music or dancing. One of the first among these painters was Christian Van der Lamen (1615 - 1661), known for his paintings in Madrid, Gotha, especially in Lucca. His most successful student was Jeroom Janssens (1624 - 1693), whose “Dancer” and dance scenes can be seen in Braungsweig. Above him as a painter stands Gonzales Kokvets (1618 - 1684), a master of aristocratic small group portraits depicting family members united in a home environment in Kassel, Dresden, London, Budapest and The Hague. The most prolific Flemish depicters of the folk life of the lower classes were the Teniers. From the large family of these artists, David Teniers the Elder (1582 - 1649) and his son David Teniers the Younger (1610 - 1690) stand out. The elder was probably a student of Rubens, and Rubens probably gave friendly advice to the younger. Both are equally strong in both landscape and genre. However, it was not possible to separate all the works of the elder from the youthful paintings of the younger. Undoubtedly, the elder belongs to the four mythological landscapes of the Vienna Court Museum, still busy conveying the “three plans”, “The Temptation of St. Antonia" in Berlin, "Mountain Castle" in Braunschweig and "Mountain Gorge" in Munich.
Since David Teniers the Younger was influenced by the great Adrien Brouwer of Oudenard (1606 - 1638), we give preference to the latter. Brouwer is the creator and trailblazer of new paths. Bode thoroughly studied his art and life. In many respects he is the greatest of the Netherlandish painters of folk life and at the same time one of the most spiritual Belgian and Dutch landscape painters. The influence of Dutch painting on Flemish painting in the 17th century first appeared with him, a student of Frans Hals in Haarlem, already before 1623. Upon his return from Holland, he settled in Antwerp.
At the same time, his art proves that the simplest epithets from the life of the common people can, thanks to their execution, acquire the highest artistic significance. From the Dutch he took the spontaneity of perception of nature, pictorial execution, which in itself is artistic. As a Dutchman, he declares himself with strict isolation in conveying moments of various manifestations of life, as a Dutchman, with precious humor, he highlights scenes of smoking, fights, card games and tavern drinking sessions.
The earliest paintings he painted in Holland, peasant drinking bouts, fights in Amsterdam, reveal in their rude, big-nosed characters responses of Old Flemish transitional art. The masterpieces of this time were his Antwerp “Card Players” and the tavern scenes of the Städel Institute in Frankfurt. Further development appears sharply in “Knife Fight” and “Village Bath” of the Munich Pinakothek: here the actions are dramatically strong without any unnecessary side figures; the execution is beautifully thought out in every detail; From the golden chiaroscuro coloring, red and yellow tones still glow. Then follows mature late period master (1633 - 1636), with more individual figures, a cooler color tone, in which green and blue paint locales stand out. These include 12 of his eighteen Munich paintings and the best of his four Dresden paintings. Schmidt-Degener added to them a number of paintings from Parisian private collections, but their authenticity, apparently, is not always accurately established. The best landscapes of Brouwer, in which the simplest motifs of nature from the outskirts of Antwerp are fanned with a warm, radiant transmission of air and light phenomena, also belong to these years. "Dunes" in Brussels, a painting with the name of the master, proves the authenticity of others. They have a more modern feel than all his other Flemish landscapes. Among the best are the moonlight and pastoral landscape in Berlin, the red-roofed dune landscape in the Bridgwater Gallery and the powerful sunset landscape in London attributed to Rubens.
Large-scale genre paintings of the last two years of the master’s life prefer light, shaded writing and a clearer subordination of local colors to a general, gray tone. Singing peasants, dicing soldiers and the master couple in the drinking house of the Munich Pinakothek are joined by powerful paintings depicting operations at the Städel Institute and the Louvre's The Smoker. Brouwer's original art always represents the complete opposite of all academic conventions.
David Teniers the Younger, the favorite genre painter of the noble world, invited in 1651 by the court painter and director of the gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm from Antwerp to Brussels, where he died in old age, cannot compare with Brouwer in the immediacy of conveying life, in the emotional experience of humor, but That is why it surpasses it in its external sophistication and urban-understood stylization of folk life. He loved to depict aristocratically dressed townspeople in their relations with the village people, on occasion he painted secular scenes from the life of the aristocracy and even conveyed religious episodes in the style of his genre paintings, inside exquisitely decorated rooms or among truthfully observed but decorative landscapes. Temptation of St. Antonia (in Dresden, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Madrid, Brussels) belongs to his favorite topics. More than once he also painted a dungeon with the image of Peter in the background (Dresden, Berlin). Among the mythological themes in the style of his genre paintings, we can name “Neptune and Amphitrite” in Berlin, the allegorical painting “The Five Senses” in Brussels, and poetic works - twelve paintings from “Liberated Jerusalem” in Madrid. His paintings representing alchemists (Dresden, Berlin, Madrid) can also be classified as a genre from high society. The vast majority of his paintings, of which there are 50 in Madrid, 40 in St. Petersburg, 30 in Paris, 28 in Munich, 24 in Dresden, depict the environment of villagers having fun in their leisure hours. He depicts them feasting, drinking, dancing, smoking, playing cards or dice, visiting, in a tavern or on the street. His light and free in its naturalness language of forms, sweeping and at the same time gentle writing experienced changes only in color. The tone of his “Temple Festival in the Half-Light” of 1641 in Dresden is heavy, but deep and cold. Then he returns to the brown tone of his early years, which quickly develops into a fiery golden tone in such paintings as the dungeon of 1642 in St. Petersburg, "The Guild Hall" of 1643 in Munich and "The Prodigal Son" in 1644 in the Louvre, flares up ever brighter in such as "The Dance" of 1645 in Munich and "Dice Players" of 1646 in Dresden, then, as shown by "Smokers" of 1650 in Munich, it gradually becomes grayer and, finally, in 1651, in "Peasant Wedding" in Munich, turns into a refined silver tone and is accompanied by the increasingly light and fluid writing that characterized Teniers's paintings of the fifties, such as his 1657 "Guardroom" at Buckingham Palace. Finally, after 1660, his brush became less confident, the coloring again became browner, drier and muddier. Munich owns a painting representing an alchemist, with features of the aged master's writing from 1680.
One of Brouwer's students stands out as Joos Van Kreesbeek (1606 - 1654), in whose paintings fights sometimes end tragically; Among the students of Teniers the Younger, Gillis Van Tilborch (about 1625 - 1678) is known, who also painted family group portraits in the style of Coques. Along with them are members of the Rikaert family of artists, of whom in particular David Rikaert III (1612 - 1661) rose to a certain breadth of independence.
Next to the national Flemish small-figure painting there is a simultaneous, although not equivalent, Italianizing movement, whose masters temporarily worked in Italy and depicted Italian life in all its manifestations. However, the largest of these members of the Dutch “community” in Rome, enthusiastic about Raphael or Michelangelo, were the Dutch, to whom we will return below. Pieter Van Laer from Haarlem (1582 - 1642) is the true founder of this movement, who equally influenced both Italians like Cerquozzi and Belgians like Jan Mils (1599 - 1668). Less independent are Anton Goubau (1616 - 1698), who enriched Roman ruins with a colorful life, and Peter Van Blemen, nicknamed Standaard (1657 - 1720), who preferred Italian horse fairs, cavalry battles and camp scenes. Italian folk life has remained since the time of these masters an area that annually attracted crowds of northern painters.
