Author | Lightnews

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1h

Nowadays they're difficult to find...

So I'm very happy to own an Our Lady Statue of Beeldenfabriek St. Joseph...

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1h

I'm not anti mass production

Beeldenfabriek Sint Joseph Venlo (1914) mastered polychrome porcelain craft at industrial scale

Statuaries casted, glazed, and hand-painted

Craft for the masses...

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 4h

Where Diebitsch was the creative director, Walter Heck was the graphic designer. The brand manager of the Nazi-brand.

Designed the Siegrune, SA-rune and basically all flags, medals etc.

Together with Diebitsch he designed the well-know black SS-uniform.

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 4h

Karl Diebitsch is responsible for much of the Nazi regalia.

He was director of Porcelain Factory Allach
Was a SS-Oberführer, and professor at Munich School of Applied Arts

Famous for his painting 'Mutter' and the SS-degen (sword).

And a member of Hitler's inner circle.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 4h

This myth has to die...

Hugo Boss never designed any army uniforms.
Hugo Boss AG Metzingen only manufactured them.

The real designers were artist Karl Diebitsch, and graphic designer Walter Heck...
x.com/camillediol...

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 5h

The city gates closed in time and Kraków was saved. But before he could finish the signal, an arrow hit him in the throat.

Since then, his 'hejnał' has never been completed.

So every hour, someone climbs that tower and stops where he stopped.

In remembrance of the guy who gave it all.

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 5h

In 1241, when Mongol forces were closing in on Kraków.

General Subutai’s troops moved fast and quiet. But one city guard saw them early. He climbed the tower, pulled his trumpet, and sounded the alarm.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 5h

Every hour, every day, every year, a lone trumpeter climbs the tower of St. Mary’s Basilica in Kraków (Poland)

He plays a 5-note call. But it ends abruptly.

Because in 1241, a Mongol arrow pierced his throat.

He died mid-note, but the city was saved. 🧵
x.com/leusinkrobb...

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 6h

I would -- maybe -- consider camping when it looks like this

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 7h

Villa Noorderheide (Vierhouten, 1939)

Designed by architect Frits Eschauzier for D.G. van Beuningen

Featuring materials such as tuff, bronze, and sandstone

An estate of 250 hectares in National Park De Veluwe

Peak Dutch craftsmanship

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 16h

Cashmere Fascism

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 20h

The Amsterdamse School showed the same care for the working class as for the wealthy

Because everyone deserved beauty

Now architects only want to push their wicked ideas

And make 'statement' pieces

While living in houses like this...

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21h

Stop scrolling

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22h

Peak Dutch design...

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22h

Berlage believed architecture should express its structure honestly

Brick, iron, and glass doing exactly what it's meant to do

Modern architecture hides everything behind glass and drywall

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

Sauna Fascism
x.com/leusinkrobb...

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

H. Funnekotter (Rotterdam, 1883-1967) hand-embroidered chasubles

Gold thread on silk damask
Neo-Gothic designs with passionflower motifs

Responsible for neo-Gothic vestments in almost every Dutch parish
Now priests wear crappy polyester vestments from Poland

Craft replaced by decorum

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

Self-expression, combined with anti-ideologism is the cancer of today's art world: thekitschinquisition.substack.com/p/the-age-o...

The Age of Conceptual Masturbation

How fake depth replaced authentic experience

thekitschinquisition.substack.com

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

Faith is laced with irony and ambiguity
Masculinity stands as a target for ridicule

The problem with today's art isn't just ugliness...
It's greatest flaw is its weakness

Soft. Boring. Void of anything worthwhile.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

He died in 1956.

Today, he’s a footnote.
The modernist church ignores him.

But he laid the foundations for:
– Christian comics
– Catholic nationalist aesthetics
– The revival of sacred imagery

All Jos Speybroucks's heritage

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

During WWII, he stayed in Kortrijk.

And kept drawing, teaching, and building.

After the war, he designed processions, costumes, and floats.

Not for roleplaying: for real culture, real people, and a real faith.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

In the 1930s, he joined De Pelgrim, a circle of Catholic artists seeking to rebuild sacred art.

They believed beauty isn’t for art galleries, but made for the soul.

They understood what today’s Catholics have forgotten:
-Art should catechise.
-Beauty should convert.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

He lived through the horror of World War I.
And hated the war but not the courage.

Always walked the line between pacifism and duty.

But unlike today's men, he never abandoned his culture, God, or his people.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

While “modern Catholic art” chases clicks and grants, Speybrouck built a visual exegisis (with Jos Keulers) by hand:

800+ biblical illustrations
Hundreds of devotional images
Woodcuts, prints, stained glass

All rooted in truth, beauty, and reverence.

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Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 1d

But he never chased politics.
He lived by his conviction.

Didn’t run for office.
But vernacularised schools.

Carved Marian statues.
And illustrated saints and martyrs.

Catholic influencers are noise compared to him...

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