Part 12 (1/2)
While we were visiting the tower we were shown the _tambour_ cast in copper by means of which the clock strikes the hours, the half hours and the quarters. This was cast in 1783, and two years were required to make the sixteen thousand, two hundred square holes into which drop the teeth that actuate the striking hammers.
The interior of St. Rombaut, while majestic and imposing, is hardly as masterly as the tower. On the occasion of our first visit a high ma.s.s was being celebrated and we reverently joined the throng of wors.h.i.+ppers. In addition to the choir there was a body of some two hundred young men in the centre of the cathedral who partic.i.p.ated in the singing, a cure beating time for them. Their strong manly voices blended finely with the higher notes of the distant choir boys and the deep tones of the organ. From the top of the choir long crimson streamers were suspended, terminating at the back of the high altar and giving a rich note of colour to the interior, while the light from the stained gla.s.s windows overhead poured downward in many-coloured rays upon the throng of black-robed priests, with a sprinkling of higher dignitaries clad in purple. Truly a picture that filled the eye with the pageantry of religion, even as the rolling notes of the sonorous chants filled the ear!
After the service was over, and the great cathedral, but now so crowded, was deserted, we started on our tour of inspection. It would be a tedious task to chronicle all of the objects of interest. The carved stalls of the Gothic choir are far less elaborate in workmans.h.i.+p than those at Amiens. The altar by Faid'herbe, a native of Malines, is imposing, but not of remarkable merit. The carved pulpit in the nave, however, is a veritable masterpiece of wood carving by Michel Van der Voort of Antwerp, and dates from 1723. Below, St.
Norbert is shown flung from his horse by a thunderbolt, above is the Crucifixion at the left, with the Virgin and St. John standing below the cross, while at the right is shown a charming representation of the Fall, with Eve offering the apple to Adam, both figures embowered in a ma.s.s of foliage that twines up the stairway to the pulpit and lifts its branches far overhead. The masterpiece of the paintings is an altarpiece by Van Dyck representing the Crucifixion, a notable representation of the gradations of grief in the faces of the Virgin and Mary Magdalen. The attendant requires a franc to uncover this picture. ”The Adoration of the Shepherds,” by Erasmus Quellen, in the opposite arm of the transept, while less famous, is a n.o.ble piece of work.
As would be expected from its great religious importance, Malines has numerous minor churches that contain much of interest to the visitor.
The largest of these is Notre Dame au dela de la Dyle, situated across the River Dyle from the oldest part of the city, but dating from the fifteenth century. Here the tourist usually asks to see ”The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,” by Rubens, a highly coloured triptych that is only uncovered when one pays a franc to the attendant. As this master produced some seventeen hundred known works it would cost a small fortune to see them all at a franc apiece, but this one dates from the artist's best period and is fully worth the price charged to see it. It is vigorous in treatment, and the Fishmongers' Guild, which purchased it from the artist in 1618 for sixteen hundred florins, certainly got very good value for their money. The wings are painted on both sides. This church also contains the curious Virgin with the Broken Back. According to the popular legend her sharp leaning to the right is due to the fact that one day, when the sacristan of the church failed to wake up in time to ring the angelus the lady obligingly did it for him, but wrenched her spine in the effort. Her smug smirk of satisfaction, as if over a duty well performed, no doubt also dates from the same incident.
Hardly less interesting is the ancient church of Notre Dame d'Hanswyck, situated on the same side of the Dyle as the other Notre Dame just described. A chapel was erected on the site of this church soon after the country was converted from paganism by St. Rombaut, and a large church was built near the end of the thirteenth century. This, however, was pillaged by the iconoclasts in 1566, riddled by shot from the cannon of the Prince of Orange in 1572, and finally completely demolished eight or nine years later by the Gueux. It was not until 1663 that the present edifice was begun. It was designed by Luke Faid'herbe, the famous sculptor of Malines and a pupil of Rubens, and was built under his personal supervision. The church itself is a veritable museum of the works of this master. The finest and most famous of these are the two bas-reliefs in the dome, one showing ”The Nativity,” and the other ”The Saviour Falling Under the Burden of the Cross.” The pulpit, by Theodore Verhaegen, is a fine example of Flemish wood carving. In this church the chief treasure, from the standpoint of its priests and paris.h.i.+oners, is the miraculous statue of the Virgin, which dates from 988, or earlier, according to some authorities. It is made of wood, painted and gilded, and is life size.
