On To Riga

After Ghent, Flixbus got us back to Paris and the CDG Marriott,and then next morning, Lufthansa got us first to Frankfurt and then to Riga, the capital of Latvia, and a major art nouveau destination. We were a week or so in Riga, doing some very slow tourism and architectural appreciation. Below are some initial scenes from the old city.

Our hotel, the Hanza, 52 euros/night including a hot breakfast

Nearby church; all near the Academy of Sciences,
Central Market, perhaps a 15 minute walk to the center 
of the old town

Interesting sculpture all over

Much new architecture across the river; sticking to the old town, we never
got to it; the river is the Daugava; the so-called Vikings used it to connect
with the Dnieper (with a few portages), then the Black Sea, then
Constantinople, and then the Mediterranean

Now in the old town, the Blackhead guild houses; destroyed in
WWII but reconstructed in the 90s

Us, there

Street scene

Another town of spires

An deco right downtown

A pizza machine right outside the Rimi supermarket; 3 minutes from
flour and water to a finished pizza; 6 euros

We had to try it...but I botched the video; oh well;
Vicki said it was better than the "pizzas" at guest-houses
in Nepal

The Russian occupation era Academy of Sciences;

socialist realism; a block from our hotel

The Freedom Monument, erected in the 20s during Latvia's
brief period of independence...then the Germans came,
then the Russians...

Nearby street scene

Love-lock bridge

A channel of the Daugava runs in a beautiful city park in the
middle of the old town

Widespread sentiment; the Russian occupation was not popular
here--where was it popular?!--Russia is Latvia's neighbor to the east,
and probably is in Putin's plans as soon as he's finished with the
Ukraine; especially if Trump is elected

Riga is on the Gulf of Riga, an off-shoot of the Baltic; and it rains
a lot; here, a double rainbow seen from the window of our hotel
room

A struggle for us: nearly all of the old town is paved with these
large cobblestones; tricky footing at every step

Wall displaying all of Latvia's towns; or possibly all
its beers or vodkas

Ye olde powder magazine, a rarity since most of them
got blown up after tobacco arrived from the New World

Ghent Out-Takes, 2024

I thought I'd add "well crucified" to the "well hung" genre,
but then, wait a second, what's that cleaver for?

"Got me a a red-head!"

The central old town is in pretty good shape; the outer ring is a bit
funky at times, and sometimes in need of restoration and renovation;
one wonders where the money will come from to do the many old
and probably protected structures in need of repair...

Actually, pineapple would go well with this

Everything's up to date in Ghent

Very large format Lego

Pigeons have no respect

So we're at a resto after seeing the Ghent Altarpiece,
and I notice some of the city's spires and banners
reflected in my wine glass...so van Eyck...

Interesting diversification

We were looking for the Ellipsis store but only found the Ampersand

Unusual store name

Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb, 2024

We'd visited the Ghent Altarpiece twice before, in 2013 and 2015, but thanks to some interpretive signage at the MSK, the AR experience in the cathedral, a very helpful docent, and other researches, this was easily our best-informed visit. The Altarpiece has moved from the west end of the cathedral now to one of the starboard chapels, where it's displayed in the usual bomb-proof/hermetically-sealed glass enclosure. (It's easily the most stolen/attempted stolen of all major art works). You can't get up close to it at all, unlike the van Eycks at the Louvre, the Groeningemuseum, the National Gallery, or elsewhere. It's so utterly massive, however, that your distance from it doesn't seem to matter that much. When the van Eyck brothers decided to do the world's first oil painting, introducing unheard-of materials and techniques, they decided to go big. Really big. A dozen large panels, front and back, some nearly life-size. The color and detail and realism are so incredible, you forget that the work was completed in 1432. In Italy, Masaccio had just died, and they were still struggling to free themselves of International Gothic, paintings that looked more like Byzantine mosaics, still painting in fresco and tempura and gold-leaf halos. It would be a generation or two, or three, before Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, or Michaelangelo were born. Also Columbus. But I digress. There are van Eyck sites and articles all over the web, most notable being Closer to Van Eyck. The Lamb in one billion pixels. Incredible stuff. 1432.

Probably my best full frontal for 2024; as you can see, the new display
frame prohibits a fuller view, at least for my skills and lens; at the end of
the post is my best shot from 2013; for comparison

Lower left: the Just Judges and Holy Knights; the former

is a copy of the panel stolen in 1934 and never recovered

Lower right, Holy Hermits, Pious Pilgrims (St. Christopher

leading the way)

Detail from above; no two faces alike; many identifiable
from their attributes, etc.

Now in the upper register, which currently is undergoing

restoration at the MSK--the paintings you see here are very high

resolution photographs of the originals--this is the Angelic Choir

Sky Daddy

Queen of Heaven

St. John, interceding; I haven't found anything in the
scholarly corpus (which is vast), but I'd bet what St. John
is reading from is an identifiable text; the Altarpiece is covered
in inscriptions and allusions...sort of a Finnegans Wake of
visual art

Angelic Organist and Choir; and Eve; note Cain bonking
Abel in the grisaille above her

Back to the lower register, closer-upper of the Adorable Lamb

Virgins, Martyrs...but note especially the landscape above them;
also the martyrs waving their palm frond attributes...

Visitors can wander around behind the display to see the
outermost of the back panels; above, Judocus Vyd, who,
with his wife (below), commissioned the painting for their
chapel in St. Bavo's

Lysbette Borluut; aka Mrs. Vyd (?); probably she had the money,
which would have been considerable

Parthian shot

Now, at the docent's urging, we are in the Vyd/Borluut chapel, where
the Altarpiece spent its first seven centuries, looking at a huge display
showing all the back panels, mostly grisaille, but some in full color

All folded up: what you'd see when not in use for masses, etc.

Annunciation and Insemination; note again the distant landscape

Digital full frontal

Thank you, Judocus and Lysbette

My 2013 full frontal (Adam and Eve were already at the MSK)