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HANSCHE, Jan Christiaen - b. ~1630 Antwerpen, d. ~1680 ? - WGA

HANSCHE, Jan Christiaen

(b. ~1630 Antwerpen, d. ~1680 ?)

Flemish stuccoist, active in the Southern Netherlands, Holland and Germany. His workshop developed an important turnover in various places in the Southern Netherlands and in the Rhineland. With a great feeling for detail and local colour both allegorical and mythological groups and biblical scenes were made for sacristies and monastery libraries: Sint-Carolus-Borromeuskerk, Antwerp (c. 1651); Premonstratensian Abbey, Park-Heverlee (1672-79); as well as for interiors in large country houses: Horst (1655); Beaulieu (1659); Modave (1666). All these stucco decorations are conspicuous for the same preference for lively pictorial contrasts of light and shade, which are also typical of monumental sculpture in marble and stone.

Ceiling decoration
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Ceiling decoration

Park Abbey is a Premonstratensian abbey at Heverlee just south of Leuven. It was founded in 1129 by Duke Godfrey who possessed an immense park near Leuven and had invited the Premonstratensians to take possession of a small church he had built there. The abbey is one of the most complete surviving complexes among the great Flemish abbeys.

The remarkable stucco ceiling of the seventeenth-century library, sculpted by Jean Christian Hansche in 1672, was recently restored. The photo shows the ceiling during the restoration.

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Ceiling decoration
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Ceiling decoration

The centerpiece of the Park Abbey is undoubtedly the library that Abbot Libert de Paepe had built above the refectory in 1672. The library of the abbey is a rare representative of Premonstratesian interior architecture from the 17th century in the Netherlands. The uniqueness lies in the use of a plastered barrel vault on which semi-exalted sculpture with scenes from the life of St. Norbertus was applied in lime plaster. These works were performed in 1679 by the famous stucco artist Jan Christiaen Hansche.

The photo shows the ceiling before restoration.

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Ceiling decoration (detail)
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Ceiling decoration (detail)

Park Abbey is a Premonstratensian abbey at Heverlee just south of Leuven. It was founded in 1129 by Duke Godfrey who possessed an immense park near Leuven and had invited the Premonstratensians to take possession of a small church he had built there. The abbey is one of the most complete surviving complexes among the great Flemish abbeys.

The detail of the ceiling decoration in the refectory represents the Last Supper.

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