Not the least miraculous feat of this interesting relic of the Middle Ages is its escape from destruction, at the hands of the iconoclasts, the Gueux, and the French revolutionists. At the period when the church itself was destroyed the statue was hidden in a secret subterranean pa.s.sage for nearly a century; during the French Revolution it was successively lodged in various houses in the rue d'Hanswyck--each time being replaced in the church, after the danger was over, amid great popular rejoicing.
Another church that is a small art gallery is that of St. Jean, not far from the cathedral. Here is the fine ”Adoration of the Magi,” by Rubens, which many critics consider one of the four best of his ceremonial works. It was painted in 1617, the year before ”The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,” at Notre Dame de la Dyle, when the artist was fresh from his studies in Italy, and before his success had caused him to employ a throng of students to a.s.sist in the production of his works. Furthermore, it was executed for this very church, which still possesses his receipt for the final payment, written in Flemish, dated March 24, 1624, and signed by the artist, ”Pietro Paulo Rubens.”
The price was eighteen hundred florins, but for good measure the church obtained three small paintings by the great master to be hung below the triptych. In 1794 these pictures were taken to Paris and the ”Adoration of the Magi” was not restored to its original position until after the fall of Napoleon. Two of the small pictures, ”The Adoration of the Shepherds” and ”The Resurrection,” are now in the museum of Ma.r.s.eilles--having never been returned--while the third, ”Christ on the Cross,” after changing hands several times, was at last purchased by an amateur who recognised its authors.h.i.+p and history and restored it to the church of St. Jean. The two little pictures on either side of it, often attributed to Rubens, are by Luc Franchoys the younger. This church also boasts some marvellous Flemish wood carvings. Around the two pillars of the transept where it intersects the nave are some bas-reliefs, six altogether, by Theodore Verhaegen and his pupils, that if there was nothing else to see would alone justify a visit to St. Jean, while the pulpit by the same master, representing ”The Good Shepherd Preaching to His People,” is one of the most noteworthy of the numerous examples of pulpit carving to be seen in Flanders. Below the organ are two more admirable bas-reliefs carved in Flemish oak by Pierre Valckx, a pupil of Verhaegen.
Of the many other churches in the old town it would be tedious to speak. Nowhere in all Flanders did we see so many black-robed priests walking solemnly about--although they do not lack in any part of the country. All Belgium, in fact, is full of priests, monks and nuns, owing to the expulsion of the religious orders from France some years ago. We frequently engaged them in conversation to ascertain more about the monuments we were visiting and invariably found them courteous and well-informed, and not infrequently we were indebted to them for suggestions or information of much value. At the same time, it must be said that it seems to a layman as though there are far too many for so small a country, but their fine spirit of devotion during the war--when thousands of them shared cheerfully the hards.h.i.+ps of the soldiers--will never be forgotten.
Of the civil edifices in Malines the most important is the Hotel de Ville. Architecturally it is disappointing, save for the older portion, which was called Beyaerd, and was purchased by the commune in 1383. The greater part of the edifice was reconstructed during the eighteenth century. The many rooms in the interior are pleasing but hardly notable, nor are the paintings and sculptures important save to the historian. In the Vieux Palais, the room in which the Great Council of the Netherlands held its sessions from 1474 to 1618, is still preserved in its original state, while one of the ancient paintings on the wall shows the Council in session. In this building also is the curious statuette of the Vuyle Bruydegom called ”Op-Signorken,” whose grinning face and quaint mediaeval costume are reproduced on many postcards. The history of this worthy is best told in French--and in whispers!
