There Is Another Great Crucifixion By
The Master In The Picture Gallery, Or Palais Des Beaux Arts, Which
Illustrates His
Exceptional power as well as his occasional
brutality." The centurion, with his hands on the nape of his
horse's neck,
Is gazing with horror at the writhings of the
impenitent thief, whose legs are being broken with an iron bar,
which has so tortured the unhappy man that in his agony he has
torn his left foot from the nail." It is questionable whether any
splendour of success can ever justify a man in thus condescending
to draw inspiration from the torture-room or shambles.
One would gladly spend more time in this Antwerp gallery, which
exceeds, I think, in general magnificence the collections at
Brussels and Amsterdam; and gladly would one visit the great
fifteenth and sixteenth century churches of St. Jacques, St.
Andre, and St. Paul, which not merely form together
architecturally an important group of a strongly localized
character, but are also, like the cathedral, veritable museums or
picture galleries. It is necessary, however, to conclude this
section, to say a few words about Louvain, which, lying as it does
on the main route from Brussels to Liege, may naturally be
considered on our way to the northern Ardennes.
Louvain, on the whole, has been much more modernized than other
Belgian cities of corresponding bulk, such as Bruges or Malines.
The road from the railway-station to the centre of the town is
commonplace indeed in its lack of picturesque Flemish house-fronts
or stepped, "corbie," Flemish gables.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 37 of 44
Words from 10295 to 10555
of 12374
