Mr. Van de Werve, whose large fortune justified a lavish expenditure, was
accustomed to receive at his residence every month the principal gentlemen
of Antwerp, strangers as well as citizens. His love for art and science
induced him to bring together the best artists and the most noted literary
men of the day with the high-born, wealthy, and influential members of
society at Antwerp; and his house had become the rendezvous of all that
was excellent and celebrated in the city.
Nearly the whole of the anterior part of the house was occupied by a vast
hall, called the Ancestral Hall, because it was decorated by numberless
souvenirs of his illustrious family. The walls, for a certain distance
were sculptured in oak wood, so artistically designed, and so delicately
wrought, that at the first glance it looked like embroidery in various
colors. To produce this effect, the natural brown of the oak had been left
in some places. All the rest shone with gold and silver, which was
relieved by a beautiful scarlet, brilliant yellow, and the softest
sky-blue. The many small figures scattered over the ornaments were highly
gilded. From the wooden wainscot arose slight pillars, which, uniting in
the Gothic style, supported the heavy beams of the ceiling. Six of these
beams were visible: all were covered with highly colored sculptures. Their
decorations harmonized with, those of the wainscot, and seemed an
expansion of it, as though the architect wished the exquisite ornaments of
the beams of the ceiling to be considered a luxuriant verdure, springing
from trunks rooted in the oaken wainscot.
The escutcheon of the Van de Werve family, together with the families
allied to them, was artistically sculptured in the wood. The emblems and
devices were in profusion: lions, wild boars, eagles, ermines, bands and
crosses of gold, silver, green, and blue quartz, so numerous and
sparkling, that when the noonday sun penetrated into the hall, the eye
could with difficulty bear the dazzling magnificence.
The armorial bearings of the Van de Werves, Lords of Schilde, painted in
larger proportions than the others, were at the extremity of the hall.
They consisted of a black boar on a field of gold, quartered by three
chevrons of silver on black, surmounted by a helmet ornamented by
mantlings of black and gold, and above this was a boar's head.
Around these family arms shone a large number of escutcheons of smaller
size; among others, the coat of arms of the Wyneghem, the Van Immerseel,
the Van Wilre, the Van Mildert, the Van Coolput, the Van Bruloch, and the
Van Zymaer, families the most nearly related to that of Van de Werve.