Mechelen
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"The staid old Flemish town of Malines, better known to Americans as Mechlin, where they make the lace, has been pluming itself on an exposition which opened in August and lasted months. The affair bears the following title: Exposition des anciens metiers d'art Malinois, d'art religieux de la province d'Anvers et de folklore local. It is exactly what it pretends to be, an exhibition devoted to old pictures, sculpture, tapestry, embroidery, jewellery, pewter ware, iron ware, bronze, brass, clocks, bells, gilded leather, lace, ecclesiastical vestments, sacred vessels, manuscripts, apothecary's mortars and what-not. A more fascinating collection we never viewed, not even at the Bruges exposition of 1900. This exposition at Malines is under royal patronage; also churchly, his Eminence Cardinal Archbishop Mercier representing the latter. There are about forty-five old paintings, some on panels, though none of magisterial importance. Brabant once occupied an important position in the history of the fine arts, beginning with Jean de Woluwe in the fourteenth century. There are Bruges, Ghent, and Tournai with the Van Eycks and Robert Campin, called the Master of Flemalle; Brussels with Bernard van Orley and Roger van der Weyden (De la Pasture); Louvain with Thierry Bouts; Antwerp with Quentin Matsys — not to mention Rubens or Van Dyck — and Malines with Master Vrancke van Lint and the Van Battele."--New Cosmopolis (1915) by James Huneker |
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Mechelen (Malines in French, Mechlin in English) is a Dutch-speaking city and municipality in the province of Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Mechelen proper, some quarters at its outskirts, the hamlets of Nekkerspoel (adjacent) and Battel (a few kilometers away), as well as the villages of Walem, Heffen, Leest, Hombeek, and Muizen. The Dijle flows through the city, hence the term 'Dijlestad' (Dijle City).
Mechelen lies on the major urban and industrial axis Brussels-Antwerp, about 25 km from each city. Besides at Mechelen's southern industrial and northern office estates many inhabitants find employment at offices in or industry near the capital, or at industrial plants near Antwerp's seaport.
Mechelen is one of Flanders' Six Art Cities.
See also