Blog Arnolfini

Jan Van Eyck 

I have always loved The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan Van Eyck but known little about it though I have admired it several times over the years in the National Gallery, London, its owner since 1842. By chance, I recently read a small entry in The 500 Hidden Secrets of Bruges by Derek Blyth published last October, which included 5 Famous Foreigners in Bruges. The first famous man was Giovanni Arnolfini and I immediately thought of the portrait and my interest was fired!

I had never connected the portrait with Brugge despite it being the city of Jan Van Eyck so I was delighted to discover that it was almost certainly painted here in 1434, probably in the Arnolfini house of that time. Effectively comprising two full-length portraits, the couple is shown in an upstairs room with a chest and a bed, during a day in early summer, indicated by the fruit on the cherry tree outside the window. The two figures are richly dressed; despite the season, both his tabard, probably of silk velvet, and her dress, are trimmed and lined with fur; his doublet partially hidden beneath the tabard is of silk damask. Her dress has elaborate dragging [cloth folded then sewn together then cut and frayed decoratively] on the sleeves while the green of her outer dress symbolises hope, possibly the hope of her becoming a mother. Her blue under-dress is trimmed with white fur. The whole painting radiates wealth, privilege and elegance. Although many viewers assume the wife to be pregnant, this was probably, simply a fashionable look for women’s dresses at the time. Fashion would have been important for Arnolfini as a cloth merchant as would the popular conceit that the more cloth the subject of a painting wore, the more wealthy she was assumed to be. Giovanna's dress uses copious amounts of cloth!

The unmistakeable wealth of the clothes is echoed in the room’s interior. Furnishings include a large and elaborate brass chandelier; a convex mirror framed in wood which is decorated with symbols behind glass; elaborate bed-hangings and carvings on chair and bench; a small Oriental carpet.
Though Arnolfini was a cloth merchant, the oranges in the side may have indicated that he also dealt in these expensive fruits. One purpose of this painting is to demonstrate the prosperity and wealth of the couple but there are several conjectures as to its main celebration.

1. It might record the wedding of the couple, Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his bride, Giovanna 

    Cenami.

2. Or it could be a pictorial record of the making of a contract between an already-married couple, giving the wife the authority to act on her husband’s behalf in business dealings. This view is supported by Arnolfini’s raised right hand and his taking of his wife’s hand as a gesture of consent.

3. Giovanni’s first wife, Costanza Trenta, had died, probably in childbirth, in February 1433. The painting could therefore represent an unusual memorial portrait showing one living and one dead, person. Details such as the snuffed candle in the scenes after Christ’s death on her side of the

background roundel and the black garb of the man, support this view. The single lit candle on Giovanni’s side contrasting with the wax stub on her side, evokes a common literary metaphor: he lives; she is dead. There is also a tiny carved figure on a finial on the bedpost, probably of Saint Margaret, patron saint of pregnancy and childbirth, who was invoked to assist women in labour and to cure infertility.

Details.

 Jan Van Eyck was here 1434

The Convex Mirror

The small medallions set in the frame of the mirror show tiny scenes from the Passion of Christ and may represent God’s promise of salvation for the figures reflected in the mirror. Indeed the mirror itself may represent the eye of God observing the oath-taking ceremony. There are two figures reflected in the mirror one of whom is almost certainly the artist, a friend of Arnolfini, and these two could readily be considered as witnesses to the oath-taking. Jan Van Eyck provides additional authentication with his signature writ large upon the wall.

The Little Dog

The little dog symbolises fidelity but may also be a lap-dog. Lap-dogs were fashionable accoutrements and companions for ladies at Court but this little chap, cheerfully meeting the gaze of the viewer, also reflects the wealth of the couple and their position at court.

The Status of The Painting

The Arnolfini Portrait is considered one the most original and complex paintings in Western art because of its beauty, its complex iconography, its geometric perspective and the skill demonstrated in the expansion of the painted space with the use of one convex mirror. Van Eyck’s use of direct and diffuse light also help to evoke space in this domestic interior. Whatever meanings are attributed to the scene and its details, the painting “is the only fifteenth century Northern panel to survive in which the artist’s contemporaries are shown in some sort of action in a contemporary interior. It is indeed tempting to call this the first genre painting – a painting of everyday life – of modern times.” [Craig Harbison]

The figures in the mirror are

astonishingly visible.

