Belgium and Luxembourg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

22 INTRODUCING BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

Belgian Artists

Belgian art rose to the fore when the region came

under Burgundian rule in the 15th century. Renaissance

painters produced strong works in oil, characterized

by intricate detail and lifelike, unidealized portraiture.

Trade and artistic links with Italy provided a rich,

mutual exchange of painting techniques in the per-

ennial quest to capture visual reality. In contrast,

during the 20th century, Belgium’s second golden

artistic age moved away from these goals, abandoning

reality for Surrealism in the work of artists such as

René Magritte. Brussels’s Musées Royaux des Beaux-

Arts (see pp68–73), the Rubenshuis (see pp150–51) in

Antwerp and the museums around St-Martens-Latem

(see pp136) are fine examples of the respect Belgium

shows to its artists’ works, homes and contexts.

THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES

Art in Brussels and Flanders

first attracted European

attention at the end of the

Middle Ages. Jan van Eyck

(c.1395–1441) is believed to

be responsible for the major

revolution in Flemish art.

Widely credited as the pio-

neer of oil painting, van Eyck

was the first artist to mix col-

our pigments for wood and

canvas and to use the oil

medium to fix longer-lasting

glazes. As works could now

be rendered more permanent,

these innovations spread

the Renaissance fashion for

panel paintings. However,

van Eyck was more than just

a practical innovator, and can

be seen as the forefather of

the Flemish Primitive school,

with his lively depictions of

THE BRUEGHEL

DYNASTY

In the early years of the 16th

century, Belgian art was

strongly influenced by the

Italians. Trained in Rome,

Jan Gossaert (c.1478–1532)

brought mythological themes

to the art commissioned by

the ruling dukes of Brabant.

However, it was the prolific

Brueghel family who exer-

cised the most influence on

Flemish art throughout the

16th and 17th centuries.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder

(c.1525–69), one of the great-

est Flemish artists, settled in

Brussels in 1563. His earthy

rustic landscapes of village

life, peopled with comic

peasants, are a social study

of medieval life and remain

his best-known work. Pieter

Brueghel the Younger (1564–

1636) produced religious

works such as The Enrolment

of Bethlehem (1610). In con-

trast, Jan Brueghel the Elder

(1568–1625) painted floral

still-lifes with such a smooth

and detailed technique that

he earned the nickname

Velvet Brueghel. His son, Jan

Brueghel the Younger (1601–

78) also became a court

painter in Brussels and a

landscape artist of note.

human existence in an

animated manner. Van Eyck

is also responsible, with his

brother, for the striking polyp-

tych altarpiece Adoration of

the Mystic Lamb, displayed

in St-Baafskathedraal (see

pp132) in Ghent.

The trademarks of the

Flemish Primitives are a life-

like vitality, enhanced by

realism in portraiture, texture

of clothes and furnishings

and a clarity of light. A highly

expressive interpreter of the

style was the town painter

of Brussels, Rogier van der

Weyden (c.1400–64), known

in French as Rogier de la

Pasture. He combined van

Eyck’s light and realism in

paintings of great religious

intensity such as Lamentation

(see p72). His work was

extremely influential across

Europe. Dirk Bouts (1415–75)

applied the style to his own

meticulous, if static, compo-

sitions. With his studies of

bustling 15th-century Bruges,

Hans Memling (c.1430–94) is

considered the last Flemish

Primitive. Moving into the

16th century, landscape artist

Joachim Patinir (c.1480–1524)

produced the first European

industrial scenes.

The Fall of Icarus by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Portrait of Laurent Froimont by

Rogier van der Weyden