Antwerp now becomes the centre of commerce, and the town expressed so much wealth and was so crowded with ships that when the Ambassador from Venice, Marino Cavalli, landed on the Scheldt, in 1551, he exclaimed in amazement: "Venice is surpassed !" In 1567, Guicciardini wrote: "One word alone can define the number of trades exercised in Antwerp; it is the word all! "

In 1560, Antwerp numbered three hundred and sixty painters and sculptors: artists and decorators flocked thither, and many new industries were likewise attracted; for instance, Piccol Passo of Urbino established a factory for Italian majolica; Arnould van Ort of Nimeguen, the celebrated stained-glass maker, transplanted his workshops; Jahn de Lame of Cremona, Murano glass; and Christopher Plantin of Tours (1514-89), his printing-presses, from which so many books of decorative design were issued. He settled in Antwerp in 1549; but from 1576 to the present day, the business has been conducted in the house known as the Musee Plantin-Moretus, in the Marche du Vendredi. Plantin's son-in-law Moretus or Moerentorf, succeeded him. In 1876, this house, with its antique furniture, pictures, tapestries and other collections, was bought by the city of Antwerp for a Museum. The greater part of the furniture, staircases, mantel-pieces, etc., date from the seventeenth century; but despite this fact and many restorations, this house affords an interesting picture of the dwelling and office of a rich Fleming of the sixteenth century.

The printing offices are untouched, and two of the rooms are hung with gilt Spanish leather of the sixteenth century.

In the last chapter we brought the masters of Decorative Art down to the middle of the sixteenth century. After these came Cornelius and James Floris, whose family name was de Vriendt. The head of the family, Cornelius de Vriendt, a stone-cutter, used the name of his grandfather, Floris de Vriendt, a member of the Guild des Quatres-Couronnes in 1476. Cornelius had four sons: John, a potter, who settled in Spain; Frans Floris (1518?-7o), a painter; James (1524-81), a celebrated glass-painter; and Cornelius (1514-74), a sculptor and architect, who was responsible for the Antwerp Town Hall, the house of the Hanseatic League, the tabernacle of Lean and the rood-loft of the Cathedral of Tournay.

James was also a skilful engraver, and was particularly noted for his panels, or compartments, which in his day were such favourite designs. His drawings were edited by Jerome Cock, and obtained a great success.

Jerome Cock produced a great deal of decorative design in the second half of this century. His figures are graceful and well disposed, and his draperies and garlands of fruits and flowers are charmingly effective. Two of his designs for goldsmiths' work are reproduced on Plate XIX and Plate XX.

Cornelius and James Floris developed a new style, still known in Flanders as the Floris style. The school included many able designers whose names still survive, including that of Vredemann de Vries. The ornamentation is principally composed of "cuirs" cut into various shapes and rolled, accompanied by a mixture of figures, animals, birds, flowers and fruits, all tied together by ornamental motives, ribbons, draperies, etc., a form of decoration which the Flemish masters carried to its highest point of perfection.

It was the custom of the day for these masters of ornament to supply designs for furniture when "the newest thing out" was required. Their designs that have survived consist chiefly of grotesques, cartouches, "cuirs," panels, compartments, friezes, trophies, "pende-loques" and other goldsmiths' motives. Contemporary with Floris were Hans Liefrinck (1510-80); Cornells Matsys (1500-56); Jerome Cock (1510-70); John Landenspelder (b. 1511); Adrian Collaert (b. 1520); Hans Collaert (1540-1622). These all worked at Antwerp.

The most famous designers of the Renaissance, however, were the De Vrieses, father and son, Hans and Paul. Hans Vredemann de Vries, painter, architect, sculptor, designer, and poet, was born at Leeuwarden in Friesland (whence his name) in 1527. For five years he studied in Amsterdam in the studio of Reijnier Gerritsz, the painter, and he studied architecture under Coeck of Alost. His pictures are valued highly and are crowded with architectural details. He also studied painting on glass. Owing to his special aptitudes and varied knowledge, as well as the skill with which he treated the different styles of architecture and ornamentation, he may be said to sum up in himself the great period of the Flemish Renaissance.

Vredemann published a great many collections of designs that are highly valued for the interesting studies they present of the Flemish Art of the Renaissance. His sons, Paul and Solomon, followed his style.

De Vries was famous for his leather ornamentation (cuirs) and his encoincons, which apply to oval frames and ornament the corners of twelve of his twenty-one oval plates among the fifty composing the collection, Variae Architecturae formae a Joanne Vredemanni Vriesio, magno artis hujus studiosorum commodo inventae. (See Figs. 17 and 18.)