Rich and I have a system that we follow when we plan a vacation to a new city. Together we research things that we would like to do (originally by reading guidebooks, but now usually on the internet) and make a big list of potential attractions, opening hours, cost, tour times and other details. I then group them by location and create daily walking routes using Goggle Maps and Microsoft Paint. This allows us to concentrate on one area of the city at a time in order to minimize our travel duration and walking distance per day. It also gives us targets to look for on Goggle Maps using the data plan on our cell phone, so that we always know where we want to go to next and how to get there from where we are.
The focus of our second day in Antwerp involved visiting the sights en route to and within the Old Town. Our path would take us to the Gothic and Renaissance Flemish art collection of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh, the home of painter Paul Ruebens, the Cathedral of Our Lady and the Grand Square or Grote Markt where the City Hall is located. As we pass them along our path, we planned to look for Comics murals that are found throughout the area and usually encompass an entire wall of a building. Our original plan was to go counter clockwise, getting to the Old Town and the Cathedral (which opened relatively early) first and picking up the two museums on the way back home. But we started to worry about timing, not knowing for sure how long we would need in each museum and whether we would leave enough time to finish before they closed at 5pm. Instead we decided to reverse our route, making our first stop the Museum Mayer van den Bergh which opened at 10am. This turned out to be a great idea since we were still jetlagged and getting a bit of a later start helped refresh us significantly.
Belgian art historian and collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh
(1858-1901) came from a wealthy family on both sides. Upon his father
Emil Mayer’s death, Fritz spent his sizable inheritance on collecting
14th to 16th Century art from Belgium and the Netherlands, including
artifacts, sculptures and in particular, paintings. When Fritz himself
died in an accident at age 43, his mother Henriëtte van den Bergh built a
neo-gothic house next to their family home, in order to create the
Museum Mayer van den Bergh to showcase his collection of over 1000 items. The façade of the museum features the “crow-stepped gable” design at the top, which consists of a triangular brick wall projecting above the roof-line, that is stacked in a step or wedding-cake pattern as a decoration. This design pattern dates back to the 15th Century and received a revival in the 20th Century as part of the Dutch Colonial Revival style. This stepped gable design can still be seen in older buildings in Antwerp.
The interior of the house is beautiful with hardwood floors, decorative wooden banisters and paneling throughout, ornate fireplaces and a set of stained glass windows from Switzerland dating back to the 16th Century. Fulfilling the vision that Fritz had when planning his own museum, his mother integrated the 15th and 16th century furniture from his collection, using the pieces to decorate and furnish the house as much as to show them on display. This gave the feeling of walking through someone’s home as opposed to a museum, which was a new concept for museums at the time.
Considering his days of acquiring works were cut short by his premature death, Fritz Mayer van den Bergh amassed an impressive and eclectic collection that consisted mostly of paintings but also sculptures, manuscripts, miniatures, iron-work, jewellery, lace, plaques, and other pieces of decorative art. Figures carved into a pair of plaster columns date back to the 12th Century and likely came from the former cloisters of the Church of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux at Châlons-en-Champagne. One room was dedicated to religious paintings, sculptures and retables. A couple of repeating themes that we continued to see in Flemish works in other museums included the Madonna depicted with her breast exposed to the suckling Christ child, and the severed head of John the Baptist. I was particularly impressed with the details in the wood carvings of winged angels whose robes fold and ripple like fabric. Another room concentrated on individual and family portraits. I felt sorry for the little children dressed up in the fancy robes and ruff collar and wondered how they were able to play in these clothes.
The highlight of Fritz’s collection is his accumulation of works by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 - 1569), who was not well known or appreciated in the late 1800s. This allowed Fritz to pick up paintings that are now considered masterpieces for mere hundreds of Francs. Bruegel specialized in landscapes and scenes depicting the daily life of peasants, often incorporating proverbs or allegories in his works. Included in Mayer van den Bergh’s set of Bruegel paintings is a winter scene of people skating and playing on a frozen river, that was one of Bruegel’s most copied work. The painting of
12 Flemish Proverbs were originally twelve individually painted wooden plates that were assembled together into one work. Some of the proverbs are known even in the English language, such as the bottom right one that depicts a man “pissing in the wind” or acting in a counterproductive manner. The painting “
Census at Bethlehem” was particularly interesting since we would see replicas of this painting again in the Brussels Royal Museum of Art, highlighting the common practice of Bruegel the Elder’s son (Bruegel the Younger) of copying his father’s work.
