ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 1850s, the recruiting and educational powers of monuments were still important means to justify the nation and affirm the existence of a national community and awareness. The growing role of art criticism in this matter suggests that a wider array of questions of art, not just limited to the depicted subject matter, became relevant. Niels Matheve, however, has argued that politicians on several occasions did discuss the organization, purpose, and direction of the education of art in Belgium. This international focus also implied a rise in the qualitative comparisons with foreign artworks. Politicians in the Parliament claimed that Belgian sculpture had made significant progress over the past years. On an indirect level, the political decision to commemorate national heroes greatly determined the development of sculpture in Belgium. The fact that sculptors were granted commissions instigated by politics in the first place enhanced their possibilities and stimulated the development of the discipline.
