I have been kept busy this summer painting seven members of a family at their beautiful schloss in Bavaria. Having a car loaded with kit for the trip to Germany meant it would have been a missed opportunity not to have gone exploring on the drive home. Despite counting Anthony Van Dyck as one of my favourite painters, I had somehow never made the trip to Antwerp to see his and his master Rubens’ hometown, which is of course filled with their work.
I love seeing paintings hanging in the place for which they were intended, rather than in a gallery. Venice is, to my mind, the best place to experience this. It turns out Belgium is brilliant for it too. The cathedrals and churches are bursting with paintings by Rubens and his followers, the best being Van Dyck, but Jordaens and others don’t fare too badly either. The main art gallery of Antwerp is currently closed for a refurb, so there were pictures I missed, but the altarpieces are mostly still behind altars
I love seeing paintings hanging in the place for which they were intended, rather than in a gallery. Venice is, to my mind, the best place to experience this. It turns out Belgium is brilliant for it too. The cathedrals and churches are bursting with paintings by Rubens and his followers, the best being Van Dyck, but Jordaens and others don’t fare too badly either. The main art gallery of Antwerp is currently closed for a refurb, so there were pictures I missed, but the altarpieces are mostly still behind altars
Elevation of the Cross, triptych
With my endlessly patient wife Anna, Antwerp cathedral was the first stop. Here hang three colossal works by Rubens. The Elevation of the Cross (1611) and its counterpoint the Descent from the Cross (1614) are both visible from far west end of the knave. There’s much to admire in the Elevation, all the straining and stress is dynamically expressed like a big Hollywood blockbuster. But the Descent is on another level. The dynamism is there, but rather than expressing physical strain the descent is graceful, elegiac, mystical. All the different figures actions are harmonised in one almost lyrical movement. Though they hold the dead figure of Christ, Rubens shows many of them not quite touching him, and even those supposedly baring his weight somehow seem not to fully hold him. The sense is that this pale glowing form is no ordinary dead body, a significant idea to depict behind the altar, site of the eucharist. There are many exquisite details one can barely see even right up close, like the tear which rolls down Mary’s cheek, and yet the picture can be clearly read from the back of the Cathedral too.
Descent from the Cross, triptych
Behind the high altar hangs the Assumption of the Virgin painted some fifteen years later. It is lighter, more colourful, and extraordinary but perhaps a bit more frothy. Maybe it’s the subject matter, maybe it’s Rubens’ later sensibility, but I wasn’t much drawn to it from afar. However, as with most great painters, even in a painting I don’t much like, there are passages of real brilliance. This trio of figures at the bottom showed what a great colourist Rubens was, combined with his seemingly effortless harmonising of separate forms with swirling energetic line.
So to Ruben’s home and studio, which is fun to compare to Rembrandt’s in Amsterdam. The studio space is naturally ideal; huge windows and lots of space (although I still feel certain he must have had other spaces around town given how prolific he and the large number of assistants in his studio were). For me the standout picture on display was (perhaps unfairly in Rubens’ home) a recently rediscovered late Van Dyck self portrait, hung opposite Rubens’ little portrait of him. It’s related to the famous self portrait that was recently saved for the nation, currently touring galleries around the UK. It’s thought the upward moustache suggests this his public face as a man of the court, in contrast to the subtly more introverted man at home with his moustache down. Regardless, the subtlety in the colouring and the spark of life is wonderful. It positively breathes.
Anna’s favourite was this little picture thought to be a posthumous portrait of Rubens’ daughter. He painted her when even younger too, and in both it’s clear she looked a lot like her mother, Isabella Brandt. Having just painted three generations of one family myself, it’s fun to notice the family traits which are characteristic. Surprisingly, the picture was sold by the Met Museum in NYC, believing it was by a follower of Rubens, and now there’s some debate among scholars about who’s right.
Dotted around Belgium are various Van Dyck altarpieces. In Mechelen I found this one. Jesus has one arm looking a bit too short, but I enjoyed the inventiveness in the writhing poses of the two criminals on either side, and the paint handling was great on the figures. Interesting to see too how some areas are finely modeled, while others are little more than initial drawing.
I had forgotten that in Kortrijk hangs Van Dyck’s own Elevation of the Cross, which I’ve always thought looked superb. In his second Antwerp period, when he had come back from seeing Titian in Italy, Van Dyck painted some of my favourites. They have a soft richness in the modelling, a fleshiness that is his own rather than Rubens’. This altarpiece has that in abundance. Another day I will have to make the detour.
In Ghent cathedral, we adored the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, aka the Ghent altarpiece by Van Eyck. It’s astonishing, and well worth making a trip to Belgium just to see this. Painted 1432, it's a miracle of painting, and almost a miracle it's survived given all that's happened to it over the years (iconoclasts, fire, theft, sawn in half, more theft...)
A few metres away it's back to the seventeenth century for this great Rubens altarpiece of St Bavo, for which there’s a more ambitious study in London's National Gallery.
St Bavo in Red, his wealth being distributed below
There were so many others to be found, including a good few in St Paul’s and St Charles Borrommeo’s churches in Antwerp, as well as Rubens’ tomb in the the rather hectic St Andrew’s.
In other words, Belgium is completely stuffed full of Rubens and Van Dyck masterpieces. And having had my fill of them and also of beer, waffles and chips, I am feeling as lively as their work and perhaps looking a little more rubenesque too. Super.
If you fancy making your own pilgrimage, this site is useful for finding where everything hangs.
In other words, Belgium is completely stuffed full of Rubens and Van Dyck masterpieces. And having had my fill of them and also of beer, waffles and chips, I am feeling as lively as their work and perhaps looking a little more rubenesque too. Super.
If you fancy making your own pilgrimage, this site is useful for finding where everything hangs.