Church of Our Lady Madonna Michelangelo 1506-Firenz Marble Only one of Michelangelo's soulptures left italy during his Welime, this Madonne and Child, Jean Mouscron & scion of a wealthy Bruges based family of cloth traders, purchased the work from Michelangelo in 1500 for the sum of 100 dvests, in 1514, it was installed in a soulpted alter in the south nave of the Church of Our Lady, Several members of the Mouscron family are buried at the foot of the altar. They stipulated in a document that the soulpture should never be moved, but history decided otherw Napoleon seized the Madonna for his National Museum in Paris. The statue returned to Bruges in 1815, after his defeat at Waterloo, During World War I, the Madonne was stolen & second time. This time, Hider wanted it for his large museum in Linz The Allied Monuments Men recovered the soulpture, along with several other valuable anworks, from the Altaussee salt mines in Austria.
Church of Our Lady The Calling of Matthew Jacob van Oost I 1640 - Bruges Oil on panel Matthew was a tax collector. One day, Jesus walked by and told him 'Come and follow me'. Jacob van Oost portrays this moment beautifully. From the edge of the composition, Jesus beckons to Matthew, who is seated at a table, surrounded by his co-workers. Matthew's hand rests on his chest and he is looking up in surprise. 'Do you mean me?', he seems to be saying. Most of the other characters in the painting are unaware of what just happened and continue to go work diligently. The young man in the foreground did hear Jesus, however, and also seems to want to get up. Matthew decides to follow Jesus and become one of his twelve apostles. This work is based on a Caravaggio painting that Jacob van Oost had seen in Rome.
The Markt, Historium Bruges Museum Fictional characters tell a story in medieval Bruges at this unique museum with audio guides.