Aperitif Concert following the Wintervonken light-fest

More splendid free outdoor entertainment on Friday and Saturday evenings on the Burg with the annual fire-fest, Wintervonken. Last year’s I saw quite by chance and was bowled over with what was effectively an airborne, tree-top level outdoor cycling circus! I loved it and hastened along last Saturday evening to sample the latest show. It was indeed special though without the heart-stopping extravagance of last year’s show.. It involved a spectacular cavalcade of lights across the facade of the 14^th century Stadhuis. But that doesn’t begin to describe the sinuous shapes and patterns which chased each other across the mediaeval brick-scape provided. Many swirling, curving serpentine lines of light involved in a continuous interplay with following lights which swept and

swooped. It was a fascinating, monumental kaleidoscope which eventually gave way to an impressive procession of moving light-shapes which became, momentarily, fantastic monsters, fluid animals, goblins, warriors. Astonishing that somehow, the large, blue-lit box high in the sky on top of a giant cherry picker could somehow be programmed or controlled to produce the phantasmagoria on the face of the stately Town Hall. Astonishing. The large standing audience seemed enchanted particularly the family groups with children transfixed by the intriguing spectacle. Great applause at the end for Vincent Glowinski and his assistants who had staged the ‘Human Brush’ display so brilliantly.

Brilliant fire-cauldrons, Art Nouveau in

design, clustered under the trees on the Burg.

On the area of the Burg below the trees, near the statue, Les Amoureux, was a splendid winter terrace courtesy of the Fire Masters. Lots of benches grouped around points of fire; some like bonfires on the ground; others contained in large almost stained glass dishes suspended in the air. Despite the winter cold, the terrace was warm and inviting with convivial groups, including lots of families, drinking and chatting and fire-gazing. A group nearby was tuning up in preparation for a concert later.

A youthful Sam de Troyer

And to make a Burg-centred perfect weekend, the next morning came the third Negen Muzen Aperitiefconcerts in the current season, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and one celebrating the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Negen Muzen. There are four annual concerts between October and February with a wide variety of musical talent and content, but the 'En Route' offering on Sunday was particularly  special. Jacques Vandervelde, not only a well-known harpist par excellence but a composer and harp-maker too, performed with Sam De Troyer, a fluid guitar player. Sam is fascinated by the tango, Flamenco and South American music while Jacques is in love with the music of Paraguay and Venezuela where the harp is the national instrument. Through the harp music, he has become engrossed with the national cultures of which the harp is such an important element. So the Sunday programme went with a swing and a pronounced Latin American accent. The final Instant Improvisations by the two musicians was especially enchanting.

Jacques Vandevelde

POST SCRIPT

Memo to self: Stop banging on about Brexit!!

Last night, much self-important activity in the Houses of Parliament with seven Brexit amendments to be voted on and the only one which managed a clear majority [though several came near] was the one about the Irish back stop. The P..M. was instructed to go back to dear Michel Barnier to ask for a different solution to the impasse with the Irish Border. In fact, it is the one thing which the E.U. has reiterated many times that the present arrangement will not change. In other words, in spite of a majority of the House being unwilling to countenance a 'No Deal' Brexit, the only majority was for a course of action designed to bring a no deal nearer. The Theresa-in-Wonderland scenario defies belief and is unbelievably embarrassing for/to Brits living in Europe. Let alone those living in Britain. Memo to Theresa: stop putting all your energy into trying to achieve the impossible; uniting the Conservative Party on Europe. It is irredeemiably split.

Brexit: A Falling Star

Post-Brexit, a falling star.

Absolutely nothing to do with Brugge I know, but I am depressed with the dire news from the UK.

Two politicians, each unable to shed tribal afflitiations 

in favour of the national interest.

Parliament is unable to reach a majority decision on anything to do with Brexit and chaos looks to be reigning. It is almost as bad as the Trumpmania in the U.S. No one loves Theresa May’s agreement with the EU and so far, today, not even the typical British compromise [the usual solution that satisfies no one] is accepted. The P.M. makes noble speeches about the ‘good of the nation’ but still seems mysteriously in hock to the deluded far right of her party. Social anthropologist, Kate Fox, suggests that it is all part of the English DNA, to find a compromise with which no one is happy though how that compromise might be reached now is not clear as Theresa still insists on her red lines which cannot be compromised! I hear that Jeremy Corbyn, the 1970s throwback and current Labour Party leader, is refusing to meet with other Parliamentarians of all parties to discuss compromises to enable the country to stumble through the present thicket of passions and counter passions regarding Brexit. Certainly not, he says, until Theresa promises to drop the possibility of the cliff-edge No Deal exit; she refuses. On my usual Wednesday early morning shopping trip to the Markt for the week’s fruit and vegetables, the lovely boy who helps his family run their excellent stalls, said that, explicitly excluding me, he was of the opinion that the Brits were mad. Why would they leave at all when it was obvious that the UK would be the worse off? Incomprehensible. And that appears to be the universal opinion in Brugge from my far-from-scientific sample. An opinion echoed I think throughout Europe.