On the contrary, landscape painting developed in the national-Flemish spirit, with battle and bandit themes, adjoining Sebastian Vranx, whose student Peter Snyers (1592 - 1667) moved from Antwerp to Brussels. Snyers's early paintings, such as those in Dresden, show him on a quite picturesque track. Later, as a battle painter of the House of Habsburg, he gave greater value topographical and strategic fidelity rather than pictorial, as his large paintings in Brussels, Vienna and Madrid show. His best student was Adam Frans Van der Meulen (1631 - 1690), battle painter of Louis XIV and professor at the Paris Academy, who transplanted Snyers' style into Paris, which he refined in aerial and light perspective. At the Palace of Versailles and at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, he painted large series of wall paintings, impeccable in their confident forms and the impression of a picturesque landscape. His paintings in Dresden, Vienna, Madrid and Brussels with campaigns, sieges of cities, camps, and victorious entrances of the great king are also distinguished by their bright pictorial subtlety of perception. This New Netherlandish battle painting was brought to Italy by Cornelis de Wael (1592 - 1662), who settled in Genoa, and, having acquired a more perfect brush and warm color here, soon moved on to depicting Italian folk life.
In Belgian landscape painting itself, described in more detail by the author of this book in “History of Painting” (his own and Woltmann’s), one can quite clearly distinguish the original, native direction, only slightly touched by southern influences, from the false-classical direction that adjoined Poussin in Italy. National Belgian landscape painting retained, in comparison with Dutch, leaving aside Rubens and Brouwer, a somewhat externally decorative feature; With this trait she appeared in decorating palaces and churches with decorative series of paintings in such abundance as nowhere else. Antwerpian Paul Bril introduced this type of painting to Rome; Later, the Frenchized Belgians François Millet and Philippe de Champagne decorated Parisian churches with landscape paintings. The author of this book wrote a separate article about church landscapes in 1890.
Of the Antwerp masters, we should point out first of all Caspar de Witte (1624 - 1681), then Peter Spyrinks (1635 - 1711), who owns the church landscapes erroneously attributed to Peter Rysbrack (1655 - 1719) in the choir of the Augustinian church in Antwerp, and especially on Jan Frans Van Blemen (1662 - 1748), who received the nickname “Horizonte” for the clarity of the blue mountain distances of his successful, strongly reminiscent of Duguay, but hard and cold paintings.
National Belgian landscape painting of this period flourished mainly in Brussels. Its founder was Denis Van Alsloot (about 1570 - 1626), who, based on the transitional style, developed in his semi-rural, semi-urban paintings great strength, firmness and clarity of painting. His great-student Lucas Achtschellinx (1626 - 1699), influenced by Jacques d'Artois, participated in decorating Belgian churches with biblical landscapes with lush dark green trees and blue hilly distances, in a wide, free, somewhat sweeping manner. Jacques d'Artois (1613 - 1683), the best Brussels landscape painter, a student of the almost unknown Jan Mertens, also decorated churches and monasteries with large landscapes, the biblical scenes of which were painted by his friends, historical painters. His landscapes of the chapel of St. The author of this book saw the wives of the Brussels Cathedral in the sacristy of this church. In any case, his large paintings of the Court Museum and the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna were also church landscapes. His small indoor paintings representing the lush forested nature of the outskirts of Brussels, with its gigantic green trees, yellow sandy roads, blue hilly distances, bright rivers and ponds, can be best seen in Madrid and Brussels and also excellent in Dresden, Munich and Darmstadt. With a luxurious closed composition, deep, saturated with bright colors, with clear air with clouds characterized by golden-yellow illuminated sides, they perfectly convey the general, but still only general character of the area. More golden, warmer, more decorative, if you like, more Venetian in color than d’Artois, his best student Cornelis Huysmans (1648 - 1727), whose best church landscape is “Christ at Emmaus” in the Church of St. Women in Mecheln.
In the seaside city of Antwerp, a marina naturally developed. The desire for freedom and naturalness of the 17th century was realized here in paintings representing the coastal and sea battles of Andries Artvelt or Van Ertvelt (1590 - 1652), Buonaventure Peters (1614 - 1652) and Hendrik Mindergout (1632 - 1696), which, however, cannot to compare with the best Dutch masters in the same industry.
In architectural painting, which willingly depicted the interior of Gothic churches, Flemish masters, like Peter Neefs the Younger (1620 - 1675), who almost never went beyond a rough transitional style, also lacked the internal, light-filled, picturesque charm of Dutch images of churches.
The more boldness and brightness the Belgians brought to the images of animals, fruits, dead nature and flowers. However, even Jan Fit (1611 - 1661), a painter of kitchen supplies and fruits, who carefully executed and decoratively merged all the details, did not go further than Snyders. Flower painting also did not advance in Antwerp, at least on its own, beyond Jan Brueghel the Elder. Even Bruegel's student in this area, Daniel Seghers (1590 - 1661), surpassed him only in the breadth and luxury of decorative layout, but not in understanding the beauty of shapes and play of colors of individual colors. In any case, Seghers' floral wreaths on the Madonnas of large figure painters and his rare, independent depictions of flowers, like the silver vase in Dresden, reveal a clear, cold light of incomparable execution. In the 17th century, Antwerp was the main place of Dutch painting of flowers and fruits; it still owes this not so much to local masters as to the great Utrechtian Jan Davids de Geem (1606 - 1684), who moved to Antwerp and here raised his son, born in Leiden, Cornelis de Geem (1631 - 1695), later also an Antwerp master. But it is they, the greatest of all painters of flowers and fruits, who are distinguished by their endless love of finishing details and the power of painting that can internally merge these details, like masters of the Dutch, and not the Belgian type.
We have seen that between Flemish painting and Dutch, Italian, French art there were significant connections. The Flemings knew how to appreciate the direct, intimate perception of the Dutch, the pathetic grace of the French, the decorative luxury of the forms and colors of the Italians, but, leaving aside defectors and isolated phenomena, they always remained themselves in their art only a quarter, for the other quarter they were romanized internally and outwardly Germanic Dutch, who knew how to capture and reproduce nature and life with strong and swift inspiration, and in a decorative sense with mood.
L. Aleshina
A small country that in the past gave the world a number of the greatest artists - just to name the van Eyck brothers, Bruegel and Rubens - Belgium by the beginning of the 19th century. experienced a long stagnation of art. A certain role in this was played by the politically and economically subordinate position of Belgium, which until 1830 did not have national independence. Only when, from the beginning of the new century, the national liberation movement developed more and more, did art come to life, which soon took a very important place in cultural life countries. It is at least significant that in comparison with others European countries the number of artists in small Belgium relative to the population was very large.
In the formation of Belgian artistic culture of the 19th century. The great traditions of national painting played a major role. The connection with traditions was expressed not only in the direct imitation of many artists by their outstanding predecessors, although this was characteristic of Belgian painting, especially in the middle of the century. The influence of traditions affected the specifics of the Belgian art school of modern times. One of these specific features is the commitment of Belgian artists to the objective world, to the real flesh of things. Hence the success of realistic art in Belgium, but hence some limitations in the interpretation of realism.
Characteristic feature artistic life The country had close interaction throughout the century between Belgian culture and the culture of France. Young artists and architects go there to improve their knowledge. In turn, many French masters not only visit Belgium, but also live in it for many years, participating in the artistic life of their little neighbor.
