The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Pap
V
How1 Millions of Dollars
of Art Treasures
Have Been Securely and
i i f
Sunk Beneath the I
of the War-Torn
h-ingdom to Save
the Germans
Secretly
Waters
Them
from
M T
, " i London, Deo. 18.
HE Belgian authorities at Antwerp
ha-re "buried the moat precious of
their -art treasures secretly and se
curely .beneath the River Scheldt in order
that the German invaders may not lay
bands on them. '
Alarmed by the loss of pictures and
precious objects at Liege, Louvaln and
other cities, the Belgians determined to
take effective precautions to prevent an
even greater calamity at Antwerp.
It is estimated that the art treasures of
Antwerp are worth $1,000,000,000. It need
hardly be added that to preserve them for
unhappy and ruined Belgium Is a really
great national service.
Photographs have already been published
showing the Belgians removing Rubens's
"Descent from the Cross" and other famous
masterpieces- from the Cathedral of Ant
werp. But it was not known what had
been done with them.
They were placed on trucks specially
constructed for this purpose and carried
away to the military headquarters, where
they disappeared behind closed doors.
"The Descent from the Cross Is the chief
of the series of colossal works by Rubens ,
that 'decorated the Cathedral.: This -work,
with it wonderful representation of human
figures,; its. pathos and Its tragedy, Is by
many considered the greatest picture ever
painted -
A thrill went through the world at the
bought that this great picture might be
lestroyed by bombs dropped from an aero
plane or shot to pieces by bullets or even
taken away from the country where it
bad been since its author's lifetime.
It is now known bow "The Descent from
the, Cross" and the other pictures were -safeguarded.
Inside the military bead
quarters they were removed from their
'ramea and rolled up, at the same time
telng carefully preserved from Injury and
jracking by quantities of burlap and soft
jacking. Each roll was then-inserted in
S heavy watertight metal container : and
schools are represented in large number.
Great anxiety and uncertainty are felt
concerning the fate of other masterpieces
of early art that were In the Belgium cities
now in the hands of the Germans. Brus
.eels, Ghen.t and Bruges, which possess the
' chief art treasures after Antwerp, are, of
course, In the power of the Germans. In
some cases It Is known that pictures have
been destroyed; In other cases there Is
reason to believe that they have been
taken to Germany, but in the great major
ity of instances complete uncertainty pre
vails. ,
The most admirable ' works of the
Flemish school In the opinion of many
critics are ; those of the Brothers Hubert
and Jan Van Eyck, who lived In the four
teenth century, at the dawn of the painting
art. . Their most beautiful work Is the
"triptych called "The Adoration of the
Lamb," which has long been an ornament
of the great church of St Bavon, at Ghent.
It Is reported that this work already
reposes. In the Berlin Museum under the
care of the celebrated Dr. Bode, who once
bought the alleged bust of "Flora." .
The fate of the wonderful series of paint
ings by Hans Memling In the Hospital of
St John, at Bruges, is also in doubt
At Louvaln many famous old masters
were undoubtedly destroyed by bullets and
fire. Among them was the triptych by
Dierck Bouts, representing "The Martyr
dom of St Erasmus."
Bouts was the great early artist at Lou
valn as Memling was at Bruges.
The finest work of Bouts is said to have
been his "Last Supper." This was
originally the centre of a large altarpiece,
of which only this part was in the ,Church
of St Pierre at Louvaln. The wings were
separated from it many years ago, and In
recent years they became the property of
the museum at Berlin, In which the Kaiser
takes so great an interest l
Shortly after the sack of Louvaln by
the Germans it was stated positively that
this centrepiece had been destroyed, but '
"rm writ
i
(a
A
Pd rt I r-W-' '
r . ; i .
if : : :f 'rri-1 V . 'A Wit: 1 Ml ! iiwrl
"Trusted Belgian officerg carried out the painting. Secretly and with the utmost caution it was
lowered In its hermetically sealed tube down to the bed of the river. Its exact location is known
to few. Thus ended the last scene in the tragedy of the priceless Rubens 'The Descent From the
Cross It lies under the waters of the Scheldt, safe from alien hands conceivably even lost for
' ever to the world I"
Rubens'
"Descent
. from the
Cross" -Being
Prepared
, for Its
Journey.
