June 25 - Ieper to Gent

 June 25 - Ieper to Gent

Only a short journey of about an hour this morning on our way to Gent. The railway station here is quite nice with some lovely painted panels depicting the city’s historic past. 

After booking into our accommodation we took off for a visit to Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, home to the ‘Gent Altarpiece’ a.k.a. ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’.  This is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece, painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, and is considered a masterpiece of European art, as well as the worlds first major oil painting (when tempura was the norm). It marked the transition from Middle Age to Renaissance art and is just magnificent. It’s also had a bit of a chequered history as well, having been stolen by Napoleon, AND Hitler, and then been painted over by the request of the church (the ‘nudey’ bits!). However, the good news is that over the last few years there has been some major restoration work done  on this and now it’s completed it’s just fantastic!



The Church’s ‘version’ 😇


Prior to viewing the altarpiece there’s a Virtual Reality tour available that tells of how the pictures came to be made, some of the techniques used, its symbolism, and it’s subsequent history. A definite recommendation as this adds so much more to the experience. 


Post viewing we wandered around the cathedral itself, and, like so many old cathedrals in this part of the world, the stained glass, architecture, sculpture, and art displayed make these old churches more akin to visiting an art museum than a religious institution.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip to Spoleto)

Image
  Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip Spoleto) Off to Spoleto today, an ancient city in the foothills of the Apennine Ranges.  Divided into the medieval upper town, and the predominantly modern lower town, our initial goal was to head up to the fortress at the top of the hill.  In theory this was going to be relatively easy as the town has installed a number of escalators all the way to the top making it an easy ‘climb’. However, signage to said escalators being non-existent, we found ourselves wandering around town for ages before finding our way up.   The fortress, the ‘Rocca Albornoziana’, was built in the 14th century and was originally part of a fortification system constructed by the church to strengthen its military power.  Today however, it houses the ‘National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto’, although in more recent times it was used as a prison.  Having some great views of the city and the local countryside it also overlooks the magnificent 13th-centur...
Read more

Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

Image
  Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi) Having experienced some pretty steep hills yesterday, today, on arrival in Assisi, we took the easy option and got the bus to the top of town before strolling down! 😊 On a recommendation we first visited a couple of churches in the upper part of town.  Both nice, although nothing spectacular, but considering where we were, i.e. Assisi, I suppose we were both thinking they’d be a little bit special (sorry St Clare! 😊 ) Walking through town though was very nice, really ‘Olde Worlde’, with some great piazzas, cobbled lanes, some Roman remains, and, because it’s in the hills, lovely views of the local countryside.  It’s not often that I’ll mention food on here but today we found a sensational restaurant, overlooking the walls of the city and just metres from the Basilica of Saint Francis, we chose it simply for its location. The food however was superb and, considering its setting, it was no more expensive than most other places w...
Read more