General Franquart was a prolific artist who worked as an architect, painter, print designer, draftsman, military engineer and poet. The book introduces the principle of Baroque decorative opulence as well as certain recurring themes, such as the cartouche, the horn of opulence, the sheell three superimposed pods. Like Coberghers unpublished treatise, Franquart's book made a significant contribution to the knowledge of the Italian tradition in the Southern Netherlands. In 1622, he published in Brussels the ''Cent tablettes et escussons d'armes
or Hondert schryftafelkens ende wapeschilden
(One hundred plaques and escutcheons of arms). The book had 27 pages and plates. It was a model book providing examples of portals and gate designs were included to be realised and adapted. The subtitle of the book was pour sculpteurs, peintres et orfebvres, pour s'en servir aux ornemens d'inscriptions, emblemes et armes'' (for sculptors, painters and goldsmiths, to be used for inscriptions, emblems and coats of arms), showing that the intention of the book was to serve as guidelines for painters, sculptors and goldsmiths. Franquart's Jesuit Church also incorporated local traditions as the facade hid a Flemish Late Gothic building (in part inherited from Hoeimaker's original design) characterised by its verticalism and interior rib-vaulting. Tuscan columns carried the rib-vaults, decorated in the centre by
escutcheons, a treatment of the nave that was echoed by many, including Huyssens at
St. Walburga Church in Bruges. Various elements of his design, including the use of consecutive double columns, broken frontons and boldly decorated light-openings in various shapes, established a new architectural style that became known as
Brabantine Baroque. He used a comparable design for the facade of the Beguinage Church in Mechelen, started in 1629 and completed around 1645 by the architect
Lucas Faydherbe. The front facade, which he copied in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Brussels, is similar to the Jesuit Church and to Cobergher's Augustine Church in Antwerp. Faydherbe was also inspired by this facade in his design for the
Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk in Mechelen. The interior of which is characterised by the round-arched arcades with Corinthian pilasters supporting an
entablature, as in the
Our Lady of St. Peter's Church in Ghent designed by Huyssens. Franquart contributed to the extension of the Church of Our Lady by the Dijle in Mechelen, by adding a choir chapel and two side chapels as a continuation of the 16th-century choir (executed from 1642 to 1652). Through these designs, Franquart was, together with Cobergher, Aguilonius and Huyssens, one of the foremost church architects in the
Southern Netherlands in the early 17th century, by pioneering the introduction and dissemination of the Roman early Baroque style. His style, sometimes referred to as the Italo-Flemish style, became very popular in Flanders in the 17th century. Franquart designed the catafalque below which the body of the Archduchess Isabella Clara was laid in the
Church of St. James on Coudenberg in Brussels during her funeral ceremony on 3 March 1634. A print of the catafalque made by
Cornelis Galle the Elder shows the body of the Archduchess in the habit of the
Poor Clares laid out in a four-poster bed, her crown beside her on the pillow. The catafalque is richly decorated with lit candles and flags with Isabella's monogram. Franquart also designed the festive architecture in honour of the
Joyous Entry into Ghent on 26 January 1635 of the
Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria. He was invited to do so by the local magistrates of Ghent. The event itself was organised by the Jesuit College which provided research into emblems, allegories and classical Humanism to build the image of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria and to link him to Emperor Charles V, who was born in Ghent. Francart designed two triumphal arches, respectively of Emperor Charles V and the Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand that took into account this research. The arches were erected on the Friday Market. The arches were not built under the supervision of Franquart, but under that of engineer Melchior de Somer and master Pieter Plumion. The Joyous Entry was described in detail in the book
Serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi Hispaniarum Infantis S.R.E. Cardinalis Triumphalis introitus in Flandriae Metropolim Gandavum written by the Jesuit Willem van der Beke (Guilielmus Becanus). It was printed in Antwerp in 1636 by the printing press of Jan van Meurs.
Print designs Franquart designed the illustrations for a book commemorating the funeral ceremony of Archduke Albert held in the
Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels on 12 March 1622. The title of the book is
Pompa funebris optimi potentissimiq[ue] principis Alberti Pii, Archiducis Austriae, ducis Burg. Bra. &c. While the work was published in
Brussels at the
Jan Mommaert press, the copper engravings were cut by Antwerp's eminent printmaker
Cornelis Galle the Elder. It is therefore generally regarded as one of the eminent works of the golden age of
Antwerp copperplate engraving. The text was principally derived from the book
Phoenix Principum... written by the Dutch writer and historian
Erycius Puteanus and published in
Leuven in 1622. The engravings use a hatching table of heraldic
tinctures which is the earliest hatching system in
heraldry after
Zangrius. According to some authors it was the inspiration for the later hatching system of
de la Colombière. The engravings in the book present the 1621 funeral procession in 64 tables. The total length of the print is close to 1 meter. It depicts more than 700 different persons with the banner of their countries. It also has depictions of monumental, ephemeral architecture that was designed for the funeral by Franquart himself. The volume is an important record of the role of ephemeral architecture in courtly ceremonies in this period in Europe. The frames in which the portraits of the Augustines depicted constitute a further development of the door, plaque and escutcheon designs from his design publications. ==Paintings==