The Bruges city plan by Marcus Gerards
Project content
History and conservation-restoration of the map
Marcus Gerards’ 1562 map captures a unique moment in a turbulent period. It shows Bruges just before the Wars of Religion, which brought profound changes to the urban landscape. Gerards’ map is the only surviving visual witness to that transformation. For important buildings, such as the Belfry, he worked with remarkable precision. Yet beyond this level of detail, the map also tells a complex story.
A propaganda tool for Bruges, trading city
When the Bruges city council commissioned Marcus Gerards to make this map in 1561, they required him to draw the city closer to the sea and to render the waterways wider than they were in reality (1). ‘Ten fine dat men mercken mach de goede navigatie’ (‘so that one may perceive the good navigation’). (2) This mattered greatly to the City of Bruges. In the 16th century, the city’s commercial position was in sharp decline. Merchants increasingly favoured Antwerp. The silting of the Zwin played a role in this, alongside a series of political and economic factors (3). Bruges became fixated on its famed sea connection and did everything possible to persuade foreign merchants that trade in Bruges was flourishing. A new canal, the Verse Vaart, was dug, and Gerards’ map was intended to promote this fact.
A suspiciously short route to the sea
Gerards took his commission to heart. Most of the map is devoted to the city itself. On the left, as instructed, he drew a sea connection that is unrealistically short. He depicted the entire Zwin estuary region on a much smaller scale, with the towns of Damme and Sluis appearing almost comically small beside Bruges. Other subtle artistic choices helped him portray Bruges as an exceptionally accessible and peaceful port city – exactly as the city council wished. He gave the city walls an almost perfectly circular shape, at odds with the real oval outline, known as the ‘egg of Bruges’, but giving the image a tidy and balanced appearance. And, although a touch of bustle in the trading centre might have made good publicity, the entire city is devoid of people and animals.
Yet, the combination of timing, detail, and accurate street layout makes the map an extraordinarily rich historical source. Gerards was even unexpectedly candid about shortening the sea connection. He drew a dotted line marking where the scale changes, complete with a cartouche offering a brief explanation.
Marcus Gerards produced a map worthy of an artist, faithfully carrying out his commission while maintaining his integrity as a cartographer – and he even revealed a sense of humour by adding a tiny figure of a woman relieving herself. In short, it is truly an image that speaks louder than a thousand words.
Plan in poor condition
The contract between the city council and Marcus Gerards mentions 40 impressions, 6 of them hand-coloured (4). One of these authentic coloured examples belongs to the Musea Brugge collection (0000.GRO1283.I). For a long time, it was not on display because of its poor condition. In the mid-1960s, the linen support was removed and the map was adhered to a rigid board of compressed wood fibre (Masonite). This was standard practice at the time, but its consequences proved harmful in the decades that followed. Even before that treatment, the plan already showed severe moisture damage, felting, weakening and ink corrosion. In addition to the expected natural ageing, losses and wear of a paper object of such dimensions and intended for use, the rigid lining – combined with climate fluctuations – accelerated the acidification of the paper. The adhesives darkened, and new tensions appeared on the surface, resulting in tears. The framing was also inadequate: the frame, likely modified during the same intervention, was fitted with very heavy glazing without sufficient clearance from the plan. Sections of the paper margin protruded at the back of the frame, and every handling risked breaking off small pieces of paper.
Restoration of the plan
In 2015, the piece was placed on the Flemish Masterpieces List, which opened up new funding prospects for its conservation. At the same time, renewed attention grew around the map, on the one hand through the MAGIS Brugge project, on the other through the wish to feature the map as a key work in the Groeningemuseum’s autumn 2017 exhibition, ‘Pieter Pourbus and the Forgotten Masters’.
In spring 2015, the museum’s management decided to proceed with the restoration of the city plan. Conservator Ann Peckstadt was engaged to carry out the preliminary study and formulate a restoration proposal. She compiled a detailed condition report for each pasted sheet and conducted tests with a view to detaching the map, assessing colour sensitivity and applying and removing a ‘facing’ with Japanese paper. This required deframing, and an initial emergency edge fixation was applied to the protruding paper margins to prevent further damage. She also identified old retouches and extensive overpainting.
The final restoration proposal for the paper treatment comprised dry cleaning, temporary stabilization of tears and gaps, removal of the lower edging, application of a facing on the recto, removal of the hardboard support, dry cleaning and removal of old adhesive residues on the verso, controlled relaxation of the map, fixing of tears and gaps on the verso, and the application of light, minimal retouching. The map would then be remounted on a new support.
The total cost of the restoration, including insurance, packing, transportation, treatment and a possible new frame was estimated at € 72.914,60. The Masterpiece Council approved the submitted dossier, and the Flemish Arts and Heritage Agency granted a subsidy covering 80% of the total cost. The remaining 20% was funded by the City of Bruges.
In the conservation workshop
In October 2016, the plan was transferred to the conservation workshop, where it underwent intensive treatment for a year. A striking discovery during the process was an earlier repair/reinforcement on the verso using administrative printed matter dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After removing the ‘facing’, the tears were repaired and the gaps filled in with tinted Japanese paper. Where necessary, visually disruptive areas were subtly adjusted with matching tones. For remounting, a combination of acid-free boards with and without a honeycomb structure was chosen. The existing frame was unsuitable for optimal museum preservation of the map, so it was replaced with a new stained beech frame fitted with UV-filtering acrylic glazing. Musea Brugge’s technical workshop produced the frame.
The conservation-restoration proved highly time-intensive. Although cleaning has clearly made the map more legible, most interventions are scarcely visible at first glance. As with many conservation projects, the aim was to significantly extend the object’s lifespan for future generations and minimize the risk of further damage. All of this was carried out with the greatest respect for the plan’s authenticity, including earlier restorations. The few additions are readily reversible if required.
Footnotes
(1) Griet Cappelle, "Diachrone studie van de reisgids: beeldvorming van Brugge," (onuitgegeven licentiaatsverhandeling, Universiteit Gent, 2001), 10.
(2) Albert Schouteet, De zestiende-eeuwsche schilder en graveur Marcus Gerards (Brugge: Gidsenbond, 1941), 33.
(3) Maria Karoline Elisabeth Gottschalk, “Het verval van Brugge als wereldmarkt,” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 66 (1953): 2.
(4) Hubert De Witte, Stéphane Vandenberghe en Willy P. Dezutter, Vensters op Brugge. Vijf eeuwen leef- en wooncultuur (1400-1900) (Oostkamp: Stichting Kunstboek, 2000), 12.
