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The Rise of Architectural History in Belgium 1830–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Ellen van Impe
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Extract

On the map of nineteenth-century architectural historiographies in Western Europe, Belgium has so far remained a blind spot. While the country’s architectural history of the nineteenth century has already received some (if selective) international attention, with a somewhat disproportionate focus on the Art Nouveau, the historiography arising alongside of it has largely remained outside the picture. Meanwhile, considerations as to Belgium’s particular situation, which presumably influenced its architecture, equally apply to its historiography; for instance its design as a crossroads of influences, as demonstrated in research into the Belgian Catholic Gothic Revival and into nineteenth-century (architectural) history in general, among cases one could cite. While interesting because of its own particularities, Belgium also represents a type of ‘smaller European country’ created in the nineteenth century, whose architectural history has been characterized as ‘often fascinating precisely in the extent to which [these countries] present attempts to resolve the inherent contradictions between the major interpretive models and prescriptions of the English Pugin-Ruskin tradition, French Rationalism, and the more archaeological approach of the Cologne school’. The relatively limited corpus of Belgian architectural historiography — at least when compared with the historiographies of the United Kingdom, France or Germany — is an additional advantage, since it makes the field of study more easily definable and thus allows for more detailed study.

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Research Article
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Architectural History , Volume 51 , 2008 , pp. 161 - 183
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Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2008

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References

Notes

1 The research for the present article was made possible by the FWO-Vlaanderen (Research Fund, Flanders) providing a grant for the project in which my doctoral dissertation was embedded. That dissertation, entitled ‘Architectural Historiography in Belgium 1830–1914’ (2008), was supervised by Luc Verpoest (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and Maarten Delbeke (Universiteit Gent and Universiteit Leiden), and was undertaken at the Department of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven between 2004 and 2007.

2 For example, Maeyer, Jan De, ‘Katholiek reveil, kerk en kunst’, in J.A. Alberdingk Thijm 1820–1889. Erflater van de negentiende eeuw, ed. Geurts, P. A. M., Janssen, A. E. M. and Peeters, C. J. A. C. et al. (Baarn, 1992), pp. 81–100 (pp. 91–92)Google Scholar.

3 Willis, Alfred, ‘The State of Research on Nineteenth-Century Architecture in Belgium: a view from the outside’, Bulletin van de Antwerpse Vereniging voor Bodemen Grotonderzoek, Special issue: Neo, Onderzoek naar ígde-eeuwse kunst en architectuur, Studiedag 12.05.1989, 2 (1990), pp. 3–8 Google Scholar. Willis describes Belgium as ‘a country which, in socio-economic terms, had the character of nineteenth-century Europe in microcosm, and that […] may be considered a model for contemporary architectural developments (mutations of taste, expressions of ideology, the rise of professionalism among architects, the effect of foreign influences on domestic trends, etc.) anywhere in — and throughout — the industrialized world’.

4 Barry Bergdoll, Review of ‘Actes du Colloque International Viollet-le-Duc, Paris 1980, Pierre-Marie Auzas’, The Burlington Magazine, 126 (1984), p. 364.

5 ‘Van mobilisatie tot revolutie’ [From mobilization to revolution] and ‘Europa erkent België’ [Europe recognizes Belgium], in Nieuwe geschiedenis van België. 11830–190$, ed. Els Witte, Jean-Pierre Nandrin, Eliane Gubin and Gita Deneckere (Tielt, 2005), pp. 68–96 and 97–108.

6 Romantiek en historische cultuur [Romanticism and historical culture], ed. Frank Ankersmit, Wessel Krul and Jo Tollebeek (Groningen, 1996); Tollebeek, Jo, ‘Historical Representation and the Nation-State in Romantic Belgium (1830–1850)’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 59.2 (1998), pp. 329–53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pil, Lut, ‘Painting at the Service of the New Nation State’, in Nationalism in Belgium. Shifting Identities, 1780-1995, ed. Deprez, Kas and Vos, Louis (London, 1998), pp. 42–50.Google Scholar

7 See the examples of Ypres (leper), Dinant and Diksmuide, all of which are documented in the 1985 exhibition catalogue on reconstruction after World War I: Resurgam. De Belgische wederopbouw na 1914, ed. Marcel Smets (Brussels, 1985), especially pp. 119–27, and in Herman Stynen, De onvoltooid verleden tijd. Een geschiedenis van de monumenten- en landschapszorg in België 1835–1940 [A history of the care of monuments and sites in Belgium 1835–1940] (Brussels, 1998), especially pp. 234–60. See also Living with History, 1914–1964. Rebuilding Europe after the First and Second World Wars and the Role of Heritage Preservation. La reconstruction en Europe après la Première et la Seconde Guerre mondiale et le role de la conservation des monuments historiques, ed. Nicholas Bullock and Luc Verpoest, in the series KADOC Artes (Leuven, forthcoming); KADOC is the Documentatie- end Onderzoekscentrum voor Religie, Cultuur en Samenleving [Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society], Leuven University.