Through
the Streets of
Antwerp.
This
Famous
Painting
Is Now
Resting
in a
Metal Tube
Somewhere
Under the
Scheldt.
f
r
ft
f7 , :i' it
A i ' 't
.1
r4
lealed up.
The rolls were then
dropped from a steam
boat. In various parts
of the broad and deep
River Scheldt The
position of each roll
was . taken by exact
mathematical measure
meats.' of various ob
jects on shore.
The reasons for
keeping " the final dis
position of the pictures
secret are obvious.
Only the highest of
ficers of the Belgian
army know where the.
objects- are hidden.
Until they return to Antwerp these art
treasures must be lost to the world- For
the Cermans to hunt' for them In the
muddy bottom of the Scheldt would.be
worse than looking for a needle In a hay
itack. They can only be found with the
lid of the charts made by the Belgians.
If the.Belgiane never regain their city,
it seems probable that these works will be
permanently list They may become one
of the mysteries of history, like the tra
ditional burial place , of Alralo the Goth.
Many works of less value were removed
to London, and it is probable that most of
these will come to our market Negotia
tions for their sale have already been
opened with some American collectors.
Antwerp was the birthplace and the
home of the greatest masters of the old
Flemish school. In Its museums and gal
leries are many works of Qulntln Matsys,
Rogier vnn dcr Weyden, Bernard Van
Orley. Anthony Van Dyck, David Tenlers
and Jacob Jordaens. Besides these Flem
ish1 masters, the Dutch, Italian and other
v
Belgians Carrying a Rolled Up Old
Master to the Place Where It Is
Put Into ; the Metal Tube That
Protects It During Its Secret Sub
mersion. i
a correspondent now declare tjhat it has
rejoined 'the wings In the museum at
Berlin. "
Describing the destruction of the art
treasures of Louvaln, Professor E. Gllson,
of the University of Louvaln, who has now
come to London, writes:
"In the centre stand the walls of
St Peter, now a grinning silhouette,
roof and belfry gone, the walls black
ened and caved In. In front stands
the Hotel de Vllle, dominating every
thing and almost Intact Further on,
the remains of Les Halles, entirely de
stroyed, except for the arcade of big pil
lars of the Salle des Pas , Perdus. The
library and its treasures are entirely
gone. v
"Entering St Peter's by the Rue de
Mallnea, I find what was the big bell
among the rulna. 'The vaults are for de
most part caved in; there Is a continuous
stream of atones falling, so that we could
not enter it without danger. Everything
Is burned. ; If the paintings by Bouts and
van der Weyden have not been saved in
time they must have perished. The jubilee
in the choir is standing.
"I walk all over the open space where
the city used to stand. At the Sept Coins
everything is lying on the ground. The i
Rue des Ecumeurs Is burned; to the right'
the Audience It barged;-the upper part of
the Rue du Canal is burned. Including the
bouse of the dean and the students' house.
The Rue de Dlest up to St Peter's Is a '
heap of ruins, bricks, scrap Iron, and
charred beams. No trace cf a aide walk Is
vv"Ws I ... - V2
V it W
f
visible, and from the ruins the
most disgusting odors are risln
and . envelopmg- everything."
Elsewhere In the path of the battling
armies Irretrievable damage has been
done to priceless art treasures. It is now
realized that much of this might have
been avoided, if the authorities had hid
den the various objects'.
There. Is another "Descent from the
Cross," by Rubens, at Arras, and this is
aid to have been destroyed by shell fire.
Another work that suffered there was
Van Dyck' "Christ in the Tomb."
' Many art works In the Cathedral at
Rhelms were damaged or destroyed.
Among the pictures thought to have been
lost are "Nativity by Tintoretto; "Christ
Appearing to Mary Magdalen," by Titian;
'Christ and Angels," by Zucchero, and the
fXSructnxiofl,'' by Germain.
