Catholics From Belgium

"I could have done nothing more worthwhile than to give a new description of the whole human body, of which nobody understood the anatomy, while Galen, despite his extensive writings, has offered very little on the subject."

"I strive that in public dissection the students do as much as possible."

"Passing over the other arts in silence, I shall speak briefly of that which concerns the health of mankind; indeed, of all the arts the genius of man has discovered it is by far the most beneficial and of prime necessity, although difficult and laborious."

"...but also perhaps you sometimes delight in consideration of the most perfectly constructed of all creatures, and take delight in considering the temporary lodging and instrument of the immortal soul, a dwelling that in many respects corresponds to the universe and for that reason was called the little universe [microcosmos] by the ancients."

"I have done my best to this single end, to aid as many as possible in a very recondite as well as laborious matter, and truly and completely to describe the structure of the human body which is formed not of ten or twelve parts-- as it may seem to the spectator-- but of some thousands of different parts."

"Rubens, for example, told de Mayerne that pigments should be ground quickly working with turpentine, which was better and less fierce than oil of spike lavender (this would be the preliminary grinding, before grinding with the oil medium. Rubens also recommended dipping the brush in turpentine occasionally before blending the colours on the palette so that the paint was more easily worked and the colours did not 'die' or 'sink'."

"..Peter Paul Rubens, Lord of Steen, who among the other gifts by which he marvelously excelled in the knowledge of ancient history merited being called the Apollos not only of our, but of all time, who made himself a pathway to the friendship of kings and princes.."

"A similar clear division of labor [in one painting - between Rubens and Bruegel the Elder] can be observed in the portraits of Albert and Isabella of c. 1618-1620.. ..where Ruben's portraits are separated from the surrounding landscape by Bruegel (or Bruegel 's studio). This may perhaps be attributed to the fact that the execution of a portrait commission allowed for a very clear division of labor."

"A different painting which is the most beautiful and precious I have made from life. Also Signor Rubens had made a painting of the best kind in the center [of the painting, made by both artists] showing his merit, a lovely Madonna. The birds and animals are made from life from some of those of the most serene Infanta."

"My desire to enjoy your wonderful conversation is not a passing thing. I don't know what demons have robbed me of your company."

"[were I] not detained here by age and by the gout which renders me useless, I should go there to enjoy with my own eyes and admire the perfection of such worthy works.. ..[I pray] look upon all the marvels of your hand.. ..before I close my eyes forever."

"Nearby.. ..are monsters personifying Pestilence and Famine, those inseparable partners of War. On the ground, turning her back, lies a woman with a broken lute representing Harmony.. .[T]here is also a mother with a child in her arms indicating that fecundity, procreation and charity are thwarted by War, which corrupts and destroys everything. [Rubens is describing his painting 'The Horrors of War' 1637]"

"..saw with the two admirable painters Peter Paul Rybent [Rubens] and Brügel many splendid paintings and works of art. Rybent mostly paint large pieces and everything naturally great, very artistic and after life. He can make 100 gulden [Flemish money] a week; excellent pieces by him he can sell for 2, 3, 4 or 500 rijksgulden. Brügel paints small panels and landscapes, but all very subtle and artistic, that one regards them with wonder."

"It is of very little importance to me how you proceed [the portrait of his wife Isabelle], and what account you render of your actions. All I can tell you is that I shall be greatly obliged if you will learn henceforth how persons of your station should write to mine."

"Our good friend M. Rubens, as you will have heard, has accomplished nothing, having been sent back by the Prince of Orange almost as soon as he arrived. (in a letter of Hugo Grotius to Rubens's correspondent Pierre Dupuy, Jan. 1632"

"Of his [Rubens] many paintings, there is one that always sticks in my memory, that one that I was able to see once with my friend Nicolas Sohier.. ..There is the compelled painting head of Medusa, wreathed by snakes that spring from her hair. The countancy of the extremely beautiful woman has its grace still preserved, but at the same time evokes the horror of the fitting beginning of death and of the wreath of hydrous snakes. The combination is so shrewdly executed that the spectator would be shocked.."

