page_title: Jean-Baptiste Bethune
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Jean-Baptiste Bethune / Work
caption_attribution_description: English: Castle of Loppem, near Bruges (Belgium) Nederlands: Kasteel van Loppem, bij Brugge (België) Français&#160;: Le château de Loppem, près de Bruges (Belgique) Deutsch: Schloß von Loppem, in der Nähe von Brügge (Belgien)
context_page_description: Jean-Baptiste Bethune was a Belgian architect, artisan and designer who played a pivotal role in the Belgian and Catholic Gothic Revival movement. He was called by some the "Pugin of Belgium", with reference to influence on Bethune of the English Gothic Revival architect and designer, Augustus Pugin.
context_section_description: In his architectural creations Bethune adopted the formal vocabulary of the typical late medieval brick architecture of Flanders, and specifically Bruges. Through his influence and teaching he introduced this stance by many of his followers.
  This, together with his strong Catholic inspiration and his association with the Gothic Revival movement in England, marks the difference between his school and the Neo-Gothic architecture advocated in Belgium by the Academies and the followers of Viollet-le-Duc. The latter school was more interested in restorations, while their new creations were mostly inspired by the French and Brabantic Gothic architecture. In general their creations were more inspired by a civil romanticism and lacked the religious and social idealism of Bethune and his Saint-Luke schools.
  Apart from architectural projects his very extensive oeuvre includes designs for practically all the plastic and decorative arts. From Belgium his designs found their way to most other European countries. The quality of his work can best be judged from his integrated building projects, which combine all forms of art, such as Loppem Castle, the complex in Vivenkapelle (including a church, a presbytery and a convent school) and the large complex of Maredsous Abbey.
  Bethune's designs show a strong architectural, archaeological and didactic character. With his stained-glass windows (f.e. in the cathedrals of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and Tournai), his mural paintings, (f.e. in the castle of Maaltebrugge, 1862–1864), and his mosaics (Aachen Cathedral 1872) he contributed significantly to the revival of these art forms.
  Among his most important realisations as a designer of gold- and silverwork are the Belgian Tiara offered to pope Pius IX in 1871, the Charles-the-Good Shrine in St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges (1883), the Saint Lambert Shrine in the St. Paul's Cathedral in Liège (1884).
caption: Loppem Castle
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