8 Watkin, David, The Rise of Architectural History (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Talenti, Simona, Histoire de l’architecture en France. Emergence d’une discipline 1864–1914 (Paris, 2000)Google Scholar. See also Pevsner, Nikolaus, Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Arnold, Dana, Reading Architectural History (London and New York, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Summerson and Hitchcock: Centenary Essays on Architectural Historiography, ed. Frank Salmon, Studies in British Art 16 (New Haven and London, 2006).

9 Watkin, Rise of Architectural History, p. ix.

10 These categories to some extent correspond to the subdivisions that Marvin Trachtenberg used to analyze a selected corpus of twentieth-century texts on architectural history, namely the corpus of books reviewed in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians between 1973 and 1988. Even if their particular relevance for his corpus might be disputed, in his essay as in mine they primarily serve to demonstrate the breadth and variety of topics in architectural history and provide a relatively straightforward introduction to a varied field of architectural history.

11 Stynen, De onvoltooid verleden tijd (Brussels, 1998).

12 Verpoest, Luc, ‘De architectuur van de Sint-Lucasscholen: het herstel van een traditie’, in De Sint-Lucasscholen en de neogotiek 1862–1914, ed. Maeyer, Jan De, KADOC-Studies, 5 (Leuven, 1988), pp. 219–77 (pp. 223–33)Google Scholar; Verpoest, Luc, ‘Neogotische architectuur en monumentenzorg in België en Nederland’, inJ.A. Alberdingk Thijm 1820–1889 (Baarn, 1992), pp. 175–92 Google Scholar; Verpoest, Luc, ‘Architectuurgeschiedenis in België’, Archis, 6 (1986), pp. 29–33.Google Scholar

13 Verpoest, Luc, ‘Hans Vredeman de Vries en de Belgische architectuur in de negentiende eeuw: architectuurgeschiedschrijving en nationale identiteit’, in Tussen stadspaleizen en luchtkastelen: Hans Vredeman de Vries en de renaissance, ed. Borggrefe, Heiner (Ghent, 2002), pp. 375–81 Google Scholar; Willis, Alfred E., ‘Flemish Renaissance Revival in Belgian Architecture (1830–1930)’ (doctoral thesis, Columbia University New York, 1984)Google Scholar, and Willis, Alfred E., ‘The State of Research on Nineteenth-Century Architecture in Belgium’, pp. 3–8 Google Scholar; Bertels, Inge, ‘Expressing Local Specificity: The Flemish Renaissance Revival in Belgium and the Antwerp City Architect Pieter Jan Auguste Dens’, Architectural History, 50 (2007), pp. 149–70 Google Scholar. See also Benoît Mihail, ‘Un mouvement culturel libéral à Bruxelles dans le dernier quart du XIXe siècle, la “néo-Renaissance flamande”’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis, 76 (1998), pp. 979–1020.

14 On Goetghebuer, see de Vijver, Dirk Van, Le ‘Choix des monumens, édifices et maisons les plus remarquables du royaume des Pays-Bas’ de Pierre-Jacques Goetghebuer: une histoire de l’architecture nationale du royaume des Pays-Bas, Les Cahiers du Centre d’Information, de Documentation et d’Étude du Patrimoine, 1 (Brussels, 2000)Google Scholar, and de Vijver, Dirk Van, ‘Creating the architectural canon of the new kingdom. Goetghebeur’s Choix des monumens (1817–1828)’, in Imag(in)ing Architecture. Iconography in Nineteenth-Century Architectural Historical Publications, ed. Böröcz, Zsuzsanna and Verpoest, Luc (Leuven, 2007), pp. 29–49.Google Scholar

15 Immerzeel, Johannes, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van het begin der vijftiende eeuw tot heden, ed. Immerzeel, C. H. (Amsterdam, 1842-43)Google Scholar, and Immerzeel, Johannes; Kramm, Christiaan, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilâers, heeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd (Amsterdam, 1857-63)Google Scholar.

16 For example, Schayes, A. G. B., ‘Notice sur L.B. Dewez, architecte’, Messager des sciences et des arts de la Belgique, ou nouvelles archives historiques, littéraires et scientifiques, 1 (1833), pp. 449–54.Google Scholar

17 The problematic reception as well as the importance of this work will be discussed later in this article.

18 Schoy, Auguste, ‘Artistes belges à l’étranger. I. Jean François de Neufforge, architecte et graveur à l’eau forte’, Bulletin du comité archéologique du Brabant, 1 (1870), pp. 56–72 Google Scholar; Schoy, Auguste, ‘Rubens. Architecte et décorateur. Son influence sur l’art aux Pays-Bas (1622–1735)’, L’Art. Revue hebdomadaire illustrée, 27 (1881), pp. 153–57 Google Scholar* 174–79* 193–200* 217–25, 241–43.