"In fact, Huygens was in direct contact with Rubens during the years he was trying to extract the Passion paintings from Rembrandt. Eager to win the approval of the Flemish artist, who was himself famous for building the perfect house of a humanist gentleman scholar and was the published authority on palazzi from Genoa, Huygens sent Rubens illustrations of his own brand-new urban villa, built in the center of The Hague to the most fashionably Italianate specifications. At the end of the letter, almost casually, Huygens added a commission from Frederik Hendrik for a painting to be placed above the hearth in his palace, the subject to be of Rubens's choosing, but: with three, 'at most four' figures, 'the beauty of whom should be elaborated con amore, studio e diligenza.'"

"Rubens avoided painting in such a way that the color sank in. The luminous clarity of his work was proof of the excellence of his technique.. ..his colors had so much brilliance and binding medium within themselves, that, like van Eyck's pictures, they had a gloss without needing to be varnished."

"Sir Peter Rubens is gone on Sunday last, the fourteenth of this month, with a trumpeter, toward Bergen op Zoom, with full power to give the fatal blow to Mars and life to this State and the Empire. (by Balthazar Gerbier, December 1631, (Charles I.'s agent in Brussels)"

"We are exhausted [in Antwerp] and have endured so much that this war seems without purpose.. ..[and that it seemed] strange that Spain, which provides so little for the needs of this country .. ..has an abundance of means to wage an offensive war elsewhere."

"[on the high seas] the English are increasing their insolence and barbarity. [T]hey cut to pieces the captain of a ship coming from Spain and threw all the crew into the sea for having defended themselves valiantly."

"[I] decided to force myself to cut this golden knot of ambition [to portray the nobility any longer] in order to recover my liberty. Realizing that a retirement of this sort must be made while one is rising and not falling; that one must leave Fortune while she is still favorable.. .I seized the occasion of a short, secret journey to throw myself at Her Highness's feet and beg, as the sole reward for so many efforts, exemption from such [diplomatic] assignments and permission to serve her in my own home. This favor I obtained with more difficulty than any other she ever granted me.. .Now by God's grace.. ..I am leading a quiet life with my wife and children and have no pretensions in the world than to live in peace."

"[those paintings that are] done entirely by my hand.. ..[those,]done by the hand of a master skillfull in that department.. ..but this one not being finished, would be entirely retouched by my own hand, and by this means would pass as original; done by one of my pupils, but the whole retouched by my hand."

"I have not yet made up my mind whether to remain in my own country Flanders or to return forever to Rome.. ..[I have received] an invitation on the most favorable terms.. ..Here they also do not fail to make every effort to keep me by every sort of compliment. The Archduke and the Most Serene Infanta have had letters written urging me to remain in their service. The offers are very generous but I have little desire to become a courtier again."

"I have heard that you have found the secret of engraving on copper on white ground, as Elsheimer did. To bite the plate with acid, he covered the copper with a white paste. He then drew with the point down to the metal, which is of reddish color, and it looked as if he were drawing with red crayon on white paper. I cannot remember the composition of this write paste, although he communicated it to me."

"I have neither time to live nor to write. I am therefore cheating my art by stealing a few evening hours to write this most inadequate and negligent reply to the courteous and elegant letters of yours."

"The light falls so unfavorably on the altar that one can hardly discern the figures or enjoy the beauty of color and the delicacy of the heads and draperies which I executed with great care from nature and completely successfully according to the judgement of all. Therefore, seeing that all the merit in the work is thrown away and since I cannot obtain the honor due my efforts unless the results can be seen, I do not think I will unveil it."

"I am by nature and inclination a peaceful man, the sworn enemy to disputes, lawsuits and quarrels both public and private."

"I should not base it [ the mural-painting 'Madonna della Vallicella' Rubens painted c. 1607] on the estimate of Rome but leave it to the discretion of His Highness [the Duke of Mantua].. ..though the figures [but withdraw it for the light in the church was to strong there] are saints, they have no special attributes or insignia that could not be applied to any other saints of similar rank."

