September 15th Antwerp 2 of 3

So we went for a walk through Antwerp to hit the sites…We stopped in at the Saint James Church. It just happened to be that they were hosting an art display, primarily of the works of Peter Paul Reubens. An amazing church, temporarily decorated with equally amazing art.So I wont spend much time describing the pictures..the photos don't do the actual art any justice anyway. Its impossible to see the scale or size of the paintings themselves. The detail and the color, on top of the age is just mind blowing. The paintings on this page with the red banners behind them are the temporary art, the ones without the banner are permanent. I probably took pictures of half of the paintings, but only am sharing a subset here.Some of the paintings are probably 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. They are painted to be viewed from a specific height. This one for example is probably 8-10 feet off the ground and the perspective of the viewer was taken into account by the painter. So if the painting was at eye level, it may not look correct, or as intended.So I am not sure if other places the style was as popular, but in Belgium the triptych paintings are amazing. Triptych as the name implies is three paintings. Often these panels on each side can close to enclose the main painting in the middle. They often have the ‘back’ side of the panel painted as well. Some of my favorite triptychs in the world are done by Reubens, several of them permanent in this church.You really should go visit Belgium!This probably wouldn't fit in our Seattle house…gonna have to upgrade…The paintings often are of biblical scenes..with the heavens opening up above, and the sinners cowering below…Religion in Europe often has a much more serious and often bloody twist. This is captured well by the artists of the 1500-1800s as displayed across Belgium.The naked and gnarled bodies weren't meant to tantalize, but to scare the masses, to put a memorable and controlling image of hell in the minds of those who set eyes on it.But often they depict scenes from the Bible that are never painted in your mind as grand or glorious and spectacular as Reubens created.And Saviya taking a break under a massive painting..but here you just see part of the church structure behind her on the bench.

-Colin