Jean Monnet 1888-1979

I know the E.U. could benefit from reforms but to someone of my generation, the vision of Jean Monnet, French political economist and diplomat, which resulted in the historic formation of the European Union, has been crucial in mainly keeping the peace in Europe after perhaps 1000 years of intercontinental warfare. Particularly after the ghastly inhuman waves of large-scale and indiscriminate European bloodshed in WW2, to have [now] 27/28 separate European countries acting more or less in concert, has been a gift beyond price. A huge debt is owed to Jean Monnet and to Robert Schumann, French foreign minister, who together established the European Coal and Steel Market in 1951, joined originally by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This led, in 1957 to the establishment of the European Economic Community, subsequently referred to as ‘the Common Market’ which later metamorphosed into the Euopean Union.

Paul Dacre, editor of the tabloid Daily Mail for 26 years.

Both he and the tabloid were virulently anti-Europe.

Ever since the UK joined the European Economic Council [E.E.C.] in 1973 after Herculean efforts by Edward Heath, the then Conservative Prime Minister, [and after the de Gaulle-inspired rejection of the original U.K. application for membership in 1963] Britain has been a relatively reluctant EEC partner. In spite of the Wilson referendum in 1975 which affirmed continuing E.E.C. membership

[Harold Wilson’s ‘historic decision’] no significant public voice or group has consistently argued

publicly and forcefully the benefits of membership to counter-balance the tireless, forty year, steady drip-drip of anti-E.U. sentiment expressed by the popular tabloids and elements of the Conservative Party. Specific sections of the population involved in research, science, medicine, Universities, have remained appreciative and actively involved in cross-country initiatives but often deprived areas such as in Wales, the North, Cornwall have failed to realise the huge financial support gained in their areas from E.U. membership.

Edward Heath in voodoo mode with a Margaret Thatcher doll.

Surprisingly, she was a supporter of E.U. membership.

A map of Europe, post Brexit.

Sad, sad, sad.

Mah Jong

On my terrace, last summer.
Hats aloft against the unusual heat.

I have  perhaps mentioned Mah Jong before; I must have! The Thursday morning Mah Jong has become one of my most enjoyable pleasures/pastimes here and I can see that I am becoming somewhat Messianic in my enthusiasm. But the prompt for this blog comes from my youngest daughter who has Face-timed me twice this week on the subject! She was introduced to the game when she was staying here last August and learned more as a guest in Brugge, in October. She took to it so quickly that I sent her a set of her own. My sister similarly is now equipped to start her own group in Suffolk. Christmas in California was also suitably furnished which is where my eldest two grand-daughters were introduced to, and fell for, the seductive charms of Mah Jong. My son-in-law, strangely immune to its attraction, tended to refer slightingly to the four of us noisily enjoying our game, as those at the crack table; a jibe above which we rose as we happily clicked away. And now, two phone calls to show me how much they are enjoying playing the game in Bury St. Edmonds; apparently a mere six hours of enjoyment was had yesterday in my daughter’s neck of the woods and a pub. visit cancelled! Is there no end to the power of Mah Jongg?

For the uninitiated, Mah Jong developed as a card game in the Qing dynasty [1644-1912] in central China and spread throughout the world during the twentieth century. At some point, certainly by the late nineteenth century, the cards had been discarded in favour of tiles with which the game is now commonly associated.In fact, the earliest set of Mah Jong tiles dates from 1870. It was first mentioned in print in the West when the British sinologist and Consul-General to China and Korea, William Henry Wilkinson, published a paper on it in 1895 in which he maintained that the origin of the name was ‘Ma Tiao’ [hemp sparrow]The clicking of the tiles is said to resemble the chattering of sparrows. Mah Jong was imported into the U.S.A. in the 1920s where it quickly became all the rage! Abercombie and Fitch sold thousands of sets during the Twenties and Joseph Park Babcock published his book, ‘Rules of Mah Jongg’ known as the Red Book in 1920. He had lived in China for many years where he had learned to play and his book simplified the rules and thus fed the craze for the game which developed in the U.S. In the U.K., Alan Millington revived interest in the Chinese classical game of the 1920s with his ‘The Complete Book of Mah Jongg’ in 1977.

