"July 18th : prince Filip & princess Mathilde
Exhibition "Memling's portraits. Portrait art in the Renaissance" in Bruges"
Translation of a article from westvlaams.web-log.nl
Warm welcome for Philippe and Mathilde in the Groeningemuseum
BRUGES- Yesterday before noon prince Philippe and princess Mathilde visted the exhibition "Memling and the portrait" that's being held in the Groeningemuseum as part of the cityfestival Corpus 05 in Bruges.
At their arrival about fifty fans were awaiting them. The princes were welcomed by mayor Patrick Moenaert, deputy Jan Durnez (who replaces govenor Paul Breyne during his absence), the direction of the city's museums and Veerle Mans, director of Bruges Plus, that organizes Corpus 05. After their welcome princess Mathilde received a bouquet of flowers from Aïsha Verroest, the 5-year old daughter of Jan Verroest and Sarah Bouwens, head of the press and communication service of the city's museums. When they walked up to the gate that leads to the museum the princes spent about 15 minutes talking to the local people who had come to greet them.
Head curator Manfred Sellink tells: "This visit is the follower of earlier, private visits the princes made to Bruges. They visited several museums then and we were their guide. We pointed out the Memling exhibition to them at the time. This is probably what made the court contact us to arrange this visit."
Inside the museum the couple was first lead through the rooms of the old masters. It was after that that Sellink and Till-Holger Borchert, curator of the Groenigemuseum, took them to see the 30 portraits that form the acual exhibition. The princes stayed about an hour to look at these 30 works . The visit ended a bit after 11 a.m. in the room of the Flemish expressionists. they received a catalogue of the exhibition and signed the golden book of the city Bruges.
In the meawhile more than 100 people were waiting outside to see the royal couple, who took their time to talk to them. "Both Philippe and Mathilde seemed very interested" was Sellink's impression. So far more than 30,000 people have visited "Memling and the portrait". "We're well on scheme", Sellink adds to that, "our goal is to get 70,000 to 80,000 visitors.
Today prince Philippe will once gain pay a visit to our region, since he's visiting 't Gezelleke in Oostkamp.
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I found a lot of photos from this visit, they were all made by Greet Teetaert.
