In Bruges

Posted on April 12, 2024 by borysSNORC

I slept like a dead thing last night – was much needed and much appreciated. Work travel is all good and well, but when the work back home (or in this case, in the Middle East) keeps going and you’re on even more unusual time zones that you’re accustomed to, it just creates different challenges.

We were up early hoping to see a few things in the morning so we could be back to work this afternoon. First up was the obligatory canal boat ride, to see a bit of the city from the waterways. Apparently 8 million people visited Bruges last year and it sounds like nearly all of them did the short boat trip on the canal which takes little over 30 minutes.

What a glorious day! Saint John Nepomuk, patron saint of boatmen, bridges, priests and all men who have something in common on the water.

Gruuthuse Palace named for the wealthiest family in Bruges in the 15thC.

The Djiver Marketplace, where markets are held every weekend in the summer.

This is the Spiegelrei (Mirror Quay) and it sits just opposite the Jan Van Eyck square with its statue (c.1878), and the “Poorterloge” with its tower.

Pelikaan (N°8) is a pediment house which features a pelican feeding its children with its own blood. It is the symbol of charity and these houses were created as social housing in the 15thC – they are still social housing, even though tiny houses along those canals are worth upwards of €800k.

The Church of Our Lady dominates the skyline on this side of town – it’s a beautiful building.

Palais du Franc is a former law court, now turned museum… like most of the beautiful old buildings in Bruges.

So the building below is the one that Colin Farrel jumped out of in the movie, ‘In Bruges’, which is part of the same hotel we are staying it… you can see our hotel window in this picture – it is the left window of the two with the white painted frames, just to the right of the shot. It’s a great little spot, with fantastic restaurants just downstairs, music and a great ambiance all round. It’s always nice to choose somewhere to stay and it turns out nicer than you had even hoped.

Every visitor to Bruges seems to come to this little point beside the canal for a now Insta-famous selfie spot.

Gabled rooflines were used as a symbol of seigneurial housing, and became the fashion of the powerful bourgeoisie of the free market towns.

Bricked in windows were also evident along the canals – for those who don’t know, many European countries established a window tax, as a way of taxing the rich, and for some people, they took to bricking up their windows to minimise their tax burden on their windows. It sounds ludicrous, but it’s true. It’s also where the term ‘daylight robbery’ comes from.

Tanner’s House.

Bruges’ swan population have been seen as a symbol of the city’s power and wealth since the 16thC.

After our short boat ride, we made our way to the Church to see the Madonna.

Bruge’s ‘Church of Our Lady’ is a Roman Catholic church dating mainly to the 13th to 15th centuries. It has a 115m tower that remains the tallest structure in Bruges and is apparently the third tallest brickwork* tower in the world (after two in Germany)… *not to be confused with stone work edifices.

The construction of the church is in a high gothic style with flying buttresses, which were constructed in 1270-1280. It has an impressive black and white marble floor throughout and several baroque style chapels emanating from the main nave.

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.
Philippe Bernaerdt, 1660. Bruges. Oil on canvas.

Confessionals. Jacob Berger and Ludo Hagheman. 1697. Oak.
This heavily ornate row of baroque confessionals is considered one of the most beautiful example of its kind in existence. The figures represent numerous saints – St Jerome, St Augustine, Faith, St John, St Catharine of Alexandria, as well as the Virgin and Child and St Anne and St Peter.

De Baenst Chapel… named after the a prominent Bruges family.

Passion triptych, Bernard of Orley and Marcus Gerards, c1534. Oil on panel.
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy died at Nancy in 1477 and was finally laid to rest here in 1563. This painting was commissioned by his granddaughter, Margaret of Austria for the tomb of her own husband, Philibert II Duke of Savoy. Unfortunately the artist, Orley died before he could complete it and it was instead finished by Marcus Gerards the Elder and was later transferred to this chancel for Charles the Bold. It depicts the crucifixion, and side panels featuring the flagellation, the Way of the Cross, the Harrowing of Hell and the Lamentation. Waste not, want not, I guess.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Jean-Baptiste de Bethune. C.1863
*Interestingly, Bethune was the nephew of the then Bishop of the church and scored the job of decorating the sacristy from sheer nepotism. He created this entire space in the English style complete with murals and stained glass. They must have been happy with his work as he scored commissions for two more chapels of stained glass after this one.

Tomb of Mary of Burgundy, createdby Jan Borman and Reiner van Thienen. Gilded and enamelled by Pierre de Beckere. 1490-1502, Bruges.
Mary of Burgundy died after falling from her horse on 27 March, 1482 at the Prinsenhof (Ducal Palace) in Bruges. She was only 25 years old, but had ruled the Low Countries since the death of her father, Charles the Bold in 1477. She specifically requested to be buried in the Church of Our Lady. Her husband, Maximilian of Austria, commissioned this tomb in 1490 in a Gothic design. The side panels show her family tree on both her mother’s and father’s side.

While Charles has lions at his feet, his daughter Mary has two rather stunned looking puppies keeping her company in her skirts.

Coats of Arms of the Knights of the Golden Fleece
Pieter Coustain and Jan Hennecart, 1468, Bruges. Oil on panels.
Above the baroque choir stalls are 30 coats of arms of the prestigious Knights of the Golden Fleece. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy founded the order in 1430 on the occasion of his marriage to Isabella of Portugal.

From 8-10th of May 1468, the order held its meeting in this church and Charles the Bold presided over that meeting. Usually, a member of the order was retained for life, but could be expelled for failure to adhere to the rules of the order. Charles the Bold’s nephew, John of Burgundy was at one point, expelled. His coat of arms were painted black and removed from the choir stalls – the reason for his expulsion was said to be heresy and straying from the faith.

