Frans Nicolaas Marius Eyck van Zuylichem. One of the very first architectural historians.

Abstract

Frans Nicolaas Marius Eyck van Zuylichem (1806-1876) was one of the first people to describe the medieval churches of the Netherlands. In his day, that was no easy task, in the absence of an appropriate architectural vocabulary. Besides, dating these buildings was a hazardous undertaking at best. Still, Eyck realised the importance of properly documenting the church buildings of the Netherlands, as he was convinced that they represented a unique cultural heritage. Neither the government nor Eyck’s contemporaries showed much interest and as a result these buildings systematically vanished, either by demolition or because of improper maintenance. Eyck van Zuylichem came from a respectable protestant line. Although he would have preferred to be an architect, he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who had both been mayors.

Although he was a self-educated man, Eyck applied himself to the study of the old medieval architecture of the then still young Kingdom of the Netherlands, a study that would occupy him for the rest of his life.

From 1839 onward he began to seriously study churches and castles with the idea of writing about them. Since 1843 he started publishing extensive articles on the architecture of churches in various magazines. His descriptions were inspired by the studies of medieval churches in Belgium, France and Germany and he consulted authors such as A.G.B. Schayes, A. de Caumont and F. Kugler, whose works had been published only recently.

Around 1850, on the initiative of the Maatschappij ter bevordering van de Bouwkunst (‘Society for the Promotion of Architecture’), a small booklet was published entitled Proeve eener Bouwkundige Terminologie (‘Tentative Compendium for a Terminology of Architecture’).

It was an attempt to draw up a list of apt architectural terms. As far as we know, Eyck van Zuylichem was the only person to comment on the publication, making concrete suggestions to change or improve certain terms.

In 1858, he published his book Les églises romanes du Royaume des Pays-Bas (‘The Romanesque Churches of the Netherlands’) and it is this book that gained him a reputation, as it was reviewed in several magazines. Especially the review by J.A. Alberdingk Thijm in De Gids (‘The Guide’, a literary/cultural magazine that still exists today) made Eyck’s work as a pioneer architectural historian known to a wider audience, even though Thijm was quite critical of Eyck’s methods. In Thijm’s view Eyck worked too swiftly and superficially and he also questioned Eyck’s chronology. What most annoyed Thijm, however, was the fact that Eyck had completely ignored the churches of the provinces of Limburg and Noord-Brabant in his 1858 edition, whereas its title suggested otherwise. In spite of this, Thijm did recognise – as did many of his contemporaries – the value of Eyck’s efforts.

This article focuses on Eyck van Zuylichem’s special place in the study of Dutch architectural history and on his attempts to date and describe Dutch churches. It also looks at his architectural terminology and at his most important motivation for writing: he wanted to convince his fellow Dutchmen to handle these buildings with more care, as they were the rare and silent witnesses of a precious past.