Unfortunately the jewel of the Bruegel collection, titled
Dulle Griet, (translated as
Mad Meg), was not available for viewing, as it is off being restored in time for the 450th anniversary of Bruegel’s death in 2019. It was very disappointing not to be able to review this masterpiece up close, especially since there is so much to see and interpret. We had to settle for watching a lengthy and informative video on the piece, that talked about the restoration plans and then went into great detail, honing in and explaining each part of the painting. Unlike his more realistic depictions of peasant life, Mad Meg is fantastical and allegorical; more in the style of 15th Century Flemish master Hieronymus Bosch.
Clad in a breast plate and helmet, the titular figure “Mad Meg” may be based on Flemish folklore of an evil shrew who “
could plunder in front of hell and remain unscathed”. She is the personification of greed and waste, as she is already holding a chest full of money, yet wants more. In the upper left-hand corner, the “gates of hell” are depicted as a face whose left eye is about to be shuttered with fear at the approach of Mad Meg. In the lower right corner, a gaggle of women are beating up on men (including the devil) and driving them into a dungeon. This illustrates another Antwerpian proverb from 1568 loosely translated as “
One woman makes a din, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five an army, and against six the Devil himself has no weapon”. Scattered throughout the painting are Bosch-like “monsters” that seemed more cute than scary to me. While it was too bad that we did not get to see this masterpiece in person, watching the videos did give us an in-depth perspective at what we would have been looking at. I love how the works of Pieter Bruegel convey so many stories and require close inspection of all the sections in order not to miss anything.
We had a tentative spot picked out for lunch that was closer to the Old Town, but by the time we finished touring the Museum Mayer van den Bergh, we were starving. We looked at the menus of a few restaurants in the immediate area and decided on Brasserie de Markt, mostly because they posted an English menu. Although most people we encountered in Belgium spoke English, as well as Dutch and often French, we found that English menus were not always available. Rich continued his trend of drinking local Belgian beer and we had our first experience sharing an order of the Belgian croquette, which turned out to be a staple of most restaurants that we dined at over the course of our trip. In most cases, the croquettes come in cheese or shrimp flavours and you get two of them on a bed of greens or some shaved parmesan and sauce for around 12 Euros. They were very tasty but the price was a bit shocking to me since I had grown accustomed to the Amsterdam croquette, which was sold as street food that you could buy for 2 Euros. The Belgian version was considered to be an appetizer at a sit-down restaurant and thus the heftier price. For our main courses, Rich ordered the Croque Madame (not quite as cheesy as the French version) and I ordered a mushroom sandwich which came as a bun stuffed with fried mushrooms. Both dishes came with a side salad and we quickly learned that this was quite standard and we never needed to separately order a salad. Surprisingly, this was one of our few meals where fries did not come as a side, which in retrospect was actually a welcome respite after weeks of eating fries.
After lunch, our next stop was the former home turned into museum of 16th Century Flemish painter
Peter Paul Rubens, known for his depictions of plump, voluptuous women that coined the term "rubenesque". It was obvious from the moment we approached his enormous house that Rubens did well for himself, much more so than Rembrandt, whose relatively modest house we visited in Amsterdam. Rubens designed the house and grounds himself, based on studies of Italian Renaissance palaces. His ornate furnishings and decor, semi-circular statue gallery and art collection all point to his wealth and importance. Multiple paintings by Rubens himself hung on the walls, including a portrait of his young second wife and a self-portrait in the main part of the house, and some larger paintings in the gallery and studio. As well, the museum showcased Rubens’ large collection of Italian Renaissance paintings and classical sculptures and antiquities.
