ARCHITECTURE IN FLANDERS
Following Antwerp's conversion from an outpost of Calvinism — the
Christian doctrines as interpreted by the French protestant reformer
and theologian John Calvin (1509-64) - into a bastion of the
Counter-Reformation, two new churches were built: the church of St
Augustine (begun 1615) by Wenzel Coebergher (c. 1560-1634) and the
Jesuit Church, now St Charles Borromeo (c. 1615-25), by the
architects Franciscus Aguillon (1567-1617) and Pieter Huyssens
(1577-1637), possibly with the help of Rubens. He also provided the
drawings for the statues on the facade as well as the entire
decoration of the ceiling (destroyed in a fire in 1718) and various
paintings. The espousal of an extravagant Baroque style by Flemish
architects is evident in the church of St Michael in Louvain
(1650-71), designed by the Jesuit Willem van Hess (1601-90). There,
references to Italian churches (notably the Gesu in Rome) and rich
decoration are combined with an emphasis on height and verticality
which shows the continuing influence of Gothic taste. The houses in
the Grande Place, Brussels, most of which were designed by Guillaume
de Bruyn (1649-1719), have exuberant exterior decoration grafted
onto a more traditional and deeply rooted Flemish style.
François d'Aguilon (also
d'Aguillon or in Latin Franciscus Aguilonius) (4 January
1567, Brussels – 20 March 1617, Tournai), was a Belgian
Jesuit mathematician, physicist and architect.
He became a Jesuit in 1586. In 1611, he started a
special school of mathematics, in Antwerp, which
intended to perpetuate the mathematical research and
study in the Jesuit society. This school produced
geometers like André Tacquet and Jean Charles della
Faille.
Illustration by Rubens for "Opticorum libri sex
philosophis juxta ac mathematicis utiles", by François
d'Aiguillon. It demonstrates how the projection is
computed.His book, Opticorum Libri Sex philosophis juxta
ac mathematicis utiles (Six Books of Optics, useful for
philosophers and mathematicians alike), published in
Antwerp in 1613, was illustrated by famous painter Peter
Paul Rubens. It was notable for containing the
principles of the stereographic and the orthographic
projections, and it inspired the works of Desargues and
Christiaan Huygens.