[Ill.u.s.tration: _IN HET PARADIJS_ AND _MAISON DES DIABLES_: TWO FIFTEENTH CENTURY HOUSES, MALINES.]
In our tramps around the narrow, crooked streets of the old town, and along its picturesque quays, we found many fine examples of fifteenth and sixteenth century architecture. On the Quai au Sel is the House of the Salmon, the ancient guildhouse of the fishmongers, which dates from 1530, and on the Quai aux Avoines we visited the little estaminet ent.i.tled _In het Paradijs_, with its two painted reliefs of the Fall and Expulsion from Eden, and the _Maison des Diables_--so called from the carved devils that decorate its wooden facade of the sixteenth century. The Grand Pont across the Dyle to these old quays itself dates from the thirteenth century, as its grimy arches testify.
After the defeat and death of Charles the Bold at Nancy his widow, Margaret of York, transferred her residence to Malines, and here she raised and educated the two children of her daughter, Marie of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome and Margaret of Austria. Their father, the Emperor Maximilian, was so occupied with affairs of state over his widely scattered realm that he seldom came to the city, but from 1480 onward the States General of the Netherlands often met here, and in 1491 Philip the Handsome presided at a chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece at the cathedral of St. Rombaut. On his premature death, in 1506, Maximilian again became Regent, as Philip's eldest son Charles was barely six years old. The following year Maximilian made his daughter Margaret of Austria Governess-General of the Netherlands and guardian of Philip's children. Margaret at once chose Malines, where she had herself been educated, as her seat of government and there she reigned as Regent until her death twenty-three years later.
This period was the golden age in the history of the city on the Dyle, its brief day of splendour.
In her infancy Margaret had been betrothed to the son of the King of France, Louis XI--the cunning enemy of her house whose plots had brought about the ruin of her grandfather, Charles the Bold. She was only three, and the Prince Dauphin, afterwards Charles the Eighth, was only twelve. Nine years later a more advantageous alliance caused him to renounce this betrothal, and Margaret was subsequently married by proxy to the son of the King of Spain. On her voyage from Flus.h.i.+ng to Spain a storm arose which nearly wrecked her s.h.i.+p, and after it had somewhat subsided she and her companions amused themselves by each writing her own epitaph. That composed by Margaret, then a sprightly girl of eighteen, is well known:
_Cy gist Margot la gentil' Damoiselle, Qu' ha deux marys et encor est pucelle._
Eventually, however, she arrived safely at Burgos, but her young husband, Prince John of Asturias, died suddenly seven months later of a malignant fever. At the age of nineteen, therefore, Margaret had already missed being Queen of France and Queen of Spain. After two years at the Spanish court, where she was very popular, she returned to Flanders, arriving in 1500, just in time to be one of the G.o.dmothers at the christening of her nephew, Charles, at the church of St. Jean in Ghent. The following year Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, surnamed the Handsome, who was the same age as herself.
This time her married life proved to be only a little longer than the other, for her husband died in 1504. Left twice a widow while still in the bloom of youth, the d.u.c.h.ess devoted herself to poetry and the erection of a church at Brou in her second husband's duchy of Savoy.
There, on the walls, woodwork, stained gla.s.s windows and tombs she repeated her last motto:
FORTUNE . INFORTUNE . FORT . UNE
which has generally been interpreted to mean that Fortune and Misfortune have tried sorely (fort) one lone woman (une).
