The conservationand restoration

of the sixteenth-century

Horti Conclusi or Enclosed Gardens

of Mechelen

2014-2018

vrienden

STedeLiJKe MUSeAMeCHeLen

van de

De

partners

IlluminareCentre for the Study of Medieval Art | KU Leuven

STEDELIJKE MUSEA MECHELEN

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The Horti Conclusi (‘Enclosed Gardens’) are extremely rare. They are of international significance as they provide

evidence of devotion and spirituality in convent communities in the Southern

Netherlands in the sixteenth century. They are an extraordinary tangible expression of

a devotional tradition.

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The remarkable ensemble of Enclosed gardens (in Dutch “Besloten Hofjes”) belonging to the former convent of Mechelen’s

Hospital Sisters are listed as Flemish Masterpieces (Topstukken) by the Flemish government. They are kept in the Municipal Museums of Mechelen. Their wellbeing requires urgent and extensive conservation and restoration carried out by a team of specialists. After treatment they will be on permanent display in the renovated “Hof van Busleyden” Museum in Mechelen, but prior to that three of them will be part of KUnST Leuven’s prestigious In Search of Utopia exhibition commemorating 500 years of Thomas More’s Utopia in 2016.

After having studied the material condition of the Enclosed Gardens, specialist restorers and conservators made

recommendations about the treatment of these rare retables. They date from the time of Emperor Charles V and are unique examples of ‘anonymous’ female art, devotion and spirituality. One of the three that will be on display in the 2016 exhibition is in such poor condition that it requires immediate intervention in order to be saved from irreversible decay. It is desirable that, once this retable is

completely dismantled, the paint layers of the wing panels of the other two retables are fixed and their contents carefully conserved. Without this intervention it would be irresponsible to have them on permanent display, let alone transport them to an external location, e.g. to Leuven for the In Search of Utopia project. Given that a hortus conclusus represents an ideal, paradisiacal world, these three Enclosed Gardens will be one of the highlights of the Utopia exhibition. Since they content so many different materials, their conservation and restoration requires the cooperation of a team of specialists. Apart from the painted panels with saints and patrons and retables with polychrome figures (poupées de Malines), the Enclosed Gardens contain textiles, metals, glass (bunches of grapes), parchment and paper, relics, wax and pipeclay, fragments of bone, etc. This conservation and restoration project reflects the policy of the Municipal Museums of Mechelen and of the Flemish government regarding the need to preserve heritage collections in their best possible condition and showcasing them to the public.

The sixteenth-century Enclosed Gardens of the Mechelen Hospital Sisters are recognized Masterpieces and extremely

rare, not alone at a Belgian but even at a global level. Few Enclosed Gardens have survived, due to a lack of interest in the past. Fortunately, this negative attitude changed recently. Now these ‘popular retables’ are recognized as representing a sixteenth-century (female) spirituality. Their highly individual visual language contributes to our understanding of what life was like in cloistered communities. They testify to a cultural identity closely linked with mystical traditions allowing us to enter a lost world very much part of the culture of the Southern Netherlands.

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The Enclosed Gardens are in an extremely fragile condition. They comprise a large number of materials, some organic. Many of them have become very vulnerable as a result of natural aging. Some elements are in danger, as they detach from their supports, breaking or corrode. Urgent action is required to stabilize their condition, to repair damage and to stop further deterioration. Aesthetically, too, this treatment would make the ensemble more legible.

The quality of treatment is guaranteed by a multidisciplinary team of expert restorers combined with the input and expertise of Illuminare - Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (KU Leuven) and the carefully planned interventions on the three Enclosed Gardens. The conservation and restoration project is also a unique cooperation project, which will allow knowhow to be developed for comparable historical mixed-media objects. More specifically, each artefact and each material will be treated by its own expert. It will be essential to map out well-considered conservation interventions, precisely because of the large number of artefacts in a very small wooden box. The scenic

presentation of the many objects in the Enclosed Gardens should never be lost out of sight; indeed, it is vital to maintain a focused overview. This conservation project will be used as a model for the preservation of the four other sixteenth-century Enclosed Gardens in Mechelen over the next few years (for which separate funding is sought).

The entire process has been thoroughly prepared and it will be fully documented. Treatments and restoration techniques will be developed, tested and adapted, and presented at a colloquium to be held in autumn 2016, the Proceedings of which will be published subsequently. Visits to the conservation studio in the museum site in Mechelen, will generate interest among the general public creating an engagement at a local as well as an international level. A culmination point will be reached in 2016 when the ‘unveiling’ of the three restored Enclosed Gardens will highlight the international exhibition In Search of Utopia in Leuven. In a few years the entire ensemble of seven Enclosed Gardens will be on permanent display in the Municipal Museums of Mechelen, one of the main objectives of the project.