At the beginning of the 19th century, classicism dominated in painting, sculpture and architecture in Belgium, as in many other European countries. The most important painter of this period was François Joseph Navez (1787-1869). He studied first in Brussels, then from 1813 in Paris with David, whom he accompanied in emigration to Brussels. During the years of his Belgian exile, the remarkable French master enjoyed the greatest authority among local artists. Navez was one of David's favorite disciples. His creativity is unequal. Mythological and biblical compositions, in which he followed the canons of classicism, are lifeless and cold. The portraits that make up most of his legacy are very interesting. In his portraits, close and attentive observation and study of nature were combined with a sublimely ideal idea of the human personality. The best features of the classicist method - strong compositional structure, plastic fullness of form - are harmoniously fused in Navez’s portraits with expressiveness and character. lifestyle. The portrait of the Hamptinne family (1816; Brussels, Museum of Modern Art) seems to have the highest artistic quality.
The difficult task of a portrait with three characters was successfully solved by the artist. All members of the young family - a married couple with a little daughter - are depicted in lively, relaxed poses, but with a feeling of a strong internal connection. The color scheme of the portrait testifies to Navez’s desire to comprehend the classical traditions of Flemish painting, dating back to van Eyck. Pure shining colors merge into a joyful harmonic chord. The excellent portrait of the Hamptinne family is close in its plastic power and documentary accuracy to David’s later portrait works, and in its lyricism and desire to convey the inner life of the soul it is associated with the already emerging romanticism. Even closer to romanticism is a self-portrait of Navez at a young age (1810s; Brussels, private collection), where the artist depicted himself with a pencil and album in his hands, vividly and intently peering at something in front of him. Navez played a very significant role as a teacher. Many artists studied with him, who later formed the core of the realistic movement in Belgian painting.
The growth of revolutionary sentiment in the country contributed to the triumph of romantic art. The struggle for national independence led to a revolutionary explosion in the summer of 1830, as a result of which Belgium broke ties with the Netherlands and formed an independent state. Art played an important role in the events that unfolded. It aroused patriotic feelings and incited rebellious sentiments. As is known, the immediate cause of the revolutionary uprising in Brussels was the performance of Aubert's opera "The Mute of Portici".
On the eve of the revolution, a patriotic trend is emerging in Belgian painting historical genre. The leader of this trend was the young artist Gustave Wappers (1803-1874), who in 1830 exhibited the painting “The Self-Sacrifice of Burgomaster van der Werff at the Siege of Leiden” (Utrecht, Museum). Glorifying the heroic deeds of their ancestors, the masters of this movement turn to the romantic language of forms. The pathetic elation of the figurative structure, the increased colorful sound of color were perceived by contemporaries as a revival of the primordial national painting traditions, most clearly represented by Rubens.
In the 30s Belgian painting, thanks to historical paintings, is gaining recognition in European art. Its programmatic and patriotic character, which served the general objectives of the country's development, determined this success. Wappers, Nicaise de Keyser (1813-1887), Louis Galle were among the most popular artists in Europe. However, very soon this direction revealed its limited sides. The most successful were those works that reflected the pathos of the national liberation movement of the people, which were inspired by the heroism of past and present fights for freedom. It is no coincidence that the greatest success fell on Wappers’ painting “September Days 1830” (1834-1835; Brussels, Museum of Modern Art). The artist created a historical canvas on modern material and revealed the significance of revolutionary events. One of the episodes of the revolution is shown. The action takes place on central square Brussels. The violent surge of the popular movement is conveyed by an unbalanced diagonal composition. The arrangement of the groups and some of the figures evoke Delacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People,” which was an undoubted model for the artist. At the same time, Wappers in this painting is somewhat external and declarative. His images are partly characterized by theatrical showiness, demonstrativeness in expressing feelings.
Soon after Belgium gained independence, historical painting lost its depth of content. The theme of national liberation is losing its relevance, its social basis. The historical picture turns into a magnificent costume spectacle with an entertaining plot. Two trends in historical painting are crystallizing; on the one hand, these are monumental, pompous canvases; Another direction is characterized by a genre interpretation of history. National traditions of painting are understood very superficially - as a sum of techniques and means not determined by the influence of the era. Many artists are appearing who see their entire vocation in painting genres, like the “masters of the 17th century,” or historical scenes, “like Rubens.”
Antoine Joseph Wirtz (1806-1865) pretentiously, but unsuccessfully, strives to combine the achievements of Michelangelo and Rubens in his enormous historical and symbolic canvases. Hendrik Leys (1815-1869) first painted small genre-historical paintings, imitating the coloring of Rembrandt. Since the 60s he switches to extensive multi-figure compositions with everyday scenes from the Northern Renaissance, in the manner of execution of which he follows the naive precision and detail of the masters of this period.
Among the numerous historical painters of the mid-century, Louis Galle (1810-1887) deserves mention, whose paintings are distinguished by restraint and laconic composition, and his images are distinguished by a certain internal significance and nobility. A typical example is the painting “Last Honors to the Remains of the Counts of Egmont and Horn” (1851; Tournai, Museum, repeat 1863 - Pushkin Museum). These same qualities are even more characteristic of his genre paintings, such as “The Fisherman’s Family” (1848) and “Slavonets” (1854; both Hermitage).
Gradually, Belgian historical painting is losing its leading role in the system of genres, and to the fore from about the 60s. household painting is coming forward. Mid-century genre painters tended to imitate 17th-century artists, turning to creating entertaining scenes in taverns or cozy home interiors. These are many of the paintings of Jean Baptiste Madou (1796-1877). Hendrik de Brakeler (1840-1888) was very traditional in his subjects, depicting lonely figures at a quiet activity in light-filled interiors. His merit lies in solving the problem of lighting and airy atmosphere using modern painting.
The capitalist development of the country, which took place at a very rapid pace after gaining independence, already in the 60s. posed new problems for art. IN artistic culture Belgium is increasingly being invaded by modernity. The younger generation of artists puts forward the slogan of realism, displaying the characteristic aspects of the surrounding life. In their aspirations they relied on the example of Courbet. The Free Society was founded in Brussels in 1868 fine arts. The most significant of its participants were Charles de Groux, Constantin Meunier, Felicien Rops, Louis Dubois. All of them came out with the slogan of realism, with a call to fight against old art, with its themes far from life and outdated artistic language. The mouthpiece of the aesthetic views of this society was the magazine "Free Art", which began publishing in 1871. The most active participant in the Free Society of Fine Arts was Charles de Groux (1825-1870) already from the late 40s. became famous for his paintings of the life of the lower strata of society. His style of writing is close to Courbet. The coloring is kept in dark, restrained tones, emotionally corresponding to the painful gloom of what is depicted. Such is the painting “Coffee Roaster” (60s; Antwerp, Museum); it shows poor people warming themselves outside on a dark, cold winter's day near a roaster where coffee beans are being roasted. Deep sympathy for the disadvantaged characterizes the artist’s work.
Realism in Belgium very soon gained a strong position in all genres of art. A whole galaxy of landscape painters appears, truthfully and at the same time diversely depicting their native nature - the so-called Tervuren school (named after a place located in the forest near Brussels). The head of the school, Hippolyte Boulanger (1837-1874), painted subtle, somewhat melancholic forest landscapes, similar in color to the Barbizon paintings. Louis Artand (1837-1890) perceived nature more energetically. Most often he depicted views of the sea and coast. His stroke is dynamic and elastic; the artist strives to convey the changing atmosphere and mood of the landscape.
