{"id":38175,"date":"2021-05-29T15:52:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topa.be\/olv-kathedraal\/beschrijving\/kapittelkerk\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T13:13:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:13:24","slug":"kapittelkerk","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/topa.be\/en\/olv-kathedraal\/beschrijving\/kapittelkerk\/","title":{"rendered":"OLV The collegial choir"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Our Lady\u2019s Cathedral of Antwerp, a revelation.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The collegiate church with the choir<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Between the moment the foundations were laid and the choir was vaulted some forty years elapsed: from 1351 till ca. 1391. Together with the truss the choir and its vaultings are among the oldest, nearly intact architectural realisations to be found in Antwerp. Most keystones date back to just before 1391. Since the 1992 restoration they have been showing their original qualities and their bright polychromy, which was preserved underneath several layers of whitewash. The first effigy we discern from West to East is John the Baptist, who points at the Lamb of God on his arm. The lost sculpture of the second keystone was renewed with a relief of Mother Mary and Child in 1993. Saint Peter proudly shows his power over the keys and shows his article of faith in an open book: \u2018Credo in Deum p[atrem]\u2019 (I believe in God the Father). Finally everybody is blessed by Christ as Salvator Mundi in the apse. The fact that His face is broken has probably been caused by the metal tube that was later pierced through the embossing. Because this mysterious tube is at the culmination point of the six vaulting ribs it happens to be at the level of His mouth. It opens out to a brick tray above the vaulting. Was it used to hang up something above or in front of the Medieval or Baroque high altar? Or was something strewn down from it?<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The choir stalls<\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From the very beginning until 1798 Our Lady\u2019s Church was a collegiate church, with a college of canons, whose number doubled from 12 to 24 in 1224, praying the hours together. Because here they mainly sang I suggest the prayers this special praying place is also called the \u2018choir\u2019. From the choir stalls the canons used to direct their attention towards the high altar in the East during chapter mass.<\/p>\n

Due to lack of congress centres the choir with its numerous seats was used for important conferences for centuries. Thus the 22nd<\/sup>\u00a0chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece took place here in 1555. According to custom the coats of arms of the knights of this order remained above the then choir stalls, as a reminder, for nearly 250 years, until the French Revolutionary Rule, when they were burned in public. It was also less usual that on the occasion of this very noble assembly the three stained glass windows in the apse were donated by the Grand Master of the Order, but that this was the case emphasizes how much then politics and religion were closely knit in the most important part of the cathedral. In the left window, iconographically right, is the Grand Master, king Philip II of Spain, kneeling on a prie-dieu. He faces his then, English, wife, Mary Tudor. Both are patronized by their respective name saints: Philip the apostle and Mother Mary. The central stained glass window is mainly devoted to the Order of the Golden Fleece, represented by its patron saint, Saint Andrew, with the fleece of the gold-haired ram at his feet, the sign of the Order, and Saint-Andrew\u2019s cross with the Burgundian firesteel. Saint Paul probably reminds us of the former trio of stained glass windows, which in 1408 were paid for by criminals as a fine and in which the apostles Peter and Paul flanked the city\u2019s coat of arms. The stained glass windows were installed in 1557 by Cornelis van Dale, but during the 1875 restoration they were greatly renewed by the Stalins and Janssens company.<\/p>\n

We have not the slightest idea of what the medieval choir stalls looked like, but in the sketchbook in which painter Pieter van Lint made a tour around the cathedral in ca. 1625 we get a glimpse of the early Baroque piece of furniture from ca. 1610, which was sold during the French Revolutionary Rule. Although the chapter had been abolished by the 1801 concordat the church board wanted new choir stalls for the clergy, singers and the church board members. In 1839, from the submitted projects, the neo Gothic design by the 23 year old architect and sculptor Frans Durlet was chosen, whose star was rising in the starting neo Gothic zest. He drew exceptionally monumental stalls, which are unequalled in size as they had to be in harmony with the excessive neo Classicist high altar of those days. During a continuous period of more than 40 years (1840-1881) several sculptors worked at it, such as Joseph Jacques Ducaju, Karel Geerts and Jan Baptist de Cuyper, under the lead of Jozef Geefts, but finally the lion\u2019s share was delivered by Jean-Baptist van Wint and Jean-Baptist de Boeck.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bird's eye view on Antwerp, woodcut by Virgilius Bononiensis, 1565 - detail with the cathedral<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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