The fact that Rubens had a separate bedroom was another sign of wealth, since in the 17th Century it was traditional for the bed to be in the main room near the hearth for warmth. His elaborate canopy bed with bright red curtains was designed for sleeping in a half-sitting position, which it was believed was better for digestion and blood circulation. Being height-challenged myself, I appreciated the little stepping stool that was used to get into the bed. The doors and drawers of a beautiful curio cabinet made of oak inlaid with ebony were painted with miniaturized mythological scenes based on larger works by Rubens. A 16th Century “Spanish Chair” was made for Rubens when he was honorary dean of the Antwerp painters’ guild and has his name engraved in the leather in gold lettering. I was quite impressed by the large, ornate linen press, especially when I think about how difficult it is to try to iron large sheets.
The highlight of Ruben’s house is the enormous brightly lit studio with the massive windows where many of his masterpieces were created and some still hang today. Ruben’s depiction of Adam and Eve was painted between 1598-1600 when he first established himself as an independent artist. His painting of King Henry IV of France at the Battle of Ivry is unfinished, with some areas merely outlined. There were paintings by other masters also hanging in the studio. Adriaen van Utrecht’s “A Lady at the Fish Market in Antwerp” contains an underlying moral message alluding to the unspoiled honour of the expensively dressed but well-covered woman who is inquiring about the freshness of the fish. The dog by her feet is a symbol of fidelity while the eel wriggling towards open mussel shells could be an erotic reference.
My favourite part of the Rubens home was the portico created with a triumphal arch, and the interior courtyard that led to a Baroque Italian garden. The garden was restored to reflect Rubens’ initial vision, using his painting “Strolling in the Garden” as reference. Researchers reviewed horticultural data to select plants that would have grown in Rubens’ 17th Century garden. It was a rare sunny day in Antwerp, which made it all the more pleasant for us to sit on a bench in the garden and look back upon the house.
Having completed the two museums, we were now ready to tour the area considered to be Antwerp’s Historic Centre. Our next destinations were the Cathedral of Our Lady and the Grote Markt, the “Grand Square” where the city hall can be found. To get there, we walked along
Eiermarkt, a shopping street which translates from Dutch to mean “Egg Market”. Prior to the advent of supermarkets, it was common for a street or a square to be designed for a specific market. Many of the streets today still bare the ending “markt” reflecting its original purpose, such as the streets Melkmarkt (milk) and Schoenmarkt (shoes). We saw cookies and chocolates in the shape of hands, but we did not find out the significance until we reached the Grote Markt and looked upon the statue there.
Eiermarkt was also the first stop of a self-guided
Comics mural walking route that I found online, which would take us to different parts of downtown Antwerp to find large-scaled murals by noted cartoonists, covering entire walls of buildings. Comics are an integral part of the Belgian culture with internationally known characters such as TinTin and the Smurfs. We would do a similar comics walk in Brussels as well as visiting the Belgian Museum of Comics. There are many murals on the comics walk and they are so spread out across the city that we decided to split up the walk and visit the murals that happen to be in the vicinity of our itinerary each day. The mural at Eiermarkt, titled “Passage”, is by Jan Van Der Veken and depicts comics characters holding plants. The work spanned beyond the wall of the building and continued on a couple of posts as well.
At the east end of Eiermarkt is a gorgeous 1931 Art Deco-styled skyscraper with sleek lines, stepped architecture and four beautiful Art Deco sculptures decorating the windows above the portcullis. This building was originally called the “Farmer’s Tower” because the Belgian Farmers Association was involved in its construction. Today it is the headquarters of the Belgian bank KBC, who unfortunately compromised the architectural style of the building by placing a drab, concrete block containing their logo on the roof. Even worse is the modern but austere décor in the front lobby. I’m not sure that this can be blamed on KBC, but imagine the luxurious Art Deco interior that might have originally been designed to accompany this beautiful building.
Next to the KBC Building, we found the self-proclaimed "smallest waffle shop" and tasted our first (of many) Belgian waffles. At this point, we were not yet sophisticated Belgian waffle connoisseurs and therefore we did not know the difference between the regular waffle and the "Liege" waffle. We bought a liege waffle slathered with chocolate sauce and it was tasty, but our real education on these waffles would come later on in the trip.
After traversing Eiermarkt, we finally reached the square that contained the Cathedral of Our Lady. Our tour of Antwerp's Old Town will be continued in the next blog entry.
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