Felicien Rops (1833-1898) occupied a special place in Belgian art. Despite the fact that the master spent a significant part of his creative life in France, he was an active participant in the Belgian artistic process. The artist's rather scandalous fame as a singer of Parisian cocottes often obscures his very important role in the cultural life of Belgium. Rops is one of the founders of the literary and artistic magazine Eulenspiegel (founded in Brussels in 1856) and the first illustrator of the famous novel by Charles de Coster (1867). The illustrations, made using the etching technique, provide sharp and interesting embodiments of the images of the main characters of the novel. Rops was a brilliant master of drawing and an attentive observer of modern life, as evidenced by many of his works.
Architecture of Belgium until the end of the 19th century. didn't create anything significant. In the first half of the century, several buildings were still built in the classicist style, marked by strict taste (the Academy Palace in Brussels -1823-1826, architect Charles van der Straten; greenhouses in the Botanical Garden of Brussels - 1826-1829, architects F.-T. Seys and P.-F. Since the middle of the century, unbridled eclecticism and the desire to create lush, pompous buildings have been growing in architecture. Characteristic, for example, are the building of the stock exchange in Brussels (1873-1876, architect L. Says), the building of the Museum ancient art in the same place (1875-1885, architect A. Bala). Prosperous Belgian capitalism seeks to create a monument to its power. This is how the building of the Palace of Justice in Brussels appeared (1866-1883, architect J. Poulart - one of the most grandiose buildings in Europe in terms of size, distinguished by a pretentious and absurd accumulation and mixture of all kinds of architectural forms. At the same time, stylization plays a big role in the architecture of Belgium. Many churches are being built, town halls and other public buildings imitating Gothic, Flemish Renaissance, and Romanesque styles.
Belgian sculpture until the last quarter of the 19th century. lagged behind painting in its development. In the 30s Under the influence of patriotic ideas, several interesting statues were nevertheless created. First of all, here it is necessary to note the works of Willem Hefs (1805-1883 - his tombstone of Count Frederic de Merode, who fell in the revolutionary battles in Brussels (1837, Brussels, St. Gudula Cathedral), and the statue of General Belliard, standing on one of the squares of the capital ( 1836). The middle of the century in Belgium, as in many other countries, was marked by a decline in the art of sculpting.
During these difficult years for monumental art, the work of the greatest Belgian artist Constantin Meunier (1831-4905) was formed. Meunier began his studies at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts in the sculpture class. Here, in the middle of the century, a conservative academic system dominated; teachers in their creativity and in their teaching followed a pattern and routine, demanding the embellishment of nature in the name of an abstract ideal. Meunier’s first plastic works were still very close to this direction (“Garland”; exhibited in 1851, not preserved). Soon, however, he abandoned sculpture and turned to painting, becoming a student of Navez. The latter, although in those years a symbol of outdated classicism, could teach confident mastery of drawing, plastic sculpting of forms in painting, and an understanding of great style. Another stream of influences on the young master at this time was associated with his friendship with Charles de Groux and his acquaintance with the works of the French realists - Courbet and Millet. Meunier is looking for deeply meaningful art, the art of big ideas, but first turns not to a modern theme, but to religious and historical painting. Particularly interesting is the painting “Episode from the Peasant War of 1797” (1875; Brussels, Museum of Modern Art). The artist chooses one of the final scenes of the uprising, which ended in defeat. He portrays what happened as a national tragedy and at the same time shows the unbending will of the people. The picture is very different from other works of the Belgian historical genre of those years. Here is a different approach to understanding history, and realism in the depiction of the characters, and the soulful emotionality of the depicted, and the introduction of landscape as an active sounding environment.
At the end of the 70s. Meunier ends up in the “black country” - the industrial areas of Belgium. Here he opens completely new world, which has not yet been reflected in art by anyone. Life phenomena with their completely different aspects of beauty dictated a new artistic language, their own special flavor. Meunier creates paintings dedicated to the work of miners, he paints types of miners and female miners, and captures the landscapes of this “black country.” The main note in his paintings is not compassion, but the strength of the working people. This is the innovative significance of Meunier's work. The people are not as an object of pity and sympathy, the people are as the creator of great life values, thereby already demanding a worthy attitude towards themselves. In this recognition of the great importance of working people in the life of society, Meunier objectively stood on a level with the most advanced thinkers of the era.
In his paintings, Meunier uses the language of generalization. He sculpts form using color. Its coloring is strict and restrained - one or two bright colorful spots are interspersed with gray earthy tones, making the whole harsh scale sound. Its composition is simple and monumental, it uses the rhythm of simple, clear lines. A typical painting is “Return from the Mine” (c. 1890; Antwerp, Museum). Three workers, as if walking along the canvas, are drawn in a clear silhouette against the background of a smoky sky. The movement of the figures repeats each other and at the same time varies the general motif. The rhythm of the group and the rhythm of the space of the picture create a harmonious, balanced solution. The figures are shifted to the left edge of the picture, between them and the right side frame there is an open free piece of space. The clarity and generality of the silhouette of the group, the laconicism of the image of each figure give the composition the character of an almost plastic bas-relief. Turning to a new topic that fascinated him, Meunier very soon remembered his original calling. Generalization and laconicism of the means of plastic language could be used in the best possible way to glorify the beauty of human labor. Since the mid-80s. one after another, statues and reliefs of Meunier appeared, glorifying his name, constituting an era in the development of plastic arts of the 19th century. The main theme and image of the sculptor is labor, working people: hammer workers, miners, fishermen, female miners, peasants. Working people entered sculpture, previously limited to a narrow circle of conventional subjects and figures far removed from modernity. Plastic language, previously completely emasculated, again acquired significant brute force and powerful persuasiveness. The human body showed the new possibilities of beauty hidden in it. In the relief “Industry” (1901; Brussels, Menier Museum) the tension of all muscles, the elastic flexibility and strength of the figures, difficulty breathing, tearing the chest, heavy swollen arms - all this does not disfigure a person, but gives him special power and beauty. Meunier became the founder of a new remarkable tradition - the tradition of depicting the working class, the poetry of the labor process.
The people depicted by Meunier do not assume exquisitely beautiful or traditionally classical poses. They are seen and presented by the sculptor in a truly real position. Their movements are rough, as, for example, in the strong, pugnacious “Fetcher” (1888; Brussels, Menier Museum), sometimes even clumsy (“Puddler”, 1886; Brussels, Museum of Ancient Art). In the way these figures stand or sit, you feel the imprint left by labor on their appearance and character. And at the same time, their poses are full of captivating plastic beauty and strength. This is a sculpture in the true sense of the word, living in space, organizing it around itself. Under Meunier’s hand, the human body reveals all its elastic power and harsh, intense dynamics.
Meunier's plastic language is generalized and laconic. Thus, in the statue “Loader” (c. 1905; Brussels, Menier Museum) not so much a portrait was created as a generalized type, and this is what gives it great power of persuasiveness. Meunier refuses conventional academic draperies; his worker wears, so to speak, “overall clothes,” but these clothes do not crush or reduce the shape. The wide surfaces of the fabric seem to cling to the muscles; a few individual folds emphasize the movement of the body. One of Meunier's best works is Antwerp (1900; Brussels, Menier Museum). The sculptor chose not some abstract allegories to personify the hardworking and active city, but a very specific image of a port worker. The stern and courageous head, sculpted with the utmost laconicism, is firmly set on muscular shoulders. Glorifying work, Meunier does not close his eyes to its severity. One of his most stunning plastic works is the group “Mine Gas” (1893; Brussels, Museum of Ancient Art). This is a truly modern version of the eternal theme of a mother mourning her lost son. The tragic aftermath of the mine disaster is captured here. The mournful female figure bent in restrained, mute despair over the convulsively stretched naked body.
