Travel Guide: Antwerp / Contemporary Style and Old-World Charm
Art and fashion, the Belgian way
Antwerp is one of very few cities that has its own colour. In the 17th century, Antwerp was a net exporter of pigments and dyes. Many Flemish fabrics were also brought to Antwerp to be dyed – in colours like azurite, indigo, Verdigris, and lead white – before being exported. Venice was the centre for distribution of pigments in southern Europe, while Antwerp held the same position for the northern regions.
The “Antwerp blue” is known as a rich, transparent kind of blue, a softer version of the Prussian blue, which was the first synthetic blue pigment (made by German chemist Johann Jacob von Diesbach in the early 1700s).
In the 16th century, the art market of Antwerp was one of the world’s advanced, with painters such as Quentin Metsys, Jon Gossaeri and Pieter Bruegel the Elder taking up residence in the city. In Antwerp, as well as in other places, art and finance have always gone hand in hand. The developing of other creative industries, such as tapestry wea…