19 SCAB, 10th anniversaire de sa fondation. Exposition nationale d’architecture 1883. Catalogue (Brussels, 1883). Through the insertions of biographical data on, for example, Laurent-Benoît Dewez, this catalogue is a unique source, as it is also due to Schoy’s extensive collection probably being dispersed after his sudden death in 1885. See Van Impe, Ellen, ‘Architectural History on Show. Retrospective architectural exhibitions and nineteenth-century Belgian historiography’, Fabrications. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Australia and New Zealand, 1 (2006), pp. 63–89.Google Scholar

20 See, for instance, Génard, Pierre, ‘Notice sur les architectes Herman (le vieux) et Dominique de Waghemakere’, Bulletin des Commissions royales d’art et d’archéologie, 9 (1870), pp. 429–94 Google Scholar, and Wauters’ articles and lecture on ‘the lives of famous architects’ on the occasion of the above-mentioned Exposition nationale d’architecture of 1883 and 1886.

21 In the projected ‘histoire de l’art en Belgique’ (which was never accomplished) the idea of gathering and categorizing ‘documents inédits’ [unpublished documents] and dispersed archival discoveries figured very prominently. Examples of biographical notes by Alphonse Wauters include the notes on the architects Pierre Paul Mercx (t 1685) and Louis-Joseph Montoyer (t c. 1880), in the Belgian Biographie nationale, respectively xiv (1897), cols 451–52; xv (1899), cols 203–05.

22 Trachtenberg, ‘Some Observations’, p. 213.

23 For example, Krabbe pointed out the emphasis on the combination of technical and, especially, artistic talent and art historical knowledge as an important requirement for beaux-arts trained architects, as reflected in the Dutch architects’ society Maatschappij tot bevordering der bouwkunst; see Krabbe, Coert Peter, Ambacht, kunst, wetenschap: de bevordering van de bouwkunst in Nederland 1775–1880, Cultuurhistorische Studies (Zwolle, 1998), pp. 175–77.Google Scholar

24 Paul Saintenoy’s Les arts et les artistes à la Cour de Bruxelles was published in the 1930s by the Académie royale de Belgique, its three volumes respectively subtitled Leur rôle dans la construction du château ducal de Brabant sur le Coudenberg de 1120 à 1400 et dans la formation du Parc de Bruxelles (1, 1932); Le Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne sur le Coudenberg à Bruxelles du règne d’Antoine de Bourgogne à celui de Charles-Quint (n, 1934); Le Palais royal du Coudenberg du règne d’Albert et Isabelle à celui d’ Albert 1er, Roi des Belges (III, 1935).

25 On Saintenoy, see Nouvelle Biographie nationale, VII (Brussels, 2003), col. 319.

26 Trachtenberg, ‘Some Observations’, p. 215.

27 Ibid., p. 215.

28 Charles Piot (1812–99), for example, described and analyzed individual buildings at length, and published this material as articles in the Commission royale des Monuments’s periodical, the Bulletin des Commissions royales d’art et d’archéologie. On Piot, see R. Van Uytven, ‘Piot, Guillaume Joseph Charles’, in Nieuw Biografisch Woordenboek, m (Brussels, 1968), cols 667–75.

29 Several of these periodicals are dealt with in Stynen, De onvoltooid verleden tijd, pp. 42–43. On the important Messager des sciences historiques, see Jo Tollebeek, ‘Geschiedenis en oudheidkunde in de negentiende eeuw. De Messager des Sciences historiques 1823–1896’ [History and archaeology in the nineteenth century], Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 113 (1998), pp. 23–55.

30 In 1931 Maere remarked that there were still not many ‘bonnes monographies de nos anciens monuments’, a lack which he personally tried to remedy through his many monographic articles on churches: Maere, René, ‘L’étude de l’archéologie chrétienne en Belgique, 1830–1930’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 27.3 (1931), pp. 591–98 (p. 598)Google Scholar.

31 Lambin, Jean Jacques, Mémoire sur la halle aux draps d’Ypres, Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de la Morinie, 1 (Saint-Omer, [1833])Google Scholar; Idesbald Le Maistre d’Anstaing, Recherches sur l’histoire et l’architecture de l’église cathédrale de Notre-Dame de Tournai, 2 vols (Tournal, 1842–43); Verschelde, Karel, De icathédrale van S. Salvator te Brugge: geschiedkundige beschryving (Bruges, 1863)Google Scholar; Cloquet, Louis, Monographie de l’église paroissiale de Saint Jacques à Tournay (Lille, 1881)Google Scholar.