"I was not yet inclined to live the life of a celibate.. ..I have taken a young wife of honest but middle-class family although everyone tried to persuade me to make a court marriage. But I feared pride, that inherent vice of the nobility, particularly in that sex, and that is why I chose one who would not blush to see me take my brushes in hand. And to tell the truth it would have been hard for me to exchange the priceless treasure of liberty for the embraces of an old woman."

"It is evident that thought is also necessary for action. But the Church has for centuries ... focused on orthodoxy and left orthopraxis in the hands of nonmembers and nonbelievers."

"Tom Van Grieken: It is completely normal to invite a party that has won the elections. I was pleased with the invitation … I am not going to say it is unnatural. This is natural. What happened over the past 40 years was not democratic."

"Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium: I am accused of attacking my family and especially the person of the king. That was clearly never my intention, I know how complex and delicate the situation in Belgium is. I know that the king cannot act politically without the permission of the government. I also know how passionate my cousin is about history, but also sensitive to the aspirations and feelings of his fellow citizens. We live in a crucial moment. The opportunity for inter-community dialogue must be seized."

"The wealth of our country and our institutional system lies particularly in the fact that our diversity is strength. Whenever we find a balance between unity and diversity, the strength of Belgium is precisely to give meaning to our diversity."

"Laurette Onkelinx: Why did the king have to receive the Vlaams Belang? This is a racist and violent party and I think that the message given by the king is damaging."

"Your work creates a foundation for these children's future, ... But most of all, I've been struck by the children's own desire to solve their problems."

"The homework is obviously in Dutch. I adapt myself accordingly. The kids just think in Dutch."

"I swear to abide by the constitution and laws of the Belgian people, to maintain national independence and the integrity of the land."

"I begin my reign with the desire to put myself at the service of all Belgians. I will work for it in perfect agreement with the government and in accordance with the constitution."

"[T]he counterpoint to this enormously exposed and public life is Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek. They really give me balance and a more necessary sense of humor."

"[Ruysbroeck] comes very near to the doctrine of . He expresses almost the same view in his teaching that everything in creation and everything in man exists eternally in God. Creation comes forth eternally in God as God, without any difference, and then it comes forth differentiated in time and space. Originally it is God in God. So the image of God exists eternally in God, in its archetype. Ruysbroeck says, "God utters himself in the Spirit eternally without intermediary and in this Word he utters himself and all things." In the utterance of the Word which comes forth from the Father eternally the whole creation, the whole of humanity, you and I and all created things, are present. Everything and all beings are present in that eternal Word, eternally present with God, in God and as God. We are all participating in the Infinite at that stage, beyond creation. This is what is meant by our uncreated being in the Godhead. Eckhart had the same idea but he expressed it less carefully while Ruysbroeck puts it extremely well. He speaks of "a waylessness and darkness in which we never find ourselves again in a creaturely way." We lose ourselves in that divine darkness. And he goes on to speak of God, this "God beyond", as it were, as "a simple nudity, an incomprehensible light". The one who has reached this point " finds himself and feels himself to be that light, gazing at that light, by that light, in that light. Here one has entered totally into the Godhead and one knows in the light and by the light". This is exactly how it is put in the Upanishads and in the 'Bhagavad Gita', where it is said that one knows the 'atman', through the 'atman'. The 'atman' cannot be known by any other means. God is grasped and held through God."

"John Ruysbroeck, 'the Admirable', is in some ways the most wonderful of the mystics. As a descriptive mystic he stands alongside of St John of the Cross in the daring and eloquence with which he ventures to utter in human language the experiences of union and knowledge to which he, was admitted. If he lacks St John's Latin clarity of thought and expression, he more than makes up for it by a certain massive mysteriousness that may be called Teutonic he was a Fleming of Brabant through which we seem ever and anon to catch glimpses of realities deeply impressive though at times bewildering. But there is a consistency and a sanity through it all, and a restraint due to his sound theological formation, which make an overwhelming impression of truth and reality. It may with all probability be said, that than him there has been no greater contemplative; and certainly there has been no greater mystical writer. His contemplation is highly intellectual, and at the same time fully mystical. Whether in the sublimity of his elevations or in the power of recording his experiences, Ruysbroeck stands as one of the very greatest of the mystics."

