Where artifice meets nature. The marble ornaments of the Lady Chapel in the antwerp Jesuit church

Heering, Caroline
(2012) Carrara Marble and the Low Countries. From the Late Middle Ages to Today — Location: Rome-Carrare, Academia Belgica/Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Rome (4.June.2012)

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Known as the “marble temple”, the Jesuit church from Antwerpen displayed an interior decoration the wealth of which was unique at the time in the Southern Netherlands. Woodwork, gilts, stuccoes but especially colored marbles were associated to create a perfectly coherent whole. Together, sculpture, painting, and architecture were united to enhance a sensation of immersion of the faithful in the sacred space. This communication aims for the study of a specific feature of the visual rhetoric developed by the Jesuits: the marble treatment of the Mary Chapel’s ornamentation. Implemented in panels, frames, and other sculpted ornaments, the marble reveals a tension between a reference to nature and an exaltation of the artifice. One will specifically consider the white marble which permits a naturalistic and skillful rendering. Polished to the extreme, this material shows an organic vitality which paradoxically contributes to its fading and gives the illusion of life and of various materials. Often attributed to Italian Mannerism, this tendency also has to be replaced in the Flemish tradition of naturalistic treatment of matter, but also in the context of sacred art developed by the Jesuits in the Southern Netherlands
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Heering, C. (2012). Where artifice meets nature. The marble ornaments of the Lady Chapel in the antwerp Jesuit church. Carrara Marble and the Low Countries. From the Late Middle Ages to Today, Rome-Carrare, Academia Belgica/Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Rome. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/56038