32 Rudd, Jean-Brunon, Collection de plans, coupes, élévations, voutes, plafonds, etc., des principaux monumens d’architecture et de sculpture de la ville de Bruges, depuis le 14e jusqu’au 17e siècle [Collection of plans, sections elevations, vaults, ceilings, etc. of the principal monuments of architecture and sculpture of the city of Bruges, from the 14th to the 17th century] (Bruges, w.d.)Google Scholar; Serrure, Louis-Auguste, La tour de l’église Notre Dame, ancienne cathédrale d’Anvers, mesurée et dessinée (Antwerp, 1840) (with a Notice historique sur la tour de l’église de Notre-Dame d’Anvers attached to it)Google Scholar; Renard, Bruno, Monographie de Notre-Dame de Tournai: plans, coupes, élévations et détails de cet édifice (Tournai, 1852)Google Scholar; Van Assche, Auguste, Monographie de l’église de Notre-Dame de Pamele à Audenarde, Recueil d’églises du Moyen Age en Belgique, 1 (Bruges and Lille, 1881)Google Scholar; Van Assche, Auguste, Monographie de l’église Saint-Nicolas à Gand, Recueil d’églises du Moyen Age en Belgique (Ghent, 1899)Google Scholar.

33 Suys, Tilman-François; Haudebourt, Louis-Pierre, Palais Massimi à Rome. Plans, coupes, élévations, profils, voûtes, plafonds, etc. des deux palais Massimi (Paris, 1818)Google Scholar; Suys, Tilman-François, Description historique du Panthéon de Rome — Le Panthéon de Rome: détails architectoniques du péristyle de ce temple ancien (Brussels, 1838)Google Scholar. The last work was present in the RIBA Library from at least 1846 onwards; see Royal Institute of British Architects, The Catalogue of the Library Collection (London, [1846]), p. 7 Google ScholarPubMed. On Suys, see Reis, Guy Conde, ‘Suys, Tilman François’, in Repertorium van de architectuur in België van 1830 tot heden, ed. Loo, Anne Van (Antwerp, 2003), pp. 526–28.Google Scholar

34 See, for instance, the collection of Alexandre Decraene (1797–1859). Some of his drawings, on monuments in Florence and Rome, were displayed at the Exposition nationale d’architecture in 1883: catalogue, p. 121, items 1165–72 (Section contemporaine — 12e classe: Relevés et restaurations de monuments étrangers par des architectes belges). They are now in the Musée des beaux-arts at Tournai. See August Van der Meersch, ‘De Craene (Alexandre)’, in Biographie nationale, v (Brussels, 1876), cols 25–27, and, more recently, Dirk Van de Vijver, ‘La formation des architects et des ingénieurs flamands, wallons et hollandaise à Paris au début du XIXe siècle. Un aspect de l’influence française sur l’architecture des Pays-Bas méridonaux’ (unpublished D.E.A. paper, Université de Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1993).

35 August Christian Adolph Zestermann, De basilicas libri tres, Mémoires couronnés et mémoires des savants étrangers, publiés par l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 21 (Brussels, 1847).

36 Lemaire, Raymond, L’origine de la basilique latine (Brussels, 1911)Google Scholar; Henry, William, Weale, James, Les églises du doyenne de Dixmude: notices historiques et descriptives suivies de nombreux documents (Bruges, 1874)Google Scholar.

37 Cloquet, Louis, Les maisons anciennes en Belgique. Exposition rétrospective de l’architecture privée en Belgique, organisée à l’occasion du Congrès archéologique et historique de Gand (Ghent, 1907)Google Scholar.

38 Cloquet, Louis, ‘Société Centrale d’Architecture de Belgique’, Revue de l’Art chrétien, 29 (1886), p. 376.Google Scholar

39 Thus, they might approach Trachtenberg’s view of certain building-type publications as being linked to ‘the practices of publishers looking for a quick profit’ (Trachtenberg, ‘Some Observations’, p. 217).

40 Vanhoonacker, Sophie, ‘Geschiedenis van de uitgeverij-drukkerij Desclée De Brouwer’ [History of the printer-publisher Desclée De Brouwer], (unpublished graduation paper, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1984)Google Scholar.

41 Baes, Jean, Tours et tourelles historiques de la Belgique (Brussels, 1890)Google Scholar.

42 Cloquet, Louis, Traité d’architecture: éléments de l’architecture, types d’édifices, esthétique, composition et pratique de l’architecture, 5 vols (Paris and Liège, 1898-1901)Google Scholar.

