Flemish Masters
The string between Artist, Art and Spectator
Art is an essential part of live. We have been using it to express and understand our feelings, to connect with ourselves and others. For me is my parallel universe where I can explore and explore, to come back later to the real world and understand myself. It makes totally send that huge palaces are full with different pieces of the greatest artists, but if we had to collect all the Art of the world I am sure we would not find enough room.
When we entered into the Oldmasters Museum I just got stunned. The place itself is a great master piece and the moment you put a foot inside, you feel at peace. That is how I felt. The whole places invites you to take your time, to forget that the World keeps spinning around the Sun, to enjoy Art and take time to yourself to understand what you feel about what you are seeing. It is amazing that whole places contains seven complete museums. It is a place that you have to visit more that once.
I love Art and I try to understand it, even though maybe the purpose of it is not to be understand, depends on the artist you ask. I didn’t know anything about the Flemish Masters and I went to the museum without knowing anything. I wanted to surprise myself. To find connections with the Spanish Art, which I am more familiar with. It surprised me, but I don’t know if I liked it or not. Anyways, I think Art is not suppose to be liked, but felt. It surprised me before I did found it so different from the Spanish one.
I found some pieces really interesting, and I will talk about them later, but others were just so macabre. I am not an Art critic, but I do have some backgrounds as an artist myself. I consider myself no one to judge others art, basically because I am basically a 20 years old young woman that has not learnt enough about Art to judge others. Actually, I am very critical with grading others’ Art. I think that as long as someone is moved by one piece, the pretty smart pants shouldn’t go and ruin others job. That is my opinion.
Now that I made that clear, I would like to tell you how I felt about this Art I had the amazing opportunity to enjoy. The classics pieces made me feel violent. The landscape were you could see different situations, mostly related to religion and ancient times, made me feel uncomfortable. From the whole scenes that was going on to the technicals details. I found in those scenes so much anger, which I think it was the feeling of the people who live in those times. The scenes were macabre and not just because of the composition but also about the faces of the protagonists. You could see real terror about them. The religious pictures were also interesting: I didn’t feel the peace I have felt with some other pieces from my culture. I would say that Spanish artist tried to found harmony in their canvas, meanwhile the flemish some kind of chaos. I didn’t find beauty in the faces of the people, not in the traditional way. That is my personal opinion, who I felt with them.
On the contrary, the more modern Art enchanted me. The pieces where so fresh, so organic. I would say more mundane. Here is the thing: sometimes, when I learn about classic Art I find some master pieces trying to be mystic, divine. That is great, I love to see such transcendental artwork. But modern art has something that attracts the people, a more fluent connection between the Artist, the Art and the Spectators.
I found the museum pretty amazing. I think they did a great job placing all these Oldmasters in such a temple. I would have enjoyed some indications, tho. At some points, I just got lost in the art I was trying to appreciate. I think that the best way to visit it is with a guide that can tell you everything about the different pieces, artists and historical context of the Art, which is so important to understand it.
I definitely enjoyed the visit and as I said at the beginning I think is a place to revisit to truly learn about it. So I will do.