Having created countless types and images of working people, Meunier conceived in the 90s. monumental monument to Labor. It should have included several reliefs glorifying various types of labor - “Industry”, “Harvest”, “Port”, etc., as well as a round sculpture - statues “Sower”, “Motherhood”, “Worker”, etc. This plan was never finally realized due to the death of the master, but in 1930 it was realized in Brussels based on the sculptor’s originals. The monument as a whole does not make a monumental impression. Its individual fragments are more convincing. Combining them together in the architectural version that was proposed by the architect Orta turned out to be quite external and fractional.
Meunier's work uniquely summed up the development of Belgian art of the 19th century. It turned out to be the highest achievement of realism in this country during the period under review. At the same time, the significance of Meunier’s realistic achievements went beyond just national art. The sculptor’s remarkable works had a tremendous influence on the development of world plastic arts.
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Belgium! The official name of the Belgian state is the Kingdom of Belgium!
Belgium! The Kingdom of Belgium is a state in Northwestern Europe.
Belgium! The Kingdom of Belgium is a member of the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).
Belgium! The Kingdom of Belgium covers an area of 30,528 km².
Belgium! Kingdom of Belgium! Today the kingdom is home to more than 10 million people. The vast majority of Belgium's population is urban - approximately 97% already in 2004.
Belgium! Kingdom of Belgium! The capital of the Belgian kingdom is the city of Brussels.
Belgium! Kingdom of Belgium! Belgium is bordered to the north by the Netherlands, to the east by Germany, to the southeast by Luxembourg, and by France to the south and west. The Kingdom of Belgium in the northwest has access to the North Sea.
Belgium! Kingdom of Belgium! The form of government in Belgium is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, the form of administrative-territorial structure is a federation.
Belgium History of Belgium
Belgium Prehistoric period
Belgium History of Belgium The oldest traces of the presence of hominids on the territory of future Belgium were found on the Allambe hill, in the vicinity of Mount Saint-Pierre (Sint-Petersburg) in the province of Liege, and date back to approximately 800 thousand years ago.
Belgium History of Belgium In the period 250-35 thousand years BC. e. The territory of Belgium was inhabited by Neanderthals, mainly in the provinces of Liege and Namur.
Belgium History of Belgium Around 30,000 BC. e. Neanderthals disappear, replaced by Cro-Magnons. The last glaciation in this area ended approximately 10,000 BC. e. At that time, the sea level in these places was significantly lower than at present, so there was a land connection between Belgium and modern England, which later disappeared.
Belgium History of Belgium During the Neolithic era, active silicon mining was carried out in Belgium, as evidenced by the prehistoric Spienne mine.
Belgium History of Belgium The first signs of the Bronze Age in Belgium date back to around 1750 BC. e.
Belgium History of Belgium Since the 5th century BC. e. and before the beginning of AD e. On the territory of Belgium, the Gallic-speaking La Tène culture flourishes, maintaining trade and cultural ties with the Mediterranean. From here, Gallic-speaking tribes expanded eastward, all the way to Asia Minor. The word “Belgium” itself comes from the name of the Gallic tribe Belgae, who inhabited this country at the beginning of our era. Among the tribes inhabiting the territory of Belgium, from historical sources Eburones, Aduatics, Nervii, and Menapians are known.
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Belgium History of Belgium In 54 BC. e. The territory of modern Belgium was conquered by the troops of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar and included in the Roman province of Gaul.
Belgium History of Belgium After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in the 5th century the Roman province of Gaul was conquered by the Germanic Frankish tribes.
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Belgium History of Belgium In the Middle Ages, Belgium was part of the Duchy of Burgundy.
Belgium History of Belgium 1477-1556 During this period, the dynastic marriage of Mary of Burgundy introduced the Burgundian possession into the Holy Roman Empire.
Belgium History of Belgium 1556-1713 During these years, the territory of modern Belgium was under the control of Spain. The Thirty Years' War marked the beginning of the separation of Belgian territories from the Protestant Netherlands.
Belgium History of Belgium 1713-1792 The territory of modern Belgium was included in the Holy Roman Empire as the Austrian Netherlands.
Belgium History of Belgium 1792-1815 the territory of modern Belgium came under the control of France.
Belgium History of Belgium 1815-1830, the territory of modern Belgium was included, according to the decision of the Congress of Vienna, into the kingdom of the United Netherlands. However, many in Belgium were unhappy with the forced unification with the Netherlands (primarily the French-speaking population and the Catholic clergy, who feared the strengthening of the role of the Dutch language and the Protestant denomination, respectively).
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Belgium History of Belgium In 1830, as a result of the Belgian revolution, Belgium seceded from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1830, the proclaimed Kingdom of Belgium received its status as an independent state for the first time.
Belgium History of Belgium The Kingdom of Belgium began to intensively develop its economy after gaining independence. For example, Belgium became the first country in continental Europe to build the Mechelen-Brussels railway in 1835.
Belgium History of Belgium Belgium suffered greatly during the First World War. The Belgians still call this war the “Great War.” Although most of Belgium was occupied, throughout the war Belgian and British troops held a small part of the country, sandwiched between the North Sea and the Iser River.
Belgium History of Belgium The history of the Belgian city of Ypres is especially tragic - during the war it was almost completely destroyed. Here, near the city of Ypres, poisonous gas (chlorine) was used for the first time in the history of wars. And the mustard gas used two months later was named after this city.
Belgium History of Belgium On April 3, 1925, an agreement was concluded between Belgium and the Netherlands to revise the 1839 treaty. Abolition of Belgium's long-standing neutrality and demilitarization of the port of Antwerp.
Belgium History of Belgium Second World War (1940-1944). During World War II, the Germans occupy Belgium. The Belgian government flees to England, and King Leopold III is deported to Germany, having signed the instrument of surrender on May 28, 1940. During the German occupation, a regime of German military control was introduced in Belgium under the command of General von Falkenhausen.
Belgium History of Belgium The liberation of Belgium from German troops begins on September 3, 1944 with the entry of British troops into Brussels. On February 11, 1945, Belgium began to operate its own government.
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Belgium Kingdom of Belgium Modern history of Belgium
Belgium History of Belgium April 4, 1949 The Kingdom of Belgium joins NATO.
Belgium History of Belgium In 1957, the Kingdom of Belgium joined the European Economic Community (EEC).
Belgium Belgian culture
Belgium Culture of Belgium A feature of the cultural life of Belgium is the absence of a single cultural field.
Belgium Culture of Belgium In fact, cultural life in the Belgian kingdom is concentrated within linguistic communities. There is no national television, newspapers or other media in Belgium.
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Belgium Belgian Art
Belgium Already during the Renaissance, Flanders became famous for its painting (Flemish primitives).
Belgium Later, the famous artist Rubens lived and worked in Flanders (in Belgium, the city of Antwerp is still often called the city of Rubens). However, by the second half of the 17th century, Flemish art gradually declined.
Belgium New rise pictorial art in Belgium it belongs to the periods of romanticism, expressionism and surrealism. World-famous Belgian artists: James Ensor (expressionism and surrealism), Constant Permeke (expressionism), Leon Spilliaert (symbolism).
Belgium The most famous artist in Belgium is undoubtedly René Magritte, considered one of the most important representatives of surrealism.