Tomb of Charles the Bold.
Worked by Jacques Jonghelinck (c.1558-1562), Bruges.
While the design of this tomb is extremely similar to that of his daughter’s, it was made nearly 70 years later and shows many signs of typical the Renaissance style – the style of his armour etc.

I can’t get over the detail on his garments – the textures applied that represent heavily embroidered clothing suitable for the noble classes and the expensive fabrics they favoured.

I found these two beautiful embroideries just outside the chancel that held the tombs of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy – unfortunately there was no information available on them, and the musuem staff didn’t know much about them either. They are definitely Opus Anglicanum in style (the 3/4 figures and the elongated hands are very typical of that time frame) and the stitch work is definitely congruous with that supposition – but that could mean they are works from as early as the 13thC. Surely, they wouldn’t just be hanging on the wall in regular daylight if they were 700 years old…? Perhaps they are a fairly accomplished but more recent reproductions done in that style. Very curious…

This, second object was also similarly convincing.

The Madonna of Bruges is definitely the highlight of this cathedral. Sculpted by Michelangelo between 1501 to 1504, it is said to be one of the rare few items of his work that left Italy during his lifetime. It is in an usual arrangement for this subject matter – normally the Virgin and Child motif show a pious mother cradling and looking down on her child, but here you see Baby Jee standing unsupported and appearing almost ready to wander off. It has the typical early 16thC High Renaissance pyramid composition style frequently seen in works from the late 1400s onwards.

The Madonna has been removed twice from Belgium, after originally having been purchased by two wealthy cloth merchants (Giovanni and Alessandro Moscheroni) for 100 ducats in 1504… once during the French Revolution in 1794 and citizens of Bruges were ordered to ship it and other valuables to Paris. It was returned after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815. It was again removed in 1944 during WWII, with the retreat of German soldiers who smuggled it into an Austrian salt mine in Altaussee, where it was found a year later. Seems between this beautiful statue and the Ghent Altarpieces, we are inadvertently doing ‘The Monuments Men’ art tour of the Low Countries. It is stunningly beautiful, and most obviously a huge cut above the other statuary in the church.

Procession of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Snows. Anton Claeissens. 1575. Oil on panel.
This painting draws inspiration from the 4thC legend that Mary is said to have caused a miraculous snowfall on Mount Esquiline, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, in the middle of summer. She wanted to indicate that a church should be built for her on that spot, apparently.

This beautiful little random fresco on the actual wall of the church didn’t have any description accompanying it… but I was quite enamoured with the delicate calligraphy and how well preserved the colours were.

Popping back out into the daylight after the somber shuffling inside a cathedral/musuem like this, can often be a bit jarring. Bruges has certainly turned on a beautiful day for us and we wandered around town for a while checking out the architecture and of course, the famous belfry.

Oddly enough, at 83m high and 366 tiny winding steps, I shan’t be climbing it with this fooked knee of mine. All good, just means it stays on my list and I’ll have to come back. Maybe I’ll see if Mr K wants to climb it tomorrow. 🙂

Bruges has more chocolate shops than I have EVER seen in my life. There must be over 50 of them within a 500m radius of our hotel, they are everywhere.

We walked around behind the belfry to hunt for a more out of the way, quite spot for lunch. Everything here is at full on tourist prices, which I don’t mind so much, so long as you’re also able to get something quality for your Euro. We are skipping dinner tonight, so a decent lunch is the plan.

We found a nice cafe called Tompouce – Mr K was exceedingly happy with his large blonde beer that came out in a glass almost as big as his head.

Flemish stew – rich and delicious gravy with slow cooked beef.

Beef meatballs in a tomato sauce with mashed potatoes. There – dinner is done!

After our meal, we wandered around a bit, taking more pics of the architecture and searching out the hidden little nooks and crannies of the back streets. Bruges is super pretty and being a medieval town, it’s a rabbit warren of little treasures around every corner.

Ah, these pics are for Angus – he said he wanted me to bring back Belgian chocolates for him – but tbh, I woudln’t know where to start! I don’t really eat chocolate myself, and there is so many varieties on offer, it’s kinda overwhelming to try and choose something… plus, who asks for a gift from overseas that is 1) perishable, and 2) cost by the 100gms?! Doesn’t he know I have a luggage allowance to consider! 😉

I finally found the perfect chocolate present… though I dare say these aren’t the same quality as the fancy truffles above.

I also stumbled into a tapestry shop, Mille Fleur’s Tapestries, which contained all locally woven products… so many beautiful things in here, though I didn’t allow myself to get too far into the back of the shop where the obviously large and impressive pieces were. Instead, In content myself with a small Cushion Agenda… I found two fabulous designs based on the Bayeaux Tapestry, which of course, Mr K had absolutely no Cushion Opinon on, and so I have bought a couple for our media room at home. There were even Mondrian designs for BigSal, but I resisted… this time.

Ghet thee to Ghent!

Posted on April 11, 2024 by borysSNORC

Off to Brugge via Ghent today. We’re having our weekend early because Ramadan is over and we have work to do in Brussels and Zurich… which probably makes no sense to anyone.

I’ll never get enough of European architectures. I met a man just now who asked me if I have seen the Bayeaux Tapestry – which I have not, though it seems like something I should have seen by now, and he said, ‘It really draws you into the whole history…’ and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m Australian, EVERYTHING here draws you into the history compared to back home.’

Totally apropos of nothing, that little green car is the Alfa Romeo Tomale we have hired for the week – it’s comfortable but also a bit fussy in a, ‘trying too hard’, kinda way.

Anyway, Ghent… we approached St Bavo’s Cathedral and the main square from the Jan van Eyck Square which is located behind the church and saw this impressive monument to Jan Van Eyck. Mr K was musing that he wants a huge memorial like this, showing him surrounded by a bevy of beauties with their boosies out after he’s gone… I said he had to do something worthy of being memorialised in such a manner, cos let’s face it – no matter how good you are at at it, there ain’t no way any fucking procurement expert is ever gonna be remembered like this! 😀

Ghent town square

Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, also know as Sint Baafs, is a Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Diocese of Ghent since the 16thC, though it has been a religious site for centuries before that.