The palace of Margaret of York stood on the rue de l'Empereur, where some vestiges of it still remain, but Margaret of Savoy and of Austria found this edifice inadequate to the requirements of a Regent and acquired the Hotel de Savoy opposite. This has been restored and is now used as the Palais de Justice, but--apart from its pretty courtyard and one fine fireplace--we found very little to recall the glories of the period when the great men of all the Netherlands gathered here. The edifice was largely reconstructed by Rombaut Keldermans, and it was here that the boyhood of the future Emperor Charles the Fifth was pa.s.sed, watched over by his Aunt Margaret. At the time of her accession as Regent Margaret was twenty-seven years old--”a fair young woman with golden hair, rounded cheeks, a grave mouth, and beautiful clear eyes,” according to one observer. Her father, the Emperor Maximilian, was very fond and proud of her, and the greatest treasure in the library in the Vieux Palais is a ”graduale,” or hymnbook, which he presented to her in recognition of her services in educating his grandchildren. On one of the pages in this book is an illuminated picture showing Maximilian himself seated on a throne surmounted by the arms of Austria, with Margaret and the youthful Charles and his sister forming part of the group gathered in front of him. The other ill.u.s.trations in this priceless volume, all of which we were permitted to examine, consist of religious subjects.
The events connected with the regency of Margaret of Austria belong to the history of Europe. More than once she aided her father in solving the great problems of government and diplomacy with which he was confronted, notably in the prominent part she took in the negotiations resulting in the League of Cambrai, which was directed against France--the nation to which she always showed an unrelenting hostility for the slight put upon her in childhood. In 1516 Charles became of age, and two years later--while the new King of Spain was visiting his Spanish subjects--Margaret was again proclaimed Regent of the Netherlands. In 1519 Maximilian died, and five months later Charles was elected King of the Romans, and was chosen Emperor the following year, succeeding to the widest dominions ever ruled over by one man in the history of Europe. In fact it is doubtful if any sovereign since has exercised so vast a power, as the Kings and Emperors of later years have had their authority more restricted, while that of Charles was absolute.
In 1529 Margaret brought about the negotiations that resulted in the famous Ladies' Peace between the Pope, the Emperor Charles, and the Kings of France, England and Bohemia. Margaret represented Spain, and Louise of Savoy, her sister-in-law and the mother of Francis, the King of France, represented that monarch. The result of the conferences was a treaty that was highly advantageous to Spain, and a great diplomatic victory for Margaret; but as all Europe was tired of war the terms were accepted and peace proclaimed amid great popular rejoicings, the fountains at Cambrai flowing wine instead of water. The splendid mantelpiece in the Hotel de Franc at Bruges was erected to commemorate this treaty, although it hardly does justice to the prominent part taken by Margaret in negotiating it. The conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai marks the climax of Margaret's career and also that of the House of Austria. In addition to the vast empire ruled over by Charles, his brother Ferdinand was King of Bohemia, and his sisters Eleanor, Isabel, Marie and Katherine, Queens of France, Denmark, Hungary and Portugal respectively. All owed their brilliant positions to the patience and skill of their Aunt Margaret who, as her correspondence shows, was looking forward to the time when she could hand over the government of the Netherlands to the Emperor and spend her remaining days in quiet seclusion.
Under her wise rule the Netherlands had attained the greatest prosperity ever known. Industry and commerce flourished, peace and safety reigned throughout her broad dominions. At her court in Malines Margaret gathered a brilliant group of artists, poets and men of letters. Mabuse (Jan Gossaert), Bernard Van Orley and Michel c.o.xcie were among the famous Flemish artists patronised by the d.u.c.h.ess.
Rombaut Keldermans received many commissions as architect from the great Lady of Savoy and her Imperial nephew for important edifices not only at Malines but at Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and throughout the Low Countries. In 1451 the Pope, Nicholas V, had proclaimed a Holy Year at Malines and enormous numbers of pilgrims visited the city in consequence. Their lavish gifts made possible the rapid erection of most of the splendid religious edifices with which the city is so amply provided, and it was during the reign of Margaret that these structures were completed and decorated. Among the beautiful buildings executed during this period may be mentioned the Belfry at Bruges, the tower of St. Rombaut, the Hotel de Ville at Ghent, the spire of the cathedral at Antwerp, the cathedral of Ste. Gudule at Brussels, and many minor churches throughout the Low Countries.