Belgium On June 2, 2009, a new museum of the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967) opened in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts complex in Brussels. The exhibition includes approximately 250 works. The new museum became the largest exhibition of paintings by Rene Magritte in the world.
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Belgium! Artists of Belgium (Belgian painters and sculptors), painters of Belgium (Belgian masters of painting) are well known throughout the world and paint beautiful paintings. The work of Belgian artists is very diverse. Belgian artists (Belgian painters) often exhibit their works at international exhibitions around the world, including in Russia.
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Belgian artists
The peak of painting in Belgium occurred during the Burgundian rule in the 15th century. During the Renaissance, artists painted portraits with intricate details. These were life-like and non-idealized paintings, in which the artists tried to achieve maximum realism and clarity. This style of painting is explained by the influence of the new Dutch school.
For Belgian painting, the 20th century became the second golden age. But artists have already retreated from the principles of realism in painting and turned to surrealism. One of these artists was Rene Magritte.
Belgian painting has ancient traditions, of which the Belgians are rightfully proud. The Rubens House Museum is located in Antwerp, and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts is located in Brussels. They became a manifestation of the deep respect the Belgians have for their artists and ancient traditions in painting.
Flemish primitivists
Even at the end of the Middle Ages, Europe began to pay attention to painting in Flanders and Brussels. Jan Van Eyck (circa 1400-1441) revolutionized Flemish art. He was the first to use oil to make permanent paints and mix paints on canvas or wood. These innovations made it possible to preserve paintings longer. During the Renaissance, panel painting began to spread.
Jan Van Eyck became the founder of the school of Flemish primitivism, depicting life in bright colors and movement on his canvases. In Ghent Cathedral there is a polyptych altar "Adoration of the Lamb", created by famous artist and his brother.
Flemish primitivism in painting is particularly distinguished realistic portraits, clarity of lighting and careful depiction of clothing and fabric textures. One of the best artists who worked in this direction was Rogierde la Pasture (Rogier van der Weyden) (circa 1400-1464). One of the famous paintings by Rogirde la Pastura is “The Descent from the Cross”. The artist combined the power of religious feelings and realism. Rogierde la Pasture's paintings inspired many Belgian artists who inherited the new technique.
The capabilities of the new technology were expanded by Dirk Bouts (1415-1475).
The last Flemish primitivist is considered to be Hans Memling (c. 1433-1494), whose paintings depict Bruges in the 15th century. The first paintings depicting industrial European cities were painted by Joachim Patinir (circa 1475-1524).
Bruegel Dynasty
Belgian art at the beginning of the 16th century was greatly influenced by Italy. The artist Jan Gossaert (circa 1478-1533) studied in Rome. To paint pictures for the ruling dynasty of the Dukes of Brabant, he chose mythological subjects.
In the 16th-17th centuries. The biggest influence on Flemish art was the Bruegel family. One of the best artists of the Flemish school was Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1525-1569). He arrived in Brussels in 1563. His most famous works are canvases depicting comical figures of peasants. They provide an opportunity to plunge into the world of the Middle Ages. One of the famous paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Younger (1564-1638), who painted canvases on religious themes, is “The Census of Bethlehem” (1610). Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), also called “Velvet” Bruegel, painted complex still lifes depicting flowers against a background of velvet draperies. Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) painted magnificent landscapes and was a court artist.
Artists of Antwerp
The center of Belgian painting in the 17th century moved from Brussels to Antwerp - the center of Flanders. This was largely influenced by the fact that one of the first world-famous Flemish artists, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), lived in Antwerp. Rubens painted magnificent landscapes, paintings with mythological themes and was a court artist. But his most famous paintings are those depicting plump women. Rubens' popularity was so great that Flemish weavers created a large collection of tapestries depicting his magnificent paintings.
Rubens' student, the court portrait painter Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), became the second artist from Antwerp to achieve world fame.
Jan Brueghel the Elder settled in Antwerp, and his son-in-law David Teniers II (1610-1690) established the Academy of Arts in Antwerp in 1665.
European influence
In the 18th century, Rubens' influence on art still remained, so there were no significant changes in the development of Flemish art.
From the beginning of the 19th century, the strong influence of other European schools on the art of Belgium began to be felt. IN Flemish painting François Joseph Navez (1787-1869) added neoclassicism. Constantin Meunier (1831-1905) gave preference to realism. Guillaume Vogels (1836-1896) painted in the style of impressionism. A supporter of the romantic direction in painting was the Brussels artist Antoine Wirtz (1806-1865).
Antoine Wirtz's disturbing, distorted and blurred paintings, such as Hasty Cruelty, painted around 1830, mark the beginning of surrealism in art. Fernand Knopf (1858-1921), known for his disturbing portraits of unsavory women, is considered an early representative of the Belgian Symbolist school. His work was influenced by Gustav Klimt, the German romantic.
James Ensor (1860-1949) was another artist whose work moved from realism to surrealism. His canvases often depict mysterious and creepy skeletons. Society of artists "LesVingt" (LesXX) in 1884-1894. organized an exhibition of works by famous foreign avant-garde artists in Brussels, thereby revitalizing cultural life in the city.
Surrealism
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the influence of Cezanne has been felt in Belgian art. During this period, Fauvists appeared in Belgium, depicting bright landscapes drenched in the sun. A prominent representative of Fauvism was the sculptor and artist Rick Wouters (1882-1916).
In the mid-twenties of the 20th century, surrealism appeared in Brussels. Rene Magritte (1898-1967) became a prominent representative of this movement in art. Surrealism began to develop in the 16th century. The phantasmagoric paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Bosch were painted in this style. There are no guidelines in Magritte’s paintings; he defined his surreal style, as “a return from the familiar to the alien.”
Paul Delvaux (1897-1989) was a more outrageous and emotional artist, his canvases depicting whimsical, elegant interiors with misty figures.
The CoBRA movement in 1948 promoted abstract art. Abstractionism was replaced by conceptual art, led by Marcel Brudthaers (1924-1976), a master of installations. Brudthaers depicted familiar objects, such as a saucepan filled with mussels.
Tapestries and lace
Belgian tapestries and lace have been considered luxury for six hundred years. In the 12th century, tapestries began to be made by hand in Flanders, and later they began to be made in Brussels, Tournai, Oudenaarde and Mechelen.
From the beginning of the 16th century, the art of lace making began to develop in Belgium. Lace was woven in all provinces, but lace from Brussels and Bruges was most valued. Often the most skilled lacemakers were patronized by aristocrats. For the nobility, fine tapestries and exquisite lace were considered a sign of their status. In the 15th-18th centuries. lace and tapestries were the main export products. And today Belgium is considered the birthplace of the best tapestries and lace.
The Flemish cities of Tournai and Arras (today located in France) became famous European weaving centers by the beginning of the 13th century. Crafts and trade developed. The technique made it possible to do more delicate and expensive work; threads of real silver and gold began to be added to wool, which increased the cost of the products even more.
A revolution in the production of tapestries was made by Bernard Van Orley (1492-1542), who combined Flemish realism and Italian idealism in his drawings. Later, Flemish masters were lured to Europe, and by the end of the 18th century, all the glory of Flemish tapestries passed to the Parisian factory.
Belgium all year round
The Belgian climate is typical of northern Europe. It is for this reason that celebrations can take place both on the street and at home. The weather conditions perfectly allow the capital's artists to perform, both in stadiums and in ancient buildings. The people of Belgium know how to take advantage of the changing seasons. For example, in the summer, a flower festival opens in the capital. The Grand Place is covered with millions of flowers every second August. The opening of the dance, cinema and theater season occurs in January. Premieres from “drive-in cinemas” to old abbeys await their viewers here.
