Bruges at Christmas - and the ancient cities of Flanders

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the cities of Flanders (an area now divided between France, Belgium and the Netherlands) were the most prosperous and progressive in northern Europe. Though ruled successively by two of the most illustrious of European dynasties — the Valois Dukes of Burgundy and the House of Habsburg — these great cities were virtually independent states. Each was able to sustain a cultural life which, taken together, comprise one of the most brilliant episodes in the history of art.

Now, with their enchanting dark brick buildings, cobbled streets and network of canals, their great squares formed by splendid guild houses and town halls, their soaring Gothic churches and richly filled museums, they are among the most beautiful of the smaller cities of Europe. Centuries of stagnation and decline subsequent to their period of greatness has resulted in the preservation of much of their ancient fabric.

We have chosen Bruges as the base for this tour. With its extensive unspoilt streetscape, and as the scene of the leading Early Netherlandish school of painting, it is the loveliest city of them all. In December, in the absence of the high-season crowds, Bruges regains some of the affecting tranquillity immortalised in the art of its heyday.

The Golden Age of Flemish painting was inaugurated at the beginning of the fifteenth century by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, whose consummate skill with the art of oil painting resulted in pictures which have never been surpassed for their jewel-like brilliance and breathtaking naturalism. Among their successors were Hans Memling and Gerard David, while an alternative tradition with greater emotional power was pursued by Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes. Hieronymous Bosch was an individualist who specialized in hell scenes full of imaginative demons.

The sixteenth century saw Mannerist displays of virtuoso skill and spiritual tension, though the outstanding painter of the century was another individualist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A magnificent culmination was reached in the seventeenth century with Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest painter of the Baroque age, consummate master of bravura technique, vitality, passion and tenderness.