Atypical Antwerp
A weekend in Antwerp just before Christmas was a really delightful experience, full of festive lights, gluhwein, gingerbread and baroque marvels. A weekend, of course, only scratches the surface, but I still felt it incumbent to pass some brief comment here, continuing my usual tradition. Although only in Antwerp for two days, we still managed to pack in a few rather wonderful cultural experiences.
I was allowed one museum, so of course chose the Rubens Huis. Even though the famous portico entrance and courtyard garden are undergoing restoration, it’s still a very evocative building, where you get a sense of this exuberant artist’s collection and vibrant studio. There are beautiful tiled fireplaces, carved doors, mullioned windows, and the odd piece of furniture, as well as a collection of paintings by Rubens and contemporaries. I would have liked more of a sense of how the rooms were used, who came and went, what Rubens’s rich life in this house was like, but there are some striking paintings, and it’s a beautiful place.
We also found that the Zoo was hosting a magical ‘China Light’ display, filling the grounds with a narrative of love lost and won by a lotus princess and her loyal warrior. The story was told through monumental Chinese lanterns, showing people, buildings, animals and flowers, as well as huge kinetic pieces showing the princess turning into a butterfly, or the elixir of life found by the warrior. It was a spectacular and beautiful night-time experience, as well as the chance to spot a few of the animals after dark.
My favourite by far, though, was a long visit to the Cathedral of our Lady. I’m used to the sense of serene space in Netherlandish churches from 17th-century paintings, but I don’t think I’ve really spent time in one before. The wide aisles spread away from you, creating a space filled with light and quiet. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts is currently closed for large-scale refurbishment and redisplay, which has offered the opportunity for the Reunion exhibition in the Cathedral, returning many of the spectacular altarpieces to their original locations in this sacred space.
Here the Rubens, Quentin Massys and Frans Floris works are displayed along the aisle columns, as they were commissioned and conceived by the many Antwerp guilds, including the famous painter’s guild of St Luke. This allows you to walk all around the altarpieces, seeing both sides of the doors, viewing the iconography against the stained-glass windows, the Cathedral’s extraordinary carved pulpit and seats, and of course each other. It’s a simple action to show these works in the Cathedral again, but one that makes you see both them, and the building in a new light.
