N’a-t-il pas aussi pour bordeure
L’or bazané?
The nobles vied with royalty in luxury, and the beautiful tapestries, furniture, gold and silver work, enamels, etc., found ready sale. Such magnificent homes as the Counts of Egmont excited the anger of the populace; and those of many successful artists and rich merchants were hardly inferior.
The clergy did not suffer either. Granvelle, for example, made Bishop of Arras, and chief adviser to Philip II in all the affairs of the Netherlands, had a magnificent establishment. His furniture, tapestry and other personalty amounted to no less than £50,000.
Contemporary travellers are constantly speaking of the startling splendours they encountered in the Low Countries. When Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre, who was certainly used to splendour, went to Spa in 1577, with the excuse to drink the waters, but really to intrigue in Hainault so as to advance the interests of her brother, the Duke d’Alençon, in the Netherlands, she was received at Namur by Don Juan of Austria. When this gallant escort, who rode by her litter, escorted the Queen to her lodgings, she was “astonished at the magnificence of the apartments.”[[3]] A superb hall gorgeously furnished led into a series of chambers. The bedroom and bed prepared for the Queen were hung with superb tapestries, which, appropriately enough, represented the Battle of Lepanto.
[3]. Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois.
Antwerp now becomes the centre of commerce, and the town expressed so much wealth and was so crowded with ships that when the Ambassador from Venice, Marino Cavalli, landed on the Scheldt, in 1551, he exclaimed in amazement: “Venice is surpassed!” In 1567, Guicciardini wrote: “One word alone can define the number of trades exercised in Antwerp; it is the word all!”
In 1560, Antwerp numbered three hundred and sixty painters and sculptors: artists and decorators flocked thither, and many new industries were likewise attracted; for instance, Piccol Passo of Urbino established a factory for Italian majolica; Amould van Ort of Nimeguen, the celebrated stained-glass maker, transplanted his workshops; Jahn de Lame of Cremona, Murano glass; and Christopher Plantin of Tours (1514–89), his printing-presses, from which so many books of decorative design were issued. He settled in Antwerp in 1549; but from 1576 to the present day, the business has been conducted in the house known as the Musée Plantin-Moretus, in the Marché du Vendredi. Plantin’s son-in-law Moretus or Moerentorf, succeeded him. In 1876, this house, with its antique furniture, pictures, tapestries and other collections, was bought by the city of Antwerp for a Museum. The greater part of the furniture, staircases, mantelpieces, etc., date from the seventeenth century; but despite this fact and many restorations, this house affords an interesting picture of the dwelling and office of a rich Fleming of the sixteenth century. The printing offices are untouched, and two of the rooms are hung with gilt Spanish leather of the sixteenth century.
In the last chapter we brought the masters of Decorative Art down to the middle of the sixteenth century. After these came Cornelius and James Floris, whose family name was de Vriendt. The head of the family, Cornelius de Vriendt, a stone-cutter, used the name of his grandfather, Floris de Vriendt, a member of the Guild des Quatres-Couronnes in 1476. Cornelius had four sons: John, a potter, who settled in Spain; Frans Floris (1518?-70), a painter; James (1524–81), a celebrated glass-painter; and Cornelius (1514–74), a sculptor and architect, who was responsible for the Antwerp Town Hall, the house of the Hanseatic League, the tabernacle of Léan and the rood-loft of the Cathedral of Tournay.
James was also a skilful engraver, and was particularly noted for his panels, or compartments, which in his day were such favourite designs. His drawings were edited by Jerome Cock, and obtained a great success.