Spirituality

During a residency in Antwerp, Colombian artist Monica Restrepo made clay imitations from memory, based on some golden religious objects from the Janssens Collection at the MAS in Antwerp. The way the objects were acquired was unknown and the region from which they came was only known to a limited extent. The objects were photographed and later entrusted to the Scheldt in a performance. Among one of the objects was a small house (probably 1800 BC) from the region where Monica Restrepo came from. During the photo shoot, the digital camera miraculously jammed, something the photographer had never experienced before. But it still produced a photo, half black as though a presence was being photographed. Monica Restrepo and the inhabitants of the region where she grew up believe in the existence of spirits in objects and houses, who may be friendly or displeased…

The Public Library owns a treasure trove of neo-Gothic prayer cards from the presentation albums of the printers Jacques Petyt and Karel Vande Vyvere-Petyt. This family of printers mainly specialised in neo-Gothic lithographic printing (1845-1914).
The neo-Gothic movement in the nineteenth century changed the cultural and political landscape. During the Second Catholic Congress in Mechelen in 1864, the necessity of distributing good prayer cards was discussed. Thereupon, Guido Gezelle, Adolf Duclos, Joseph Neurath, Louis Grossé and Michael Joseph Buckley founded the ‘Guild of Holy Imagery’. The blossoming of the neo-Gothic in the devotional prints completely penetrated the Bruges chromolithography.
The ‘saints’ saw an international response.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.

Hieronymus Bosch continues to inspire. In the painting ‘The Last Judgement’ at the Groeninge Museum, Christ appears to a sinful world, populated with grotesque characters and naked figures who misbehave or are being tortured. As is often the case with the idiosyncratic Bosch, vice and sin are central. On the side panels, we see the outcome of the Last Judgment: on the left, pious believers may go to a heavenly paradise, while on the right, sinners must go to hellfire.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

Few sculptures have as many stories attached to them as the Madonna and Child at the Church of Our Lady. It is the only sculpture by Michelangelo that left Italy during his lifetime. Jean Mouscron, a member of a wealthy family of cloth merchants in Bruges, bought the work from Michelangelo in 1506. In 1514, it was given a place in a sculpted altar in the south aisle of the Church of Our Lady. Several members of the Mouscron family are buried at the foot of the altar. In a document, they state that the statue must never be moved, but history decided otherwise… Napoleon seized the Madonna for his National Museum in Paris, but in 1815, after his defeat at Waterloo, the statue returned to Bruges. During the Second World War, the Madonna was stolen a second time: this time, Hitler wanted her for his large museum in Linz. The Allied Monuments Men rescued the statue, along with many other precious works of art, from the Altaussee salt mines in Austria.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

Open church in historic building, since 1995 orthodox parish of Bruges-East.

The main objective of the orthodox parish of Sts Constantine and Helen in Bruges is to integrate the orthodox faithful of the region into liturgical life, according to the traditions of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Supplied by Erfgoedcel Brugge.

Amber is the fossilised resin of prehistoric conifers. The amber found in Bruges comes from the Baltic region. In Bruges, the first mention of paternoster-makers who made their beads from amber was made in 1299. Until 1480, the Bruges guild of paternoster-makers, along with Lübeck, held the monopoly on the amber trade in our regions. Remarkably, the beads of this object have been reconstructed into a bracelet, whereas they were certainly meant to be part of a paternoster.

Supplied by Raakvlak.

Pilgrimages have a spiritual meaning. Since the Middle Ages, Bruges has been an important starting point for two routes to Compostella (including the route via Paris). The Jerusalem Chapel refers to the pilgrimage to the ‘Holy Land’. Jerusalem is also depicted in a dramatic painting by Jan Provoost

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

When one thinks of church music, one immediately thinks of the long-drawn-out sounds of the French-Flemish polyphonists such as Dufay, Obrecht and Richafort. The Low Countries and certainly Bruges were widely associated with high-quality polyphony. Thanks to the excellent trade and diplomatic connections to all corners of the world, the music of Bruges travelled all over Europe, via valuable manuscripts or in the performances of the (sometimes very young) singer-composers themselves.

In Bruges, music was inextricably linked to social life. The court, the brotherhoods and also parishes and convents competed with each other for the best, the most beautiful, the richest music… because no matter who is listening, God or your neighbours, you don’t earn a good spot in Heaven or on Earth for nothing!

Supplied by Concertgebouw Brugge.

Guido Gezelle (1830 – 1899) was a Roman Catholic priest, poet and interpreter from Bruges. He wrote a great many fascinating religious poems and songs.  With his work he tried to translate the Christian virtues but just as well he wrote strong political satire where he used a cover name ‘Sponker’. Today there is a Gezelle-walk in the centre where various locations regarding Gezelle are included: The house of Gezelle, the English convent or the parish house at Verversdijk.

His songs and poems could be an inspiration in combination with one of the Gezelle locations.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.

In a devotional box or secluded courtyard, Christ sits on the cold stone. In a paradisical setting, Jesus is surrounded by dried flowers, shells, figures cut out of paper, etc. It is probably the work of a sister from the hospital. ‘A secluded courtyard as a ‘spiritual self-portrait of the religious’’ (P. VANDENBROECK, Hooglied, 1994, p. 99).

Supplied by Erfgoed Damme.

The difficult path of monastic life is depicted in the painting ‘Sisters carrying the cross’. It is a story that you read from right to left and, once all the obstacles have been overcome, ends with the upright cross. The tough daily life and the temptations are symbolised by the cross, the trees, the road, etc.

Supplied by Erfgoed Damme.

Anthony is seduced in a cave by a woman and terrorised by horrific monsters. The scene is depicted, among other things, on the Triptych of Job by Hieronymus Bosch at the Groeninge Museum. Gustave Flaubert wrote a book about it: ‘La Tentation de Saint-Antoine’.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

The publishing company Desclée-De Brouwer was founded in 1877 by the brothers Jules and Henri Desclée and their brother-in-law Alphonse de Brouwer. They were also the managers of the former Gasworks in Bruges. The Desclée brothers also had a printing house, Saint-Jean l’Evangéliste, in Tournai. Mainly religious works, including missals and catechisms, and schoolbooks were printed and published in Bruges. After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and during the second iconoclasm, the use of the hand missal in Flanders declined sharply. That heralded the end of the company.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.

Hans Memling made the Ursula shrine by order of the cloister community of St John’s Hospital, where Saint Ursula was venerated. The wooden reliquary is shaped like a chapel with a saddle roof. The paintings are like the stained glass windows of the sanctuary. Six scenes depict the fantastic story of the pilgrimage of Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

A votive painting is an expression of the devotion of the patron portrayed in the painting.

Supplied by Erfgoedcel Brugge.

A votive ship is a model of a ship that is placed at the altar of a boatmen’s guild, as an ornamental piece or as a reminder of a battle at sea.

Supplied by Erfgoedcel Brugge.