Baroque Art

Situated in western Europe, Belgium is bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France with its west coastline on the North Sea. It served as a trading hub between the north and the south and was crowned the most prosperous and vital area of Europe during medieval times. Besides thriving economic development, Belgium was also blessed with a rich cultural touch as reflected by the glamorous architectural and artistic masterpieces found all over the country.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a master painter in European art history. As a soul figure for 17th century Baroque art, he is most famous for his Flemish and printmaking artworks. In 2002, his masterpiece Massacre of the Innocents was sold for more than 70 million US dollars by Sotheby’s auction in London, marking itself as one of the ten most valuable paintings in the world.

Rubens was born in Siegen, Germany. He became a painter in 1598 and was famous for his portraits and landscapes as well as paintings of mythological, historical, religious, and genre subjects. In 1600 Rubens moved to Italy and was appointed as court painter by Vincenzo Gonzaga. He later traveled to Spain as a diplomat and was therefore able to study the wide court collection of Madrid. During this period, his works, such as St. Helena and Ecce Homo, were strongly influenced by the Renaissance with characteristic touches of Venetian paintings.

It was until 1608 that Rubens returned to his homeland, Antwerp, where he was appointed as court painter by the governor. His paintings with religious and mythological themes in this period, such as Christ Risen and The Garden of Love, were done with free, uninterrupted strokes in significant entirety. These masterpieces demonstrated Rubens’s synthesis of the Renaissance aesthetics, humanism and Flanders’ ancient arts to form his own personal style that is passionate, vigorous, colourful and energetic, which are all exemplary features of splendid Baroque art.

Antwerp – The City of Diamonds

Famed as the "World’s Leading Diamond City", Antwerp’s diamond industry has been flourishing ever since the 15th century. During the early 15th century, trading activities between Europe and East Asia had started to prosper. Venice served as the interchange for two major diamond trading routes at that time and subsequently became the most important trading hub of the West. In 1498, Vasco da Gamma discovered an immediate sea route from Lisbon to India, the only country with diamond output until the 18th century, and Antwerp gradually became the key diamond trading centre of Europe.

As the arts of diamond cutting matured, the unique technique to cut a diamond into 33 facets on top and 24 facets on the bottom was developed in Antwerp, displaying the gemstone’s brilliance without flaws. As a result, Antwerp transformed into an important metropolis for diamond processing with this exclusive technique of diamond cutting acclaimed as an international standard.

Antwerp is now one of the world’s three most prominent cities for international diamond businesses. Eight out of ten uncut diamonds in the world are to be processed in Antwerp, while more than half of Polished diamonds are produced in this vital diamond city. The local diamond industry brings about a turnover of 29 billion US dollars every year, with diamond trading accounting 8% of the total export of Belgium. The superior status of local diamond craftsmanship has long been recognized as the most outstanding in the world as reflected by the fact that only evenly proportioned diamonds that are processed to perfection deserve the honour "Antwerp Cut".

In order to pass the art of traditional diamond cutting on to future generations, a number of schools in Antwerp offer courses that have fostered many well-known designers in Europe. It is such persistence of diamond art that has made today’s culturally rich Antwerp.