43 Trachtenberg, ‘Some Observations’, pp. 220–21.

44 Schayes, Histoire de ïarchitecture en Belgique; Vigne, Felix De, Geschiedenis der middeleeuwsche bouwkundc, hare oorsprong en ontwikkeling (Ghent, 1845)Google Scholar; Hope, Thomas, An Historical Essay on Architecture, by the late Thomas Hope, illustrated from drawings made by him in Italy and Germany (London, 1835)Google Scholar; Hope, Thomas, Histoire de l’architecture, trans. Baron, Auguste (Brussels, 1839; 2nd edn 1852)Google Scholar; Boisserée, Sulpiz, ‘Mémoire sur l’architecture du moyen âge’, Messager des Sciences Historiques, 3 (1825), pp. 306–18 Google Scholar; Wiebeking, C. F., ‘Mémoire sur l’état de l’architecture au moyen âge et la belle exécution des monumens de ce tems; lu dans une des séances de l’Institut royal de France et envoyé à la Société royale des Beaux-Arts de Gand, par le chev. de Wiebeking, conseiller privé de S.M. le Roi, et ancien directeur-général des ponts et chaussées de la Bavière, etc.’, Messager des sciences et des arts, 3 (1825), pp. 19–56.Google Scholar

45 Lemaire, Raymond, Les origines du style gothique en Brabant. 1: L’architecture romane (Brussels, 1906)Google Scholar.

46 On the art historical and archaeological institute of Leuven University, see Van Vicus Artium tot nieuwbouw. 550 jaar faculteitsgeschiedenis, ed. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Faculteit Wijsbegeerte en Letteren (Leuven, 1975), pp. 370–88, and also [Raymond Lemaire], Les études d’architecture et d’histoire de l’art à l’Université catholique de Louvain (Leuven, 1921); Lavalleye, Jacques, ‘L’Institut Supérieur d’ Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art de l’Université catholique de Louvain. Histoire et témoignage’, Revue des archéologues et historiens d’art de Louvain, 2 (1969), pp. 7–38.Google Scholar

47 For example, Oudin, J., Archéologie chrétienne, religieuse, civile et militaire [Christian archaeology, religious, civil and military], 3rd edn (Brussels, 1847) (adapted by De Bleser, Edmond)Google Scholar; Hyacinthe De Bruyn, Jean François (1837-1905), Archéologie religieuse appliquée à nos monuments nationaux, 2 vols (Brussels, 1869-70)Google Scholar. On the appearance of ‘Christian art’ as an architectural or art historical category, see also Ernstrom, Adele M., ‘“Why should we be always looking back?” “Christian art” in Nineteenth-Century Historiography in Britain’, Art History, 22.3 (1999), pp. 421–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 This is the main argument given by the jury of the Prix du Roi for architectural publications in 1879, for not awarding the prize to Reusens: ‘Il y est parlé d’architecture; mais ce n’est pas un ouvrage sur l’architecture. Les autres matières de l’archéologie chrétienne y occupent, dans leur ensemble, une place beaucoup plus considérable que l’architecture proprement dite’ [Architecture is mentioned but it is not a work on architecture. Other matters of Christian archaeology take up, as a whole, a much more important place than architecture proper], Prix de 25,000 Francs, institué par le Roi. Concours ayant pour objet le meilleur ouvrage sur l’architecture. Rapport du jury à M. le Ministre de l’intérieur (Brussels, 1879), p. 8. Reusens, Edmond, Éléments d’archéologie chrétienne (Leuven, 1871-75)Google Scholar; second augmented edition 1885–86. See also Van Impe, Ellen, ‘De Belgische architectuurgeschiedschrijving en de christelijke archeologie 1864–1914. Edmond Reusens en “L’architecture proprement dite”’ [Belgian architectural historiography and Christian archaeology], Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Oudheidkunde en Kunstgeschiedenis, 75 (2006), pp. 129–57.Google Scholar

49 René Maere’s article appeared on the occasion of the Belgian Independence centennial in 1930 in its visitors’ book and in a periodical: Maere, ‘L’étude de l’archéologie chrétienne en Belgique, 1830–1930’, pp. 591–98. On his architectural historical legacy, see Simon Brigode, ‘L’historien de l’architecture’, Contact, 2 (1949–50) (special issue devoted to Maere), pp. 7–9.

50 Examples of such articles are René Maere, ‘Notes sur quelques édifices de style scaldisien dans la Flandre Orientale’, in XXIIIe Congrès de la Fédération archéologique et historique de Belgique, 3 (Ghent, 1913), pp. 7–28; ‘L’église Saint-Nicolas de Gand, étude archéologique’, Bulletin de la Gilde de Saint-Thomas et Saint-Luc, 25 (1914), pp. 78–109; ‘L’église Sainte-Waudru d’Hérentals, étude archéologique’, in Mélanges d’histoire offerts à Charles Moeller, 1 (Leuven, 1914), pp. 626–38; ‘Halles aux Draps de Louvain’, Bulletin du Cercle archéologique, historique et artistique. Comité du Vieux-Louvain, 1 (1914), pp. 35–40; Les églises de Chaussée-Notre-Dame, de Horrues et de Saint-Vincent à Soignies (Mons and Frameries, 1930); René Maere, ‘La crypte de l’église de Messines’, Bulletin des Commissions royales d’art et d’archéologie, 69 (1930), pp. 98–104 and pp. 317–21.