"'There are more answers than questions, and lots of people have found answers that were perfectly satisfactory for them. Old Ruysbroeck for one...' 'Who was he?' 'He was a Flemish mystic who lived in the fourteenth century'"

"Kabir belongs to that small group of supreme mystics amongst whom St. Augustine, Ruysbroeck, and the Sufi poet Jalalu'ddin Rumi are perhaps the chief who have achieved that which we might call the synthetic vision of God. These have resolved the perpetual opposition between the personal and impersonal, the transcendent and immanent, static and dynamic aspects of the Divine Nature; between the Absolute of philosophy and the 'sure true Friend' of devotional religion. They have done this, not by taking these apparently incompatible concepts one after the other; but by ascending to a height of spiritual intuition at which they are, as Ruysbroeck said, 'melted and merged in the Unity,' and perceived as the completing opposites of a perfect Whole...Rusysbroeck discerned a plane of reality upon which 'we can speak no more of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but only of One Being, the very substance of the Divine Persons'"

"In the history of the spiritual adventures of man, we find at intervals certain great mystics, who appear to gather up and fuse together in the crucible of the heart the diverse tendencies of those who have preceded them, and, adding to these elements the tincture of their own rich experience, give to us an intensely personal, yet universal, vision of God and man. These are constructive spirits, whose creations in the spiritual sphere sum up and represent the best achievement of a whole epoch; as in other spheres the great artist, musician, or poet—always the child of tradition as well as of inspiration—may do. John Ruysbroeck is such a mystic as this. His career, which covers the greater part of the fourteenth century—that golden age of Christian mysticism—seems to exhibit within the circle of a single personality, and carry up to a higher term than ever before, all the best attainments of the Middle Ages in the realm of Eternal Life. Rooted firmly in history, faithful to the teachings of the great Catholic mystics of the primitive and mediæval times, Ruysbroeck does not merely transmit, but transfigures, their principles: making from the salt, sulphur, and mercury of their vision, reason, and love, a new and living jewel—or, in his own words, a ‘sparkling stone’—which reflects the actual radiance of the Uncreated Light. Absorbing from the rich soil of the Middle Ages all the intellectual nourishment which he needs, dependent too, as all real greatness is, on the human environment in which he grows—that mysterious interaction and inter-penetration of personalities without which human consciousness can never develop its full powers—he towers up from the social and intellectual circumstances that conditioned him: a living, growing, unique and creative individual, yet truly a part of the earth from which he springs."

"I regard the ninth and tenth chapters of The Sparkling Stone as the high water mark of mystical literature. Nowhere else do we find such a marvellous combination of wide and soaring vision with the most delicate and intimate psychological analysis. The old Mystic, sitting under his friendly tree, seems here to be gazing at, and reporting to us the final secrets of that Eternal World, where the “Incomprehensible Light enfolds and penetrates us,as the air is penetrated by the light of the sun"."

"John Ruusbroec, "the Admirable," has been called the "second Dionysius the Areopagite," the West's most articulate Trinitarian mystic, and even the greatest mystical writer in the Christian tradition. This spiritual titan not only reached the summit of mystical contemplation but also possessed the theological profundity and the limpid prose to express it - especially that of the unitive life."

"Ruysbroeck is certainly one of the greatest mystics, but he can be comprehended only by advanced souls."

"John Ruusbroec (1293-1381) is one of the greatest of the Christian mystics. His masterpiece, The Spiritual Espousals (sometimes translated as The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage) in my opinion belongs on the short list of “must read” classics of western mysticism."

"The greatest of the Flemish mystics, Jan van Ruusbroec was conversant not only with the main currents of mystical theology in the medieval Low Countries and the Rhineland but also with the patristic heritage of both the East and the West. His personal appropriation of this legacy, together with a keen sensitivity to the needs of all the members of the church of his day and a rare gift for describing the highest levels of mystical experience, enabled Ruusbroec to produce treatises of unsurpassed beauty, perspicuity, and synthetic power."