Just inside the vestibule to the church, was a large, very modern, very worrying ‘chandelier’? Interesting choice of lighting design for a space like this…

Originally this site housed a timber chapel for St. John the Baptist, built and consecrated in 942AD – I love that all this information has been passed down. The construction of the existing cathedral was started over that structure in 1274 and is in a Romanesque style that is still evident in the cathedral’s crypts. The vaulted high Gothic construction of the main hall of the church began around 1274, and the building was subsequently added to continuously through until the 14thC to 16thC with the additions of a choir, radiating chapels, transepts, nave aisles, the chapter house and a single tower on the western end of the Cathedral. The work is said to have been completed by 7th June, 1569… huge efforts over hundreds of years.

When the Ghent Diocese was founded in 1559, this church became its cathedral, however just prior to the completion of the building works, in the summer of 1566, it is recorded that Calvinist iconoclasts visited many Catholic Churches in the Netherlands (including this one) and smashed statues, shattered stained glass windows, destroy paintings and other artworks they deemed idolatrous. Thankfully at this time, the Van Eyck Altarpiece was saved… and it wouldn’t be the last time it needed to be saved from narcissistic fuckwits with cockeyed ideology.

The impressive pulpit.

What is above is what is available to visit upon entry to the church, however, to see the crypts and the famous Ghent Altarpiece, you need to buy tickets online to enter what is ostensibly an museum inside the church. Now, given the exorbitant amounts it must cost to upkeep and secure these elaborate and important buildings and their historical artefacts, I don’t really mind paying my €16 per adult to gain access to see them, but for some reason a lot of these historical sites seem to want to *value add* these days and man do they miss the fucking mark!

You enter the church amid signs asking for silence a respect to be shown in this place of worship, (as is standard in every single important religious site in the entire world, regardless of the local variant of omnipotent invisible friend being worshipped!), only to be ushered into the crypt and given a VR headset with a loud and blaring soundtrack with heaps of church bells, a gratingly brash American accented narration (on the English setting at least), and a whole pile of glowing cauldrons, crosses, footprints to stand on, holographic models of the town of Ghent and it was just… fuck, no! What the ever loving hell are they doing? If I wanted to see some crass, seppo, bastardisation of history, I could have just stayed at home and switched on the History Channel with it’s over-sensationalised and over-dramatised presentations. I lasted less than five minutes into the one hour virtual tour, before ripping the headset off in disgust and choosing to just see the crypts for what they are… it left me seriously concerned for what I might expect upstairs at the Altarpiece. :/

Here is the info of the VR Tour for anyone who is interested, engage with it at your own risk: https://www.sintbaafskathedraal.be/en/ghent-altarpiece-ar-tour

The downside of not sticking with the all hype, no substance VR tour is that there was not a single fucking information plaque down here – just glowing footprints that auto start another onslaught of imagery and shitty narration that put your teeth on edge.

I believe – that the fresco paintings here are c.12thC, but don’t quote me on that. No plaques.

Above: A reliquary to Saint Macarius (whose connection to Ghent I have been unable to ascertain), and,
Below: A very recognisable reliquary of head of Saint John the Baptist. Both 17thC, neither attributed to artists.

The ‘History of Saint Andrew’ painted in 14 panels by Frans Pourbus the Elder in 1572…

Heading

Leaving the crypts, we head up a few levels to the ambulatory chapels which are elevated and behind the main nave of the cathedral. The ceremonial tomb of Bishop Anton Triest, in dramatic black and white marble, sculpted by Jerome Duquesnoy.

The Rubens Chapel, so named because it contains a most important masterpiece of the Baroque artist, Pieter Paul Rubens, completed in 1624.

The ambulatory pathway between the various chapels…

Ooh… one of the ambulatory chapels was filled with modern art – I have just gotten over the trauma of the VR headsets, please, no… the Altarpiece is around here somewhere.

Originally the Ghent Altarpiece, which is formally known as the, ‘Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ but here everywhere is referred to as the, ‘Son of Lamb’, was installed in the Joost Vidj Capel on the eastern side of the ambulatory chapels. Now it is housed in the ‘Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament’, all to itself. The work itself was originally started by Hubert van Eyck, but was completed by his brother, Jan van Eyck, after Hubert died. The painting is considered to be Van Eyck’s masterpiece and is one of the most important works of the Northern Renaissance – being an exemplar of the transition between paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This enormous artwork was undertaken in 1420 and completed by 1432, and has such a storied history.

Incredible…

Over 500 year old and so vibrant and detailed…

One part of the painting, the lower left panel, which is known as, ‘The Just Judges’ was stolen in 1934 and has never been recovered. It is believed to have been lost years ago, and possibly even destroyed. A copy of the ‘Just Judges’, completed done by Jef Van der Veken, now sits in its place. Would be very cool if it turned up one day in some dead rich guy’s private art collection or something.

The Adoration of the lamby-lamby ding dong…

I’ve always enjoyed how the rays of sunlight are rendered in this painting… the lines draw the eye around the art work and keep you looking, and finding, more detail. The overall design of the work is believed to have been drafted by Hubert van Eyck, but most of the work executed by Jan van Eyck, who refers to himself repeatedly around this work, ‘as the second in art’ to his brother.

Fecund Eve… just to remind us of the Sin.

It is even possible to see the back of the altarpiece – or rather the front as it would appear if it were closed:

It looks like this when closed properly, but very hard to make out in the darkened chapel:

It truly is a stunning piece. I also feel so fortunate to be seeing it, not just in this chapel where it belongs, but at all. With its turbulent history of having been stolen by Nazis and stored in a salt mine in Austria until it was found at the end of the war by American soldiers, and then returned to Ghent by Eisenhower… it’s perhaps just blind luck that it wasn’t lost forever.

