Some of the last historical pieces that were made in Brussels were _The Campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough_, _The History of the Duchy of Brabant_ and _Victories of Prince Eugene_.
The Flemings of the early eighteenth century still maintained their ancient eminence in Decorative Art. Their weavers were still sought after, and their craftsmen produced many pieces of carved furniture of the _Régence_ and _Louis Quinze_ periods that are still preserved and admired. The schools of Liège, Brussels and Lille (the latter just across the border in France, being practically still in Belgium, as originally it was) were famous for the high excellence of workmanship produced. Jacques Verberckt, who was born in Antwerp and died in Paris in 1771, was accepted at the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and executed or planned the greatest number of decorative sculpture made during the reign of Louis XV at Versailles. He was also employed by the Marquise de Pompadour to decorate her _château_ of Bellevue. Verberckt worked with a delicate touch in marble, wood, or metal.
Brussels was an important centre of industry and art throughout the century. Its citizens included many men of wealth who took interest in art, science and literature.
In his _Journey in the Year 1793 through Flanders, Brabant and Germany_, the Rev. C. Este says: “The town is tolerably well built as to the walls of the houses; but their windows and doors are after the manner of the French. The lower windows are also deformed with iron bars, offensive even beyond the eye, as implying something wrong in the place, either from real danger, or from false fear.
“The buildings at Bruxelles compare in one point advantageously with Paris. For the houses having fewer floors, but three or four, generally have but one family under one roof.... The places for a traveller to see, if he has time, are the Archduke’s Château de Schoemburg (in the village of Lack), and the villa of M. Walkiers the banker. They are not half an hour’s drive from Bruxelles and close to one another; besides the way is through the _Allée Verte_, those beautiful vistas of elms and limes, where the canal goes to join the Scheldt....
“The Archduke’s _château_ is a modern building, Ionic without, Corinthian within, with two fronts of 260 feet, the depth 150, with a central portico at the entrance and a bow in the centre behind. The effect of the building at a distance is gay and imposing enough; when close to it the effect is maimed by bad figures at the top of the building, and the pediment of the portico being filled by a clock, which seems fit only where the character of the building is appropriate, as at Inigo’s church at Covent Garden, to simplicity and use. The gate of approach, loaded with bad ornaments, cupids and what not, is at once lofty and trifling, elaborate and dull.