Sample of tiles: from top

Bamboo; East Wind; Circle;

Character; Circle again.

Mah Jong comprises 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols; each player receives 13 tiles to begin and in turn draws and discards tiles until the first to complete a formal/legal hand with the 14^th tile drawn, attains Mah Jong. There are considerable regional differences in the rules and it has also been adapted for online play. Mah Jong can be described as a game of skill, strategy, observation and calculation involving a degree of chance. All of which leaves the reader still in the dark of what is actually involved in this popular game of Mah Jong! My only advice is to try playing it!!

An Accumulation of Exasperations!

The chief irritation since returning from California has undoubtedly been the nine hour time differential and attendant jet-lag. The erstwhile traveller, not ill, merely adrift; not alert, merely sluggish, nevertheless is easily moved to shortage of temper and tolerance. So, a further accretion of vexatious occurrences was not welcome!!

Thus, I left my swimming cap in the hotel shower the second morning back, and it naturally vanished from the earth. The very next day, the strap on my swimming goggles, broke. With no spare and no sports shop whatsoever in the Egg, I ordered two new pairs online. And waited! The large cellar of my building was [unusually] flooded at the end of November and I keep several small items in my allotted ‘room’ down there. So, enormous was the vexation to find it still flooded on my return, at the beginning of the year! AND THEN, a registered letter from the Brugge tax office, obviously part of a ‘sweep’ of the foreign-born, with 13 questions, the answers to which the Tax People already have somewhere in the electronic bowels of their offices. I then broke a very useful, small cooking dish. I administered a quick Duvel when the little dish broke which set the tone for a swift recovery!

And here we are, two weeks after my homecoming with, I hardly dare whisper it, everything sorted!! Or almost. Viewing the slight disasters of the previous week, I shall deliver the information by hand to the Tax Office to be sure I shall miss the threatened fine!! In the meantime, yesterday I witnessed the annual [for four years] joyful procession of a large group of international performers in their Venetian Carnival gear, parade through town. The Costumes de Venise people, around 100 normally, have to produce their own costumes I believe and the outfits are outstanding. They are imaginatively conceived, creatively wrought, and oh so stylishly worn. I hear that their presence here on a cold January weekend, stems from an initiative by the combined Hotels of Brugge; brilliant idea that underlines the occasional refrain that Brugge is the ‘Venice of the North’, a claim no doubt echoed by many Northern cities with canals such as Amsterdam!! But, well done Hotels of Brugge for such gorgeous subliminal advertising.

                         For the freezing spectators, the procession was like a parade of peacocks.
                                                              Pageantry personified!

Surfers' Bay and Mah Jong

Floral display in one of the neighbouring gardens,

observed on my morning stagger up and down Emerald slopes.

At last! Beginning the first blog of the new year and after an absence of a month! Back in Beloved Brugge after a three week absence in California and a further week struggling to keep awake at the right time and to sleep during the night. Oh jagged jet-lag, harsher in the later years!!

Christmas morning at Half Moon Bay

December with two thirds of my family was super; lovely Christmas Day with Californian friends, Ron, Nancy and Bob, bringing up the festive number to ten. A lovely Christmas morning walk first, above the beach at Half Moon Bay with a lively surfers’ sea below and dancing kites in the blue sky above. All greatly appreciated by the group but particularly so by Charlie the black Labrador, now a stately 12 years of age and very ‘bien dans sa peau’, plus the youngest family member channelling her pre-present-opening excitement and energy into dashing along the cliff top with a later splash-and-run in the shallows.

A fruitful corner of Filoli gardens

There were other highlights: a last day visit to San Francisco; a wine tasting at Liversdene ; a solo trip to Filoli, an American stately home nearby; a shopping excursion to an upmarket mall at Palo Alto, interesting for me and Genevieve for a short time but a hasty Uber ride after an hour allowed our escape from further bore-and-trudge. I mused on the fact that the seven year old would eventually, undoubtedly, graduate to greater shopping enjoyment while my great days lay behind me. Now I can only tolerate shopping when I need/want to buy something specific and then, an hour or so is the limit before the soul sighs with the weight of it all! However, the self-same mall did me proud at Christmas when the girls presented me with a truly gorgeous expensive scarf bought from one of the sumptuous mall shops.

That scarf has caused further shopping in the January sales here as I found a fab. reversible coat with a toffee-coloured side which is a perfect mate for the camel/black/orange neck confection!! AND at half price. Honestly, my cup runneth over as I face the new year afresh, newly coated and scarved! Can it be true that I haven’t purchased a full-length ‘proper’ coat since the beauty from Max Mara in Florence in 2005? No, I bought a luxurious one in Turkey in 2015, now I remember. Still, hardly extravagant when, as a Leo, it is my birthright to be extravagant; surely?

