Landmark Exhibition

 Brugge flower market, Wednesdays.

I had assumed that there would be no market of any size this morning, as happened during the first two weeks of January when there were three stalls only. But I had not appreciated that the May 1^st holiday, Labour Day, is Big in Europe though hardly noticed in the U.K. En route to coffee with the girls and later, buying a hot chicken on the market on the way home, I loved the carnival atmosphere; a band, a procession, more crowds than normal and with an excess of great holiday humour abounding. Plant and flower stalls in profusion plus the usual cheeses, hams, bread and cakes, fruit and vegetables for sale. This is quite my favourite market but this morning did seem special with the light-hearted atmosphere and the larger-than-normal crowds. Lots of Socialist red about, too!!

Mah Jong on the terrace last summer!

 St Francis, praying by Francisco de Zubaran
1660-70

My energy

 remains stubbornly restricted though better than it was in March. I tend to go somewhere or do something in the morning when the energy is relatively high. Thus Mah Jong here with the girls on Thursday [quite a favourite activity] and a wander down to Oud St Jan to see the exhibition of Spanish Baroque in Sint Janshospitaal on Friday morning. The artists on exhibit from Spain's Golden Century are Pedro de Mena; Bartholome Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Zubaran.  As I entered, I bumped into a friend who knows lots about the period of the exhibition and his explanations and comments were so useful and illuminating. The Spanish Baroque is frankly, too Catholic for me but several paintings and sculptures were brilliant in their execution. I loved a Mater Dolorosa by Murillo, far more affecting, haunting and aesthetically pleasing than several others with the same subject by different artists. The Murillo has a mysterious, ethereal quality which strongly appealed to this non-believer. But my absolute favourite was a Zubaran of St Francis praying, with an interesting and arresting composition; the central oblique figure dominating the canvas and the most unbelievable artistry in the realisation of his robes. Apparently, realism was all in the Spanish Baroque and the repairs and imperfections in the close-up of St Francis’s tunic were breath-takingly skilful and yes, stunningly realistic.

 Mater Dolorosa
Bartholome Esteban Murillo

The exhibition features 22 works of art including six of Pedro de Mena’s hyper-realistic sculptures; all is arranged to follow the chronology of the story of Christ to give a narrative to the experience. Works like those of De Mena, often commissioned for churches and convents in the seventeenth century, were carried in processions during the Counter-Reformation through city streets to offer protection to the inhabitants from disease, war and death. Spanish Baroque sculptures used precious materials to represent various body parts; beautifully-painted glass for realistic eyes; ivory for teeth; paper-thin marble for finger nails, and so on, and the effect is amazing. One notable statue, Ecce Homo by De Mena uses real twigs for the crown of thorns to great effect. De Mena was perhaps the first notable Spanish sculptor to both create a statue and then paint it himself, professional painters before him having been commissioned to undertake this highly-skilled work. Many of the exhibited works belong to one collector, now resident in Luxemburg but with a strong personal connection to Brugge, hence the joint locale for the exhibition. First shown in Sint Jans and subsequently moving to the Musee Nationale d’Histoire et d’Art in Luxemburg. Clearly these works of art, rarely exhibited outside Spain, have touched a nerve; over 10,000 people came to see them in Brugge before Easter and they are here until October 6th.

 Ecce Homo by Pedro de Mena