Almost hidden art history

I must continue last week's little introduction to some of the modern statuary in Brugge. The item on the sculpture at 't Zand by Stefaan Depuydt and Livia Canestrato promised to reveal a little more of their artistic activities. Surprisingly, there are at least three other examples of their work in Brugge; one is particularly famous here, beloved of tourists and other lovers. It is Les Amoureuses in the Burg; again a monumental work in bronze showing a couple of absorbed lovers embracing, beneath the canopy of trees resident there. It stands on a column on the back of which is positioned a bronze frog; legend has it that visitors to the town must kiss the frog if they wish to return and this ritual is often to be seen being honoured by hopeful tourists. The lines of the sculpture flow and its fluidity together with the self absorption of the lovers, portray youth and mutual passion. This probably dates also from the late eighties and I heard today that that too might be about to be banished to some Other Place.

They were also responsible for 'The Ode to Music' over the entrance door of the Joseph Rylandtzaal

in Ezelstraat, a hall I used to know well when it was one of the venues for the coffee concerts each week morning in the MA Festival. It seems little used nowadays but it is a most beautiful space in which to listen to music. And also the charming 'Bouquet of Flowers for Frank Van Acker', a former mayor, situated on the Djiver was the work of the same couple. Frank Van Acker [1929-1992] was a famous mayor of Brugge and Minister of State too. A bronze head of Van Acker stands aloft a column in the Vismarkt, sculpted by Fernand Vanderplancke and its central presence testified, no doubt, to his enduring popularity. 

'Our' two sculptors were prolific and their creative works have adorned the public face of Brugge for at least thirty years so that it is a shock to discover so little about their lives and philosophy! The more so now that I have  learned that the numerous statues adorning the façade of the City Hall, de Stadhuis, are their work. Yes, I mean those gorgeous 'mediaeval statues!

The Stadhuis van Brugge was built in the Gothic style beginning in 1376 and originally completed in 1421 under the leadership of engineer Jan Roegiers. Its flamboyant opulence underlined the economic and political power of the city at that time. The statuary has perforce been renewed many times over the centuries though some fine
original examples remain in the Gruuthuus museum. To look at the façade of this beautiful building now, as millions of tourists do, is to witness an early Mediaeval miracle of construction and decoration. But, because my interest was kindled by this blog, today I have been to the Archives in the Burg to see what I could find. And what delight it was there to have
access to a booklet presumably produced in the late 1980s entitled:

Brugge Burg: Stefaan Depuydt and Livia Canestraro 

It has many black and white photographs in it and is first, a resume of the history of the Stadhuis, and secondly, a picture book of the sculpting and installation and celebration of the new statues on the facade during the eighties. The detail is enough to outline the centuries-old dilemma with the statues on the façade but the information for the last fifty years is riveting and one little phrase in the book gives a clue as to why the resolution of years of indecision and non-cooperation came about. There is a photograph of Frank Van Acker, the famous Mayor of Brugge mentioned above, at the official installation of the new statues decorating the Stadhuis in 1988, labelling him as 'the motor behind the completion of the new statues.' Now I understand one reason at least behind the memorial Bouquet of Flowers for Frank Van Acker, on the Dijver, created by Stefaan and Livia, the two sculptors. It was he who had cut through the Gordian knot and brought half a century of indecision and stalemate to an end. And the ensuing competition to choose four sculptors from a long list of seventeen, had awarded the huge task of creating forty eight 'mediaeval' statues for the long-vacant niches on the façade of the six hundred year old Stadhuis, to Stefaan Depuydt and Livia Canestraro! Neat. Here, below, is the bronze head of Frank Van Acker, [1929-1992] sculpted by Fernand Vanderplancke, and placed in the Vismarkt. He died about four years after the triumphant ceremony to celebrate the installation of the statues in the niches which had languished, empty, for so long.
 

 



 

 

 

I found the details of the history of the statues so interesting that I copied down most of it to record in this blog, albeit, in the interests of the sanity of the occasional reader, in next week's edition. Fortunately for me, half of the written information was in Dutch, alas, still Double to me, but half was duplicated in pretty simple French which saved my lardon, as it were. I fear it may slightly bore but it is worth reading to witness the extraordinary time scale of civic disagreements! I won't include every detail; promise!