The week in Oostende, July 25-31

MONDAY, OOSTENDE

End at the East

In Oostende, not far from England, just a big swim away. The population has doubled and the seagulls are hungry, but not quite as much as the vendors. This seaside city has a feeling that is incredibly unique, hard to describe, and calm. It goes to say that everyone is happy and enamored; it seems best to take it easy.

Maybe the casino would disagree. After all, this city has thrived in the catering of the exuberant, the fashionable, wealthy and elite - who lived in royal imitation of their their king, Leopold the II; built palaces along the boring, anthropogenic shore; sought the health benefits of sea bathing.

So when the spotlight shone on Oostende, its new culture - was it “false”? Was it shallow, ingenuine, a masquerade? These are questions to consider when seeing the art of James Encer. Painting is an outlet for social criticism, and Encer’s work - expressionist, absurdist and surreal - features scenes of the elite in distorted, mask-like faces. In what form do the truths of Encer’s perception, that “false” aspect of Oostende-in-the-19th-century, exist along the Belgian coast today?

R.I.P. Father Damien

TUESDAY, KNOKKE

On this day in Knokke we hiked.

Into an expanse of ripe tallgrass

mottled with lavendar, crossed by saltwater banks.

We saw seabirds, saline flora, black sand &

the northern border.

WEDNESDAY, GHENT

Two rivers meet in Ghent, a 50,000-year-old prehistoric village that has emerged in history as a working class city of industry. In its medieval heyday, its population of 64,000 was trumped only by Paris's. The city boasted at least a dozen parishes, several clergies and 54 houses of social help. At the same time it was a city of violent family vendettas, political influence from the rich and the ever-present social inequality of the middle ages. By the 19th century, Ghent became a seat of the burgeoning socialist movement, owing this fact to its working class roots.

Ghent is also famous for the Ghent Altarpiece. Also known as "The Adoration of the Lamb" and "The Mystic Lamb," it is a triptych commissioned in the 15h century by two rich merchants for private worship. Painted by superstar van Eyck, the altarpiece is a magnificent masterpiece of meticulous, innovative brushwork. We had the pleasure of a private viewing after a lecture at the University of Ghent by Prof. Marc de Mey on the "advanced optics" of Flemish Primitive technique, specifically on that which was used on the altarpiece. It was not a series of aloof interpretations, as some students complained, but rather a technical analysis of van Eyck's brushwork. Extreme close-ups of the painting revealed an immaculate manipulation of lighting and a commitment to detail that, together, create an illusion that is said to "transcend" realism.

THURSDAY, IEPER

"We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders Fields"

At Menin Gate, soldiers and civilians gather for the playing of the Last Post. Iepers was totalled in the Great War, and the city - now the result of total reconstruction - refuses to let loose its sad memory. The Last Post is trumpeted every night in honor of the end of the war, the lives war has taken, and the resilience, resistance and solidarity of the Belgian people. The ceremony is silent when music is unheard: it is a powerful time for self-reflection. I understood the importance of remembrance.

Remembrance - of the first World War, of course - was the theme of the day. Wouter Sinaeve was our host. He walked us through the war cemetery, brought us to In Flanders Fields, and lectured on the nature of war in the nascent modern age: that of trench warfare. A war whose armies were ill-prepared for the havoc to ensue, for the violent power unspared. Ornate, heavy, sweaty uniforms, caps and primitive helmets. Ineffective bayonets, bolt-action rifles in the face of heavy machine guns, death from above. Chemical warfare, wet hankerchiefs, claustrophobic gasmasks and froth-corrupted lungs. I think of the grimmest point in human history and I think of the great war. At In Flanders Fields, the war museum housed in the reconstructed cloth hall of Ieper, I found this soldier's words:

I don't know what happened mentally, but physically I occasionally broke down under the weight of equipment that had to be carried, lack of sleep, and the intolerable discipline that was necessary in 1918 to keep tired and bored soldiers up to something like scratch, and away from mutiny.

The ever-present dreamlike quality of the days and nights (nights when I heard men gasping for breath as death enveloped them in evil-smelling mud-filled shell-holes as they slipped from the duck-board tracks as they struggled towards the front-line) filled me with an intense loathing of man-made war. I wanted home with all my being.

-Pvt. Eric Hiscock, 26th Royal Fusiliers, 1917-1918

In war, there is no victor. Yet poppies blossom in no man's land.

