Hardly any other epoch in art history has been marked by as many profound changes as the Late Gothic was in the fifteenth century. Inspired by Netherlandish role models, depictions of light and shadow, body and space, became increasingly more realistic. Everyday life found entry into the arts. With the invention of printing, images and texts were distributed to an extent previously unheard of. Artists such as Nicolaus Gerhaert and Martin Schongauer became widely known and influenced the devel...

Zot van Dimpna

Acht panelen vol passie, lef en rebellie

Sven Van Dorst, Stephan Kemperdick, Till-Holger Borchert e.a.

Omstreeks 1505 schilderde Goossen Van der Weyden, de kleinzoon van Rogier, een momumentaal altaarstuk dat de verschillende fasen uit het waanzinnige leven van de heilige Dimpna verbeeldt.

Deze Ierse prinses, die in de zesde eeuw op de vlucht sloeg voor haar incestueuze vader, werd in het Kempische Geel het hoofd afgehakt. Door haar tragische einde en onverzettelijke kuisheid ...

Crazy about Dymphna

The Story of a Girl who Drove a Medieval City Mad


Sven Van Dorst, Stephan Kemperdick, Till-Holger Borchert a.o.

Around 1505 Goossen Van der Weyden, Rogier’s grandson, painted a monumental altarpiece depicting the various phases of Saint Dymphna’s insane life.

This Irish princess, who fled her incestuous father in the sixth century, was beheaded in the Kempen village of Geel. On account of her tragic end and uncompromising chastity, the princess was venerated from t...