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A brief history of the sculpture
in the present-day Netherlands and Belgium
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3
The 1773 decision
by Maria Theresa to abolish the Jesuit order in the Southern
Netherlands marked the beginning of a dramatic period for sculptural
production, not just for sculptors but also for past projects that
had been destroyed. After the revolutionary wave, altars, pulpits,
choir stalls, and many more church furnishings were slowly but
gradually moved into the remaining parish churches. Overall,
monastic buildings suffered most.
During the first
half of the 19th century, Neoclassicism remained the dominant mode
of expression in Netherlandish sculpture, varying from severe
Greco-Roman interpretations of portraiture and mythological scenes
to more sensuous and charming alternatives. Many sculptors perfected
their training in Rome and Paris, and hence the dominant stylistic
influence. Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (1750-1835) remains the best
known of his generation. His remarkable models for the pediments of
the Château de Laeken and the Palais de la Nation in Brussels
(1781-84) survive, as does the plaster bust of his wife, Jeanne
Catherine Offhuys (1807, all Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine
Arts).
Two other
well-known Neoclassical sculptors spent most of their active life
abroad. Mathieu Kessels (1784-1836) trained in St. Petersburg under
Joseph Camberlain and in Rome under Bertel Thorvaldsen. On Kessels’s
death, the Belgian government bought up his complete studio contents
to create a museum of sculpture. The contents included the full-size
plaster model of his tomb of the Comtesse de Celles, the marble of
which he erected in the Church of S. Giuliano dei Fiamminghi, Rome.
His contemporary Henri-Joseph Rutxhiel (1775-1837) enjoyed much
success in Paris throughout his career, after training under
Jean-Antoine Houdon. Paul Joseph Gabriel (1784-1834) spent several
years in Rome before and after training under Pierre Cartellier in
Paris. He was subsequently appointed royal sculptor to Willem I of
Holland and city sculptor of Amsterdam.
Nevertheless, the
strong hold of Baroque conceptions, in all its forms from Mannerism
to Rococo, continued to enjoy patronage, particularly for religious
commissions. Noteworthy examples are the naturalistic oak pulpits,
of which Flemish sculptors made a specialty. The 1821 pulpit in the
church of SintAndries, Antwerp, by Jan-Baptist van Hool (1769-1857)
and Jan-Lodewijk van Geel (1787-1852), takes the possibilities
offered by a naturalistic life-size three-dimensional representation
of a scene from the Gospel to its extreme.
Technically, the
production of sculpture in the 19th century had not inherently
changed since the 18th century. The academies continued to be the
main outlets for sales during regular exhibitions for much of the
century. The Geefs family rose to prominence in the 1830s; one of
its many exponents, Guillaume Geefs (1805-83), was responsible for
the 1833 tomb monument in Brussels’ cathedral of Frédéric comte de
Merode, which is noted for its naturalness and lack of idealization.
Although creative originality still had to grow from an increasingly
outdated Neoclassicism imported from France and Italy, signs of
renewal, particularly the introduction of Romantic traits, began
slowly to appear.
Belgium’s
independence in 1830 signaled the beginning of a gradual increase in
interest by the state to promote sculpture, which took on many
forms, including the erection of overtly propagandistic monuments to
stress the historical continuity of the southern Low Countries in
the new independent state. The over-life-size statue of Général
Augustin-Daniel Belliard by Guillaume Geefs (1836, rue Royale,
Brussels) began a long tradition reaching into the 20th century.
Attention to historical accuracy and Romantic traits characterize
even more Eugène Simonis’s (1810-82) equestrian monument to
Godefroid de Bouillon (1848, place Royale, Brussels). This mid
19th-century phenomenon has frequently been described as statuemania.
National history of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in particular
was beloved subject matter to all those involved in the sculpting of
religiously inspired, devout Neo-Gothic or “troubadour”-style
statues. Literary sources became highly fashionable.
The Musée de
Peinture et de Sculpture (as the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of
Belgium were called in the 19th century) received much attention,
becoming the main national organ to promote the contemporary fine
arts. Throughout the 19th century, its collections grew with works
often purchased directly from the artists or at salons, and not
infrequently complete studio contents, such as that of Kessels
already mentioned.
The bourgeoisie
followed state patronage as their income rose rapidly with
industrialization. They avidly consumed, among others, domestic
mythological and allegorical nudes. Charles-Auguste Fraikin
(1817-93) became famous for his nudes, such as L’Amour captif
[Captive Love] (1845, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels and
Hermitage, St Petersburg).