FRIDAY, BRUGGE

SCHELD EN FRIEND

"Isn't Bruges beautiful?" Certainly: it owes it to its history. In the middle ages, Brugge prospered as the city of Belgium's elite merchant class, whose appetite for beautification was unrivalled. Wealth and power made the city spectacular. At the time, Brugge rivalled London and Cologne with a saturated population of 40,000 - and like Shanghai and New York City today, it was a major international business center. Therefore, the tallest belfry* in Belgium stands in Bruges. It continues to house the city's most important documents**[, and Mr. Geernaert was kind enough to show us a few of them].

Yet the events of 1604 sealed Bruges in time. In Ostend, the Spanish defeated the Dutch rulers and seized the liberties of Bruges. Economic growth dwindled and shifted to Amsterdam; the population growth came to a stand still. Bruges remained as it was. Its medieval charm, a product of medieval wealth and modern maintenance, remains. Now a town of tourism, once a city of business.

With money came a taste for art. Van Eyck, painter-superstar, came to Bruges for lucrative ambitions - now a hero's statue stands in his remembrance. Could the Flemish Primitives even have existed if it weren't for the wealth of Flanders? Not many other movements in art history are known more for meticulousness: a consumption of great skill and time that is extremely costly for both the materials and the artist. Like Southern Italy's bustling economy, Flanders' was a breeding ground for groundbreaking art. In Italy they developed perspective; in Flanders, oil painting - this allowed for the Primitives' illusionary trans-realism, visual manipulation, or what Wednesday's lecturer called "advanced optics."

This interest in the Primitives brought us to the Groeninge Museum. It was a beautiful collection: like a sampler of Belgian art, with small collections to represent the various movements of the nation's art history. Beyond the Primitives, the museum showcased Belgian neoclassicism, symbolism, modernism, etc. I was especially impressed by the works of several anonymous Primitive masters, of Poures, Gimmer, Suvée, Monne, Claus and Ensor. Vande Steeve's The Market Square in Bruges (1826) offered a 19th century view of the square we had just seen. I walked away with a Latin phrase worth memorizing: nulla dies sine linea.

*Where cats were once thrown from to splatter on the concrete into lucky charms.

**One document was the "certification of authenticity" of the vial of Jesus's blood; at the end of the day we visited the chapel built to house it. I wonder to what degree this relic gave the church of Bruges the power and prestige it sought.

The Weekend

in Ostend: some lazing, sun bathing

Several orchestras, De Mosselbeurs

fotos

[Selection to come soon... in the meantime, find the link]

@ http://dutch177gomez.blogspot.com/p/fotogalerie.html

The week in Leuven, 1-3 August

MONDAY, Leuven (I/II)

Leuven: a medieval city, a near perfect circle, big but not so big, and like our last three cities, rebuilt after the Great War. Our tour with Prof. Patrick Pasteure touched on several issues:

-By a statue of Justo Lipsio, the Professor discussed the University, the pride of the city, its role in the humanist movement of the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the events known as "The Flames of Leuven" (more on this tomorrow).

-In the 15th century, Leuven was in competition with Brussels, the underdog, for the seat of the duke and thus the status of Belgian capital. Construction follies and monetary overambition lead to Leuven's loss, although through these efforts, KU.Leuven was founded in 1425.

-The city hall, designed by the same gothic architect as Brussels', is a "box" meant to house the symbolic power of Leuven, its freedoms and liberties. It must have been overwhelming when it was painted colorfully; in recent decades it's been black, it's been white, and it now features the same dilapidated "natural" color of Brussels'.

-The city hall faces the church, as if the their juxtaposition reflects the question of authority in a society of church and state. The church's baroque architecture reaches for the heavens to cry out its power. It continues to organize social work, receive public taxmoney and influence politics. Similarly, the Catholic K.U.Leuven is 95% funded by the public.

-The Onthaal-Sint-Pieterskerk once housed the original van der Weyden triptych, "The Desent of the Cross." Presumably for safekeeping there is replica in its place. At the church we saw the masterpiece "Last Supper" by Dirk Bouts.

-The Beguinage may be the quaintest place in Belgium, where during the 12th and 13th centuries, sisters of the church initiated a community of social help.

