Full Name: Lavalleye, Jacques
Gender: male
Date Born: 1900
Date Died: 1974
Place Born: Saint-Josse-ten Noode, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium
Home Country/ies: Belgium
Subject Area(s): archaeology
Overview
Professor of Art History; founder of the Institute of Art History and Archaeology at the Catholic University of Louvain (1942). Lavalleye studied first history and later art history at the Catholic University of Louvain. In 1922, he obtained a doctoral degree in history (Faculty of Arts) and began his career at the General State Archives and subsequently at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. His teachers in art history were R. Lemaire (1878-1954), F. Mayence (1879-1959) and René Maere (1869-1950). In 1936, he defended his dissertation on Justus van Gent, a Flemish painter who traveled to Italy and, from 1472 onwards, worked in the service of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Lavalleye’s adviser was Maere. In 1937, he obtained a teaching position in history of art (history of painting) at the Catholic University of Louvain. Some years later, he was appointed professor and gradually took over the courses of his master, Maere, who retired in 1948. In 1942, Lavalleye founded the Institute of Art History and Archaeology at the Catholic University of Louvain. The courses in the renewed curriculum were taught in both French and Dutch, the national languages of the country. Another decisive moment in the history of the institute was the creation, in 1965, of separate Flemish and French sections, independent from each other. Lavalleye was the first president of the French section. In 1969, one year before his retirement as professor, he published a substantial article on the history of the institute, in which he also looked back on the history of the teaching of art history and archaeology at Louvain from the late nineteenth century onwards. In addition to his university career, Lavalleye occupied a leading position in several other institutions, including the Académie Royale d’Archéologie de Belgique. Strongly committed to promote art historical research, he worked closely together with Paul Coremans, the head of the Central Iconographical Records for National Art and Central Laboratory of Belgian Museums in Brussels (ACL, which became, in 1957, the Royal Institute for the Study and Conservation of Belgium’s Artistic Heritage). Together, they founded the National Centre for the Study of the “Primitifs Flamands” (1949). It is internationally known for its triple series of publications: the Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle (Primitifs Flamands Corpus), the Répertoire des peintures flamandes des quinzième et seizième siècles, and the Contributions à l’étude des Primitifs Flamands. In 1953-1958, Lavalleye published a two-volume catalog on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Flemish and Hispano-Flemish art preserved in Spain: Collections d’Espagne (published in the Répertoire series). In 1964 Le palais ducal d’Urbin appeared which is the seventh volume in the Corpus. It is an elaborate study of the works of the above-mentioned Justus van Gent preserved at the Palazzo ducale in Urbino. In 1958, Lavalleye became Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Catholic University of Louvain and in the same year he was elected corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Arts and Fine Arts of Belgium (Section Fine Arts). From that moment onwards, he served the Academy in several positions. In 1962, he became member, and between 1970 and 1974 he was permanent secretary. He also played an active role in the International Union of Academies, housed in Brussels. From 1962 onwards, he was the secretary and subsequently the president of the committee of the Biographie Nationale, published by the Academy. Lavalleye wrote both the history of this committee (1966) and the 200-year history of the Academy (1973). Lavalleye developed a special interest and expertise in historiography and methodology. In addition to the above-mentioned historiographical essays, he published, in 1946, a comprehensive survey of the history of archaeology and art history, paying much attention to methodological approaches: Introduction à l’archéologie et à l’histoire de l’art. Revised versions of this useful handbook appeared in 1958 and 1972. Lavalleye’s creative scholarly work, his broad reflections on the discipline and its methods, his multifaceted organizational skills, and the generous support which he gave to students and young scholars, set him apart as a major figure in the development of art historical research in Belgium and beyond.
Selected Bibliography
[complete list, see:] Culot, Paul “Bibliographie des Travaux de M. Jacques Lavalleye” in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art offerts au Professeur Jacques Lavalleye. Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1970, pp. XXIII-L and the Supplement in Revue des archéologues et historiens d’art de Louvain 7 (1974): 14-18; Juste de Gand. Peintre de Frédéric de Montefeltre. Louvain: Bibliothèque de l’Université, 1936; Collections d’Espagne. Anvers: De Sikkel, 1953-1958; Le palais ducal d’Urbin. Brussels: Centre national de recherches “Primitifs flamands”, 1964; Historique de la Commission de la Biographie Nationale. Brussels: é. Bruylant, 1966; Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Lucas van Leyden: the Complete Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1967; “La conception de l’histoire de la peinture en Belgique depuis le début du XXe siècle” Revue belge d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art 37 (1968): 89-98; “L’Institut Supérieur d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art de l’Université Catholique de Louvain. Histoire et témoignage” Revue des archéologues et historiens d’art de Louvain 2 (1969): 7-38; “Histoire de l’histoire de l’art” in Encyclopédie de la Pléiade: Histoire de l’Art, 4. Paris, 1969, pp. 1320-1366; Introduction à l’archéologie et à l’histoire de l’art. Gembloux: Duculot, 1972; L’Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et de Beaux-Arts de Belgique 1772-1972. Esquisse historique. Brussels: Palais des Académies, 1973.
Sources
Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p. 37 n. 75; Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l’histoire de l’art; de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986 503-504; De Seyn, Eug. Dictionnaire biographique des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts en Belgique, 2, Brussels: éditions L’Avenir, 1936, p. 647; De Ruyt, Fr. “Jacques Lavalleye, Historien d’Art et Professeur” in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art offerts au Professeur Jacques Lavalleye. Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1970, pp. XV-XXI; Hackens, Tony “In piam memoriam M. le Professeur Jacques Lavalleye (1900-1974)” Revue des archéologues et historiens d’art de Louvain 7 (1974): 9-13; Faider-Feytmans, G. “Hommage à la mémoire de Jacques Lavalleye” Bulletin de la Classe des Beaux-Arts de l’Académie royale de Belgique 5/56, (1974) 10: 137-139; Vercauteren, Fernand “Hommage à Jacques Lavalleye” Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres et des Sciences morales et politiques de l’Academie Royale de Belgique 5e série, 60 (1974-10): 202-204.
Contributors: Monique Daniels