In another of the ambulatory chapels, called the Priests and Bishops chapel which had confessionals lining the walls for the sinners… were these two peculiar caskets. Unfortunately, there was no information on them. They look somewhat like reliquary caskets, but those almost always contain information on what/who was supposed to be contained within. The work on these was absolutely stunning! I’m thinking 16thC embroidery but they could be far more modern, it’s hard to tell.

Metal strap work surrounding the embroidered motifs:

Beautifully executed – I know how much work it takes to create figurative pieces in this style.

The second chest has more goldwork techniques worked in more floral designs without the gold metal strapwork as a background…

Padded and heavily couched goldwork…

The main nave at the top of the cathedral… so much beautiful stained glass. Many panels of the glasswork in the lower part of the chapel appear to have been replaced with modern glass, but in this old section of the church, they appear to be original… thank goodness Hitler was an art lover and tried not to destroy all these amazing buildings.

From the back of the nave looking towards the main entrance of the cathedral.

Back out in the square, the Ghent Belfry dominates the townscape – now a tourist information centre. It was a fairly cold and miserable day, not as windy as out at Volendam thankfully, but we beat a hasty retreat to a local cafe for a hearty lunch with the intention of skipping dinner this evening.

I tried the onglet with champignons, Mr K ordered the Ghent boeuf stew – both of which were excellent and our meal came with some frites and mayo, of course.

Farewell to Ghent for now, we may have to pass back through on our way to Brussells. We are spending this evening In Brugge… you know, of ‘You can’t give ketamine to a dwarf!’, fame.

I had booked us a canal view room in the Hotel Bourgoensch Hof, and the view from our window did not disappoint… the building on the right at the edge of the canal is the one that poor Colin Farrell had to jump out of six times when filming, ‘In Bruge’, here.

The view was even prettier as the sun went down… there is a saxophonist playing out there somewhere and the indistinct chatter of people enjoying an evening aperitif, and the smell of freshly baked waffles drifting up to our room on the third floor.

Amsterdam Museumplein

Posted on April 8, 2024 by borysSNORC

This image is hurting my head, almost as much as it was hurting my head while I was standing across from it and noticing how some of the brickwork is decidedly ‘triangular’ as in small fractions of bricks at the bottom to wider full bricks at the top, built to accomodate for the fact that the building next door isn’t straight! Wedges of brickworks for crooked little houses in crooked little streets!

Wonky architecture aside, Amsterdam has heaps to recommend it (even if you’re not here for the Red Light District or the cannabis coffee shops), and OMG, I have died and gone to cheese heaven! There are so many cheeses shops everywhere.

So much cheese! So little refrigeration space in our hotel minibar fridge! :/ Next time Gromit!

We have some early work to do, but Mr K got out bright and early to get a jump on the day (yeah… nothing to do with jet lag and being wide awake at stupid o’clock), so he decided to take a walk and find some transit cards that we could use on the trams to get to meetings and later to the museums we wanted to see. The city was so still and beautiful before everyone was getting on with their day.

Except tram drivers, they seem to have to start earlier than everyone else… god bless public transport.

The Amsterdam Central train station had the transit cards we were looking for – but as of April 22, 2024 (in approx 14 days time) they will no longer be available. Everyone is being encouraged to either have an app on their mobile device that can be topped up, or to use cash vending machines to print out a ticket that contains a QR code that you scan as you get on and off public transport. And why is this innovation being pushed, like literally everywhere? Well, for one, it’s cheaper they don’t have to make physical cards, and two, the app system tracks and gathers way more data that these dumb cards can. *scowly face* Good for those in the industry not so great for consumer.

They probably could have made them way cheaper by ditching the fancy hologram in the first instance!

Reflections on the canal… gorgeous.

Anyway, after the meetings were done this morning, we ended up at the Van Gogh Museum. And by ‘ended up’, I mean, we made it in time to use the timed entry tickets I had pre-purchased weeks ago – which was just as well, as there were signs everywhere saying the entire day’s visitor allocation was SOLD OUT. So heads up travellers! Pre-purchasing is a must even on the shoulder season these days. The building itself is quite impressive – though a bit of a nightmare if you can’t walk the stairs (the lifts are small and cramped and slooow).

I took a bunch of photos that I want to include here, but I’m not going to rave on about most of them – if you’re unfamiliar with Vincent Van Gogh’s work and his particular genius in the impressionist movement, you need way more help than I’m gonna give here!

Mostly I was trying to capture the texture, and interplay of light and colour that Van Gogh’s works are famous for; which rarely translates well when the works are reproduced in prints or photographs. Which you know, if the professionals can’t manage – I’m highly unlikely to manage it today… but you know, everybody needs a hobby, or in this case a distraction when you’re musuem’ing it in chronic pain. 😀

’Wheatfield With Crows’, c.1890… there’s something menacing but still lovely about this one.

‘Wheatfields Under Thunder Clouds’, c.1890.

‘A Pair of Leather clogs’, c. 1888.

‘Irises’, c.1890. Painted in while he was living in the St Remy psychiatric hospital, the Irises paintings were primarily a study in colour – they were originally bright purple on a yellow background, but the paint has faded with time.

Like I said, beautiful museum, but all the galleries revolved around these spiralling staircases. Accessibility fail.

