Full text |
Notre Dame. BRUGES. 3. Route. 29
12-13th centuries. The church had originally only two aisles; the
outer aisles with their rows of chapels date from 1344-60 (N. side)
and 1450-74 (S. side). The tower, 400 ft. high, was completed in
1297, the spire being restored in {858 and the turrets at the angles
in 1873. The beautiful late-Gothic addition on the N. side (ca.
1470) was originally a portal, named ‘Het Paradys’. The W. front
was restored in 1907.
The Inrsrror (p. 24) is 236 ft. long, 164 ft. broad, and 69 ft.
high. The general effect of the nave is somewhat spoiled by the
carved wooden pulpit of 1743, with figures and reliefs (Wisdom
seated on the terrestrial globe), and the carved wooden rood-loft
of 1722, which separates it from the choir. The crucifix above the
rood-loft dates from 1594. Most of the stained glass is modern
(second half of the 19th cent.).
Norrn Atsuns, Near the end, to the left of the baptistery (the
former ‘Paradys’, see above), in a niche covered with a Gothic
canopy, is a much-revered statue of the Virgin, dating from 1485 (2).
Sourn Arisuzs. On the W. wall is a large winged picture (in
fiye sections) from the old high-altar, representing in the middle
the Crucifixion, and on the wings the Bearing of the Cross, the
Crown of Thorns, the Descent from the Cross, and Christ in Hades,
begun by B. van Orley, finished by M. Gheeraerts (1561), and
restored by Pourbus the Younger in 1589 after the iconoclastic
outrages. On the 2nd and 3rd pillars: De Crayer, Adoration of the
Infant Jesus (1662); Seghers, *Adoration of the Magi, with saints (the
painter's masterpiece; 1630). — 2nd Chapel: Ant. Claeissens (7),
Virgin and Child in a landscape, with portraits of the donor Nic.
van Thienen and his wife, and the Annunciation in grisaille on
the wings. — 3rd Chapel: Triptych of the Virgin, Child, and an
angel, with portraits of Don Dieg gas, his wife, and
children, by an unknown painter (c a. 1540). — 4th Chapel: Trans-
figuration, a late work by Gerard David, ai good portraits of the
donor Anselm de Boodt and his wife, along with their patron-saints
(the latter in grisaille on the back), added by P. Pourbus (1573). —
On the pillars opposite: Herri met de Bles(?), Annunciation and
Adoration of the Magi, on a gold ground. On the right of the con-
fessional: Adr. Ysenbrant (see p. 27), *Mater Dolorosa, surrounded
by smaller representations of the Seven Sorrows.
The end of the outer S. aisle is railed off as a chapel by a low
and graceful marble balustrade of 1842; over the altar stands a
statue of the Virgin and Child, by Michael Angelo, executed in
1503-4, and purchased by Jan Mouscron, a merehant of Bruges,
for 100 ducats. Albrecht Diirer saw and admired the work in this
chapel in 1521. The lifesize study for the head of the Madonna,
by Michael Angelo’s own hand, is in the South Kensington Muse!
Horace Walpole is said to have offered 30, 000 fl. for this statue. —
On the wall to the right is the tomb of Adrian van Haveskerke ; |