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Axel Vervoordt

Antiquaire

The Antiquaire studio spaces at Kanaal, which are the home of our Interiors & Design Practice

A modern vision on today’s antiquaire

For more than half a century, the Axel Vervoordt Company’s relationship with art and antiques has been a way to share our experiences of the world. We believe the best way to full inhabit a space is by being surrounded by architecture, furniture, art, and objects that are represented by the honesty of their materials and the purity of intent in their creation.
Jacques Chirac at Axel Vervoordt's booth at the 1984 Biennale des Antiquaires de Paris
The way one looks at things is of the utmost importance. Seeing is feeling with the eyes.

Selected objects

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale. Natura.

Natura is one of a series of works made by cutting a gash across a sphere of terracotta clay, which Fontana subsequently cast in bronze. Lucio Fontana believed that the incision was a "vital sign," signaling "a desire to make the inert material live." Fontana was concerned with transformation, and the shifting, yet indestructible density of matter.

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Torso of a Buddha

This slate torso wears a tightly-clinging monastic robe, revealing the contours of an apparently sexless body. The aesthetic qualities of this torso are derived from the harmonious balance of volumes, the beautiful contours and the fine stone surface. The image of the Buddha or "The Enlightened One" expresses serene quiescence. The harmony of his perfect proportions and the graciousness of his physical form represent one of the many qualities or powers of a Buddha.

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Series of 4 Tapestries "Galleries and Garden Views"

This series of four pergola tapestries is a masterly example of the Galleries with pillars and flower pots tapestry type, as they are known in the archives. In each one a gallery of classical design is situated in a bucolic landscape. Four, five or eight columns with Corinthian capitals standing on a carved stone plinth support an entablature consisting of a moulded architrave and a frieze decorated with scroll-like motifs. The gallery is decorated with garlands and contains one or more large vases holding tall bouquets of a variety of flowers.

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Draped female figure

This female figure wears a tunic and a stola draped over her entire body and kept in place by a circular fibula (ancient brooch) on the left shoulder. Basalt is only very rarely used for antique sculptures. It probably originates from the Western Asian region, for instance from the basalt-rich region of Cappadocia. The stola was the traditional garment of Roman women, corresponding to the toga that was born by men. In ancient Rome, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to wear a toga.

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The Draped Femal Figue on view at Kanaal, Antwerp

Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt

This son of the goldsmith Jan Miechielsen van Mierevelt was a student of Montfort at Utrecht, and later of Willem Willemsz at Delft. After joining the Sint Lucas Gild in La Hague in 1652 he developed himself to one of the most sought after portraitists of his time. Van Mierevelt was appointed Court Painter of the house of Oranje-Nassau. He made portraits of among others Willem I and the princes Frederik-Hendrik and Moritz. Van Mierevelt left a substantial body of work.

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View selected objects