Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb: the Ghent Altarpiece, 2013

Ghent has a great old cathedral, St. Bavo's, dating from 942,
the present building beginning as Romanesque, later Gothic,
14th century and later still, some Baroque interior after the
rebellion against Charles V...

Nave view

Some glass, not particularly old nor
noteworthy

And a crypt that is old, large, accessible, and particularly noteworthy for its frescoes
and Romanesque features

What St. Bavo's is known for, however, is the so-called "Ghent Altarpiece," properly
known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck; Hubert
was allegedly Jan's brother, the only mention of whom anywhere is on the dedication
of this painting; I have my own theory of who Hubert van Eyck was and think it
simpler and more fitting to think of it just as Jan's work; it is his masterpiece, and of
a piece with many other paintings of his that have survived; it was finished and
presented in 1432, one of the first large oil paintings; as a polyptych, it is of course
many large oil paintings

The center panel; this is a photo of a large copy in one of the cathedral's side chapels

Up closer, off the web, just the central panel; rancid with Medieval symbolism

With all their varying light, cathedrals are really not very
good places for displaying great art, even copies; but notice
the expressions on these women's faces, the detail and
emotion...1432, folks...compare with what Giotto and friends
were doing about this time...no comparison!

Saints, martyrs, the usual suspects...

Back outside the copy chapel, in the nave, here are a clothed Adam and Eve,
two of the wing panels; some centuries after van Eyck, it was decided that nude
figures were inappropriate, so they were clothed; and here they are

And now we are in the special display room, off the narthex, where the real
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is displayed; no fotos, of course; but I couldn't
resist; this is possibly my favorite painting

Even in the special room, behind a wall of
bullet-proof glass, and a metal detector, the
lighting is not wonderful; but it is no less
impressive

Meanwhile, back in Heaven, above; Mary and John interceding

Pilgrims

Stigmata rays bouncing all around; note the background landscape/cityscape;
also the greenery and flowery detail...

And, for one brief shining (but not flashing) moment, no one
between me and the Lamb of God

Next day, out at Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts, mostly for the Breughels and Bosch,
we also peeked in at the ongoing restoration of the various panels of the Mystic Lamb

Of course, like all triptych and polyptych altar pieces, the Adoration is fully 
painted on both sides of the folding panels ...often the back-side is just as 
interesting as the front...glorious stuff...especially from Van Eyck, 
generations before the High Renaissance in the south...

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