Plate X.—Bedroom, by De Vries “Cubiculum.”
Ornate pieces of furniture exhibit a whole world of real or imaginary beings, mingled with garlands of fruits, or flowers, and ribbons. Often the figures are fantastically developed out of the leaves and floral branches. The favourite decorative motives are antique columns, pediments, broken pediments, terms, garlands, pagan deities, classical heroes, caryatides, grotesque figures, initial letters smothered in branches of foliage, cartouches, pilasters and arabesques. Gothic perforations are also used, although they are more geometrical than during the preceding period. (See Plate [X].) The favourite linen-fold pattern dies very hard. Strips of leather called “cuirs,” variously folded and plaited, enjoy a great vogue. (See panel on Plates [XXI] and [XX]). The encoinçon (see Figs. 17 and 18) is also popular; and the “compartiment” appears in hundreds of designs. The compartment ceiling is a favourite room decoration, and is often ornamented with roses, brackets, floral designs and monograms. A compartment ceiling of intricate design appears in Plate [XXIV].
The arabesque, which so often forms a central motive, is usually in the form of a flower stem, a knot of ribbon or a candelabra, symmetrically arranged with branches to right and left, and charged with trophies, vases, fantastic beings, animals, etc., at the caprice of the artist. These delicate ornaments flourish in the panels, mingling with the horn of plenty, bold sirens, and medallions of antique heroes in high relief.
The arabesque was beautifully treated by many artists, but the most successful were Marc Gerard, a celebrated painter, sculptor and architect of Bruges, and Lucas van Leyden whose style of treating arabesques follows Albrecht Dürer. Examples of Lucas van Leyden appear in Figs. 10, 11 and 12.
The pilaster is a decorative necessity of the upright, marking the division of the façades, or accenting the uprights of the chests, chairs, dressoirs, etc.
The cartouche (Italian cartoccio) scrolled paper, is generally composed of a frame made of mouldings, or scrolls, enclosing a plain, convex, or concave space, of regular or irregular form intended for an inscription, coat of arms, cypher, etc. Vredemann de Vries and Theodore de Bry decorate their cartouches with swags of fruits, which were copied by Gerrit Hessels, a Dutch engraver whose compositions mark the transition between those artists and Crispin de Passe, Francouart and the school of Rubens. One of the peculiar features of the cartouche of the sixteenth century is the use of motives composed of strips of leather twisted, and variously decorated. Vredemann de Vries calls these “Compartments” in his well-known Multarum variarumque protractionum (compartimenta vulgus pictorum vocat) libellus utilissimus, jam recens delineatus per Johannem Vreedemanum, Frisium Gerardus Judaeus exculpebat (Antwerp MDLV).
This peculiar style of leather ornamentation known as cuirs, and consisting of strips interlaced in so many forms, is a much loved decoration of the Flemish school. A notable collection of cuirs was published by Jerome Cock, the printer-engraver, in Antwerp, his native town.
Among the favourite decorations is the banderole, the floating ribbon or streamer which had been much used during the Middle Ages. It was used in great variety by many artists during the Renaissance.
The peculiar form of caryatid called gaîne or terme, a species of support, is also extremely popular. It is used by Peter Coeck of Alost, in most of his compositions; and by his pupil Vredemann de Vries, who composed a special collection of Caryatides ou termes.