51 While some research into the Renaissance as a historical period (sixteenth century) was undertaken around 1800, and the term was recorded as being thus in use in 1829, the first major works studying the period and its art appeared around mid-century: Michelet, Jules, La Renaissance, Histoire de France VII (Paris, 1855)Google Scholar, Burckhardt, Jacob, Der Cicerone: Eine Anleitung zum Genuss der Kunstwerke Italiens (Basel, 1855)Google Scholar; Burckhardt, , Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (Basel, 1860)Google Scholar. See Bazin, Germain, Histoire de l’histoire de l’art de Vasari à nos jours (Paris, 1986), p. 144 Google Scholar. Burckhardt was also responsible for the volume Die Renaissance in Italien (1868) in the series Geschichte der Baukunst, founded by Franz Kugler. French and German Renaissance architecture were dealt with in the same series, by Wilhelm Lübke in 1868 and 1872: Geschichte der Baukunst, ed. Franz Theodor Kugler et al., 5 vols (Stuttgart, 1856–72). Watkin considers Kugler ‘important for ending the dominance of mediaeval architecture as the principal subject of study for architectural historians’ (Watkin, The Rise of Architectural History, p. 8). See also der Woud, Auke van, Waarheid en karakter. Het debat over de bouwkunst 1840–1900 [Truth and character. The debate on architecture 1840–1900] (Rotterdam 1997), pp. 227–28 Google Scholar, referring to international architectural literature on the Renaissance, which was influential in the Netherlands; this book also exists in an English translation, entitled The Art of Building: From Classicism to Modernity: the Dutch Architectural Debate 1840–1990, Reinterpreting Classicism: Culture, Reaction and Appropriation (Ashgate, 2001).

52 Schoy, Auguste, Histoire de l’influence italienne sur l’architecture dans les Pays-Bas, Mémoires couronnés et mémoires des savants étrangers publiés par l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 39 (Brussels, 1879)Google Scholar.

53 Blunt, Anthony, ‘Rubens and Architecture’, The Burlington Magazine, 894 (1977), pp. 609–21 Google Scholar; Baudouin, Frans, ‘Peter Paul Rubens and the Notion of “Painter-Architect”’, The Reception of P.P. Rubens’s Palazzi di Genova during the 17th Century in Europe: Questions and Problems, ed. Lombaerde, Piet, Moderna, Architectura, 1 (Turnhout, 2002), pp. 15–36.Google Scholar

54 Jacques, Jules, Ysendyck, Van, Documents classés de l’art dans les Pays-Bas du Xe au XVIIIe siècle (Antwerp, 1880-89)Google Scholar. On the author, see Brunfaut, Jules, ‘Notice sur Jules Jacques Van Ysendyck’, Annuaire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (1911), pp. 165–75 Google Scholar. Van Ysendyck offered a copy of his monumental work to the RIBA Library, as is mentioned in the RIBA Journal, 1, 3rd series (1893–94), p. 452: ‘It is similarly gratifying to report the acquisition of the great work, Documents classés de l’Art dans les Pays-Bas, by M. Van Ysendyck [Hon. Corr. M.], a large-paper copy of which has been presented by the author’.

55 Van Ysendyck’s election in 1890 as ‘Honorary Corresponding Member’ is mentioned in The Kalender of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Fifty-seventh session 1891–92 (London, 1891), p. 134. Moreover, the RIBA Archives conserve a letter from Van Ysendyck thanking the institute for his election; see the collection Letters to Council, 1835–1907, reference number LC/31/3/54.

56 Ewerbeck, Franz, Die Renaissance in Belgien und Holland (Leipzig, 1883-89)Google Scholar; Gurlitt, Kornelius, Geschichte des Barockstils in Belgien, Holland, Frankreich und England, 3 vols (Stuttgart, 1888)Google Scholar; Hedicke, Robert, Cornelis Floris und die Floris-Dekoration. Studien zur niederländischen und deutschen Kunst im XVI. Jahrhundert, 2 vols (Berlin, 1913)Google Scholar; Hedicke, Robert, Jacques Dubroeucq von Mons: ein niederlandischer Meister aus der Fruhzeit des italienischen Einflusses, des Auslandes, Zur Kunstgeschichte, 26 (Strasbourg, 1904)Google Scholar; Hedicke, Robert, Jacques Dubroeucq de Mons, trans. Dony, Emile (Mons, 1911);Google Scholar Bezold, Gustav Von, Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien und Danemark. Handbuch der Architektur, 2, VII (Stuttgart, 1900)Google Scholar.