The treasury of the Cathedral contained
many costly reliquaries and priceless
cfarch plate, among them a chalice and
monstrances of the Twelfth and Four
teenth centuries, vessels and ornaments
used at the coronations of different kings
of France and the Saints Ampoule. The
last is the successor of the Ampulla Re
mensls, which a dove is said to hav
brought from heaven. With the holy oil
which this flask contained all the kings of
France were anointed down to Louis XIV,
The Antwerp authorities knew of these
many catastrophes before their city was
attacked, and, taking warning In time, they
hid their treasures effectively under the
. river. There Is little doubt that Belgian
municipal officers In other cities also saved
many of their most precious possessions
by hiding them, but In the state of chaos
and ruin that prevails It Is Impossible to
know just what has happened. For years,
perhaps for centuries to come, the patient
delver will unearth hidden art treasures
fron the soil and the rivers of Belgium,
r
5
t
v
i.'
t
Carting Away a Priceless Rubens Masterpiece
from the Antwerp Cathedral, the First Step U '
the Effort to Keep It Out of German Hands.
Why the Moon's Horns Have Nothincr to Do with the WpatKn.
BTTirn T i , ...... ... '
w im m uruuy lnsraiuea Bupersii- xei is a isct which everybody wo
I tion which connect the rainfall ent to school should know, that the cres-
1tfl tl fMWii'i .nan. U.n. r.nn . . ....
ten i moon always appears upon us back
in the Spring and upon Its end
.with the moon's cusps. Many peo
ple believe that on the position of the cres
cent moon changes of the weather depend
and can be easily foretold.
Professor A. K. Bartlett the noted
astronomer, has called attention both to
the superstition and to the phenomena. He
says that at the time of the new moon the
cusps, or horns, of the crescent sometime
lie in a line which la nearly perpendicular
with the hortson and at other times In a
line nearly parallel with the horlron. In
the former Instances the moon Is common
ly described as a wet moon, and In the
latter as a dry moon. Owing to the chang
ing position of the crescent seen in the
western sky after sunset, such expresslous
as "If the moon llej so the water cannot
run out we will have a draught'" are to be
heard. Or "A wet moon Is one upon w'Jch
the hunter can hang his pojwder horn."
Copyright. im
bv tb Star Company.
in th.
Autumn. These positions occur .regularly .
every year, rain or dry. A little thought
makes this plain even to a boy.
The change of direction in the moon's
horns Is caused by the altered position of
the moon when she is at the new. It has
relation to the eun and the earth and de
pends upon the difference in the declina
tion of the sun and the moon.' If the moon
is farther north than the sun soon after It
Is "new" the sunlight strikes upon her and
she appears with her horns upturned.
If the moon is farther south, the light
reaches around her disc to the northward
and her horns are pearly vertlcle, a if
the crescent moon rested upon one of
them.
You see the moon In varying position
in the sky. At first sight there appears to
Great ErIt'nT1jv- arvd.
be no definite relation between her nosl-
tion and the position of her cusps or
horns. In fine, this feature of her aspect
seems so changeful and capricious that it
has been regarded as a weather gauge.
In reality there is a simple connection
always present The 'line which Joins
them is always at right angles, or perpen
dicular to a line drawn from the eun to
the moon, so that the horns are forever
turned directly away from the eun.
The precise position In which they will
stand at any time ns, consequently, easily
foretold, and has as much to do with the
weather as mud with milk. The logic In
supeistltlons is the same as the logic in
patent medicines and ignorance generally.
Sailors consider the appearance of the
new moon in November as an unfailing
sign of "weather." Farmers also p'elct
a mild or severe Winter from It If the
moon, they say, comes "standing up" there
will be a pleasant Winter. "Stand up
moon, lay down farmer."
Since, however, the moon ia always near '
the "ecleptie.'. the line which Joins. tha -horns
is nearly always at right angle
to the "ecleptie." Since . this ngl
changes, so the position of th line wbicb
reaches to the horizon varies. With rs '
gard to the pioon more than half full,
these changes are not noticeable. With '
new or crsecent nioon, however, It is per
fectly plain and attracts attention. ' '
The line which Joins the horns cannot
be ever actually upright when the sun is ''
below the horison, for a line must always
be square to the great circle which passes '
through the eun and moon. -.When, there
fore, the moon is above the horizon and
the sun is below, this great circle Is in
clined to the horison and a line perpen.
dlcular to it is correspondingly inclined
from the vertlcle. The. same explanation
ifits the waning crescent of the old mooa
before sunrise soon after Spring begins,-
when the horns are turned In the opposite
direction, - , , ..