Artikelen

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  Antoon van den Wijngaerdes tekeningen van steden in de Nederlanden

  Views of twelve cities in the Low Countries by the Flemish artist Antoon van den Wijngaerde (c. 1510-1571) have survived: Amsterdam, Brugge, Brussels, Damme, Dordrecht, Duinkerke, Gravelines, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Leuven, Mechelen, Sluis, and Utrecht. Van den Wijngaerde was known for his mastery of topographically accurate and beautiful depictions of cities. The artist entered the service of Philip II in 1557 and between 1557 and 1561 he produced panoramas of cities in the Low Countries for the Spanish king. Between 1562 and 1571 Van den Wijngaerde travelled the length and breadth of Spain, depicting over sixty Spanish cities using much the same techniques. In most Spanish cities the artist was able to make his sketches from a hill or mountain, where he had a good overall view. It was a different story in the Low Countries.

  So how did Van den Wijngaerde manage to render the Netherlandish cities, most of them located on flat land, as if seen from a high viewing point with a sweeping view of the city and surrounding landscape? Van den Wijngaerde followed a fixed routine in setting up his city views, but he also made clever use of the local situation. He seized on any high point outside the city and allowed that to determine his direction of view. When several preparatory studies were necessary, he preferred to make them all looking in the same direction: the city roofscape viewed from outside the city,  prominent buildings viewed from the city outskirts, and the surrounding area from the highest point in the city. This resulted in city views that were effectively a composite of three preparatory studies. When the local situation did not favour this approach, Van den Wijngaerde looked for alternatives, such as preliminary studies from more than three viewing points. In determining the viewing points that Van den Wijngaerde adopted when drawing cities in the Low Countries, the author consulted the town plans drawn by Van den Wijngaerde’s contemporary Jacob van Deventer (c. 1500-1575).

  Views of twelve cities in the Low Countries by the Flemish artist Antoon van den Wijngaerde (c. 1510-1571) have survived: Amsterdam, Brugge, Brussels, Damme, Dordrecht, Duinkerke, Gravelines, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Leuven, Mechelen, Sluis, and Utrecht. Van den Wijngaerde was known for his mastery of topographically accurate and beautiful depictions of cities. The artist entered the service of Philip II in 1557 and between 1557 and 1561 he produced panoramas of cities in the Low Countries for the Spanish king. Between 1562 and 1571 Van den Wijngaerde travelled the length and breadth of Spain, depicting over sixty Spanish cities using much the same techniques. In most Spanish cities the artist was able to make his sketches from a hill or mountain, where he had a good overall view. It was a different story in the Low Countries.

  So how did Van den Wijngaerde manage to render the Netherlandish cities, most of them located on flat land, as if seen from a high viewing point with a...

  Views of twelve cities in the Low Countries by the Flemish artist Antoon van den Wijngaerde (c. 1510-1571) have survived: Amsterdam, Brugge, Brussels, Damme, Dordrecht, Duinkerke, Gravelines, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Leuven, Mechelen, Sluis, and Utrecht. Van den Wijngaerde was known for his mastery...

  Reinout Rutte

  1-24

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  Bouwen in de krimpende stad

  This article provides an insight into private building practice around 1800 in the shrinking cities of Haarlem and Leiden. Studies of private building practice in the long eighteenth century have tended to focus on the renovation and modification of substantial private homes and country houses. Interest in urban transformation in periods of decline has only recently started to grow.

  The archival sources consulted for this article come from Leiden and Haarlem and cover the period 1800-1810. These documents make it possible to reconstruct part of the private building practice in a period of economic and demographic decline in detail. The records contain not just requests, but also the accompanying plans and elevations. The latter were intended to give the municipal departments and officials responsible for overseeing construction an impression of the structural alterations being proposed. The request and drawings together with the inspection reports, which were also archived, provide a detailed picture of the alterations carried out on a large number of houses, warehouses and sheds in both cities, and of urban transformation in a period of population decline, the supervision of private construction, and the evolution of the domestic floor plan. Reliable  plans of ordinary urban houses from this period are relatively scarce.

  A source analysis of the drawings (legal context, type of drawing and draughtsman) was combined with an inventory and analysis of the structural alterations described in the requests, in the context of the spatial development of both cities around 1800. The source material shows that not only vacancy and demolition, but also conversion, renovation and greening were part of the redevelopment of the urban living environment. Capitalizing on the situation on the housing market and the space in the city, property owners and building trade bosses focused not only on buying up houses and ‘knock-downers’, but also on turning houses into  warehouses and cowsheds or converting houses and workshops in various states of repair into attractive residences with ‘spacious’ gardens and more ‘light and air’ thanks to the demolition of back houses. The demographic and economic shifts that had led to vacant properties and demolition did not result in stagnation, but instead generated their own lively building practice catering to modern middle-class housing needs.

