Panoramas to explore
4 panoramas
The Choir Altarpiece · Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew
Cornelis Van der Veken & Englebert Fisen · 1706-1708
Guide :
Red and gold, flamboyant. Van der Veken was a master of trompe-l'œil: the columns, the marbles — nothing is quite what you think. At the centre, Fisen's canvas, dated 1708: Saint Bartholomew flayed alive by his executioners. What do you want to explore?
The White Nave · Romanesque Beneath the Baroque
Architecture romane · campagne baroque XVIIIe siècle · XIe-XVIIIe s.
Guide :
What you see is a superb lie. Beneath the white vaults and the ordered columns, the church is a thousand years old and most of its stones are Romanesque. In the 18th century, everything was vaulted, widened, whitewashed. What do you want to know?
The Westwerk · Place Saint-Barthélémy
Architecture mosane d'influence rhénane · XIe-XIIe s.
Guide :
Two towers, a massive block, red and white façades. This is not decoration: it is a Rhineland Westwerk, a German idea planted in Liège nine centuries ago. The colour you see is not new, it is original. What do you want to know?
The Baptismal Font of Notre-Dame
Atelier mosan · attribution traditionnelle à Renier de Huy · 1107-1118
Guide :
This early-12th-century brass basin is the most famous work in Saint Bartholomew, and perhaps the most disconcerting in Mosan art. Five baptism scenes unfold an entire story, from the Jordan to the opening of Christianity to the Roman and Greek worlds, with a softness of modelling that seems to defy the hardness of metal. Lost-wax casting here becomes almost a miracle of precision. Do you first notice the reliefs, or the material itself?