Prestige Patisserie, now closed alas.

And so, back to finding my Brugge routine again, and welcome it is. [And with it, the divine Belgian beer, much missed.] The little mundanities, rhythms, markers of everyday life are comforting and reassuring. A sign of the times is the number of empty or emptying, businesses in the centre; the quite recently opened Oak and Coffee house nearby has gone; Prestige, a super patisserie for coffee/breakfast/lunch, also selling excellent bread, suddenly closed in late November and remains forlorn. Several shops on Steenstraat, one of two major central shopping streets, are empty or have closing down sales advertised. It is happening everywhere in Western Europe I think but it presents an enormous challenge for city authorities and their revenues. And it is a sad sight for residents and tourists alike, never mind the personal/financial heartbreak for the owners.

Post Script.

Totally forgot to mention that a Mah Jong set was purchased in an attempt to bring old world culture to the Californian new world. To my delight I now have one daughter and two grand-daughters who love the game! There is a certain colonisation taking place here!!

A photo from August 2018 to illustrate.

My coolie sister and I playing Mah Jong on the terrace.

Pre-California Report

One of the perennial favourites

Such a busy week in retrospect! The usual activities and a concert, with A Big Plus; three grandsons with joined-at-the-hip girl friends, and my son in his birthday week; from Thursday to Monday, various combinations of family here with the main battalion from Friday to Sunday. What seems to be establishing itself as a tradition, they were all here ostensibly to celebrate Dad’s birthday but in reality, the visit is also because they love Brugge and the Christmas market and most especially, the beer! I pondered what great fun the weekend had been as I wearily washed, dried and ironed what seemed almost countless sheets, pillowcases and towels, though of course, the latter were most definitely NOT ironed. 

Tom's Diner

We had the chance to eat at Tom’s Diner, a tapas plus bar nearby, which was great; terrific atmosphere in a large and incredibly busy space in a back street. Food, excellent. Then on Saturday, we ate at Cezar on the corner of Carmeersstraat and Jerusalemstraat where I had eaten before on a much quieter day than the Saturday evening of the first weekend of the Christmas Market when everywhere seemed to be booked up. I hadn’t known how delightful the upstairs space is chez Cezar, and almost private, given the busy, busy nature of the evening with the totally full restaurant downstairs. Needless to say, the traditional Flemish beef stew in beer, chosen by six of us, was wonderful comfort food!

Sunday morning proved difficult to kick-start as the young people had been carousing half the night and were almost truculent at

Misty Brugge

Blackbird en fete

being disturbed around 9.15 a.m! But I was treating them to Blackbird for breakfast and that was the only booking for eight that could be managed. So, amid gentle persuasion and iron determination, eight of us managed to make the deadline but the torpor and disgruntlement vanished as the wonderful breakfast proceeded and the experience, relished!! Before the group, minus son et moi, went shopping, we all walked back to my apartment for the youngsters’ disturbed sleep to be resumed for an hour or two, while he and I treated ourselves to a gentle, misty canal-side wander. Different ages, different pleasures.

Cezar

And now, off to California to spend Christmas with the other two thirds of the family.

We had the chance to eat at Tom’s Diner, a tapas plus bar nearby, which was great; terrific

atmosphere in a large and incredibly busy space in a back street. Food, excellent. Then on Saturday, we ate at Cezar on the corner of Carmeersstraat and Jerusalemstraat where I had eaten before on a much quieter day than the Saturday evening of the first weekend of the Christmas Market when everywhere seemed to be booked up. I hadn’t known how delightful the upstairs space is chez Cezar, and almost private, given the busy, busy nature of the evening with the totally full restaurant downstairs. Needless to say, the traditional Flemish beef stew in beer, chosen by six of us, was wonderful comfort food!

Sunday morning proved difficult to kick-start as the young people had been carousing half the night and were almost truculent at being disturbed around 9.15 a.m! But I was treating them to Blackbird for breakfast and that was the only booking for eight that could be managed. So, amid gentle persuasion and iron determination, eight of us managed to make the deadline but the torpor and disgruntlement vanished as the wonderful breakfast proceeded and the experience, relished!! Before the group, minus son et moi, went shopping, we all walked back to my apartment for the youngsters’ disturbed sleep to be resumed for an hour or two, while he and I treated ourselves to a gentle canal-side wander. Different ages, different pleasures.