Ysendyck, J.J. van
Documents classés de l’art dans les Pays-Bas du Xième au XVIIIième siècle.
Anvers, Jos. Maes (First Series) Jan 1880 – Jun 1881 (Second and Third Series) nd (but later 1880s-1889).
Full Description
Large folio. 10 volumes, containing a complete set, rearranged by subject, of all 722 plates issued (First Series : 434 plates, Second Series : 144 plates, Third Series : 144 plates), together with 16 text ff issued with the plates of the First Series, and viii + v + (1) + vi pp of indices to the plates (in the rearrangement by subject, the frontispieces originally issued with the Second and Third Series have been omitted). Contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards. A good set from the library of the Belgian architect Jules Brunfaut (1852-1942).
A very substantial publication by the Belgian architect Jules-Jacques Van Ysendyck (1836-1901), which provides excellent photographic illustrations of many of the most impressive late mediaeval, renaissance and seventeenth-century buildings in Belgium and the Netherlands, together with similar photo illustrations of carved decoration, architectural sculpture, furniture, ironwork and so on. Although the volumes also contain numerous phototype reproductions of decorative and topographical engravings, the reference to “art” in their title is misleading, for Van Ysendyck’s interest was in architecture and the applied arts, rather than in painting or sculpture, and the real interest of the publication today is as an excellent visual record of some of the splendid civic buildings, churches, and town houses in the Low Countries, and of surviving examples of furniture and objets d’art of the period. The 722 plates involved were issued in three series, of which the first and most extensive was issued in eighteen monthly parts spanning the period January 1880 – June 1881. In the present set the plates from this first series are amalgamated with those from the two later series in groupings arranged alphabetically by subject, under such headings as “balustrades”, “cheminées”, “hotels de ville”, and “meubles”. All the plates in the second and third series are photographic and among the plates in the third series there are a number that illustrate decorative items displayed at the Brussels Exhibition of 1888. Although sets of this publication were acquired by many major libraries at the time, complete sets are difficult to find in the book trade today because of the large number of plates involved and of the span of time over which they were issued.