Van Gogh painted this very famous ‘Almond Blossom’ (c.1890) painting just after his brother, Theo, had a son who he had promised to name Vincent, after him. Upon receiving word that the son was born, and named Vincent, he reportedly became completely absorbed with painting this almond blossom against a blue sky and took to his work for days on end. He wrote to Theo: ‘the last canvas of the branches in blossom, you’ll see that is was perhaps the most patiently worked, best thing I have done, painted with calm and a greater sureness of touch’. The painting became one of Theo’s most treasured possessions and their son, Vincent Jnr, later founded this museum. Which was a cute personal story that accompanied the artwork. There was also a bunch of twonk about the delicate flowering buds heralding the spring and new life, and the birth of a child bringing hope and yada, yada, yada…

This was an interestingly curated piece – ‘Landscape with Rabbits’, c.1889…

…and a vignette on display by the museum, which showed one of the rabbits from the field of this painting compared to a photograph of a rabbit. I believe to try and demonstrate how Van Gogh seems to capture the shape and movement of the animal with zero attempt at lifelike reproduction.

‘Skull of a Skeleton With a Burning Cigarette’, c.1886. An early-ish painting showing a skull with a lit cigarette in its mouth is a sort of joke piece completed while studying at the art academy in Antwerp… art students, huh? They never change.

‘Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat’, c.1887.

It’s amazing how the impressionists create light and tone by their creative use of colour – they all did it, would make a skin tone have depth and texture but somehow instead of using blended hues of skin tone, they usedcrazy blue, green or in this case, even red paint. It’s a super commonplace technique now, but when these guys were bucking against the realism of the works that came before them, it was extraordinary.

‘Daubigny’s Garden’, c.1890.

All the textures!

‘Zonnebloemen’ c.1889… which I think is a far more romantic name than ‘The Sunflowers’, as English speakers know this, Van Gogh’s most famous work. I can’t stress enough how much I have HATED this artwork for literally decades. Very likely unfairly, at that. You see, the IVF clinic that I attended from 1999 until 2008 trying to have our little family had a print of this hanging in the waiting room, and every time I was kept waiting – this is what I was staring at. It was there when I received bad news, it was there mocking me with it’s bright and sunny disposition when I felt at the lowest of my lows – and it didn’t matter how many times I told my specialist how much I hated staring at this fucking print, he never took it down. Actually, that’s not accurate, he did eventually take it down and replaced it with a huge black and white Anne Geddes style portrait of his own newborn daughter when she came along… which was moderately better, but also sad in an entirely different way.

Anyway, I may have judged the little sunflowers print a little too harshly as lifeless, boring, and way too fucking yellow! Turns out this is a beautiful painting, and like most of Van Gogh’s pieces, exquisitely executed.

This painting is on the Ground Floor and almost available to you as soon as you enter the gallery – but for some reason, we missed it entirely and saw it only as we were leaving.

And of course one of the best things about museum hopping is… exiting via the Gift Shop. I was expecting to see sunflower adorned EVERYTHING, but instead Miffy in Sunflower dresses seemed to dominate the shelves. I was vaguely tempted to buy one to take home as a gift for a friend; right up until I saw the €30 price tag! That’s AUD$56 for a 7” mass produced stuffed, crocheted bunny. Sorry, not happening.

The other unexpected gift shop juxtaposition was a smattering of cute but weird, Pokémon/Van Gogh cross over merch? Apparently they had an exhibition that was running until Jan this year which was all Pokémon paintings done in the style of Van Gogh. That’s one way to get the kids to engage with art!

Van Gogh Museum is a solid 7/10. Seen it, probably wouldn’t come back for a re-run next time I’m in town. It’s missing some very famous pieces that I’ve seen in other museums – The Starry Night, The Cafe Terrace at Night, and The Bedroom at Arles just to name a few. I have been fortunate enough to have seen most of these pieces in the past, but it feels like they belong here, and they’re just not. :/

After this we wandered off to find a bit of late lunch. I’m afraid sticking to my low carb diet is going to prove impossible here with the main lunch offerings being sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and of course the world famous Dutch fries drowning in cheese or served with mayo…

Tasted just like Icelandic hotdogs!

Just across the park from the Van Gogh Museum is the Amsterdam Rijksmusuem, which is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch Art. When I was in Amsterdam last, way back in 1995, Holland was one of the last countries we visited on our Grand 70 Day Tour of Europe, and we were admittedly a bit museum’d out and blasé about seeing more old paintings, so we skipped it. Thirty years late, but I’m glad to have the chance to come back and finally check it out.

I’ve taken a pile of photos of interesting objects, some of which I have the description for and some I’ll have to go look up later. It’s entirely likely that the entire collection is digitised online somewhere, but old habits die hard. 🙂

Reliquary in the form of a triptych. Paris c.1400-1420 : miniature altar doubles belonged to someone associated with the Parisian court. From the descriptive plaque, ‘Seeing the Christ’s tormented body, the owner could mediate on his sufferings at any time.’ Sounds like fun for the whole family!

Ivory mirror case depicting three courtiers. French, c.1425

‘The Raising of Lazarus’, attributed to Aertgen Claesz, also called Aertgen van Leyden, oil on panels, c.1560.

Not so fast Rjiksmuseum! We see what you did there – this one is clearly AI generated!

Chainmail, Low Countries, c.1400-1500, iron.
Made of iron rings linked together, this one weights over 11 kilograms. With its cute little button at the collar it looks like a medieval polo shirt.

Parvise with St Andrew’s Cross, Burgundy c.1474-1475.
Covered in symbols of the Duke of Burgundy – the red St Andre’s Cross, four gold firesteels, and black-white flints with red flames.

Engelbert II van Nassau, oil on panel, c.1480-1490. Prominent noble in the Duchy of Burgundy, has the fancy prestigious chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece and a cool falcon.

Panels from an organ case (Church of St Vitus) by Jan Eerste. Utrecht c. 1510-1520.

Collection of Aquamantiles, mostly in the forms of Lions. 14thC.

Above: Lion Aquamantile, attributed to Master Berhuser or his workshop. Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) c. 1375-1300. Copper alloy.

Below: Aquamantile, craftsman unknown. Nuremberg, c.1400. Copper alloy.

