Groeningemuseum

by mightywease on July 1, 2006

The Groeningemuseum is a small, fascinating, and world-class art gallery/museum in Bruges. The permanent collection includes paintings by early Flemish artists Jan Van Eyck and Hans Memling plus works by Gerard David, Hieronymus Bosch and, from more recent times, Paul Delvaux and Rene Magritte. Quite an impressive ‘cast-list’ for a museum of only 11 rooms!

The rooms take you through different periods and styles in art i.e. Flemish Primitives, Renaissance, and Expressionism. You can compare a number of paintings on the theme of the “Last Judgement”—including the disturbing but compelling imagery of Bosch’s version. Jan Van Eyck’s ”The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele” is wonderful in its detail; you can almost feel the texture of the robes and clothing depicted in the painting. Disturbing could also be used to describe Magritte’s “The Assault” although, as with so many Surrealist painters and particularly Magritte’s dream-like images, what may seem unsettling to one person can be quite un-perturbing to another.

The museum hires out a very informative audio guide, which gives you historical and artistic details about a number of the paintings.

The small scale of the museum means that you can look around the whole of it quite happily in a couple of hours, each room having a kind of theme i.e. based on an artistic movement or period, gives a good historical reference point allowing you to compare and contrast different styles, artists, and their interpretations etc...and the quality of art on display is excellent.

This really is a jewel of a museum and I would recommend that anyone visiting Bruges pay it a visit.

Cost: approximately €8 per ticket plus €3 for the audio guide
Opening Hours: 9:30am - 5:00pm (closed Mondays)

Groeninge Museum
Djiver 12
Bruges, Belgium

http://www.igougo.com/review-r1271643-Groeningemuseum.html