Lodewijk van Schoor

Lodewijk van Schoor[1][2] (c. 1645, Brussels (?) – buried 7 September 1702, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries. Van Schoor was one of the major figures of Flemish tapestry design in the late 17th and early 18th century, together with Victor Honoré Janssens and Jan van Orley.[3]

The Apotheosis of Good Government

Life

Very little is known about the life and training of Lodewijk van Schoor. His origins likely lie in Brussels since he needed to get special dispensation from the Antwerp magistrate when he established himself in Antwerp in April 1696.[4] He was registered as a master in the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1678.[3]

He is firmly recorded in Antwerp where he registered as a master in the local Guild of Saint Luke in the year 1695-1696.[5] He was in Antwerp a master of Jacques Ignatius de Roore.[4]

He died in Antwerp where he was buried in the St James Church on 7 September 1702.[5]

Work
America

Although Lodewijk van Schoor was registered as a painter when he registered at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, he is now principally known as a designer for the tapestry workshops in Brussels and no paintings have been confidently attributed to him.[2] His signature 'L. van Schoor inv. et pinx.' was woven in various series of tapestries produced at the Brussels tapestry workshops.[3] He may have painted altarpieces as may be deduced from a drawing preserved at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium signed by van Schoor and the Brussels sculptor Jan Baptiste de Vree, which is a design for an altarpiece of Saint Barbara.[6] A Landscape with Tree (Usher Gallery) has been attributed to Lodewijk van Schoor. However, this is likely by another Lodewijk van Schoor or other van Schoor as his lifetime dates (1666-1726) do not correspond to the artist discussed in this article. Moreover, as the landscapes in the tapestry workshops designed by Lodewijk van Schoor were usually drawn by specialist landscape painters while he was typically responsible for the staffage, it is less likely he practised as a landscape painter.[7][8]

The presence of tapestry designs by French artists Charles Poerson and Charles Le Brun in Antwerp and Brussels is documented in 1663 and 1673. These designs were used by the tapestry workshops in Brussels and Antwerp as models. The French classicising style of these models influenced artists like Lodewijk van Schoor and Lambert de Hondt the Younger to adopt a more lighthearted rendering of mythological subjects than was current in the Flemish Baroque canon. Their mythological scenes looked more like elegant genre scenes with figures placed in rich landscapes than the violent and complex compositions of Rubens and his entourage. This elegant style was important for the survival of the tapestry industry in Brussels, Antwerp and Oudenaarde, which had to contend with stiff competition of the French state-run Gobelins Manufactory.[9][10]

Dido showing Aeneas the map of Carthago

Van Schoor designed various tapestry series dealing with allegorical subjects, which were intended to serve as a fairly neutral decoration.[3] He made series of the Seasons, Months (2 months per tapestry), the Four Elements and the Four Continents.[11][12] Before 1700 van Schoor designed various sets of tapestries including Verdures with Small Figures Depicting the Story of Dido and Aeneas, the Story of Narcissus and Echo, a set of Hunts and the Story of Jacob.[13] His designs of the Four Continents inspired a series on the similar theme designed by the Italian artist Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani for the tapestry workshop in Florence.[10]

These series designed by van Schoor could be ordered in various quantities and sizes and adapted to particular preferences and specifications of the patrons. For instance, a tapestry of Earth from a series of the Elements attributed to the workshop of Jan Frans van der Hecke from the 17th century exists in a version with a classical architectural setting or a landscape background.[12] Van Schoor typically depicted female personages in stately poses either seated or walking solemnly before or through majestic porches opening to a park.[3]

The cartoons he made for the tapestry workshops were often a collaborative effort with other artists such as Pieter Spierinckx, Augustin Coppens and Lucas Achtschellinck. Van Schoor was typically responsible for the figures and the other artists for the landscapes.[8][10]

Notes
  1. Name variations: Louis van Schoor, Ludwig van Schoor, Ludovicus van Schoor, Loddewicckus van Schoor
  2. Louis van Schoor at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
  3. Het Vlaamse wandtapijt van de 15de tot de 18de eeuw, Lannoo Uitgeverij, 1999, p. 306 (in Dutch)
  4. Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, Antwerpen, 1883, p. 1167, 1173-1179 (in Dutch)
  5. Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde Volume 2, Antwerp, 1864, p. 581, on Google books (in Dutch)
  6. Jan Baptiste de Vree (Wree) and Ludwig van Schoor, Ontwerp voor een altaar gewijd aan de heilige Barbara, at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (in Dutch)
  7. Lodewijk van Schoor (Attributed to), Landscape with Tree at Usher Gallery
  8. Tapestry: Victoria (from the series "The Four Parts of the World, and other subjects)" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  9. Babette Bohn, James M. Saslow, A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art, John Wiley & Sons, 2012
  10. Thomas P. Campbell, Pascal-François Bertrand, Jeri Bapasola, 'Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor', Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 Jan 2007, pp. 273, 487, 495, 504
  11. Scarlett O'Phelan, Passeurs, mediadores culturales y agentes de la primera globalización en el Mundo Ibérico, siglos XVI-XIX: actas del Congreso Internacional Las Cuatro Partes del Mundo; Solange Alberro Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, IFEA, 2005, p. 881
  12. A Brussels Allegorical Tapestry of Earth, after a design by Lodewijk van Schoor, attributed to the workshop of Jan Frans van der Hecke late 17th century at Sotheby's
  13. Koenraad Brosens, A contextual study of Brussels tapestry, 1670-1770: the dye works and tapestry workshop of Urbanus Leyniers (1674-1747), Paleis der Academiën, 2004, P. 93
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