From Herge to van Eyck!

Today we had a late breakfast and leisurely morning

before heading off to investigate the Groeningemuseum.

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I am a big fan of the Belgian author and cartoonist Herge.

Here I am with Tin Tin and Snowy!

This shop had beautiful Tin Tin merchandise.

The big statues like this one were about $7,000.

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We arrived at the Groeninge Museum,

You pass through the archway into a garden

and down a pathway to reach the door.

It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian paintings

spanning six centuries.

 Heironymus Bosch (The Last Judgment),

I was most interested in the Flemish Primitives.

In the 15^th century, Bruges was one of Europe's

main centres of the arts. Jan van Eyck,

Petrus Christus, Hans Memling and Gerard David all worked here.

Their paintings are characterised by a detailed realism and

the fine attention they devoted to depicting materials.

They painted metals and precious stones that reflect light

and fur that appears so soft you want to touch it.

They were able to achieve this because they used oil paint.

The pigments were mixed with linseed oil instead of egg yolk.

Although oil paint had already existed for a long time,

The Flemish primitives were able to refine the technique

to such an extent that they achieved unprecedented quality.

Van Eyck (1385-1441) is really the star of the show;

he lived and worked in Bruges for the last 11 years of his life.

On display is Margareta van Eyck(1439)

a miniature painting of the artist’s wife and

Madonna and Child with Canon George van der Paele.

... a few close ups

This Portrait of Maria van Speybrouck (1770-1790)

by Paul Josef de Cock really appealed to me too.

I would like to know more about her and the life she led.

The lace in her headwear is gorgeous and the shawl is beautiful too.

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Today the big market square full of amazing stalls selling

flowers, herbs, vegetables , cheeses and meats.

There were lots of options for freshly cooked items 

so a certain someone chose a HUGE sausage and 

a chicken drumstick that had been cooked on the

most amazing rotisserie we've ever seen.

I chose a delicious salad with chicken, lettuce and pine nuts.

On our way to the Museum we passed the ice cream shop!

We both chose a concoction that included caramel and nuts...delicious.

Todays apres lunch snack.

I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned that Brugge has many shops

selling waffles, lace and chocolates...well there are lots of

beer shops and patisseries too.

Every day I am tempted to buy something delicious to share.

Today I did resist temptation but as soon as I've finished this blog

I'm going back to buy one (or maybe two) of these!

I'm particularly drawn to the long meringue filled ones in the middle

that are encircled in squiggles of chocolate.

These don't look bad either...

I think we'll just have to share one of them too!

Today we walked 7.8 k's