In Brussels you can watch various festivals take place all year round. Here you can see luxurious, full of life historical processions. They have been held every year since medieval times. The latest experimental art from Europe is showcased here.
Holidays
- New Year - January 1
- Easter - floating date
- Clean Monday - floating date
- Labor Day - May 1st
- Ascension - floating date
- Trinity Day - floating date
- Spiritual Monday - floating date
- Belgium National Day - July 21st
- Assumption - August 15
- All Saints' Day - November 1st
- Truce - November 11
- Christmas - December 25
As spring days lengthen in Belgium, cultural life picks up. Tourists are starting to come here. Carrying out music festivals happens right on the street. When the city parks bloom, the tropical greenhouses of Laiken, which are known throughout the world, are opened to visitors. For the significant holiday of Easter, Belgian chocolate makers are busy preparing all kinds of sweets.
- International Fantasy Film Festival (3rd and 4th week). Lovers of miracles and strangeness can expect new films in cinemas throughout the capital.
- Ars Music (mid-March - mid-April). This holiday is one of the best European festivals. Famous performers come to see it. Concerts often take place at the Museum of Old Masters. All music connoisseurs are present at this festival.
- Euroantica (last week). Heysel Stadium is full of visitors and sellers who want to buy or sell antiques.
- Easter (Easter Sunday). There is a belief that before Easter, church bells fly to Rome. When they return, they leave Easter eggs in the fields and forests especially for the children. Thus, every year, more than 1,000 painted eggs are hidden by adults in the Royal Park, and children from all over the city gather to search for them.
April
- Spring Baroque on Sablon (3rd week). Young Belgian talent gathers at the famous Place de la Grande Sablon. They perform music from the 17th century.
- Royal Greenhouses in Laiken (12 days, dates vary). When cacti and all sorts of exotic plants begin to bloom, the private greenhouses of the Belgian royal family are opened to the public. The premises are made of glass and trimmed with iron. Stored here from bad weather a large number of all kinds of rare plants.
- Festival in Flanders (mid-April - October) This festival is a musical feast in which all kinds of styles and trends are mixed. More than 120 famous orchestras and choirs perform here.
- "Screen Scenes" (3rd week - end). New European films are presented daily especially for viewers.
- Celebrating Europe Day (7-9 May). Due to the fact that Brussels is the European capital, this is once again emphasized at the holiday. For example, even Mannequin Piece is dressed in a blue suit, which is decorated with yellow stars.
- Künsteen Arts Festival (9-31 May). Young theater actors and dancers participate in this festival.
- Queen Elizabeth Competition (May - mid-June). On this music competition fans of the classics gather. This competition has been running for over forty years. Young pianists, violinists and singers perform there. Famous conductors and soloists choose the most worthy performers among them.
- 20 km race in Brussels (last Sunday). Conducting jogging in the capital, in which more than 20,000 amateurs and professional runners actively participate.
- Jazz rally (last day off). Small jazz ensembles perform in bistros and cafes.
In July, the season of court splendor opens in Ommengang. This is a fairly old custom. A huge procession moves through the Grand Place and surrounding streets. At this wonderful time of year you can hear music of various styles. Performers can play music in various places, for example in the huge King Baudouin stadium in Heysel or in small café bars. On the day of Independence Day, all Belgians come to the Midi fair. It takes place in an area where trays are installed and paths are constructed.
- Brussels Summer Festival (early June - September). Concert programs are held in famous ancient buildings.
- Festival in Wallonia (June - October). A series of gala concerts in Brussels and Flanders allows us to present to the audience the most talented young Belgian soloists and orchestra members.
- Festival of cafe "Cooler" (last week). Over the course of three days, a very fashionable program takes place in a converted Tour-e-Taxi warehouse. The audience can expect African drummers, salsa, ethnic music and acid jazz.
- Music Festival (last day off). For two weeks in a row, benefit performances and concerts are held in city halls and museums dedicated to world music.
- Ommegang (1st day off in July). Tourists come from all over the world to see this action. This festival has been taking place in Brussels since 1549. This procession (or, as it is called, “detour”) goes around the Grand Place, all the streets that are adjacent to it, and moves in a circle. More than 2000 participants take part here. The costumes transform them into Renaissance city dwellers. The parade passes by high-ranking Belgian officials. Tickets must be reserved in advance.
- Jazz-folk festival "Brosella" (2nd weekend). The festival takes place in Osseghem Park. Everyone comes to see him famous musicians from Europe.
- Summer Festival in Brussels (July - August). At this time of year the musicians play classical works in the Lower and Upper towns.
- Midi Fair (mid-July - mid-August). The fair is held at the famous Brussels Gardu-Midi station. This event runs for a month. Children really like it. This fair is considered the largest in Europe.
- Belgium Day (21 July). A military parade is held in honor of Independence Day, which has been celebrated since 1831, followed by fireworks in Brussels Park.
- Open days at the Royal Palace (last week of July - 2nd week of September). The doors of the Royal Palace open to visitors. This event is held for six consecutive weeks.
- Maypole (Mayboom) (August 9). This festival dates back to 1213. Participants in this action dress up in huge costumes - dolls. The procession passes through the Lower City. It stops at the Grand Place, then a maypole is placed there.
- Flower carpet (mid-August, once every 2 years). This holiday takes place every other year. This is a tribute to floriculture in Brussels. The entire Grand Place is covered with fresh flowers. The total area of such a carpet is approximately 2000 m².
Autumn
In autumn, Belgians' entertainment activities move indoors - to cafes or cultural centers where they can listen to modern music. During Heritage Days, the public has the opportunity to enjoy architecture by visiting private houses that are not open to the public at other times and viewing the collections housed there.
September
- Mannequin Piece's birthday (last day off).
- Famous sculpture the peeing boy is dressed in another suit, donated by some high-ranking foreign guest.
- Festival "Happy City" (first weekend).
- At this time, about 60 concerts are held in three dozen of the best Brussels cafes.
- "Botanical Nights" (last week).
- In French cultural center Le Botanique, located in the former greenhouses of the Botanical Garden, hosts a series of concerts that will delight all lovers of jazz music.
- Heritage Days (2nd or 3rd day off).
- For a few days, many protected buildings and private homes, as well as closed art collections, open their doors to visitors.
- Audi Jazz Festival (mid-October - mid-November).
- The sounds of jazz are heard throughout the country, diluting the autumn boredom. Local performers perform, but some European stars often perform at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
In winter in Belgium it usually rains and snows, so almost all events during this period are moved indoors. Art galleries host exhibitions of world significance, and at the Brussels Film Festival you can see the work of both famous masters and young talents. Before the Christmas holidays, the Lower Town is decorated with bright illuminations, and on Christmas, Belgian tables are decorated with traditional dishes.
- "Sablon's Nocturne" (last day off). All shopping centers and museums in Place Grand Sablon do not close until late in the evening. Horse-drawn carts travel throughout the fair, carrying customers, and on the main square everyone can taste real mulled wine.
- St. Nicholas Day (December 6).
- According to legend, on this day the patron saint of Christmas, Santa Claus, comes to the city, and all Belgian children receive sweets, chocolate and other gifts.
- Christmas (December 24-25).
- Like other Catholic countries, Christmas in Belgium is celebrated on the evening of December 24th. Belgians exchange gifts and then go to visit their parents the next day. All kinds of Christmas attributes decorate the streets of the capital until January 6th.
