This work was restored in 1845 by two Bruges artists, Van Wedeveldt and P. Buyck.

The Flemish wood-carver had still plenty of work to do in the churches; but in domestic furniture the lathe was making his services more and more unnecessary on bars and uprights; and the increasing craze for marquetry and the invasion of lacquer and japanned wares left him comparatively little to do.

Much beautiful carved work of the seventeenth century survives. Vilvorde Church has thirty-six upper and thirty-two lower oak stalls carved originally in 1663 for the priory of Groenendael; this is a magnificent specimen of the carver's art. There is also lovely wood-carving of the middle of the century in St. Michael's, Louvain. The Church of St. Walburge, Furnes, is also rich in carved oak. On the pulpit is a figure of St. John writing the Apocalypse; the upper part is supported by two palms, and a rock with an eagle. The choir stalls are particularly fine. The Ostend parish church has a fine pulpit carved in 1674.

The Church of St. Anne in Bruges is rich in carved work of this period. The choir stalls of oak were splendidly carved in the Renaissance style by Jean Schockaert and Fr. Schaepelinck in 1664. The oak organ case was carved in 1685 by Jacques Vanden Eynde, who was also the organist at Ypres. Fine bas-reliefs in the nave were executed by Martin Moenaert in 1673 and the ornate confessionals by Jan de Sangher in 1699. There is also a handsome communion bench made by an unknown carver in 1670, which is decorated with the busts of the four Evangelists and four Doctors of the Church with bas-relief panels of the Virgin, Joseph, St. Anne, St. Joachim, the Pascal Lamb and the Eucharist ornamented with bunches of grapes and garlands of wheat.

Carving was by no means confined to the churches: those who could afford it still beautified the furniture of castle and hall with the work of the chisel. Chests or bahuts, cabinets, armoires, tables, chairs and the old "sideboards," known in England in Jacobean days as "court cupboards," and in Flanders as credences or buffet d deux corps," were as highly ornamented with carving in the late Renaissance style as they were with Gothic ornament during the fifteenth century. During the Louis XIII period, the more important pieces of furniture usually assumed the forms and lines of Classic architecture. A typical bahut of this period {see Plate LVII), owes its interest chiefly to its architectural decorations. The fluted columns, though somewhat squat, which adorn the divisions of the front, produce a pleasing effect; the mouldings are strongly accented and their ornamentations are bold and in fine style. One can easily understand that this chest would not be out of place in any late Renaissance apartment, but would contribute to the decorative effect of the whole.

The two side niches representing the two virtues contain statuettes - Prudence and Strength. The central panel tells the story of Judith and Holofernes with a directness and simplicity worthy of a Botticelli.

The two-storied buffet (buffet d deux corps) frequently received similar treatment, totally at variance with the handsome one reproduced in Plate XLIII. A splendid example decorated with the arms of Ypres, Ghent, Bruges and Franc, is preserved in the Ypres Museum. This was the work of Jan van de Velde, who carved it in 1644, and received 162 florins for his trouble.

The bench (banc), often forms part of the woodwork of the wall of a hall in Flanders in the seventeenth century. It was frequently placed between the windows and made luxurious with cushions. Movable benches were often used. In these the backs turned on an axis and were most convenient, as the occupant could arrange the seat in any position he pleased. The benches in De Vries's "Cubiculum" (Plate X), should be compared with the bench against the wall in Plate XXXVIII in studying the development of the banc. The high banc, or settle, in this picture is interesting on account of its simplicity. The general tendency of furniture was a gradual breaking away from immovables, a development from monumental solidity into grace and lightness. The heavy tables of De Vries are cut away, and return in general form to the original board and trestles. A glance at Fig. 8 will show that the workman had only to connect the struts of the trestles in the centre of the table in order to produce a rough model of the richly carved tables in vogue from the period of Henri II to that of Louis XIV. The box form of support, therefore, in this style of table gives way to what we may regard as two trestles connected in the middle by an upright board.

These, as well as the edge of the table top, are embellished by beautiful carving. The trestles now consist of eagles, lions, chim-aeras, mermaids, satyrs and other human and animal figures; and the central connexion is pierced, balustraded, columned and treated in a thousand different ways. In the seventeenth century, lightness was carried a step further, and the favourite table is simply supported by four turned legs with heavy bulb feet, the legs have connecting rails close to the floor and usually have one or more heavy globular swellings. In England during the Tudor and Jacobean periods, this heavy form was known as the drawing-table. It occurs in numberless interiors by Dutch and Flemish masters. The desire for greater lightness, however, made itself increasingly felt; and early in the seventeenth century we find legs turned in plain spirals, or with beading. Chair frames naturally corresponded with table legs.

Though the masters of Decorative Art were constantly increasing in numbers, it was three-quarters of a century after the appearance of the furniture designs by De Vries before another important work of the same nature was published. This was by another Dutchman. In 1642, Crispin van den Passe published at Amsterdam his "Boutique Menuiserie dans laquelle sont comprins les plus notables fondaments non moins arichesse avecq des nouvelles inventions."