Portraits of an unknown Couple. Maarten van Heemskerck. Haarlem, 1529.
The gentleman is busy with his important bookkeeping, while his wife is virtuously sitting at her spinning wheel. A conscientious merchant is a trope from occupational portraits of Dutch citizen around this time.

Drinking Horn of the Amsterdam Company of Arquebusiers.
Attributed to Aren’t Cornelia’s Caster. Amsterdam, 1547. Silver and buffalo horn. This luxury drinking horn playe a prominent roll in civic guard ceremonies. The horn was passed around the table and everyone drank from it. In this way the militamen expressed their common bond and unity. The claws in the silver mount are the symbol of the arqubusiers… and that’s how they all got the plague!

Ripped baby Jesus doesn’t skip ab day!
The Holy Family, Jan Cornelia’s Vermeyen (c.1503-1559). Oil on Panel.

Chest, Italy c.1450-1500. Painted poplar wood.
Heraldic Cassone covered in a family’s coat of arms. Chests such as these were used on the occasion of marriage to hold a bridal trousseau, consisting of clothing, fabrics and precious dowry items. They were usually set against a wall and could be used for travelling. This trunk is fully 1.5m long.

I couldn’t find the description on this amazing vessel! But it’s gorgeous.

Messenger’s badge (bodebus) of Amsterdam.
Attributed to Jan Cornelia’s Coster, Amsterdam, 1548. The badge was worn by a travelling civic messenger and was an offical insignia. The elaborately worked decorations includes the arms of Amsterdam under the imperial crown. This thing is huge – fully 6” across and probably a fairly hefty weight.

Ceremonial chain of the Guild of Saint George of Zevenbergen. Bergen op Zoom or Breda, c.1525-1546.
Visible on the chain are Saint George and his arms, which signify the collar belonged to the guild. The seven mountains of Zevenbergen are depicted as are oak leaves which stand for religious steadfastness, storks for piety and respect to church, state and master.

Hunting horn, Johannes Matheus van Kempen, c. 1848, parcel-gilt silver.
In 1849 King William II presented this horn as a prize for the faster hunter at Het Loo Palace. Its shape is derived from an ox horn and it is embellished with images of predators and prey.

Tapestry depicting the arms of Charles V. Worked by Willem de Pannemaker (active 1535-1578). Wool, silk, silver and gold thread. Brussels, c.1540-1555.

Weepers from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon (wife of Charles the Bold). Cast by Reiner van Thienen. Brussels, c.1475-1476. Originally placed at the abbey of Saint Michael in Antwerp, the tomb was surrounded by 24 mourning family members and ancestors known as ‘pleurants’, (weepers).

Soup Tureen, Jean Baptiste Claude Odiot, Paris, c.1819. Silver and gold gilt.
Believed to have belonged to a 140 piece dining service belonging to the Russian empress.

Cabinet, Pierre Gole, Paris c. 1655-1660. Various kinds of wood, veneered with tortoiseshell, ivory, green-stained bone, and mounts of gilt bronze. Gole was originally from Bergen in what is now the province of Noord-Holland, and established himself in Paris in 1643. Before too long he was apppointe court cabinet maker by King Louis XIV. This cabinet is decorated with floral marquetry, and ornamental technique that was invented and disseminated by Gole.

There was an entire gallery full of Delft ceramic ware of various sizes, quality and uses.

Case with Duelling Pistols. Jean le Page (1746-1834).
Pistols: wood and metal. Case: wood, leather, velvet. C.1808.
This case with duelling pistols and tools was made in the workshop of Jean Le Page in Paris. Up until the Battle of Waterloo (1815), Le page was allowed to bear the name of ‘Arquebusier de L’Empereur’ (Gunmaker to Emperor Napoleon). This case came into the possession of Lieutenant Hengry Sagermans of Brussels shortly after Waterloo, who claimed the pistols were found in Napoleon’s travel carriage which had been abandoned near the battlefield.

Piece of the stone on which Prince William III set foot on arriving in England at the fishing village of Brixham, on November 15, 1688. He invaded England to overthrow his Catholic father-in-law, James II and to prevent him from turning against the Netherlands. Known as the Glorious Revolution, William’s coup was a great success.

Three door cabinet, Paris, c.1835-1838. Oak, ebony, pietre dure, gilt bronze. Once owned by William II.

Still life with a Gilt Cup. William Clasz Heda, oil on canvas, 1635.
The range of tones that Heda could paint are astonishing. Objects are beautifully rendered in a most realistic style regardless of surface – pewter, silver, damask, glas,, mother of pearl. Heda specialised in ‘tonal banquet pieces’. Damn, now I want oysters.

Wandering through these amazing art galleries in Europe, it’s often easy to forget you are wandering through an architectural marvel in its own right. The Rjiksmuseum is an incredibly beautiful building.

The upper floor houses the great masterpieces of the museum’s collection…

The Love Letter, Johannes Vermeer, c.1669-1670.

The Milkmail, Johannes Vermeer, c.1660

Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul, Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1661.

The Threatened Swan, Jan Asselijn, c.1640.

And of course, the Nightwatch, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642. Which I never expected to see out of a frame on a stretched canvas like this. I expected the glass room built around it so no one could get within 9 feet of it, but no frame. I feel it loses something here from how it would have been presented in the artist’s lifetime.

Long day is long, and museums with crowds of people are exhausting. Couple of pretty pics on the way back to our hotel. The tram system is efficient and clean, if a little confusing to start with.

Popped into a souvenir shop looking for a lapel pin for my collection – and instead found more cannabis products than you could poke a stick at. Why would anyone buy their pot products from a souvenir shop when there are coffee shops selling all the gummies and brownies you could possibly want?

I am very tired, and I should have learned a few words of Dutch.

