Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
at Place Royale (daily 11:00-18:00). See page 433 for other
nearby lunchtime options. The museums also have a crummy
café and a fancy brasserie on-site.
Overview
here are technically three museums here: the Ancient Art (pre-
1800) and Modern Art (post-1800) museums are connected via a
labyrinthine series of passageways. The museum complex sprawls
over several wings and a dozen floors, and to see it all is a logistical
nightmare. Your first stop should be the information desk, which
has the latest on renovations, room closings, and the new Magritte
Museum (located nearby in a separate building). Armed with the
museum's free map (supplemented with the audioguide), make
your way through the maze to find these 10 highlights.
THE TOuR BEGINS
• Start with the Flemish masters, one floor up in the Ancient Art
Museum, and follow the blue tour signs. In Room 11, you'll find...
ANcIENT ART
Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399-1464)— Portrait of
Anthony of Burgundy (Portrait d' Antoine de Bourgogne)
Anthony was known in his day as the Great Bastard, the bravest
and most distinguished of the many bastards fathered by prolific
Duke Philip the Good (a Renaissance
prince whose sense of style impressed
F l o r e n c e 's y o u n g L o r e n z o t h e
Magnificent, patron of the arts).
A nt hony, a memb er of t he
Archers Guild, fingers the arrow like
a bow-string. From his gold neck-
lace dangles a Golden Fleece, one of
Europe's more prestigious knightly
honors. Wearing a black cloak, a
bowl-cut hairdo, and a dark-red cap,
with his pale face and hand emerg-
ing from a dark background, the man
who'd been called a bastard all his life gazes to the distance, his
clear, sad eyes lit with a speckle of white paint.
Van der Weyden, Brussels' official portrait painter, faithfully
rendered life-size, lifelike portraits of wealthy traders, bankers,
and craftsmen. Here he captures the wrinkles in Anthony's neck,
and the faint shadow his chin casts on his Adam's apple. Van der
Weyden had also painted Philip the Good (in Bruges' Groeninge
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