The conservation project

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Budget and funding

The research and conservation-restoration costs have been estimated at an amount of at least 500,000 Euros. In its long-term budget the City of Mechelen has made provision for substantial resources for drawing up detailed condition reports and for restoring the Horti Conclusi. The “InBev-Baillet Latour” Fund administered by the King Baudouin Foundation contributes 150,000 Euros in 2014. However, these

funds cannot cover the entire costs to take the project through to completion within the necessary scientific framework. Consequently, applications have been submitted to the Flemish government (Masterpieces Decree), the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN). Additional resources are being sought through sponsorship.

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Public engagement

The Enclosed Gardens project is targeted at a wide public, local and regional, national and international.

- The project comprises various initiatives aimed at the general public: an educational exhibition, workshops, guided tours, etc. The City of Mechelen and the Municipal Museums of Mechelen, KUnST Leuven and Illuminare are incorporating numerous activities into their communication plans for 2013-2016. Mechelen’s Erfgoedcel (Heritage Unit and Heritage Centre Lamot) is playing a vital role in the project at a local and regional level.

- A campaign will be initiated to generate interest in the Enclosed Gardens among the public at large, both national and international. The emphasis will be on the Mechelen Horti Conclusi as invaluable evidence of the world-famous convent and beguinage tradition in the Low Countries with its related movable heritage. (The art of the larger retables has recently been the subject of considerable interest and study; the smaller ‘popular’ ones have received less attention.)

- Apart from attracting the general public, efforts will be made to involve scientists and students specializing in ‘the sixteenth-century and the Southern Netherlands’. This will take the form of an international conference (with a publication) in which professionals will be able to share

in the results of the conservation and restoration work. Seminars, working visits and similar activities will also be organized.

- The Enclosed Gardens will be highlights of the In Search of Utopia exhibition (Leuven, 2016-17). This will generate special interest in these artworks and their conservation and restoration among a wide international public as well as among specialists

.

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Mixed-media objects

The aim of the project is the optimal preservation, conservation and restoration of the Enclosed Gardens. The long-term objective of their treatment is to avoid any risk of further damage and to extend the life span of these complex artefacts. The contents of the Enclosed Gardens should also be safely consolidated to allow them to go on display in special exhibitions (which implies that they can ‘travel’) as well as being incorporated in a permanent

presentation. Furthermore, it is important that their conservation and restoration will generate new interest in these extraordinary devotional works of art, in their anonymous makers and in the context in which they were created. Finally, the project aims to acquire new conservation and restoration expertise for the benefit of similar historical ‘mixed-media’ objects requiring the knowledge, input and cooperation of a team of specialists.

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The first external partner in this project is Illuminare - Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (KU Leuven), a university research

and documentation centre. Its research is geared toward the reception history and contextual meaning of early Netherlandish art, technical research, the conservation and cataloging of illuminated manuscripts, and the iconology of the Middle Ages from an interdisciplinary perspective (Iconology Research Group). Illuminare’s contribution to the project is wide-ranging: art-scientific and art-technological expertise, research and training, the provision of a national and international heritage platform, scientific imaging, data management, the co-organization of the In Search of Utopia exhibition and colloquium, valorization, publications, press releases and communication, and archiving.

Illuminare has been a partner of the Municipal Museums of Mechelen since 2012 when it began helping prepare the conservation and restoration process of the Enclosed Gardens, prompted by the upcoming In Search of Utopia exhibition. In 2016 it will be 500 years since the printer cum publisher Dirk Martens published Thomas More’s Utopia in Leuven. For the City of Leuven and Leuven’s University this historical fact is the main reason for a prestigious international exhibition aiming to shed light on aspects of Western Europe’s exploration of the world around 1516. Mechelen’s Enclosed Gardens with their explicit religious and allegorical dimensions in themselves denote inner utopias. They will play a crucial role in the Leuven exhibition which will be accompanied by a catalogue in three languages. In it the conservation and restoration project of the “Besloten Hofjes” will be covered in considerable detail.

Partners

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The second partner in the project is the KUnST Leuven association, an initiative of the City of Leuven and the University of Leuven.

Along with Illuminare, this non-profit organization has been involved in the Mechelen Enclosed Gardens project since 2012. It organises the Utopia exhibition in cooperation with Illuminare and M Museum of Leuven.KUnST Leuven is a relatively new organization. It continues the activities of vzw Artes, which used to mount exhibitions on the Leuven museum site such as Medieval Mastery (2002), Rogier van der Weyden (2009), and The Anjou Bible (2010). In synergy with the partners of the Leuven Culture Platform, KUnST Leuven intends to realise biennual city-wide projects on specific themes comprising artistic, cultural, scientific and tourist activities intended for experts as well as a general public of Leuven citizens, students and national and international visitors. In 2016, utopia will be their project’s theme.

The third partner is the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA). Founded in 1948, it is one of Belgium’s ten federal scientific

institutions under the auspices of the Federal Minister of Science Policy.KIK-IRPA is responsible for the inventorisation, scientific study and promotion of the country’s artistic and cultural patrimony. Its brief also includes research and services to the wider public. The KIK-IRPA’s preventative conservation unit is closely involved in planning the future long-term presentation of the Enclosed Gardens in the “Hof van Busleyden”.

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