57 Examples of such researchers include Antoine Perreau (1807–68), who wrote several articles on the monuments of Tongeren, or Leopold Devillers (1830–1910), on the monuments of Mons: Perreau, Antoine, ‘Tongres et ses monuments’, Annales de l’ Académie d’Archéologie de Belgique, 5 (1848), pp. 117–75; pp. 249–82 Google Scholar; Devillers, Leopold, ‘Les anciennes halles et fontaines de la ville de Mons’, Annales de l’ Académie d’Archéologie de Belgique, 17 (1860), pp. 173–80 Google Scholar; Devillers, Leopold, ‘Revue des anciens monuments de la ville de Mons’, Annales de l’ Académie d’Archéologie de Belgique, 19 (1862), pp. 496–515 Google Scholar. On Perreau, see Baron de Chestret de Haneffe, ‘Perreau (Antoine-Charles-François-Théodore)’, in Biographie nationale, XVII (Brussels, 1903), cols 43–46. On Devillers, see Cuvelier, Joseph, ‘Devillers (Léopold-Pierre-Philippe)’, in Biographie nationale, xxix (Brussels, 1957), cols 553–57.Google Scholar

58 Piot, Charles, Histoire de Louvain, depuis son origine jusqu’aujourd’hui (Leuven, 1839)Google Scholar; Henne, Alexandre and Wauters, Alphonse, Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles, 3 vols (Brussels, 1845)Google Scholar; Mertens, François Henri and Torfs, Karel Louis, Geschiedenis van Antwerpen sedert de stichting der stad tot onze tyden, 8 vols (Antwerp, 1845-53)Google Scholar; Van Even, Edouard, Louvain monumental ou Description historique et artistique de tous les édifices civils et religieux de la dite ville (Leuven, 1860)Google Scholar.

59 He complains about the ‘descriptions, souvent aussi superficielles qu’inexacte, de nos principaux édifices dans des Guides du voyageur, dans des histoires ou des descriptions de nos villes principales’ [descriptions, often as superficial as inexact, of our principal buildings in travellers’ guides, in histories or descriptions of our principal towns] (Schayes, Histoire de l’architecture en Belgique [1849-50], ‘Préface’, p. ii).

60 See Weale, W. H. J., Some Observations on Guide-Books by W.H. James Weale, Author of a New Guide-Book to Belgium, Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne (Bruges, 1859), p. 12 Google Scholar. Other nineteenth-century guidebooks on cities by Belgian archéologues include: Louis Cloquet, Tournai et Tournaisis, Collection des guides beiges (Bruges, 1884); Van Caster, Guillaume, Malines: guide historique et description des monuments, Collection de guides beiges (Bruges, s.d.)Google Scholar; Weale, W. H. J., Bruges et ses environs, Collection de guides beiges, 4th edn (Bruges, 1884)Google Scholar; Marez, Guillaume Des, Traité d’architecture dans son application aux monuments de Bruxelles (Brussels, 1921)Google Scholar, as an early twentieth-century example; and, as an example of a guidebook by a well-known foreign scholar, Burckhardt, Jakob, Die Kunstwerke der Belgischen Städte (Düsseldorf, 1842)Google Scholar, in which both the art collections and the most important monuments of Belgium’s main cities are succinctly presented.

61 It was subsequently translated into French, by Martin, Camille, as L’art de bâtir les villes. Notes et reflections d’un architecte traduites et complétées par Camille Martin (Geneva, 1902)Google Scholar. See Stynen, De onvoltooid verleden tijd, pp. 217–18.

62 Smets, Marcel, Charles Buls. Les principes de l’art urbain, Architecture + Recherches (Liège, 1995);Google Scholar and Stynen, , De onvoltooid verleden tijd, p. 216.Google Scholar

63 See Cloquet, Louis, ‘Les embellissements du centre de Gand’, Revue de l’Art Chrétien (1905), pp. 4–14 Google Scholar. Cloquet based his plans on earlier proposals, formulated from 1896 onwards; see Stynen, De onvoltooid verleden tijd, pp. 221–27.

64 See Leniaud, Jean-Michel, Viollet-le-Duc ou les délires du système (Paris, 1994), especially pp. 51–59.Google Scholar

65 White, Hayden, ‘The fictions of factual representation’, in Reading Architectural History, pp. 25–26 Google Scholar. See also Gabriele Bickendorf’s exploration of the critical-historical method as the new paradigm for the study of art history in Germany in the 1820s and 1830s, which is also applicable to Schayes: Gabriele Bickendorf, Der Beginn der Kunstgeschichtsschreibung unter dem Paradigma “Geschichte”. Gustav Friedrich Waagens Friihschrift “Ueber Hubert und Johann van Eyck” (Worms, 1985).

