Antwerp & Ghent

Top photo: interior of "Cathedral of Our Lady" in Antwerp, featuring work by Rubens
Bottom Photo: exterior of "Cathedral of Our Lady"

So I spent a couple of days in Antwerp. It is quite the fashion centre. Every designer I have ever heard of is represented here and hundreds more that I haven't heard of. I saw Belgium's largest, and most splendid, cathedral, it was quite the sight. The amount of money and effort required to build such things is incredible. It took them over two hundred years to build the cathederal as it is now, not to mention the vast amount of art that goes into the inside. It was also the first time I had seen classic works of art and they are very impressive in person. You don't really get a sense of size and scale when you see the paintings in a book or on a television show. I am excited to see some of the more impressive european art collections in Paris, London and Rome. Also, in Antwerp, I went to Rubenshuis which was the home and studio of Peter Paul Rubens; who, if you don't know is northern europe's most famous baroque artist. Even though the house is quite ornate the rooms are really quite small. They didn't have many of Rubens paintings, which is not surprising considering it was his house, what they did have was Rubens collection of art. Which included busts of Roman philosophers brought from Italy, paintings done by his contemporaries in Antwerp and quite a few from his students. They also had his bed, which was very small but they slept in a half-seated position, and some of his clothes.

It was interesting to understand that after a painter becomes a master he pretty much stops painting. What happens is the master, whom has serveral assistants and one apprentice, creates an oil sketch of the painting he wishes to have created. An oil sketch is a drawing but instead of a pencil they use oil paint to create the effect of a painting with less work. The assistant then does most of the work of creating the painting and the master comes in at the end to provide the finishing touches, this gives the painting the masters touch or signature. In this way, masters were able to produce many more pieces of art then they otherwise could have.

I then spent half a day in Ghent, which I did on my way to Brussels, though Ghent is not on the way to Brussels per se. Ghent is a very small, and still, very medieval. I went to another cathedral there, while impressive it wasn't on the same scale as the one in Antwerp. It did have a treasury, which contained serveral chalices, a few very old music books and many candal stands. My main focus in Ghent was an 800 year old castle in the middle of the city. It was fairly small, as castles go, but it did have a torture museum and a weapons museum. It is absolutely insane the things they did to extract confessions. For instance, the would put a collar around your neck that had a lot of spikes pressed against your neck then tie ropes from the collar to the walls and then you would stand there until you confessed. Or, they would have you straddling, what looks like a dog house, and tie weights to your legs. I certaintly would rather confess to a crime I didn't commit then have my thumbs screwed, and then shattered with a hammer. The weapons were also interesting there was one sword that was taller that I am and there were a few guns, if you can call them that, from the 16th century.

I am learing quite a bit on this trip. ;)