Michiel van der Voort

Michiel van der Voort the Elder, Michiel van der Voort (I) or Michiel Vervoort the Elder, nickname Welgemaeckt (Antwerp, 3 January 1667 – Antwerp, buried on 8 December 1737) was a Flemish sculptor and draftsman, who is best known for the Baroque church furniture which he made for the principal churches in Flanders. He also produced secular works, particularly of mythological and allegorical subjects. His work expresses both late Baroque exuberance and the quest for the simplicity of Classicism. His oeuvre shows the influence of Michelangelo, François Duquesnoy and Rubens. He trained many members of the next generation of Flemish sculptors. Michiel van der Voort is believed to have been initially an apprentice of possibly Jan Cosijn and later certainly of Pieter Scheemaeckers. In the guild year 1689-1690 he became a 'wijnmeester' ('wine master', a free master who was the son of an existing member) of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.

He likely returned to Antwerp in 1693 as he had pupils registered in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke from the Guild year 1694–95. In 1701 he created one of his first masterpieces with the epitaph of Michiel Peeters on the eastern wall of the St. James' Church. His fame was such that the First Duke of Marlborough ordered from him two life-size marble statues of Bacchus and Flora for the main hall at Blenheim Palace. He also made a portrait bust of the Duke, who may have ordered these works during his exile in Europe.

Van der Voort operated a large workshop and trained many pupils. They included his son Michiel, Laurys Gillis, Jan Josef Horemans the Elder, Vincent Mattheyssens, Michiel van Balen, Francois Braeckmans, Rumoldus Juret, Ludovicus van der Linden, Carel Bieret and Anthoni Gillis.

He was buried on 8 December 1737 in Antwerp. He further worked as a designer for the local silversmiths. In a similar vein van der Voort created a pulpit for the Church of the Abbey of St Bernard near Antwerp in 1713, which is now located in the Antwerp Cathedral. It is decorated with a myriad of plants and animals sculpted in a realistic manner. The supporting column of the pulpit consist of four figures who are representations of the Four Continents. The statues are arranged into four groups: the angel path, which ascends to the Holy Sepulchre, the garden of the prophets on the left, the garden of the evangelists on the right and the Calvary itself, which consists of an elevated artificial rock, divided into three terraces, on which statues are placed with Christ on the cross at the top. The angels on the Calvary were directly inspired by the angels made by Bernini for the Bridge of Angels in Rome in 1657.

He also produced secular works, particularly of mythological subjects. An example is his Perseus and Andromeda (marble, 1746, Antwerp, Huis Osterrieth). In this work the virile Perseus stands beside the body of Andromeda in a carefully studied 'contrapposto'. Andromeda seems not to have suffered very much. Her body leans back like a bacchante by Rubens in an almost ecstatic posture. While the group lacks drama it breathes a certain pagan joy. In the century of the Counter Reformation, full of Christian symbolism, this work shows the force of Greek antiquity as an inspiration. A secular work with an allegorical subject is the Charity (marble, Brussels), which shows a female figure representing Charity surrounded by three children.

A number of drawings are ascribed to him. These include 12 preparatory sketches for the apostles in the nave of the St. Paul's Church in Antwerp (circa 1710) and a study for the portal of a Chapel of St. Eligius. He also made designs for the Antwerp silversmiths. He made a design for a monstrance, which was formerly attributed to the Antwerp silversmith Jan Baptiste Verberckt I. The design shows a kneeling angel to the left and a standing figure with an anchor that symbolizes Hope to the right. He made the design for the local silversmith Wierick Somers IV who made some changes to it in the executed work.