Madonna of Bruges
Madonna of Bruges, by Michaelangelo. Displayed in Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady).
Madonna and Child in marble sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarotti around 1503. The Bruges merchant Alexander Mouscron, who was in Florence at the time, bought the sculpture and donated it in 1514 to the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. It is the only sculpture by Michelangelo that left Italy during his lifetime.
"The end of the outer S. aisle is railed off as a chapel by a low and graceful marble balustrade of 1842; over the altar stands a Statue of the Virgin and Child, by Michael Angelo, executed in 1503-4, and purchased by Jan Mouscron, a merchant of Bruges, for 100 ducats. Albrecht Dürer saw and admired the work in this chapel in 1521".--Baedeker 1910.
IMG_3866
Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830 and was occupied by Germany during World Wars I and II. It has prospered in the past half century as a modern, technologically advanced European state and member of NATO and the EU. Tensions bet... ... read more 