Toyama Glass Art Museum

Posted on November 14, 2023 by borysSNORC

Managed to sleep in a bit this morning and was pretty happy about that. Breakfast was available in our hotel and was an amazing buffet of Japanese breakfast yumminess. The Dormy Inn tends to be quite a popular business hotel, so it is clean, quiet, efficient and well appointed. It’s not a traditional ryokan with a private onsen, but it’s certainly a popular chain hotel choice in large Japanese cities that I can recommend for an affordable choice.

Our Dormy Inn in Toyama was barely 400m away from my ‘must do’ stop in Toyama – the Toyama Glass Art Museum. The building is also the state library (or similar) and houses a permanent glass exhibition as well as temporary exhibitions from talented local and international artists. The building itself is quite impressive with the most amazing open atrium… At the moment the 6th floor houses a large exhibition show casing the works of Dale Chihuly – an American glass artist who is various lauded as either overrated (given a lot of his production is done in a workshop with a plethora of unnamed artists) or iconic, as he most definitely had a huge global impact on the glass arts over the last fifty years.

The following three pics are the Kok-hi Chandelier, the Ruri-iro Chandelier and the Ukon-ro Chandelier, all created in 2015. They are all about 1.4m square and take up an impressive amount of space. In an art gallery they get lost somewhat – recontextualized into a different setting, I imagine they’d be a massive ‘wow/conversation’ piece., Toyama Reeds – 2015. This piece is 3m wide, by 4m deep and 5.3m high. These blue glass reeds are very impressive and give the impression of looking through a glass forest.Toyama Persian Ceiling – this installation work is most reminiscent of the ceilings in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and was created around the time when Chihuly’s primary interest was in sea forms and creating these large ridged / fluted plates. Toyama Float Boat – 2015, glass 9m long, 60cm high and 65cm wide comprised of 117 boat ‘floats’. This is an amazing piece! Yes it is mostly large balls of glass, artfully arranged in brilliant colours, but it also looks like a boat full of planets, or marbles, or sweets, or Christmas baubles. It is colourful, playful and really visually attractive.

The next Chihuly in the exhibition is the Toyama Mille Fiori – also from 2015, it is an enormous 9m wide, 5.8m deep and 2.8m tall. The reeds, spirals spikes and balls in this ‘garden’ work together in the dark installation space to creat an alien-like garden that seems to change from every different angle it is viewed from.

While Chihuly retired from glass blowing himself personally in the late 70s and turned to mostly teaching glass blowing as an art form, his vision and execution is impressive. You can not deny that his work has Brough international prestige to the art sculpture and glass blowing communities – these works are visually arresting to behold. yes, I probably took far too many photos of this Mille Fiori garden – but it was so beautiful and so well curated, that I fell in love with it.

At the moment, the Toyama Glass Art Museum is hosting an exhibition of works by Akio Miyanaga called Wrapping Poetry. I particularly liked this image of a cat inside a fish tank, looking at a fish. The works use glass, resin, leaf veins and salt to create a disposing art that evokes history and the perishable nature of substance.

These pieces contain a sliver of napthothene which deteriorates if exposed to oxygen – it is safety concealed in the glass and resin of the piece but would disintegrate quickly if exposed to the air… it is frozen in time, which is a central theme to the artist’s work.

Tree (green) by Toshiharu Murosawa, 2015.

Bird and Butterfly and Skull Goblets by Makiko Inoya , 2015.Time of Migration by Fujii Yurkia, 2015

Glass art might not be to everyone’s taste but we spent a couple of hours there engaged with the works and enjoying the colours, textures and of course laughing at some of the heavy artistic twonk in the artists’ statements. Well worth the visit.

Sigisoara to Brasov

Posted on July 12, 2022 by borysSNORC

Up bright and early for a 0700 breakfast so we can leave the hotel at 0830. Several of the group don’t seem to get the memo though and we leave at 0915. It’s barely my third day with these people and I’m losing a little patience for how self absorbed a couple of them are.

We have a two hour drive to get to a little town called, Sigsioara. The town has about 28,000 people living here and it is a popular tourist stop for the well preserved old town, which is a UNESCO world heritage listed area. First stop was the 13th centrum Clock Tower which is now a small history museum. The Clock Tower is the most obvious town landmark being 64m high and quite pretty.

The Sigsioara Citadel is also known for containing the house that Vlad Tepes was born in, known affectionately (and unsurprisingly) as Dracul’s House. It was too cheesy for words So I didn’t pop into there.

I did however take an opportunity to pop into the local ‘Medieval Armour Musuem’ a term which sadly must be used loosely because many of the objects on display in the Museum were quite late – 17th to 19th century swords and firearms. There were some cool breast plates though and some enormous muskets.

That pink thing on the left is my Beretta baseball cap… I can’t imagine any soldier carrying this thing about.

From Sigsioara we made our way to Targu Mures. Turns out that Targu Mures isn’t a partially popular tourist spot and the only reason it was on our itinerary was so we could learn about the religious tensions that were happening thirty years ago by showing us the Citadel of the town and the Culture Square which encompasses a Catholic Church, an the Ascension Cathedral, which is an Eastern Orthodox Church and the Quo Ante Jewish Synagogue.

We were all a bit confused about it – even our ‘expert’ guide, Gorgy who had never been there before. The driver, Nick got us lost, driving around in circles several times (we went past one statue three times) before dropping us off near a school so we could find the citadel on foot. Not at all impressed by that.

Then it turns out that the Catholic Church (below) and the synagogue are not open to the public anyway, so we only got to go into the Eastern Orthodox Church..

Which of course caused the Eastern Orthodox mob to build their cathedral even bigger again… quite something for a tiny little town of barely 28,000 people.

Still, it is a very beautiful church and reminds me very much of orthodox churches I went into in Moscow and St Petersburg, and I’m glad one of the buildings on our stop in Targu Mures was open to the public. We had had a very rushed day today, what with one thing and another (getting lost, people ordering lunch and then their meals taking forever to arrive, and people just not listening to instructions and skiving off), so we were kinda glad to be having a 20 min break to take a moment to soak in the atmosphere here.

