True to the depicted person, this statue has not stood still but has travelled around. Not between Italy and England, within the city of Antwerp.

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Anthony Van Dyck stands, larger-than-life, in this pedestrian area. He is dressed to the fashion of his time, leaning on an oval picture frame and a bundle of drawing paper. Does Van Dyck get the credit here he deserves?

Further down this walk, we will stop close by the Arts Academy, currently on Mutsaardstraat; at one time this statue stood there and rightly so, since his first studio was nearby.

Next, Jordaens and van Dyck kept each other company at what is now Franklin Rooseveltplaats. These back-and-forth movements of monuments are the result of growing city traffic, both from tramways and cars! Here on the Meir, Anthony finds himself as close as can be to the Rubens house!

The Baroque painters of the 17th century had an international appeal: there were study trips to Italy, commissions from regional lords, or for the royal courts of France and England; but also city councils and the stadtholders of the Republic of the United Netherlands placed their orders.

Only a few steps away, you can salute David Teniers the Younger. He’s the founder of the Academy that we talked about. His effigy was also the first to be placed in the garden there. This new kind of training in painting marked a clear break from the traditional relationship between teacher and pupil, on which the Guild of Saint Luke had always relied.

All these monuments date from the second half of the 19th century, the era of Romanticism that harks back to a glorious past; up to the present day, this vision still determines much of our popular image.

Route East: walk up the Meir, until you turn right onto Eikstraat. You walk the path that Rubens used from home to his parish church, St. James. If the entrance is still closed in front of you, turn left onto Lange Nieuwstraat and right onto Sint-Jacobsstraat, in front of the main entrance (subject to restoration work).