Ghent Sights

Happy with our brief visit to Antwerp, we drove on to Ghent, our last stop in Belgium, finding the camper-stop in Gentbrugge, 4-5 miles from the city center. Through the kindness of a stranger, we found the correct bus into town...another dazzlingly beautiful old Belgian city.

Bell tower and cathedral in the distance

Only in Flemland

City hall; one building, two strikingly different ages and
styles

On a long afternoon's walk around the historic city

Waffling

Street scene

In an antiques store, a poster that struck me...
the last good year in Flanders...

Today's wedding shot...

Canal scene

The old-fashioned way, Tawana (I get a headache just
looking at this photo!)

More canal scenery

Ditto

Vicki at the smallest restaurant in Ghent, with
its owner, head chef, and  maitre d'

Meanwhile I am at the very interesting Fallen Angels shop
across the street (antique toys, photos)

More canal scenery and beautiful old buildings

Guild houses

Attempted artsy-fartsy shot

Hey, go to Amsterdam if you're into wild-plassen!

Rubens' House

We walked the few blocks over to Rubens' House. Pedro Pablo Rubens was no starving artist. He was the most successful and sought-after artist of his age (and maybe any age)--an age when the church in Rome was pulling out all the artistic and other stops in its counter-reformation--he ran a large studio in which Van Dyck, Snyders, and many others were his assistants and students. "Team Rubens" is not a misnomer. Very often he would design the overall piece but leave much of the painting to assistants, himself doing faces and other crucial aspects. Among his associates and friends and patrons were nobility and even royalty. His house in Antwerp is modeled after an Italian palazzo. It was much changed over the centuries but now is restored to some semblance of the original. Of course it is loaded with art.

17th century sketch of the house

And painting

Thus; the triumphal arch Rubens created for himself

A bit of the building, from the courtyard

I was so stunned by the blond curls that I forgot to get
the name of the artist...undoubtedly someone of the 17th
century

Self-portrait with son

Moses and his Ethiopian wife

Van Dyck's portrait of William II (of Orange)

Portrait of Anthony Van Dyck; long thought to be
by Rubens, now thought to be by Van Dyck himself

See...Pietro Pauolo Rubens

An early Rubens Adam and Eve

And a later, far more adventurous Crucifixion (not cruciform;
and said to be one of the first not showing the two thieves)

Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, by Willem van Haecht; gallery paintings
are a genre that arose in the 17th century; this one is of interest since a couple
or three of the paintings depicted in it sit right next to it on the wall at the
Rubens House...

Including this portrait of Albrecht Durer (in the middle
of the gallery, just off-right)

And since Rubens also is depicted, pointing something out to Archuduke Albert
and the Infanta Isabella, rulers of the Low Countries at the time; lower left

Mayer van der Bergh Museum

Our next stop was another "small" museum, but another with a collection of great interest, the Museum Mayer van der Bergh. Mayer van der Bergh himself was another Antwerp patrician/collector, 19th century, who scored a great number of important acquisitions. The museum is his house.

Rubens, of course; his Faun and Nymph; but it's mostly the
14th-16th century stuff that is of interest to us

E.g., Rogier van der Weyden's Maria Lactans

Juan de Flandes Herod's Feast

Franz Pourbus' Prodigal Son

The big draw for us was Peter Brueghel the Elder's famous Mad Meg,
storming the gates of hell

An image off the web; museum lighting, particularly in old houses (and
cathedrals), is rarely optimal; Breughel's 12 Proverbs, sitting right by
Mad Meg, was almost unviewable for the glare

Mad Meg herself

The mouth of hell; Breughels at this Boschish best;
the details are always fascinating; alas, Mad Meg is a bit
misogynist in meaning; but still fun to look at

Peter Huys' Temptations of Anthony

Across the room, Younger Breughel's Winter in Bethlehem, a  copy from dad,
I think; there's probably a miniscule manger scene in there somewhere

Jan Gossaert's interesting Mary Magdalene

And finally, another of the ever popular Temptations of Saint Anthony,
this one by Marten de Vos; "Anthonys" afford the painter many interesting
opportunities for exploration...

Thus

And thus

Antwerp Cathedral Art

Antwerp's Cathedral is quite old and quite large, nave and three aisles on each side, although the outside aisles seem more like separate chapels. It's not terrifically high, nor interesting, architecturally. It's had a long and difficult history, with much remodeling. Work continues and it's going to be beautiful when finished.

Nave view

In one of the aisle/chapels; I was commenting
that this chancel would really be happier in
Spain, and Vicki reminded me that, in this age,
Antwerp was in Spain

Priestly vestment version of the ever popular
Tree of Jesse

Lots of colorful but not very old glass

Nice angelic painter...

But what most visitors come to see here are the colossal
Rubens altar pieces

Thus

And thus

Detail of which, illustrating the principle that blondes have
more fun

Main chancel, showing the position of

Rubens' Assumption of Mary

The chapel in which Rubens' Resurrection of Jesus resides
is being renovated; hence this copy

The beautiful oak pulpit by Michiel van der
Voort, supported by the Four Continents