When the rest of the group joined us, we jogged off up the road to the Mayor’s house and to wait for Nick, the Boos Driver.
This is the Mayor’s residence, right next door to the Mayoral offices, and it seems the mayor who built it in the early 1900s was heavily into Italian/Latin architecture styles – which ends up in a weird mishmash of an Italian villa with a Romanian looking roof and decoration… I have no idea why Romulus and Remus are prominently out front – it’s a mystery?! And here we remained while we waited for The Annoying American on our tour to finally deign to meet up with the group. Yes, there’s three American’s on our tour, and two of them are delightful – thoughtful, engaging and considerate beautiful humans… and one horrifically entitled, self involved fucking clueless inconsiderate c&%t!!! This person had lost her sunglasses the night before – left them on a table at a Greek restaurant in Brasov, and had been whining all fucking day about not being able to get hold of them to find them for her, ‘My gawd, they’re like, $400 sunglasses, like they should at least be able to find them and like, send them to me in Bucharest.’ When she wasn’t complaining to us about her lost sunglasses, she was skiving away from group trying to find some ‘decent’ sunglasses to buy. So, we had been playing ‘Oh-FFS-Where’s-The-Annoying-American’ all day. Now we were all hurried up and getting ready to leave and she is nowhere to be found. Not answering messages on the WhatsApp group chat and eventually, she replies saying she’s buying sunnies and found ‘gold on special’ (WTF?) and will be there soon. So the ten of us stand around on the footpath outside the Mayor’s house cursing her and waiting for her to turn up.

She eventually shows up and she’s all smiles and happy is wearing her new sunnies “Yo-yo guys, Bul-garee in the house!” … took me a few moments to realise that somehow in this dinky little town she found a department store selling BVLGARI designer sunglasses. She was also showing around the ‘gold’ she’d found and turns out that was a dainty gold necklace with an Irish harp charm on it??? Urgh, we’ve been rolling our eyes about the unbelievable selfish and boastful nature of this woman for the last four days but everyone seems to have comfortably taken to quietly bitching about her behind her back and not addressing the problem.

Which of course meant I was the one confronting her about not being able to leave the group like that and keep us all waiting. Even the tour guide didn’t take her to task. This is the second time in three days that I left her standing agape looking like I’d slapped her.

Urgh… Annoying American finally acquired, so Gorgy called the bus driver and we head off to Cluj-Nepoca. When we get there – we find the Cluj-Nepoca’s Union Square in the middle of evening summer concerts of traditional music and not-so-traditional tunes being played on weird traditional instruments – very loudly! Thanks to Her Nibs being late, we weren’t able to check out some of the buildings around the square that were on the itinerary but we did manage to check out the cathedral very briefly because it was closing at 1900.

The square was full of locals out to enjoy the evening and the noise.The Matthias Corvinus sculpture – you know, the guide didn’t tell me who he was or why there was a statue to him and I didn’t bother supplementing that for a change by googling it myself (which is another recurring theme lately), so this is him, but fucked if I know what he did to be worthy of a huge sculpture in the town square.

Ok, I lied… Fresh to you from Wikipedia: was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490 and after conducting several (presumably successful) military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469, and adopted for himself the title, ‘Duke of Austria’ in 1487. There’s way more to the dude than that, like his lineage etc, but that’s the TL;DR.

St Mikhail’s Church is the second largest church in Transylvania (behind the Black Church from yesterday). The construction was begun in the St James Chapel (in the back of the church). The money to pay for this was largely collected from indulgence income apparently – man we should go back to the good old days of selling indulgences, only maybe the money could go to building housing for the homeless or something.

Anyway, the first documents relating to the building of the church date back to 1349. There are some fragmented frescoes in the church that make sense with that time period, but they’re pretty dilapidated, covered over and poorly kept. The construction was completed between 1442-1447 apparently, the original tower was built between 1511-1545, but the tower that can be seen now was erected in 1862.

Small evidence of poorly kept frescos… I don’t seem to have taken a photograph of the saints on the wall whose faces were all scratched off when the church was turned over to Lutheran hands in the 16thC.

By this time it is well on 1930 and we are hunting for dinner, along with every other resident of Cluj-Nepoca by the looks of it. We eventually found a restaurant with a vacant table and wouldn’t you know it a place called, ‘Toulouse’ in Romania doesn’t have French or Romania food, but burgers, pizza and pasta. Sigh… there was one oddity worthy of taking note of; in the back of the drinks menu was a cigarette menu and every table had a Dunhill ashtray on it. Yuk. Thankfully there was a decent breeze (blowing the right way for us) and we were able to while away an hour or so over some cheap ciders – $4 bottles of Strongbow.

We leave town to go the hotel about 2130 because of course the Annoying American is late again. We serve up yet another episode of the Blind Leading the Blind as our guide and driver got lost. Again. Seems Nick is using a decade old Tom Tom to navigate us around Romania and Gorgy can’t seem to read Waze properly but here we are in the back of the bus with Google Maps open trying to tell them the hotel is only 200m further up the street when Nick does a three point turn and goes back in the wrong direction only to discover they’re moving further away from the hotel and to do another three point turn and go back the way we were… ugh. We eventually pull up outside a restaurant and the Hotel sign can be seen in the back and I’m like, ‘Hello, according to the map, we need to go to the next driveway.’ Gorgy goes in to check things out, Nick meanwhile is unloading baggage, and when Gorgy comes back, he says ‘We need to go up to the next driveway.’ So we all carry/drag our bags up to the next driveway to get in the hotel.

Such a long day. It’s well and truly 22:30 by the time we got settled into our room and I had no energy to do this so, this was yesterday’s clusterfuck. I’ll get onto today’s clusterfucks in a few moments.