This is a most stunning place, immeasurably the best we have come to.
There is a quantity of first-rate architecture, and very little or no
Rubens.
But by far the best of all are the miraculous works of Memling and Van
Eyck. The former is here in a strength that quite stunned us--and
perhaps proves himself to have been a greater man even than the latter.
In fact, he was certainly so intellectually, and quite equal in
mechanical power. His greatest production is a large triptych in the
Hospital of St. John, representing in its three compartments: firstly,
the "Decollation of St. John Baptist"; secondly, the "Mystic Marriage of
St. Catherine to the Infant Saviour"; and thirdly, the "Vision of St.
John Evangelist in Patmos." I shall not attempt any description; I
assure you that the perfection of character and even drawing, the
astounding finish, the glory of colour, and, above all, the pure
religious sentiment and ecstatic poetry of these works is not to be
conceived or described. Even in seeing them the mind is at first
bewildered by such godlike completeness; and only after some while has
elapsed can at all analyse the causes of its awe and admiration; and
then finds these feelings so much increased by analysis that the last
impression left is mainly one of utter shame at its own inferiority.
Van Eyck's picture at the Gallery may give you some idea of the style
adopted by Memling in these great pictures; but the effect of light and
colour is much less poetical in Van Eyck's; partly owing to _his_ being
a more sober subject and an interior, but partly also, I believe, to the
intrinsic superiority of Memling's intellect. In the background of the
first compartment there is a landscape more perfect in the abstract
lofty feeling of nature than anything I have ever seen. The visions of
the third compartment are wonderfully mystic and poetical.
_Rossetti._