Local Antiquities

CHAPTER 2 Local Antiquities

But nevertheless, since we have decided to travel in this part of Gaul, so generally known from the histories of all times, but not seen by us (…), it seemed better to comment on anything, than to be idle for the entire journey. Abraham Ortelius & Johannes Vivianus, in the prefatory letter to Mercator, introducing the Itinerarium, 15841 ∵

By the time Ortelius and his friends entered the antiquarian stage, others had started to explore the relicts of Germania Inferior and Gallia Belgica. Jean Lemaire de Belges (c. 1473–c. 1525), historiog- rapher of Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), had registered a Gallo- Roman tumulus near Zaventem and mentioned the ruins of a Roman fortress near Katwijk.2 Gerard Geldenhouwer (1483–1542) seized these same remains to boost the prestige of his patron, the local nobleman Philip of Burgundy (1465–1524).3 Lambert Lombard (1505/6–1566), court painter to the prince-bishop of Liège, Erhard de la Marck (1505–1538), had traced Gallo-Roman antiquities in the border region of France, Germany and the Low Countries (fig. 14).4 Lombard was one of the first to pay attention to more recent antiquities, such as the thirteenth-century fresco in the monastery of Schwarzenberg near Bonn.5 The classical style of these ‘medieval’ artworks suggested to him that northern art had developed contin- uously since Gallo-Roman times and called into question Vasari’s notion of the barbarous, gothic Middle Ages. Artistic judgment thus confirmed the political doctrine of translatio imperii, which maintained that the Roman Empire had never been dismantled in Northern Europe but had survived through the lineage of emper- ors Charlemagne (r. 800–814), Otto (r. 962–973) and the reigning Habsburgs.6 This consideration had consequences for the making of art. Artists learned by imitation, and Lombard encouraged them Figure 19, detail to rely on models beyond Roman art. He established an art school Abraham Ortelius, The Arx in Liège where he instructed young painters to copy Roman and Britannica or Brittenburg, local antiquities as well as prints after more recent local masters, c. 1567–1568