- King's Day (January 6).
- On this day, special almond “royal cakes” are prepared, and everyone looks for the pea hidden there. The one who finds it is declared king for the entire festive night.
- Brussels Film Festival (mid-end of January).
- Premiere screening of new films with the participation of European film stars.
- Antiques Fair (2nd and 3rd week).
- Antiques sellers from all over the world gather at the Palace of Fine Arts.
- International Comics Festival (2nd and 3rd week).
- Comic book writers and artists flock to the city, which has had a profound influence on the art of comics, to share their experiences and showcase new work.
Who is at the helm of the Belgian art market? Jan Fabre, Luc Tuymans and Francis Alus
In 2011, in the European art market with a modest share of 1.11%, Belgium took only sixth place, behind not only the UK, France and Germany, but also Sweden and Italy. However, the low position of the Belgian art market does not at all reflect the success that has been achieved in international level Belgian artists. Four Belgians made it into the Top 30 contemporary European authors in 2011, making Belgium the third most widely represented country in the ranking after the UK and Germany.
Top 10 auction results of contemporary Belgian artists in 2011
Job | Result, dollars | Auction |
||
Luc Tuymans | Deal - No deal (2011) | |||
Luc Tuymans | Easter (2006) | |||
Wim Delvaux | Models of Caterpillar 5C truck and excavator (2004) | |||
Luc Tuymans | Shore (2011) | |||
The Man Who Measures the Clouds (1998) | ||||
Francis Alus | The Eternal Jew (2011) | |||
The Man Who Gives Fire (2002) | ||||
The Battle in the Hour Blue (1989) | ||||
Francis Alus | Untitled (Man/Woman with Shoe on Head) (1995) | |||
Anthropology of the Planet (2008) |
In 2011, among Belgian artists, Luc Tuymans was not only the best-selling, but also the most generous. In fact, two of his top three results for the year came at charity auctions. His work “Deal - No deal” (“Lucky or unlucky”) was offered to buyers on September 22 at Christie’s “Artists for Haiti” New York auction (proceeds went to help victims of the 2010 earthquake). Tuymans’ painting was bought for 956,500 dollars, significantly higher than the estimate of 600–800 thousand dollars. The work “Deal - No deal” was created by Tuymans in Bruges. The author says that he was inspired by a lonely man playing a slot machine in the corner of a night bar after midnight on a large scale (200 x. 130) in Tuymans’s painting, the player is in confusion and confusion.
| LUK TUYMANS Deal - No deal. 2011 Source: christies.com |  LUK TUYMANS Shore. 2011 Source: arcadja.com |
A few weeks later, Takashi Murakami organized a charity auction to benefit victims of the earthquake in Japan, at which Tuymans's work "The Shore" (2011) was sold for $260,000. In this oil painting, the artist reworked his earlier 2005 silkscreen “Shore,” based on a Polaroid photograph of the surf at night. In the new version, the wave running onto the shore and the night sky acquired shades of gray and white. In this work, the author expressed his personal attitude to the tragedy of the country affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
Another work by Tuymans - “Easter” (2006) - was sold at Sotheby's New York auction in May for $800 thousand. The painting belongs to a series of works by Tuymans that explore the influence of the Jesuit order on various decision-making systems (political, religious and etc.). With these record results, prices for Tuymans have almost returned to the peak level of 2005, when his retrospective was held at the Tate Modern. And most recently, the traveling exhibition of Tuymans, which had previously visited Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, and St. Petersburg, ended in Brussels. Francisco.
 VIM DELVAULT Models of Caterpillar 5C truck and excavator. 2004 Source: m.sothebys.com |  VIM DELVAULT Caterpillar 5C truck and excavator models (fragment). 2004 Source: m.sothebys.com |
Belgian artist Wim Delvoye takes third place in the ranking with his “Models of a Caterpillar 5C Truck and Excavator” (2004), sold at Sotheby's London auction on October 13 for $297.7 thousand. Small truck made in the artist’s iconic style and the excavator became the most expensive work by Delvaux sold at public auction. Laser-cut gothic patterns from steel are reminiscent of the artist’s Flemish roots. Delvaux has long been considered the “bad boy” of Belgian contemporary art - it was he who tried to tattoo pigs and invented the production machine. excrement "Cloaca". Over the past year, in addition to scandalous fame, the artist has also achieved commercial success: three of his works were sold for more than 150 thousand dollars - the same as in the previous four years.
Jan Fabre, like Delvaux, cannot be considered an angel, but his reputation as a provocateur did not prevent him from taking four places in the ranking of the most successful Belgian authors. His best result of 2011 is fifth in the national standings. The secondary market for Fabre's work has finally begun to match the level of international recognition that the artist has recently achieved (Jan Fabre, for example, was a guest artist in the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale). The bronze statue “Man Measuring Clouds” (1998) at Christie's auction on October 15 reached a hammer price of 252.4 thousand dollars - the best for the artist in 2011. In total, Fabre made 8 casts of this sculpture; one of them went with hammer for about 230 thousand dollars; and another one already this year, on February 16, was sold for 267 thousand, which updated the artist’s personal record last year and confirmed the increase in prices on the market for his works. There are a couple more sculptures by Jan Fabre in the current ranking: “ The Man Who Gives Fire" (233.6 thousand dollars, Christie's, London) and "Anthropology of the Planet" (197.9 thousand dollars, Sotheby's, Amsterdam). It is interesting that one of Fabre's most expensive works in 2011 is ". The Battle in the Hour Blue" (221.6 thousand dollars, Christie's, London) - a drawing, while all previous results of Fabre's graphic works did not exceed 28 thousand dollars. The work represents three stag beetles fixed in the center of a sheet of paper, completely painted over with a ballpoint pen. This is the most old work rating - Fabre created it back in 1989.
From November 2004 to May 2008, 12 works by Francis Alys were auctioned for more than 150 thousand dollars. From June 2008 to May 2011, only one of his works achieved a result of over 80 thousand dollars. The crisis had a dramatic impact on the market for Alus’s works: in the period 2008–2010, prices for his works fell by 37 percent. In 2011, Tate Modern hosted one of the Belgian's most comprehensive exhibitions, A History of Deception. Now the demand for Alus’ works has increased again: in 2011, only 21 percent of his works remained without buyers, while in 2009 this figure was 40 percent. Therefore, it is not surprising that two of them are included in the current ranking. Having started out as an architect, Francis Alus in his works explores the interaction of man and space using a variety of techniques - from painting to performance. At the already mentioned charity auction “Artists for Haiti,” Alus’s large oil painting “Le juif errant” (“The Eternal Jew”) and several preparatory drawings for it went for 248 thousand dollars. The painting reflects the theme of migration from a mythological perspective. Another excellent result was brought by the work “Untitled” (“Man/woman with a shoe on his head”): with a rather bold estimate of 100–150 thousand dollars (if we take into account the last sale of this work in 2004 for 70 thousand dollars), the work was sold for twice as much - for 200 thousand dollars.
So far, Belgian artists have earned their best auction results not at home. Nevertheless, Belgium is responsible for a quarter of all the lots sold by these four authors, which corresponds to 11 percent of the total proceeds for their works at auction.
Material prepared by Maria Onuchina,A.I.
Read also about Belgian artists:
Jan Fabre - artist and entomologist;
Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Luc Tuymans;
Top 10 Newsweek. Francis Alus: Art as a Commentary on Existence.
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