Catalogue entry
This panoramic view of Namur is continued on the folio opposite (Tate
D20104; Turner Bequest CCXVII 12a). At left is Namur’s mighty citadel, dominating the city from atop a high promontory. A stronghold has commanded this site for centuries, defending the Meuse valley from invasion since the Roman occupation.
1 Turner sketches the contours of the citadel’s towers and curtain walls again in light pencil directly above the principal view.
Buildings line the riverbank at the foot of the citadel; the most notable of these is the old Hospice Saint-Giles, now used as the headquarters of the Walloon Parliament. To the right a pedimented aedicule comes into view: this is the Porte de Sambre et Meuse, an eighteenth-century arched gateway decorated with allegorical figures representing the two rivers in celebration of their union at Namur. There appears to be a detail of the Porte and the sixteenth-century Halle al’Chair (now Namur’s Archaeological Museum) at top right. Further to the right, identifiable by its two distinct spires, is the Hospice d’Harscamp (see also Tate
D20108,
D29631; Turner Bequest CCXVII 15, CCXCVI 18). The d’Harscamps were a Belgian aristocratic family whose wealth was accrued during the Thirty Years War.
2 They endowed a number of local charitable institutions in Namur, including this, a place of hospitality and care for the sick, wounded, or dying.
3
Alice Rylance-Watson
January 2014
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