File:Flemish relics; architectural, legendary, and pictorial, as connected with public buildings in Belgium (1866) (14783062765).jpg

Identifier: flemishrelicsarc00step (find matches)
Title: Flemish relics; architectural, legendary, and pictorial, as connected with public buildings in Belgium
Year: 1866 (1860s)
Authors: Stephens, Frederic George, 1828-1907
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: London, A.W. Bennett
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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test height, eighty-sevenfeet (Weale). The original design for the interior has been carriedout without change ; the whole has the magnificence of a cathedral,and is in some respects a model of a rich Gothic Low Country churchof late date, marred in a less degree than is usual by the multitudeand exuberance of its insertions, which comprise statues, pictures,monuments, metal-works, carvings, etc. Of these the screen,stalls, and high-altar, are among the most splendid of their kindproduced in the seventeenth century;of course they are out ofkeeping with the Gothic building, which in style aims at the fashionof a period anterior to that in vogue when it was begun. Thisstyle, seriously defective as it is in purity and in that variety ofelementary forms which is characteristic of the best Gothic work,has that sort of highly educated expression which does as much forthe appearance of men as for buildings, and often gives thepleasant gloss of finish where spirit and strength are wanting. To
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THE CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, ANTWERP. CHURCHES OF SS. JACQUES AND PAUL. 171 US the edifice seems exactly such as might result from the geniusof a man who had passed through no end of competitive examina-tions, a person trained to the bone, and master of all that could betaught, but who, if untrained and born at an earlier period, mighthave produced something really noble. The plan of the church is cruciform, with seven apsidal chapels,two aisles on the east side of the transept, and a nave with anaisle on each side of it. In the eastern chapel are the tombs ofEubens and his family; that of the painter is marked by a slab ofwhite marble with an inscription which records his interment,qualities, earthly status, and the date of his death, in a vaingloriousmanner that contrasts painfully with the humility and resignationexpressed by the epitaph of Hubert Van Eyck at Ghent. The altar-piece of the chapel is by Paibens, and intended to represent theVirgin and Child with saints ; it is one of h

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