Flanders 2023

We've been in Belgium in September 2023 for ten very enjoyable and instructive days spent in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of this country.

After three days on the coast to visit Bruges, we based ourselves in Dendermonde and explored the cities of Ghent and Antwerp plus a day trip to Brussels.

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Thinking of our next destination: Italy and Portugal come to mind, or maybe the time has finally come for a US road trip…

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Bruges: Groeninge Museum

(vero;2023-Sept-23)

The Groeninge Museum is the first museum of Fine Arts we visited during our trip in Belgium, which is maybe the reason why we like it best from all the other ones we saw. The exhibits are well presented and the rooms not overloaded. It is closed on Wednesdays, click here for practical information.

If you want to know more, we recommend their room by room virtual visit with photos, explanations and sometimes even audio comments of the displayed works of arts. You can select your language of choice in the top right corner of the page (English, Dutch, French and German).

Room 1 - Portrait of Philip the Good, copy after Rogier van der Weyden. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Virgin and Child Crowned by Angels (± 1476/1482) by the Master of the Embroidered Foliage. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Detail of the Virgin and Child Crowned by Angels (see previous photo).

Room 1 - Saint Luke Drawing the Madonna, copy after Rogier van der Weyden (±1500). Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Detail of Saint Luke Drawing the Madonna (see previous photo).

Room 1 - Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele (1436) by Jan van Eyck. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Detail of the Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele (see previous photo).

Room 1 - Portrait of Margareta van Eyck (1439) by Jan van Eyck. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Detail of a Crucifixion (± 1440/1450) attributed to the Master of the Madonna of Wolfhard Strauß (Bavaria). Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Virgin and Child in an interior (± 1450) by a follower of Jan van Eyck. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 1 - Detail of Virgin and Child (± 1480/1499), copy after Robert Campin. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2A - Detail of Saint Veronica (±1495) by the Master of the Legend of Saint Ursula (Pieter Casembroodt?). Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2A - Detail of John the Baptist with Ivan de la Pena, the Donor (not shown on our photo) ± 1450/1499 by Alvaro Sanchez. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2A - Moreel Triptych (1484) by Hans Memling. The portraits on the side panels of this triptych are among the oldest of all Flemish group portraits. The wealthy Moreel family from Bruges, who commissioned the piece, are portrayed alongside their patron saints. This painting hung in their family chapel in Saint James' Church. On the middle panel, in between Saint Maurus and Saint Egidius, the Christ Child sits on Christopher's shoulders. A sublime landscape runs across the three panels (copied and pasted from the museum's website).

Room 2B - Detail of a Crucifixion (± 1520) by Frey Carlos. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2B - Detail of The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine (± 1501/1505 ?) by Jan Provoost. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2B - Detail (bottom right) of The Last Judgement (1525) by Jan Provoost. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 2B - Detail of The Retable of Saint Nicholas (± 1479/1505) by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy (Fransois vanden Pitte?). The photo shows a part of the central part of the retable with Saint Nicholas, dressed in full regalia, blessing the viewers. Click here for a full view of the retable and more details.

Room 2B - Detail of The Retable of Saint Nicholas (± 1479/1505) by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy (Fransois vanden Pitte?). The photo shows the upper left panel and depicts how Nicholas protected poverty-stricken sisters from prostitution by giving them a dowry . Click here for a full view of the retable and more details.

Room 2B - Death and the Miser (1515/1521) by Jan Provoost. The photo here shows two of four panels displayed in the museum. These four panels were originally the shutters of a triptych. The front and back sides of the panels were separated before 1861 by sawing them lengthwise. It is assumed that the middle panel was lost. The panels on this photo were the back sides of the shutters and form a continuous scene. A money-changer points to a line in an accounting register. Death puts down a number of tokens and points to the text held out to him by the moneychanger, presumably a debenture. The man in the doorway may be the artist himself. The figure shows a striking resemblance to Albrecht Dürer's drawing "Portrait of a Man" in the British Museum in London that is a portrait of Provoost (translated from the museum's website). Click here for a full view of the four panels.

Room 3A - Detail of a triptych showing the Baptism of Christ (± 1502/1508) by Gerard David. Click here for a full view of the triptych and more details.

Room 3A - Diptych showing the Judgement of Cambyses (1498) by Gerard David. Click here for a full view of the diptych. David was commissioned by the Bruges aldermen, who in that era were also judges, to paint this monumental diptych depicting the corrupt judge Sisamnes. To the left, he accepts a bribe and is arrested by King Cambyses. To the right is the punishment: Sisamnes is flayed alive. His skin is then used to upholster the chair of his son, who succeeds him as a judge. Justice panels such as these adorned many a Flemish town hall where judgements were passed as a warning. David framed this ancient story in a contemporary setting, so that viewers could better identify with the scene (copied and pasted from the museum's website).

Room 3A - Detail of the Judgement of Cambyses (1498) by Gerard David (see previous photo). This panel shows the arrest of Sisamnes by King Cambyses after he accepted a bribe. Click here for a full view of the painting.

Room 3A - Detail of the Punishment of Sisamnes (1498) by Gerard David (see photo #24). Click here for a full view of the painting.

Room 3A - Some more gruesome details of the punishment endured by Sisamnes (see the legend of photo #24 for details).

Room 3B - Last Judgement (1551) by Pieter Pourbus. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 3B - Detail of the Last Judgement by Pieter Pourbus (see previous photo). This scene can be seen in the bottom right quarter of the painting.

Room 3B - More detail of the Last Judgement by Pieter Pourbus (see photo #28). This demon can be seen at the bottom right of the painting.

Room 3B - Detail of the central panel of a triptych depicting the Last Judgement (± 1500/1505) by Jheronimus Bosch and workshop. It shows a sinful world, populated with grotesque characters and naked figures that misbehave or are tortured, vice and sin playing a central role. Click here for a full view of the triptych and more details.

Room 3B - Detail of the central panel of the Last Judgement (± 1500/1505) by Jheronimus Bosch and workshop. Click here for a full view of the triptych and more details.

Room 3B - Detail of the central panel of the Triptych of Job (first quarter 16th century) by a follower of Jheronimus Bosch. Click here for a full view of the triptych and more details.

Room 3B - Portrait of Jacquemyne Buuck (1551) by Pieter Pourbus. Next to this painting is also a portrait of her husband Jan van Eyewerve. They were a wealthy couple and these two portraits were made for their marriage. Click here to see the two portraits next to each other in full view.

Room 4 - Detail of the official portrait of the Archduchess of Isabella by Frans Pourbus II (1st quarter 17th century). Click here for a full view of the portrait.

Room 4 - Allegory of the Peace in the Low Countries in 1577 by Pieter Claeissens II. This work commemorates the Union of Brussels, an agreement that heralded a short period of peace between Spain and the Netherlands. The fragility of the accord is conveyed by the figures who try to prevent weapons from being crushed by the chariot upon which Venus is enthroned. Kneeling before the carriage are the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, while the Bruges aldermen and mayor Joris van Brakele, in red, stand behind (copied and pasted from the museum's website).

Room 4 - Detail of the Holy Family with Elisabeth and John the Baptist (± 1541/1567) by Cornelis van Cleve. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 4 - The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (± 1601-1620) by Pieter Bruegel II. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Room 5 - Detail of The Invention of the Art of Drawing (1791) Joseph-Benoît Suvée. Click here for a full view of the painting and more details.

Go back to Bruges Highlights: the City and its Museums or go on to Ghent: the City and its Museums or go up to Photos