  This article provides an insight into private building practice around 1800 in the shrinking cities of Haarlem and Leiden. Studies of private building practice in the long eighteenth century have tended to focus on the renovation and modification of substantial private homes and country houses. Interest in urban transformation in periods of decline has only recently started to grow.

  The archival sources consulted for this article come from Leiden and Haarlem and cover the period 1800-1810. These documents make it possible to reconstruct part of the private building practice in a period of economic and demographic decline in detail. The records contain not just requests, but also the accompanying plans and elevations. The latter were intended to give the municipal departments and officials responsible for overseeing construction an impression of the structural alterations being proposed. The request and drawings together with the inspection reports, which were also...

  This article provides an insight into private building practice around 1800 in the shrinking cities of Haarlem and Leiden. Studies of private building practice in the long eighteenth century have tended to focus on the renovation and modification of substantial private homes and country...

  Minke Walda

  25-46

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  Een nieuw platteland bouwen

  In the summer of 2013, the Vlaams Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed (Flemish Immovable Heritage Agency) investigated a modest little school building in the vicinity of Ghent (Belgium). The old building proved to be a reconstruction of the model school in the Modern Village, a Belgian government pavilion of great social significance at the 1913 World’s Fair in Ghent. The model school is the only surviving building from the Modern Village.
  
  Since this discovery, further investigations by the heritage agency have revealed the dearth of scholarly studies of either the Modern Village or the model school building. The great social importance of this Belgian rural model school is, however, becoming increasingly clear. This article is a critical assessment of that importance. A brief outline of the historical context in which the Modern Village and the model school came about is followed by a description of their social significance and the impact on Belgian and European society. The starting point is an analysis of the evaluation reports of the Modern Village published in book form by the then director general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Paul De Vuyst, and a member of parliament, Emile Tibbaut. The authenticity of the reconstruction of the model school is assessed based on recent construction history research. Finally, the question of the extent to which the model school design was adopted was explored during a field trip with the help of local cultural and archival agencies.

  The 1913 World’s Fair in Ghent took place in a period of mass rural migration that resulted in poverty and social unrest in many parts of Europe. The Belgian government was keen to do something about this by building a new countryside with a better quality of life. To that end they exhibited the Modern Village – a practical and instructive embodiment of their policy – at the Ghent World’s Fair. The ambition was to modernize the rural economy and beautify the villages. Via the introduction of compulsory education for children between the ages of six and fourteen, future generations would be taught the skills and techniques needed to modernize the economy and simultaneously achieve the edification of the rural population, central to which was a love of one’s own region and traditions. The effects of the Modern Village on the modernization of agriculture and on the improvement of the quality of life were felt mainly after the First World War, not just in Belgium but in other countries, too, such as Hungary.

  The model school in the Modern Village was conceived as an affordable and easy-to-build school building that would facilitate the realization of this new rural culture. The construction survey has demonstrated the authenticity based on the specific roof shapes in stone dating from over a hundred years ago.
  
  

  Recent field research complements the latest investigations by the Flemish Government and strengthens the hypothesis that the model school was widely emulated and played an important role in the implementation of compulsory schooling in Belgium. Further research is necessary, not least to obtain clarity about the adoption of the new teaching methods presented in the model school and the significance of small primary school libraries for the general edification of the rural population.

  In the summer of 2013, the Vlaams Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed (Flemish Immovable Heritage Agency) investigated a modest little school building in the vicinity of Ghent (Belgium). The old building proved to be a reconstruction of the model school in the Modern Village, a Belgian government pavilion of great social significance at the 1913 World’s Fair in Ghent. The model school is the only surviving building from the Modern Village.
  
  Since this discovery, further investigations by the heritage agency have revealed the dearth of scholarly studies of either the Modern Village or the model school building. The great social importance of this Belgian rural model school is, however, becoming increasingly clear. This article is a critical assessment of that importance. A brief outline of the historical context in which the Modern Village and the model school came about is followed by a description of their social significance and the impact on Belgian and European society. The...

  In the summer of 2013, the Vlaams Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed (Flemish Immovable Heritage Agency) investigated a modest little school building in the vicinity of Ghent (Belgium). The old building proved to be a reconstruction of the model school in the Modern Village, a Belgian government...

  Hannes De Zutter

  47-63

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