-In the 17th century, missionaries such as Ferdinand Verbiest studied and assimilated into Chinese culture in the name of evangelical strategy. Their efforts lead to the promotion of China in Europe, its philosophy, theology and advanced sciences. This had a major impact on the Enlightenment of the 18th century.

We ended our day at the University Library tower and carillon, where Luc Rombouts performed ragtime, Gershwin and the pop song, "Hallelujah." The carillon, we learned, was invented in the low countries 500 years ago when bells were attached to a keyboard. The carillon is therefore a cherished instrument of Belgian identity, similar to what the violin is to Austrian identity. Intellectual and American fondness for the instrument arose when many were destroyed by German troops during the great war. Nowadays, the "carrilioneur is considered one of the most honorable professions in Flanders" (193); clearly, to us it was an honor to experience a private performance. As the day's "master of ceremonies," I wrote to our guest:

Luc Rombouts,

In the heart of our campus, as you know, stands the Campanile - once the tallest tower in our country. To those of us from UC Berkeley, the Campanile is an icon and our carriloneurs are a respected tradition. By guiding and teaching us, and certainly for performing for us (and the entire city), you have brought us closer not just to Leuven but also to home. From all of us, dank u!

TUESDAY, Leuven (II/II)

K.U.Leuven has played a crucial part in the city's identity since it was founded in 1425; it is both the oldest catholic university and the oldest university in the low countries. In 1517, the Collegium Trilingue was founded, initiating the study of Latin, Hebrew and Greek - the original languages of the Bible. In ways this paved the way for humanism, as scholars chose to study the Bible through its original sources, thus pursuing a new, academic theology. Involved with K.U.Leuven were significant notable humanist figures including Erasmus, Lipsius and Mercator - significant religious figures as well: the Dutch Pope Adrian VI and the controversial Cornelius Jansenius. Hannelore Magnus also toured us through the school's cabinet of curiosities, giving us a glimpse into student life through the ages; he also shared samples from the university's collection of primary sources, including letters from Erasmus and Thomas Moore.

War, as it has all over Belgium, left its mark on the history of K.U.Leuven. Monday's guide was modest when he called it "turbulent." During French occupation, in 1797, the university was banned. It was reopened in 1816 by King William I, albeit as a public, non-Catholic institution; regardless, the Belgian Revolution of 1830 challenged Dutch mandates. The events of the 20th century were most tragic: in both world wars the library was burned down by German troops. Tens of thousands of books were lost, not to mention the building. And in 1968, escalating political tension between French- and Dutch-speakers lead to the splitting of the university across the language border. Regardless, K.U.Leuven stands proudly today as Belgium's premier Catholic university. If not the heart of the city, surely it is the brain. It is an honor to know that American solidarity was what made the grand reconstruction of the library possible.

Beer: our afternoon at InBev was a tour of smells and temperatures. The brewing process involves barley, hops, yeast, boiling, chilling and fermenting, and the factory's mass-production makes this all clear: it was hot, cold and smelly. Those of us who don't like beer must not have enjoyed the tour, and would have had an even worse time in the middle ages when beer was the only safe thing to drink. For the rest of us, stella artois on tap crowned the day.

WEDNESDAY, Antwerp

Familiar things in familiar weather in a new, yet surprisingly familiar city. Antwerp, regarded by many [and especially locals] as the greatest city in Belgium, was a fitting conclusion to Dutch 177.

Carilloneur Geert d'Hollander led us to the top of the city tower for a tour, carillon performance and the tallest, grandest panoramic view of Antwerp. The downpour was especially dramatic.

At the Cathedral of Our Lady Antwerp, 500 steps below, we saw (in my opinion) the most baroque church yet. It was massive, impressive, and replete with baroque triptychs by the likes of Rubens and his peers.

Similar to what the Zaandam Museum is to Zaandam, except bigger and with modern chic, the MAS serves the same function for Antwerp. The MAS exhibits and explores the history and culture of Antwerp and its role in the world. In essence it is Antwerp's role as a major medieval international sea port that made it as great as it is today.

What is the sea port like today? It is now the second largest in Europe; a cruise aboard the Flandria gave us the chance to explore it and all of its modern industry. Crates from china, banana boats from South America, massive, mechanized drawbridges and cranes. It was also a chance to round out our studies in the low countries. As we had ended our very first day with a boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam, so we ended it all on a cruise through the world port of Antwerp.