St. Martin’s Church at Ypres contains beautiful stalls carved by Victor Taillebert. He received four thousand florins in payment for his work.
Colyn van Cameryck made a magnificent marble mantelpiece for the Kampen Town Hall. The work was done between 1543 and 1545.
Jean van der Scheldein, carpenter and sculptor, made a monumental door in the Hôtel de Ville, Oudenarde, in the Renaissance style in 1531. This is ornamented with columns, a pediment, figures and rectangular panels adorned with arabesques in the best taste and with masterly execution.
Peter van Dulcken carved the beautiful stalls for the échevins, and the balustraded screen of the Nimeguen Town Hall, in the second half of the sixteenth century. These are the finest that have escaped destruction except those of the Kampen Town Hall, which are even more elaborate.
Plate XIX.—Cabinet, or Armoire, by De Vries; Design for Goldsmith’s Work, by Jerome Cock.
The Netherlands early enjoyed a reputation for music, and from about 1450 to 1550 the most celebrated “maîtres de chapelle” came from the Low Countries. They were engaged in the churches and in the courts of kings and establishments of the nobility in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Denmark and Spain. Guicciardini says they had brought music “to a state of perfection,” and praises the melodious songs of the men and the skill of the women who played all kinds of instruments. He also pays tribute to their knowledge of harmony and proficiency in composition and says that Flemish musicians are at the “Court of every Christian prince,” and he then gives a list of famous musicians of the Low Countries. These are “Giovanni del Tintore di Nivelli, Iusquino di Pres, Obrecht Ockegem, Ricciafort, Adriano Willaert, Giovanni Monton, Verdelot, Gomberto Lupus Lupi, Cortois Crequillon, Clementi non Papa and Cornelio Canis.” To these, “who are now dead,” he adds the following list of living celebrities: Cipriano de Rove, Gian le Coick, Filippo de Monti, Orlando di Lassus, Mancicourt, Iusquino Baston, Christiano Hollando, Giaches di Waet, Bonmarche, Severino Cornetto, Piero du Hot, Gherardo di Tornout, Huberto Waelrant, Giachetto di Berckem vicino d’Anversa, Andrea Peuermage and Cornelio Verdonk and “many other masters of music who are celebrated throughout the world.”
This universal love of music is attested by the Dutch and Flemish masters. In tavern scenes, as well as scenes of domestic and social life, musical instruments are frequently introduced. To catalogue the works of Jan Steen, Terborch, Teniers, Metsu, Van Mieris and other painters of the seventeenth century directly inspired by music, such as musical parties, harpsichord lessons, duets, lute-players, ladies at the spinet, etc., would be quite a task.
No home of wealth was complete without musical instruments, and owing to the exquisite paintings with which the case and top, both inside and out, were ornamented, the clavecin, harpsichord, or spinet was frequently the handsomest and costliest piece of furniture in the house. The case and legs were subject to changes in fashion. Sometimes the stand is simple with heavy ball feet connected by stretchers, as shown in Plate [XXIII], a Lady Playing the Spinet, by J. M. Molenaer, in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. Sometimes the instrument stands on baluster legs and arches; and sometimes case and stand are of lacquer in the prevailing taste for the Chinese style. The top was always delicately painted, as shown in the picture just referred to; and it is interesting to note that in nearly every case where a lady is playing an instrument, she rests her foot upon a foot-warmer.
Without being able to see the internal mechanism, it is difficult to define the precursors of the pianoforte from their outward appearance in the pictures.