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tree_and_leafWorst day of the year or not yesterday - I had a simply lovely day, over the border in France to Alsace, more precisely to Colmar, with a friend.
The excuse for the trip was to visit the Grunewald exhibition based around the Isenheim Altar, a rather overwrought, proto-Expressionist - but undoubtably very powerful - piece of work. I was strangely reminded of Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross - though Dali is a good deal less drastic and brutal. I think it's something about the hands, as well as the slight air of unreality.
The rest of the day was more frivolous, though it was disappointing to discover that the Dominican Church was closed all winter, and that thus we couldn't see the Schongauer Maria im Rosenhag, which might have been a nice counterweight to the angst of Grunewald (yes, the Isenheim Altar does also show the Annunciation and the resurrection - but it's the Crucifixion that makes the impression).
However, instead we had a nice lunch with a glass of good wine, and wandered about town.
The courtyard of Unterlinden museum, formerly an important Dominican nunnery.
View into town, looking towards the cathedral.
Characteristic street corner.
"Little Venice".
The "Kopfhaus": sixteenth century patrician housing, and a mix of mediaeval and renaissance.
The Synagogue, with... Christmas trees? (Although my friend, who is from rural Spain, gazed at the Christmas tree in the cathedral and said "Wow. They'd never put up something that pagan in a Spanish church." American papers please copy....)
The excuse for the trip was to visit the Grunewald exhibition based around the Isenheim Altar, a rather overwrought, proto-Expressionist - but undoubtably very powerful - piece of work. I was strangely reminded of Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross - though Dali is a good deal less drastic and brutal. I think it's something about the hands, as well as the slight air of unreality.
The rest of the day was more frivolous, though it was disappointing to discover that the Dominican Church was closed all winter, and that thus we couldn't see the Schongauer Maria im Rosenhag, which might have been a nice counterweight to the angst of Grunewald (yes, the Isenheim Altar does also show the Annunciation and the resurrection - but it's the Crucifixion that makes the impression).
However, instead we had a nice lunch with a glass of good wine, and wandered about town.
The courtyard of Unterlinden museum, formerly an important Dominican nunnery.
View into town, looking towards the cathedral.
Characteristic street corner.
"Little Venice".
The "Kopfhaus": sixteenth century patrician housing, and a mix of mediaeval and renaissance.
The Synagogue, with... Christmas trees? (Although my friend, who is from rural Spain, gazed at the Christmas tree in the cathedral and said "Wow. They'd never put up something that pagan in a Spanish church." American papers please copy....)