Antwerp

J went to Antwerp for the day while I was in the library - he has supplied the photos and text for today :)

Yesterday my friend M and I visited a small art museum in Antwerp.  The glory of the collection is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting "Dulle Griet" - known in French as "Margot la folle" and in English as "Mad Meg."
 
According to a Flemish folktale, our heroine leads an army of angry women on a quest to the mouth of hell to lay siege to Satan's throne and to plunder his unholy realm.
 
The painting draws inspiration from a number of sources - most obviously from Hieronymus Bosch's depictions of embodiments of sin and demons.  Another source is a book of Flemish proverbs published about five years before the completion of the painting.  The book anticipates Bruegel's painting in one of its entries:
 
"One woman makes a din, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five an army, and against six, the Devil himself has no weapon."
 
The richness of the detail and the odd armament and baggage of Griet herself have been subject of commentary and speculation for centuries.  If you are ever in Antwerp, be sure to set aside an hour or more to take in this spectacular masterpiece at the Fritz Meyer van den Bergh Museum. See extra for the full painting.