Jerome Cock produced a great deal of decorative design in the second half of this century. His figures are graceful and well disposed, and his draperies and garlands of fruits and flowers are charmingly effective. Two of his designs for goldsmiths’ work are reproduced on Plate [XIX] and Plate [XX].
Cornelius and James Floris developed a new style, still known in Flanders as the Floris style. The school included many able designers whose names still survive, including that of Vredemann de Vries. The ornamentation is principally composed of “cuirs” cut into various shapes and rolled, accompanied by a mixture of figures, animals, birds, flowers and fruits, all tied together by ornamental motives, ribbons, draperies, etc., a form of decoration which the Flemish masters carried to its highest point of perfection.
It was the custom of the day for these masters of ornament to supply designs for furniture when “the newest thing out” was required. Their designs that have survived consist chiefly of grotesques, cartouches, “cuirs,” panels, compartments, friezes, trophies, “pendeloques” and other goldsmiths’ motives. Contemporary with Floris were Hans Liefrinck (1510–80); Cornelis Matsys (1500–56); Jerome Cock (1510–70); John Landenspelder (b. 1511); Adrian Collaert (b. 1520); Hans Collaert (1540–1622). These all worked at Antwerp.
The most famous designers of the Renaissance, however, were the De Vrieses, father and son, Hans and Paul. Hans Vredemann de Vries, painter, architect, sculptor, designer, and poet, was born at Leeuwarden in Friesland (whence his name) in 1527. For five years he studied in Amsterdam in the studio of Reijnier Gerritsz, the painter, and he studied architecture under Coeck of Alost. His pictures are valued highly and are crowded with architectural details. He also studied painting on glass. Owing to his special aptitudes and varied knowledge, as well as the skill with which he treated the different styles of architecture and ornamentation, he may be said to sum up in himself the great period of the Flemish Renaissance.
Vredemann published a great many collections of designs that are highly valued for the interesting studies they present of the Flemish Art of the Renaissance. His sons, Paul and Solomon, followed his style.
De Vries was famous for his leather ornamentation (cuirs) and his encoinçons, which apply to oval frames and ornament the corners of twelve of his twenty-one oval plates among the fifty composing the collection, Variae Architecturae formae a Joanne Vredemanni Vriesio, magno artis hujus studiosorum commodo inventae. (See Figs. 17 and 18.)
In his own country, he was called the king of architects. He may be called the Dutch Du Cerceau. He was contemporary with Du Cerceau; and was apparently greatly influenced by the work of the latter, or it may be that they both got their inspiration from the same Italian source. A comparison of the work of the two masters will show individuality in De Vries. His designs are not so light and graceful as the Frenchman’s. Besides all kinds of architecture, gardens, wells, fountains, vases, armour and decorative work for goldsmiths, he designed Differents Pourtraicts de Menuiserie à sçavoir, Portaux, Bancs, Tables, Escabelles, Buffets, Frises, Corniches, Licts de camp, Ornements à prendre à l’essuoir les mains, Fontaines à laver les mains. This collection of designs appeared about 1580, and forms a most valuable record for those who desire to study the style of the early Renaissance in the Netherlands. It is noticeable that the change is not so much in the general form of the furniture as in the ornamentation. As an example, let us take the bedroom (Plate [X]). This was published in 1580; but it evidently belongs to the transitional period, since the furniture reveals almost as many Gothic as Renaissance features.
It will be noticed that De Vries expressly styles his design a modern bedroom; so that it deserves study as the latest novelty about the middle of the sixteenth century. The first thing that strikes one is that though the ornamental details of Gothic tracery have almost disappeared, yet the linen-fold in the panelling is everywhere. Even the dressoir on the left with its Classic columns and spiralled caryatides has Gothic panels; and the presses between the fireplace and the window have Gothic panels with a Renaissance daïs. The long heavy chests that serve as benches also belong to Mediaeval days. The massive table looks transitional also. It is also to be noticed that the furniture cannot yet be designated as “moveables”; it is still an integral part of the carpentry work that lines the walls of the room. The chair beside the bed is the sole note that tones down its severity. At the time the plate was published (1580), the Renaissance was in full flower, and its interest for us lies chiefly in the disposition of the furniture and the evidence it supplies of Gothic tenacity. The floor is tessellated diagonally with squares of wood or stone. The chimney-piece with its funnel-shaped top is essentially the same as represented in miniatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The credence or dressoir is opposite to the door, the bed, well protected by woodwork and curtains against draughts, is close to the fireplace, and the table in front of the window. A general effect of coldness is noticeable, due to the almost total lack of upholstery; but this is doubtless owing to the artist’s intent to emphasize the woodwork.
Though De Vries was the most important designer of furniture in the Netherlands during the sixteenth century, he was by no means the only one to influence the taste of the day. There were many architects, goldsmiths and engravers whose designs contributed to the development of the Renaissance style. One of these was Jacques van Noye. He was employed by Cardinal Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, to embellish the palace in Besançon, built by his father, Sebastian van Noye, also a notable architect.
In 1550, Van Noye became architect of Philip II; and called to Spain by the King, died in Madrid. One of his important works was the palace that the Cardinal erected at Brussels on the Coperbeke.