66 Schmeller, J. A., ‘Über Raphael Sanzio als Architecten, nach Handschriften der k. Bibliothek zu München’, Abhandlungen der Philos.-Philologischen Classe der königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 4 (1844), pp. 231–39 Google Scholar. On how the manuscripts presumably found their way to Munich, see Rowland, I. D., ‘Raphael, Angelo Colocci, and the Genesis of the Architectural Orders’, Art Bulletin, 76 (1994), p. 88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 The Architect: Chapters in the History of the Profession, ed. Spiro Kostoff (New York and Oxford, 1977). Van Eck remarked that ‘the historiography of classical architecture is itself very much based on the main points of classical doctrine as it was formulated by Vitruvius, Leon Battista Alberti and their academic heirs. The central role of the design in architectural theory is matched by the focus on the determining role of the architect and his great works in architectural history’. This remark is equally applicable to Auguste Schoy and his Histoire in which the approach likewise seems determined by the theoretical issues current in the studied period ( Van Eck, Caroline, ‘Artisan Mannerism: Seventeenth-Century Rhetorical Alternatives to Sir John Summerson’s Formalist Approach’, Summerson and Hitchcock, pp. 85–105 (pp. 85–86)Google Scholar.)

68 See Fierens-Gevaert, Hippolyte, ‘L’enseignement de l’histoire de l’art en Belgique’, Revue de synthèse historique, 82 (1914), pp. 82–90 Google Scholar; [Lemaire], Les études d’architecture et d’histoire de l’art à l’Université catholique de Louvain; Lavalleye, ‘L’Institut Supérieur d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art de l’Université catholique de Louvain’, pp. 7–38.

69 This use is, for instance, recorded in the Leuven Academy of Fine Arts, for the period 1851–85, during which the Histoire was given at least twenty times as a prize book (information based on unpublished documentation compiled by Luc Verpoest for his doctoral research (1984), Leuven city archive, fund ‘Palmares’).

70 Schoy submitted his Histoire three times to the Académie royale de Belgique before winning the Gold Medal for it. Nevertheless, Gustave De Man (1805–87) and Alphonse Balat (1818–95), two of the jury members on that occasion, criticized it on the grounds that Schoy ‘exagère encore le style ampoulé de son premier mémoire’ (Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts, 36 (2nd series), 2 (1873), pp. 137–38.

71 In 14960, Ter Kuile still made a point of referring to Schoy’s Histoire, albeit as an ‘entirely out-of-date’ book: Horst Gerson and E. H. Ter Kuile, Art and Architecture in Belgium 1600–1800, The Pelican History of Art (Harmondsworth, 1960), p. 12, note 2 (notes on p. 178).

72 Plantenga, J. H., L’architecture religieuse dans l’ancien duché de Brabant depuis le règne des archiducs jusqu’au gouvernement autrichien (1598-1713) (The Hague, 1926)Google Scholar; Parent, Paul, L’architecture des Pays-Bas méridionaux (Belgique et nord de la France) aux XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar.

73 L’art en Belgique, ed. Paul Fierens (Brussels, 1st edn, w.d. [1939]; the 2nd edn, of 1944, is used in this essay). Reusens’s Éléments is included in the bibliographies of Paul Rolland, ‘L’architecture et la sculpture romanes’, pp. 17–42, and ‘L’architecture et la sculpture gothiques’, pp. 45–90 (under ‘généralités’, together with Schayes and some other works). Schoy is, typically, omitted in the chapter on sixteenth-century architecture and sculpture, although the corpus of ‘important buildings and works’ seems remarkably similar to his Histoire: Simon Brigode, ‘L’architecture et la sculpture au seizième siècle’, pp. 181–204. For the seventeenth century, only Schoy’s booklet on La Grand’Place de Bruxelles (Brussels, 1878) is included, not the entire Histoire from which it was extracted; A. J. J. Delen, ‘L’architecture et la sculpture baroques’, pp. 257–83.

74 For example, Hélène Lipstadt, ‘Celebrating the Centenaries of Summerson and Hitchcock: Finding a historiography for the Architect-Historian’, Summerson and Hitchcock, pp. 331–50.

75 See symposia such as De grenzen van de architectuurgeschiedenis (Tweede Architectuurhistorische Landdag, Universiteit Leiden, Onderzoeksinstituut Pallas en Onderzoeksschool Kunstgeschiedenis, Lipsiusgebouw, Leiden, 28–29 January 2005) or the INHA-SAH Conference, ‘Changing Boundaries of Architectural History’ (Paris, 31 August-3 September 2005); thematic issues of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (‘Architectural History’, JSAH, 58.3 (1999/2000); and also the sections ‘Learning from Interdisciplinarity’ and ‘Learning from Architectural History’ in JSAH, 64.4 (2005), pp. 417–40, and 65.1 (2006), pp. 5–24); and publications such as Rethinking Architectural History, ed. Dana Arnold, Elvan Altan Ergut and Belgin Turan Özkaya (London, 2006) (especially Nancy Stieber, ‘Space, Time and Architectural History’, pp. 171–82).