The increasingly
widespread use of bronze, a material that faithfully reproduces
malleable wax, allowed sculptors to move away from strict
Neoclassical forms and to indulge in more mobile shapes and tactile
surfaces. The reproducibility of the medium suited a bourgeois
market well at a time that coincided with the internationalization
that salons and world exhibitions encouraged.
The present-day
Netherlands, the territory that was left after the separation of
independent Belgium in 1830, continued to rely on the sculptors
established in such cities as Antwerp and Brussels. Foreign training
of Dutch sculptors was only one feature of sculptural production,
which was dominated, as in Belgium, by the academies. Academies
here, however, were mainly run by foreigners. Mechelen-born Louis
Royer (1793-1868), for instance, became director of sculpture at the
Amsterdam academy in 1837. He monopolized much of the market for
historic pieces, arising from the increasing awareness of national
identity after the collapse of the French regime in 1815. Romantic
inspiration, for those who used that style, typically drew from
Belgian precedent.
In the third
quarter of the 19th century, the dominant academic style kept its
momentum. Iconographies that did not fit into this model were often
the only way for sculptors to produce entirely new works. Examples
include images of Neapolitan youths introduced by François Rude
(1784-1855) after his years of exile in Brussels. In the works on
this subject by Belgian sculptors, such as Antoine Sopers’s
(1823-82) Jeune Napolitain jouant à la roglia (1859) or
Adolphe Fassin’s (1828-1900) Acquaiuolo napolitain (1863,
both Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels), close study from life
replaced traditional models. The result was a fine realism and
elegance of line. At its opposite lay the crowning of Belgian
Romantic sculpture: Antoine Wiertz’s (1806-65) series Les quatre
âges de l’humanité (1860-62, Musée Wiertz, Brussels), which is
heavily indebted to Rubens. Rodin spent most of his time between
1870 and 1877 in Brussels, executing public monuments, but also
portrait busts, as for instance of the sculptor Paul de Vigne (1876,
Musée Rodin, Paris).
Beginning in the
1870s sculptors often combined study from life with a renewed
interest in the use of terracotta and the lost-wax casting technique
of bronze. The Compagnie des Bronzes in Brussels, a company much
favored by prominent artists, revived the bronze casting technique.
The Italian Renaissance became a frequent source of inspiration,
notably for Julien Dillens (1849-1904) and Paul De Vigne
(1843-1901). Charles Van der Stappen’s (1843-1910) early work
David (1878, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen)
and Thomas Vinçotte’s (1850-1925) Giotto (1874, Royal Museums
of Fine Arts, Brussels) also belong to this circle.
The architect
Pierre Joseph Hubertus Cuypers (1827-1921) introduced the Gothic
Revival in Dutch sculpture from about 1850. This style particularly
suited the decoration of his Catholic churches, whereas his secular
public buildings generally received decoration inspired by
17th-century precedent, especially Artus I Quellin. In purely
sculptural terms, the results were not always laudable. The Gothic
Revival style in Belgian sculpture was virtually exclusively linked
to church commissions, often intended to return to “indigenous” art
and thereby eliminating Baroque church furnishings. However, some
Neo-Gothic country houses also included sculpture among the
decoration.
Despite the
frequent re-Gothicization of churches, church furniture, including
monumental altarpieces, represented such enormous investments that
trade in existing 17th- and 18th-century structures frequently
implied adaptations and additions that required the work of the
sculptor to be blended in neatly. Sculptors such as the
Antwerp-based De Cuyper brothers (unrelated to the Dutch Cuypers),
who achieved high standards in 17th- and 18th-century terms (for
instance, the 1845 antependium of the high altar of church of
Sint-Paulus, Antwerp), filled an important market. These sculptors
are just one name among creators of an enormous continuous
production of devotional Neo-Baroque sculpture from the 17th century
to at least World War I and that is therefore often deceptively
difficult to date.
Cuypers’s need for
skilled masons and cabinetmakers to fulfill his numerous commissions
led him to create workshops in Roermond (1853) and later in
Amsterdam for the decoration of the new Rijksmuseum building
(1876-85) and the Centraal Station (1882-9). With this, Cuypers
intended also to revive the sculpture-as-craft tradition within the
professions of stonemasonry and wood carving. The emphasis on
modeling in clay and wax in the academies prevented them from being
able to teach these more practical aspects of the sculpture trade.
