The Memling Museum

Click any image for a better view.

   
We've worn our feet out in museums all over Europe and the Memling is one of our favorites. On our first trip to Bruges we arrived on a dreary December day and visiting a museum was a good way to get out of the cold. We quickly fell in love with the Memling, though, partly because it was smaller and more manageable than some of the larger museums. But also because there were some true gems in its collection. The Memling, then, was at the top of our list of things to see on our return to Bruges.

The entrance, seen at right here, provides a nice transition from the city's bustle to the quiet reflective ambience of the museum in view just beyond the arch. Unfortunately it is forbidden to take photos inside the museum so we've no way of illustrating the wonderful collection to be seen there. We brought home only a few postcards.

 

The open triptych at right is the 'Altarpiece of Saint John the Evangelist,'  made in 1479 by Hans Memling. In the central panel we see the Virgin holding the child Jesus on her lap. The left side panel illustrates the story of Saint John the Baptist, whom you'll remember was decapitated by order of the king's daughter. And the right side-panel illustrates the Apocalypse as told by Saint-John the Evangelist. So it constitutes sort of a Readers' Digest version of the New Testament.
The reverse side of wings of the triptychs shown above are also works of art. When closed, as above, we see portraits of the donors and their patron saints. This painting is Regina's favorite. "The Death of the Virgin", by Hugo van der Goes is blatantly historically inaccurate. The year of Mary's death is unrecorded but it is very likely that  many of the apostles were already dead whenever she did die. Still, it's a brilliant work, beautifully illustrating the artist's devotion to the virgin. The sadness and confusion shown by the apostles give great emotional impact to the scene. This was van der Goes' last painting before he suffered a mental collapse and retreated to a monastery where he spent the last year of his life. We think this is a detail from a painting by Hieronymous Bosch from the museum. It was not on display during our visit, however, so we "borrowed" this image from a postcard. We've been all over the Web and can't get any information on it. Perhaps it will remain a mystery till our next trip. For some real gory details, click for a larger view.