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Document Details : Title: Jan Christiaen Hansche en het plafond van de sacristie van de Antwerpse Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk (1653) Subtitle: Een bouwhistorische en materiaaltechnische analyse Author(s): HERREMANS, Valerie , VERBEKE, Jan Journal: Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design Volume: 47 Date: 2025 Pages: 1-25 DOI: 10.2143/GBI.47.0.3294949 Abstract : This contribution zooms in on the stucco ceiling by Brussels lime carver Jan Christiaen Hansche in the sacristy of the former Antwerp Jesuit church. It is based on the results of an architectural-historical and material-technical preliminary study carried out in preparation for the repurposing of the church’s service rooms as a museum. Hansche, who was active between about 1653 and 1679, is best known for his later works, such as the ceilings in the Park Abbey in Heverlee. The ensemble located in the Antwerp sacristy from 1653 is Hansche’s oldest known ceiling realised in the Southern Netherlands. Nonetheless, it has until now received little attention, and its iconographic programme was never thoroughly examined. Archival research has revealed – in addition to substantial amounts of new data on the artist’s influential Brussels patrons, who had strong ties to Antwerp – a previously unknown work of his from the same year: the stucco ceilings of the former St Catherine’s Church in Brussels. This allows for an interesting comparison with the Antwerp ceiling. Analysis of the materials used and finishing layers reveals that Hansche worked alongside several other craftsmen in the sacristy in Antwerp – for instance, local stucco workers who used moulds to produce the decorative motifs for the second, smaller stucco ceiling in the sacristy. In his hometown of Brussels, for much of his career, Hansche engaged in heated arguments with craftsmen such as plasterers, because as a lime carver he considered himself to be a liberal artist. In this sense, Hansche felt more akin to the sculptor, possibly Cornelis van Mildert, who was responsible for the consoles of the main beams and the medallions and caryatids figuring angels on the side walls of Antwerp’s Jesuit church, which were intended to form a visual whole, or gesamtkunstwerk, with Hansche’s stucco ceiling. This collaboration, involving the use of different materials and techniques, is an exception within Hansche’s body of work. As for the specific iconographic programme – including saints of the Jesuit order and themes from the Eucharist – and the design of the decorative motifs, which are clearly influenced by Antwerp painting and engraving styles from that era, it can be assumed that all this took place under the impetus of the patrons and with the use of models. After all, it is widely known that the Antwerp Jesuits stayed firmly in charge of the building and furnishing processes of the church. A comparison of the ceiling in the sacristy with contemporary early Brussels work in Saint Catherine’s church and later works, has revealed a considerable influence of early Antwerp work on Hansche’s oeuvre. These include, in particular, the structure and composition of the ceiling, with registers (between the main beams) in which symmetry and mirroring take centre stage, and the nature and style of the decorative motifs and scroll work. Moreover, the figurative scenes seem to be somewhat more detached from their backgrounds, a stylistic feature that would peak by the end of Hansche’s career. |
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