In his will of 8 March 1628, Anthony van Dyck expressed the wish to be buried in this Beguinage Church. But his later career at the English court would decide otherwise.

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This is the place to cherish silence in Antwerp; so close to the shopping streets, the busy traffic and the student neighbourhood, the Beguinage is there for you to relax.

The beguines were unmarried pious women, but they were not nuns: they hadn’t taken perpetual vows. Beguines were engaged in health care, education and textile production. While living in a community, most of them could afford an individual home. Hence, this whole complex looks like a village-in-the-city; beguinages are a unique feature of the Low Countries.

In our tour, these buildings deserve to be lifted out of the shadows, for two reasons: artistic motives and family reasons. Many of these women belong to the entourage of our Flemish masters.

To begin with, in the church of the Beguinage you will find face-to-face: teacher Adam Van Noort and pupil Jacques Jordaens. But – admittedly – they’re not clearly visible and one of them is in poor condition!

‘The Mockery of Christ’ is attributed to Adam Van Noort, without a specific date. It was intended for that previous Beguinage church, which used to be much larger. The panels have come loose and the paint layers have been fixed with Japanese paper, as an emergency measure.

The ‘Pietà’ or ‘Lamentation of Christ’ by Jordaens dates from 1650. It’s a smaller-scale version of the theme ‘Ablution and anointing of Christ‘ (seen in the Maagdenhuis). The dead body of Jesus, in the arms of Mary, is surrounded by three women and three pious men.

Jordaens’ zussen Magdalena (+1667) en Elisabeth (+1646) waren begijn en woonden in het Antwerpse begijnhof tot een pestuitbraak in 1645. Hoe zouden zij zich gevoeld hebben wanneer hun broer, schoonzus en nichtjes tot het calvinisme waren overgegaan?

Another ‘Lamentation’ by Van Dyck adorned the high altar of the previous beguinage church; today it is also in the KMSKA Collection.
Anthony had at least two, probably three (unmarried) sisters who lived as beguines: Cornelia (+ 1627), Suzanna (+1664, date of her will) and Elisabeth (+ 1658), who died young. These pious ladies were not out of touch with the outside world, since Van Dyck relied on them for his business interests, when he himself was abroad.

The loves of Van Dyck remain in the shadow or, at best, have been given a literary memento. In his heavily romanticised life story about the painter, under the Dutch title ‘Die Cierlycke’ (‘The Graceful’) Ludo Van de Wijgaert describes the painter’s love life. According to the book, Van Dyck didn’t only kiss the hands and eyes of his female models.

It has been historically established that Anthony married a Catholic lady-in-waiting of the English queen in London. Her name was Mary Ruthven, a descendant of Scottish nobility. Their first daughter, Justiniana, was born on December 1st, 1641, just eight days before her father’s death.
As an adult, Justiniana visited the house ‘Den Berg van Calvariën or Mount Calvary’ in the Antwerp beguinage, together with her husband, Sir John Baptist Stepney. On this visit, both converted to Catholicism, were re-baptized on August 19, 1660, in the nearby St. James’s Church and married for a second time, but now according to the Catholic rite. Justiniana presented a painting of her own to her aunt-beguine Suzanna.

It is also a fact that our refined dandy Anthony had an illegitimate daughter in Antwerp, Maria Theresia, born around 1621 and raised by that same aunt beguine Suzanna. Van Dijck never forgot her and he left her 15,090 guilders in his will (at least €200,000 in today’s currency).

“My young daughter by name Maria Theresa (and) my lawfull daughter borne here in London”

This Maria Theresia married somewhere between 1641 or 1654 the bailiff of Boechout, Gabriël Essers; his relatives had their tombstone originally in the St. Michael’s Abbey, but today you can find it in the Cathedral.

We may conclude that several female relatives of the Antwerp painters lived in the beguinage. And that must have been the case for many of the large families in Antwerp. We know of other examples: Maria, who was a sister of Frans Snijders, Susanna, daughter of Cornelis de Vos, a relative of Jan Boeckhorst. Daughter Catharina Jordaens stayed as a ‘spiritual daughter’ in a lay convent.

At the end of this route, you may continue on the North Route. Return to the Ossenmarkt and walk through the Peter van Hobokenstraat to the Prinsstraat, past the university campus, turn left into the Koningstraat and right into the Keizerstraat until no. 10.