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March 26: Ruysdael paintings of the great church of Alkmaar. Solving a mystery |
On this home page of my website you find the index to all the posts (click the load more bottom at the bottom if you like). Clicking any post will open it, and from there you can again go forward to a lightbox, a disorderly bunch of images. If you click on one of those images you get into a slideshow which has some clever red buttons on the top right (some posts link directly to a slideshow with white buttons). On all other pages the menu button on the top right ( ≡ ) gives access to background information. The logo on the top left is also the home button.
We have visited many places in India since my first visit in 1968. In certain periods every year was focussed on a different area, and one of the main subjects has been sculpture in and on temples. In the winter of 1977 and 1978 we travelled quite a lot, visiting Mahabalipuram, Kanchipuram, Tanjavur, Chidambaram, Tiruchirapalli,…
With our friend the author Rita Törnqvist we went to the Stedelijk Museum in Alkmaar. On the occasion of the 500 years of the St. Laurens church of Alkmaar a number of paintings by Salomon Ruysdael (1600/1603-1670) giving different views of the church were gathered in a small but very impressive exposition. Ruysdael was a…
Orchids are one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with some 28.000 species. And if you consider hybrids and newly bred species it may add up to 100.000. Compared to that, tulips are a small family, with some 75 species. But tulip breeding has created many new species and races that became a…
A selection of 40+17 pictures taken in 2016 and 17. From Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy and Brazil. Lightly edited in DxO PhotoLab, two HDRs in Aurora (in Urubici). Most images are cropped to 16:9 and in particular 3840×2160, which is a typical 4k/UHD TV screen. On standard HD (1920×1080) this format also works well.…
Is the one you are carrying with you. In my case then, the iPhone 6 plus. Not bad, but very limited. I would love to walk around always with a camera that has more capabilities, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In the past weeks it happened several times when going to the seacoast…
We had visitors from Brazil, whom we had never met before. However, as they were very close friends of our niece’s family we offered to take them out on a few tours and walks: the Kröller-Müller Museum in the National Park “de hoge veluwe”. The national park is the largest and probably most beautiful piece…
The sunsets at the North Sea coast can be spectacular, especially in winter. What a blessing to live so close by, and even from our window, some 5 km from the sea, the colours are often just overwhelming (see the last picture in the series!). Light photographic corrections are applied to match my perception. The…
Brussels in winter has its own charm, but in reality [sic] we went to see the Pietà of Van der Weyden in the Musée des Beaux Arts. And of course a few other things. We rented a small apartment very close to the Grand Place and the landlord provided us with more information than we…
The Crucifixion by Antonello da Messina is an extraordinary painting in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, but since the museum is currently closed for restaurations some of the most important works are wandering around.Antonello (c.1430–1479) is a key figure in the history of European painting. How it happened we don’t really know, but…
The centre of Firenze is small, easily covered on foot. End of September, beginning of October is a very pleasant time. Lots of tourists though, can’t imagine why… Even so, we could stop at a terrace here or there and enjoy the old town. The walk starts from the Duomo, then south towards the Orsanmichele…