scholarly journals Planning Bastions:

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48
Author(s):  
Pieter Martens
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Military Architecture ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Critical Moment

In the sixteenth century, chronic wars and a high concentration of towns made the Low Countries one of Europe's prime laboratories for innovations in military architecture and urbanism. The 1553 inspection tour of the region by engineers Giovanni Maria Olgiati and Sebastian van Noyen marked the assimilation of “Italian-style” fortifications into Netherlandish practice and the transition there from defenses with bastions to proper bastioned systems. Olgiati and Van Noyen's joint tour is well documented through a dozen design drawings now held at the Vatican Library, Turin's Archivio di Stato, and Madrid's Palacio Real, as well as a closely related atlas in Turin and complementary archival records. As Pieter Martens discusses in Planning Bastions: Olgiati and Van Noyen in the Low Countries in 1553, these materials, including many hitherto unknown plans, provide new insights into the design process, offer a unique panorama of the Low Countries' border defenses at this critical moment, and illuminate the genesis and spread of bastioned fortifications in Europe.

The hortus siccus (1566) of Petrus Cadé: a description of the oldest known collection of dried plants made in the Low Countries

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Maarten J. M. Christenhusz
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACT: A sixteenth century Dutch hortus siccus of Brabantian origin has been rediscovered and is described here. The plants preserved in it are identified and most of its history is revealed.

Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Central Section ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Charles V ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Southern Netherlands

During the Late Middle Ages a unique type of ‘mixed media’ recycled and remnant art arose in houses of religious women in the Low Countries: enclosed gardens. They date from the time of Emperor Charles V and are unique examples of ‘anonymous’ female art, devotion and spirituality. A hortus conclusus (or enclosed garden) represents an ideal, paradisiacal world. Enclosed Gardens are retables, sometimes with painted side panels, the central section filled not only with narrative sculpture, but also with all sorts of trinkets and hand-worked textiles.Adornments include relics, wax medallions, gemstones set in silver, pilgrimage souvenirs, parchment banderoles, flowers made from textiles with silk thread, semi-precious stones, pearls and quilling (a decorative technique using rolled paper). The ensemble is an impressive and one-of-a-kind display and presents as an intoxicating garden. The sixteenth-century horti conclusi of the Mechelen Hospital sisters are recognized Masterpieces and are extremely rare, not alone at a Belgian but even at a global level. They are of international significance as they provide evidence of devotion and spirituality in convent communities in the Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth century. They are an extraordinary tangible expression of a devotional tradition. The highly individual visual language of the enclosed gardens contributes to our understanding of what life was like in cloistered communities. They testify to a cultural identity closely linked with mystical traditions allowing us to enter a lost world very much part of the culture of the Southern Netherlands. This book is the first full survey of the enclosed gardens and is the result of year-long academic research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document