The outcome was overwhelming, and the Rijksmuseum buildingshed
workshops were transferred to rooms in the Quellinus School, an
arts-and-crafts school. The design of the sculptural elements,
however, was generally done outside the Quellinus School by such
artists as the Leuven professor François Vermeylen (1824-88) and the
Moravian Ludwig Jünger (b. 1856). All of the sculptors involved in
this project, including the only Dutch sculptor, Bartholomeus
Johannes van Hove (1790-1880), were typical exponents of the
academic style.
By the 1890s
Cuypers’s efforts at the Quellinus School paid off significantly.
Some of the more famous sculptors of the time had enjoyed their
training in that workshop. Sculptors such as Joseph Mendes da Costa
(1863-1939) and Lambertus Zijl (1866-1947) built their reputation on
decorative sculpture in the Nieuwe Kunst style, the Dutch
interpretation of Art Nouveau. Mendes da Costa found inspiration in
orientalism, whereas Zijl favored an abstracted medieval style that
fitted into the architecture of Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1856-1934),
with whom he often collaborated. The Amsterdam exchange (ca.
1898-1903) is probably the most famous of Berlage’s projects. Zijl’s
independent sculpture often resembles George Minne’s work in its
angular and broadly modeled forms.
Just as the other
branches of the arts and humanities, sculpture thrived in the last
20 years of the 19th century. Brussels became a major center of
production, promoted by periodicals such as L’Art moderne and
artists’ groups such as Les XX. Constantin Meunier
(1831-1905) and Jef Lambeaux (1852-1908) achieved particular
prominence, each with his own distinctive style. Meunier’s Grisou
(1889, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels) is his most famous
of a whole series of statuettes and groups devoted to working-class
iconography. Meunier later worked on a gigantic Monument au
Travail [Monument to Work] (posthumously erected, now on the
bassin Vergote, Laken, Brussels), with four large reliefs and
colossal figures.
Lambeaux’s
endeavors often returned to Giambologna’s interest in the human
figure in motion: the Brabo fountain (1887) on the Grote Markt,
Antwerp, is a prime example. A representation of movement is also
the main motif of a monumental relief by Lambeaux, housed in a
special building, erected by Victor Horta in the Cinquantenaire
park. Called Les Passions humaines [Human Passions]
(1889-99), it displays a complex iconography, including the ages of
man, mostly as heroic nudes.
During the years
that Art Nouveau flourished, George Minne (1866-1941) developed an
idiosyncratic style akin to contemporary Symbolist moods, with
simple, fluid masses but with angular lines stressing the generally
sorrowful circumstances of the iconography. His Mère pleurant son
enfant mort [Mother Weeping her Dead Child] (1886, Royal Museums
of Fine Arts, Brussels) and his most popular work, the Fontaine
des agenouillés [Fountain of the Kneeling Youths] (1899),
demonstrate this style. Among his circle of Symbolists friends were
the painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) and for some time the
sculptor Victor Rousseau (1865-1954).
During the height
of Art Nouveau, sculptors too became increasingly interested in the
decorative aspect of their work. The state encouraged polychromy and
combinations of precious materials. Sculptors often integrated
natural products from the Belgian colony (Congo), such as ivory,
into their works to achieve unusual effects. The main exponent of
this type of sculpture was Philippe Wolfers (1858-1929), a jeweler
by training.
Auguste Rodin’s
loose modeling technique became the foremost source of inspiration
for young Belgian sculptors of the early 20th century. Rik Wouters
followed Rodin in favoring nervously modeled surfaces that allow
complex playing with light. His stirring personal style has
sometimes been labeled Fauvist, particularly works such as his
Torse de jeune femme [Torso of a Young Lady] (1909) and his
portrait of Edgar Tytgat (1910, both Royal Museums of Fine
Arts, Brussels). His most daring composition, Het zotte geweld
[Crazy Violence] (1912, Middelheim, Antwerp), is based on the dancer
Isadora Duncan, although he based most of his other work, such as
Huiselijke zorgen [Domestic Worries] (1913-14), on a synthetic
view of his wife’s image, rather than harking back to historic
precedent. The latter was a preference of Antoine Bourdelle that a
sculptor like Ernest Wijnants (1878-1964) followed in looking for
inspiration in Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian art. With the advent of
abstraction, Wijnants nevertheless remained faithful to his
figurative art.
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